From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Aug 1 06:47:40 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 12:47:40 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Ideas in Econmics d Message-ID: <410417.97334.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Ideas in Economics - August 2009 Friday, 31 July, 2009 4:40 PM From: "CfAE AE Bulletin" Add sender to Contacts To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk August 2009 1) Idea Auditing 2) Finance and Education 3) Associate! August?2009 - Ideas in Economics 4) Accounting as Macroeconomics 1) Idea Auditing 'The ideas of economists... both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.' So said John Maynard Keynes in an oft-quoted passage reminiscent of Rudolf Steiner's similar 'what happens between human beings is, among other things, the result of the ideas they entertain.' In terms of today's events, what matters is to probe deeper our understanding of economic life and its processes, the more so if we think for whatever reason that things could or should be done differently. Associate! fosters such an ongoing idea-audit by presenting relevant, but often contrasting, points of view and occasionally (as in Karp's piece in?this issue) offering something of a manifesto piece. A further ongoing theme concerns the need to take an accounting approach to economics, it would appear that this approach is beginning to gain currency in certain circles - see 4) below. The August issue of?Associate!?is available here. 2) Finance and Education This autumn (2009), the Centre for Associative Economics in partnership with the London Waldorf Trust will be offering a short but comprehensive course concerning finance and education, with particular reference to independent schools and Rudolf Steiner's insights in this regard. The course will be held in London (hopefully at or near Rudolf Steiner House), will take place over three separate Saturdays or Sundays (dates yet to be decided), and will cover a range of topics, including the History of Money and Accounting, Double Entry Book-keeping, Financial and Spiritual Sovereignty, Teaching of Financial Literacy to 14-19 year olds, the Funding of Education and the Challenge of Public Benefit. Conceived in continuing professional development terms, it will combine conventional understandings of finance with Rudolf Steiner's approach and aims to be two-way, providing a thorough backgrounding in the topics covered, but encouraging also feedback and the sharing of experience by participants. The target cost is ??150, depending on numbers. The course will be coordinated by Dr. Christopher Houghton Budd, to whom initial enquiries should be addressed. 3) Associate! August 2009 - Ideas in Economics Click image to subscribe Lead: Nothing New Under The Sun? - Differentiating between Production and Financial Capitalism. Erik S. Reinert and Arno Mong Daast??l A Sign of Our Time: Shrugging off Altruism. Ayn Rand's Influence. Feature / Archive: 10 Insights - An AE Manifesto Robert Karp 21 Policies: Time to Associate! Glossary: Ideas are Capital AE Hero:? CROPP's Cooperative Grower Pool Accounting Corner: Research and Development Click here to subscribe 4) Accounting as Macroeconomics An Excerpt from the Friends Page by?Stephen Vallus, Lafayette, USA. I am always greatly encouraged when I find the work of others paralleling our own, which the monthly Associate! newsletter excels at providing of course! Recently I came across a paper entitled: 'No one saw this coming: understanding financial crisis through accounting models' by Dirk Bezemer. The paper's starting point is the mainstream media idea that no one saw the financial crisis coming. Of course there were those who saw it, which forms the substance of this paper: 'We need to understand how dynamics in accounting relations underpin and shape our economies. The underlying reason is that economic relations and transactions in modern economies are embedded in the double-entry accounting framework. All transacting is predicated on economic agents extending credit to each other, and credit (whether trade credit or bank credit) is fungible with money. Money is not just a unit of account; it is the reflection of relations of debit and credit, and thus money itself is an accounting concept.' The author calls for accounting researchers to make contributions to economics, rather than the reverse which seems to be the usual thought.? ?? The Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin provides an overview of what is going on around the world?in the associative economics movement. The bulletin is viewable as a webpage at www.cfae.biz/fae-bulletin/09Aug/ ? Click here to unsubscribe or edit your subscription A service provided by the Centre for Associative Economics Copyright 2009 Centre for Associative Economics. All rights reserved. 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URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Mon Aug 3 01:00:54 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 08:00:54 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe Message-ID: <000801ca1408$258aaea0$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear All, List members will be aware that a number of noted forecasters are saying that there is likelihood of catastrophic economic collapse in the September/October period. The latest such forecast comes from the La Rouche Movement (Google 'Executive Intelligence Review -- La Rouche Publications') and you should have a look at (top right of the page) the LaRouche 1st August webcast. I do not have time to go into the background of the LaRouche movement except to say that, early in August, 2007 he made a specific forecast that, within a few weeks at most , there would be the start of a great downturn (as happened) and that the LaRouche movement and its publications do seem to have periodic access to information building within government. This time the forecast is that the fiscal year-end (30th September) USA government figures are so bad that collapse is inevitable. LaRouche says that it is conceivable that there will be lying on a huge scale but he obviously feels that, such the scale and breadth of the figures, this will be impossible. Anyway, I pass on the information and you should have a look at the webcast for yourself. Rodney Shakespeare. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From stevenieman at mac.com Mon Aug 3 11:42:17 2009 From: stevenieman at mac.com (Steve Nieman) Date: Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:42:17 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe In-Reply-To: <000801ca1408$258aaea0$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> References: <000801ca1408$258aaea0$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Message-ID: <9E8243B5-B42C-442C-8AF3-22B8DAF18EC3@mac.com> Rodney, Thanks for the post. This Fall should be interesting. Maybe this will be some juncture of a teeter-totter tipping point. Humans have built tremendous infrastructure throughout a lot of the planet. Tools and assets exist for stable wealth production that ALL can share in. It's a matter now of math and power. Numbers can speak to power, I believe. We'll see that engagement soon. Steve Nieman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Aug 3, 2009, at 12:00 AM, Rodney Shakespeare wrote: > Dear All, > List members will be aware that a number of noted forecasters are > saying that there is likelihood of catastrophic economic collapse > in the September/October period. > > The latest such forecast comes from the La Rouche Movement (Google > 'Executive Intelligence Review -- La Rouche Publications') and you > should have a look at (top right of the page) the LaRouche 1st > August webcast. > > I do not have time to go into the background of the LaRouche > movement except to say that, early in August, 2007 he made a > specific forecast that, within a few weeks at most , there would be > the start of a great downturn (as happened) and that the LaRouche > movement and its publications do seem to have periodic access to > information building within government. > > This time the forecast is that the fiscal year-end (30th September) > USA government figures are so bad that collapse is inevitable. > LaRouche says that it is conceivable that there will be lying on a > huge scale but he obviously feels that, such the scale and breadth > of the figures, this will be impossible. > > Anyway, I pass on the information and you should have a look at the > webcast for yourself. > > Rodney Shakespeare. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 12:46:30 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 11:46:30 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [SPAM]Key News: $33 Billion in Bailout Bonuses, Domestic US Military Ops, Shadow Government Message-ID: <000401ca146a$b9e63080$2db29180$@net> From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 10:27 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: [SPAM]Key News: $33 Billion in Bailout Bonuses, Domestic US Military Ops, Shadow Government To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/009/090803_bailout_bonuses_domestic_military_shadow_government Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles you may have missed, which include revealing information on a new report detailing $32.6 billion in bailout bonuses piad by the nine biggest Wall Street banks, increasing efforts to use the US military in domestic operations, increased military control over the "shadow government", and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here. The most important sentences are highlighted for those with limited time. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word , we can and will build a brighter future . With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team P.S. For exciting news on BlackLight Power, the $60 million company with a physics-defying new energy invention, click here . And for an excellent three-minute video by a Rolling Stone writer on market bubbles, with particularly good info on the huge oil market bubble from last year, click here. His article "Inside The Great American Bubble Machine" is also quite revealing. Read it here . _____ Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts July 31, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31pay.html Thousands of top traders and bankers on Wall Street were awarded huge bonuses and pay packages last year, even as their employers were battered by the financial crisis. Nine of the financial firms that were among the largest recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general. At Goldman Sachs, for example, bonuses of more than $1 million went to 953 traders and bankers, and Morgan Stanley awarded seven-figure bonuses to 428 employees. Even at weaker banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, million-dollar awards were distributed to hundreds of workers. Mr. Cuomo, who for months has criticized the companies over pay, said the bonuses were particularly galling because the banks survived the crisis with the government?s support. ?If the bank lost money, where do you get the money to pay the bonus?? he said. All the banks named in the report declined to comment. Incentives that led to large bonuses on Wall Street are often cited as a cause of the financial crisis. Though it has been known for months that billions of dollars were spent on bonuses last year, it was unclear whether that money was spread widely or concentrated among a few workers. The report suggests that those roughly 5,000 people ? a small subset of the industry ? accounted for more than $5 billion in bonuses. At Goldman, just 200 people collectively were paid nearly $1 billion in total, and at Morgan Stanley, $577 million was shared by 101 people. All told, the bonus pools at the nine banks that received bailout money was $32.6 billion, while those banks lost $81 billion. Note: How can this happen? Corruption abounds, yet the fact that you are reading this shows we can change it all. For lots more on the realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here. _____ Military Poised to Help FEMA Battle Swine Flu Outbreak July 29, 2009, Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/29/military-poised-help-fema-battle-swine-flu-outbreak/ The Pentagon is preparing to make troops available if necessary to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency tackle a potential outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, FOX News has confirmed. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is preparing to sign an order authorizing the military to set up five regional teams to deal with the potential outbreak of H1N1 influenza if FEMA requests help. A senior U.S. defense official told FOX News that the plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the FEMA. No final decision has been reached on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it likely would include personnel from all branches of the military. It is not known how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces. In the event of a major outbreak, civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts, the official said. The military, as it would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients. As a first step, military leaders have asked Gates to authorize planning for the potential assistance. Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said. Note: In conjunction with all the other evidence that the swine flu scare is bogus, it appears that it may also be designed to provide a "wedge" to break down the prohibition, established by the Posse Comitatus Act, against use of military troops in domestic operations. For many revealing reports from reliable sources on government and military threats to civil liberties, click here. _____ Power Shifts in Plan for Capital Calamity July 28, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/politics/28continuity.html A shift in authority has given military officials at the White House a bigger operational role in creating a backup government if the nation?s capital were ?decapitated? by a terrorist attack or other calamity, according to current and former officials involved in the decision. The move ... was made in the closing weeks of the administration of President George W. Bush. Officials said the Obama administration had left the plan essentially intact. Under the revamped structure, the White House Military Office, which reports to the office of the White House chief of staff, has assumed a more central role in setting up a temporary ?shadow government? in a crisis. And the office, a 2,300-person outfit best known for flying Air Force One, has taken on added responsibilities as the lead agent in shepherding government leaders to a secure site at Mount Weather in rural Virginia, keeping classified lists of successors and maintaining computer systems, among other operational duties. Many of these types of tasks were previously handled by civilians at other agencies, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Officials at other agencies that have traditionally played critical roles expressed concern that the new structure placed too much power in the hands of too few people inside the White House. They also saw the move as part of the Bush administration?s broader efforts to enhance the power of the White House. Though the office reports to the White House, many of its employees are uniformed soldiers, and it has sometimes been led by a military officer. While Obama administration officials would not discuss details of their continuity plan, they said the current policy was ?settled,? and they drew no distance between their own policies and those left behind by the Bush administration. Note: For more on the Shadow Government, click here . For lots more on government secrecy from major media sources, click here. _____ Let?s Break up the Fed July 28, 2009, Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574300263148640896.html The Obama administration?s plan to increase the powers of the Federal Reserve, says one critic, is like giving a teenager ?a bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon.? Broadening the Fed?s responsibilities won?t help. Instead, we should think of how best to dismantle an overextended Fed. The Fed has been incapacitated by its transformation into an omnibus enterprise with responsibilities ranging from boots-on-the-ground regulation to high-level monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created the Federal Reserve System, did so to forestall financial panics rather than pursue macroeconomic policies. The gold standard defined monetary policy. The Fed was merely meant to ?provide an elastic currency? by serving as lender of last resort in times of crisis. The Act also assigned the Fed routine responsibilities for maintaining and improving the financial system?examining banks, issuing currency notes, and helping clear checks. The adoption of Keynesian and monetarist ideas by central bankers and elected officials subsequently cast the Fed in a proactive macroeconomic role. In 1977, an amendment to the 1913 Act explicitly charged the Fed with promoting ?maximum? employment and ?stable? prices. The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 gave the Fed responsibility over holding companies designed to circumvent restrictions placed on individual banks. Congress further tasked the Fed with enforcing consumer-protection and fair-lending rules. While the record of the Fed?s monetary policy has been mixed, its supervision of financial institutions has been a predictable and comprehensive failure. The Fed?s excessively broad mandate also has thwarted accountability. Note: The bill to audit the Fed (HR 1207) in the US Congress now has 276 co-signers -- more than 50% of all members. Yet the media is hardly reporting on this. Contact your Congressional representatives now at this link . _____ Russian Navy Reveals Its Secret UFO Encounters July 28, 2009, Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534960,00.html It sounds like the classic science movie "The Abyss" ? only in Russian. The Russian Navy has declassified its records of UFO encounters, many of which take place in or around water, reports the Web site of the English-language Russian news channel Russia Today. "They are most often seen in the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the southern part of the Bermuda Triangle, and also in the Caribbean Sea," said one naval intelligence officer quoted by the Web site. Another incident cited involved six unknown objects that followed a nuclear submarine in the Pacific. When the sub surfaced, so did the objects ? which then lifted themselves out of the water and flew away. In perhaps the most compelling account, military divers in Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, encountered "a group of humanoid creatures dressed in silvery suits" at a depth of 160 feet. Three humans died during the ensuing chase. Note: For the testimony of numerous top government and military officials from several different countries on a major UFO cover-up, click here. _____ Thousands see astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Hornet July 26, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/25/BA5V18V6J7.DTL "I'm gonna reveal a secret to you," he told reporters. "There's a monolith on (Mars' moon) Phobos. It's about 15 meters high. And aliens put it there before they came to Egypt to build the pyramids." Like a good comic, Aldrin, 79, kept a straight face - until they laughed. Note: Was this just a joke or not? For lots more on Aldrin's strange comment, click here. For the testimony of numerous other top government and military officials on a major UFO cover-up, click here . _____ Bush Weighed Using Military in Arrests July 25, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/us/25detain.html Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials. Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants. A decision to dispatch troops into the streets to make arrests has few precedents in American history, as both the Constitution and subsequent laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property. The Fourth Amendment bans ?unreasonable? searches and seizures without probable cause. And the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally prohibits the military from acting in a law-enforcement capacity. In the discussions, Mr. Cheney and others cited an Oct. 23, 2001, memorandum from the Justice Department that, using a broad interpretation of presidential authority, argued that the domestic use of the military against Al Qaeda would be legal because it served a national security, rather than a law enforcement, purpose. ?The president has ample constitutional and statutory authority to deploy the military against international or foreign terrorists operating within the United States,? the memorandum said. The memorandum was declassified in March. But the White House debate about the Lackawanna group is the first evidence that top American officials ... actually considered using the document to justify deploying the military into an American town to make arrests. Note: For many revealing reports from reliable sources on government and military threats to civil liberties, click here. _____ The Military Is Not the Police July 30, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/opinion/30thu1.html It was disturbing to learn ... just how close the last administration came to violating laws barring the military from engaging in law enforcement when President George W. Bush considered sending troops into a Buffalo suburb in 2002 to arrest terrorism suspects. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily a problem of the past. More needs to be done to ensure that the military is not illegally deployed in this country. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally prohibits the military from law enforcement activities within the United States. The Lackawanna Six controversy is history, but there are troubling signs the military may be injecting itself today into law enforcement. The American Civil Liberties Union has been sounding the alarm about the proliferation of ?fusion centers,? in which federal, state and local law enforcement cooperate on anti-terrorism work. According to the A.C.L.U., the lines have blurred, and the centers have involved military personnel in domestic law enforcement. Congress should investigate. Civil libertarians are also raising questions about a program known as the Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear and High-Yield Explosives Consequence Management Response Force. The Army says its aim is to have active-duty troops ready to back up local law enforcement in catastrophic situations, like an attack with a nuclear weapon. That could be legal, but the workings of these units are murky. Again, Congress should ensure that the military is not moving into prohibited areas. After the lack of respect for posse comitatus at the highest ranks of the previous administration, the Obama White House and Congress must ensure that the lines between military and law enforcement have been restored, clearly, and that they are respected. Note: For many revealing reports from reliable sources on government and military threats to civil liberties, click here. _____ 'Cove' Director Surfaces Deep (And Dark) Secrets July 30, 2009, National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php... Filmmaker Louie Psihoyos discusses his new documentary, "The Cove", a shocking and moving account of dolphin abuse off the coast of Taijii, Japan. Psihoyos and his team painstakingly documented a thriving operation that captures dolphins, the healthiest and handsomest of which are sold to aquariums worldwide. The rest are slaughtered, often ending up as food for human consumption, despite high mercury levels. Going into the village of Taijii, Psihoyos tells Fresh Air, is "like walking into a Stephen King novel." There's lots of visible marketing ? statues, murals? proclaiming the town's love of dolphins. "The whole town was built around loving dolphins and whales. And then in the middle of town, is this national park that even Japanese people can't go in. Big tall fences, steel spikes on the gates, razor ribbon, barbed wire, a series of tunnels to get through on one side to get there ? it was like a fortress. And Ric said, 'That's where this all happens' ? in this national park.' " "Ric" is Ric O'Barry ? a former dolphin trainer responsible for teaching the dolphins of TV's Flipper their tricks. He has devoted years to rescuing the intelligent mammals he once helped capture. "I get more upset with the dolphin trainers I see there than the fishermen," O'Barry tells Terry Gross. Japanese fishermen, he explains, think of dolphins as being in the same category as fish ? not least, O'Barry says, because the Japanese character for "whale" translates literally into "monster fish." "But the dolphin trainers, who are there working side by side with them, look [the dolphins] in the eye every day," O'Barry says. "They give them names. They spend time with them. They know they're self-aware." Note: To read reviews of "The Cove", click here and here . For many reports on the amazing capacities of marine mammals and the threats to them from human activities, click here. _____ Forget gas, batteries ? pee is new power source July 9, 2009, MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31805166/ns/technology_and_science-innovation Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months with new technology developed by scientists from Ohio University. Using a nickel-based electrode, the scientists can create large amounts of cheap hydrogen from urine that could be burned or used in fuel cells. "One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses," said Gerardine Botte, a professor at Ohio University developing the technology. "Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel." Pee power is based on hydrogen, the most common element in the universe but one that has resisted efforts to produce, store, transport and use economically. Storing pure hydrogen gas requires high pressure and low temperature. Chemically binding hydrogen to other elements, like oxygen to create water, makes it easier to store and transport, but releasing the hydrogen when it's needed usually requires financially prohibitive amounts of electricity. By attaching hydrogen to another element, nitrogen, Botte and her colleagues realized that they can store hydrogen without the exotic environmental conditions, and then release it with less electricity, 0.037 Volts instead of the 1.23 Volts needed for water. Stick a special nickel electrode into a pool of urine, apply an electrical current, and hydrogen gas is released. A fuel cell, urine-powered vehicle could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon. A refrigerator-sized unit could produce one kilowatt of energy for about $5,000, although this price is a rough estimate, says Botte. "The waste products from say a chicken farm could be used to produce the energy needed to run the farm," said John Stickney, a chemist and professor at the University of Georgia. Note: For many exciting reports from reliable sources on new energy technologies, click here . _____ Only You. And You. And You. July 29, 2009, Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/id/209164 Terisa and Matt and Vera and Larry ... believe in "ethical nonmonogamy," or engaging in loving, intimate relationships with more than one person?based upon the knowledge and consent of everyone involved. They are polyamorous, to use the term of art applied to multiple-partner families like theirs, and they wouldn't want to live any other way. Researchers are just beginning to study the phenomenon, but the few who do, estimate that openly polyamorous families in the United States number more than half a million. Over the past year, books like Open, by journalist Jenny Block; Opening Up, by sex columnist Tristan Taormino ... have helped publicize the concept. Today there are poly blogs and podcasts, local get-togethers, and an online polyamory magazine called Loving More with 15,000 regular readers. Celebrities like actress Tilda Swinton and Carla Bruni, the first lady of France, have voiced support. Polys say they aren't so much denying their biological instincts as insisting they can work around them?through open communication, patience, and honesty. Polys call this process "compersion"?or learning to find personal fulfillment in the emotional and sexual satisfaction of your partner, even if you're not the one doing the satisfying. "It's about making sure that everybody's needs are met, including your own," says Terisa. "And that's not always easy, but it's part of the fun." It's a new paradigm, certainly?and it does break some rules. "Polyamory scares people?it shakes up their world view," says Allena Gabosch, the director of the Seattle-based Center for Sex Positive Culture. _____ Key Articles From Years Past _____ Are we really alone? October 21, 2008 ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6076967 Nick Pope worked for Britain's ministry of defense - his job to investigate UFOs sightings. There are some cases, ... about 5 percent, that can't be explained. They are genuine unknowns. 11,000 UFO sightings have been reported in Britian since 1959. Only now are the details being revealed. Lieutenant Milton Torres was ordered to keep silent about what happened. [On] May 20, 1957, he scrambled his sabre jet from a base in England with orders to arm all weapons and fire on sight. Before he could fire, the erratic bright blip on his radar simply disappeared. Any day now, the most contentious file of them all will be opened, the file on Rendlesham Forest, Britain's equivalent of Roswell. POPE: "I have no explanation for the Rendlesham Forest incident." It was Christmas night 1980. Guards at two US Air Force bases in eastern England thought they saw a plane crash in these woods. They investigated and reported a strange glowing object, metallic in appearance. It illuminated the entire forest. The object was hovering or on legs. Two nights later the lights returned. Lt. Col. Charles Halt recorded this as he walked through the dark forest: "Weird. It is coming this way. It is definitely coming this way. This is wierd. There's something very, very strange." Halt's men recorded high radiation levels here at the alleged landing site. The official agenda is ... that gradual disclosure has to be the way. When we're deemed ready to handle the unsettling truth of aliens among us, then all will be revealed. Note: Don't miss this fascinating five-minute video clip at the link above. To see the video without commercials, click here . For an excellent website on the Rendlesham Forest incident, click here . _____ Lab habits: Do depressed lab rats dictate international drug policy? June 2, 2005, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/jun/02/farout The predominant model of drug addiction views it as a disease: humans and animals will use heroin or cocaine for as long as they are available. When the drugs run out, they will seek a fresh supply; the drugs, not the users, are in control. These conclusions, repeated frequently by politicians and the media, are based on experiments carried out almost exclusively on animals, usually rats and monkeys, housed in metal cages and experiencing a particularly poor quality of life. What would happen, wondered psychologist Dr Bruce Alexander, then of British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, if these animals were instead provided with a comfortable, stimulating environment? In 1981, Alexander built a 200sq ft home for lab rats. Rat Park, as it became known, was kept clean and temperate, while the rats were supplied with plenty of food and toys, along with places to dig, rest and mate. Try as he might, Alexander could not make junkies out of his rats. Even after being force-fed morphine for two months, when given the option, they chose plain water, despite experiencing mild withdrawal symptoms. He laced the morphine with sugar, but still they ignored it. Only when he added Naloxone, an opiate inhibitor, to the sugared morphine water, did they drink it. Alexander simultaneously monitored rats kept in "normal" lab conditions: they consistently chose the morphine drip over plain water, sometimes consuming 16-20 times more than the Rat Parkers. Alexander's findings - that deprived rats seek solace in opiates, while contented rats avoid them - dramatically contradict our currently held beliefs about addiction. Nobody seemed to care. Rejected by Science and Nature, Alexander's paper was published in the obscure Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, where it was summarily ignored. Two decades later, Rat Park sits empty; addiction remains a disease and the war on drugs continues. Note: Is it possible the powers that be want us to believe addiction is much worse than it really is? _____ CIA Brainwashing Suit Settled October 5, 1988, Chicago Tribune http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24835384.html Eight elderly Canadians who were victims of CIA-funded brainwashing experiments in the 1950s reached a tentative out-of-court settlement Tuesday in their multimillion-dollar damage suit against the U.S. spy agency. The Canadian plaintiffs, who say they suffered permanent mental and physical damage as a result of the bizarre experiments performed on them at a Montreal psychiatric hospital, will divide a $750,000 payment among them, according to their attorney, James Turner. The Canadians, all patients of the late Dr. Ewen Cameron at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute in the late 1950s, were injected with repeated doses of mind-altering LSD, deprived of sleep, subjected to massive electroshock treatments and forced to listen to thousands of repetitions of taped messages taken from the most sensitive moments of their therapy sessions. Note: Dr. Cameron was once President of the American and World Psychiatric Associations. For more on the severe abuses of doctors in serving the CIA's mind control programs, click here. For lots more reliable, verifiable information on CIA mind control experiments and programs, click here . The link above provides this abstract of the complete article, which can be accessed by payment of a small fee. _____ Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. To make a donation by credit card, check, or money order: www.WantToKnow.info/donationswtk Explore the mind and heart expanding websites managed by the nonprofit PEERS network: www.peerservice.org - PEERS websites: Spreading inspiration, education, & empowerment www.momentoflove.org - Every person in the world has a heart www.personalgrowthcourses.net - Dynamic online courses powerfully expand your horizons www.WantToKnow.info - Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all To respond to this message, visit www.WantToKnow.info/contactus.php To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the WantToKnow.info list (one email every few days): www.WantToKnow.info/subscribe _____ Change email address / Leave mailing list Powered by YourMailingListProvider -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 13:09:37 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:09:37 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Kenyan Birth Certificate: Obama Birthers Latch On To Forgery Message-ID: <000901ca146d$f4460220$dcd20660$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 11:40 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Kenyan Birth Certificate: Obama Birthers Latch On To Forgery (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) "Karl Rove responded to the circulation of the new paper on Twitter, saying "I believe this is likely a forgery." " Kenyan Birth Certificate: Obama Birthers Latch On To Forgery http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/kenyan-birth-certificate_n_249850.h tml The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner First Posted: 08- 3-09 09:27 AM | Updated: 08- 3-09 12:55 PM The latest development in the Obama "birther" conspiracy is the emergence of a "Kenyan birth certificate" for the president, put online by movement maven Orly Taitz. Oddly, the same people who are so skeptical of Obama's Hawaii birth certificate are willing to accept this new document despite many flaws, documented by the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel and Markos Moulitsas. Here are just some of the flaws: Kenya was a Dominion the date this certificate was allegedly issued and would not become a republic for 8 months. Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya. Obama's father's village would be nearer to Nairobi, not Mombasa. The number 47O44-- 47 is Obama's age when he became president, followed by the letter O (not a zero) followed by 44--he is the 44th president. EF Lavender is a laundry detergent. In spite of the document's many problems, Taitz has submitted it to a court as part of her case against the president. "I'm forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond," she told World Net Daily. "Before, they said, 'You don't have anything backing your claims,'" Taitz explained. "Now I have something. In fact, I have posted on the Internet more than Obama has. My birth certificate actually has signatures." Karl Rove responded to the circulation of the new paper on Twitter, saying "I believe this is likely a forgery." From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 13:10:49 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:10:49 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] House Approves Food-Safety Bill Message-ID: <000a01ca146e$1eea4c70$5cbee550$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 11:34 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] House Approves Food-Safety Bill (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) "Small farms are exempt from registration fees, ranchers and farmers now regulated by the Agriculture Department are excluded from the requirements of the bill and the FDA will have to consider the special concerns of small growers and organic farmers, among other provisions." House Approves Food-Safety Bill Law Would Greatly Expand FDA's Power http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073003 271.html By Lyndsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 31, 2009 The House approved the first major changes to food-safety laws in 70 years Thursday, giving sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the way food is grown, harvested and processed. The action follows a wave of food-borne illnesses over the past three years, involving products as varied as spinach and cookie dough, which has shaken consumer confidence and made the issue a priority for congressional leaders and the White House. Food illnesses sicken one in four Americans and kill 5,000 each year, according to government statistics. Tainted food has cost the food industry billions of dollars in recalls, lost sales and legal expenses. "Americans are dying because the Food and Drug Administration does not have authority to protect them, and American producers and agriculture are being hurt," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), the bill's author, who has been pushing food-safety change for more than 20 years. "This will fundamentally change the way in which we ensure the safety of our food supply." The measure passed 283 to 142. The Senate is expected to take up its version after the August recess. President Obama, who has voiced concerns about the safety of peanut butter consumed by his 8-year-old daughter, endorsed the House bill Wednesday. The legislation affects every aspect of the U.S. food system, from farmers to manufacturers to importers. It places significant responsibilities on farmers and food processors to prevent contamination -- a departure from the country's reactive tradition, which has relied on government inspectors to catch tainted food after the fact. The 159-page bill was backed by a raft of consumer groups and trade associations but faced opposition from some farm interests and their House Republican allies, who said it gives too much authority to the FDA and will lead to higher costs and burdensome paperwork without necessarily making food safer. "The federal government will tell our farmers and ranchers how to do something they've been doing since the dawn of mankind," said Rep. Frank D. Lucas (R-Okla.). "It goes too far in the direction of trying to produce food from a bureaucrat's chair in Washington, D.C." The legislation requires food producers and importers to pay an annual $500 registration fee, which would help fund stepped-up FDA inspections, enforcement and related activities such as food-safety research. About 360,000 facilities in the United States and abroad would be subject to the fees. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the fees would not cover the cost of the new system, leaving the FDA to incur a net cost of $2.2 billion over five years. If enacted, the bill would be the first major overhaul of food laws since 1938, when Congress gave the FDA the power to oversee the safety of most foods, as well as drugs and cosmetics. At that time, the government was concerned mainly about food makers adulterating products by substituting ingredients or using additives to mask rancid meat and vegetables. But as the food industry has changed, new threats have emerged. Deadly pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 can contaminate foods without the knowledge of farmers, manufacturers or consumers. An increasing amount of food Americans consume -- about 15 percent -- is imported, with little known about overseas growing or processing methods. And the U.S. food supply chain has grown increasingly complex, with some manufacturers unsure where raw ingredients originate. The legislation requires food manufacturers to identify the particular risks they face, create controls to prevent that contamination, monitor those controls to make sure they are working and update those measures regularly. Such controls have been mandatory for the seafood and juice industries since the 1990s after several high-profile contamination cases; they are widely believed to have reduced outbreaks involving those products. The House bill calls for the FDA to set safety standards for farmers and manufacturers who process food. And it requires imported food to meet the same standards. The legislation requires the FDA to sharply step up inspections. The FDA now inspects food facilities about once a decade. The bill would also mandate inspections of high-risk facilities at least once a year and low-risk facilities at least every three years. The measure also gives the FDA significant authority to contain outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. The agency would be able to recall food if it suspects contamination, instead of relying on the food maker to act voluntarily. It also allows the FDA to quarantine a geographic area, blocking the distribution of suspect food to the rest of the country. And the FDA would gain access to records at farms and food production facilities. Under the legislation, the food agency will get new enforcement powers and be able to impose beefed-up civil and criminal penalties. One provision allows the FDA to declare food "adulterated" simply if the grower or manufacturer has failed to follow safety standards, regardless of whether the food is actually tainted. The bill does not address the fractured nature of U.S. food regulation, which is spread among 15 federal agencies, as well as thousands of state and local health departments. Agriculture interests were able to win key concessions. Small farms are exempt from registration fees, ranchers and farmers now regulated by the Agriculture Department are excluded from the requirements of the bill and the FDA will have to consider the special concerns of small growers and organic farmers, among other provisions. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 13:34:55 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:34:55 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Message-ID: <005401ca1471$7d7bdd50$787397f0$@net> Rodney, thanks for this post. With the large number of ships sitting in port with empty cargo holds, it can only be a foregone conclusion that collapse is very near. Another note I would like to make is with regard to the mention of the name Lyndon LaRouche here. Last year a Catholic priest sent me a very, very long detailed article revealing that the Libertarian Party is little more than an arm of the Italian mafia. And, In the article, the name Lyndon LaRouche was mentioned over and over again. Whether coincidence or not, it was not long after this that the fatal crash of my laptop occurred. But, for whatever it is worth, I include this information. I was unable to access the article mentioned. From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Rodney Shakespeare Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 12:01 AM To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Subject: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe Dear All, List members will be aware that a number of noted forecasters are saying that there is likelihood of catastrophic economic collapse in the September/October period. The latest such forecast comes from the La Rouche Movement (Google 'Executive Intelligence Review -- La Rouche Publications') and you should have a look at (top right of the page) the LaRouche 1st August webcast. I do not have time to go into the background of the LaRouche movement except to say that, early in August, 2007 he made a specific forecast that, within a few weeks at most , there would be the start of a great downturn (as happened) and that the LaRouche movement and its publications do seem to have periodic access to information building within government. This time the forecast is that the fiscal year-end (30th September) USA government figures are so bad that collapse is inevitable. LaRouche says that it is conceivable that there will be lying on a huge scale but he obviously feels that, such the scale and breadth of the figures, this will be impossible. Anyway, I pass on the information and you should have a look at the webcast for yourself. Rodney Shakespeare. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00011.txt URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 13:57:14 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:57:14 -0700 Subject: [GJM] It's a golden opportunity. Message-ID: <008001ca1474$9bcce9e0$d366bda0$@net> It's a golden opportunity. http://www.liquidgoldbook.com/ Using urine as nitrogen-rich fertilizer that is. As more people are forced to grow their own food, this rich resource cannot be overlooked. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 13:57:35 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:57:35 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Open for Good News - Urgent: Three For Liberty Campaign! Message-ID: <008501ca1474$a8cf24f0$fa6d6ed0$@net> From: Natural Solutions Foundation [mailto:dr.laibow at gmail.com] Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 12:25 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Open for Good News - Urgent: Three For Liberty Campaign! Image removed by sender. Health Freedom Alert News, alerts, and Other Relevant Health Freedom information PLUS: Action Items You Need to Take Now Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom Action eAlert August 3, 2009 _____ Join the Three For Liberty Campaign NOW! Image removed by sender. Protect Against FDA / FTC, Food Fascism and Swine Flu Vaccines Three for Liberty: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3209 Dr. Paul's Bills: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3226 This eblast is posted at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3226 To send this Health Freedom Action eAlert to your entire list, just copy this link and email it! ________________ Health Freedom Social Networking Follow us on Twitter Retweet to Spread the Word Image removed by sender. www.twitter.com/healthfreedomus www.twitter.com/drlaibow _____ Index - Three for Liberty <> The Good Doctor's Bills <> Food Fascism Bill Sent to the Senate <> Phoney Pandemic Gathers Steam <> More False Attacks on Nutrient Silver <> Disinformation Information <> _____ Ready for Some Really Good News? Ron Paul Introduces 2 Pieces of Legislation to End FDA - FTC First Amendment Violations! Image removed by sender. Thank you, Dr. Paul! Click here to Support Your Right to Learn About Health Benefits of Foods, Supplements: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27732 The Fraud and Death Administration, commonly known as the FDA, has been violating and abridging our free speech rights for quite a while now. The FTC - Federal Trade Commission - also enforces restrictions on Free (Commercial) Speech. Each of the outstanding bills Dr. Paul proposes "regulate the regulators" and protect truthful and not misleading speech about nutrient health claims. They also protect our First Amendment rights to free speech.Image removed by sender.Image removed by sender. Dr. Ron Paul (TX-R) has introduced these two important bills to assure an open and vibrant nutrient marketplace, capable of meeting consumer needs. I urge you to support them vigorously. Ron Paul's HR 3394: The Health Information Protection Act and HR 3395: The Health Freedom Act correct the flagrantly unconstitutional wrongful limitation of our right to share - and learn - what we need to know about food, supplements, nutrition and health that industry friendly FTC and FDA have imposed upon us. And, as if that were not enough, the US Government has pushed language through Codex making health claims (even accurate ones!) and health information about nutrition and food, forbidden speech under Codex! Our precious and important First Amendment of the Constitution of These United States says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The FDA and FTC, like other federal agencies, act as if the Constitution had never been written or ratified! The 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) reaffirmed our constitutional right to share information about food-related health benefits. But the agencies recognize neither by law nor logic, and certainly not by public health considerations! "Never mind the wishes and clear intention of the Congress", they say. "We're always here to serve our buddies, Big Pharma and Big Agribiz. If people knew how they could prevent, treat, mitigate, cure or, Heaven forbid, even TREAT diseases with food and supplements, they might demand clean food ( -Sorry, Big Agrabiz, we did the best we could to keep them from knowing that what we permit you to sell is killing them!-) and stop using dangerous drugs to accomplish those goals (-So very sorry, Big, Big Pharma, but somehow they have gotten hold of good science and powerful clinial information and they just keep buying clean foods and supplements instead of your drugs.-)" Click here to read the full story, including a summary of Dr. Paul's two very important new bills. Then forward this link to your entire circle of influence to ask them to push back the FDA's unconstitutional limitation of speech and the free flow of information. Link: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3226 Bear in mind that if we, collectively, do not invoke the power of the netroots to bring back our Constitutional rights to know, and share, health information about natural solutions, they will be lost to us. Yours in health and freedom, Maj. Gen. Ablert N. Stubblebine III President ________________ Now for the Really Bad News" 1. Food Fascism Bill Passes the House. It's Up to Us to Make Sure It Does NOT Pass the Senate! Act NOW to Prevent Senate From Completing the Disaster! Image removed by sender. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26 714 The passage of the insane Food Fascism Bill, H.R. 2749, on July 30, 2009 could be a death nell for both health and freedom if we let it. Before we go forward, I want to thank you for generating 640,188 emails to your members of the House of Representatives, Secretary Vilsak of the USDA, Secretary Sibelius of HHS, Secretary Negreponte of DHS and President Obama protecting food and freeedom in our bid to defeat H.R. 2749. We did accomplish several things: massive outrage at this bill made it necessary for the members of the Committee it was stuck in to insert some level of protection through traceability exemptions for small farms selling food directly to consumers and restaurants before the bill could get out of committee. That is something. Not enough, but something. And our strong and continuing opposition managed to make it necessary to engage in all sorts of parliamentary hanky panky to get the bill passed since it was taken off the agenda on Tuesday, failed a vote on Wednesay and then finally passed on Thursday, July 30, 2009. But pass it did and now we have just one shot at making sure this horrific bill does NOT pass the US Senate. Action Item http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26 714 has been rewritten and updated. If you submitted an action item to the House, we urge you to submit this one to the Senate, and submit one for every member of your household, as well! 2. Phony Pandemic Gathers Steam, Vaccine Testing on Children, Pregnant Women, Begins Image removed by sender. US Army to Be Involved in FEMA Pandemic Response http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va &aid=14580 Remember: In a Pandemic Emergency Vaccination Situation, THERE WILL BE NO EXEMPTIONS FOR ANY REASON! Our Three For Liberty Campaign, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3209, is designed to make it easy for you to act quickly and easily on the biggest threats to your liberty and your health: the Food Fascism Bill (see above) and the looming, very real threat of mandatory vaccination for the absurdly non-threatening "Pandemic" Swine Flu, while protecting nutritional speech at the same time. Given the involvement of the US military in FEMA planning and response, it seems likely that mandatory vacciantion is very much on the table. Should WHO issue Pandemic Guidelines making mandatory vaccination a reality (which would be legally binding an all 194 signatory nations), those troops would be tasked with enforcement, reloacation, incarceration, etc. They would, in short, be the instruments of medical marshal law. If you think that perhaps the Swine Flu vaccine might be OK for you and your loved ones, think again. Please read "Swine Flu, a Recipe for Disaster, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3218 There you will find a list of ingredients and factual information that you can share with friends and family to help mobilize them to demand the right to Self Shield rather than accept mandatory vaccination or incarceration IF we are faced with that option. Will we be faced with mandatory vaccination? We could easily be. The following historical summary will show you how the US Government has been taking steps to make mandatory vaccination highly likely. It is adapted from Dr. Sherri Tenpenny's excellent article called "the Truth About Flu Shots". I agree with everything she has written in that article except for one thing: While discussing what can be done to protect ourselves, Dr. Tenpenny neglected to mention the urgently important option of demanding the right to Self Shield rather than accept the shot or face indefintite incarceration/quarantine. That is a serious shortcoming to this othewise excellent article. "4. Is "Mandatory Vaccination" with the new swine flu possible? . 1946: the United States Public Health Service was established and Executive Order (EO) 9708 was signed, listing the communicable diseases that could be corralled using quarantines.... . April 4, 2003: EO 13295 added SARS to the list. . April 1, 2005: EO 13295 amended to include "Influenza caused by novel or re-emergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic." [Emphasis added - REL] . The power to quarantine was delegated by the President to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to be determined at his or her discretion. . The Secretary of HHS was given the power to arrange for the "apprehension and examination of persons reasonably thought to be infected." A cough or a fever could put a person at risk of being quarantined for an extended period of time and without legal recourse. . January 28, 2003: ....Project BioShield ... created a permanent "indefinite funding authority to develop medical countermeasures." . New authority was given to the National Institutes of Health to accelerate research and development of drugs and vaccines. Emergency approval would be given to "fast tracked" drugs and vaccines deemed necessary in combatting a biological warfare attack or pandemic, bypassing standard safety testing by the Food and Drug Administration. [Emphasis added-REL] . December 17, 2006: Division E-Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA) was added as an addendum to the Defense Appropriations Bill HR 2863 at 11:20 pm on Saturday night, long after House Committee members had signed off on the bill and gone home for the holidays. Section (b)(1) states, "The Sec of HHS can make a determination that a 'disease, health condition or threat' constitutes a public health emergency. He or she may then recommend 'the manufacture, testing, development, administration, or use of one or more covered counter measures...' A covered countermeasure, defined in Division E, is a 'pandemic product, vaccine or drug.'" . Division E also provides complete liability protection for all drugs, vaccines or biological products deemed to be a "covered countermeasure" for an outbreak of any kind. Protection has been given to the drug companies for any product administered for any public health emergency declared by the Secretary of HHS. [Emphasis added -REL] . Pharma is now protected from all accountability, unless criminal intent to harm can be proven by the injured party. Drug companies are protected from lawsuits, even if they know the drug will be harmful. (Criminal intent would be nearly impossible to prove)." http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14603 ________________ What do Colloidal and Nano Silver Have In Common? They've Both Got A Real FOE! www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions An old song asks workers, "Which side are you on, boys, which side are you on?" And that is my question to the supposed environmental group, Friends of the Earth or, perhaps more aply, FOE. In the first 3 months of this year, a consortium of "environmental groups" backed a petition to have the EPA ban nano silver. You may have read our response to this absurd attempt to get rid of a safe and important major competitor to dangerous antibiotics. You may also have attended our free Medical Silver Webinar on July 25, 2009. If not, by the way, you can visit Vital Connection University and take it now: http://www.vitalconnectionuniversity.com/moodle/course/view.php?id=176 At that time, FOE promised its supporters that it would NOT attack colloidal silver, only nano silver. Then it promptly changed the definition of what nano silver is so that it inaccurately, but conveniently for them, now includes virtually all colloidal silver as well. Apparently, their word is as good as their science - worth nothing at all. I asked earlier this year who funds FOE. Now I REALLY want to know! Well, by looking around a bit here is what I found out: FOE received $45,000 from the John Merck Fund was set up in 1970 by Serena Merck, the widow of Merck Pharmaceuticals CEO George W. Merck, in honor of their short-lived son, John. It would appear that FOE has also been the recipient of funds from the Tides Foundation, which itself has recieved nearly $2.7 million from the John Merck Foundation and another $300K from the Pfizer Foundation. All of the other petitioning environmental groups, likewise, appear to have funding for this enterprise from the very people who will be aided most by getting rid of safe, effective silver: Big Pharma. You really did not expect anything different, now did you? You probably know that the FDA currently literally forbids telling you truthfully that anything other than vaccines and Tamiflu or Relenza can deal with the Swine flu. That type of gag regulation is exactly what Ron Paul's two bills are designed to eliminate. But until they do, all I can do is tell you that IF I could exercise my First Amendment rights as a free American, I would tell you about the fantastic effectiveness and safety record of nano silver and colloidal silver in dealing with all pathogens. If you want information on the difference between them and the reason to select one over another, do visit our webinar. Meanwhile, it is clear that the forces arrayed against our health freedom will not rest until they either destroy those freedoms or we win this enormous war. I would like to ask your help: please make your tax deductible donation , http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 , to the Natural Solutions Foundation now to help keep us keeping on in the battle for health and freedom. You need us and we need you. It is a marriage of support and respect. Thanks! ________________ Disinformation Information Image removed by sender. Natural Solutions Foundation is, simply put, the largest and most effective health freedom organization in the world. We are "The Global Voice of Health FreedomT" No one else even comes close. That is why we are the continuing target of disinformation, slander and libel. That is standard operating procedure for the disinformation folks. Without restraint, and without being constrained by reality, fact or common decency, they lie and defame and defame and lie. Sensible people look beyond the lies. Those who are "attending the bull fight for the blood" do not. COINTELPRO and other organized disinformation strategies use innuendo, smears, lies and other distortions of fact and reality to marginalize and discredit effective change agents. The publication AND THE REPUBLICATION of such libelous and/or slanderous material constitutes liable and/or slander in itself. Especially watch out for "Health Freedom" groups that don't tell you who the people are behind them, or who are not led by people who have been involved in the movement for decades. We've proven our bona fides. Before you give other "letterhead only" groups your hard-earned support, please check them out. Do they have a list of Accomplishments like we do? http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=195 We welcome vigorous debate and discussion and have no problem with dissent. We do, however, take exception to lies told about us. Of course, they do confirm that the other side is getting rather nervous about our ability to analyze, disseminate and mobilize people to effective counter action. Just in case you find yourself wondering if there is legal hazard in republishing such disinformation, you may find the following legal information concerning liability of bloggers in over 190 countries for either publishing OR republishing defamatory, insulting and untrue information interesting: http://www.dba-oracle.com/internet_linking_libel_lawsuit.htm Truth WILL out, you know. It always does! Yours in health and freedom, Image removed by sender. Dr. Rima Rima E. Laibow, MD Medical Director Natural Solutions Foundation www.HealthFreedomUSA.org www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org Virtual Shops www.Organics4U.org www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org FOOD ON OUR DOORSTEPS eJournal www.FOODFreedomeJournal.org SHARE! Tell your friends about HealthFreedomUSA.org http://www.healthfreedomusa. org/?page_id=188 ORGANIZE! Join us in the fight to protect your health freedom http://www.healthfreedomusa. org/?page_id=191 SIGN CITIZEN'S PETITION! Ask the U.S. government to change its policy on Codex Alimentarius http://www.healthfreedomusa. org/?page_id=184 CONTRIBUTE! http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 Click here to unsubscribe from the Health Freedom Action eAlerts: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/healthfreedomusa/unsubscribe.jsp Click here to manage your subscription: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/profile/login.jsp?redirect=%2Fo%2F5 68%2Fprofile%2Findex.jsp _____ _____ INDEX <> Image removed by sender. Donate Now Image removed by sender. Organics4u Store Image removed by sender. Marketplace Image removed by sender. Valley of the Moon Coffee ACTIONS: CLICK : Stop Food Fascism Bill Which Destroy Small Farmers, Seed Saving and Small Scale Food Businesses CLICK : Tell Legislators You Want the Right to Self-Quarantine in the Event of a Pandemic, Not Forced Vaccinations CLICK : Tell Congress You Want Safe, Labeled Non GM Food! Get Congressional Co-Sponsors for Vital GMO Label, Safety Bills CLICK : Support Dr. Paul's Health Freedom Bills - Force FDA/FTC to Allow Information About Health and Foods! CLICK : Stop Compulsory Vaccination CLICK : Tell Your Legislators to Oppose All Restrictions on Nutritional Free Speech CLICK : Tell Legislators to Protect You From Dental Mercury CLICK: Become a Health Freedom Community Organizer CLICK : Say NO! to Forced Vaccines Sign the Tiburon Declaration PRODUCTS: CLICK : Treat Yourself to Health Freedom's Coffee! CLICK : Shop Our Online Organic Store CLICK : Visit Our New Marketplace of Recommended Products CLICK : Order "Nutricide: The DVD" Today CLICK : Order Codex eBook CLICK : Order Nano Silver Solution CLICK : Detox Pads are Here! Detox While You Sleep! CLICK : Increase Stem Cells Naturally CLICK : Have a Product or Service You Want to Put In Front of Health Freedom Supporters? INFORMATION: CLICK : Vaccine Info Links Portal CLICK : Join No-Forced-Vaccine Forum CLICK : New Food Freedom eJournal CLICK : Use the new Advanced Healthcare Wiki IMPORTANT! Keep Health Freedom Free. Make Your Recurring Donation Now Image removed by sender. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 823 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 1944 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 612 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 437 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 332 bytes Desc: not available URL: From steve at behappyandfree.com Mon Aug 3 12:33:07 2009 From: steve at behappyandfree.com (Steve Consilvio) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 14:33:07 -0400 Subject: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <985B1AB0-A403-487F-BF40-14598292DEF6@behappyandfree.com> Obama is talking about raising taxes, at the same time that he is talking about limiting incomes. It does seem like the conditions are right for a perfect storm. Here in Massachusetts, they raised taxes and extended it to alcohol. As the numbers get bigger, SOME of the people will get poorer. But, with deficit spending, it is possible to keep this system afloat for another 200 years or so. It is more likely that we will become like Brazil. In the absence of a civil war, there is nothing to cause the numbers to reset. The solution on the right is more capitalism, the solution on the left is more socialism. We will get both: a society divided by ever more extremes. Corporate socialism will continue to be the norm, as the firms that are too big to fail will be protected, and the small people will remain too little to help. Without new ideas, the dysfunction will remain. Obama doesn't have any ideas, just more compassion than Bush. Bottom line: a government-run ponzi scheme cannot collapse. Any attack will preserve it all the more. Obama does not want peace. He is a politician, and seeks victory first. peace, steve On MonAug 3, 2009, at 2:00 PM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote: > Rodney, > > Thanks for the post. This Fall should be interesting. Maybe this > will be some juncture of a teeter-totter tipping point. > > Humans have built tremendous infrastructure throughout a lot of the > planet. Tools and assets exist for stable wealth production that ALL > can share in. > > It's a matter now of math and power. > > Numbers can speak to power, I believe. We'll see that engagement > soon. > > Steve Nieman From jacklancaster at sbcglobal.net Mon Aug 3 13:36:14 2009 From: jacklancaster at sbcglobal.net (jacklancaster at sbcglobal.net) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:36:14 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe (Action Required) Message-ID: <541753.5676.qm@web80001.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Hello Discussion Forum for Global Justice, This message serves as notification that you will not receive any more courtesy notices from our members for two days. Messages you have sent will remain in a lower priority queue for our member to review at their leisure. Future messages will be more likely to be viewed if you are on our member's priority Guest List. Thank you, jacklancaster at sbcglobal.net About Boxbe This courtesy notice is part of a free service to make email more reliable and useful. 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Follow instructions in above notice Status: 4.7.0 -------------- next part -------------- >From mary rose Mon Aug 3 12:34:55 2009 Return-Path: Authentication-Results: mta173.sbc.mail.mud.yahoo.com from=globaljusticemovement.net; domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=globaljusticemovement.net; dkim=neutral (no sig) Received: from 207.115.36.147 (EHLO nlpi133.prodigy.net) (207.115.36.147) by mta173.sbc.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:35:20 -0700 Received: from megs17.100mwh.com (megs17.100mwh.com [209.151.94.25]) by nlpi133.prodigy.net (8.13.8 inb ipv6 jeff0203/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n73JZHh1016920; Mon, 3 Aug 2009 14:35:19 -0500 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=megs17.100mwh.com) by megs17.100mwh.com with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1MY3JP-00054p-Sg; Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:35:11 -0600 Received: from smtp101.sbc.mail.gq1.yahoo.com ([67.195.15.60]) by megs17.100mwh.com with smtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1MY3JI-00053a-Pt for discussion at globaljusticemovement.net; Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:35:09 -0600 Received: (qmail 56595 invoked from network); 3 Aug 2009 19:35:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO MaryRosePC) (maryrose333 at 76.251.70.52 with login) by smtp101.sbc.mail.gq1.yahoo.com with SMTP; 3 Aug 2009 19:35:03 -0000 From: "mary rose" To: , Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:34:55 -0700 Message-ID: <005401ca1471$7d7bdd50$787397f0$@net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0055_01CA1436.D11D0550" Thread-Index: AcoUCDEgItcdxTh7QX6fRD9f+65HtwAZgS8g Content-Language: en-us Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Precedence: list Reply-To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Sender: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net Errors-To: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net Content-Length: 10328 From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 3 22:43:27 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 21:43:27 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Message-ID: <000701ca14be$1eb26530$5c172f90$@net> I feel it odd that you say nothing about the ecological collapse we are witnessing, Steve. How does one keep the economy going when the ecology is failing us in major ways: loss of topsoil and droughts in many regions are already causing massive suffering as food production fails to keep up with demand in many regions. Just because it has not hit full force here in the U.S. as yet does not mean it is not happening. And there is so much more, the loss of rainforests which serve as the lungs of the earth almost gone. Waterways unnaturally dammed. Toxic food. Fouled air. Yet it is all about politics -- Obama doing this and Obama doing that. Lies, lies and more lies while the two party-system battles as if politics really matters in a world that has no value system any more. But then, this is a sign of our collective sickness is it not? We no longer recognize that we are a sub-system of the earth and politics but a meaningless thought in our mind. Brain dead I think is a good definition - our collective sickness runs so deep and widespread. -----Original Message----- From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Steve Consilvio Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 11:33 AM To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: Re: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe Obama is talking about raising taxes, at the same time that he is talking about limiting incomes. It does seem like the conditions are right for a perfect storm. Here in Massachusetts, they raised taxes and extended it to alcohol. As the numbers get bigger, SOME of the people will get poorer. But, with deficit spending, it is possible to keep this system afloat for another 200 years or so. It is more likely that we will become like Brazil. In the absence of a civil war, there is nothing to cause the numbers to reset. The solution on the right is more capitalism, the solution on the left is more socialism. We will get both: a society divided by ever more extremes. Corporate socialism will continue to be the norm, as the firms that are too big to fail will be protected, and the small people will remain too little to help. Without new ideas, the dysfunction will remain. Obama doesn't have any ideas, just more compassion than Bush. Bottom line: a government-run ponzi scheme cannot collapse. Any attack will preserve it all the more. Obama does not want peace. He is a politician, and seeks victory first. peace, steve On MonAug 3, 2009, at 2:00 PM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote: > Rodney, > > Thanks for the post. This Fall should be interesting. Maybe this > will be some juncture of a teeter-totter tipping point. > > Humans have built tremendous infrastructure throughout a lot of the > planet. Tools and assets exist for stable wealth production that ALL > can share in. > > It's a matter now of math and power. > > Numbers can speak to power, I believe. We'll see that engagement > soon. > > Steve Nieman _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemo vement.net From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Tue Aug 4 02:37:00 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 14:07:00 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise Message-ID: <149544.65333.qm@web94913.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear Mary and E.Crocket, ? With all the due respect u do not appear to be reading across the discourse and narratives and tend to respond on issues based on your hatred for any communication that is based on faith in the communications of the messengers. I am not calling names for anyone .We can see narratives and frameworks in terms of worldviews that we hold. I have concluded to choose the monotheistic framework after understanding the atheistic and polytheistic narratives. I do not mean any disrespect to anyone. I have never ever called u names. I refer to discourses on social order /world order /schemas/ governance frameworks / theories etc. ? Please have more patience.We need to appreciate the interfaith commons for moving ahead..Or else, we will continue wallowing in uncertainties.. ? Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam --- On Sun, 12/10/08, E. Crockett wrote: From: E. Crockett Subject: Re: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" Date: Sunday, 12 October, 2008, 8:15 PM You speak correctly, Mary Rose. From: dr. ulysses crockett, jr. keep up the good work. Consider sharing with your colleagues your nutrition diet which allows you to research and write round the clock. Or could it be you are an angel from the heavens? --- On Sat, 10/11/08, mary rose wrote: > From: mary rose > Subject: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise > To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" > Date: Saturday, October 11, 2008, 8:04 AM > Dr. Mahammad Mukhtar Alam, when you write as you do here, > you certainly appear to show your ignorance about what is > really going on. And the name calling you continually > indulge in certainly reveals that you lack respect both for > yourself as a fellow human being as well as others who are > attempting to make the world a better place. > > When you conntinually write things such as this I cannot > help but wonder what is your true agenda? To see one world > under Islamic rule? And, if that be so you apparently have > a lot in common with the Neocons. > > I cannot help but wonder if your seemingly supposed concern > for the environment is but an agenda under which to hide > your true purpose. > > This certainly is ugliness at its heigth and exposes your > hatred. I truly feel sorry for you. > For someone who advocates prayer six times a day it is > obvious to me that either you don't practice this > discipline yourself, or else it doesn't do you any good. > > > > with love, > > mary rose. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice > Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:38 AM > Subject: Re: [GJM] The New American Monotheistic Entreprise > > > Seeking monothesitic union should be at the core of > any project for global governnance as there are interfaith > commons that need to be recalled for peaceful coexistence > rather that cacaphonous athiestic egotistic narratives where > men and women continue battle of minds even with respect to > the questions that have been answered well and conclusively. > Please see the various narratives and its representations in > my conceptual organisation. Belief on the oneness of God and > commands against usury, extravagence , adultery and > homosexuality are critical for addressing the financial > crisis, climate change, personal wellbeing.. > > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org > > --- On Fri, 10/10/08, Dimitar Tchurovsky > wrote: > > From: Dimitar Tchurovsky > > Subject: Re: [GJM] The New American Revolution: > Netocracy? > To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" > > Date: Friday, 10 October, 2008, 11:53 PM > > > Dear Mary & Rob, > > > > Thank you very much for taking time to visit my > website. > > I also visited your www.CenterSDS.com and > www.futuredawning.org. I will take some time to absorb the > knowledge, especially the concept of SeD. Hope I will come > back with short comments. > > > > In meantime my credo in brief is: > > > > I don't believe in current democracy, because > it is pure plutocracy presented by propaganda machine as > "democracy". I think political parties are > obsolete, because they are under control by power elite: > mainstream by sponsorship and corruption, smaller - by lack > of funding. Election process is excessively expensive and > just political show without any chance to deliver real > changes. Political battlefield is under total control and GJ > Movements have no chance to fight, not to say to win a > battle on political ground. Therefore in my view our (JM) > battlefield should be outside politics. > > > > However I have no shadow of doubt that forthcoming > transition from industrial to "post-industrial" > society is inevitable doesn't mater how powerful power > elite and financial barons are or look irreplaceable and > unshakable. This is so, because nobody could beat the > system, in this case ? social evolution. The question is > rather whether this transition will be implemented by bloody > or peaceful way. The bloody transition will has terrible > consequences for humanity. So, our mission is to make it > peaceful. > > > > The strategy. Imagine criminal court without jury. > In few years Criminal Justice > > System will be in complete mess, as current > political live is in disarray. The institution of jury is > which make criminal court fair, self-regulating and proper > system. Our society needs such body to control politicians > and judge any political decision from point of view of > morality i.e. humanity as a whole. Is it good or bad for > humanity? Forget about the UN and Security Council. The UN > is designed as world government and is staffed by > politicians concerned by hegemony and geopolitics. Not > surprisingly they are powerless to prevent even local wars > or guarantee security. Introducing similar to jury > institution ? non-political, moral judgment body of all > political decisions or moral ground could be our > battlefield. The future society will be based on knowledge > and moral will shift out politics as politics replaced > religion as dominant form of social consciousness after > transition from agrarian to industrial society. > > > > Tactics for implementation include two-steps > action. A network of people should collaborate on wiki based > platform to draft a New Magna Carta (just working title, > could be Moral Declaration or whatsoever). This is 2-3 pages > document outlining necessity of moral corrective mechanism > resembling jury, how such body should operate, selection of > members, rights, procedures and so forth. (See my website > www.netsmind.org still not fully operational, but could > suggest a flavour of what I mean; pages "Global > problems, Society, New Magna Carta"). Once the > documents is finalised, should be promoted by campaign and > presented as a petition in the UN or EU for ratification. > Remember England succeed to transit from agrarian to > industrial society peacefully due to undersigned Magna Carta > century ago and British kings were not so unfortunate to > became absolute monarchy, as French do. So, absolute power > is which make transition bloody event. If some mechanism for > control of political decisions is implemented peaceful > transition has a chance. > > > > Any comments will be accepted with appreciation and > gratitude. > > > > Best Regards, > > > > Dimitar Tchurovsky > > www.netocracy.org.uk > > > > > On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 9:48 PM, mary rose > wrote: > > I wish to thank D. Tchurovsky for sending this to > me; > however, i misplaced the original message but was > > luckily able to find the website. > http://netocracy.org.uk/index.htm > > This appears to me to be "a way to go". > And, in fact, > it appears that this is the way we are headed. > > Please examine the webpages of this site for full > information. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Invite them > now. > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net Yahoo! recommends that you upgrade to the new and safer Internet Explorer 8. http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/internetexplorer/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 06:21:21 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 05:21:21 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Truth About Naturopathic Care Message-ID: <001801ca14fe$1599cc50$40cd64f0$@net> As I read through this, I cannot help but wonder why this information is not provided free to everyone. Why is this not taught in our schools? That is, if we want to reduce health care costs? This is not ?quackery? that these naturopathic doctors involved in with BottomLine?s Daily Health News are advertising. Naturopathic doctors carry out research too and arrive at what they call ?bottom line secrets? because you don?t hear of them through the conventional allopathic physician. But why not? Would we be worrying about health care costs and passing a health care reform bill if all of us had access to the knowledge of how to stay healthy by eating the right foods? And using other so-called ?alternative? methods that are known to naturopathic doctors? And, compared to the cost of conventional treatment, the ?secrets? these doctors charge for are moderate to say the least. So, I am certainly not censoring them for charging for the information they do provide. Only asking if all information on how to stay healthy and retain one?s vitality should not be provided free to all of us so that the cost of health care is drastically reduced if not virtually eliminated all together? Think about it. From: Daily Health News [mailto:DailyHealthNews at dhn.bottomlinesecrets.com] Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 11:27 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: The Truth About Naturopathic Care Don't miss any of Bottom Line's Daily Health News. Add our address, DailyHealthNews at dhn.bottomlinesecrets.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here . Click Here to View on Your Mobile Device. August 4, 2009 Bottom Line's Daily Health News In This Issue... * Shocking #2 Cause of Cancer * Allergy Emergencies -- Avoiding Auto-Injector Errors * Harvard-Reported: Blood Pressure Lowered to Normal Without Expensive Drugs or Unacceptable Side Effects -- Easy, Natural and Clinically Proven * The Truth About Naturopathic Care -- Inside the Patient-Oriented World of Naturopathic Medicine * The 10 Biggest and Deadliest Heart Myths _____ Special Offer SHOCKING #2 CAUSE OF CANCER An official at the American Cancer Society said that it's easy to avoid half of all cancers. However, an adviser to the American Institute for Cancer Research was even more optimistic when he said that nine out of 10 cancers are related to factors we control. Of course, their #1 piece of advice is "stop smoking." We all know that. But I bet you don't know the #2 cause of cancer. It's something totally under your control -- it's much easier than quitting cigarettes -- and it's the last thing you'd ever expect. I'll tell you about it in a moment. Keep reading... _____ Allergy Emergencies Okay, so you?ve had a frighteningly severe allergic reaction -- say, to a bee sting or shellfish, both fairly common allergies -- and your doctor has given you a prescription for an EpiPen or another type of auto-injector, just in case. Do you know how to use it? Auto-injectors are not difficult to operate but you don?t want to be fumbling around trying to figure it out when your eyes and throat are swelling up and you?re having difficulty breathing. Researchers have found an increase in errors in the use of auto-injectors over the past six years. That seemed to be a good reason to review their proper use, so I consulted Jay M. Portnoy, MD, chief of the section of allergy, asthma & immunology at Children?s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, and the immediate past president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI). WHAT GOES WRONG? In a recent study, doctors at several universities took a collective look at the existing literature on the problem -- accidental sticks from auto-injectors. After reviewing 26 reports published in peer-reviewed journals over the past 20 years, they found that although errors are rare... * Accidental sticks may occur if the device is used backward, causing the needle to pierce the thumb rather than the thigh, where the injection should be given. Not only does this hurt, it means the epinephrine won?t be released readily into circulation as intended. * Ninety-one percent of people accidentally stuck their thumb or other finger. * Over 65% of those who made mistakes with the devices visited emergency rooms. There were no lasting injuries. Study results were published in the April 2009 issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. CORRECT USE OF AUTO-INJECTORS If you have been prescribed an automatic injection device such as an EpiPen (www.epipen.com ) or Twinject (www.twinject.com ), it?s important to know how to use it quickly and efficiently -- before you face an emergency. Your doctor or nurse should describe the process, clearly explaining how it should work. Note: Both Twinject and EpiPen come with a demonstrator or trainer, so you can practice using the device before you ever need it. To correctly use an EpiPen, the most commonly prescribed device... * Unscrew the cap from the carrying case and remove the auto-injector from its storage tube. * Grasp the unit so that the black tip points downward. Hold the device in your hand, making a fist around the center of it. * Use your other hand to remove the gray safety cap. * Hold the device so the black tip is near the outer thigh, being careful not to touch it (doing so can trigger the needle) so you don?t accidentally activate it prematurely. You can either swing the device away to give yourself some momentum before jabbing your outer thigh or with Twinject you hold it firmly against your thigh and push. Either way, you?ll hear a "pop" when the epinephrine ampule breaks and the drug is released into your system. It is fine to give the injection through clothing. * Continue to hold injector tight against the thigh, keeping the needle in your leg for a full 10 seconds to ensure that the entire dose is delivered. Though you?ll still see some liquid remaining, you will know the entire dose has been delivered when the window on the auto-injector turns red. * Pull the injector straight out from your thigh and massage the injection area for 10 seconds. It?s a good idea to lie down and if you are feeling faint, put your legs above your head so that blood goes to the brain. * For disposal, Dr. Portnoy counsels patients to bend the used needle by pressing it against a hard surface -- this protects from accidental needle sticks. Replace it carefully in the original carrying case and bring it to your doctor?s office or the hospital for safe disposal. Do not throw it in the trash, as it is now a biohazard. * Store auto-injectors at room temperature. Avoid exposing them to extreme hot or cold conditions, such as the glove compartment of the car. Replace by the marked expiration date. Auto-injectors typically last 12 months. If you purchase one that has a shorter expiration date, point it out to your pharmacist and ask for a newer one. Though auto-injectors are expensive, most insurance plans pay for them. KEEP IT TOGETHER In about 30% of cases, people end up requiring a second injection to control their allergic reaction -- many, therefore, are packaged with two doses in one unit (Twinject) or two units per package (EpiPen). Dr. Portnoy advises keeping them together. Since you can still experience an intense reaction when the drug wears off, even after a second dose, Dr. Portnoy recommends seeing your doctor or visiting an urgent care center or emergency room after self-injecting epinephrine. Source(s): Jay M. Portnoy, MD, chief, Section of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, Children?s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Portnoy is the immediate past president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). E-mail this Article _____ Special Offer HARVARD-REPORTED: BLOOD PRESSURE LOWERED TO NORMAL WITHOUT EXPENSIVE DRUGS OR UNACCEPTABLE SIDE EFFECTS -- EASY, NATURAL AND CLINICALLY PROVEN Discovered accidentally through testing by the US Air Force, the Zona Plus hand exercises work naturally with your body instead of the way drugs work against it. Doctors typically put you on drugs, often loaded with dangerous side effects, with an average cost of more than $ 1,116 a year! But now there's a better way to drop your blood pressure -- it's so effective that over 90% of people can reduce their blood pressure to normal. The Zona Plus has been clinically proven to lower blood pressure and has received critical acclaim from the Harvard Heart Letter, the UC/Berkeley Wellness Letter, and other trusted publications. Simple to use, safe and natural, Zona Plus guarantees favorable results that will please both you and your doctor. Get the full story here ... _____ The Truth About Naturopathic Care I rarely encourage people to watch television but here?s one series I think is worth making time for... on PBS and produced by American Health Journal, it is called Discoveries in Alternative Medicine. It aims to show modern-day viewers the kind of practical and functional care that naturopathic physicians provide. Not many people really understand what it is like to receive care from a naturopathic physician, I was told by Karen Howard, executive director of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians in Washington, DC. She said the short documentary is meant to demystify the practice of this ancient form of medicine, helping people to understand how useful it can be. Naturopathic care is focused on maximizing the patient?s ability to stay healthy and prevent disease, rather than just controlling symptoms. The six-part, interview-based series involves more than 20 physicians and 10 patients working over a three-month period to address complaints ranging from cancer to chronic illnesses like arthritis, plus simple wellness and immune-boosting strategies. Among the episodes are... * Naturopathic Medical Education -- shows the extensive training that naturopathic physicians receive and how it is similar to and different from that of allopathic (mainstream) doctors. * Cancer -- how the environment causes cancer and how naturopathic doctors can help mitigate its deleterious effects. * Chronic Disease -- the effect of chronic illnesses, such as Parkinson?s or chronic fatigue, and the unique ways that NDs treat them. * Family Medicine -- including achieving wellness through lifestyle for all patients, childhood through old age. * Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease -- highlighting how the two are connected and what people can do to prevent, reverse or reduce future cardiovascular problems. * Mental Health, Allergies and Chronic Pain -- on how to soothe symptoms naturally, while working toward wellness. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH The goal of the series is to show how working with a naturopathic physician can enable you to take control of your own health care. "The body has the innate ability to heal itself," says Howard, adding that the program is actually about "patient-oriented" health care. For instance, she noted, naturopathic physicians receive virtually the same biomedical training -- both in terms of time and content -- as do MDs. The key difference, however, is that NDs emphasize prevention of disease before it happens by supporting health and improving wellness, whereas mainstream medicine is aimed at suppressing the symptoms of an existing disease. The television program tells how this works and shows how patients benefit from such an approach. The series first aired in the greater LA area in April, on PBS. Discoveries in Alternative Medicine will be broadcast in other areas over the next several months -- check local listings for dates and times in your community. If you want to take a sneak peak at the series, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZMZlWjspFg . Source(s): Karen E. Howard, executive director, American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. E-mail this Article Be well, Carole Jackson Bottom Line's Daily Health News _____ Special Offer THE 10 BIGGEST AND DEADLIEST HEART MYTHS The number of heart attacks has increased by 27 percent over the past 20 years, in spite of all the supposed advances of modern medicine. What's going on here? Could we be mistaken about some things? Perhaps we're under some major misconceptions about heart disease. Like... Myth #1 -- Heart disease and heart attacks are an inevitable part of aging. Myth #2 -- Cholesterol is the main cause of heart disease and heart attacks. Myth #3 -- Blood pressure drugs help you avoid heart problems and live longer. Myth #4 -- Aggressive, "type A" behavior increases your risk of a heart attack. Myth #5 -- Low-fat, low cholesterol diets are good for you and your heart. Learn more... _____ You received this free E-letter because you have requested it. You are on the mailing list as maryrose333 at att.net. Or... a friend forwarded it to you. You can easily subscribe at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/e2/e2_signup.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=E080409C1B You can easily unsubscribe at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/el/dhn_unsub.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=E080409C2B Change your E-mail address at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/email_change.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=E080409C5B Update your E-mail preferences at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/email_prefs.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=D080409C5B _____ Important: Help your friends live more healthfully -- forward this E-letter to them. Better: Send it to many friends and your whole family. This is a free E-mail service of BottomLineSecrets.com and Boardroom Inc. Need to contact us? http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/contact.html Boardroom Inc. 281 Tresser Boulevard Stamford, CT 06901-3246 ATTN: Web Team Privacy Policy: http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/simple.html?article_id=16004 Required Disclaimer: The information provided herein should not be construed as a health-care diagnosis, treatment regimen or any other prescribed health-care advice or instruction. The information is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other health-care profession and does not enter into a health-care practitioner/patient relationship with its readers. The publisher does not advise or recommend to its readers treatment or action with regard to matters relating to their health or well-being other than to suggest that readers consult appropriate health-care professionals in such matters. No action should be taken based solely on the content of this publication. The information and opinions provided herein are believed to be accurate and sound at the time of publication, based on the best judgment available to the authors. However, readers who rely on information in this publication to replace the advice of health-care professionals, or who fail to consult with health-care professionals, assume all risks of such conduct. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions. Bottom Line's Daily Health News is a registered trademark of Boardroom, Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Boardroom Inc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 110 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 110 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 06:29:32 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 05:29:32 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [SPAM]FinerMinds #44 - Grab a pen and paper and write this down Message-ID: <001e01ca14ff$3adc90f0$b095b2d0$@net> Remember how often I've mentioned the healing power of Tai Chi and Qigong. Find out more here about Qigong. From: FinerMinds [mailto:info at finerminds.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 2:05 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: [SPAM]FinerMinds #44 - Grab a pen and paper and write this down You're receiving this newsletter because you signed up at FinerMinds.com Having trouble reading this email? View it in your browser. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe Instantly. FinerMinds 220,980 People Subscribed to our newsletter. 3rd August 2009 Issue #44 Hello Maryrose, A lmost a hundred comments later and tons of requests for more, qigong master, Chunyi Lin is back with a groundbreaking interview on your healing abilities. It all stems from a 4-letter word and it's the strongest form of energy healing around... So are you ready to do a complete 180 and achieve your dream life? It's easier than you think. All you need right now is a pen and paper and this one exercise I'm about to share with you. Calling all creators and artists: If you met the Dalai Lama, what would he say to you? Now that I've got your attention... IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Back By Popular Demand: Qigong Master, Chunyi Lin Shares His Biggest Energy Healing Secret FinerMinds Exclusive 2. Achieving Your Dream Life In Reverse: Strategic Goal-Setting In 4 Parts 3. The Dalai Lama's Message To Artists - Why Your Creativity Will Build A Better World 4. Taking Back Control Of Your Life: A 6-Part Mini-Guide On Living The Life Of Your Dreams 5. What Color Are You? 7 Colors That Are Linked To Your Personality ---------- FinerMinds Exclusive Back By Popular Demand: Qigong Master Chunyi Lin Shares His Biggest Energy Healing Secret by ANGELIQUE BIANCA The Master is back and this time he's got a wealth of information he wants to share with you. This isn't going to be fluffy stuff. It's concrete knowledge that will benefit both you and your loved ones. After receiving so many requests and comments for more on qigong, energy healing, and Master Chunyi Lin, we had no choice but to go straight to the source and ask for an interview. And of course, Master Lin has kindly accepted and is back with an insane interview with The Healers Way blogger, Angelique Bianca, about your natural healing abilities and how to tap into them using 4 essential steps. You'll also discover the strongest form of energy healing out there and how you can use it to your advantage. He even goes over the highly advanced Cave Meditation exercise. (Warning: Not for the faint of heart) If you think you're ready for the next stage in healing, then jump into this stunning interview with qigong master, Chunyi Lin > ---------- Achieving Your Dream Life In Reverse: Strategic Goal-Setting In 4 Parts by VISHEN LAKHIANI Grab a pen and some paper and get ready for the one exercise that may change the course of your life. Or at the very least get you on track to achieving your goals. I recently shared a goal-setting exercise that has worked wonders for my life. In fact, I credit many of my achievements to this exercise. It's so important I even shared it with my friends, family, and now, everyone at my office. Now this exercise also addresses a big issue of goal-setting. We often think that we fail to achieve our goals is that they're just too big. But that's not true at all. It's all in how you set your goals, not how big they are. So if you're looking to be the next Ernest Hemingway, Donald Trump, or Picasso, then start with this powerful exercise. You've got the skills and the dream. Now let's get you into action! > ---------- The Dalai Lama's Message To Artists - Why Your Creativity Will Build A Better World by VISHEN LAKHIANI The Dalai Lama is a beacon of inspiration and hope to countless people in the world, including me. His journey and his message cannot be ignored and since we're all creative beings with a creator inside each and everyone of us, I thought it was time I shared this message by him. This short message by the Dalai Lama is a call to arms for all creators, whether you're an artist or a writer. It's our responsibility to humanity and our duty to serve one another for a peaceful and more beautiful world. It's one of the reasons why I started FinerMinds. I wanted to help be a part of the driving force spreading enlightened ideas and mutual understanding. Find out what the Dalai Lama has to say about YOUR responsibility as a creative being > ---------- Taking Back Control Of Your Life: A 6-Step Mini-Guide On Living The Life Of Your Dreams by EDITORIAL TEAM Sick of being told what to do and being given conflicting advice? Yes, the world is filled with disinformation, even in the field of personal growth and spirituality. And this is why we came up with a 6-step mini guide to give you some clarity and help your live your dream life. Each step has at some point been touched upon by every guru or expert out there. We're just giving you the basics stripped of all the marketing and labeling to get you on your way. What's better is that you'll find each step practical and adjustable to your personality and goals. Give these 6 steps a shot. You might just find yourself having a lot more fun and direction at the same time. 6 tiny little steps that could give your life the makeover it needs and deserves > ---------- What Color Are You? 7 Colors That Are Linked To Your Personality by GABRIELLE LIM Remember Roy G. Biv? Or also known as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. They're more than just the colors of the rainbow. They're also a reflection of who you are. Just like your friends are expressions of your personality, colors are also indicative of what kind of person you are. Don't believe me? Then give this article a read through. I'm sure it's more accurate than most people would like to think. So check what colors surround your daily life and cross check it with this article. What do your favorite colors say about you? Check this color guide before you redecorate your home ;) > ---------- Thanks for reading, Vishen Lakhiani Founder - FinerMinds P.S. Let's do some math. What do you get when you add a massage and qigong together? Here's a hint: it's called Qi-ssage and you can discover how it's the most powerful, loving, and enjoyable thing you will ever experience > ---------- Top Interviews * Gerald O'Donnell * Stephan Schwartz * John Assaraf * Laura Silva * Bill Harris * Burt Goldman * Judith Sherven & James Sniechowski * Brendon Burchard Our Promise We promise to deliver the best material and hope you found this report useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future e-mails of this sort from FinerMinds.com, please unsubscribe here. ------ FinerMinds C Copyright 2009 MindValley LLC. All Rights Reserved. FinerMinds.com. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use [-640.437602-] .... 3155 E. Patrick Lane, Suite 1 Las Vegas, Nevada, 89120-3481 USA If you prefer not to receive any more informational emails from FinerMinds, please click here. Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 09:20:55 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 08:20:55 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise In-Reply-To: <149544.65333.qm@web94913.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <149544.65333.qm@web94913.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <004a01ca1517$2a4386a0$7eca93e0$@net> Mukhtar ? I am an atheist, and you have in the past written about atheists and called us very derogative names. From: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam [mailto:mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:37 AM To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Cc: Mary Rose; mary rose; echojurist at yahoo.com Subject: Re: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise Dear Mary and E.Crocket, With all the due respect u do not appear to be reading across the discourse and narratives and tend to respond on issues based on your hatred for any communication that is based on faith in the communications of the messengers. I am not calling names for anyone .We can see narratives and frameworks in terms of worldviews that we hold. I have concluded to choose the monotheistic framework after understanding the atheistic and polytheistic narratives. I do not mean any disrespect to anyone. I have never ever called u names. I refer to discourses on social order /world order /schemas/ governance frameworks / theories etc. Please have more patience.We need to appreciate the interfaith commons for moving ahead..Or else, we will continue wallowing in uncertainties.. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam --- On Sun, 12/10/08, E. Crockett wrote: From: E. Crockett Subject: Re: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" Date: Sunday, 12 October, 2008, 8:15 PM You speak correctly, Mary Rose. From: dr. ulysses crockett, jr. keep up the good work. Consider sharing with your colleagues your nutrition diet which allows you to research and write round the clock. Or could it be you are an angel from the heavens? --- On Sat, 10/11/08, mary rose wrote: > From: mary rose > Subject: [GJM] Fw: The New American Monotheistic Entreprise > To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" > Date: Saturday, October 11, 2008, 8:04 AM > Dr. Mahammad Mukhtar Alam, when you write as you do here, > you certainly appear to show your ignorance about what is > really going on. And the name calling you continually > indulge in certainly reveals that you lack respect both for > yourself as a fellow human being as well as others who are > attempting to make the world a better place. > > When you conntinually write things such as this I cannot > help but wonder what is your true agenda? To see one world > under Islamic rule? And, if that be so you apparently have > a lot in common with the Neocons. > > I cannot help but wonder if your seemingly supposed concern > for the environment is but an agenda under which to hide > your true purpose. > > This certainly is ugliness at its heigth and exposes your > hatred. I truly feel sorry for you. > For someone who advocates prayer six times a day it is > obvious to me that either you don't practice this > discipline yourself, or else it doesn't do you any good. > > > > with love, > > mary rose. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice > Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:38 AM > Subject: Re: [GJM] The New American Monotheistic Entreprise > > > Seeking monothesitic union should be at the core of > any project for global governnance as there are interfaith > commons that need to be recalled for peaceful coexistence > rather that cacaphonous athiestic egotistic narratives where > men and women continue battle of minds even with respect to > the questions that have been answered well and conclusively. > Please see the various narratives and its representations in > my conceptual organisation. Belief on the oneness of God and > commands against usury, extravagence , adultery and > homosexuality are critical for addressing the financial > crisis, climate change, personal wellbeing.. > > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org > > --- On Fri, 10/10/08, Dimitar Tchurovsky > wrote: > > From: Dimitar Tchurovsky > > Subject: Re: [GJM] The New American Revolution: > Netocracy? > To: "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" > > Date: Friday, 10 October, 2008, 11:53 PM > > > Dear Mary & Rob, > > > > Thank you very much for taking time to visit my > website. > > I also visited your www.CenterSDS.com and > www.futuredawning.org. I will take some time to absorb the > knowledge, especially the concept of SeD. Hope I will come > back with short comments. > > > > In meantime my credo in brief is: > > > > I don't believe in current democracy, because > it is pure plutocracy presented by propaganda machine as > "democracy". I think political parties are > obsolete, because they are under control by power elite: > mainstream by sponsorship and corruption, smaller - by lack > of funding. Election process is excessively expensive and > just political show without any chance to deliver real > changes. Political battlefield is under total control and GJ > Movements have no chance to fight, not to say to win a > battle on political ground. Therefore in my view our (JM) > battlefield should be outside politics. > > > > However I have no shadow of doubt that forthcoming > transition from industrial to "post-industrial" > society is inevitable doesn't mater how powerful power > elite and financial barons are or look irreplaceable and > unshakable. This is so, because nobody could beat the > system, in this case ? social evolution. The question is > rather whether this transition will be implemented by bloody > or peaceful way. The bloody transition will has terrible > consequences for humanity. So, our mission is to make it > peaceful. > > > > The strategy. Imagine criminal court without jury. > In few years Criminal Justice > > System will be in complete mess, as current > political live is in disarray. The institution of jury is > which make criminal court fair, self-regulating and proper > system. Our society needs such body to control politicians > and judge any political decision from point of view of > morality i.e. humanity as a whole. Is it good or bad for > humanity? Forget about the UN and Security Council. The UN > is designed as world government and is staffed by > politicians concerned by hegemony and geopolitics. Not > surprisingly they are powerless to prevent even local wars > or guarantee security. Introducing similar to jury > institution ? non-political, moral judgment body of all > political decisions or moral ground could be our > battlefield. The future society will be based on knowledge > and moral will shift out politics as politics replaced > religion as dominant form of social consciousness after > transition from agrarian to industrial society. > > > > Tactics for implementation include two-steps > action. A network of people should collaborate on wiki based > platform to draft a New Magna Carta (just working title, > could be Moral Declaration or whatsoever). This is 2-3 pages > document outlining necessity of moral corrective mechanism > resembling jury, how such body should operate, selection of > members, rights, procedures and so forth. (See my website > www.netsmind.org still not fully operational, but could > suggest a flavour of what I mean; pages "Global > problems, Society, New Magna Carta"). Once the > documents is finalised, should be promoted by campaign and > presented as a petition in the UN or EU for ratification. > Remember England succeed to transit from agrarian to > industrial society peacefully due to undersigned Magna Carta > century ago and British kings were not so unfortunate to > became absolute monarchy, as French do. So, absolute power > is which make transition bloody event. If some mechanism for > control of political decisions is implemented peaceful > transition has a chance. > > > > Any comments will be accepted with appreciation and > gratitude. > > > > Best Regards, > > > > Dimitar Tchurovsky > > www.netocracy.org.uk > > > > > On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 9:48 PM, mary rose > wrote: > > I wish to thank D. Tchurovsky for sending this to > me; > however, i misplaced the original message but was > > luckily able to find the website. > http://netocracy.org.uk/index.htm > > This appears to me to be "a way to go". > And, in fact, > it appears that this is the way we are headed. > > Please examine the webpages of this site for full > information. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Invite them > now. > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net _____ Love Cricket? Check out live scores, photos, video highlights and more. Click here . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 12:03:03 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 11:03:03 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Right Wingers Wreak Havoc on Philadelphia Town Meeting Message-ID: <001b01ca152d$d2cd4520$7867cf60$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 10:11 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Right Wingers Wreak Havoc on Philadelphia Town Meeting (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Right Wingers Wreak Havoc on Philadelphia Town Meeting August 3, 2009 10:09 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/denise-dennis/right-wingers-wreak-havoc_b_2498 97.html Philadelphia, PA -- August 2: This afternoon, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, I saw the face of ignorance and hate--and it wasn't pretty. When Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) came to the National Constitution Center to answer questions about health care reform, they were greeted by an overflow crowd of approximately 400 people, the majority of whom were supporters with legitimate questions. Unfortunately, though, a well-organized, belligerent and loud group of right-wingers stood in the aisles and across the back and disrupted the town meeting throughout. They yelled, shouted and jeered, and it was clear that they were not there to participate, but instead to try to disrupt the meeting and make it difficult as possible for anyone else to ask questions. They jeered from the moment the director of the Constitution Center stood to welcome everyone. For a few days leading up to the town meeting, e-mails circulated around Philadelphia warning that the "tea-baggers" were planning to protest the meeting and, although there were fewer of them than there were supporters--they made more noise shouting about "socialism," "abortion," and "assisted suicide." To show their support, the audience stood and applauded Secretary Sebelius and Senator Specter numerous times. There were people in the crowd wearing purple t-shirts with gold and white lettering that said "Health Care Now We Can't Wait." Local members of Health Care for America, a non-partisan, nationwide coalition of volunteers were a strong presence at the event. According to Antoinette Kraus, a Pennsylvania Eastern Organizer for the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, one of Health Care for America's member organizations, "Two people a day die in Pennsylvania from illnesses that could have been prevented if they'd had access to affordable health care. "We advocate for quality health care for all through a public option," she said, "and we encouraged all advocates of health care to come out today and support Sect. Sebelius and Senator Specter." In spite of the chaos, questions were asked and answers given. In response to one question, Specter said, "I believe the single-payer system should be on the table," and was enthusiastically applauded. A retired nurse then prefaced her question by saying, "If single-payer passes, I'll come out of retirement!" When asked why the Community Choice Act (which would cover patients who can be treated at home) wasn't included in the proposed plan, both Sebelius and Specter explained that they are an effort to put it in the final Senate bill. When an angry woman approached the microphone and complained that health care reform would lead to "rationed care," Secretary Sebelius said emphatically, "Rationed care is absolutely not something we condone," and explained that today health care is "rationed everyday for people who do not have coverage." To emotionally charged questions about abortion and assisted suicide, Sebelius calmly answered, "Abortion and assisted suicide are not a part of the legislation." impassioned and frustrated man asked why--if sixty-three percent of the American people favor health care reform--can't sixty-three percent of the Congress pass the legislation. Specter replied, "We are going about it in a democratic way." One person described seeing people "falling through the cracks everyday" and asked what can be done about "getting insurance for people with serious illnesses." Sebelius explained that the proposed health care reform would require "no more pre-existing barriers, no more being dropped by insurers when you're seriously ill, and no more losing coverage when you lose your job." Frances Conwell, Philadelphia, was in the audience and supports health care reform and she explained, "People say they don't want to pay for other people, but I say they're going to pay anyway--they can choose to pay for prevention or for how much it costs us now when people have to go to the emergency room for care." She added, "I have health care, but I can't watch other people suffer just because I have coverage. You have to think outside yourself and think about other people." Maureen Benzig, retired, who formerly worked at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, said, "I would like to see a single-payer system and I was happy to hear Senator Specter say he like it on the table, but I support a public option if we can't get single payer." Benzig described a family member who is a physician and took a year off in order to support single payer. Her own doctors, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania also support single payer. When I asked one of the belligerents why he and his companions wouldn't stop shouting so others could speak and be heard, he shouted that it was his right to yell under "the first amendment." I then asked why he couldn't respect the first amendment rights of others and he answered by glaring at me and walking away. After the question and answer segment ended, I asked three of the boisterous opponents of health care why they do not support it and one of them pulled a copy of the Constitution from his hand and waving it, said, "Health care is not covered in the Constitution." Their arguments were illogical and based on lack of knowledge and an abundance of fear. I commented to them that they were being had, that they were working against their own best interests and they kept waving the Constitution. The fury and rancor in the faces of the right wingers at the town meeting made it clear that this was not about health care only. It is about fear and raw anger, already inside them, now directed toward the health care debate. They see defeating health care legislation as their opportunity to re-visit the Presidential election. From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 12:12:08 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 11:12:08 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: On Transition California: Hello CA Transition folks, Message-ID: <001c01ca152f$16b27200$44175600$@net> To give people an idea of what the Transition Movement is all about, here is a sample from Transition California. May I suggest you get involved in some way so that we move into future united as we pass through this time of great transformation. There is a Transition site set up for each state in the U.S. There is also a very large European Transition movement. Google for location. If there is not a location near you, then please inquire as to how you may set one up in your community. As Thomas Berry said: "We will move into the future as a single sacred community or we will perish in the desert" -----Original Message----- From: Transition California [mailto:mail at transitioncalifornia.ning.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 10:06 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: On Transition California: Hello CA Transition folks, A message to all members of Transition California Watch the Transition related videos and trailers of films hopefully coming to a theater or library or outdoor screening near you. We have a number of them posted at this site. Also, check this out from Transition LA: Visit Transition California at: http://transitioncalifornia.ning.com -- To control which emails you receive on Transition California, go to: http://transitioncalifornia.ning.com/profiles/profile/emailSettings From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 12:23:24 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 11:23:24 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] For The Modern GOP, It's A Return To The "White Voter Strategy" Message-ID: <001d01ca1530$a9e5bea0$fdb13be0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 10:04 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] For The Modern GOP, It's A Return To The "White Voter Strategy" (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) For The Modern GOP, It's A Return To The "White Voter Strategy" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/04/for-the-modern-gop-its-a_n_250560.h tml First Posted: 08- 4-09 08:56 AM | Updated: 08- 4-09 12:26 PM With Republican party leaders so constrained by ideological blinders that none of their positions is likely to produce gains among non-white minorities, especially Hispanics, the GOP is finding it has no real alternative but to revert to a "white voter" strategy. To some extent, it's working. The party's opposition to President Obama's agenda -- particularly his cap-and-trade energy proposal and health care reform plan -- is resonating strongly with disaffected white Democratic voters. Republican grievances about Obama, combined with race-baiting commentary from the far-right ideologues who have become some of the most dominant voices of the modern GOP, have led to a precipitous drop in the president's approval ratings among whites. It's all very reminiscent of the party's notorious Southern Strategy, which carried the GOP for decades. But that strategy backfired spectacularly in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and there's no reason to think it will work any better in 2010 -- especially given the ever-growing importance of the minority electorate. In this respect, even if the GOP picks up a few House and Senate seats in 2010, many of the party's top analysts believe that it will remain mired in minority status through 2012 and beyond. Other analysts say it may even decline to the level of a minor regional party, with its only real strength in the South. The Appeal to White Voters The appeal of the anti-Obama agenda has proven to be particularly strong among whites of low and moderate incomes. The Pew Center, tracking evaluations of Obama's job performance, found in a July 30 report that there "has been essentially no shift in opinion among affluent whites [but] among whites with annual family incomes of less than $75,000, Obama's approval ratings have declined substantially (from 57% in June to 47% today). Assessments of Obama's performance remain high among African Americans (85%)." ABC News polling similarly found in late June that the possible costs to consumers of cap-and-trade legislation "are particularly important to less well-off Americans. Among those making less than $50,000 a year, support for regulating greenhouse gas emissions drops by 17 points (from 75 percent to a still-majority 58 percent) if it raises prices; support if it costs $10 a month is 49 percent; and at $25, just 35 percent." The trend lines reported by Gallup are perhaps the most striking: At the start of this year, during late January, Gallup found that Obama's job approval ratings stood at 63 percent among whites, 86 percent among African Americans, and 74 percent among Hispanics. In the Gallup survey taken in late July, Obama had gained 9 points among blacks, reaching 95 percent job approval, and was holding his own among Hispanics, dropping a statistically insignificant 2 points to 72 percent. Story continues below Among white respondents, however, he had dropped 16 points to 47 percent. These findings are reinforced by recent trend lines emerging in the Wall Street Journal/NBC polling series. In that series, the decline has been sharpest among white men, whose approval-disapproval ratio fell by 27 points, from 50-36 to 40-53. The Demographic Trends Republican pollster Bill McInturff notes that his party must make substantial gains among Hispanic voters or be relegated to minority status. But that just isn't likely. With a solid majority of Republican senators opposed to the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominee to the Supreme Court, and a solid phalanx of adamant Republican opposition to any immigration reform which provides a path to permanent residency of illegal immigrants, the GOP has no real chance of increasing its share of the Hispanic vote. In the short term, McInturff and others point out that virtually all the Democrats' vulnerabilities are among Anglo voters, especially white men. These trends are likely to produce some victories for Republican candidates in 2010, but the party continues to have long-term problems in building a sustainable election-day majority. President George W. Bush and his top advisers were acutely aware of the long-range limitations of a "white" Republican Party. Bush, in his appointments and some of his policies, sought to reach out to the crucially important Hispanic electorate, most significantly pushing for immigration reform that would have provided a path to permanent legal residency and possibly citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country. The effort paid off for Bush in 2004, when he received 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, a Republican record. In 2005, however, Bush's use of the immigration issue as a vehicle to win over Hispanics imploded. Republican members of Congress overwhelmingly rejected the proposal, often using language suggesting Hispanics did not share American values and other comments that angered and offended the Hispanic electorate. In the 2006 elections, only 30 percent of Latinos voted Republican, and in the 2008 presidential election, the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, got just 31 percent. The Republican Party thrived between 1968 and 2000 primarily because of the gains it made among white voters, especially among formerly Democratic working-class whites, a disproportionate share of whom were men. By 2000, however, the GOP's white strategy began to run out of gas, as the white percentage of the electorate dropped to 80 percent and below. The trend is striking. In 1976, 89 percent of the electorate was white. That number fell every four years, to 88 percent in 1980, 86 percent in 1984, 85 percent in 1988, 83 percent in 1996, 81 percent in 2000, 77 percent in 2004, and 74 percent last year. The only exception was 1992, when the presence of independent candidate Ross Perot drove the white percentage of the electorate up to 87 percent. Nate Silver, a sports statistician and political analyst, looks at this from a different vantage point: Consider this remarkable statistic. In 1980, 32 percent of the electorate consisted of white Democrats (or at least white Carter voters) -- likewise, in 2008, 32 percent of the electorate consisted of white Obama voters. But whereas, in 1980, just 9 percent of the electorate were nonwhite Carter voters, 21 percent of the electorate were nonwhite Obama voters last year. Thus, Carter went down to a landslide defeat, whereas Obama defeated John McCain by a healthy margin. Silver points out that Republicans are getting slightly less dependent on white voters, but Democrats are becoming less white at a much faster rate than the Republicans. Whereas 85 percent of their votes were from white voters in 1976, the number was just 60 percent last November. This is, of course, a helpful characteristic, since the nonwhite share of the electorate, just 11 percent in 1976 and 1980, represented more than a quarter of the turnout in November. Silver produced this chart: Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz has, in turn, tracked the growth of minority votes cast in presidential elections since 1992 and finds: For the Republican Party, these trends not only illustrate the danger of attempting to win without improving margins among minority voters, but also the danger that a modest collection of Congressional wins next year - say 10-15 House seats --will only reinforce the dominant forces in the House and Senate wings of the GOP that adamantly support a conservative agenda that precludes concessions to minority groups. That, in turn, would increase the likelihood that the Democratic Party will be able to maintain majority status in 2012 and beyond. From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 12:25:31 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 11:25:31 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Overusing groundwater threatens Arizona's future Message-ID: <001e01ca1530$f6212020$e2636060$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 9:55 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Overusing groundwater threatens Arizona's future (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2009/08/03/news/state/20090803_arizo_2010 66.txt Overusing groundwater threatens Arizona's future Monday, August 03, 2009 PHOENIX (AP) -- The director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources says the state has to stop its denial when it comes to water. "We're spoiled by cheap, easily available water and have been for a long time," Herb Guenther said. "We have a lot of water compared to other Western states. But we need to use it in a sustainable way." Otherwise, scarcer supplies could push rates up and create uncertainty about water availability, slowing economic growth, he said. State lawmakers have adopted water protection laws, but excluded rural areas and allowed changes that let cities and subdivisions drill wells. The Legislature has rejected proposals to better link growth to water availability. Some rural communities are drilling new wells without knowing how much water is needed or how much remains, and cities and towns are preparing to tap underground reserves set aside for the future. Surface water from runoff from mountain snows -- a renewable resource intended to replace groundwater -- cannot meet demands of urban areas away from delivery canals. An effort to allocate water rights and sift through competing claims in the Gila River system has been in court more than 30 years. The Central Arizona Project took decades to get through the approval and construction process for its 336-mile canal. The Arizona Legislature in 1980 imposed rules on parts of Maricopa, Pinal, Pima and Santa Cruz counties and the Prescott area, restricting their groundwater use and requiring new homes to prove a 100-year supply of renewable water. "It wasn't the answer to all the problems, but it was intended to reduce reliance on groundwater. And it's doing that," said Sandra Fabritz, assistant director of the state Water Resources Department. Communities in the areas rely on water from rivers, such as the Salt and Verde for Maricopa County; Colorado River water delivered through the Central Arizona Project; and a smaller mix of groundwater and treated effluent. The supply rule forced cities to develop long-term water portfolios, but they've also been tapping aquifers. The Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District was meant to help a few outlying communities and subdivisions meet the 100-year rule until pipelines or smaller canals could deliver renewable supplies. Homes in the district use local groundwater and pay monthly charges to a water utility. Once a year, they also pay a replenishment fee that buys surface water equal to the groundwater used. That water goes into recharge basins. Terri Sue Rossi, a Central Arizona Project analyst, said the district is a way for infrastructure and water to be paid for by users. "To figure out how to do that is a major success story," she said. As of March 31, nearly 265,000 homes, about a third of which are already built, were eligible to use groundwater through the district. But before 1995, those homes could not have been built because they would have lacked a renewable water source. And although their builders were required to prove groundwater reserves would last at least 100 years, the wells could lower water tables enough to cause sinkholes or subsidence. While the district must offset groundwater use with surface water, there's no requirement to replenish water near the wells. Most recharge basins sit far from developments. The district "has taken the wind out of the sails of the groundwater management act," said Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona law professor who has written two books on water management. "It's clear it was a way to help satellite communities develop, but it really is a bastardization of the law." The Legislature established the Arizona Water Banking Authority in 1996, partly to help the state use its allocation from the Colorado River. Water is diverted to recharge basins and percolates into aquifers. The bank holds about 880 billion gallons. A growing amount belongs to cities, which store excess water for use later. Storage has raised groundwater levels near the recharge basins and refilled aquifers. However, the water bank operates like a network of ATMs. A customer can deposit water at the main recharge basin, then pump it out closer to home. Legally, it's counted as a renewable resource, but the withdrawals will drain local aquifers. Banked water once was considered mostly for emergencies such as droughts, but cities struggling to meet growing demands have begun counting stored water as part of their 100-year supplies -- in effect borrowing against the future. State officials acknowledge they need to address where banked water can be pumped out since aquifers suffer just like they did before the groundwater act if wells are drilled miles from a recharge basin. They also acknowledge cities will fail to meet the largest goal of the 1980 laws -- that an equal amount of water replenishes water pumped out. "'How much water is there?' is the wrong question," said Patricia Gober, co-director of Arizona State University's Decision Center for a Desert City. "We don't know. More important for us, how do we restructure this place so we don't have a crisis?" Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 4 21:13:56 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 20:13:56 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] How to Get Your Own Barack Obama Identity Documents Message-ID: <002501ca157a$c7c4fe50$574efaf0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:57 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] How to Get Your Own Barack Obama Identity Documents (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) How to Get Your Own Barack Obama Identity Documents August 4, 2009 01:42 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/how-to-get-your-own-barac_b_2510 31.html The recent torrent of Kenyan Barack Obama birth certificates calls attention to the relative ease with which one can acquire forged identity documents nowadays. Say, for whatever reason, you want your own Kenyan Barack Obama birth certificate. All you will need is: (1) about $200; (2) the ability to use the internet or a telephone to place an order. I'll take the leap that you know to use the internet: Go to superiorfakedegrees.com. Customer service manager Jamie Ross gave me a quote of $220 for a "100% authentic looking" Kenyan birth certificate. "Our offset printers are able to replicate that older generation look," he says. "For new certificates, depending upon the jurisdiction we replicate raised ink seals, and utilize identical paper stock." According to Ross, Superior Faked Degrees, which is based in Thailand (it's illegal in the United States to possess, produce or distribute falsified government documents), has earned about $2 million in its five years in business. An official at another fake ID powerhouse, China's b-id.info, takes us through the steps that will yield a Birther-movement-caliber Kenyan certificate: 1. Old typewriter: Do a Google search for models made that year (if you wanted to be real exact) and then find on eBay or other online sources selling old typewriters. 2. Search online for Kenyan birth certificates (many found on Google image search) and save the image when a good one is found. If you have a real one in hand it is much more simple, but either way just Photoshop out old type, print blank, type in with old typewriter. You more than likely will have to clean the scan or image, since it will not be crisp, like a newly printed document. 3. Signature with a little practice makes perfect. 4. Only step that would set you back a few days is the embossed seal. Many websites will make you any seal you want, just send them the template file. 5. Aging the paper (techniques found online). 6. Done. The forgers' resourcefulness is staggering. Take drivers' licenses: They have the exact same grade PVC or Teslin on which real licenses are printed. Moreover, the licenses have bar codes and magnetic strips that will not only pass muster at scanners but display the information of your choice on the scanner's readout. Where applicable for security, the forgers ultraviolet ink. They even clone in-laminate holograms. Cost: $85. Passports -- in sum, "designed to fool anyone," according to Superior -- go for $500, which includes a free visa stamp. The forgers have limitations, however, like birth notices for Mr. Obama that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1961, with the birth itself thoroughly documented and additionally substantiated by Hawaii's Department of Health. The consensus: "Can't be done without a time machine." If you still want a Barack Obama document, though, operators are standing by. Have your credit card ready. And if you don't have a credit card, Superior sells Visas and Mastercards too. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2009-08-04-sarahpalin2.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 80417 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 5 02:49:11 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 01:49:11 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Why is Orly Taitz in Israel Two Days After Submitting a Forged Obama Birth Certificate to a US Federal Court? Message-ID: <002301ca15a9$9d2f4ea0$d78debe0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 8:22 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Why is Orly Taitz in Israel Two Days After Submitting a Forged Obama Birth Certificate to a US Federal Court? (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Tuesday, 4 August 2009 Why is Orly Taitz in Israel Two Days After Submitting a Forged Obama Birth Certificate to a US Federal Court? *Mark C. Eades * Is it because she is fleeing prosecution for knowingly submitting a forged document to a federal court? Is it because she is secretly an Israeli agent working to undermine Barack Obama? Is it because she fears that black men in suits and sunglasses are coming from Washington to kill her? I don't know the answer, but "birther queen" Orly Taitz was indeed interviewed by MSNBC from Tel Aviv on Aug. 3 - only two days after submitting, to a federal district court in California for "authentication," a document alleged to be Obama's Kenyan birth certificate now pretty conclusively proven to be a forgery. Following her gleeful release of the document on Aug. 1, Taitz must be a little surprised by the speed at which it has been picked apart on the internet and shown to be an almost certain forgery. I don't know what the penalty might be if it is determined that Taitz knowingly submitted a forged document to a federal court for the sole purpose of doing political harm to the President of the United States, but it is the one good reason I can think of why she would so suddenly leave the country at what only two days ago seemed (at least to her and her demented followers) to be her moment of triumph. While she may indeed fear that black Men in Black are coming to kill her, I would seriously question the theory some have suggested that she might be an Israeli agent working to undermine Obama, if only because I assume the Israelis would be smarter than to entrust such a task to such an obvious nutjob as Orly Taitz. Taitz appears haggard and even more disturbed than usual in her MSNBC interview with David Schuster, who charged in a question at the end of the interview that Taitz refused a ride to MSNBC's affiliate in Tel Aviv that day because the driver appeared to be a Muslim. A Soviet-born holder of dual US/Israeli citizenship, Taitz is on record with the Orange County Register stating that Israel should not merely defeat but "exterminate" its Arab enemies, whatever "collateral damage" may occur among innocent Arab civilians (see also Tablet). Having wondered previously why an immigrant from the former Soviet Union would be as obsessed with Obama's birth certificate as any down-home American redneck, I'm beginning to to think it might just be a case of Transatlantic Islamophobia. Orly Taitz claims that she is merely a "lawyer," with a purely "legal" interest in the details of Obama's birth, but I obviously suspect there's more to her Obama birth obsession than this or mere insanity. Taitz hails from a milieu of Soviet-born Israelis among whom far-right, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment runs much stronger by most accounts than among the general Israeli population, as numerous Israeli and international sources have observed. Witness the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, Soviet-born leader of the far-right *Yisrael Beiteinu* party, made up mostly of other Soviet-born Israelis with strongly anti-Arab views, many of whom live not in Israel itself but in West Bank settlements; and many of whom really, really don't like Barack Hussein Obama. Taitz has a documented association with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby group with close ties to Binyamin Netanyahu's right-wing *Likud* party, as Allison Hoffman notes in Tablet. I'd be very interested in hearing what sympathies Taitz may have not just for *Likud* but for *Yisrael Beiteinu*, and what connections she may have with Soviet-born settlers in the West Bank. As observed above, she is on record saying that Israel's Arab enemies should be "exterminated" rather than merely defeated, and appears to have refused a ride to MSNBC's affiliate in Tel Aviv because she believed the driver to be a Muslim. Like right-wing settlers (see video ), Taitz is also fond of calling her critics "nazis" or "brownshirts," as she did with David Schuster in her interview from Tel Aviv. Taitz spoke about her birther activities in a March 1 interview with Israeli National Radio . Could this be why she has found so much in common with Islamophobic American rednecks who think that Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya? Could it also be that America's best interests are not those she has most at heart in her dogged efforts to undermine our president? -- Michael Carmichael Planetary/USA From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 5 02:51:55 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 01:51:55 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Middle-Income Family Spends $221, 000 To Raise Baby: Report Message-ID: <002401ca15a9$ff8086f0$fe8194d0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 8:33 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Middle-Income Family Spends $221,000 To Raise Baby: Report (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Middle-Income Family Spends $221,000 To Raise Baby: Report http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/04/middleincome-family-spend_n_251289. html BETSY TAYLOR | 08/ 4/09 04:50 PM | AP ST. LOUIS - It's no secret that raising children can be expensive, but how about nearly a quarter of a million dollars expensive? A government report released Tuesday says a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about $221,000 raising that child through age 17. The report by the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion identified housing as the largest single expense, followed by food and child care/education costs. The $221,000 in expenses rises to about $292,000 when adjusted for inflation. USDA economist Mark Lino, who co-authored the report with Andrea Carlson, often hears people say children cost a lot when the annual findings are issued. "I tell them children also have many benefits, so you have to keep that in mind," he said. Families with more income spend more money on child-related costs, the report said. A two-parent family that earns less than $57,000 annually will spend about $160,000 on a child from birth through high school. Those with an income between $57,000 and $99,000 spend about $221,000 and those with higher incomes are expected to spend roughly $367,000 through age 17. Most single-parent households in the U.S. make less than $57,000 and are expected to spend about 7 percent less on child-rearing costs compared to two-parent households in that same income group, according to the report. Costs of raising a child are highest in the urban northeast and lowest in the urban south and rural areas. The USDA report helps courts and states determine child-support guidelines and foster care payments. It does not address costs specifically related to childbearing and paying for college. One of the largest changes over time has been the increase in costs related to care for young children. The report was first issued in 1960, when such costs were largely negligible, but with more working families turning to outside help with child care, it has grown to be a significant expense for many families. The report does not give total costs related to early child care. A mother of three, Raben Andrews of St. Louis, said the government figures sounded right to her. "Well, that's not half of it," joked the 42-year-old public school teacher. "I still have to put the little buggers through college." ____ Expenditures on Children by Families report: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 5 02:58:02 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 08:58:02 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [Social-banking] Workshop on Social and Solidarity Economy Message-ID: <697382.75621.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Wed, 5/8/09, Viviane Vandemeulebroucke (INAISE) wrote: From: Viviane Vandemeulebroucke (INAISE) Subject: [Social-banking] Workshop on Social and Solidarity Economy To: "Social banking discussion list" Date: Wednesday, 5 August, 2009, 9:01 AM ? Greetings from India. I would like to inform you that I am organising a Workshop on "Solidarity and Social Economy" within the framework of the International Socioloical Association during the XVII World Congress of Sociology as part of the programme under the Research Committee 10 (RC 10), in Gothenburg (Sweden) during July 11- 17, 2010. It is Session 4 (the workshop on Solidarity and Social Economy) of the RC 10 programmes for the XVII World Congress. You can find the details at http://www.isa- sociology. org/congress2010 /rc/rc10. htm. ? Do not hesitate to forward this information widely. ? Sincerely, Anup Dash (Prof. Dr.) Department of Sociology Utkal University Bhubaneswar - 751 004 (Orissa) India Anup Dash __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity ?1 New MembersVisit Your Group Give Back Yahoo! for Good Get inspired by a good cause. Y! Toolbar Get it Free! easy 1-click access to your groups. Yahoo! Groups Start a group in 3 easy steps. Connect with others. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 5 03:01:51 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 09:01:51 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: New PERI and E3 report on the Impacts of Climate and Energy Policy Across the States Message-ID: <593734.6846.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 4/8/09, Kristen Sheeran wrote: From: Kristen Sheeran Subject: New PERI and E3 report on the Impacts of Climate and Energy Policy Across the States To: "e3network" Date: Tuesday, 4 August, 2009, 11:45 PM IMPACTS OF CLIMATE AND ENERGY POLICY ACROSS THE STATES August 3, 2009 ? Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts today released a new report, Cap and Dividend: A State-by-State Analysis, jointly published with the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network. ?There is great interest in Congress and among the public in how climate and energy policy will affect families in different states,? said James K. Boyce, co-author of the report and director of PERI's environment program. ?We estimate the impact on family budgets of higher fuel prices that will result from a cap on carbon emissions. We then ask what happens if carbon permits are auctioned, rather than given away to corporations, and most of the money is returned to the American people as dividends. We find that in every state, at least six in ten households come out ahead in pocketbook terms, without even counting the benefits of curbing global warming.? Putting a cap on carbon emissions will increase prices of oil, coal, natural gas, and everything produced and distributed using them. By calculating the ?carbon footprint? of households in different income brackets in each state, the report shows how the resulting costs to consumers will be distributed across the population. The money that consumers pay in higher prices will not leave the nation?s economy. In this respect, carbon permits are very different from OPEC-engineered oil price increases that send American dollars abroad. Instead this money will go to the owners of the carbon permits created under the cap. A cap-and-dividend policy would put this ownership in the hands of the American people. It would do so by auctioning 100% the carbon permits, as proposed by President Obama in his 2009 budget, and by returning most or all of the auction revenue to the public as equal dividends to each person. With a permit price of $25 per ton of carbon dioxide, Boyce and his co-author Matthew Riddle report that the annual cost to the median family would range from $239 per person in Oregon to $349 in Indiana . Under cap-and-dividend, each person would receive dividend payments of $386 per year, so the net benefit would range from $37 per person in Indiana to $147 in Oregon . ??A cap-and-dividend policy has three big things going for it,? says Boyce. ?First, it affirms the ethical principle that our natural wealth ? in this case, the atmosphere?s ability to absorb and recycle our carbon emissions ? belongs in common and equal measure to all. Second, it sends a clear market price signal that burning fossil fuels has a social cost, giving businesses and consumers the incentive to invest in energy efficiency and clean energy. Finally, by protecting the real incomes of American families, and doing this in a very transparent and visible way, it can win durable public support over the long haul for policies that wean our nation?s economy from dependence on fossil fuels.? ? The report is available online at www.e3network.org. For further information, contact Professor James Boyce at +1 (413) 577-0816. ? ? Kristen Sheeran?Ph.D. Executive Director Economics for Equity and the Environment Network a program of Ecotrust ? 721 NW Ninth Avenue, Portland , OR 97209 T (503) 467.0811| F (503) 222.1517 | www.e3network.org ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 5 09:10:42 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 08:10:42 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Science for Life - Dr Eric Pearl and "The Living Matrix" Message-ID: <005b01ca15de$e90a9bb0$bb1fd310$@net> From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 3:33 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Science for Life - Dr Eric Pearl and "The Living Matrix" Trouble reading this email? Read it online here Hello friends, Our August 5th Show - Dr. Eric Pearl - The Living Matrix Our guest on August 5th will be Eric Pearl, author of The Reconnection, and featured healer in The Living Matrix. Eric has elicited great interest from top medical doctors and researchers worldwide including one of the top hospitals in the United States, a Level 1 Trauma Institute, a Spinal Cord Injury Center and a University School of Medicine. Prior to the sudden appearance of his non-traditional healing abilities, Eric ran a highly successful chiropractic practice for 12 years. In August 1993, he discovered he had been blessed with an unusual "gift." After 12 years of practicing traditional chiropractic, he suddenly became a healing vehicle of a different kind: a conduit through which healing energy flows. While too busy traveling to maintain his chiropractic practice, through his seminars and private sessions Eric's "gift" is constantly reported to be helping people with a wide variety of serious diseases including malignant tumors, AIDS-related diseases, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, birth disfigurements and bone deformities. During the '80s and '90s, Eric, who received his degree as Doctor of Chiropractic from Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, headed one of the largest chiropractic centers in the L.A. area. Often referred to as "Chiropractor to the Stars," he acquired the status of both a highly successful and popular doctor. Having studied under such masters as Dr. Virgil Chrane and Dr. Carl Cleveland, Sr., Eric Pearl was one of the few practitioners who, in addition to the conventional chiropractic approach, incorporated pure, original and all-but-lost chiropractic techniques. In both informal and clinical settings, patients (and physicians!) have witnessed the results of these healings that occur through Eric SIMPLY BY HOLDING HIS HANDS NEAR THEM. Join us live for an hour of Reconnection with the truth about healing. www.ScienceforLife.net Today, 9:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 Noon Eastern or 24/7 On Demand Love and light, Design:OneGraphic.com This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 5 09:56:18 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 08:56:18 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Inspiring article by President Jimmy Carter Message-ID: <002401ca15e5$479ee450$d6dcacf0$@net> I found this on the San Diego Grapevine and thought it well worth sharing. Thanks to good friend Robert Broska for posting this and to Helene Idels for hosting the list. If you do not have a web publication like this in your community where people can post local events and other news relevant to the well-being of the community, it is a very good idea to have one that is allocated to so-called "alternative" events since the mainstream media is not likely to provide space for publication. One of the failures of we-the-people to realize how large the leaderless "Blessed Unrest" movement, as written about by Paul Hawken in his book by the same name, is the failure of the media to report on it. However, were all of to realize just how large a movement Blessed Unrest really is, it would be all over due to its sheer magnitude in both size and power compared to the opposition. Do Google for Blessed Unrest and familiarize yourself with it if you are not already 'clued in'. For the sake of privacy, I have removed email addresses. As you read this I do hope that you realize the "cultural baggage" I keep referring to as part of the garbage that keeps us embedded in faith-based religious belief systems as the priests of old use it to keep us from experiencing total wellness and freedom in order for them to continue to maintain control of the masses by the few. Inspiring article on equality for women by President Jimmy Carter Posted by: "Robert Broska" Tue Aug 4, 2009 3:03 pm (PDT) Inspiring article by President Jimmy Carter Have you seen that Jim Carter left the Southern Baptist Church in his support of the equality of women? Below is his announcement. I give him credit!! (the last paragraph at bottom is from a Baha'i.) Losing my religion for equality Jimmy Carter Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God. I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries. At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities. The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met. In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime. The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family. It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom. I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it. The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable." We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share. The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers. I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy. The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views. Baha'u'llah said that equality of men and women is a prerequisite for world peace. He used the analogy of two wings of a bird to explain how humanity can not soar until both men and women have equal strength and support. The Baha'i Writings say that when women have a full say in governance, wars will cease since women will not allow them to continue. Also, that men must own the issue and not have it just be a 'women's issue'. That made it particularly exciting for me to see President Carter's words. It is wonderful for him to speak out. warmest, Barbara-- Barbara Ruys, A.I.A. Owner / Architect Plumtree Productions www.plumtreeproductions.com 3062 Naugatuck Avenue San Diego, CA 92117 858-274-4229 FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 5 13:21:06 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 12:21:06 -0700 Subject: [GJM] The raw, tasty truth about natural chocolate Message-ID: <006a01ca1601$e59472d0$b0bd5870$@net> Some of you may wonder what a subject like raw chocolate has to do with the "state of the world today," and I am here to tell you that it is part of getting back to the natural world and out of the very unhealthy one we have been indulging ourselves in the name of "money". And I am so sick of all this talk of money, money, money and what it can BUY for me, that I want to vomit every time it comes up. I don't know about you, but I am moving forward into TOTAL WELLNESS in every area of my life. I am totally sick of hearing and listening to the wails of the maudlin as the debt-based economy and the total mental illness that went with it goes swirling down the sewer drain soon to be cleansed by the forces of nature, bringing restoration once again as we rid ourselves of the crap that has attached itself to it. I have rid my inbox of messages from the "birther" named Nance and told her never to darken my door again. She agreed on the condition that I not fill her box with my stuff - which I very gladly agreed to do. Ever notice how refreshing it is to clean house thoroughly once in awhile, open all the windows and let some fresh air in? What a relief to be out of the shit and be able to see the sunlight again now that a date for the long awaited end has been set for the "bank holiday" that will signal that bottom has been hit and the only way after is "up" as we begin to put together a "future created by conscious design". And while it may be a long way 'up" again, at least now as I look through the tunnel of darkness I can see the sunlight at the top of the shaft, and imagine myself walking on it once again as the magnificence of the future unveils itself . So, raw chocolate and everything else good and healthy, here I come!!!! And, I invite anyone who wants to travel this path of TOTAL WELLNESS to walk beside me into this new consciousness. With much love and appreciation. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32271092/ns/today-green/ By Marisa Belger TODAYShow.com contributor updated 11:04 a.m. PT, Mon., Aug 3, 2009 http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/i/msnbc/Test-Dev/donna/msnbc10/Launch%20images/by line_today.gif http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070919/mugshot_070919_m arisa.thumb.jpg Marisa Belger TODAYshow.com _____ . E-mail There seems to be a palate evolution with chocolate consumption, and I'm proud to announce that I've graduated to the next step. First there was drugstore-quality milk chocolate in all of its trick-or-treat incarnations: individual kisses, snuggled against peanut butter, pressed against caramel and nougat or sprinkled with peanuts or almonds. Then there was introductory dark chocolate - heavy on the sugar and cocoa butter, light on actual cocoa content. After that I moved on to what I thought was the chocolate big leagues - dark chocolate made with 70 percent or more cocoa content. At this point chocolate was no longer a child's distraction, it had developed into something serious - to be savored, appreciated and analyzed - not unlike a fine wine. I was content to remain here, consciously sliding dark squares of elegant chocolate into my mouth whenever I needed to be transported to a complex, multilayered taste experience. I quickly discovered that extra-dark chocolate is not the binge chocolate of yesteryear. Consuming mass quantities while PMSing or nursing a broken heart just doesn't work. Dark chocolate takes your mouth on a wild journey, it's an unknown eco-adventure for your taste buds - so you have to tread lightly. Honestly, I was content to stay right where I was, sampling the growing collection of artisanally crafted, often-organic dark chocolate bars, truffles and hot chocolate powders, when I stumbled on this crazy thing called a cacao bean. Told that this was chocolate in its original state, I popped the strange object into my mouth and discovered that it was hard, crunchy and seriously bitter. Alone, tempered with no sugar or milk solids, the bean was almost confronting in its intensity. But this was the source of all chocolate and so I persevered. But I soon found out that I could experience it in a much more delicious fashion - raw chocolate bars. Simply explained, raw chocolate is chocolate that is unroasted and has been combined with a few unobtrusive ingredients like agave or sea salt. Most conventional chocolate bars are made with roasted chocolate and combined with a variety of other heavy ingredients, like refined sugar. For me, raw chocolate is a simple, unrefined chocolate experience. Daniel Sklaar, the chocolatier behind Brooklyn's Fine and Raw Chocolate, calls it "a complete celebration of food." Well, it's that too. Over the past few years you may have heard a bit about the antioxidant benefits of dark chocolate, but those claims did little to highlight the nutritional powerhouse that is raw chocolate. This stuff is truly good for you. According to David Wolfe, author of "Naked Chocolate: The Astounding Truth About the World's Greatest Food," chocolate in its natural state is the best form of magnesium, chromium and iron, which are the top three mineral deficiencies in the U.S. Wolfe, one of raw chocolate's biggest advocates, also credits cacao with being extraordinarily high in vitamin C. Cacao also contains omega-6 fatty acids and is one of the best sources of natural fiber. So doesn't the average bar contain these things too? Not so much, explains Wolfe. When cacao is roasted it looses its vitamin C and its fiber is disturbed. Cooking cacao also destroys PEAs (phenylethylamines), the chemicals contained in chocolate that make us feel like we're in love. Raw chocolate also contains neurotransmitter modulating agents, which are chemicals that act as natural antidepressants. "They allow our neurotransmitters like serotonin to remain in our bloodstream longer than usual," explains Wolfe. "This makes us younger. The more chocolate you eat, the longer you live." His words are not wishful thinking. A Harvard study of 7,841 healthy men found that those who ate chocolate did indeed live longer than those who abstained. It could be those antioxidants at work. According to Wolfe, raw cacao is the No. 1 antioxidant food in the world - 30 times higher than red wine and 20 times higher than green tea. And then there are those love chemicals, those PEAs. Wolfe believes that raw chocolate is not only a tasty way to improve your health and vitality, but that it's also a path to healing and soothing your heart, increasing your sensuality and enhancing your love life. Not bad for a sweet treat. Sklaar's words followed me as I snapped off another chunk of his Lacuma and Vanilla bar: "Chocolate is a full experience." Mmmmm. Hmmmmm. For more information on the health benefits of raw chocolate, check out David Wolfe's new book, "Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future." RELATED CONTENT . The most-clicked chocolate cake recipe . Ann Curry's favorite chocolate dessert recipe . Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressure Marisa Belger is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience covering health and wellness. She was a founding editor of Lime.com, a multiplatform media company specializing in health, wellness and sustainable living. Marisa also collaborated with Josh Dorfman on "The Lazy Environmentalist" (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang), a comprehensive guide to easy, stylish green living. Please note: Neither Marisa Belger nor TODAYshow.com has been compensated by the manufacturers or their representatives for her comments or selection of products reviewed in this column. http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/ColorBoxes/Styles/ColorBoxImage s_GlobalOnlyPlease/mail_icon.gif QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? Do you have a question for Marisa Belger? If so, write to her. She will address readers questions in her column; however, due to the individual nature of each person's situation, she cannot offer advice or suggestions beyond that available in this column (PLEASE NOTE: Questions and comments about show segments or columns not featuring Marisa Belger should be sent to Today at nbc.com) Write your question or comment in box below. NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be used for publication. Also, please be sure to let us know if you do not want your name or hometown used. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1721 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2275 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 384 bytes Desc: not available URL: From steve at behappyandfree.com Tue Aug 4 05:52:42 2009 From: steve at behappyandfree.com (Steve Consilvio) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 07:52:42 -0400 Subject: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The system is so imbalanced that we must produce to throw stuff away. The current solution is to 'stimulate,' which is, of course, the old solution. So we stimulate waste, misery, etc., along with the effort to create necessities. Since we must consume to survive, production must be maintained. The more people there are, the more waste there will be. That formula cannot be broken. We need to work smarter, but people are too busy arguing about money to understand money. And when they are not arguing about money, the other main diversion (today anyway) is that the sky is falling. The Earth does not need our protection. If we destroy our habitat, we will be the ones going extinct. We can cut down the rainforest today, we will drop dead tomorrow, and the rainforest will grow back on Wednesday. The issue about pollution is about protecting ourselves, and eliminating all the wasted labor. We are not working smart, and the 'stimulation' approach is that we should work harder at being stupid. The pollution in the environment is just a reflection of the way we treat one another; the way we treat one another is a reflection of how we handle money. The only way to solve all our problems is to change our understanding of how we handle money. For example, the idea of selling carbon credits, etc., is the most absurdly stupid idea to come down the pike in a long time. Yet, the people who are engaged in it think they are doing good and protecting the environment. In reality, they have created yet another form of money, to go along with taxes, coupons, disney dollars, etc. We have thousands of different forms of money, and they are all governed by the same false principles, namely profit. Profit justifies all waste. peace, steve On TueAug 4, 2009, at 4:37 AM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote: > From: "mary rose" > Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe > To: , > Message-ID: <000701ca14be$1eb26530$5c172f90$@net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I feel it odd that you say nothing about the ecological collapse we > are > witnessing, Steve. How does one keep the economy going when the > ecology is > failing us in major ways: loss of topsoil and droughts in many > regions are > already causing massive suffering as food production fails to keep > up with > demand in many regions. Just because it has not hit full force here > in the > U.S. as yet does not mean it is not happening. And there is so much > more, > the loss of rainforests which serve as the lungs of the earth almost > gone. > Waterways unnaturally dammed. Toxic food. Fouled air. > > Yet it is all about politics -- Obama doing this and Obama doing > that. Lies, > lies and more lies while the two party-system battles as if politics > really > matters in a world that has no value system any more. > > But then, this is a sign of our collective sickness is it not? We no > longer > recognize that we are a sub-system of the earth and politics but a > meaningless thought in our mind. Brain dead I think is a good > definition - > our collective sickness runs so deep and widespread. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 6 01:32:51 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 00:32:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: AMI Monetary Reform Conference - 5th Annual Message-ID: <000e01ca1668$1dadcde0$590969a0$@net> From: ami at taconic.net [mailto:ami at taconic.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 2:29 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: AMI Monetary Reform Conference - 5th Annual AMI AMI Monetary Reform Conference - 5th Annual Dear Friends of the American Monetary Institute, A really outstanding program is forming for the AMI 5th Annual Monetary Reform Conference held at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Sept. 24-27th. This is an important conference, coming at an important perhaps pivotal moment in our country's history. But it's no good to just cry and complain about what's happening to our country; we have to take action. Strategy will be discussed openly without covering over the failure thus far of the Obama Administration to move meaningfully on the issues they promised and were elected on. They have not even attempted to do so, but instead gear themselves to not offending the political groups that allowed criminal financial elements to wreck the nations money and banking system, and charge off the costs to hard working American citizens. This is unacceptable behavior on the part of the administration, but is not surprising considering that the President is surrounded by Summer, Geithner and Emmanuel. Come to the Conference to see what's being promoted by the best, public spirited minds we could find, to resolve the crisis. For those of you considering attending, you can see photos, bios and topics of our confirmed speakers to date at http://www.monetary.org/2009schedule.html It's very exciting! We do have a good time. The conference will focus on the solution to the nations monetary and unemployment crisis - the American Monetary Act; The reason why the three main elements of it are crucial to achieve together, and what can be done now. The conference will also demonstrate why "incrementalism" (begging for crumbs instead of demanding justice) does not work in the area of monetary reform, and is in fact very counter productive. This is shaping up as our most successful conference to date, and to make participation easier, we are extending the $245 discount thru August 15th postmarks, after which it is $295 thru August 30th and then $395 after Sept. 1st. Act now - you'll feel better, save some money, and hopefully understand how to begin to save our country! Warm regards to all, Stephen Zarlenga Ami -- If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, this link To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link Forward a Message to Someone this link Powered by PHPlist2.10.9, ? tincan ltd -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 2408 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 6 01:33:19 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 00:33:19 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Lab habits: Do depressed lab rats dictate international drug policy? Message-ID: <001401ca1668$2e6dfb50$8b49f1f0$@net> Lab habits: Do depressed lab rats dictate international drug policy? June 2, 2005, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/jun/02/farout The predominant model of drug addiction views it as a disease: humans and animals will use heroin or cocaine for as long as they are available. When the drugs run out, they will seek a fresh supply; the drugs, not the users, are in control. These conclusions, repeated frequently by politicians and the media, are based on experiments carried out almost exclusively on animals, usually rats and monkeys, housed in metal cages and experiencing a particularly poor quality of life. What would happen, wondered psychologist Dr Bruce Alexander, then of British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, if these animals were instead provided with a comfortable, stimulating environment? In 1981, Alexander built a 200sq ft home for lab rats. Rat Park, as it became known, was kept clean and temperate, while the rats were supplied with plenty of food and toys, along with places to dig, rest and mate. Try as he might, Alexander could not make junkies out of his rats. Even after being force-fed morphine for two months, when given the option, they chose plain water, despite experiencing mild withdrawal symptoms. He laced the morphine with sugar, but still they ignored it. Only when he added Naloxone, an opiate inhibitor, to the sugared morphine water, did they drink it. Alexander simultaneously monitored rats kept in "normal" lab conditions: they consistently chose the morphine drip over plain water, sometimes consuming 16-20 times more than the Rat Parkers. Alexander's findings - that deprived rats seek solace in opiates, while contented rats avoid them - dramatically contradict our currently held beliefs about addiction. Nobody seemed to care. Rejected by Science and Nature, Alexander's paper was published in the obscure Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, where it was summarily ignored. Two decades later, Rat Park sits empty; addiction remains a disease and the war on drugs continues. Note: Is it possible the powers that be want us to believe addiction is much worse than it really is? FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 6 02:18:46 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 01:18:46 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Message-ID: <004801ca166e$869b78b0$93d26a10$@net> Thanks Steve, I'm going to comment on this paragraph by paragraph where appropriate and see where we end up. From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Steve Consilvio Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 4:53 AM To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: Re: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe The system is so imbalanced that we must produce to throw stuff away. The current solution is to 'stimulate,' which is, of course, the old solution. So we stimulate waste, misery, etc., along with the effort to create necessities. Since we must consume to survive, production must be maintained. The more people there are, the more waste there will be. That formula cannot be broken. We need to work smarter, but people are too busy arguing about money to understand money. m r: Why must we continue production? At least at the pace and in the form it is now being accomplished? Through the use of nanotechnology, we are able to produce more with less, but what happens is that human labor is not needed since advanced technology can do a much more efficient job without it. And, as I have written before, human hands are too large to handle the small parts utilized in nanotechnology. With the use of nanotechnology the waste factor is also reduced with much of it being composed of materials that are recyclable. So, if all of the goods and services necessary for the six billion or more of us on the planet can be produced by only three to four percent of the presently available labor force, what needs to happen? Don't we need to "adapt" to the new circumstances and create a new system that is adjusted for the new environment? Don't we need to begin to think in new and more creative ways that "solve the problems"? And, if the statistics today show that it would be less costly and more efficient to "pay people to stay home" rather than transport them to work over roadways and in buildings that are neither efficient or cost effective, isn't that the way to go? And, shouldn't we have a new monetary system that is designed to make this new and more efficient (healthier) system work? And, maybe It is a system that isn't even called "money" any longer, because no money is involved. The system has perhaps morphed into something where dollars and coins are no longer used and everything is digitally computerized into something called "Time Hours" and people are compensated for the amount of time they spend working at home. And in working at home, since they use less of everything since this new manufacturing process may largely be carried out there, they are compensated by computerized digits which they can draw against when they need some type of exchange mechanism that accounts for the exchange.. But the realization that comes with this is that more and more people are going to be first of all consuming less and less and making more of what they actually need at home using nanotechnology and bio-mimicry to do so because hard labor and "big" is going to be a thing of the past. And when they are not arguing about money, the other main diversion (today anyway) is that the sky is falling. The Earth does not need our protection. If we destroy our habitat, we will be the ones going extinct. We can cut down the rainforest today, we will drop dead tomorrow, and the rainforest will grow back on Wednesday. I beg to differ with you that the Earth does need our protection because we are using it in ways that are destroying both our life support system and ourselves. When we think in terms of species extinction the human family should be at the top of the list. And, while the Earth may be able to regenerate itself, it cannot do so in time to save humanity once we are past the tipping point. The issue about pollution is about protecting ourselves, and eliminating all the wasted labor. We are not working smart, and the 'stimulation' approach is that we should work harder at being stupid. The pollution in the environment is just a reflection of the way we treat one another; the way we treat one another is a reflection of how we handle money. The only way to solve all our problems is to change our understanding of how we handle money. For example, the idea of selling carbon credits, etc., is the most absurdly stupid idea to come down the pike in a long time. Yet, the people who are engaged in it think they are doing good and protecting the environment. In reality, they have created yet another form of money, to go along with taxes, coupons, disney dollars, etc. We have thousands of different forms of money, and they are all governed by the same false principles, namely profit. Profit justifies all waste. I tend to agree with this last paragraph, the other two above it are voiced in ways that make little sense to me and maybe someone else can add to this and create a better understanding. That's what co-learner's group is for is it not, so that we can all share ideas and learn from one another. peace, steve On TueAug 4, 2009, at 4:37 AM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote: From: "mary rose" Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe To: , Message-ID: <000701ca14be$1eb26530$5c172f90$@net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I feel it odd that you say nothing about the ecological collapse we are witnessing, Steve. How does one keep the economy going when the ecology is failing us in major ways: loss of topsoil and droughts in many regions are already causing massive suffering as food production fails to keep up with demand in many regions. Just because it has not hit full force here in the U.S. as yet does not mean it is not happening. And there is so much more, the loss of rainforests which serve as the lungs of the earth almost gone. Waterways unnaturally dammed. Toxic food. Fouled air. Yet it is all about politics -- Obama doing this and Obama doing that. Lies, lies and more lies while the two party-system battles as if politics really matters in a world that has no value system any more. But then, this is a sign of our collective sickness is it not? We no longer recognize that we are a sub-system of the earth and politics but a meaningless thought in our mind. Brain dead I think is a good definition - our collective sickness runs so deep and widespread. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00016.txt URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Aug 6 07:11:23 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 13:11:23 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] =?utf-8?q?An_extra_=C2=A350_bn_pumped_into_economy?= Message-ID: <63740.75798.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> An extra ?50bn pumped into economy 1 hour 51 mins ago Print Story Rate-setters have pumped an extra ?50 billion into the economy as the Bank of England moved to shore up signs of a fragile recovery. Skip related content Related photos / videos An extra ?50bn pumped into economy Related content ECB rate appropriate, price falls temporary-Trichet Schroders profits dive but shares rise on flows? Bank of England pumps extra billions Related Hot Topic: Financial Crisis Have your say: Financial Crisis The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to hold interest rates at their record low of 0.5% but increased the scale of its programme to boost the money supply, by ?50 billion to ?175 billion. The MPC's decision to expand quantitative easing (QE) underlines the caution among policymakers over the strength of the UK's recovery from recession despite recent positive signs. Official figures and surveys have shown manufacturers and services firms are emerging from recession, while house prices have also risen. Economists expect the UK to return to growth between July and September but problems in the banking sector could still restrain a recovery, and official estimates showed a disappointing 0.8% fall in output during the second quarter of this year. Email Story Share Story Delicious Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Newsvine Print Story Subscribe to RSS Latest news 8 mins ago Bank start-ups sprout among economic debris A clutch of new banks is popping up among the debris of Britain's fallen financial establishment, emboldened by a government? More 10 mins ago Briton dies in Tonga ferry disaster 24 mins ago 'Victoria Beckham lookalike' sought? 31 mins ago Troubled broadcaster ITV offloads Friends? 42 mins ago Police watchdog calls for urgent protest? 43 mins ago What is quantitative easing? (Reuters) - The Bank of England extended its quantitative easing programme on Thursday, raising the size of its bond purchase? More 46 mins ago TEXT - Bank on gilt purchases; sterling monetary framework (Reuters) - The Bank of England issued the following statement on Thursday: More 46 mins ago Extra ?50bn is pumped into economy 1 hour 2 mins ago DMO to lend gilts bought by Bank back to market The Debt Management Office will lend gilts bought by the Bank of England via quantitative easing back to the market to ease? More 1 hour 4 mins ago Gilts soar on Bank's shock QE rise? Gilt futures rocketed more than a full point on Thursday after the Bank of England's shock decision to raise its quantitative? More 1 hour 9 mins ago Bank of England says will pump out extra ?50bn The Bank of England said on Thursday it will pump an extra 50 billion pounds of new money into the economy in a surprise move, as? More 2 hours 10 mins ago Play video Thousands line streets to say farewell to ... <> YAHOONEWSGLOBALS.latestCarouselLazyConfig = { postLoadDelay : 4000, map : function(oImg, oPanel){ if(oPanel.getElementsByTagName('span')[0].firstChild){ YAHOO.util.Dom.insertBefore(oImg, oPanel.getElementsByTagName('span')[0].firstChild); }else{ oPanel.getElementsByTagName('span')[0].appendChild(oImg); } }, images : [ ["http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/ne/rtrs/20090806/11/1180288258-police-officer-riot-gear-uses-shield-against-demonstrators-near-bank.jpg?x=130&y=129&q=75&wc=292&hc=291&xc=73&yc=1&sig=GAfDxd6Zw6H1SbY_kswZYQ--", "130", "129", ""],["", "", "", ""],["", "", "", ""],["http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/ne/pressass/20090806/12/2978469739-extra-50bn-pumped-economy.jpg?x=130&y=130&q=75&sig=htC6q05ZZOYRJNfOVg.kMg--", "130", "130", ""],["", "", "", ""],["", "", "", ""],["", "", "", ""],["http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/ne/itn/20090806/12/1153764581-thousands-line-streets-say-farewell.jpg?x=130&y=129&q=75&wc=226&hc=225&xc=38&yc=1&sig=GEeWrRAvpULn4ZhraTi8dw--", "130", "129", ""] ] }; ADVERTISEMENT if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object(); window.yzq_d['El2AHFf4eEA-']='&U=13oqsavr6%2fN%3dEl2AHFf4eEA-%2fC%3d200101456.201788855.203023372.200222684%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d200784479%2fV%3d1'; Subscribe to RSSMost Popular in: UK 1 Plans For Immigration Points System Unveiled Under the scheme migrants will be able to gain points towards their nationality application through their skills, jobs and qualifications, but bad behaviour will cost them points. ?More 2 Mum fined for baby funeral goodbye 3 Woman burned with bleach after row 4 Apple Bites Back In Row Over Exploding iPod 5 Guilty BBC presenter caught on CCTV More popular stories Latest blog entries Talking Politics: Bercow and the price of children 25 comments Around The World: On the campaign trail, Afghan style Talking Politics: How the government failed to tackle rape Talking Politics: Brown's bitter secret MORE ON YAHOO! 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URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Thu Aug 6 03:49:25 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 15:19:25 +0530 Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe In-Reply-To: <004801ca166e$869b78b0$93d26a10$@net> References: <004801ca166e$869b78b0$93d26a10$@net> Message-ID: <31f677a30908060249mbf46063p71bd72c9839d49ea@mail.gmail.com> Dear Mary , Sharing a blog content that I posted on http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com ====================== According to Steve Connor of The Independent is report published on(3 Aug 2009) ,the world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned. Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries. In an interview with The Independent, Dr Birol said that the public and many governments appeared to be oblivious to the fact that the oil on which modern civilisation depends is running out far faster than previously predicted and that global production is likely to peak in about 10 years ? at least a decade earlier than most governments had estimated. This should alarm us all especially the neo-classical economists and those who think that we can carry on building ecologically hostile Habitats without realising the question marks on energy security. A fascination with old indicators of GDP is also a source of problem that needs to quickly subjected to reality checks. The first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago. On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by oil-producing countries, a feature that is set to result in an "oil crunch" within the next five years which will jeopardise any hope of a recovery from the present global economic recession, he said. We however need to question, why investment generating from ecologically hostile usurious financial system system is needed as we need to slow down on consumption of GHG emitting fossil fuels. Why there is no questioning for the increase in the demand in suburbia, that need to brought under ecologically sustainable limits? It is good that he has called for preparation through leaving oil before oil leaves us. ..."One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day," Dr Birol said. "The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously," he said. Calling for compensating again through building up supplies, Dr.Birol appears to be negating the his call for preparing for the day when oil will leave us. 'There is now a real risk of a crunch in the oil supply after next year when demand picks up because not enough is being done to build up new supplies of oil to compensate for the rapid decline in existing fields'. It is interesting that decline rate has been modified and perhaps a real rate of 6.7 per cent a year has been estimated. 'The IEA estimates that the decline in oil production in existing fields is now running at 6.7 per cent a year compared to the 3.7 per cent decline it had estimated in 2007, which it now acknowledges to be wrong'. The decline rate could increase further, if BRIC nations do not agree to mechanisms for reducing the emission of green house gases transforming leisure ,habitats across the cities and ensuring substantial reduction in the emission of green house gases through promoting culture of prayer for leisure and other carbon-neutral measures employed across the domains. Education policy in India creating statification in the society through existence of multiple types of schooling for various classes needs to change. Prof.Anil Sadgopal's advocacy for neighbourhood schooling system seen in this light is ecologically relevant. On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:48 PM, mary rose wrote: > > > Thanks Steve, I?m going to comment on this paragraph by paragraph where > appropriate and see where we end up. > > *From:* discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto: > discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] *On Behalf Of *Steve > Consilvio > *Sent:* Tuesday, August 04, 2009 4:53 AM > *To:* discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > *Subject:* Re: [GJM] Latest forecast of catastrophe > > > > The system is so imbalanced that we must produce to throw stuff away. The > current solution is to 'stimulate,' which is, of course, the old solution. > So we stimulate waste, misery, etc., along with the effort to create > necessities. > > > > Since we must consume to survive, production must be maintained. The more > people there are, the more waste there will be. That formula cannot be > broken. We need to work smarter, but people are too busy arguing about money > to understand money. > > > > m r: Why must we continue production? At least at the pace and in the form > it is now being accomplished? Through the use of nanotechnology, we are > able to produce more with less, but what happens is that human labor is not > needed since advanced technology can do a much more efficient job without > it. And, as I have written before, human hands are too large to handle the > small parts utilized in nanotechnology. With the use of nanotechnology the > waste factor is also reduced with much of it being composed of materials > that are recyclable. So, if all of the goods and services necessary for the > six billion or more of us on the planet can be produced by only three to > four percent of the presently available labor force, what needs to happen? > > > > Don?t we need to ?adapt? to the new circumstances and create a new system > that is adjusted for the new environment? Don?t we need to begin to think > in new and more creative ways that ?solve the problems?? > > > > And, if the statistics today show that it would be less costly and more > efficient to ?pay people to stay home? rather than transport them to work > over roadways and in buildings that are neither efficient or cost effective, > isn?t that the way to go? > > > > And, shouldn?t we have a new monetary system that is designed to make this > new and more efficient (healthier) system work? > > > > And, maybe It is a system that isn?t even called ?money? any longer, > because no money is involved. The system has perhaps morphed into something > where dollars and coins are no longer used and everything is digitally > computerized into something called ?Time Hours? and people are compensated > for the amount of time they spend working at home. And in working at home, > since they use less of everything since this new manufacturing process may > largely be carried out there, they are compensated by computerized digits > which they can draw against when they need some type of exchange mechanism > that accounts for the exchange.. But the realization that comes with this > is that more and more people are going to be first of all consuming less and > less and making more of what they actually need at home using nanotechnology > and bio-mimicry to do so because hard labor and ?big? is going to be a thing > of the past. > > > > And when they are not arguing about money, the other main diversion (today > anyway) is that the sky is falling. The Earth does not need our protection. > If we destroy our habitat, we will be the ones going extinct. We can cut > down the rainforest today, we will drop dead tomorrow, and the rainforest > will grow back on Wednesday. > > > > I beg to differ with you that the Earth does need our protection because we > are using it in ways that are destroying both our life support system and > ourselves. When we think in terms of species extinction the human family > should be at the top of the list. And, while the Earth may be able to > regenerate itself, it cannot do so in time to save humanity once we are past > the tipping point. > > > > The issue about pollution is about protecting ourselves, and eliminating > all the wasted labor. We are not working smart, and the 'stimulation' > approach is that we should work harder at being stupid. > > > > The pollution > in the environment is just a reflection of the way we treat one another; the way we treat one another is a reflection of how we handle money. The only way to solve all our problems is to change our understanding of how we handle money. > > > > For example, the idea of selling carbon credits, etc., is the most absurdly stupid idea > to come down the pike in a long time. Yet, the people who are engaged in it > think they are doing good and protecting the environment. In reality, they > have created yet another form of money, to go along with taxes, coupons, > disney dollars, etc. We have thousands of different forms of money, and they > are all governed by the same false principles, namely profit. Profit > justifies all waste. > > > > I tend to agree with this last paragraph, the other two above it are voiced > in ways that make little sense to me and maybe someone else can add to this > and create a better understanding. > > > > That?s what co-learner?s group is for is it not, so that we can all share > ideas and learn from one another. > > > > peace, > > steve > > > > > > On TueAug 4, 2009, at 4:37 AM, > discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote: > > > > From: "mary rose" > Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe > To: , > Message-ID: <000701ca14be$1eb26530$5c172f90$@net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I feel it odd that you say nothing about the ecological collapse we are > witnessing, Steve. How does one keep the economy going when the ecology is > failing us in major ways: loss of topsoil and droughts in many regions are > already causing massive suffering as food production fails to keep up with > demand in many regions. Just because it has not hit full force here in the > U.S. as yet does not mean it is not happening. And there is so much more, > the loss of rainforests which serve as the lungs of the earth almost gone. > Waterways unnaturally dammed. Toxic food. Fouled air. > > Yet it is all about politics -- Obama doing this and Obama doing that. > Lies, > lies and more lies while the two party-system battles as if politics really > matters in a world that has no value system any more. > > But then, this is a sign of our collective sickness is it not? We no longer > recognize that we are a sub-system of the earth and politics but a > meaningless thought in our mind. Brain dead I think is a good definition - > our collective sickness runs so deep and widespread. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating fcarbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance best practices Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 9968345380,9210490942 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From radu_seserman at yahoo.com Wed Aug 5 22:11:32 2009 From: radu_seserman at yahoo.com (radu Seserman) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 21:11:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] The raw, tasty truth about natural chocolate In-Reply-To: <006a01ca1601$e59472d0$b0bd5870$@net> Message-ID: <710150.36153.qm@web63903.mail.re1.yahoo.com> email test Radu Seserman "Be the change that you want to see in the world." M. Gandhi "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." A. Einstein --- On Wed, 8/5/09, mary rose wrote: From: mary rose Subject: [GJM] The raw, tasty truth about natural chocolate To: "'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'" , FixGov at yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 3:21 PM Some of you may wonder what a subject like raw chocolate has to do with the ?state of the world today,? and I am here to tell you that it is part of getting back to the natural world and out of the very unhealthy one we have been indulging ourselves in the name of ?money?.? And I am so sick of all this talk of money, money, money and what it can BUY for me, ?that I want to vomit every time it comes up.? ????? ? I don?t know about you, but I am moving forward into TOTAL WELLNESS in every area of my life.? I am totally sick of hearing and listening to the wails of the maudlin as the debt-based economy and the total mental illness that went with it goes swirling down the sewer drain soon to be cleansed by the forces of nature, bringing ?restoration once again as we rid ourselves of the crap that has attached itself to it. ?I have rid my inbox of messages from the ?birther? named Nance and told her never to darken my door again.? She agreed on the condition that I not fill her box with my stuff ? which I very gladly agreed to do.? Ever notice how refreshing it is to clean house thoroughly once in awhile, open all the windows and let some fresh air in? ??What a relief to be out of the shit and be able to see the sunlight again now that a date for the long awaited end has been set for the ?bank holiday? that will signal that bottom has been hit and the only way after is ?up? as we begin to put together a ?future created by conscious design?.? And while it may be a long way ?up? again, at least now as I look through the tunnel of darkness I can see the sunlight at the top of the shaft, and imagine myself walking on it once again as the magnificence of the future unveils itself .? ? ? So, raw chocolate and everything else good and healthy, here I come!!!!?? And, I invite anyone who wants to travel this path of TOTAL WELLNESS to walk beside me into this new consciousness. ? With much love and appreciation. ? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32271092/ns/today-green/ ? By Marisa Belger TODAYShow.com contributor updated?11:04 a.m. PT,?Mon., Aug 3, 2009 ? Marisa Belger TODAYshow.com ??E-mail ? There seems to be a palate evolution with chocolate consumption, and I?m proud to announce that I?ve graduated to the next step. First there was drugstore-quality milk chocolate in all of its trick-or-treat incarnations: individual kisses, snuggled against peanut butter, pressed against caramel and nougat or sprinkled with peanuts or almonds. Then there was introductory dark chocolate ? heavy on the sugar and cocoa butter, light on actual cocoa content. After that I moved on to what I thought was the chocolate big leagues ? dark chocolate made with 70 percent or more cocoa content. At this point chocolate was no longer a child?s distraction, it had developed into something serious ? to be savored, appreciated and analyzed ? not unlike a fine wine. I was content to remain here, consciously sliding dark squares of elegant chocolate into my mouth whenever I needed to be transported to a complex, multilayered taste experience. I quickly discovered that extra-dark chocolate is not the binge chocolate of yesteryear. Consuming mass quantities while PMSing or nursing a broken heart just doesn?t work. Dark chocolate takes your mouth on a wild journey, it?s an unknown eco-adventure for your taste buds ? so you have to tread lightly. Honestly, I was content to stay right where I was, sampling the growing collection of artisanally crafted, often-organic dark chocolate bars, truffles and hot chocolate powders, when I stumbled on this crazy thing called a cacao bean. Told that this was chocolate in its original state, I popped the strange object into my mouth and discovered that it was hard, crunchy and seriously bitter. Alone, tempered with no sugar or milk solids, the bean was almost confronting in its intensity. But this was the source of all chocolate and so I persevered. But I soon found out that I could experience it in a much more delicious fashion ? raw chocolate bars. Simply explained, raw chocolate is chocolate that is unroasted and has been combined with a few unobtrusive ingredients like agave or sea salt. Most conventional chocolate bars are made with roasted chocolate and combined with a variety of other heavy ingredients, like refined sugar. For me, raw chocolate is a simple, unrefined chocolate experience. Daniel Sklaar, the chocolatier behind Brooklyn?s Fine and Raw Chocolate, calls it ?a complete celebration of food.? Well, it?s that too. Over the past few years you may have heard a bit about the antioxidant benefits of dark chocolate, but those claims did little to highlight the nutritional powerhouse that is raw chocolate. This stuff is truly good for you. According to David Wolfe, author of ?Naked Chocolate: The Astounding Truth About the World?s Greatest Food,? chocolate in its natural state is the best form of magnesium, chromium and iron, which are the top three mineral deficiencies in the U.S. Wolfe, one of raw chocolate?s biggest advocates, also credits cacao with being extraordinarily high in vitamin C. Cacao also contains omega-6 fatty acids and is one of the best sources of natural fiber. So doesn?t the average bar contain these things too? Not so much, explains Wolfe. When cacao is roasted it looses its vitamin C and its fiber is disturbed. Cooking cacao also destroys PEAs (phenylethylamines), the chemicals contained in chocolate that make us feel like we?re in love. ? Raw chocolate also contains neurotransmitter modulating agents, which are chemicals that act as natural antidepressants. ?They allow our neurotransmitters like serotonin to remain in our bloodstream longer than usual,? explains Wolfe. ?This makes us younger. The more chocolate you eat, the longer you live.? His words are not wishful thinking. A Harvard study of 7,841 healthy men found that those who ate chocolate did indeed live longer than those who abstained. It could be those antioxidants at work. According to Wolfe, raw cacao is the No. 1 antioxidant food in the world ? 30 times higher than red wine and 20 times higher than green tea. And then there are those love chemicals, those PEAs. Wolfe believes that raw chocolate is not only a tasty way to improve your health and vitality, but that it?s also a path to healing and soothing your heart, increasing your sensuality and enhancing your love life. Not bad for a sweet treat. Sklaar?s words followed me as I snapped off another chunk of his Lacuma and Vanilla bar: ?Chocolate is a full experience.? Mmmmm. Hmmmmm. For more information on the health benefits of raw chocolate, check out David Wolfe's new book,?"Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future." RELATED CONTENT ????????? The most-clicked chocolate cake recipe ????????? Ann Curry's favorite chocolate dessert recipe ????????? Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressure Marisa Belger is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience covering health and wellness. She was a founding editor of Lime.com, a multiplatform media company specializing in health, wellness and sustainable living. Marisa also collaborated with Josh Dorfman on ?The Lazy Environmentalist? (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang), a comprehensive guide to easy, stylish green living. Please note: Neither Marisa Belger nor TODAYshow.com has been compensated by the manufacturers or their representatives for her comments or selection of products reviewed in this column. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? ? Do you have a question for Marisa Belger? If so, write to her. She will address readers questions in her column; however, due to the individual nature of each person's situation, she cannot offer advice or suggestions beyond that available in this column (PLEASE NOTE: Questions and comments about show segments or columns not featuring Marisa Belger should be sent toToday at nbc.com) Write your question or comment in box below.? NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be used for publication. Also, please be sure to let us know if you do not want your name or hometown used. ? ? ? FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? ? -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1721 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2275 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 384 bytes Desc: not available URL: From radu_seserman at yahoo.com Wed Aug 5 22:13:04 2009 From: radu_seserman at yahoo.com (radu Seserman) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 21:13:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] The raw, tasty truth about natural chocolate In-Reply-To: <006a01ca1601$e59472d0$b0bd5870$@net> Message-ID: <550150.87969.qm@web63901.mail.re1.yahoo.com> email test Radu Seserman "Be the change that you want to see in the world." M. Gandhi "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." A. Einstein --- On Wed, 8/5/09, mary rose wrote: From: mary rose Subject: [GJM] The raw, tasty truth about natural chocolate To: "'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'" , FixGov at yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 3:21 PM Some of you may wonder what a subject like raw chocolate has to do with the ?state of the world today,? and I am here to tell you that it is part of getting back to the natural world and out of the very unhealthy one we have been indulging ourselves in the name of ?money?.? And I am so sick of all this talk of money, money, money and what it can BUY for me, ?that I want to vomit every time it comes up.? ????? ? I don?t know about you, but I am moving forward into TOTAL WELLNESS in every area of my life.? I am totally sick of hearing and listening to the wails of the maudlin as the debt-based economy and the total mental illness that went with it goes swirling down the sewer drain soon to be cleansed by the forces of nature, bringing ?restoration once again as we rid ourselves of the crap that has attached itself to it. ?I have rid my inbox of messages from the ?birther? named Nance and told her never to darken my door again.? She agreed on the condition that I not fill her box with my stuff ? which I very gladly agreed to do.? Ever notice how refreshing it is to clean house thoroughly once in awhile, open all the windows and let some fresh air in? ??What a relief to be out of the shit and be able to see the sunlight again now that a date for the long awaited end has been set for the ?bank holiday? that will signal that bottom has been hit and the only way after is ?up? as we begin to put together a ?future created by conscious design?.? And while it may be a long way ?up? again, at least now as I look through the tunnel of darkness I can see the sunlight at the top of the shaft, and imagine myself walking on it once again as the magnificence of the future unveils itself .? ? ? So, raw chocolate and everything else good and healthy, here I come!!!!?? And, I invite anyone who wants to travel this path of TOTAL WELLNESS to walk beside me into this new consciousness. ? With much love and appreciation. ? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32271092/ns/today-green/ ? By Marisa Belger TODAYShow.com contributor updated?11:04 a.m. PT,?Mon., Aug 3, 2009 ? Marisa Belger TODAYshow.com ??E-mail ? There seems to be a palate evolution with chocolate consumption, and I?m proud to announce that I?ve graduated to the next step. First there was drugstore-quality milk chocolate in all of its trick-or-treat incarnations: individual kisses, snuggled against peanut butter, pressed against caramel and nougat or sprinkled with peanuts or almonds. Then there was introductory dark chocolate ? heavy on the sugar and cocoa butter, light on actual cocoa content. After that I moved on to what I thought was the chocolate big leagues ? dark chocolate made with 70 percent or more cocoa content. At this point chocolate was no longer a child?s distraction, it had developed into something serious ? to be savored, appreciated and analyzed ? not unlike a fine wine. I was content to remain here, consciously sliding dark squares of elegant chocolate into my mouth whenever I needed to be transported to a complex, multilayered taste experience. I quickly discovered that extra-dark chocolate is not the binge chocolate of yesteryear. Consuming mass quantities while PMSing or nursing a broken heart just doesn?t work. Dark chocolate takes your mouth on a wild journey, it?s an unknown eco-adventure for your taste buds ? so you have to tread lightly. Honestly, I was content to stay right where I was, sampling the growing collection of artisanally crafted, often-organic dark chocolate bars, truffles and hot chocolate powders, when I stumbled on this crazy thing called a cacao bean. Told that this was chocolate in its original state, I popped the strange object into my mouth and discovered that it was hard, crunchy and seriously bitter. Alone, tempered with no sugar or milk solids, the bean was almost confronting in its intensity. But this was the source of all chocolate and so I persevered. But I soon found out that I could experience it in a much more delicious fashion ? raw chocolate bars. Simply explained, raw chocolate is chocolate that is unroasted and has been combined with a few unobtrusive ingredients like agave or sea salt. Most conventional chocolate bars are made with roasted chocolate and combined with a variety of other heavy ingredients, like refined sugar. For me, raw chocolate is a simple, unrefined chocolate experience. Daniel Sklaar, the chocolatier behind Brooklyn?s Fine and Raw Chocolate, calls it ?a complete celebration of food.? Well, it?s that too. Over the past few years you may have heard a bit about the antioxidant benefits of dark chocolate, but those claims did little to highlight the nutritional powerhouse that is raw chocolate. This stuff is truly good for you. According to David Wolfe, author of ?Naked Chocolate: The Astounding Truth About the World?s Greatest Food,? chocolate in its natural state is the best form of magnesium, chromium and iron, which are the top three mineral deficiencies in the U.S. Wolfe, one of raw chocolate?s biggest advocates, also credits cacao with being extraordinarily high in vitamin C. Cacao also contains omega-6 fatty acids and is one of the best sources of natural fiber. So doesn?t the average bar contain these things too? Not so much, explains Wolfe. When cacao is roasted it looses its vitamin C and its fiber is disturbed. Cooking cacao also destroys PEAs (phenylethylamines), the chemicals contained in chocolate that make us feel like we?re in love. ? Raw chocolate also contains neurotransmitter modulating agents, which are chemicals that act as natural antidepressants. ?They allow our neurotransmitters like serotonin to remain in our bloodstream longer than usual,? explains Wolfe. ?This makes us younger. The more chocolate you eat, the longer you live.? His words are not wishful thinking. A Harvard study of 7,841 healthy men found that those who ate chocolate did indeed live longer than those who abstained. It could be those antioxidants at work. According to Wolfe, raw cacao is the No. 1 antioxidant food in the world ? 30 times higher than red wine and 20 times higher than green tea. And then there are those love chemicals, those PEAs. Wolfe believes that raw chocolate is not only a tasty way to improve your health and vitality, but that it?s also a path to healing and soothing your heart, increasing your sensuality and enhancing your love life. Not bad for a sweet treat. Sklaar?s words followed me as I snapped off another chunk of his Lacuma and Vanilla bar: ?Chocolate is a full experience.? Mmmmm. Hmmmmm. For more information on the health benefits of raw chocolate, check out David Wolfe's new book,?"Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future." RELATED CONTENT ????????? The most-clicked chocolate cake recipe ????????? Ann Curry's favorite chocolate dessert recipe ????????? Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressure Marisa Belger is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience covering health and wellness. She was a founding editor of Lime.com, a multiplatform media company specializing in health, wellness and sustainable living. Marisa also collaborated with Josh Dorfman on ?The Lazy Environmentalist? (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang), a comprehensive guide to easy, stylish green living. Please note: Neither Marisa Belger nor TODAYshow.com has been compensated by the manufacturers or their representatives for her comments or selection of products reviewed in this column. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? ? Do you have a question for Marisa Belger? If so, write to her. She will address readers questions in her column; however, due to the individual nature of each person's situation, she cannot offer advice or suggestions beyond that available in this column (PLEASE NOTE: Questions and comments about show segments or columns not featuring Marisa Belger should be sent toToday at nbc.com) Write your question or comment in box below.? NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be used for publication. Also, please be sure to let us know if you do not want your name or hometown used. ? ? ? FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com email test Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? ? -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1721 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2275 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 384 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Thu Aug 6 08:58:56 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 15:58:56 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Ellen Brown -- another excellent artilce References: <63740.75798.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <012e01ca16a6$6c367190$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear All, Ellen Brown -- a Global Table member when in London -- has another excellent article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/the-public-option-in-bank_b_252161.html To the public banks of North Dakota she adds the public banks in Alberta, India and China. North Dakota makes 1% loans to start-up farmers! Go, girl! Rodney Shakespeare. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 6 21:05:54 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 20:05:54 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Starting NOW... Gregg Braden's Teleseminar & Fractal Time Book Excerpt Message-ID: <00a501ca170b$fd416180$f7c42480$@net> Although I don't have all of the pieces internalized on this, I do very much understand Braden's and Bruce Lipton's work related to fractals. So, can very much recommend this book to you. This is the look of the future and everyone needs to read this stuff as it is what will carry us Into the future. -----Original Message----- From: 144596 at priorityoneemail.com [mailto:144596 at priorityoneemail.com] On Behalf Of The Aware Show Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 2:13 PM To: Mary Rose Subject: Starting NOW... Gregg Braden's Teleseminar & Fractal Time Book Excerpt Dear Mary, Lisa here... Submit your question for Gregg Braden now, and join us Live using this link: http://www.TheAwareShow.com/braden Fractal Time is the result of a quarter century of research and discovery regarding our relationship to cycles of time. Because cycles tend to repeat, if we know where to look in the past, we know what we can expect in our future. Fortunately, Nature has given us a way to do just that! Using the unique Time Code Calculator illustrated throughout the book, anyone can easily pinpoint the dates in their personal or global past that hold the conditions that can be expected when the cycle repeats. From love, betrayal and success to the mystery of 2012, what makes this view of time so important is that each cycle also carries a window of opportunity -- a choice point -- that allows us to select a new outcome for the returning pattern. It's these understandings that guide us away from the destructive choices that we may have made in the past. They also show the way to the greatest possibilities of our lives. You need to listen to the teleseminar for instructions on how to claim your copy of this important ebook. http://www.TheAwareShow.com/braden If you can't make it now then be sure to listen to the 48-Hour Replay using this link: http://www.TheAwareShow.com/braden Blessings and Be well, Lisa Lisa Garr Host P.S. I'm sure you're going to be excited about Gregg Braden's Special Offer that he's put together just for you. This is exclusively for this teleseminar and has never been made available like this before. To learn more about this unique special offer click on the "Special Offer" button on this page: http://www.TheAwareShow.com/braden The Aware Show c/o Natural Healing Network, LLC 20929 Ventura Blvd #47-533 Woodland Hills, CA 91364 If you no longer wish to receive communication from us: http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?ID=1070385538&ARID=0&D= To update your contact information: http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?c=1&ID=1070385538&D= From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 7 03:30:40 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 09:30:40 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Peter Schiff Money Bomb August 7th and other Liberty Forest projects... In-Reply-To: <20090807032126.8168a6389742@www.ronpaulforums.com> Message-ID: <991832.9064.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Fri, 7/8/09, ronpaulforums at gmail.com wrote: From: ronpaulforums at gmail.com Subject: Peter Schiff Money Bomb August 7th and other Liberty Forest projects... To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Friday, 7 August, 2009, 4:21 AM Hey Searle88, Just a few quick updates on what is going on.? We have been busy and wanted to update you on a few things that have been taking place.? Stop back in if you haven't done so in awhile.? We've got plenty to do! ____________________ Peter Schiff Money Bomb The Peter Schiff money bomb is on August 7th.? You can donate at www.SchiffForSenate.com Peter has already raised $475,000!? That is a very encouraging sign.? If Schiff decides to not run, then he said he will give back the donations.? It's a win-win situation! You can discuss his run for Senate at our forum here:? http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=281 ____________________ Operation: Kickstart The Liberty Forest/Ron Paul Forums members have put together a pledge website to help kickstart the Federal Reserve Audit.???We plan to get as many people as possible to snail mail a letter to Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi on August 24th. That website is here: http://www.OperationKickstart.com Check out this fabulous video put together by 'Awake' one of our forum members:? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvRO2DRaEc You can discuss topics related to auditing the Fed here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58 ____________________ Midwest Liberty Fest Illinois is hosting a Liberty festival from October 9 - 11and they have a great speaker line up that includes Michael Badnarik, Sheriff Richard Mack, Adam Kokesh, and RJ Harris just to name a few! Get more info on it here:? http://www.libertyrestorationproject.org/2009/08/05/announcing-the-midwest-liberty-fest-activism-education-and-celebration/ ____________________ For Liberty Documentary The team that is putting together the For Liberty documentary has announced that they will be premiering their video some time in mid September! Here is their YouTube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/crye55 Please subscribe to them if you have a YouTube account.? They need 500 subscribers so that they can post the entire documentary in one video. If you have not seen their trailer yet check out:? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emaeln--tzo AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST ____________________ Rand Paul Money Bomb - August 20th Set your calendars!? The grassroots has picked up on the date of August 20th to donate to Rand Paul. Pledge to donate at: http://www.RunRandRun.com Check out his official site here: http://www.RandPaul2010.com We also have a large forum section dedicated to his Senate run here: http://www.RandPaulForums.com Thanks for reading.? We hope this update has been helpful! P.S.? We've got a forum mission statement coming out soon! Sincerely, The Liberty Forest/Ron Paul Forums Staff Note: This e-mail was sent to RonPaulForums.com users who have the "Receive Email from Administrators" option enabled in their settings.???To stop receiving these updates please log-in and visit: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/profile.php?do=editoptions -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 7 12:26:30 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 11:26:30 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform Message-ID: <002001ca178c$97dfb040$c79f10c0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 10:35 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform By Steven Pearlstein Friday, August 7, 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/06/AR2009080603 854.html?hpid=topnews As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line. The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems. There are lots of valid criticisms that can be made against the health reform plans moving through Congress -- I've made a few myself. But there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation. Under any plan likely to emerge from Congress, the vast majority of Americans who are not old or poor will continue to buy health insurance from private companies, continue to get their health care from doctors in private practice and continue to be treated at privately owned hospitals. The centerpiece of all the plans is a new health insurance exchange set up by the government where individuals, small businesses and eventually larger businesses will be able to purchase insurance from private insurers at lower rates than are now generally available under rules that require insurers to offer coverage to anyone regardless of health condition. Low-income workers buying insurance through the exchange -- along with their employers -- would be eligible for government subsidies. While the government will take a more active role in regulating the insurance market and increase its spending for health care, that hardly amounts to the kind of government-run system that critics conjure up when they trot out that oh-so-clever line about the Department of Motor Vehicles being in charge of your colonoscopy. ad_icon There is still a vigorous debate as to whether one of the insurance options offered through those exchanges would be a government-run insurance company of some sort. There are now less-than-even odds that such a public option will survive in the Senate, while even House leaders have agreed that the public plan won't be able to piggy-back on Medicare. So the probability that a public-run insurance plan is about to drive every private insurer out of business -- the Republican nightmare scenario -- is approximately zero. By now, you've probably also heard that health reform will cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. Another lie. First of all, that's not a trillion every year, as most people assume -- it's a trillion over 10 years, which is the silly way that people in Washington talk about federal budgets. On an annual basis, that translates to about $140 billion, when things are up and running. Even that, however, grossly overstates the net cost to the government of providing universal coverage. Other parts of the reform plan would result in offsetting savings for Medicare: reductions in unnecessary subsidies to private insurers, in annual increases in payments rates for doctors and in payments to hospitals for providing free care to the uninsured. The net increase in government spending for health care would likely be about $100 billion a year, a one-time increase equal to less than 1 percent of a national income that grows at an average rate of 2.5 percent every year. The Republican lies about the economics of health reform are also heavily laced with hypocrisy. While holding themselves out as paragons of fiscal rectitude, Republicans grandstand against just about every idea to reduce the amount of health care people consume or the prices paid to health-care providers -- the only two ways I can think of to credibly bring health spending under control. When Democrats, for example, propose to fund research to give doctors, patients and health plans better information on what works and what doesn't, Republicans sense a sinister plot to have the government decide what treatments you will get. By the same wacko-logic, a proposal that Medicare pay for counseling on end-of-life care is transformed into a secret plan for mass euthanasia of the elderly. Government negotiation on drug prices? The end of medical innovation as we know it, according to the GOP's Dr. No. Reduce Medicare payments to overpriced specialists and inefficient hospitals? The first step on the slippery slope toward rationing. Can there be anyone more two-faced than the Republican leaders who in one breath rail against the evils of government-run health care and in another propose a government-subsidized high-risk pool for people with chronic illness, government-subsidized community health centers for the uninsured, and opening up Medicare to people at age 55? Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done. If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs. From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 7 12:37:53 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 11:37:53 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Great Recession and the coming jobless recovery Message-ID: <002101ca178e$2f20e400$8d62ac00$@net> Well, here we are again with the idea that "jobs" can just be created in a limitless supply in order to provide income for everyone in spite of the knowledge that advanced technology REPLACES jobs and the need for human labor. When do we begin to get it that with advanced technology the needs of the world can be met both more efficiently and effectively without employing human labor. So, THE big question is to ask "How do we then create "purchasing power" so that the goods and services provided by advanced technology can be purchased by the now "unemployed" humans who are the ones who use them? And without destroying the life support system that is the basis for civilization -- our Earth home? -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 10:22 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Great Recession and the coming jobless recovery (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) The Great Recession and the coming jobless recovery August 6, 2009 1:05pm http://blogs.ft.com/economistsforum/2009/08/the-great-recession-and-the-comi ng-jobless-recovery/ By Roger E. A. Farmer Confidence is slowly returning to the stock market and the S&P is back to the level it reached when President Obama took office in January. This is enough to prevent a further collapse in spending; the Obama stimulus package may even move us into positive territory for US gross domestic product growth. But these 'green shoots of recovery' are not enough to create the jobs needed to restore full employment in the US. The economic history of the twentieth century is one of the struggle between classical and Keynesian ideas. Two events have transformed the history of economic thought since 1900. The first was the Great Depression of the 1930s. The second was the stagflation of the 1970s. We are now experiencing a third: the 2008 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Recession. The economics of the 1920s was the economics of Adam Smith. Markets work well and the business cycle is self-stabilising. The economics of the 1950s was that of Keynes. Markets mess up sometimes and government must get in there and fix them. In the 1980s we had a resurgence of classical ideas with simpler content but harder mathematics. Each of the two previous transformational events saw the death of a great idea. After the Great Depression it was the demise of Say's law, the idea that supply creates its own demand. After stagflation in the 1970s, economists ditched the Philips curve; the idea that there is a stable exploitable trade-off between unemployment and inflation. Which great idea will economists topple next? The next casualty of economic history will be the natural rate hypothesis. I make that case in two forthcoming books and in two recent NBER working papers. What is the natural rate hypothesis and why is it important? It is the idea that unemployment has an inherent tendency to return to some special natural rate that is a property of the available technology for finding jobs. It is a fact of nature, a bit like the gravitational constant in celestial mechanics. The natural rate hypothesis has been taught to every economist in every top economics department for the past 30 years. As part of the package they learn that the natural rate cannot be influenced by fiscal or monetary policy. The fact that central bankers believe this theory is important because it will lead them to conclude that high unemployment after the Great Recession is inevitable. That is why the Obama administration is psychologically preparing the public for the possibility that we will see double digit unemployment. If the natural rate of unemployment goes up by 5 per cent, get used to it. Economists have a name for it: A jobless recovery. But a jobless recovery is not inevitable. We do not need to accept the immense human misery that goes with permanent job losses. The natural rate of unemployment is not like the gravitational constant. It depends on the confidence of all of us and it can be influenced by policies that we can and should adopt. Confidence matters because it reflects peoples' beliefs about what their houses and their retirement portfolios will be worth. It is reflected in what they are willing to pay for these assets today, and that determines how much they are willing to spend on new cars, refrigerators and holidays in Spain. When people collectively feel rich, we are rich. When our wealth goes up, we spend more on goods. This is not an illusion or the start of a new unsustainable bubble. It is a reality. When we spend more, firms hire more workers, unemployment falls, and the belief that we are collectively wealthier becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. How does this relate to the labour market? Finding a job doesn't just happen. It uses resources. Jobs can be filled by many unemployed workers searching for a few vacancies, or by many vacancies searching for a few unemployed workers. In the first scenario an economist would conclude that the natural rate of unemployment was high; in the second he would conclude that it was low. Both of these situations are different natural rates of unemployment. Which one we end up with depends on the confidence of you and me. How does all of this relate to the coming jobless recovery? All signs are that the US economy will begin to grow again in the fourth quarter of this year. But unemployment is expected to remain high. If economists continue to believe in the natural rate hypothesis, they will conclude, as we emerge from the recession, that the natural rate of unemployment has increased. Central banks will raise interest rates to prevent inflation and face accusations by some of choking off the recovery. In reality there is nothing natural about the natural rate. What economists see as the natural rate of unemployment is driven by the beliefs of stock market participants. If confidence is high, wealth will be high and employment will be high. If confidence is low, wealth will be low and employment will be low. Either situation is consistent with any level of GDP growth and any rate of inflation. A stock market rally is not enough. The market must rally to the point where wealth enables households and firms to purchase the goods that will maintain full employment. If this does not occur, and I think this is likely, we are heading for a jobless recovery. Is there an alternative? I believe so and I have made the case elsewhere by providing a new theory that goes beyond Keynesian and classical economics. But the alternative does not involve business as usual. As I argued in the Economists Forum, central banks must act to sustain the wealth of the private sector by making sure that it is high enough and stable enough, not just to sustain positive growth, but also to provide jobs for all. C Roger E. A. Farmer: professor and chair of the economics department, University of California Los Angeles Prof Farmer is author of two books on the current crisis forthcoming with Oxford University Press. How the Economy Works and How to Fix it When it Doesn't: Confidence, Crashes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, written for laypersons and academics; and, Expectations, Employment and Prices From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 7 14:53:49 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 13:53:49 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] American jobs data are worse than we think Message-ID: <004601ca17a1$2c6f8500$854e8f00$@net> What I am getting from those who "interpret" the data in more realistic terms that includes those who have dropped off of the rolls unable to find a job during the term allotted, and those who have been forced to take a part-time job that does not even begin to meet the demands of the nation's high prices for food and shelter, is an unemployment rate closer to 20% in terms of real numbers. And, what needs to be considered here is that with information moving so quickly, the jobs being lost today are not jobs that are going to be coming back in any great numbers due to an acceleration in advanced technology which will eliminate many more jobs than it creates. And, the jobs that it does create in terms of human labor cannot be filled by individuals holding degrees in yesterday's technology. The very sad part about an individual entering into college today is that the job they are training for upon entry will most likely have been displaced by advanced information technology by the time they graduate. This makes it mandatory that education be provided by the companies designing and using the advanced technology and not by worn out institutions that only recycle rhetoric through professors who are only capable of regurgitating what they themselves were once taught. This has much to do with Dr. Alam's call for society to create Carbon-neutral Neighborhoods since activities, e.g., jobs, involved in "item" production creates much of the carbon being released into the atmosphere today. And obviously, transportation to and from jobs, coupled with transportation to schools, shopping, etc. are carbon-heavy activities that need to be eliminated. So, we must begin to take into consideration that unemployment is good for the environment which is our life support system, and which, at all costs must be preserved. More on this later. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 10:29 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] American jobs data are worse than we think (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) American jobs data are worse than we think http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e06911c-6719-11de-925f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_c heck=1 Published: July 2 2009 16:16 | Last updated: July 2 2009 16:16 What if the US unemployment rate rises above 10 per cent and stays there for an extended period? This is a question that is not being asked enough, even though it entails yet another historical anomaly that will further complicate policy formulation and open it up to greater political interference. The unemployment rate is traditionally characterised as a lagging indicator and, as such, is viewed as having limited predictive power. After all, unemployment is a reflection of decisions taken earlier in the cycle so the rate always lags behind the realities on the ground - or so says conventional wisdom. This conventional wisdom is valid most, but not all of the time. There are rare occasions, such as today, when we should think of the unemployment rate as much more than a lagging indicator; it has the potential to influence future economic behaviours and outlooks. Today's broader interpretation is warranted by two factors: the speed and extent of the recent rise in the unemployment rate; and, the likelihood that it will persist at high levels for a prolonged period of time. As a result, the unemployment rate will increasingly disrupt an economy that, hitherto, has been influenced mainly by large-scale dislocations in the financial system. In just 16 months, the US unemployment rate has doubled from 4.8 per cent to 9.5 per cent, a remarkable surge by virtually any modern-day metric. It is also likely that the 9.5 per cent rate understates the extent to which labour market conditions are deteriorating. Just witness the increasing number of companies asking employees to take unpaid leave. Meanwhile, after several years of decline, the labour participation rate has started to edge higher as people postpone their retirements and as challenging family finances force second earners to enter the job market. Notwithstanding its recent surge, the unemployment rate is likely to rise even further, reaching 10 per cent by the end of this year and potentially going beyond that. Indeed, the rate may not peak until 2010, in the 10.5-11 per cent range; and it will likely stay there for a while given the lacklustre shift from inventory rebuilding to consumption, investment and exports. Beyond the public sector hiring spree fuelled by the fiscal stimulus package, the post-bubble US economy faces considerable headwinds to sustainable job creation. It takes time to restructure an economy that became over-dependent on finance and leverage. Meanwhile, companies will use this period to shed less productive workers. This will disrupt consumption already reeling from a large negative wealth shock due to the precipitous decline in house prices. Consumption will be further undermined by uncertainties about wages. This possibility of a very high and persistent unemployment rate is not, as yet, part of the mainstream deliberations. Instead, the persistent domination of a "mean reversion" mindset leads to excessive optimism regarding how quickly the rate will max out, and how fast it converges back to the 5 per cent level for the Nairu (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment). The US faces a material probability of both a higher Nairu (in the 7 per cent range) and, relative to recent history, a much slower convergence of the actual unemployment rate to this new level. This paradigm shift will complicate an already complex challenge facing policymakers. They will have to recalibrate fiscal and monetary stimulus to recognise the fact that "temporary and targeted" stimulus will be less potent than anticipated. But the inclination to increase the dose of stimulus will be tempered by the fact that, as the fiscal picture deteriorates rapidly, the economy is less able to rely on future growth to counter the risk of a debt trap. Politics will add to the policy complications. The combination of stubbornly high unemployment and growing government debt will not play well. The rest of the world should also worry. Persistently high unemployment fuels protectionist tendencies. Think of this as yet another illustration of the fact that the US economy is on a bumpy journey to a new normal. The longer this reality is denied, the greater will be the cost to society of restoring economic stability. The writer is chief executive and co-chief investment officer of Pimco. His book, When Markets Collide, won the 2008 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 7 15:07:51 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 14:07:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Cantor Called Upon To Repudiate Rush By Jewish Dem Group Message-ID: <004701ca17a3$2198a380$64c9ea80$@net> Again, I must ask, when is it that "free speech" crosses the line and become "libel". When does criticism of a President become "character assassination" which can be as deadly as a rifle shot if legal intervention is not exercised? -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 11:09 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Cantor Called Upon To Repudiate Rush By Jewish Dem Group (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Cantor Called Upon To Repudiate Rush By Jewish Dem Group http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/07/cantor-called-upon-to-rep_n_253989. html First Posted: 08- 7-09 12:35 PM | Updated: 08- 7-09 01:19 PM In the wake of comments from Rush Limbaugh equating Barack Obama to Hitler, a leading Jewish Democratic organization is calling on the House of Representatives' lone Jewish Republican to repudiate the talk show host. On Friday, National Jewish Democratic Council David Harris called on House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to denounce Limbaugh's remarks. Pointing out that the Virginia Republican had said more "Limbaughs" were needed in the GOP just last week, Harris called on "Cantor and the Republican Party to condemn Limbaugh and these utterly contemptible tactics." "Mr. Cantor, after Rush's website antics today and comments yesterday, do you really still think you 'need' Limbaugh?" his statement read. The question wasn't immediately answered, with Cantor currently traveling in Israel. But Harris' statement got to a larger point: to what extent should the GOP -- and, in particular, its Jewish members -- be held accountable for the recent bout of Obama-Nazi comparisons? Not all Jewish organizations agree on the issue. Marc Stern, the acting executive director of the American Jewish Congress, said that it wasn't fair to tag the congressman with Limbaugh's remarks "because a week ago he said something nice about Rush Limbaugh." That said, Stern added, "I think everybody in the political system ought to eschew these remarks. I think this sorts of fire-bomb labeling is McCarthyism at its worst, whether from the left or the right... It is destructive of our politics. We don't need talk show hosts of either stripe, making informed and intelligent debate impossible." Indeed, while GOP lawmakers have gone somewhat unscathed, conservative groups and figures have been unusually willing to slap Rush Limbaugh down for this latest rhetorical splurge. Salon's Glenn Greenwald asked commentators who condemned a 2004 anonymous MoveOn.org ad comparing Obama to Hitler if they would offer similar denunciations now. Some did. "It is wrong, outrageous and damaging for Rush Limbaugh to compare Obama to Hitler," said the National Review's Cliff May. "Such hyperbole only serves to confuse and trivialize issues much more grave than tax rates and health-care plans." Reached by phone, Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti Defamation League and another individual critical of MoveOn.org, also criticized Limbaugh. "Regardless of the political difference, regardless of the substantive differences, the use of Nazi symbolism, Nazi comparison, is outrageous and inappropriate and its not where the debate should be," he said. "Disagree on the merits and the issues without collaring it with this imagery." From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 7 15:09:09 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 14:09:09 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] 39% Of Republicans Want More Birther Coverage Message-ID: <004801ca17a3$4fc4dc10$ef4e9430$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 11:05 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] 39% Of Republicans Want More Birther Coverage (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) 39% Of Republicans Want More Birther Coverage http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/gibbs-on-birthers-you-cou_n_252838. html The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner First Posted: 08- 6-09 11:23 AM | Updated: 08- 6-09 12:35 PM A Pew poll finds that a plurality of Republicans are not embarrassed by the Obama birther conspiracy. In fact, they wish the media spent more time on it. "Republicans are ... inclined to say that the allegations have received too little attention," the poll reports. "Nearly four-in-ten Republicans (39%) express this view, while 27% say they have received the right amount of attention and 26% say they have gotten too much attention. "If anything surprised me, it's how many people have heard about this," Michael Dimock, an associate director at the Pew Research Center, told the Washington Independent. "When we put the question in, we said to ourselves, well, Lou Dobbs has covered it, and it's been discussed on the Internet. For 80 percent of people to have heard something about this is pretty high." The White House expressed exasperation Thursday morning with the whole thing, after a poll found that only 53% of Virginians were sure President Obama was born in the U.S. "You couldn't sell this script in Hollywood," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. "Tell me if you've heard one that's this totally crazy," Gibbs said. "A pregnant woman leaves her home to go overseas to have a child -- who there's not a passport for -- so is in cahoots with someone...to smuggle that child, that previously doesn't exist on a government roll somewhere back into the country and has the amazing foresight to place birth announcements in the Hawaii newspapers? All while this is transpiring in cahoots with those in the border, all so some kid named Barack Obama could run for President 46 and a half years later. You couldn't sell that to the WB." From steve at behappyandfree.com Thu Aug 6 08:04:57 2009 From: steve at behappyandfree.com (Steve Consilvio) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 10:04:57 -0400 Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <28F40249-EE7C-48D5-819D-02F2BB20C938@behappyandfree.com> We need to be in harmony with the environment, which is your larger point, and where we agree. But, we must produce to survive. Without production there can be no consumption. Animals have it easy, they just live in a natural balance automatically. They are all food for one another. Being at the top of the food chain has some burdens associated with it; we must cooperate to survive. Nano technology is not a panacea anymore than planting in rows was. We still need to be able to trade what we produce, regardless of how we produce it. That is our real problem. Hence planes flying into the 'trade' center. I think of the world as a global assembly line, not unlike the 't- shirt printing factory' that I used to run. Efficiency should allow you to work easier. The fact is, my shop ran great. My problem was getting the numbers to line up. The numbers (our brain) are at odds with our hands. The profit we create comes back around as increased overhead. Overhead creates the demand for more profit. The math is a vicious circle, so eventually our hands follow. Nano technology can't solve that problem. We already have over- production in many areas. (Newspapers, radio, websites, and TV stations all carry the same news at the same time.) There is a huge duplication of the same effort, and poor quality to boot, separate from the many jobs that don't need to be done at all. That qualitative inefficiency, with greater production efficiency, (which nano technology promises) will mean we will create waste even faster than we are today. A grim fact, I think. We do not have a production problem; we have a distribution problem. Money is a key to all that because it was created to help solve distribution problems, and has instead become the primary problem of distribution. But even without money, the distribution problem will remain the same. That is what I write/talk about, but most people are like yourself, and really don't quite grasp my meaning. If only we could be as efficient at distribution as we are at production. But because of the way the numbers are wired, this is impossible. Wealth concentrates automatically, so poverty must grow as a byproduct. Your suggestion that we can 'produce more with less' is just another version of 2+2=5. (aka profit) We will never get more that what we began with. The formula everywhere must be 2+2=4. 2+2=4 is a balanced equation. The total is irrelevant. The percentage is zero. It is impossible to gain, it is impossible to lose. Everyone has everything they need. Quality is not expensive. The forecast of catastrophe is that what we have in a boom-bust cycle. No matter what you predict it will eventually be proven true. What we want is to produce and consume and remain in balance with 1) each other, 2) the environment and 3) mathematically. Prediction is easy in this environment. I am offering and explanation and an alternative. However, to accept new ideas, people must let go of old ideas. Of course, people will only accept what they can understand, and there is the rub. For example, you are an atheist, but God explained this thousands of years ago. You have faith that nano-technology can make a huge difference, just as others have faith in carbon credits. But the problem and the solution are much more simple than these complex schemes. The marketplace of technology is no different than the marketplace of money, competition, political power, etc. They are all based on man and his ego. Everything we have is a gift from God. All we have to do is cooperate and share and say thank you using the guidelines we were given. Man must live within 2+2=4. Only God can make 1+1=3 (be fruitful and multiply, fish and loaves of bread, etc) or 1+1=1 (marriage.) When man makes 2+2=5, he inevitably discovers that 5=2+2. Boom is bust. Bust is boom. Technology cannot change this equation; it is governed by whatever equation we choose to use. peace, steve On ThuAug 6, 2009, at 9:11 AM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote: > m r: Why must we continue production? At least at the pace and in > the form > it is now being accomplished? Through the use of nanotechnology, we > are > able to produce more with less, but what happens is that human labor > is not > needed since advanced technology can do a much more efficient job > without > it. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Aug 8 03:16:12 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 09:16:12 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! Message-ID: <244595.3309.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? // // // Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off Jump to content [s] Jump to site navigation [0] Jump to search [4] Terms and conditions [8] Sign in Register Mobile version Text larger smaller // on error resume next ShockMode = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.8"))) guardian.co.uk Politics Web News Sport Comment Culture Business Money Life & style Travel Environment Blogs Video Community Jobs Shop News Politics Peter Mandelson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 8 05:09:54 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 04:09:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! In-Reply-To: <244595.3309.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <588983.16812.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear Robert, I am interested in transforming the thoughts of Rothschilds who have appropriated usury. How do we do that? Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052 Tel:9968345380 --- On Sat, 8/8/09, robert searle wrote: From: robert searle Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Date: Saturday, 8 August, 2009, 2:46 PM ? Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off Jump to content [s] Jump to site navigation [0] Jump to search [4] Terms and conditions [8] Sign in Register Mobile version Text larger smaller guardian.co.uk Politics Web News Sport Comment Culture Business Money Life & style Travel Environment Blogs Video Community Jobs Shop News Politics Peter Mandelson -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net Looking for local information? Find it on Yahoo! Local http://in.local.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Aug 8 11:47:25 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 10:47:25 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Rothschild Connection.....! Message-ID: <002801ca1850$4bd5bef0$e3813cd0$@net> Since this is an area that I am researching in for The Sacred Quest, even though you directed this to Robert, Mukhtar, I'm going to jump in here and try to shed a little light on how transformation takes place. In order to accomplish transformation, the sub-conscious mind has to be reprogrammed. In other words, we need to change the way we think because if we change the way we think then we also will ultimately change the way we act and thus obtain a different outcome. What science knows today is that the human has several different "states of mind" which appear as a result of "brain waves" and the frequency with which they resonate. Five different states of mind are known today, and there may be more, but we do not as yet have the instrumentation to measure them. The five states are: 1) Beta which is a state in which the brain waves cycle between 14 to 30 hz per second. 2) Alpha - 13 to 9 hz 3) Theta - 8 to 4 hz 4) Delta 3 to 1 hz. 5) Gamma unable to measure The Theta state is the hypnotic state and then one into which we enter just before dropping off to sleep. However with training, it is possible to maintain this state without going into the sleep pattern. And, it is when we are in this state that access to the sub-conscious mind is opened so that we may "insert a new tape" and replace the old one much as we do when putting new or updated software into our computer. Scientific tests reveal that when we are in this state of mind, we can also accomplish what is referred to as "remote viewing" when trained to do so. In fact, the military has trained personnel to do remote viewing of enemy fortifications in order to determine their exact whereabouts and strength. And, "remote viewers" are employed by police departments today in order to aid them in solving crimes. So, what we are beginning to realize is that these brain waves, and especially the Theta wave, is our sub-conscious connection to the rest of the universe. Learning how to manage these brain waves is the secret to managing and maintaining our personal power in order to exert influence upon the rest of the world. While this power is inherent within us and was once known to all, through manipulation, the priests of old, in order to maintain control of the masses began to secret this knowledge and replace it with "religious orders" designed to dumb down the general population in order to maintain control over us. They also accomplished it through the influence of priests and aristocrats who became united in their efforts and took over the monetary system. Prior to the time when money became popular in the form of coinage, gold was brought into the churches and used to decorate the altars and the church itself. Then the aristocrats began to covet this gold and conspired with the pagan priests to take over the official duties of the church and turn it into a business which relied upon certain acts in order to create revenue. Some of these acts were and still are those associated with marriage, baptism, confession, tithing, etc. This is a very long and complex subject which has been maintained for about six thousand years and is referred to as the "dominator paradigm". At one point, the Rothschild family became very adept at manipulating the public and gained a tremendous amount of control. Again short version here. With the advent of modern media, it became easier to manipulate the mass mind and subvert it in the interests of a few over the many. However, with the emergence of the Internet, it has not been so easy for the clergy and the aristocrats to keep their ways of manipulation secret. And the mass mind has thus become unshackled and is beginning to break free from the hold that both religion and money have held over us. As we move into the future, we will see both religion and money become obsolete and as this happens more and more people will be able to step outside of the matrix, freed from the chains that bind us. But, make no mistake the belief systems by which we live today have been embedded within us for many thousands of years, and they will not give way easily. However, what we also know today is that music and light have great transformative powers and I am currently exploring this phenomenon with a group called Transformative Media and Entertainment on the Architects of a New Dawn social networking site hosted by Carlos Santana. I am also interacting with the Institute of HeartMath which is researching the interaction of the heart and brain with regard to the creation of "coherence" patterns in the human body/mind, and as to how these patterns extend out from the heart and "entangle" with the energy of other individuals and with the Universe itself. This entanglement between individuals is referred to as "social intelligence" and for the first time, scientists are beginning to research human consciousness with regards to how individuals "influence" one another. Again, a very long and complex subject which I will be covering in the book in detail. But for now, too much to cover here. However, here are a couple websites from which one can learn more about the Theta and other states of mind. wrote: From: robert searle Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Date: Saturday, 8 August, 2009, 2:46 PM Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] * Sign in * Register * Mobile version * Text larger * smaller guardian.co.uk home Search Location [guardian.co.uk \/] [Search] * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Blogs * Video * Community * Jobs * Shop * News * Politics * Peter Mandelson -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemo vement.net _____ Love Cricket? Check out live scores, photos, video highlights and more. Click here . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Aug 8 23:45:17 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 22:45:17 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Danger on the Right Message-ID: <000f01ca18b4$95ea7170$c1bf5450$@net> Change takes place on the fringe of chaos. We are but seeing the results of seeds sown. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2009 7:40 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Danger on the Right Danger on the Right August 7, 2009 07:08 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/danger-on-the-right_b_254421.html There is a social movement stirring on the far right of American politics and it bodes ill for our future. It is, in the classic sense, a movement, not an organization, with no coherent structure, no creed or litmus test for membership. Rather, it represents disparate currents, born of transformative developments and traumatic events that have impacted the US in recent decades. This movement has manifested itself in several forms. There are the anti-immigrant armed militias patrolling our southern border keeping out "illegals." There are also the "tax party" demonstrators, many of whom have morphed into the angry chanting mobs that are now disrupting Congressional town meetings over health care reform. And there are the so-called "birthers," a not so small fringe on the far-right, that questions Barack Obama's birth in the US and, therefore, his right to hold the office of president. If the individuals involved in these currents have anything in common, it is that they are angry and alienated and have identified "government" as a source of their problems and, therefore, as a target of their wrath. Behind all of this discontent, of course, are real problems. The economic crisis in America did not just begin with the collapse of the financial sector in the fall of 2008. For years now, the US economy has undergone a steady transformation. The loss of our manufacturing base has resulted in dramatic social dislocation evidenced by the collapse of many once prosperous and stable communities. As factories closed, not only were jobs lost and economic security threatened, but people were forced to move, neighborhoods died and families were at risk. All during the 1990's, despite gains on Wall Street, many middle class Americans were squeezed. Real incomes declined, costs of health care, education and basic commodities rose, resulting not only in a declining standard of living for many, but, for the 1st time in American history, a significant portion of the middle class began to question whether their children would be able to achieve the same economic status as their parents. The trauma of 9/11 and Katrina presented a double jolt, shaking to an even greater degree American's sense of security and their confidence in the government's ability to perform. Add to this a nativist/racist current, fueled by large numbers of immigrants from the south and fear of new foreigners (especially, after 9/11, Muslims) and the persistent presence of anti-black sentiment, and you have the ingredients of the lethal brew that is now coming to a boil. All of this, however, did not erupt spontaneously, it was helped, fueled by fires set by those who sought, in ways subtle and not so subtle, to exploit the fears afoot across the land. Radical talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Mike Savage, Fox News and even CNN's Lou Dobbs exploited these issues -- as did President George W. Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, who used it for electoral success. Even Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign playbook tapped into these currents, as did the McCain/Palin campaign strategists. And so here we are in the midst of a hot summer, with "birthers" fulminating about Obama's "foreignness," angry mobs breaking up town meetings, and polling numbers showing a deepening partisan divide across the nation. All the while these events are unfolding, analysts and commentators are spending endless hours of airtime observing and pointing accusing fingers, without making an effort to understand how this came to be and where it can go. Some conservatives are surely at fault for thinking they can simply exploit this anger, turning it on and then off, at will. And some liberals, too, are at fault for dismissing the anger they see, suggesting that it is simply manufactured and artificial and, therefore, can be ignored. I am reminded of similar developments that occurred in 1919 at the beginning of the "Red Scare." Then too, a national movement, fueled by fears of immigration, economic dislocation and wartime anti-foreign bigotry was exploited by some, ignored by others, until it got out of control, with lethal consequences. If we are not careful and understanding, and if we do not start now, both to address this troubling anger and alienation, and to hold accountable those who are stoking the embers of discontent, we could end up in the throes of a full-fledged nativist siege that could tear apart the fabric of our nation. From ceasig at gmail.com Sat Aug 8 03:38:55 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 15:08:55 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: [WaterWatch] Call for mass mobilisation against WTO Ministerial in Delhi; 3 September 2009 In-Reply-To: <5260511296849581341@unknownmsgid> References: <5260511296849581341@unknownmsgid> Message-ID: <31f677a30908080238t2db23a8w5d5cdb3024806584@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Afsar H. Jafri Date: Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 8:45 PM Subject: [WaterWatch] Call for mass mobilisation against WTO Ministerial in Delhi; 3 September 2009 To: invitesplus at yahoogroups.com *Call for mass mobilisation: Thursday, 3 September 2009*** *INDIA HOSTING WTO TRADE MINISTERS MEETING IN NEW DELHI:*** *(3 - 4 September 2009)* * * *NO SECRET WTO DEAL !* *INSTEAD OF MORE FREE TRADE, UPA SHOULD ADDRESS* *AGRARIAN, INDUSTRIAL and FINANCIAL CRISIS* * * The stalled WTO talks promoting further free trade are back on track! The recent joint declaration by the rich G-8 countries and the G-5 developing economies (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) has committed to conclude the WTO Doha Trade Round by 2010. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, in a series of secret meetings abroad, committed to global leaders that India is willing to help resolve the ?WTO impasse?. Meanwhile, the WTO has announced that its 7th Ministerial Conference will be held from Nov 30- Dec 2, 2009 in Geneva. In a hasty and reckless move, the Government of India has also committed India to host an ambitious meeting of over 20 Trade Ministers from select WTO members (September 3-4 2009 in New Delhi) to move the Doha talks forward. That WTO Director General Pascal Lamy participation in the Government of India?s initiative is clearly indicative of a ?behind the scene? deal in moving the WTO forward. The Government?s sudden proactive stance on the WTO will have far-reaching, irreversible and adverse consequences for the country?s economy and polity, particularly for the working people including the peasantry, exacerbating the impacts of the financial and agrarian crisis and further increasing the dependency of India?s industrial economy on advanced economies. India stands to lose on all key areas under negotiation ? *agriculture, fisheries, industrial tariffs, services and intellectual property*. The EU and USA will not reduce their agricultural subsidies or accept demands in sectors such as services. In fact their subsidies may actually increase in the proposed agriculture agreement. However, they are demanding that countries such as India enforce deep cuts in agricultural and industrial tariffs and open up market access in key services sectors affecting such as retail and construction and liberalise those such as banking and insurance---leading to further financial crises, increased costs and loss of both competitiveness and jobs. In the latest WTO draft, protective provisions intended for our peasantry to prevent import surges and protect key crops have been rendered ineffective. Finally, the tariff reductions and other demands in the non-agriculture negotiations which include fisheries, other natural resources and industrial products will actually force us to cut our WTO customs duties sharply. This will have enormous impacts on our organised and unorganised sectors and the future of our manufacturing and fisheries sectors. In contrast rich countries will commit to much lower reductions in their duties. The averments of the Ministry of Commerce, are well beyond the manifesto commitments on the WTO of the various parties in the UPA Government, as such indicate that the Government?s intended actions will allow the expansion of neo-liberal and imperialist forces in the country. It is imperative that any position that the UPA Government pursues on the WTO is set out in a white paper and discussed in the Parliament and the Government should not be allowed to make any commitments without consulting the parliament and state legislatures. *On SEPTEMBER 3, peasant organisations, social movements, trade unions and others will hold a mass rally at Jantar Mantar and march to the Parliament. *We call upon all democratic and progressive forces to mobilise against the WTO in Delhi and across the country on that day. *Bharatiya Kisan Union / Via Campesina, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), * *New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) and Others* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Afsar H. Jafri Senior Research Associate Focus on the Global South, India A- Wing, Flat No. 602, Building No. 9, Vrindavan C.H.S. Ltd., Shastri Nagar, Goregaon West, Mumbai - 400104 Telfax: +91-22-28769646 Email: focusindia at focusweb.org Website: www.focusweb.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages| Files| Photos| Links| Database| Polls| Calendar MARKETPLACE Mom Power: Discover the community of moms doing more for their families, for the world and for each other [image: Yahoo! Groups] Change settings via the Web(Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest| Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity - 7 New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Mom Power Discover doing more for your family Support Group Lose lbs together Share your weight- loss successes. Y! Messenger Want a quick chat? Chat over IM with group members. . __,_._,___ -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating fcarbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance best practices Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 9968345380,9210490942 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 09:36:28 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 08:36:28 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Fwd: [WaterWatch] Call for mass mobilisation against WTO Ministerial in Delhi; 3 September 2009 Message-ID: <000001ca1907$2af0cc90$80d265b0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Since food sovereignty is the cornerstone of freedom, and the only way to ensure it is to re-learn how to produce it oneself, this makes world trade a "non-sustainable" activity. We must call for an end to the transportation of food and other resources around the world in order to create "jobs" for corporations that do not leave the money in the local economy, but strip it of its resources and move on when they are gone, thus leaving the people destitute. Let us begin to practice the "art of living". "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Join the worldwide Transition Movement and move back into small communities via re-localization, and do it in a sustainable manner. mary rose Future Dawning Living simply so others may simply live www.futuredawning.org From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2009 2:39 AM To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Subject: [GJM] Fwd: [WaterWatch] Call for mass mobilisation against WTO Ministerial in Delhi; 3 September 2009 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Afsar H. Jafri Date: Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 8:45 PM Subject: [WaterWatch] Call for mass mobilisation against WTO Ministerial in Delhi; 3 September 2009 To: invitesplus at yahoogroups.com Call for mass mobilisation: Thursday, 3 September 2009 INDIA HOSTING WTO TRADE MINISTERS MEETING IN NEW DELHI: (3 - 4 September 2009) NO SECRET WTO DEAL ! INSTEAD OF MORE FREE TRADE, UPA SHOULD ADDRESS AGRARIAN, INDUSTRIAL and FINANCIAL CRISIS The stalled WTO talks promoting further free trade are back on track! The recent joint declaration by the rich G-8 countries and the G-5 developing economies (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) has committed to conclude the WTO Doha Trade Round by 2010. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, in a series of secret meetings abroad, committed to global leaders that India is willing to help resolve the 'WTO impasse'. Meanwhile, the WTO has announced that its 7th Ministerial Conference will be held from Nov 30- Dec 2, 2009 in Geneva. In a hasty and reckless move, the Government of India has also committed India to host an ambitious meeting of over 20 Trade Ministers from select WTO members (September 3-4 2009 in New Delhi) to move the Doha talks forward. That WTO Director General Pascal Lamy participation in the Government of India's initiative is clearly indicative of a 'behind the scene' deal in moving the WTO forward. The Government's sudden proactive stance on the WTO will have far-reaching, irreversible and adverse consequences for the country's economy and polity, particularly for the working people including the peasantry, exacerbating the impacts of the financial and agrarian crisis and further increasing the dependency of India's industrial economy on advanced economies. India stands to lose on all key areas under negotiation - agriculture, fisheries, industrial tariffs, services and intellectual property. The EU and USA will not reduce their agricultural subsidies or accept demands in sectors such as services. In fact their subsidies may actually increase in the proposed agriculture agreement. However, they are demanding that countries such as India enforce deep cuts in agricultural and industrial tariffs and open up market access in key services sectors affecting such as retail and construction and liberalise those such as banking and insurance---leading to further financial crises, increased costs and loss of both competitiveness and jobs. In the latest WTO draft, protective provisions intended for our peasantry to prevent import surges and protect key crops have been rendered ineffective. Finally, the tariff reductions and other demands in the non-agriculture negotiations which include fisheries, other natural resources and industrial products will actually force us to cut our WTO customs duties sharply. This will have enormous impacts on our organised and unorganised sectors and the future of our manufacturing and fisheries sectors. In contrast rich countries will commit to much lower reductions in their duties. The averments of the Ministry of Commerce, are well beyond the manifesto commitments on the WTO of the various parties in the UPA Government, as such indicate that the Government's intended actions will allow the expansion of neo-liberal and imperialist forces in the country. It is imperative that any position that the UPA Government pursues on the WTO is set out in a white paper and discussed in the Parliament and the Government should not be allowed to make any commitments without consulting the parliament and state legislatures. On SEPTEMBER 3, peasant organisations, social movements, trade unions and others will hold a mass rally at Jantar Mantar and march to the Parliament. We call upon all democratic and progressive forces to mobilise against the WTO in Delhi and across the country on that day. Bharatiya Kisan Union / Via Campesina, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) and Others ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Afsar H. Jafri Senior Research Associate Focus on the Global South, India A- Wing, Flat No. 602, Building No. 9, Vrindavan C.H.S. Ltd., Shastri Nagar, Goregaon West, Mumbai - 400104 Telfax: +91-22-28769646 Email: focusindia at focusweb.org Website: www.focusweb.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Calendar MARKETPLACE Mom Power: Discover the community of moms doing more for their families, for the world and for each other Error! Filename not specified. Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity .. 7 New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Mom Power Discover doing more for your family Support Group Lose lbs together Share your weight- loss successes. Y! Messenger Want a quick chat? Chat over IM with group members. .. Error! Filename not specified. __,_._,___ -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating fcarbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance best practices Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 9968345380,9210490942 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00017.txt URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 11:37:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 10:37:39 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Stand by Me & Playing for Change Message-ID: <000001ca1918$1dfcd9a0$59f68ce0$@net> MOVING INTO: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Lisa from the San Diego Grapevine for this one. Fw:Song sung around the world: most popular resend Posted by: "Lisa Rene Anderson" electricgoddess33 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 8, 2009 1:35 pm (PDT) Song sung around the world: Playing for Change vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 12:01:47 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 11:01:47 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Unions Receive Increasingly Scary Threats Of Violence For Town Hall Participation Message-ID: <002c01ca191b$79104040$6b30c0c0$@net> 3228_206397575120_786635120_6884192_2670071_n.jpg Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Please do your part to stop the lies and potential violence and move into a peaceful coherence pattern May we all move into the Theta state of mind through meditation and contemplative prayer and direct our thoughts of love and well-being into these troubled areas. I am holding the field for the fullest potential to unfold in these types of events in the best interests of all concerned. May peace, love and truth prevail. m r -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2009 7:45 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Unions Receive Increasingly Scary Threats Of Violence For Town Hall Participation Unions Receive Increasingly Scary Threats Of Violence For Town Hall Participation http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/08/unions-receive-increasing_n_254704. html First Posted: 08- 8-09 04:32 PM | Updated: 08- 8-09 05:10 PM Union officials continued to receive a barrage of threats on Friday evening and into Saturday punctuated by warnings that if organizers were sent to counter-demonstrate at health care town halls they would be met with violence. An official with the AFL-CIO, a federation of labor organizations, passed on what he described as a "pretty direct threat" to those union hands who were showing up to balance out anti-Obama demonstrations being waged at local Democratic forums. "I will be going to a local town hall this weekend, all you union members BEWARE!" an emailer wrote at 9:40 Saturday morning. "We will be waiting for you. better make sure you have arrangements with your local ER. today is the day when the goon meets the gun. see you there." The email was first sent to the media-watching organization Newshounds before being passed to Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO. The IP address used to post the email was traced back to Georgia. The AFL-CIO isn't the only labor organization to be on the receiving end of threats of violence. During a day in which a woman called up its national office threatening to use her Second Amendment rights should her First Amendment rights be repressed, officials at the Service Employees International Union continued to be deluged with emails and phone calls with ominous undertones. An official with the SEIU said she had received 50 such emails, including the following one, which was edited to make suitable for publication. You socialist f---s have the nerve to say stop the violence at the town hall meetings when they weren't violent until you p---ies showed up because your n----- leader obama said to?????? When we have ours in Racine, Wi, I want you there. I want one of your little b----- to put his hands on this Marine. I want one of you to look or talk to me wrong. I'll be the last thing your ignorant faux body guards will remember for a very long time. You can f---ing guarantee that. The escalating language and threats have caused union officials to grow increasingly worried about the possibility of serious violence at these town hall gatherings. On Thursday, a scuffle broke out outside a town hall in St. Louis, resulting in the arrest of an SEIU official and the injury of several participants. That same evening a near riot erupted in Tampa Bay after union hands tried to prevent an overflowing crowd from storming a town hall gathering. Lawmakers, too, are feeling the heat to keep these forums civil. A reader initialed B.W. wrote the Huffington Post that during a town hall in Plymouth, Indiana, Rep. Joe Donnelly, (D-Ind.) was forced to try out alternative measures to keep the interruptions and demonstrations at a minimum. "Instead of addressing the crowd and taking questions, his staff had every one fill out a card with a number and he met with people face to face," the reader wrote. "There were more people than time but at least 32 people spoke directly to him out of earshot of the rest of the crowd. The event had people with differing views on health care but remained very respectful. It was encouraging." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5873 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 19:17:41 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 18:17:41 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] "We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls." Message-ID: <001b01ca1958$5e0060e0$1a0122a0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thank goodness for the presence of Bill Maher to put things in perspective. Remember what I have been saying about almost 30% of the population of the USofA being legally mentally ill, and that with only 5% of the world's population the good ole USofA uses fully 40% of the world's illegal drug production and goodness only knows what percent of its legally produced mind-altering drugs. And, I have asked the question as to who is left in the category called "sane" to run the country. Somebody around here better start to lead us out of the asylum and WE better do it damn fast. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 1:59 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] "We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls." (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) "We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-smart-president_b_253996.h tml The Huffington Post Bill Maher August 7, 2009 New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn't make it a smart country. A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn't put anything past this stupid country. It was amazing - in the minute or so between my calling America stupid and the end of the Cialis commercial, CNN was flooded with furious emails and the twits hit the fan. And you could tell that these people were really mad because they wrote entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS!!! It's how they get the blood circulating when the Cialis wears off. Worst of all, Bill O'Reilly refuted my contention that this is a stupid country by calling me a pinhead, which A) proves my point, and B) is really funny coming from a doody-face like him. Now, the hate mail all seemed to have a running theme: that I may live in a stupid country, but they lived in the greatest country on earth, and that perhaps I should move to another country, like Somalia. Well, the joke's on them because I happen to have a summer home in Somalia... and no I can't show you an original copy of my birth certificate because Woody Harrelson spilled bong water on it. And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did. Or take the health care debate we're presently having: members of Congress have recessed now so they can go home and "listen to their constituents." An urge they should resist because their constituents don't know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare," which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways. I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket. Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try. Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence because it contains the words "Bush" and "knowledge." People bitch and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes 24% of our federal budget. It's actually less than 1%. And don't even ask about cabinet members: seven in ten think Napolitano is a kind of three-flavored ice cream. And last election, a full one-third of voters forgot why they were in the booth, handed out their pants, and asked, "Do you have these in a relaxed-fit?" And I haven't even brought up America's religious beliefs. But here's one fun fact you can take away: did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That's right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first. And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy? Please, this country is like a college chick after two Long Island Iced Teas: we can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked out of anything, like health care. We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls. There's a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at? Their fellow citizens. "Inside the beltway" thinking may be wrong, but at least it's thinking, which is more than you can say for what's going on outside the beltway. And if you want to call me an elitist for this, I say thank you. Yes, I want decisions made by an elite group of people who know what they're talking about. That means Obama budget director Peter Orszag, not Sarah Palin. Which is the way our founding fathers wanted it. James Madison wrote that "pure democracy" doesn't work because "there is nothing to check... an obnoxious individual." Then, in the margins, he doodled a picture of Joe the Plumber. Until we admit there are things we don't know, we can't even start asking the questions to find out. Until we admit that America can make a mistake, we can't stop the next one. A smart guy named Chesterton once said: "My country, right or wrong is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying... It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'" To which most Americans would respond: "Are you calling my mother a drunk?" Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." "Real Time" airs fridays on HBO at 10:00PM Eastern Time. -- Lorna Salzman www.lornasalzman.com "Modern science-based civilization is but a thin veneer for fundamental medieval notions divorced from empirical evidence" - Andrew Glikson From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 19:22:53 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 18:22:53 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush Message-ID: <001c01ca1959$1703cff0$450b6fd0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Isn't it time the full truth came out and the lies are laid to rest? -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 2:34 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush JAMES A. HAUGHT http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=haught_29_ 5 Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible?s satanic agents of the Apocalypse. Honest. This isn?t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God. Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their ?common faith? (Christianity) and told him: ?Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East . The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled . This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people?s enemies before a New Age begins.? This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its ?coalition of the willing? to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush?s call and ?wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.? After the 2003 call, the puzzled French leader didn?t comply with Bush?s request. Instead, his staff asked Thomas Romer, a theologian at the University of Lausanne, to analyze the weird appeal. Dr. Romer explained that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters (38 and 39) in which God rages against Gog and Magog, sinister and mysterious forces menacing Israel. Jehovah vows to smite them savagely, to ?turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,? and slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament, the mystical book of Revelation envisions Gog and Magog gathering nations for battle, ?and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.? In 2007, Dr. Romer recounted Bush?s strange behavior in Lausanne University?s review, Allez Savoir. A French-language Swiss newspaper, Le Matin Dimanche, printed a sarcastic account titled: ?When President George W. Bush Saw the Prophesies of the Bible Coming to Pass.? France?s La Liberte likewise spoofed it under the headline ?A Small Scoop on Bush, Chirac, God, Gog and Magog.? But other news media missed the amazing report. Subsequently, ex-President Chirac confirmed the nutty event in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, who tells the tale in his new book, Si Vous le R?p?tez, Je D?mentirai (If You Repeat it, I Will Deny), released in March by the publisher Plon. Oddly, mainstream media are ignoring this alarming revelation that Bush may have been half-cracked when he started his Iraq war. My own paper, The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia, is the only U.S. newspaper to report it so far. Canada?s Toronto Star recounted the story, calling it a ?stranger-than-fiction disclosure which suggests that apocalyptic fervor may have held sway within the walls of the White House.? Fortunately, online commentary sites are spreading the news, filling the press void. The French revelation jibes with other known aspects of Bush?s renowned evangelical certitude. For example, a few months after his phone call to Chirac, Bush attended a 2003 summit in Egypt. The Palestinian foreign minister later said the American president told him he was ?on a mission from God? to defeat Iraq. At that time, the White House called this claim ?absurd.? Recently, GQ magazine revealed that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attached warlike Bible verses and Iraq battle photos to war reports he hand-delivered to Bush. One declared: ?Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.? It?s awkward to say openly, but now-departed President Bush is a religious crackpot, an ex-drunk of small intellect who ?got saved.? He never should have been entrusted with the power to start wars. For six years, Americans really haven?t known why he launched the unnecessary Iraq attack. Official pretexts turned out to be baseless. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction after all, and wasn?t in league with terrorists, as the White House alleged. Collapse of his asserted reasons led to speculation about hidden motives: Was the invasion loosed to gain control of Iraq?s oil?or to protect Israel?or to complete Bush?s father?s vendetta against the late dictator Saddam Hussein? Nobody ever found an answer. Now, added to the other suspicions, comes the goofy possibility that abstruse, supernatural, idiotic, laughable Bible prophecies were a factor. This casts an ominous pall over the needless war that has killed more than four thousand young Americans and cost U.S. taxpayers perhaps $1 trillion. James A. Haught is the editor of the Charleston Gazette (West Virginia) and a Free Inquiry senior editor. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 20:09:08 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 19:09:08 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? Message-ID: <003d01ca195f$96c71f20$c4555d60$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Is it OK for this to be happening when the bankers are getting bonuses in the millions of dollars? And, what are we going to do about it? I have been asked and have accepted the position of "Spokesperson" for the Hearts of Fire Project founded by Bob Ballard. The HOFP takes on issues related to homelessness. Bob is located in Ojai, CA very near to Santa Barbara. Bob recently told me that 17 homeless people have died in Santa Barbara in the past year. The reason Bob asked me to be a spokesperson is that I was homeless back in the last big recession of the late 1980's and early 1990's. This after making a six-figure income that year and having 6 months stashed in the bank, but couldn't make it through. At the time, I was living in a 6-bedroom 4-bath home in one of the best areas of San Diego and living what I thought was the Great American Dream only to find out I was living the Great American Nightmare. So, I want you to know people, that this scenario could be you. No one is exempt from the Street Scene of Homelessness today -- everyone is at risk. We need more tent cities in every area of the U.S., and we need them now!!!! We need these tent cities to be in areas where there is space for people to learn how to raise their own food. Food sovereignty is the cornerstone of freedom and we have long been deprived of this privilege. We need to link both ourselves and the homeless to the TransitionUS movement and begin re-localization efforts from the grass-roots up. Let us begin NOW!. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 2:51 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? Published on Sunday, August 9, 2009 by The New York Times Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09ehrenreich.html by Barbara Ehrenreich It's too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it's almost illegal to be poor. You won't be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store, but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you're well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life - like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering. City officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about the ordinances that afflict the destitute, most of which go back to the dawn of gentrification in the '80s and '90s. "If you're lying on a sidewalk, whether you're homeless or a millionaire, you're in violation of the ordinance," a city attorney in St. Petersburg, Fla., said in June, echoing Anatole France's immortal observation that "the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges." In defiance of all reason and compassion, the criminalization of poverty has actually been intensifying as the recession generates ever more poverty. So concludes a new study from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which found that the number of ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with ticketing and arrests for more "neutral" infractions like jaywalking, littering or carrying an open container of alcohol. The report lists America's 10 "meanest" cities - the largest of which are Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco - but new contestants are springing up every day. The City Council in Grand Junction, Colo., has been considering a ban on begging, and at the end of June, Tempe, Ariz., carried out a four-day crackdown on the indigent. How do you know when someone is indigent? As a Las Vegas statute puts it, "An indigent person is a person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive" public assistance. That could be me before the blow-drying and eyeliner, and it's definitely Al Szekely at any time of day. A grizzled 62-year-old, he inhabits a wheelchair and is often found on G Street in Washington - the city that is ultimately responsible for the bullet he took in the spine in Fu Bai, Vietnam, in 1972. He had been enjoying the luxury of an indoor bed until last December, when the police swept through the shelter in the middle of the night looking for men with outstanding warrants. It turned out that Mr. Szekely, who is an ordained minister and does not drink, do drugs or curse in front of ladies, did indeed have a warrant - for not appearing in court to face a charge of "criminal trespassing" (for sleeping on a sidewalk in a Washington suburb). So he was dragged out of the shelter and put in jail. "Can you imagine?" asked Eric Sheptock, the homeless advocate (himself a shelter resident) who introduced me to Mr. Szekely. "They arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless." The viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent can be breathtaking. A few years ago, a group called Food Not Bombs started handing out free vegan food to hungry people in public parks around the nation. A number of cities, led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, and several members of the group were arrested. A federal judge just overturned the anti-sharing law in Orlando, Fla., but the city is appealing. And now Middletown, Conn., is cracking down on food sharing. If poverty tends to criminalize people, it is also true that criminalization inexorably impoverishes them. Scott Lovell, another homeless man I interviewed in Washington, earned his record by committing a significant crime - by participating in the armed robbery of a steakhouse when he was 15. Although Mr. Lovell dresses and speaks more like a summer tourist from Ohio than a felon, his criminal record has made it extremely difficult for him to find a job. For Al Szekely, the arrest for trespassing meant a further descent down the circles of hell. While in jail, he lost his slot in the shelter and now sleeps outside the Verizon Center sports arena, where the big problem, in addition to the security guards, is mosquitoes. His stick-thin arms are covered with pink crusty sores, which he treats with a regimen of frantic scratching. For the not-yet-homeless, there are two main paths to criminalization - one involving debt, and the other skin color. Anyone of any color or pre-recession financial status can fall into debt, and although we pride ourselves on the abolition of debtors' prison, in at least one state, Texas, people who can't afford to pay their traffic fines may be made to "sit out their tickets" in jail. Often the path to legal trouble begins when one of your creditors has a court issue a summons for you, which you fail to honor for one reason or another. (Maybe your address has changed or you never received it.) Now you're in contempt of court. Or suppose you miss a payment and, before you realize it, your car insurance lapses; then you're stopped for something like a broken headlight. Depending on the state, you may have your car impounded or face a steep fine - again, exposing you to a possible summons. "There's just no end to it once the cycle starts," said Robert Solomon of Yale Law School. "It just keeps accelerating." By far the most reliable way to be criminalized by poverty is to have the wrong-color skin. Indignation runs high when a celebrity professor encounters racial profiling, but for decades whole communities have been effectively "profiled" for the suspicious combination of being both dark-skinned and poor, thanks to the "broken windows" or "zero tolerance" theory of policing popularized by Rudy Giuliani, when he was mayor of New York City, and his police chief William Bratton. Flick a cigarette in a heavily patrolled community of color and you're littering; wear the wrong color T-shirt and you're displaying gang allegiance. Just strolling around in a dodgy neighborhood can mark you as a potential suspect, according to "Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice," an eye-opening new book by Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor in Washington. If you seem at all evasive, which I suppose is like looking "overly anxious" in an airport, Mr. Butler writes, the police "can force you to stop just to investigate why you don't want to talk to them." And don't get grumpy about it or you could be "resisting arrest." There's no minimum age for being sucked into what the Children's Defense Fund calls "the cradle-to-prison pipeline." In New York City, a teenager caught in public housing without an ID - say, while visiting a friend or relative - can be charged with criminal trespassing and wind up in juvenile detention, Mishi Faruqee, the director of youth justice programs for the Children's Defense Fund of New York, told me. In just the past few months, a growing number of cities have taken to ticketing and sometimes handcuffing teenagers found on the streets during school hours. In Los Angeles, the fine for truancy is $250; in Dallas, it can be as much as $500 - crushing amounts for people living near the poverty level. According to the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union, an advocacy group, 12,000 students were ticketed for truancy in 2008. Why does the Bus Riders Union care? Because it estimates that 80 percent of the "truants," especially those who are black or Latino, are merely late for school, thanks to the way that over-filled buses whiz by them without stopping. I met people in Los Angeles who told me they keep their children home if there's the slightest chance of their being late. It's an ingenious anti-truancy policy that discourages parents from sending their youngsters to school. The pattern is to curtail financing for services that might help the poor while ramping up law enforcement: starve school and public transportation budgets, then make truancy illegal. Shut down public housing, then make it a crime to be homeless. Be sure to harass street vendors when there are few other opportunities for employment. The experience of the poor, and especially poor minorities, comes to resemble that of a rat in a cage scrambling to avoid erratically administered electric shocks. And if you should make the mistake of trying to escape via a brief marijuana-induced high, it's "gotcha" all over again, because that of course is illegal too. One result is our staggering level of incarceration, the highest in the world. Today the same number of Americans - 2.3 million - reside in prison as in public housing. Meanwhile, the public housing that remains has become ever more prisonlike, with residents subjected to drug testing and random police sweeps. The safety net, or what's left of it, has been transformed into a dragnet. Some of the community organizers I've talked to around the country think they know why "zero tolerance" policing has ratcheted up since the recession began. Leonardo Vilchis of the Union de Vecinos, a community organization in Los Angeles, suspects that "poor people have become a source of revenue" for recession-starved cities, and that the police can always find a violation leading to a fine. If so, this is a singularly demented fund-raising strategy. At a Congressional hearing in June, the president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers testified about the pervasive "overcriminalization of crimes that are not a risk to public safety," like sleeping in a cardboard box or jumping turnstiles, which leads to expensively clogged courts and prisons. A Pew Center study released in March found states spending a record $51.7 billion on corrections, an amount that the center judged, with an excess of moderation, to be "too much." But will it be enough - the collision of rising prison populations that we can't afford and the criminalization of poverty - to force us to break the mad cycle of poverty and punishment? With the number of people in poverty increasing (some estimates suggest it's up to 45 million to 50 million, from 37 million in 2007) several states are beginning to ease up on the criminalization of poverty - for example, by sending drug offenders to treatment rather than jail, shortening probation and reducing the number of people locked up for technical violations like missed court appointments. But others are tightening the screws: not only increasing the number of "crimes" but also charging prisoners for their room and board - assuring that they'll be released with potentially criminalizing levels of debt. Maybe we can't afford the measures that would begin to alleviate America's growing poverty - affordable housing, good schools, reliable public transportation and so forth. I would argue otherwise, but for now I'd be content with a consensus that, if we can't afford to truly help the poor, neither can we afford to go on tormenting them. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company Barbara Ehrenreich is the author, most recently, of "This Land Is Their Land: Reports From a Divided Nation." From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 9 20:29:44 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 19:29:44 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Hopedance: Homeless in Santa Barbara, CA USA Message-ID: <003e01ca1962$6ee91960$4cbb4c20$@net> Moving into Total Wellness Thinking about solutions: http://www.hopedance.org/archive/issue34/articles/34-06_tentcity.html Some of the most stirring signs of social change in the state of California are springing to life in the affluent seaside city of Santa Barbara and neighboring Isla Vista. It's a development that seems to defy common sense and political logic. You don't look to tourist-oriented resort towns like Santa Barbara for inspiring examples of social justice on the move, but some of the most hope-filled homeless activism in the state is unfolding in this wealthy city located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Even here, in the midst of million-dollar mansions on the picturesque coast, poverty, police persecution and premature deaths stalk the homeless community. Following the deaths of two homeless people during an unusually cold winter, a bold group of homeless advocates took the law into their own hands and set up a tent city in Isla Vista to awaken the public conscience about the need to create a legal campground. Meanwhile, in adjacent Santa Barbara, the Committee for Social Justice continues to successfully defend homeless people from criminal charges and infractions, while working on an innovative proposal to create legal parking areas for homeless vehicle dwellers. Two deaths too many In defiance of an ordinance prohibiting overnight camping, a group of homeless activists set up an encampment in Anisq' Oyo' Park in Isla Vista to protest the lack of housing and outdoor living space. Isla Vista, an unincorporated community near Santa Barbara that is home to the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), is very densely populated. Heavy real-estate development has pushed homeless people out of the empty fields and vacant lots they used to inhabit. The tent city was set up shortly after two homeless people died in a three-week period. The first one died on Christmas night. Only three weeks later, on January 12, Deva Redwood, a longtime local resident and musician, died from what friends called the stress of being homeless. Jenny Jett, an organizer of the encampment, said people decided to hold a camp-in at the park both because of "the shock of the deaths and a pretty good cold snap when it got down to 30 degrees outside." About 15 people started camping out in tents on Sunday evening, January 27, and steadfastly refused to move as police continually threatened to arrest and cite them for illegal camping. On February 5, seven camp dwellers were given tickets for illegal camping, and are currently awaiting trial, represented by attorney Glen Mowrer. But the citations did not shut down the camp or erode the campers' resolve. They dug in their heels, vowing to keep the tent city alive unless handcuffed and forcibly removed. The encampment has survived for two months now; it was relocated once in February to nearby Estero Park. In an unexpected development, the seven defendants cited for violating the County's no-camping ordinance discovered they may have been unlawfully charged with violating a non-existent law. The Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District's own counsel discovered that the County's no-camping law doesn't apply to Isla Vista parks, which do not fall under the jurisdiction of Santa Barbara County. Defense attorney Glen Mowrer is filing a demurrer stating that the Parks District cannot use the County ordinance to prosecute the homeless defendants, and is asking that all charges be dropped. "This loophole could easily get these folks off the hook," Mowrer predicted. The surprise of finding that the County's no-camping ordinance does not apply to Isla Vista parks initially led the Parks District to consider enacting a sweeping anti-camping law of its own. But the success of the tent city in mobilizing university students and citizens in defense of the homeless has created new hope for a more tolerant approach. Mowrer said of the Isla Vista Parks District board, "I think as far as establishment people go, they're about as enlightened as we're going to get. I've found a certain willingness on their part to consider designating certain sites for camping; and if they do that, that would be a pretty nice accommodation." Jenny Jett is a housed activist who has been working with homeless people for about three years to set up a legal outdoor shelter. "Homeless people are getting tickets, and a solution is to have a legal, safe, outdoor sleeping space," she said. The campaign to establish a safe, legal encampment will be a long struggle, Jett said. "It is not something that can happen overnight. We had been trying and trying, and going to all the community meetings." Then homeless people electrified the public debate by setting up a tent city without official approval. Besides raising public awareness of the urgent need for a legal camp site, the tent city immediately improved the lives and safety of the homeless occupants. Jett said, "In essence, the tents and the community have increased everybody's standard of living way above what it was. The tents are protecting people from the wind, the cold, the animals, the bugs. People are in a group so they're safe." The tent city brought out an outpouring of community spirit, Jett said. "Everybody worked together - it was just amazing. We got a cooking thing going with a propane stove and a place to wash the dishes. There were food drives; the sororities and fraternities were bringing by food. It was kept clean. There were no problems; still, to this day, there haven't been any problems and it's been two months." The encampment received some badly needed support from students at the nearby UCSB campus. About 60 UCSB students turned out to voice their support on behalf of the homeless encampment at a mid-March meeting of the Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District (IVRPD). Jett said that the university students were very influential in speaking out for the homeless cause at the IVRPD hearing. Students and homeless people live in close proximity to one another in Isla Vista, Jett explained, and many students personally know homeless people and have come to care greatly about the homeless issue, even in an era seemingly marked by student apathy. The UCSB newspaper, The Daily Nexus, has provided positive coverage of the issues surrounding the encampment. Another important ally of the tent city has been the Committee for Social Justice, founded by Peter Marin, a poet, writer, and homeless advocate. When the IVRPD was considering a ban on sleeping and camping in early March, Marin wrote a letter reminding the IVRPD board that his Committee for Social Justice has successfully used the "necessity defense" to win acquittals of homeless people charged with city or county laws against sleeping and camping. Marin warned that the same necessity defense could be used if the IVRPD board voted for a camping ban. Marin wrote eloquently about the inhumanity of the proposed camping ban: "Do you not understand the extent to which such laws can ruin not only lives but the fabric of the community and the decencies which ought to exist among us? Are you oblivious to the violence this allows those with homes and money and privilege to do to those who lack them?" Terry Messman is editor of Street Spirit, published with permission by the Homeless Organizing Project of the American Friends Service Committee. Street Spirit enables homeless people to sell 50 papers a day and keep all proceeds. Terry can be reached by phone: 415-565-0201, or by email: spirit at afsc.org. Street Spirit receives no proceeds from sales, no government funds and accepts no advertising. To help the publication meet its printing and mailing costs, donate or subscribe to Street Spirit and help it remain an independent voice for justice and as a potential source of income to homeless vendors. Visit their website at www.afsc.org/street/strtsprt.htm. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 10 13:26:08 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:26:08 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Message-ID: <005401ca19f0$6bf05b40$43d111c0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Steve Consilvio Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 7:05 AM To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe We need to be in harmony with the environment, which is your larger point, and where we agree. But, we must produce to survive. Without production there can be no consumption. Animals have it easy, they just live in a natural balance automatically. They are all food for one another. Being at the top of the food chain has some burdens associated with it; we must cooperate to survive. mr: Humans have the same advantage as most animals do. But animals eat to live and most humans today "live to eat". We need to change this and begin taking from the earth only what we absolutely need. Nano technology is not a panacea anymore than planting in rows was. We still need to be able to trade what we produce, regardless of how we produce it. That is our real problem. Hence planes flying into the 'trade' center. mr: Nanotechnology and bio-mimicry mean "doing more with less" and doing it more efficiently as nature does. Most of what we produce today ends up in the world's garbage dumps. And, don't forget the statistics that since the end of World War II, the U.S. became the most prosperous nation in the history of the world while at the same time it caused more environmental devastation than at any time in all of past recorded history. And we accomplished this by not including the external costs associated with Production in the retail price at point of sale. And had we have done this, we would not have been able to afford the price of such things as oil, beef, fish, autos, etc. Now we are being force to address this issue. And, I do not believe we must "trade what we produce". What we need to do is to produce locally and use what we produce. We simply cannot any longer afford the costs of transportation associated with world trade. Particularly when transportation is far from being 'carbon neutral' and is, in fact, next to cattle production for beef eating and dairy products, the most polluting activity we do. I think of the world as a global assembly line, not unlike the 't- shirt printing factory' that I used to run. Efficiency should allow you to work easier. The fact is, my shop ran great. My problem was getting the numbers to line up. The numbers (our brain) are at odds with our hands. The profit we create comes back around as increased overhead. Overhead creates the demand for more profit. The math is a vicious circle, so eventually our hands follow. mr: When one considers what I just pointed out above, it becomes obvious that the world cannot be a "global assembly line" in order to "make work" for people so they can earn a living wage. Nano technology can't solve that problem. We already have over- production in many areas. (Newspapers, radio, websites, and TV stations all carry the same news at the same time.) There is a huge duplication of the same effort, and poor quality to boot, separate from the many jobs that don't need to be done at all. That qualitative inefficiency, with greater production efficiency, (which nano technology promises) will mean we will create waste even faster than we are today. A grim fact, I think. mr: Yes, as I write above, we need to cut way back on production. Again let me reiterate that the U.S. has continued to hire 75% of the presently available labor force when it only takes 30% to produce all the goods and services necessary for the world. This hiring factor has resulted in an excess of goods and services being produced in the U.S. much of what falls into the "luxury" goods class in the way of large homes, extravagant autos, etc. which far exceed 'needs'. This practice has resulted in the using up of resources at an unprecedented rate such that by the year 2030 it will require the equivalent of two Earths in order for us to meet the demands for resources equivalent to today's needs. As we can readily see this is a physical impossibility. And essentially the world is ecologically bankrupt mainly due to excess" production" in today's world. But, no matter it is obvious both China and India, who have now been programmed to use the US model for growth, want their fair share of the modern lifestyle which is impossible to have on a finite planet. We do not have a production problem; we have a distribution problem. Money is a key to all that because it was created to help solve distribution problems, and has instead become the primary problem of distribution. But even without money, the distribution problem will remain the same. That is what I write/talk about, but most people are like yourself, and really don't quite grasp my meaning. If only we could be as efficient at distribution as we are at production. But because of the way the numbers are wired, this is impossible. Wealth concentrates automatically, so poverty must grow as a byproduct. Your suggestion that we can 'produce more with less' is just another version of 2+2=5. (aka profit) We will never get more that what we began with. The formula everywhere must be 2+2=4. 2+2=4 is a balanced equation. The total is irrelevant. The percentage is zero. It is impossible to gain, it is impossible to lose. Everyone has everything they need. Quality is not expensive. The forecast of catastrophe is that what we have in a boom-bust cycle. No matter what you predict it will eventually be proven true. What we want is to produce and consume and remain in balance with 1) each other, 2) the environment and 3) mathematically. Prediction is easy in this environment. I am offering and explanation and an alternative. However, to accept new ideas, people must let go of old ideas. Of course, people will only accept what they can understand, and there is the rub. mr: IMHO, we do not have a distribution problem, we have a resource problem. And, while we cannot create enough resources to alleviate the problem associated with a growing population and developing countries that now want their fair share, we can mitigate the circumstances by using the resources we have in more efficient ways. The secret is to "live simply so that others may simply live". This quote was made by M. Gandhi. Take for instance, the T-shirt manufacturing business you owned. I would bet anything that the T-shirts were made from cotton grown using highly toxic fertilizers and pesticides rather than being made from either organically-raised cotton or hemp, both of which are more environmentally-friendly, and as well, kinder to the human body. And, you did so because it was cheaper to use chemically-saturated cotton rather than organically-raised cotton or hemp. But what was never factored into your sale price was the "exterior costs" to the environment which had to be passed on to future generations in order for you to make a profit and stay in business. Then, if you were shipping these products neither was the exterior cost of shipping factored in. Your focus was on making a profit rather than acting in the best interests of all concerned. In their book, "Natural Capitalism," Paul Hawken, et al, give many more examples of how to do things more efficiently and thus restructure our resource base in order to do more with less. May I suggest you read it before writing anything further as you are obviously very uninformed. Money is the problem not the solution because it has now become our God and everything most people do is: for the love of God disguised as money. You wrote: In the example you give below, using Christianity as a basis or belief system, the problem is that from this view there is such a thing as "matter". However, science is revealing today that there is no such thing as solid matter. We are all nothing more than vibrating energy/information fields. And if you hold anything up under a powerful enough microscope what is revealed are particles of energy in the form of electrons, atoms, etc. that are connected to one another only by the electromagnetic field that underlies all of life. However, Buddhism, which may be the religion that is closest to the truth, is based in quantum physics and in this belief system, there is no God. And, I do believe you are right in that most of what we believe in is an ego trip of the mind. Personally I feel very much that I have stepped outside of this matrix and live much closer to the truth. For example, you are an atheist, but God explained this thousands of years ago. You have faith that nano-technology can make a huge difference, just as others have faith in carbon credits. But the problem and the solution are much more simple than these complex schemes. The marketplace of technology is no different than the marketplace of money, competition, political power, etc. They are all based on man and his ego. Everything we have is a gift from God. All we have to do is cooperate and share and say thank you using the guidelines we were given. Man must live within 2+2=4. Only God can make 1+1=3 (be fruitful and multiply, fish and loaves of bread, etc) or 1+1=1 (marriage.) When man makes 2+2=5, he inevitably discovers that 5=2+2. Boom is bust. Bust is boom. Technology cannot change this equation; it is governed by whatever equation we choose to use. peace, steve From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 10 13:37:00 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:37:00 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: News: Bonuses Exceed Profits, Thimerosal in Swine Flu Vaccines, Immunity for Big Pharma Message-ID: <005501ca19f1$f0442150$d0cc63f0$@net> From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 10:22 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: News: Bonuses Exceed Profits, Thimerosal in Swine Flu Vaccines, Immunity for Big Pharma To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/009/090810_bank_bonuses_thimerosal_vaccines_legal_immunity Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles you may have missed. These articles include revealing information on a report that bonuses paid by the biggest Wall Street banks far exceed profits, plans to include mercury-laden thimerosal in swine flu vaccines, legal immunity for Big Pharma makers of the vaccines, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here . The most important sentences are highlighted for those with limited time. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word , we can and will build a brighter future. With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special note: For those who want to know how the Fed is likely manipulting a rise in stock prices which could set the stage for even worse economic depression, read the highly informative article available here. _____ Bank Bonuses Far Exceeded Profits July 30, 2009, CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/30/business/main5197668.shtml Several financial giants that received federal bailout money in the last year paid out bonuses to employees in 2008 that greatly exceeded the amount of profit generated by the banks, according to a study on executive compensation released by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday. Despite claims by bank executives that bonuses are tied to the company's performance, the report states that "there is no clear rhyme or reason to how the banks compensate or reward their employees." Cuomo's investigation "suggests a disconnect between compensation and bank performance that resulted in a 'heads I win, tails you lose' bonus system." According to the report: ? Goldman Sachs, which earned $2.3 billion last year and received $10 billion in TARP funding, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses in 2008 - more than double their net income. ? Morgan Stanley, which earned $1.7 billion last year and received $10 billion in bailout funds, handed out $4.475 billion in bonuses, nearly three times their net income. ? JPMorgan Chase, which earned $5.6 billion in 2008 and received $25 billion from the government, paid out $8.69 billion in bonus money. ? Citigroup and Merrill Lynch lost a combined $54 billion last year. They received a total of $55 billion in bailouts and paid out $9 billion in combined bonuses. ($5.33 billion for Citigroup; $3.6 billion for Merrill Lynch, which was subsequently acquired by Bank of America.) Bonuses have been a hot-button issue surrounding these federally bailed out banks for months, with company executives facing heat from ... local officials like Cuomo angered by the exorbitant compensation plans for the same people widely seen as responsible for the country's financial crisis. Note: Click here to read the full report. For lots more on the realities behind the taxpayer bailout of Wall Street, click here. _____ Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers July 20, 2009, MSNBC/Associated Press http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31971355/ns/health-swine_flu The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time, the government has already taken steps to head that off. Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, government health officials said Friday. Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. The document signed by Sebelius last month grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies. It allows for a compensation fund, if needed. The government takes such steps to encourage drug companies to make vaccines, and it's worked. Federal officials have contracted with five manufacturers to make a swine flu vaccine. The last time the government faced a new swine flu virus was in 1976. Federal officials vaccinated 40 million Americans during a national campaign. A pandemic never materialized, but thousands who got the shots filed injury claims, saying they suffered a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome or other side effects. Note: Note for a powerfully revealing CBS report on blatant fear mongering and profiteering from the 1976 swine flue scare, click here . For many revealing reports on corruption in the medical/governmental complex, click here . _____ Flu Vaccine Panel Creates Priority List July 30, 2009, Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072903607.html A complicated list of who should get [swine] flu vaccine in the fall is now set. When the vaccine starts arriving in September, first in line will be pregnant women; the caretakers of infants; children and young adults; older people with chronic illness; and health-care workers. That's the advice of a 15-member committee of experts, which met all day Wednesday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to advise the federal government on vaccine policy. The priority list names targeted groups and suggests the order in which they should be vaccinated. "The results of this meeting will kick planning into high gear," said Pascale Wortley of the CDC's Immunization Services Division. "This is a watershed moment." All that's missing is the vaccine, knowledge of how well it works and the nitty-gritty details of how to deliver it to people's arms and noses. The vaccine will come in two forms: the traditional flu shot and a "live" vaccine squirted into the nose that contains a weakened version of the new virus. Some of the vaccine will be stored in multi-dose vials containing thimerosal, an antibacterial additive that contains mercury. But there will also be single-dose syringes without thimerosal, a substance that some assert is harmful to children. Among the many unanswered questions is whether two doses will be necessary to provide full protection, how close in time two shots can be given and how big the dose will be. Vaccination programs may start before the answers are known. Note: Why is thimerosal being used? It is a mercury additive around which there appears to be a major cover-up. For several other revealing articles which suggest an dangerous agenda with the swine flu vaccine, click here . _____ Will Safety Fears Hurt Swine Flu Vaccinations? July 30, 2009, ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Health/SwineFluNews/story?id=8206167 With the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hoping to have 120 million doses of H1N1 swine flu virus vaccine ready before flu season this fall, some are raising concerns over what they see as an effort to rush the drug through safety trials. The source of many of these concerns is the probability that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal will be an ingredient in some of the doses of the new vaccine. Concern over thimerosal has lingered for years. Groups opposed to current vaccination practices continue to condemn thimerosal as a toxin responsible for the development of autism and related ailments in children. Additionally, the possibility that the swine flu vaccine could also contain an adjuvant, an ingredient that would allow more doses to be created from existing supplies of the vaccine, has also worried these groups. "We don't have adequate safety studies on this vaccine before we are moving forward to market," said Lyn Redwood, president and co-founder of the group SafeMinds . "I'm really not convinced that we know for sure that the risk of the disease outweighs the risk of the vaccine, especially since this is a brand new additive that we have never used before in combination with thimerosal." During the 1976-77 flu season, a vaccine developed to prevent the spread of a strain of the swine flu was linked to an as-yet-unexplained increase in cases of a rare neurological condition known as Guillain-Barre syndrome in those who received immunizations. Note: For many powerful reports from reliable sources on the dangers of vaccines, click here. _____ Thimerosal and the Swine Flu Vaccine July 29, 2009, ABC News blogs http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/thimerosal-and-the-swine-flu-vaccine.html Today at the CDC in Atlanta, health officials are huddled, trying to game plan the best way to dole out a vaccine for swine flu. But what about the vaccine preservative thimerosal? Here is what the CDC says about Thimerosal: "There is no convincing evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site." Thimerosal is no longer used in all child vaccines made in the US except for the flu vaccine. Here is the CDC on Thimerosal and flu shots: "Yes, the majority of influenza vaccines distributed in the United States currently contain Thimerosal as a preservative. However, some contain only trace amounts of Thimerosal and are considered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be preservative-free." It would seem likely that the new Swine Flu vaccine therefore would contain some amount of Thimerosal. It would also seem likely that will give some parents pause. Note: For a powerful article on a major cover-up around thimerosal written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., click here. For many powerful reports from reliable sources on the dangers of vaccines, click here . _____ Swine flu tally halted as school year fears loom July 17, 2009, MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31962005/ns/health-swine_flu Worldwide cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus are spreading so fast that overwhelmed global health officials have stopped counting and officials with the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they'll soon follow suit. "We don't know the extent of the challenges that we'll face in the weeks and months ahead," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for the Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Schuchat did not elaborate on how the CDC would inform the public about the extent of the outbreak, which has been confirmed in more than 40,600 people and implicated in 263 deaths in the United States. WHO had reported nearly 95,000 cases including 429 deaths worldwide. Earlier Friday, WHO officials said tracking individual swine flu cases is too overwhelming for countries where the virus is spreading widely. WHO will no longer issue global totals of swine flu cases, although it will continue to track the global epidemic. Note: Why would they stop counting cases? The numbers have always at best been estimates. Millions died in the 1918 flu epidemic and they have counted and reported those numbers extenstively. Could it be someone or some group does't want us to know how few are actually dying? For several other revealing articles which suggest an dangerous agenda with the swine flu vaccine, click here . _____ How Gary McKinnon became a cause celebre August 4, 2009, BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8181100.stm British computer hacker Gary McKinnon's fight against extradition to the US has drawn support from a large and diverse range of influential people. How did his case become such a cause celebre? Mr McKinnon has become Britain's best-known conspiracy theorist. Mr McKinnon does not deny he hacked into Pentagon systems, but claims he was searching for evidence of a UFO cover-up. The American authorities see it differently. The 43-year-old is a wanted man in the US, where he has been accused of "the biggest military computer hack of all time". For the past five years he has been fighting an extradition request from the American authorities which want to try him on US soil. If convicted there he faces up to 60 years in prison. Along the way he has amassed a legion of supporters, as diverse in their make up as they are distinguished in their own fields of achievement. They include novelist Nick Hornby, film critic Barry Norman, Emma Noble, the ex-glamour model and former daughter-in-law of John Major, Sting, his film producer wife Trudie Styler and actress Julie Christie. Politicians of all hues have also leapt on Mr McKinnon's case. And pop stars Chrissie Hynde and Sir Bob Geldof have teamed up with Gilmour to record a song of support. In the past six weeks his cause has been further bolstered by a high-profile campaign in the Daily Mail newspaper. Note: For more on Gary McKinnon's fascinating reasons for hacking into US military computer systems, click here and here . _____ Can the Military Find the Answer to Alternative Energy? July 23, 2009, BusinessWeek magazine http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_31/b4141032537895.htm The big drive to create a viable alternative-energy future ? by Detroit, multinationals such as IBM and BP, and Silicon Valley startups ? is well-known. But there's another serious player in this sphere: the U.S. military, and especially DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. Created at the height of the Cold War to bolster U.S. military technology following the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellite launch, the agency has a long history of innovation. Most famously, DARPA's researchers first linked together computers at four locations in the early 1960s to form the ARPANET, a computer network for researchers that was the core of what eventually grew into the Internet. Other breakthroughs have helped lead to the commercial development of semiconductors, GPS, and UNIX, the widely used computer operating system. Can DARPA now score another double success by changing how both the military and civilian worlds consume and produce energy? DARPA's first goal is always to magnify the might of the U.S. armed forces. That's why Arlington (Va.)-based DARPA is devoting an estimated $100 million of its $3 billion annual budget to alternative energy. DARPA describes itself as an incubator of long-shot technologies too risky for almost anyone else to take on. The agency operates by issuing challenges to companies that are so tough they are called "DARPA-hard." Typically, DARPA requires contractors to come up with solutions that are orders of magnitude superior to current technology. In addition to spurring the development of palm-size fuel cells, DARPA has contracted with companies to miniaturize solar cells that would supplant the need for generators. _____ Solar Industry: No Breakthroughs Needed August 3, 2009, MIT Technology Review http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23108/ The federal government is behind the times when it comes to making decisions about advancing the solar industry, according to several solar-industry experts. This has led, they argue, to a misplaced emphasis on research into futuristic new technologies, rather than support for scaling up existing ones. That was the prevailing opinion at a symposium last week put together by the National Academies in Washington, DC, on the topic of scaling up the solar industry. The meeting was attended by numerous experts from the photovoltaic industry and academia. And many complained that the emphasis on finding new technologies is misplaced. "This is such a fast-moving field," said Ken Zweibel, director of the Solar Institute at George Washington University. "To some degree, we're fighting the last war. We're answering the questions from 5, 10, 15 years ago in a world where things have really changed." Industry experts at the Washington symposium argued that new technologies will take decades to come to market, judging from how long commercialization of other solar technologies has taken. Meanwhile, says Zweibel, conventional technologies "have made the kind of progress that we were hoping futuristic technologies could make." For example, researchers have sought to bring the cost of solar power to under $1 per watt, and as of the first quarter of this year one company, First Solar, has done this. These cost reductions have made solar power cheaper than the natural-gas-powered plants used to produce extra electricity to meet demand on hot summer days. Note: Interesting that MIT has reported this story, but none of the major media picked it up. Solar energy will very likely be cheaper than oil-generated energy in under 10 years. For more on the current state of solar, click here . _____ Key Articles From Years Past _____ New documents show the monkey virus is present in more recent polio vaccine July 22, 2001, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/07/22/MN173141.DTL A monkey virus linked to human cancers may have contaminated the oral polio vaccine for years after the U.S. government ordered manufacturers to remove it. The Chronicle reported last week that the simian virus SV40 had contaminated early polio vaccine given to millions of Americans. When health officials discovered in 1961 that SV40 caused malignant tumors in lab animals, they ordered the virus eliminated from all future vaccine. But internal memos from Lederle Laboratories, the chief producer of polio vaccine in the United States, indicate SV40 may not have been completely removed. According to one memo, SV40 was found in three of 15 lots of the oral vaccine seven months after the federal directive was issued in March 1961. Lederle released the contaminated vaccine to the public anyway, the memo shows. Scientists discovered SV40 in the Salk polio vaccine in 1960. By then as many as 30 million Americans had been given injections of the SV40-tainted polio vaccine, which was first licensed in 1955. In recent years more than 60 scientific studies have found SV40 in rare human brain, bone and lung-related cancers, the same kinds of tumors the virus caused in laboratory animals. Some scientists believe SV40 may play a role in causing those cancers. The Lederle documents, which were obtained by Philadelphia attorney Stanley Kops in litigation not related to SV40, raise the possibility the virus might have been transmitted by contaminated oral vaccine, licensed for production in 1962. Note: There are numerous major problems with how vaccines are monitored and developed, yet the media largely fails to address this major issue. For many powerful reports from reliable sources on the dangers of vaccines, click here . For lots more, click here and here . _____ Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. 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URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 10 14:07:31 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:07:31 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The White House, Washington Message-ID: <008b01ca19f6$33980350$9ac809f0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 11:06 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The White House, Washington (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) The White House, Washington Dear Friend, Anyone that's watched the news in the past few days knows that health insurance reform is a hot topic -- and that rumors and scare tactics have only increased as more people engage with the issue. Given a lot of the outrageous claims floating around, it's time to make sure everyone knows the facts about the security and stability you get with health insurance reform. That's why we've launched a new online resource -- WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=text ] -- to help you separate fact from fiction and share the truth about health insurance reform. Here's a few of the reality check videos you can find on the site: * CEA Chair Christina Romer details how health insurance reform will impact small businesses [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/21/?e=10&ref=text3 ]. * Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes tackles a nasty rumor about euthanasia [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/7/?e=10&ref=text4 ] and clearly describes how reform helps families. * Matt Flavin, the White House's Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, clears the air about Veteran's benefits [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/6/?e=10&ref=text5 ]. * Kavita Patel, M.D., a doctor serving in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, explains that health care rationing is happening right now and how reform gives control back to patients and doctors [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/4/?e=10&ref=text6 ]. * Bob Kocher, M.D., a doctor serving on the National Economic Council, debunks the myth that health insurance reform will be financed by cutting Medicare benefits [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/31/?e=10&ref=text7 ]. There's more information and a number of online tools you can use to spread the truth among your family, friends and other social networks. Take a look: Health Insurance Reform Reality Check [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=image ] We knew going into this effort that accomplishing comprehensive health insurance reform wasn't going to be easy. Achieving real change never is. The entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo always use their influence in Washington to try and keep things just as they are. But don't be misled. We know the status quo is unsustainable. If we do nothing, millions more Americans will be denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions, or see their coverage suddenly dropped if they become seriously ill. Out-of-pocket expenses will continue to soar, and more and more families and businesses will be forced to deal with health insurance costs they can't afford. That's the reality. Americans deserve better. You deserve a health care system that works as well for you as it does for the status quo; one you can depend on -- that won't deny you coverage when you need it most or charge you crippling out-of-pocket co-pays. Health insurance reform means guaranteeing the health care security and stability you deserve. President Barack Obama promised he'd bring change to Washington and fix our broken, unsustainable health insurance system. You can help deliver that change. Visit WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck, get the facts and spread the truth. [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=text2 ] The stakes are just too high to do nothing. Thank you, David David Axelrod Senior Advisor to the President Visit Whitehouse.gov [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=whi ] From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 10 16:49:17 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:49:17 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Boycott FOX News Advertisers Message-ID: <000b01ca1a0c$cc0db2e0$642918a0$@net> For your information and consideration. From: Democrats.com [mailto:activist at democrats.com] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:26 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Boycott FOX News Advertisers Democrats.com, the Aggressive Progressives - 600,000 strong and growing! Current Advertisers ( 8/9/09 ) 60Plus.org AARP Insurance Accu Chek Aviva ADT Security Ally Bank (allybank.com) Apple Avodart Brita Filter Broadbive Security Conservatives for Patients Rights Ditech (ditech.com) Forex.com Golden Corral Healthy Choice HSBC Life Insurance Mens Warehouse Mercedes-Benz Metastock Nexium Pepboys Radio Shack Rapid Wash Red Lobster Sargento Cheese Super8 motels (super8.com) Superior Gold Group United Healthcare Insurance United States Postal Service Wallstreet Journal Weitz&Luxemburg FOX News has always been the prop aganda arm of the Republican Party, willing to twist facts and even lie to promote the Republican agenda. But the election of President Obama in 2008 pushed FOX News into outright hate-mongering and incitement of violence, which is intolerable in a democracy. Tell FOX News advertisers to cancel their ads: http://www.democrats.com/boycott-fox-news-advertisers?cid=ZGVtczM5MDY0N2RlbX M= Here are some examples of intolerable hate speech and incitement to violence: 6/30/09 Glenn Beck agreed with guest who urged bin Laden to attack U.S. with nuclear weapons. 7/25/09 Neil Cavuto and guest said health care reform will impose universal euthanasia like "Soylent Green." 7/28/09 Glenn Beck said "The President has exposed himself as a guy .. who has a deep-seated hatred for white people ... or the white culture... This man is a racist." 8/6/09 Glenn Beck "joked" about giving Speaker Pelosi a glass of wine with poison. We join with FoxNewsBoycott and Color Of Change in this boycott, which is already producing outstanding results. In the first week, 11 advertisers cancelled their FOX ads: Campbell Soup, Chrysler, General Motors, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Lawyers.com, Nestle, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, and Walmart. Read the latest update. Tell FOX News advertisers to cancel their ads: http://www.democrats.com/boycott-fox-news-advertisers?cid=ZGVtczM5MDY0N2RlbX M= Thanks for all you do! Bob Fertik ##### Let's bring the Twitter Revolution to the USA! Follow Bob Fertik: http://twitter.com/bobfertik Follow David Swanson http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson Follow our Activist Alerts: http://twitter.com/democratscom Follow AfterDowningStreet http://twitter.com/afterdowningst ##### Forward this message to everyone you know! Subscribe to our email Activist Alerts by creating a free Democrats.com account: http://www.democrats.com/user/register Unsubscribe from our Activist Alerts: http://archive.democrats.com/unsub.cfm?email=maryrose333 at att.net&fieldname=L 16 Unsubscribe from all Democrats.com email lists: http://archive.democrats.com/unsub.cfm?email=maryrose333 at att.net&fieldname=L 1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Aug 11 04:07:03 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:07:03 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Link Message-ID: <410168.24603.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ??Dear Mukhtar,et al, Unfortunately, the post which was sent did not contain the article for whatever reasons. It was basically about Lord Mandelsson, and the fact that he was staying at Nat Rothschilds mansion on the Island of Corfu. It seemed a little odd that someone high in the government should be connected with the Rothschilds in some manner. Conspiracy theorist would love this and would suggest in their little minds that the Brit govt is somehow colluding with the banking fraternity to take over the world...or some other dumb notion!!?As far as I am concerned I feel it is probably a waste of time trying to get rid of ribba. Instead this could be paid for by some independent public body as montiored newly created non-repayable money. However, banks of the future would issue loans but they would ofcourse be interest free. I know the idea presented here is distasteful to virtually all other monetary reformers but I am not particularly bothered. We have to work with the Big Boys as it is painfully clear that we are not going to make much progress otherwise. ?http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics?????Dear Robert, I am interested in transforming the thoughts of Rothschilds who have appropriated usury. How do we do that? Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052 Tel:9968345380 --- On Sat, 8/8/09, robert searle wrote: From: robert searle Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Date: Saturday, 8 August, 2009, 2:46 PM ? Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off Jump to content [s] Jump to site navigation [0] Jump to search [4] Terms and conditions [8] Sign in Register Mobile version Text larger smaller guardian.co.uk Politics Web News Sport Comment Culture Business Money Life & style Travel Environment Blogs Video Community Jobs Shop News Politics Peter Mandelson -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net Looking for local information? Find it on Yahoo! Local http://in.local.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: Previous message: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! Next message: [GJM] Fwd: [WaterWatch] Call for mass mobilisation against WTO Ministerial in Delhi; 3 September 2009 Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] More information about the Discussion mailing list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 11 16:31:36 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:31:36 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Awareness of Reality Seen as Doomsaying Message-ID: <002801ca1ad3$7e936150$7bba23f0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thank you Dave for bringing some sense to the issues we are faced with today. -----Original Message----- From: Dave Ewoldt [mailto:dave at reststop.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 2:03 PM To: Daves Posts Subject: Awareness of Reality Seen as Doomsaying Awareness of Reality Seen as Doomsaying by Dave Ewoldt August, 2009 http://naturalsystems.blogspot.com/2009/08/awareness-of-reality-seen-as- doomsaying.html A rational people would look at the title of this short essay and think it's a sci-fi piece describing an alternate bizarro universe. A rational people would examine the facts--the assembled evidence and the veracity of the people presenting it--and use that as a basis for both determining appropriate action and the timeframe necessary to implement said action. Because time _is_ running out and things _are_ getting worse. It should be obvious the manner in which we're going about our attempts to institute change isn't working, so we should re-evaluate proposed action plans. Instead, we have somehow fooled ourselves into thinking that we will cause irreparable damage to tender, fragile psyches by pointing out that someone's actions will either not deliver the intended results, or will actually cause more harm. We have what resembles the attitude of too many modern parents, "Oh, isn't that cute, he's trying so hard" as the toddler destroys instead of saying "No" and taking the hammer away. It appears that what may be happening is that the possible loss of a few modern "conveniences" as we run up against peak oil, peak soil, peak water, peak money and peak life is being equated with doom and gloom, as we glibly ignore the actual negative consequences of these conveniences. Or we spend inordinate amounts of time and energy attempting to find loopholes to continue the status quo instead of figuring out other ways to meet our needs or even seriously analyze whether those are real or manufactured needs in the first place. We want the economy to return to normal, when "normal" is what has caused the myriad global crises we face. We rationalize and excuse inaction, inappropriate action or compromise as we steadfastly ignore the improvements to quality of life from proposed alternatives that systemically challenge the fundamentals of the status quo such as reconnecting with nature and relocalizing our lifestyles, organizations, and communities. What all this mainly demonstrates to me is a lack of imagination. The main "convenience" we seem to be protecting is not having to think too hard about any of this. It's like the oil company executives who say we won't actually hit peak oil until we run out of technology. Forget about climate and/or exploitation of people and nature and/or the known laws of physics and/or true human nature when freed from the shackles of dominator hierarchies. The liberal, NewAge mindset that every view is equally valid is actually a sign of moral decay. It is a sign of a society that has lost its way; that has abandoned its soul because it has disconnected it from its sustaining and nurturing source. Spending a weekend at a grief workshop while pretending to be a nature spirit isn't going to overcome this. In fact, the likelihood of doing so seems to be inversely proportional to the number of books published on the subject. Now, I fully understand that people who are working hard, for noble purposes, on "change" don't want to hear that cash-for-clunkers, ACES, and the public option for disease care are just reshuffling deck chairs; that sustainability initiatives that enable continued growth on an overdeveloped planet are anything but sustainable; that the natural world imposes real limits on both population and resource extraction that we ignore to our--and all other forms of life--peril. But, there it is. And until you figure out a way to connect with a parallel universe, you're going to have to deal with it in a manner that is more effective than telling people to shut up when they point out the Emperor (regardless of ethnic background or which wing of the Corporate War Party he or she represents) has no clothes. Until someone can explain to me the advantages of compromising with evil (that which doesn't support life) I will continue to hold moral actors accountable for their actions based on the way that natural systems principles contribute to healthy, vibrant and resilient--that is, sustainable--ecosystems. Which we are perfectly capable of duplicating. Right now. For the Earth... _dave_(this entire message is composed of recycled electrons) Natural Systems Solutions http://www.attractionretreat.org http://naturalsystems.blogspot.com Sustainable lifestyles, organizations, and communities From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 11 17:10:19 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:10:19 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Resuscitating Health Care Reform - Lifestyle Change a Most Important Factor Message-ID: <003201ca1ad8$e79d6330$b6d82990$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 1:20 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Resuscitating Health Care Reform (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Resuscitating Health Care Reform Posted: August 10, 2009 12:01 AM Dr. Dean Ornish Medical Editor, The Huffington Post, Founder and President of Preventive Medicine Research Institute http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dean-ornish/resuscitating-health-care_b_255 224.html Health reform is in danger of failing because the focus has been too much on who is covered and not enough on what is covered. Health care reform is primarily about health insurance reform, with the main battle being over coverage and the payment system. Of course, we need to provide coverage for the 48 million Americans who do not have health insurance. It is morally indefensible that we have not already done so. But we also need to transform what is covered. If we want to make affordable health care available to the 48 million Americans who do not have health insurance, then the fundamental causes of many chronic diseases need to be addressed -- which are primarily the lifestyle choices we make each day -- rather than only literally or figuratively bypassing them. If we just cover bypass surgery, angioplasty, stents, and other interventions that are dangerous, invasive, expensive, and largely ineffective on 48 million more people, then costs are likely to increase significantly at a time when resources are limited. As a result, painful choices are being discussed -- rationing, raising taxes, and/or increasing the deficit -- and these are threatening the public acceptance and thus the viability of health reform. Meaningful health reform needs to provide incentives for physicians and other health professionals to teach their patients healthy ways of living rather than reimbursing primarily drugs and surgical interventions. If lifestyle interventions proven to reverse as well as prevent many chronic diseases are reimbursed along with other strategies for improving cost-effectiveness across the U.S. healthcare system, then it may be possible to provide universal coverage at significantly lower cost without making painful choices, and the only side-effects are good ones. The U.S. "health-care system" is primarily what Senator Harkin [D-Iowa] calls "a sick-care system." Last year, $2.1 trillion dollars were spent in this country on medical care, or 16.5% of the gross national product, and 95 cents of every dollar were spent to treat disease after it had already occurred. Heart disease, diabetes, prostate/breast cancer, and obesity account for up to 75% of these health care costs, and yet these are largely preventable and even reversible by changing diet and lifestyle. Here's some very good news: last Thursday, Senator Ron Wyden [D-Ore] introduced new legislation, the "Take Back Your Health Act" (S. 1640) that will pay for intensive lifestyle changes as treatments, not just prevention, for these conditions as a complement to regular medical care. This legislation was co-sponsored by Senator John Cornyn (R-Tex) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Mike Roizen, and I consulted on this legislative language. "This is a groundbreaking bill, based on the proven idea that lifestyle changes can improve the health of those with chronic disease if people stick with a program that has that goal in mind," said Senator Wyden. "The Take Back Your Health Act gets doctors and patients invested in the success of treatment, since doctors won't be paid unless their patients actually get better." "This legislation will provide seniors who have chronic diseases with the care coordination, training, and support necessary to make and sustain intensive lifestyle changes that have been clinically proven to beneficially affect or even reverse the progression of many chronic diseases," said Senator Cornyn. "I'm pleased to join with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion and will continue pushing for common-sense solutions to our health care system." "The health reform debate is not about continuing the status quo, but about changing our health care system and the medicine we do," Senator Harkin said. "This legislation will change the medicine Medicare does by reimbursing health care professionals for proven programs to address disease, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer, through intensive lifestyle change. Health reform is about giving individuals more choices and individuals should be given the option to engage in a lifestyle treatment program instead of surgery and pills." Our research, and the work of many others, have shown that our bodies often have a remarkable capacity to begin healing, and much more quickly than we had once realized, if we address the lifestyle factors that often cause these chronic diseases. Medicine today focuses primarily on drugs and surgery, genes and germs, microbes and molecules, but we are so much more than that. Many people tend to think of breakthroughs in medicine as a new drug, laser, or high-tech surgical procedure. They often have a hard time believing that the simple choices that we make in our lifestyle -- what we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke cigarettes, how much exercise we get, and the quality of our relationships and social support -- can be as powerful as drugs and surgery, but they often are. Often, even better. These choices are especially clear in cardiology as an example of this larger issue. Large-scale studies have shown that changing lifestyle could prevent at least 90-95% of all heart disease.1 Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs Americans more than any other illness is almost completely preventable, and even reversible, simply by changing lifestyle. In contrast, many people are surprised to learn that bypass surgery and angioplasty don't work very well. In 2006, for example, according to the American Heart Association,2 1.3 million angioplasties and stents were performed at an average cost of $48,399 each, or more than $60 billion. In addition, 448,000 coronary bypass operations were performed at a cost of $99,743 each, or more than $44 billion -- i.e., more than $100 billion for these two operations. Despite these costs, a major randomized controlled trial found that angioplasties and stents do not significantly prolong life or even prevent heart attacks in stable patients (i.e., in most patients who receive them).3 Earlier randomized controlled trials of coronary bypass surgery found that this procedure prolongs life in only a small fraction of patients -- those with left main coronary artery disease or equivalent and left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction less than 30%). A recent randomized controlled trial in diabetics found that neither bypass surgery nor angioplasty prolonged life or prevented heart attacks.4 Lifestyle changes also can be reframed not only as preventing chronic diseases but also as reversing the progression of these illnesses -- i.e., as intensive non-surgical, non-pharmacologic interventions. What we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke cigarettes, how much exercise we get, and the quality of our relationships and social support may be as powerful as drugs and surgery in treating (not just preventing) many chronic diseases. Our studies showed that people with severe coronary heart disease were able to stop or reverse it by making intensive lifestyle changes, without drugs or surgery, and these findings have now been replicated by several others.5 There was some reversal of heart disease after one year and even more improvement after five years, and there were 2.5 times fewer cardiac events when compared to a randomized control group.6 Almost 80% of patients eligible for bypass surgery or angioplasty were able to safely avoid it by making comprehensive lifestyle changes instead, saving almost $30,000 per patient in the first year when compared to a matched control group.7 In a second demonstration project with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, these comprehensive lifestyle changes reduced total health care costs in those with coronary heart disease by 50% after only one year and by an additional 20-30% in years two and three when compared to a matched control group. Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs Americans more than any other illness is almost completely preventable, and even reversible, simply by changing lifestyle. We don't have to wait for a new breakthrough in drugs or surgery; we just need to put into practice what we already know. Reimbursement is a major determinant of how medicine is practiced. When reimbursement changes, so do medical practice and medical education. Some question whether or not prevention saves money, asking whether these approaches actually prevent or only delay the onset of disease. Part of the reason that preventive approaches are usually scored by the Congressional Budget Office (which estimates the overall costs of any legislation) as significantly increasing costs is that lifestyle changes are viewed only as primary prevention -- paying money today in hopes of saving money later. But even primary prevention saves money, although the cost savings per person are not as high as when intensive lifestyle changes are offered as treatment to those who are already sick. For example, three years ago, Steve Burd (CEO of Safeway) realized that health care costs for his employees were exceeding Safeway's net income -- clearly, not sustainable. I consulted with him in redesigning the corporate health plan for his employees in ways that emphasized prevention and wellness, provided incentives for healthful behaviors, and paid 100% of the costs of preventive care. Overall health care costs decreased by 15% in the first year and have remained flat since then. Many other worksite wellness programs have shown cost savings as well as a happier and more productive workforce. This approach is bringing together Democrats and Republicans, labor and management. In each of these studies, significant savings occurred in the first year -- medically effective and cost effective. Why? Because there is a growing body of scientific evidence showing how much more dynamic our bodies are than had previously been believed. The same intensive lifestyle changes that may reverse the progression of coronary heart disease may also slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer,8 whereas conventional treatments such as radical prostatectomy and radiation may not prolong life except in the small percentage of patients who have the most aggressive disease.9 These lifestyle changes also may beneficially affect gene expression in only three months, turning on genes that prevent disease and turning off genes that promote heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and other illnesses.10 Often, people say, "Oh, it's all in my genes, there's not much I can do about it." For many people, it captures their imagination to know that changing lifestyle changes their genes for the better. Last year, my colleagues and I published the first study showing that these intensive lifestyle changes significantly increase telomerase, and thus telomere length, in only three months.11 (Even drugs have not been shown to do this.) Telomeres are the ends of your chromosomes that help control aging -- as your telomeres get longer, your life gets longer. (Like all research, these relatively small studies need to be replicated in larger randomized controlled trials.) Lifestyle changes are not only as good as drugs but often even better. For example, a major study showed that lifestyle changes are even more effective than diabetes drugs such as metformin in reducing the incidence of diabetes in persons at high risk, with lower costs and fewer side-effects.12 "Prevention" often conjures up false choices -- "Is it fun for me or is it good for me? Am I going to live longer or is it just going to seem longer if I eat and live healthier?" Because these mechanisms are so dynamic, most people find that they feel so much better, so quickly, it reframes the reason for making these changes from fear of dying (which is too scary) or risk factor modification (which is too boring) to feeling better. Many patients say that there is no point in giving up something that they enjoy unless they get something back that's even better -- not years later, but days or weeks later. Then, the choices become clearer and, for many patients, worth making. They often experience that something beneficial and meaningful is quickly happening. The benefit of feeling better quickly is a powerful motivator and reframes therapeutic goals from prevention or risk factor modification to improvement in the quality of life. Concepts such as "risk factor modification" and "prevention" are often considered boring and they may not initiate or sustain the levels of motivation needed to make and maintain comprehensive lifestyle changes. In our experience, it is not enough to focus only on patient behaviors such as diet and exercise; we often need to work at a deeper level. Depression, loneliness, and lack of social support are also epidemic in our culture. These affect not only quality of life but also survival. Several studies has shown that people who are lonely, depressed, and isolated are many times more likely to get sick and die prematurely than those who are not. In part, this is mediated by the fact that they are more likely to engage in self-destructive behaviors when they feel this way, but also via mechanisms that are not well-understood. For example, many people smoke or overeat when they are stressed, lonely, or depressed. What is sustainable is joy, pleasure, and freedom, not deprivation and austerity.13 When you eat a healthier diet, quit smoking, exercise, meditate, and have more love in your life, then your brain receives more blood and oxygen, so you think more clearly, have more energy, need less sleep. The latest studies have shown that your brain may grow so many new neurons that it may get measurably bigger in only a few months -- this was thought to be impossible only a few years ago. Your face gets more blood flow, so your skin glows more and wrinkles less. Your heart gets more blood flow, so you have more stamina and can even begin to reverse heart disease. Your sexual organs receive more blood flow, so you may become more potent -- the same way that drugs like Viagra work. For many people, these are choices worth making -- not just to live longer, but also to live better. In other words, the debate on prevention often misses the point: the mortality rate is still 100%, one per person. So, it's not just how long we live but also how well we live. Making comprehensive lifestyle changes significantly improves the quality of life very quickly, which is what makes these changes sustainable and meaningful. Unfortunately, anything involving lifestyle changes gets held to a different standard. Drugs and surgery are not required to show that they save money in order to be covered, only that they work. Lifestyle changes often work even better, and at lower cost. Finally, it's worth pointing out that what's good for your personal health is good for the planet's health; what's personally sustainable is globally sustainable. For example, eating a diet high in red meat increases the risk of heart disease and many forms of cancer. It also increases global warming: livestock cause more global warming than all forms of transportation combined due to methane production, which is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.14 As Senator Harkin said, "To date, prevention and public health have been the missing pieces in the national conversation about health care reform. It's time to make them the centerpiece of that conversation. Not an asterisk. Not a footnote. But the centerpiece of health care reform." If we don't, then the escalating costs and resulting painful choices -- rationing, raising taxes, and/or increasing the deficit -- are threatening the public acceptance and thus the viability of health reform. References: 1. Yusuf S, Hawken S, ?unpuu S, et al. Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study). Lancet. 2004; 364: 937-52. 2. Lloyd-Jones D, Adams R, Carnethon M, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics 2009 update. A report from the American Heart Association statistics committee and stroke statistics committee. Circulation. 2009;119:e1-e161. 3. Boden WE, O'Rourke RA, Teo KK, et al. Optimal medical therapy with or without PCI for stable coronary disease. N Engl J Med. 2007;356:1-14. 4. The BARI 2D study group. A randomized trial of therapies for type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease. N Engl J Med. 2009;360:2503-15. 5. Ornish DM, Brown SE, Scherwitz LW, et al. Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary atherosclerosis? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet. 1990; 336:129-133. 6. Ornish D, Scherwitz LW, Billings JH, et al. Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA. 1998;280:2001-2007. 7. Ornish D. Avoiding Revascularization with Lifestyle Changes: The Multicenter Lifestyle Demonstration Project. American Journal of Cardiology. 1998;82:72T-76T. 8. Ornish D, Weidner G, Fair WR, et al. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol 2005;174:1065-1070. 9. Barry MJ. Screening for Prostate Cancer -- The Controversy That Refuses to Die. N Engl J Med. 2009;360:1351-4. 10. Ornish D, Magbanua MJ, Weidner G, et al. Changes in prostate gene expression in men undergoing an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 2008;105:8369-8374. 11. Ornish D, Lin J, Daubenmier J, et al. Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes: a pilot study. Lancet Oncol 2008;9:1048-1057. 12. Diabetes Prevention Research Group. Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. N Engl J Med. 2002;346:393-403. 13. Ornish D. The Spectrum. New York: Random House/Ballantine Books, 2008. 14. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's report, Livestock's Long Shadow. Accessed on April 16th, 2007. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 12 03:30:19 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:30:19 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [Hgs] [UMKCLEE-URPE] EU Framework 7 Finance Research Call - US versions? Message-ID: <204877.57246.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 11/8/09, Lee, Frederic wrote: From: Lee, Frederic Subject: [Hgs] [UMKCLEE-URPE] EU Framework 7 Finance Research Call - US versions? To: UMKCLEE-URPE at LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU Date: Tuesday, 11 August, 2009, 2:01 PM Dear Colleagues, ? Below is the link to a call for proposals by the European Union for a four to five years research on finance that explicitly calls for alternative approaches to finance from an interdisciplinary perspective. Given the amount of the project (several million euros), it is expected to attract proposals of teams composed of around ten or more research units coming from as many Europeans countries as possible. The project has not only a scientific objective, but also a normative one, and it should not only include academic teams, but also engage stakeholders such as researchers having some link to trade unions, organizations engaged in the protection of the environment, among others.? Ronan O'Brien, in charge of the project, is very open to the socials studies of finance and is quite available for any questions concerning the ways to submit an acceptable proposal. Note that the deadline is in February. Is there anything similar that you've heard about for the US?? Is there any way these questions can be distributed to the ICAPE email list?? I'm anxious to hear about any similar work for the US. Thanks. Ken Kenneth R. Zimmerman, Ph.D. Senior Analyst Oregon Public Utility Commission Electric and Natural Gas Division Natural Gas Rates & Planning 550 Capitol Street, NE Suite 215 Salem OR 97308-2148 503.373.1583 (office) 503.559.9694 (cell) 503.373.7752 (fax) ken.zimmerman at state.or.us http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7DetailsCallPage&call_id=252 ?----- To be removed from this mailing list, please send an email message to the address leefs at umkc.edu asking to be removed from this list. Problems or questions should be directed to sullivanmw at umkc.edu. &*TO; -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ HGS mailing list HGS at lists.econ.utah.edu http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/hgs -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 12 03:33:34 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:33:34 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Miss B and Malaysia Message-ID: <891842.56687.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? I was interested to read this on Miss Bs blog. She does come with some interesting stuff on occassion. I also ?seem at present to find it difficult to find really solid information about state banks in China, and India. Maybe someone can point me in the right directions!! ? ? Ellen Brown, on February 7th, 2009 at 7:43 pm Said: ? ? Thanks Ann! I was just in Malaysia. Their central bank is government-owned. In fact, they had trouble believing it when I said our ?Federal? Reserve isn?t federal. Malaysia managed to retain their public central banking system and to avoid the 1998 Asian crisis by standing up to the IMF and international banking pressures, but most countries in that region did not. China of course still has a publicly-owned central bank. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 12 03:34:59 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:34:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Re: DEMOCRACY IS THE MOST DANGEROUS FORM OF DICTATORSHIP!!! Message-ID: <770050.59917.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ??? This might amuse some of the conspiracy nuts!! ? R.S. --- On Tue, 11/8/09, Norman Kurland wrote: From: Norman Kurland Subject: Re: DEMOCRACY IS THE MOST DANGEROUS FORM OF DICTATORSHIP!!! To: "Stan Szopa" Cc: "Farah Yurdozu" , "William Fox" , rfiyouzat at yahoo.com, "Dellena Rovito" , "Stephen Calkins" , "Steve Elliott" , aparnatc at yahoo.com, ashoksaxena20 at yahoo.com, cojock at hotmail.com, CWilli5210 at aol.com, dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk, directoroffice at idrbt.ac.in, echojurist at yahoo.com, telergy at bigpond.com, Guy.Judge at port.ac.uk, "Andrew Winkler" , "standingelk1111" , "Ryan Wood" , "Dr. Robert Wood" , aj at gevaerd.com, ami at taconic.net, hkhan at u21global.edu.sg, jocec at uky.edu, Hotline at oig.treas.gov, iyps08-owner at yahoogroups.com, R.W.Bushaway at bham.ac.uk, abel at lightnet.co.uk, jae at econ.cam.ac.uk, madhavbankjpr at gmail.com, MCMalebranche at haiti.org, econometric.theory at yale.edu Date: Tuesday, 11 August, 2009, 11:42 PM Stan, I'd be interested in your thoughts about the Just Third Way?? http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/paradigmpapers/jtw-greengrowth.pdf If control over money is control over society, then why don't you consider joining us in the next rally of the Coalition for Capital Homesteading at America's "main Temple of Money", the Federal Reserve?? See http://www.youtube.com/justthirdway.? Or maybe you'll consider signing our Declaration of Monetary Justice: http://www.cesj.org/about/programs/declarations/monetaryjustice.htm In Peace, Prosperity and Justice, only through Justice, Norm Center for Economic and Social Justice www.cesj.org Stan Szopa wrote: > > > > > > > > Democracy is in reality a smoke screen > for obscenely rich skillful manipulators. > >? > > > > > > > > > > They are skillful in using psychology, > statistics and marketing to manipulate the mood of the crowd. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > Democracy is a new form of adaptation > of power hungry clique that trough bribery, intimidation, assassinations and > false flag operations (mass murder of 3000 US citizens in the 9/11) exercise > their hidden agenda to get the absolute dictatorship. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > ??The real rulers all along have been the major money lenders behind > the scenes. The pretended "presidents," "senators," "representatives," > "secretaries," "judges," "generals," "ambassadors," "emperors," > "kings," "queens," "prime ministers," etc. are mostly pawns of the > money lenders. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > In reality the whole world is ruled by secret bands of money lenders, tyrants, robbers, and murderers?? - LYSANDER SPOONER > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > More in: > > > > > > > > > http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07.shtml > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Often an airplane with few hundred > innocent people is crashed to assassinate just one inconvenient citizen like > in a case of Beverly Eckert, whose husband died at the World Trade Center. She > is the founder of Voices of September 11th, a victims? advocacy group. > > > > > > > > > > Beverly Eckert was killed on February > 12, 2009 in the crash of Continental flight 3407 outside of Buffalo, New York. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > ?Published > on Friday, December 19, 2003 by the USA Today > > > > > > > > > > My > Silence Cannot Be Bought > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > by > Beverly Eckert > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > I've chosen to go to court rather than accept a payoff from > the 9/11 victims compensation fund. Instead, I want to know what went so wrong > with our intelligence and security systems that a band of religious fanatics > was able to turn four U.S passenger jets into an enemy force, attack our cities > and kill 3,000 civilians with terrifying ease. I want to know why two 110-story > skyscrapers collapsed in less than two hours and why escape and rescue options > were so limited?? > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > Few days lasting democratic election is > an Opiate for the Masses that are hungry for justice and involvement in > politics. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > It is total stupidity to assume that voting > can accomplished anything but progressive enslavement and degradation of any > society and environment. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > Majority of elected representatives > will do everything possible to maintain increase of their power because the > power fueled by greed is an unquenchable addiction turning human into a > psychopathic monster. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > All passed legislations have only one > goal: > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > To limit individual citizen freedom and > rights in a name of protection against other less manageable citizens. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > On positive note: > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > ??Seth Godin believes that the Internet > has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past > -- tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the > power to lead and make big changes. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > He urges everyone to do so. So do I?? > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > More in: > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > ?How We Can Lead Others in the Health > Care Revolution? by Mercola > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/08/08/How-We-Can-Lead-Others-in-the-Health-Care-Revolution.aspx > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > Well, well not so easy. Rich parasites > will not surrender that quickly. > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > ??Senate bills No.773 and 778, introduced by Sen. Jay > Rockefeller; are both part of what?s being called the Cybersecurity Act of > 2009?charged with defending the country from cyber attack?? > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > More in: > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQSoq7Exhxw > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > ??Why the internet? Because the > internet is a huge echo chamber. It also influences what news you see on your > television or MSM news sites, like CNN, ABC, MSNBC and CBS for instance. It > also influences what you read in your newspapers worldwide. With today?s 24 > hour news cycle, the need for fresh news is quite important for retaining > viewers and readers. So, many news publications and organisations turn to the > internet to see what the ?buzz? is and then report on that. Also, due to the > internets wide range of people and access to webcams, videos and blogs, many > times regular individuals get important news online before main stream media > does. Given these facts, who ever controls the internet controls the > news and controls the battle for the hearts and minds of the general public...? > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > More in: > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/media/internet/news.php?q=1235433896 > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > Best regards, > > > > > > > > > >? > > > > > > > > > > Stan > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >? ? ???__________________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now > http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com. >??? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Wed Aug 12 04:08:41 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:08:41 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Miss B and Malaysia References: <891842.56687.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <008901ca1b34$defd44f0$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Robert, Ellen Brown's most recent article has something on the Indian and Chinese banks. Rodney Shakespeare. ----- Original Message ----- From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:33 AM Subject: [GJM] Miss B and Malaysia I was interested to read this on Miss Bs blog. She does come with some interesting stuff on occassion. I also seem at present to find it difficult to find really solid information about state banks in China, and India. Maybe someone can point me in the right directions!! Ellen Brown, on February 7th, 2009 at 7:43 pm Said: Thanks Ann! I was just in Malaysia. Their central bank is government-owned. In fact, they had trouble believing it when I said our ?Federal? Reserve isn?t federal. Malaysia managed to retain their public central banking system and to avoid the 1998 Asian crisis by standing up to the IMF and international banking pressures, but most countries in that region did not. China of course still has a publicly-owned central bank. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Wed Aug 12 04:14:34 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:14:34 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Miss B and Malaysia References: <891842.56687.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <00a201ca1b35$b113c540$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Also today's Daily Telegraph -- Credit tightening threatens China's 'giant Ponzi scheme' Rodney S. ----- Original Message ----- From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:33 AM Subject: [GJM] Miss B and Malaysia I was interested to read this on Miss Bs blog. She does come with some interesting stuff on occassion. I also seem at present to find it difficult to find really solid information about state banks in China, and India. Maybe someone can point me in the right directions!! Ellen Brown, on February 7th, 2009 at 7:43 pm Said: Thanks Ann! I was just in Malaysia. Their central bank is government-owned. In fact, they had trouble believing it when I said our ?Federal? Reserve isn?t federal. Malaysia managed to retain their public central banking system and to avoid the 1998 Asian crisis by standing up to the IMF and international banking pressures, but most countries in that region did not. China of course still has a publicly-owned central bank. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 12 09:55:38 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:55:38 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Relaxation Drinks Message-ID: <006601ca1b65$58010870$08031950$@net> MOVING INTO: Total Wellness This article, taken from the newsletter "Shaping Tomorrow," outlines how the corporations attempt to lead we the "sheeple" in ways designed to make mega bucks for them using products and creating trends around them. This is very interesting in that it appears to offer a "quick fix" to an ages old problem for which the Chinese spent thousands of years perfecting an answer. What I am talking about are programs such as Tai Chi, Qigong, or Yoga, all of which are "energy management" programs designed to manage the life force called "chi" that flows throughout our body. Recall our previous discussion as to how we are "the body electric" and need to be "grounded" in order for our system to operate correctly. In this respect, we are like any other appliance, and just the same as any other appliance, the energy within needs to be managed properly in order for our system to work both effectively and efficiently in our best interests. There is so much more to this, but time and space do not permit an in-depth exploration at this point. However, I do want to bring your attention to the subject of energy management programs that have proven effective over thousands of years, so the next time you decide to purchase an energy drink of whatever kind, you may also ask yourself as to whether or not it is the best choice of those available today. One of the big considerations is the packaging of energy or other drinks which require the use of aluminum, plastic or glass containers in order to get them to market. All of these have implications for our environment. In the next day or so, I will be publishing an article that explores these implications in depth. Relaxation drinks http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/trendAlert.cfm?id=18008 Author Mark Niles Energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster have become a popular beverage in modern society over the last few years; however, a new breed of "relaxation drinks" seeks to upset the energy drink's dominance of the functional beverage market. With names such as Slow Cow, Drank, and Vacation in a Bottle (Vib), these products employ flashy packaging and hip advertising, similar to their energy drink brethren. Does the emergence of this new product category hint at a larger societal desire to slow down, or it is just another marketing fad? Insights: New Beverage War Erupts Among 'Relaxation Beverages' x Slowing My Roll With Drank Extreme Relaxation Beverage x http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/mxajax/core/images/ajax-loader-red.gif Our quick, high level, global assessment of this trend's Signal Strength Signal Strength http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/images/spacer.gif Decision act now! Change improvement Penetration widespread Impact low Likelihood high Urgency low Time-frame now Implications The potential success of relaxation drinks could spur the development and demand for other relaxation foods. This could include chewing gum, deserts, snack bars, etc. Producing some of these foods will require the introduction of relaxation inducing substances; however, some foods naturally contain such ingredients. Although foods in the latter category will require no alteration, their packaging, marketing, and advertising spin will. The emergence of relaxation drinks may just be a passing fad; however, it could also indicate a larger societal desire for a slower less stressful life. To deal with stress, consumers have been turning to things like energy drinks, fast food, caffeine, and even subscription drugs that help people power through intense work schedules and time commitments. Consumers may be beginning to realize that performance enhancing products aren't the only means of dealing with stress. What could this mean for employers, food manufacturers, retailers, and policy makers? Modern consumers seem to increasingly depend upon external substances to control bodily functions and moods: energy drinks to stay awake, sleeping pills for rest, Ritalin to control hyperactivity, and so on. Long-term use of such substances could potentially lead to a wide array of health problems in the future and some would say we are already seeing signs of this. Natural alternatives of mood and body management methods include yoga, meditation, proper nutrition, exercise, and the appropriate amount of sleep. What would create a societal paradigm shift away from substance based management of bodily functions to a system dependant on more natural methods? What is changing? Although beverages such as tea, warm milk, and alcohol have been recognized for their calming effects for thousands of years, a fully crystallized market for "relaxation drinks" has not emerged until quite recently. These drinks offer an alternative to functional energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster and go as far to employ similar packaging and marketing strategies. The producers of relaxation drinks hope to enjoy a slice of the growing functional beverage. Just as energy drinks contain ingredients' that promote alertness such as caffeine, guarana, acai, and taurine, relaxation drinks contain ingredients that promote calmness and focus such as L-theanine, melatonin, chamomile, valerian, and passiflora. There is some debate about the effectiveness of relaxation drinks and concern over possible health impacts; some relaxation drinks contain large amounts of sugar and other potentially harmful substances. Vacation in a Bottle (ViB), the leading relaxation drink, is a low-sugar lightly carbonated beverage that claims to enhance focus and relaxation. Drank, named after a recreational drug popular in the hip-hop community, contains a cocktail of purportedly calming ingredients and sports the slogan "Slow Your Roll." Slow Cow, a relaxation drink from Canada, has packaging that seems to poke fun at Red Bull, a prominent player in the energy drink world. Why is this important? The potential success of relaxation drinks could spur the development and demand for other relaxation foods. This could include chewing gum, deserts, snack bars, etc. Producing some of these foods will require the introduction of relaxation inducing substances; however, some foods naturally contain such ingredients. Although foods in the latter category will require no alteration, their packaging, marketing, and advertising spin will. The emergence of relaxation drinks may just be a passing fad; however, it could also indicate a larger societal desire for a slower less stressful life. To deal with stress, consumers have been turning to things like energy drinks, fast food, caffeine, and even subscription drugs that help people power through intense work schedules and time commitments. Consumers may be beginning to realize that performance enhancing products aren't the only means of dealing with stress. What could this mean for employers, food manufacturers, retailers, and policy makers? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 673 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 168 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 12 10:31:09 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:31:09 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Science for Life - A show for Science Lovers Message-ID: <007d01ca1b6a$4ed4c250$ec7e46f0$@net> From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:55 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Science for Life - A show for Science Lovers Trouble reading this email? Read it online here Hello friends, Our August 12th Show - Thomas Campbell - Theory of Everything Our guest on August 12 is Thomas Campbell, author of My Big TOE - The Complete Trilogy My Big TOE is about life, purpose, personal significance, physics, evolution, and the reason why. The acronym "TOE" is a standard term in the physics community that stands for "Theory Of Everything." Such a theory has been the "Holy Grail" of physicists for more than fifty years. My Big TOE delivers the solution to that scientific quest at the layman's level with precision and clarity. This book is an adventure into the overlapping worlds of science, philosophy, and metaphysics. It is tightly analytical and logical as all good works of science and philosophy should be, while at the same time down to earth, easily understandable, and full of good humor. No leaps of faith or beliefs of any sort are required to get to where these books will take you. www.ScienceforLife.net Today, 9:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 Noon Eastern or 24/7 On Demand Love and light, Design:OneGraphic.com This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Tue Aug 11 09:51:43 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:21:43 +0530 Subject: [GJM] FW: FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe In-Reply-To: <005401ca19f0$6bf05b40$43d111c0$@net> References: <005401ca19f0$6bf05b40$43d111c0$@net> Message-ID: <31f677a30908110851j6b350817l812930ffa3a62f51@mail.gmail.com> Dear Mary, Your understanding of Budhism is based on selective interpretation of what Budhdha said according to the sect called 'heen yaana'.I have read and practiced for while and been here in Delhi with the followers of Nichiren Diashonin. Beleif in the existence of 'mara'is close to the believe in Shaitan.I see lots of what Buddha said in the monotheistic tradition of messengers since Adam (peace be upon him). Your understanding of 'God'' is based on the atheistic constructivist /deconstructionist understanding of ''God"denounced as a ''white'construct. Islamic understanding is different and it was not understood by all these athiestic philosophers who threw the baby along with the birth water, understood the deeds to be criterion, that was communicated to the messengers for personal endeavour. My sins, crimes are mine and it does not change the criterion defining the same. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:56 AM, mary rose wrote: > > > -----Original Message----- > From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net > [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Steve > Consilvio > Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 7:05 AM > To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe > > We need to be in harmony with the environment, which is your larger > point, and where we agree. But, we must produce to survive. Without > production there can be no consumption. Animals have it easy, they > just live in a natural balance automatically. They are all food for > one another. Being at the top of the food chain has some burdens > associated with it; we must cooperate to survive. > > mr: Humans have the same advantage as most animals do. But animals eat > to live and most humans today "live to eat". We need to change this > and begin taking from the earth only what we absolutely need. > > Nano technology is not a panacea anymore than planting in rows was. We > still need to be able to trade what we produce, regardless of how we > produce it. That is our real problem. Hence planes flying into the > 'trade' center. > > mr: Nanotechnology and bio-mimicry mean "doing more with less" and doing > it more efficiently as nature does. Most of what we produce today ends > up in the world's garbage dumps. And, don't forget the statistics that > since the end of World War II, the U.S. became the most prosperous nation > in the history of the world while at the same time it caused more > environmental devastation than at any time in all of past recorded history. > And we accomplished this by not including the external costs associated > with > > Production in the retail price at point of sale. And had we have done this, > we would not have been able to afford the price of such things as oil, > beef, > > fish, autos, etc. Now we are being force to address this issue. > > And, I do not believe we must "trade what we produce". What we need to do > is > to produce locally and use what we produce. We simply cannot any longer > afford the costs of transportation associated with world trade. > Particularly > when transportation is far from being 'carbon neutral' and is, in fact, > next > to cattle production for beef eating and dairy products, the most polluting > activity we do. > > I think of the world as a global assembly line, not unlike the 't- > shirt printing factory' that I used to run. Efficiency should allow > you to work easier. The fact is, my shop ran great. My problem was > getting the numbers to line up. The numbers (our brain) are at odds > with our hands. The profit we create comes back around as increased > overhead. Overhead creates the demand for more profit. The math is a > vicious circle, so eventually our hands follow. > > mr: When one considers what I just pointed out above, it becomes obvious > that the world cannot be a "global assembly line" in order to "make work" > for people so they can earn a living wage. > > Nano technology can't solve that problem. We already have over- > production in many areas. (Newspapers, radio, websites, and TV > stations all carry the same news at the same time.) There is a huge > duplication of the same effort, and poor quality to boot, separate > from the many jobs that don't need to be done at all. That qualitative > inefficiency, with greater production efficiency, (which nano > technology promises) will mean we will create waste even faster than > we are today. A grim fact, I think. > > mr: Yes, as I write above, we need to cut way back on production. Again > let me reiterate that the U.S. has continued to hire 75% of the presently > available labor force when it only takes 30% to produce all the goods and > services necessary for the world. This hiring factor has resulted in an > excess of goods and services being produced in the U.S. much of what falls > into the "luxury" goods class in the way of large homes, extravagant autos, > etc. which far exceed 'needs'. > > This practice has resulted in the using up of resources at an unprecedented > rate such that by the year 2030 it will require the equivalent of two > Earths > in order for us to meet the demands for resources equivalent to today's > needs. > As we can readily see this is a physical impossibility. And essentially the > world is ecologically bankrupt mainly due to excess" production" in today's > world. > > But, no matter it is obvious both China and India, who have now been > programmed to use the US model for growth, want their fair share of the > modern > lifestyle which is impossible to have on a finite planet. > > > We do not have a production problem; we have a distribution problem. > > Money is a key to all that because it was created to help solve > distribution problems, and has instead become the primary problem of > distribution. But even without money, the distribution problem will > remain the same. That is what I write/talk about, but most people are > like yourself, and really don't quite grasp my meaning. > > If only we could be as efficient at distribution as we are at > production. But because of the way the numbers are wired, this is > impossible. Wealth concentrates automatically, so poverty must grow as > a byproduct. Your suggestion that we can 'produce more with less' is > just another version of 2+2=5. (aka profit) We will never get more > that what we began with. The formula everywhere must be 2+2=4. > > 2+2=4 is a balanced equation. > The total is irrelevant. > The percentage is zero. > It is impossible to gain, it is impossible to lose. > Everyone has everything they need. > Quality is not expensive. > > The forecast of catastrophe is that what we have in a boom-bust cycle. > No matter what you predict it will eventually be proven true. What we > want is to produce and consume and remain in balance with 1) each > other, 2) the environment and 3) mathematically. Prediction is easy in > this environment. I am offering and explanation and an alternative. > However, to accept new ideas, people must let go of old ideas. Of > course, people will only accept what they can understand, and there is > the rub. > > mr: IMHO, we do not have a distribution problem, we have a resource > problem. And, while we cannot create enough resources to alleviate the > problem associated with a growing population and developing countries > that now want their fair share, we can mitigate the circumstances by > using the resources we have in more efficient ways. > > The secret is to "live simply so that others may simply live". This > quote was made by M. Gandhi. > > Take for instance, the T-shirt manufacturing business you owned. I > would bet anything that the T-shirts were made from cotton grown > using highly toxic fertilizers and pesticides rather than being > made from either organically-raised cotton or hemp, both of which are > more environmentally-friendly, and as well, kinder to the human body. > And, you did so because it was cheaper to use chemically-saturated > cotton rather than organically-raised cotton or hemp. But what was > never factored into your sale price was the "exterior costs" to the > environment which had to be passed on to future generations in order > for you to make a profit and stay in business. Then, if you were > shipping these products neither was the exterior cost of shipping > factored in. Your focus was on making a profit rather than acting > in the best interests of all concerned. > > In their book, "Natural Capitalism," Paul Hawken, et al, give many > more examples of how to do things more efficiently and thus restructure > our resource base in order to do more with less. May I suggest you > read it before writing anything further as you are obviously very > uninformed. > > Money is the problem not the solution because it has now become > our God and everything most people do is: for the love of God > disguised as money. > > You wrote: > > In the example you give below, using Christianity as a basis or > belief system, the problem is that from this view there is such > a thing as "matter". However, science is revealing today that there > is no such thing as solid matter. We are all nothing more than > vibrating energy/information fields. And if you hold anything up > under a powerful enough microscope what is revealed are particles > of energy in the form of electrons, atoms, etc. that are connected > to one another only by the electromagnetic field that underlies > all of life. > > However, Buddhism, which may be the religion that is closest to the > truth, is based in quantum physics and in this belief system, there > is no God. > > And, I do believe you are right in that most of what we believe in > is an ego trip of the mind. Personally I feel very much that I have > stepped outside of this matrix and live much closer to the truth. > > > > For example, you are an atheist, but God explained this thousands of > years ago. You have faith that nano-technology can make a huge > difference, just as others have faith in carbon credits. But the > problem and the solution are much more simple than these complex > schemes. The marketplace of technology is no different than the > marketplace of money, competition, political power, etc. They are all > based on man and his ego. > > Everything we have is a gift from God. All we have to do is cooperate > and share and say thank you using the guidelines we were given. Man > must live within 2+2=4. Only God can make 1+1=3 (be fruitful and > multiply, fish and loaves of bread, etc) or 1+1=1 (marriage.) When man > makes 2+2=5, he inevitably discovers that 5=2+2. Boom is bust. Bust is > boom. Technology cannot change this equation; it is governed by > whatever equation we choose to use. > > peace, > steve > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 12 23:29:52 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:29:52 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: FW: FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Message-ID: <000801ca1bd7$17c426d0$474c7470$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Dear Mukhtar, Here, in this message, you are again bringing in cultural baggage. The determination re: Buddhism as quantum physics was made by The Dalai Lama himself. This was accomplished after a group of scientists working with His Highness, provided the information upon which the decision was based. The information Is revealed in the book: The Universe in an Atom" written by The Dalai Lama. He is so convinced, that in the book, he writes to the effect that should there be a discrepancy between Buddhism and science, science shall now prevail. The present Dalia Lama is the first of the Tibetan Order to study science. So, may I suggest that if you want to dispute this, you take your case directly to The Dalai Lama if you feel you are more informed than is He. What you write here appears to be little more than conjecture on your part and on the part of others as it cannot be quantified and measured. However, I do believe that much of what can now be quantified and measured does support much of what was formerly left in the realm of myth. That is, until new instrumentation, mainly designed by NASA, came into being and has been able to prove by measuring every more subtle energies, that much of what was formerly thought to be myth is clearly not. But what is becoming well recognized is that quantum physics is a "quirky" subject. From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:52 AM To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Subject: Re: [GJM] FW: FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe Dear Mary, Your understanding of Budhism is based on selective interpretation of what Budhdha said according to the sect called 'heen yaana'.I have read and practiced for while and been here in Delhi with the followers of Nichiren Diashonin. Beleif in the existence of 'mara'is close to the believe in Shaitan.I see lots of what Buddha said in the monotheistic tradition of messengers since Adam (peace be upon him). Your understanding of 'God'' is based on the atheistic constructivist /deconstructionist understanding of ''God"denounced as a ''white'construct. Islamic understanding is different and it was not understood by all these athiestic philosophers who threw the baby along with the birth water, understood the deeds to be criterion, that was communicated to the messengers for personal endeavour. My sins, crimes are mine and it does not change the criterion defining the same. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:56 AM, mary rose wrote: -----Original Message----- From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Steve Consilvio Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 7:05 AM To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: [GJM] FW: Latest forecast of catastrophe We need to be in harmony with the environment, which is your larger point, and where we agree. But, we must produce to survive. Without production there can be no consumption. Animals have it easy, they just live in a natural balance automatically. They are all food for one another. Being at the top of the food chain has some burdens associated with it; we must cooperate to survive. mr: Humans have the same advantage as most animals do. But animals eat to live and most humans today "live to eat". We need to change this and begin taking from the earth only what we absolutely need. Nano technology is not a panacea anymore than planting in rows was. We still need to be able to trade what we produce, regardless of how we produce it. That is our real problem. Hence planes flying into the 'trade' center. mr: Nanotechnology and bio-mimicry mean "doing more with less" and doing it more efficiently as nature does. Most of what we produce today ends up in the world's garbage dumps. And, don't forget the statistics that since the end of World War II, the U.S. became the most prosperous nation in the history of the world while at the same time it caused more environmental devastation than at any time in all of past recorded history. And we accomplished this by not including the external costs associated with Production in the retail price at point of sale. And had we have done this, we would not have been able to afford the price of such things as oil, beef, fish, autos, etc. Now we are being force to address this issue. And, I do not believe we must "trade what we produce". What we need to do is to produce locally and use what we produce. We simply cannot any longer afford the costs of transportation associated with world trade. Particularly when transportation is far from being 'carbon neutral' and is, in fact, next to cattle production for beef eating and dairy products, the most polluting activity we do. I think of the world as a global assembly line, not unlike the 't- shirt printing factory' that I used to run. Efficiency should allow you to work easier. The fact is, my shop ran great. My problem was getting the numbers to line up. The numbers (our brain) are at odds with our hands. The profit we create comes back around as increased overhead. Overhead creates the demand for more profit. The math is a vicious circle, so eventually our hands follow. mr: When one considers what I just pointed out above, it becomes obvious that the world cannot be a "global assembly line" in order to "make work" for people so they can earn a living wage. Nano technology can't solve that problem. We already have over- production in many areas. (Newspapers, radio, websites, and TV stations all carry the same news at the same time.) There is a huge duplication of the same effort, and poor quality to boot, separate from the many jobs that don't need to be done at all. That qualitative inefficiency, with greater production efficiency, (which nano technology promises) will mean we will create waste even faster than we are today. A grim fact, I think. mr: Yes, as I write above, we need to cut way back on production. Again let me reiterate that the U.S. has continued to hire 75% of the presently available labor force when it only takes 30% to produce all the goods and services necessary for the world. This hiring factor has resulted in an excess of goods and services being produced in the U.S. much of what falls into the "luxury" goods class in the way of large homes, extravagant autos, etc. which far exceed 'needs'. This practice has resulted in the using up of resources at an unprecedented rate such that by the year 2030 it will require the equivalent of two Earths in order for us to meet the demands for resources equivalent to today's needs. As we can readily see this is a physical impossibility. And essentially the world is ecologically bankrupt mainly due to excess" production" in today's world. But, no matter it is obvious both China and India, who have now been programmed to use the US model for growth, want their fair share of the modern lifestyle which is impossible to have on a finite planet. We do not have a production problem; we have a distribution problem. Money is a key to all that because it was created to help solve distribution problems, and has instead become the primary problem of distribution. But even without money, the distribution problem will remain the same. That is what I write/talk about, but most people are like yourself, and really don't quite grasp my meaning. If only we could be as efficient at distribution as we are at production. But because of the way the numbers are wired, this is impossible. Wealth concentrates automatically, so poverty must grow as a byproduct. Your suggestion that we can 'produce more with less' is just another version of 2+2=5. (aka profit) We will never get more that what we began with. The formula everywhere must be 2+2=4. 2+2=4 is a balanced equation. The total is irrelevant. The percentage is zero. It is impossible to gain, it is impossible to lose. Everyone has everything they need. Quality is not expensive. The forecast of catastrophe is that what we have in a boom-bust cycle. No matter what you predict it will eventually be proven true. What we want is to produce and consume and remain in balance with 1) each other, 2) the environment and 3) mathematically. Prediction is easy in this environment. I am offering and explanation and an alternative. However, to accept new ideas, people must let go of old ideas. Of course, people will only accept what they can understand, and there is the rub. mr: IMHO, we do not have a distribution problem, we have a resource problem. And, while we cannot create enough resources to alleviate the problem associated with a growing population and developing countries that now want their fair share, we can mitigate the circumstances by using the resources we have in more efficient ways. The secret is to "live simply so that others may simply live". This quote was made by M. Gandhi. Take for instance, the T-shirt manufacturing business you owned. I would bet anything that the T-shirts were made from cotton grown using highly toxic fertilizers and pesticides rather than being made from either organically-raised cotton or hemp, both of which are more environmentally-friendly, and as well, kinder to the human body. And, you did so because it was cheaper to use chemically-saturated cotton rather than organically-raised cotton or hemp. But what was never factored into your sale price was the "exterior costs" to the environment which had to be passed on to future generations in order for you to make a profit and stay in business. Then, if you were shipping these products neither was the exterior cost of shipping factored in. Your focus was on making a profit rather than acting in the best interests of all concerned. In their book, "Natural Capitalism," Paul Hawken, et al, give many more examples of how to do things more efficiently and thus restructure our resource base in order to do more with less. May I suggest you read it before writing anything further as you are obviously very uninformed. Money is the problem not the solution because it has now become our God and everything most people do is: for the love of God disguised as money. You wrote: In the example you give below, using Christianity as a basis or belief system, the problem is that from this view there is such a thing as "matter". However, science is revealing today that there is no such thing as solid matter. We are all nothing more than vibrating energy/information fields. And if you hold anything up under a powerful enough microscope what is revealed are particles of energy in the form of electrons, atoms, etc. that are connected to one another only by the electromagnetic field that underlies all of life. However, Buddhism, which may be the religion that is closest to the truth, is based in quantum physics and in this belief system, there is no God. And, I do believe you are right in that most of what we believe in is an ego trip of the mind. Personally I feel very much that I have stepped outside of this matrix and live much closer to the truth. For example, you are an atheist, but God explained this thousands of years ago. You have faith that nano-technology can make a huge difference, just as others have faith in carbon credits. But the problem and the solution are much more simple than these complex schemes. The marketplace of technology is no different than the marketplace of money, competition, political power, etc. They are all based on man and his ego. Everything we have is a gift from God. All we have to do is cooperate and share and say thank you using the guidelines we were given. Man must live within 2+2=4. Only God can make 1+1=3 (be fruitful and multiply, fish and loaves of bread, etc) or 1+1=1 (marriage.) When man makes 2+2=5, he inevitably discovers that 5=2+2. Boom is bust. Bust is boom. Technology cannot change this equation; it is governed by whatever equation we choose to use. peace, steve _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemo vement.net -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00031.txt URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Aug 13 03:05:29 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:05:29 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] 35 million Soros back-to-school gift in New York State In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <897421.8028.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ?? Dear All, ? ???????????? It is shame that Soros with all his wealth, and prestige cannot not actually try to seriously reform the financial system rather than just deal with the surface of things then all this nonsense of giving to charity using earned money would come to the end. Maybe he is not bright enough for something like that in spite of his connections etc. ? What a waste of space many of the so-called super-rich are..... ? There is only one real route to the future,? and global justice. It is called Transfinancial Economics. And yes, it is not really important whether bankers get more wealthy or not in such a system. It does if it leads to greater poverty, and environomental degradation...With TFE though this can be dealt with easily. There would always be financial incentives to undertake projects which may not be viable commercially but vital for humanity, and global justice.... ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics ? ? --- On Wed, 12/8/09, George Soros wrote: From: George Soros Subject: 35 million Soros back-to-school gift in New York State To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Wednesday, 12 August, 2009, 5:35 PM #yiv228423145 #yiv228423145 html {color:#000;background:#FFF;} #yiv228423145 , #yiv228423145 div, #yiv228423145 dl, #yiv228423145 dt, #yiv228423145 dd, #yiv228423145 li, #yiv228423145 pre, #yiv228423145 code, #yiv228423145 form, #yiv228423145 fieldset, #yiv228423145 legend, #yiv228423145 input, #yiv228423145 button, #yiv228423145 textarea, #yiv228423145 blockquote, #yiv228423145 th {margin:0;padding:0;} #yiv228423145 table {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;margin:0;} #yiv228423145 fieldset, #yiv228423145 img {border:0;} #yiv228423145 address, #yiv228423145 caption, #yiv228423145 cite, #yiv228423145 code, #yiv228423145 dfn, #yiv228423145 em, #yiv228423145 strong, #yiv228423145 th, #yiv228423145 var, #yiv228423145 optgroup {font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;} #yiv228423145 del, #yiv228423145 ins {text-decoration:none;} #yiv228423145 caption, #yiv228423145 th {text-align:left;} #yiv228423145 h1, #yiv228423145 h2, #yiv228423145 h3, #yiv228423145 h4, #yiv228423145 h5, #yiv228423145 h6 {font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;} #yiv228423145 abbr, #yiv228423145 acronym {border:0;font-variant:normal;} #yiv228423145 sup {vertical-align:baseline;} #yiv228423145 sub {vertical-align:baseline;} #yiv228423145 a img {border:none;} #yiv228423145 a {color:#a13b1a;text-decoration:none;} #yiv228423145 h1, #yiv228423145 h2, #yiv228423145 h3 {color:#a13b1a;margin:14px 0 6px 0;} #yiv228423145 h1 {font-size:30px;} #yiv228423145 h2 {font-size:24px;} #yiv228423145 h3 {font-size:18px;} Dear?Friends and Colleagues, Yesterday morning?George Soros?announced a 35 million gift to support low-income families across New York State. Back to School New York will help families buy supplies?for the coming school year. A collaborative effort involving the State of New York and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the new program will provide $200 per child to the families of the more than 850,000 children receiving public assistance or food stamps in New York State. I thought you would be interested to read a few stories covering the announcement that George made at a New York City public school together with New York State Governor David Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others.???You can also listen to an interview with George Soros this evening, August 12, 2009 on National Public Radio's All Things Considered at 6:08 and 8:08 p.m. Eastern Time. You can listen online at WNYC.org by clicking on "Listen Live," or at www.npr.org. Type George Soros' name in the upper right hand search box.?Links to articles in the New York Times, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal are below.??All best, Michael?Vachon Soros Gift Allows Bonuses to State's Needy Students New York Times By JENNIFER 8. LEE http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/nyregion/08soros.html "A $35 million gift from George Soros, the financier and philanthropist, will allow for a $200 back-to-school bonus for each of more than 850,000 low-income children in New York State this fall, state officials said on Friday..." Soros donates $35m to 'back to school' fund Financial Times By Simone Baribeau in New York http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bf08ea32-85f6-11de-98de-00144feabdc0.html "New York families on public assistance or food stamps are set to receive an additional $200 per child as part of a public-private partnership between the charitable foundations of George Soros, the state of New York, and the US Department of Health and Human Services..." Soros Gives To Match Federal Funds for New York Needy Wall Street Journal By Shelly Banjo http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090810-716097.html "New York (Dow Jones)--Global financier and philanthropist George Soros is giving $35 million to needy schoolchildren in New York, enabling the stat..." ? ? *** Please don't hit reply to respond to this email. This email was generated automatically and responses are not monitored. ? 2009 GeorgeSoros.com | All rights reserved | Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Aug 13 06:38:39 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:38:39 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] PAECON! Message-ID: <626267.7893.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Student Groups - Academic Groups Description: Post-Autistic Economics Network and Post-Autistic Economics Review (heterodox economics) A Brief History of the Post-Autistic Economics Movement Theories, scientific and otherwise, do not represent the world as it is but rather by highlighting certain aspects of it while leaving others in the dark. It may be the case that two theories highlight the same aspects of some corner of reality but offer different conclusions. In the last century, this type of situation preoccupied the philosophy of science. Post-Autistic Economics, however, addresses a different kind of situation: one where one theory, that illuminates a few facets of its domain rather well, wants to suppress other theories that would illuminate some of the many facets that it leaves in the dark. This theory is neoclassical economics. Because it has been so successful at sidelining other approaches, it also is called ?mainstream economics?. >From the 1960s onward, neoclassical economists have increasingly managed to block the employment of non-neoclassical economists in university economics departments and to deny them opportunities to publish in professional journals. They also have narrowed the economics curriculum that universities offer students. At the same time they have increasingly formalized their theory, making it progressively irrelevant to understanding economic reality. And now they are even banishing economic history and the history of economic thought from the curriculum, these being places where the student might be exposed to non-neoclassical ideas. Why has this tragedy happened? Many factors have contributed, but three especially. First, neoclassical economists have as a group deluded themselves into believing that all you need for an exact science is mathematics, and never mind about whether the symbols used refer quantitatively to the real world. What began as an indulgence became an addiction, leading to a collective fantasy of scientific achievement where in most cases none exists. To preserve their illusions, neoclassical economists have found it increasingly necessary to isolate themselves from non-believers. Second, as Joseph Stiglitz has observed, economics has suffered ?a triumph of ideology over science?.1 Instead of regarding their theory as a tool in the pursuit of knowledge, neoclassical economists have made it the required viewpoint from which, at all times and in all places, to look at all economic phenomena. This is the position of neoliberalism. Third, today?s economies, including the societies in which they are embedded, are very different from those of the 19th century for which neoclassical economics was invented to describe. These differences become more pronounced every decade as new aspects of economic reality emerge, for example, consumer societies, corporate globalization, economic induced environmental disasters and impending ecological ones, the accelerating gap between the rich and poor, and the movement for equal-opportunity economies. Consequently neoclassical economics sheds light on an ever-smaller proportion of economic reality, leaving more and more of it in the dark for students permitted only the neoclassical viewpoint. This makes the neoclassical monopoly more outrageous and costly every year, requiring of it ever more desperate measures of defense, like eliminating economic history and history of economics from the curriculum. But eventually reality overtakes time-warp worlds like mainstream economics and the Soviet Union. The moment and place of the tipping point, however, nearly always takes people by surprise. In June 2000, a few economics students in Paris circulated a petition calling for the reform of their economics curriculum. One doubts that any of those students in their wildest dreams anticipated the effect their initiative would have. Their petition was short, modest and restrained. Its first part, ?We wish to escape from imaginary worlds?, summarizes what they were protesting against. Most of us have chosen to study economics so as to acquire a deep understanding of the economic phenomena with which the citizens of today are confronted. But the teaching that is offered, that is to say for the most part neoclassical theory or approaches derived from it, does not generally answer this expectation. Indeed, even when the theory legitimately detaches itself from contingencies in the first instance, it rarely carries out the necessary return to the facts. The empirical side (historical facts, functioning of institutions, study of the behaviors and strategies of the agents . . .) is almost nonexistent. Furthermore, this gap in the teaching, this disregard for concrete realities, poses an enormous problem for those who would like to render themselves useful to economic and social actors. The students asked instead for a broad spectrum of analytical viewpoints. Too often the lectures leave no place for reflection. Out of all the approaches to economic questions that exist, generally only one is presented to us. This approach is supposed to explain everything by means of a purely axiomatic process, as if this were THE economic truth. We do not accept this dogmatism. We want a pluralism of approaches, adapted to the complexity of the objects and to the uncertainty surrounding most of the big questions in economics (unemployment, inequalities, the place of financial markets, the advantages and disadvantages of free-trade, globalization, economic development, etc.) The Parisian students? complaint about the narrowness of their economics education and their desire for a broadband approach to economics teaching that would enable them to connect constructively and comprehensively with the complex economic realities of their time hit a chord with French news media. Major newspapers and magazines gave extensive coverage to the students? struggle against the ?autistic science?. Economics students from all over France rushed to sign the petition. Meanwhile a growing number of French economists dared to speak out in support and even to launch a parallel petition of their own. Finally the French government stepped in. The Minister of Education set up a high level commission to investigate the students? complaints. News of these events in France spread quickly via the Web and email around the world. The distinction drawn by the French students between what can be called narrowband and broadband approaches to economics, and their plea for the latter, found support from large numbers of economics students and economists in many countries. In June 2001, almost exactly a year after the French students had released their petition, 27 PhD candidates at Cambridge University in the UK launched their own, titled ?Opening Up Economics?. Besides reiterating the French students? call for a broadband approach to economics teaching, the Cambridge students also champion its application to economic research. This debate is important because in our view the status quo is harmful in at least four respects. Firstly, it is harmful to students who are taught the 'tools' of mainstream economics without learning their domain of applicability. The source and evolution of these ideas is ignored, as is the existence and status of competing theories. Secondly, it disadvantages a society that ought to be benefiting from what economists can tell us about the world. Economics is a social science with enormous potential for making a difference through its impact on policy debates. In its present form its effectiveness in this arena is limited by the uncritical application of mainstream methods. Thirdly, progress towards a deeper understanding of many important aspects of economic life is being held back. By restricting research done in economics to that based on one approach only, the development of competing research programs is seriously hampered or prevented altogether. Fourth and finally, in the current situation an economist who does not do economics in the prescribed way finds it very difficult to get recognition for her research. In August of the same year economics students from 17 countries who had gathered in the USA in Kansas City, released their International Open Letter to all economics departments calling on them to reform economics education and research by adopting the broadband approach. Their letter includes the following seven points. 1. A broader conception of human behavior. The definition of economic man as an autonomous rational optimizer is too narrow and does not allow for the roles of other determinants such as instinct, habit formation and gender, class and other social factors in shaping the economic psychology of social agents. 2. Recognition of culture. Economic activities, like all social phenomena, are necessarily embedded in culture, which includes all kinds of social, political and moral value-systems and institutions. These profoundly shape and guide human behavior by imposing obligations, enabling and disabling particular choices, and creating social or communal identities, all of which may impact on economic behavior. 3. Consideration of history. Economic reality is dynamic rather than static ? and as economists we must investigate how and why things change over time and space. Realistic economic inquiry should focus on process rather than simply on ends. 4. A new theory of knowledge. The positive-vs.-normative dichotomy which has traditionally been used in the social sciences is problematic. The fact-value distinction can be transcended by the recognition that the investigator?s values are inescapably involved in scientific inquiry and in making scientific statements, whether consciously or not. This acknowledgement enables a more sophisticated assessment of knowledge claims. 5. Empirical grounding. More effort must be made to substantiate theoretical claims with empirical evidence. The tendency to privilege theoretical tenets in the teaching of economics without reference to empirical observation cultivates doubt about the realism of such explanations. 6. Expanded methods. Procedures such as participant observation, case studies and discourse analysis should be recognized as legitimate means of acquiring and analyzing data alongside econometrics and formal modelling. Observation of phenomena from different vantage points using various data-gathering techniques may offer new insights into phenomena and enhance our understanding of them. 7. Interdisciplinary dialogue. Economists should be aware of diverse schools of thought within economics, and should be aware of developments in other disciplines, particularly the social sciences. In March 2003 economics students at Harvard launched their own petition, demanding from its economics department an introductory course that would have ?better balance and coverage of a broader spectrum of views? and that would ?not only teach students the accepted modes of thinking, but also challenge students to think critically and deeply about conventional truths.?2 Students have not been alone in mounting increasing pressure on the status quo. Thousands of economists from scores of countries have also in various forms taken up the cause for broadband economics under the banner ?Post-Autistic Economics? and the slogan ?sanity, humanity and science? The PAE movement is not about trying to replace neoclassical economics with another partial truth, but rather about reopening economics for free scientific inquiry, making it a pursuit where empiricism outranks a priorism and where critical thinking rules instead of ideology. Contact Details Location: Istanbul, Turkey Members Displaying 8 of 156 membersSee All Shachar Link Amanda Lloyd Abuziddin Kendinibilmez Jonathan Cobb Weiran Ni Tarryn Alexander Chase Henry Mechanick Andres Felipe Sanabria Discussion board Displaying 2 discussion topicsStart new topic|View All Entropy and Economic Growth 7 posts by 3 people. Updated at 22:10 on 10 August 2009 The Growing Need for a Global New Paradigm.................. 1 post. Updated at 01:52 on 04 July 2009 The Wall Displaying all 5 Wall postsSee All Write something... Rocio Lourdes Barrientos (Bolivia) wrote at 18:16 on 16 July 2009 Check this link! sn.im Source: sn.im The new weekly edition of The Economist is now live on Economist.com. To view go to: http://sn.im/nc9ka Report Satya Gabriel (Mt. Holyoke) wrote at 14:46 on 23 June 2009 The media has been typically remiss in not connecting the dots between neoclassical economic theory (taught to everyone who stumbles into intro economics, often before college) and the current economic crisis. We have been programming generations of students to think that there is a God-in-the-market guiding all things good and glorious, and that the only responsibility they have is to exercise individual greed and self-centeredness in order for global bliss (Pareto Optimaility) to be attained. Isn't it time for a mass movement to say "The neoclassical emperor has no clothes." Report Carmen Mill?n Carballo (Spain) wrote at 19:05 on 14 October 2008 Hello everybody, Happy to see such an interesting discussion group, I send my regards from "Econom?a Cr?tica M?laga" (Postautistic Economics Group in M?laga, Spain) Report Resul Ak?nt?rk (Turkey) wrote at 09:13 on 24 July 2008 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2213916567 Report Sebastian Nader (UNLP Argentina) wrote at 17:26 on 25 June 2008 Los felicito por el movimiento! Aqu? en argentina seguimos sus publicaciones son muy buenas. Los invito a visitar nuestra comunidad en www.econored.org Saludos! Report Photos Displaying 1 photoAdd photos|See all Links Displaying 3 of 11 links.See All Post a Link Transfinancial Economics - P2P Foundation Source: www.p2pfoundation.net Transfinancial Economics,or TFE is an emerging global paradigm for economic and financial reform developed by Robert Searle. It is concerned with the possible introduction of a Non-Debt Based Economy which would be free of taxation, and interest on credit. ... Posted by you EU economic forecast: gloomy outlook for 2009 Source: ec.europa.eu The Commission estimates that economic growth fell to about 1% in 2008 in both the EU and the eurozone (down from just below 3% in 2007). The latest forecastprojects that real GDP will contract by almost 2% in both regions in 2009, before growing again by about 0.5% in 2010. ... Posted by Resul Ak?nt?rk EU economic forecast: gloomy outlook for 2009 Source: ec.europa.eu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Thu Aug 13 03:02:00 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:32:00 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Miss B and Malaysia In-Reply-To: <891842.56687.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <891842.56687.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30908130202k2937a56du3fe294fb57dad7de@mail.gmail.com> Dear Rodney, Reserve Bank of India is the banker of banker setting monetary policy. State Bank of India is the largest public owned bank and most of the banks are public owned.Now there are private banks too .There are small Muslim groups running instituion on Islamic principles. On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 3:03 PM, robert searle wrote: > ** > *I was interested to read this on Miss Bs blog. She does come with some > interesting stuff on occassion. I also seem at present to find it difficult > to find really solid information about state banks in China, and India. > Maybe someone can point me in the right directions!!* > ** > ** > *Ellen Brown *, on February 7th, 2009 at 7:43 > pmSaid: > > > Thanks Ann! I was just in Malaysia. Their central bank is government-owned. > In fact, they had trouble believing it when I said our ?Federal? Reserve > isn?t federal. Malaysia managed to retain their public central banking > system and to avoid the 1998 Asian crisis by standing up to the IMF and > international banking pressures, but most countries in that region did not. > China of course still has a publicly-owned central bank. > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 16:22:27 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:22:27 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Decoding Health Care Reforms For Complete Idiots Message-ID: <009b01ca1c64$8caf3380$a60d9a80$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 1:55 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Decoding Health Care Reforms For Complete Idiots Decoding Health Care Reforms For Complete Idiots Written by Stephen P. Pizzo Thursday, 13 August 2009 06:39 http://91.192.36.61/news/1/11048-decoding-health-care-reforms-for-complete-i diots.html by Stephen P. Pizzo Frankly it really pisses me off that I even have to waste our time discussing these non-issues. But, if you have one of these right wingnuts in your family or on your email list, send them this cheat sheet. The Advanced medical directive euthanasia trap - "Sign here and Die" Of course. Who could possibly doubt it? Killing bothersome and expensive oldsters is just a really, really, really, really late-term abortion, if you stop to think about it. Which is exactly what people who believe this nonsense are not doing... thinking. In fact the Advanced Medical Directive (AMD) is just the opposite of what these airheads are claiming. AMDs are not post-dated suicide notes. No one is taking your choice to live or die away, but rather memorializing that choice. Say you want doctors to do all they can to keep you alive if you code out. Fine. Say so in your AMD and that's what you'll get. If you want them to pound on your chest until you're so tender the mortician stamps, "USDA Top Choice" on your forehead, the docs will do just that. They'll even bring in "the machine that goes 'BIGN.' If you want them to defibrillate you so many times with the zappers that you start picking up high-def TV channels in your head, they'll do that for you as well. But only if it's in your AMD. But, if you're one of us who simply want the hospital let us pass away quietly, unzapped, un-tenderized, un-intubated, no one dragging you back from "the light" just to run up more billable procedures, and you have those wishes all signed and notarized in your AMD, then you'll get to slip away unmolested. That's it. There's no "death panel," there's no government plot to euthanize anyone, of any age, for any reason, including Sarah Palin's baby. In fact, the only places where medical people can legally use medical procedures to kill people is in our prisons. And conservatives think that's just as it should be. We Don't Want Bureaucrats Getting Between Us and Our Doctors Well, bureaucrats come in many flavors. There's your basic government bureaucrat, who follows federal, state and local laws, rules and ordinances. They're inflexible, myopic, often not terribly bright and almost always annoying. Then there's your corporate bureaucrat. You know, the bean counters, the guys and gals who spend their work days combing spreadsheets for... hell, who knows what. Corporate bureaucrats have ice-water in the viens. And they too have their marching orders, orders they enforce with even greater tenacity since, unlike federal bureaucrats, corporate bureaucrats can be easily and quickly fired. Now, which bureaucrat do you prefer involved in your health care? Neither, you say. Oh, sorry. "None of the above," was not one of your choices. You get one, or you get the other, or you get a combination of the two. Right now most of you have the insurance company's corporate bureaucrat between you and your doctor. You will never see them, or for that matter probably ever have any form of direct contact with them. The only evidence they exist comes when your doctor returns to the exam room shaking his or her head and announces, "Sorry, Burt, but your insurance doesn't cover that... (. fill in the blank - medication, procedure, hospital stay, treatment. ) That decision was made by an insurance company bureaucrat while you where sitting in that cold exam room doing your damnedest to keep the back of you exam robe closed. The denial of service was made either over the phone or computer with your very own insurance bureaucrat. It's sort of like the old movie Harvey... you have your own invisible insurance company bureaucrat who follows you where ever you go... if you go anywhere near the health care system. So, how's that been working for you? If you like it, fine, keep it. But don't pretend that the current system doesn't inject a bureaucrat between you and your doctor. One more observation: if replacing that corporate bureaucrat with a government bureaucrat is so socialistically awful, then why aren't you and your fellow morons out there demanding an end to Medicare? "Hell no, we won't take Medicare!" And let's not forget the Veterans Administration. Let's make all those former soldiers go out and buy health insurance like everyone else, the little leeches. Right? Well, either that's right or you're wrong about the public option. The Public Option is Socialized Medicine "Paging doctor Marx, Dr. Marx, Dr. Engels needs the communal anal-thermometer, stat.." Look you knuckleheads, we already have socialized medicine. Every time you figure out what you're paying for health insurance every year, add to it approximately $1100. That's what you're paying to cover the 50 million un- and under-insured Americans. Yep.. you're paying for all that "free government" health care that has to be provided by hospitals by law. So, another hard choice confronts you: Do you want to change the law, or change the system? Want to just deny medical care to the uninsured? "Let'em eat camomile!" Or we can change the system to enlarge the actuarial pool by making insurance affordable to 98% of Americans. One way to do that is to inject a low-cost public run plan into the mix, forcing down costs, creating real competition for private insurance companies for the first time, and sparking a revolution in medical industry efficiency, technology and delivery. If you don't want to do that, then maybe you should reconsider your opposition to forced euthenasia, not for Sarah Palin's baby or granny, but uninsured patients. They Will Ration Medical Care Whatsamatta bucko? Were you born with an ugly nose? Got Gucci-size bags under your eyes? Want bigger, perkier boobs? Well if so, you're right. You're not getting them paid for. If you really want your beak chopped and lowered, your bags emptied or your boobs hydraulically lifted, you're going to have pony up the dough yourself. So, if that's what you mean by rationing of medical care, you're right. Oh, and one more thing. You think there's no rationing right now? Just try to stick your private insurance company with those kind vanity procedures and see how fast they tell you to get used to your body the way it is. Another one more thing. This isn't part of any of the reforms I've read about so far, but ought to be. We Baby Boomers are about as self-indulgent bunch as you'll ever meet. In our 60's now we insist on trying to do the same things we did when were 25. Which has meant we're two-legged ATM machines for the orthopedic industry. Ortho docs see the same guys over and over, coming in for another knee job because they're still out there on the basketball court trying to slam dunk with the kids. Or the gal with her fourth torn rotator cuff from playing tennis. They come in with one demand, "Fix me again so I get back out there on the court." If I were medical tsar I'd have a rule: One rotator cuff, one knee tendon, one ankle, one elbow fix, one sports-related fix per geriatric patient. If they come back in again, with the same problem, due to the same age-denying stupidity, they get handed a cane. At least that will keep them off the court, for good. Fixing the same people, over and over again, for the the same self-inflicted wound, is not good medical care, it's enabling. And we simply can't afford it. Some would call that "rationing." I call it tough love. (Yeah, yeah, I know..."what about smokers and over-eaters." Hey, give me a break. I can't fix everything in a single column.) The public option will destroy private health insurance Last year the health insurance biz pocketed $12 billion in profits. They're not going anywhere. And here's a big reason why. We Baby Boomers are just now seeing our body-odometers turn 250,000 miles. Our parts are starting to wear out. (Trust me on this you youngsters.) Prostates swell to the size kiwi fruit, hemorrhoids deserve their own athletic supporters, the old ticker misses beats, and the plumbing... don't even ask. We Baby Boomers are going to be worth trillions upon trillions of bucks to the insurance industry over the next thirty years or so, and they're not about to cede all that gold to some government option. What they will do is what all capitalist enterprises always do when conditions change - adapt. They will find ways to compete with the public option. And if history is any gauge, the private sector usually does pretty damn well when it's main competitor is a public entity. But the insurance industry claims that a public option would be non-competitive, and would destroy the private insurance system. (Before they made that claim they should have asked themselves if any of us would care, in the first place.) But what they really mean is that they want to talk about competitiveness, not actually have to compete against a worthy and capable opponent. To which I say, tough nuggies, assholes. You brought it on yourselves. You fouled your own nest. You killed your own golden goose in search of platinum eggs. So, either compete or retreat. Either way is just fine with us. Despite their threats of mass suicide, private insurance companies will compete. And they will compete hard against the public option. They will compete on service, which will result in better service - for both public and private plans. They will compete by charging more for plans that cover "boutique" treatments and services the public plan doesn't cover - and probably shouldn't anyway. And they will suddenly "discover" ways to insurance some of those 50 million folks they once refused to cover who might now be attracted to an affordable public plan. They will do so by offering all kinds of "ala carte" and budget plans they now swear they just can't do. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 16:26:51 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:26:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: "Extra-Terrestrial Races & Civilizations" sent you a message on Facebook... Message-ID: <000901ca1c65$2838dbd0$78aa9370$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS For your edutainment: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Facebook Date: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 2:34 PM Subject: "Extra-Terrestrial Races & Civilizations" sent you a message on Facebook... To: Mary Rose Arthur Preston sent a message to the members of Extra-Terrestrial Races & Civilizations. -------------------- Subject: The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek July 2009 This is crazy cool, he has a set and everything. Looks like he is in a ufo. Great presentation, he reiterated that this 2012 is a birth, not a death. He also is well aware of the plasticity of time, and so are the Maya. Who knows if what is being predicted will come true, but his advice is rock solid for this time, Move into unity consciousness, follow your heart/ intuition, explore your inner world, don't do anything crazy. The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 1 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq3s0u73Oes The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 2 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XvmxpMRAYo The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 3 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6FPAjVNBIc The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 4 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbAzihN5CE The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 5 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b-qq8f6XhA The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 6 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0KBifhp_Pk The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 7 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDqLGgqS-pk The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 8 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHmNra388kU The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 9 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqRL0U0NAw The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 10 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdz7it0peTk The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 11 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ge9q25cV7w The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 12 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v3nN3BlMvs The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 13 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=amdZQ_SFrMQ The Maya Of Eternal Time - Drunvalo Melchizedek 2009 14 of 14 http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lDimtl8ko -------------------- -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 16:30:43 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:30:43 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Care Focus - Taiwan and China Message-ID: <000e01ca1c65$b2858590$179090b0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS This could be happening in your hometown at any time. So, let's all get aboard here and send warm thoughts to those to whom it is happening right now. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Global Coherence Initiative Date: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 10:30 AM Subject: Care Focus - Taiwan and China To: dustysummerrose at gmail.com Dear Mary, Typhoon Morakot has caused devastation in Taiwan dumping 83 inches of rain on parts of the island, unleashing the worst flooding there in half a century. People are still missing in floodwaters and mudslides, while rescue efforts are hampered by continued rain. The typhoon also hit mainland China where 1.4 million people were evacuated. Please send focused heart care and compassion for the highest best outcome for the rescue efforts and the people who are trapped, homeless or injured, and to their families. We suggest you do this for a few minutes each day over the next week. You can use the Introductory Coherence Technique or whatever method you choose that's comfortable to you that engages your heart's care and compassion. Visit the new Global Coherence Lock-in Room and join in with others from around the world in this Care Focus. Click here to learn more . Revised Note - Please Read Guiding Principles for GCI Care Focus As the Global Shift is playing out, there are a growing number of situations that unfold continuously around the world that could benefit from focused care. This makes it difficult to choose a GCI focus that would suit everyone at any given time. With GCI members from many different countries and cultures, it's understandable that this would influence personal feelings of what would be most appropriate for a GCI care focus. At times when a global issue is more important to you than the GCI care focus selected, we suggest this: Spend a little time on the GCI care focus, then spend most of your time sending love and compassion to whatever situation you feel is most important. Some of you may choose to hold a vision of the planet in a state of perfection, which can help manifest how we would want it to be. The most important thing is for us all to love, accept, and respect without judgment each others expressions of care. The techniques suggested by the GCI team won't always feel appropriate for everyone because of our many cultural backgrounds and personal belief systems. This is very understandable. When this is an issue, we invite you to use your own heart's choice of technique, prayer, meditation, affirmation, visualization, etc., when sending love and compassion to the planet and its inhabitants. It's our genuine coherent love and care that make a difference, much more so than method or technique. Our common link with each other is that we all care. By honoring our differences, we multiply the strength of connection and effectiveness in our care for the planet and each other. This is what the planetary shift is about - differences coming together in the heart to co-create a greater wholeness. Thank you for your participation. The Global Coherence Steering Committee P.S. For the Introductory Coherence Technique: http://www.glcoherence.org/index.php?option=com_content &task=view&id=67 Global Coherence Initiative - 14700 West Park Ave - Boulder Creek, California 95006 - 831-338-8500 To unsubscribe, reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Error! Filename not specified. -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 17:09:30 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:09:30 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Race, Taxes, Birth Certificates, and Eugenics Message-ID: <002c01ca1c6b$1f728e00$5e57aa00$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS I live in the middle of a rural white middle class community that is racist and the ugliness is horrible to witness. But it is not only about racism it is about knowledge, and regardless of who you are and how much you know, these people know more than you do, so don't you dare talk about anything in an intelligent manner or God will get you -- and send you straight to hell. Having a black man as President of the country threatens the white middle class that has so long stood for the "American way of life" -- a life that from the get-go has been so corrupt that were it sewer pipe, couldn't hold water. But, without the corruption, especially that which pushed "external costs" aside and onto future generations, onto the backs of children and grand-children, the white middle class could never have arisen. And millions of Americans are now unable to face the horrible truth of what they have done -- and, for that Barack Obama will pay dearly as the nearest scrape goat. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 12:45 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Race, Taxes, Birth Certificates, and Eugenics Race, Taxes, Birth Certificates, and Eugenics http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/141873/race%2C_taxes%2C_birth_certificate s%2C_and_eugenics/?obref=obinsite Posted by Hunter , Daily Kos at 5:10 AM on August 10, 2009. We are seeing the rise of a racist movement, fought through weird proxy issues that the participants themselves don't really grasp. A Friday email cited by Ta-Nehisi Coates, at the Atlantic... Yesterday evening I was to attend to the Health Care summit with(D) Rep Betty Reed and(D) Rep Kathy Castor, I'm a Precinct Captain (203) in Tampa and we received our talking points to rebut any NEGATIVE GOP talking points on healthcare. I never made it in the building. I've never in my life really experience outright racism in a public place. Signs of Obama hung in effigy, racial slurs on signs, people chanting negative words ( too many to list) and outright screaming at Obama supporters. The hatred was in their eyes and they actually scared me for a moment. At first I was shocked, then a little scared and then I got outright mad in the span of 1 minute.............. I actually left (the "hood" would have come out). I was totally blown away it was a mad house. I'm kinda mad at my self now, because I left. I'm still shaking my head in awe....................I'm still cold inside. There seems little question that something odd is going on with the healthcare debate. Foremost is the ridiculous extent to which the debate has been entirely commandeered by flagrant, outright lies -- things about euthanasia, and death panels, and the like, abject propaganda peddled directly from House and Senate offices. We have had lying in our discourse since the beginning of that discourse, but it has been a long while since the fabrications have been so blatant, so absolutely without even the smallest grain of truth. To take a Republican-sponsored healthcare provision that rather innocently and uncontroversially extends insurance coverage to those that want to create their own living wills and turn it into a declaration that the government will decide every five years whether or not you should be euthanized is something out of the Protocols, or out of Saddam's Iraq, or a mimicry of the worst and most stupid and most absurd of North Korean propaganda towards their own citizens. Likewise, the explicit instruction to protestors not to debate, but to aggressively attempt to shut down the meetings entirely -- not normal. It is perhaps the best possible approach for insurance lobbyists to take, if their goal is to protect the profits of their industry -- but it is still not normal. We have always had the fringes of such speech, but I cannot recall a time it has been so celebrated as the formal solution to political debate. Certainly not by a major political party, coupled with the majority of their most popular pundits and talking heads, coupled again to lobbyist groups with long histories of corporate astroturfing. And the proud shuffling just-up-to-the-line-of-violence, right in the very faces of their own representatives of Congress, requiring police protection in order to escort those elected representatives safely from the meetings -- that part is new. That part is not normal. It is more than a little troubling that each of the recent, most explicitly aggressive and loud and factless "movements" to appear on the scene since our first black American president took office appear to be, in large part, made up of the same people. Categorizing them informally there are the birthers, people who do not believe President Barack Obama is truly an American. There are the teabaggers (our name for them, cough, not theirs), a group that suddenly came to the conclusion that a tax structure that was begrudgingly tolerable in 2008, under Bush, is now the highest form of tyranny a mere handful of months later. There are the deathers, those that seem to quite firmly believe the propaganda of eugenics and euthanasia being cheerfully peddled to them by national leaders, and who take the conspiracy theory to absolute heart as being the nearly unavoidable result of any attempt to reform the straining, hyperexpensive and increasingly incompetent American healthcare system. But these are not three disparate movements with three different practitioners, three different conspiracy theories that simply happen to share the same summertime stage. In practice and organization they are one movement, a single collection of the same set of animated citizens and televised leaders, and their signs decrying fascism, Nazism, communism, taxes, euthanasia and outrage over 1960s-era Hawaiian government paperwork mingle freely at every protest. If you find a newly minted tax protestor, you are as likely as not to find a birther and a deather as well, all tucked neatly inside the same polo shirt. They are nearly exclusively white, predominantly middle aged and elderly, and unambiguously conservative. Many of those shouting against their government are already participants in the same "socialized medicine" they decry, but to a person will not consider their Medicare to be of that evil ilk. It is, in short, a movement made up of the enfranchised and enabled; people who have gained every benefit from the politics of America and yet who feel in their very bones that they are the oppressed ones, the ones who have nothing left to lose, so rapidly is America falling away from them. It is rare to run across any movement so deeply angry -- or more to the point, a movement which explicitly celebrates anger as the primary mission of their activism. They are not willing to listen to any factual evidence that contradicts their own beliefs in whatever dark conspiracies have been peddled to them; they have in fact made it their publicly proclaimed mission to block any such explanations from even being attempted. That seems the operative element of discourse, of late. It is angry beyond any objective rationale. It is actively hostile to fact. It finds the mere premise of debating a political argument to be deeply offensive. And as a movement, it is large. Pondering the email he was sent, Coates writes: One thing to keep in mind is that race, and racism, have rarely ever acted alone. One of the best points that Phillip Dray makes in his classic history of lynching is that epidemics of lynching often coincided, not just with an expansion of black rights, but with increased labor mobility among white women. So fear of white women, and their independence, as well as fear of sexual competition, all worked in concert. It wasn't simply "I hate niggers" -- it never is. It was "I don't much like black people, and prices are going up, and I have to let my wife work, so I can survive, and I'm scared she won't stay with me if she's not dependent on me and I'd die if she left me for a black guy." Or some such. Ditto for the Civil Rights Movement. It wasn't just racism -- it was class also. In the South you had this black middle class that always had to be deferential to the most poorest white person in the world. The prospect of losing that deference, of already being lower than the white aristocracy and now also being lower than a class of blacks too, wreaked havoc. It seems at first a bizarre thought, a mere freeform hiccup of the brain, but between a half-dozen different commentators I am apparently already far from the first to have it: it seems to me like the last time we saw public discourse be as intentionally devolved as it is today was during, of all things, American desegregation. That was the last time you had deeply conservative southern governors and states yelling about secession because the federal government was forcing things on them that they couldn't tolerate, and making belligerent anti-federalism statements over the slightest little thing. That was the last time America so prominently saw, on television, shouting white mobs and the threats against lawmakers, all explicitly intended not at debate, but as efforts of pure intimidation in order to stop the debate from ever taking place. That was when you had phalanxes of very dumb but very loud people weeping in front of the cameras that the fabric of America was being destroyed, though they couldn't begin to actually tell you why or how, only that it involved black people rising above their place in the world and the subsequent corruption of their government. That was when you had men with fervent political beliefs walking into "too-liberal" churches and murdering in cold blood those who they disagreed with. Why on earth would a southern governor choose to raise the specter of secession over something as asinine as a policy dispute over nuances of a financial stimulus package? Is that all it takes, is that the end-all issue of issues, over these last long decades, the final thing that brings the rallying cry of "too much!" from the head of state of, well, a state? And we are to believe that the American public, which wants a public option in heath insurance by margins ranging from sixty to eighty percent or so, in various polls, is at the same time is so enraged that the government would dare offer such a thing that they want nothing to do with even holding meetings on the subject? And we are to believe in government-mandated Death Panels, now, if government dares assure you that your health insurance will optionally cover living wills, if you desire to have one? Now, how it is that a healthcare reform debate has managed to raise a viciously angry, assertively fact-hostile and debate-hostile political climate that brings back national memories of American desegregation seems outright baffling. Except that many of the paranoid healthcare protestors are "teabaggers" as well, and many of those "teabaggers" are "birthers" besides, and the whole parcel is, from polling, clearly a fringe movement based most substantially in the southern states, the only remaining stronghold of the party that contains them. And -- there is no way around it -- America has just now elected the first black president. The very first, after two centuries and then some, and even though I am in the terribly liberal, very nearly socialist hellhole of California I can still go no more than a few miles from my home and see the confederate battle flag hanging from a living room window, or stuck to the bumper of a worn and battered truck. Before we ever had healthcare town halls, the teabaggers-now-eugenics-protestors were purportedly all about taxes: they had large, conservative-promoted protests about how unfair the entire affair was, and Obama held prominence as the be-all, end-all cause of it all. Now, their taxes under Obama were actually going down, not up, but that major, presumably all-deflating fact didn't make so much as a dent in the movement. It simply didn't matter: they still insisted that under Obama, taxes were suddenly at socialist comma fascist comma Europe-like levels. The same people, all denizens of far-right conservatism, didn't have fits about their taxes under Bush -- it only came up as prominent, so-called "popular" movement at the exact moment Obama became president. Likewise with the birther movement. There is no documentation that can deflate it; there is no final number of reporters from the right, the left and the center who have, can or could go see the original certificate and report back that all is in order; there is no number of public birth announcements or assertions from the officials of the state of Hawaii that can dim the candle of their beliefs. Some of the them hold up signs with the President's name misspelled, Barrak, or with swastikas or sickles or other emblems of past tyrannies: they seem to be less than serious in their grounded explorations of the man's origins. We didn't have a nationwide epidemic of people buying up weapons and ammunition under that terrible menace to the nation, Bill Clinton, though those years saw far more substantial gun legislation than anything any Democrat has proposed this decade. But when Barack Obama was elected, it started immediately, and continues to run full speed. The last poll this site commissioned was startling. From a prominent and credible pollster, it showed beyond question how very explicitly racial the birther movement is, and it cannot help but raise questions of motive. Maybe this fight is a postmodern segregationist one after all, postmodern because it is not even about the thing it is purportedly about, but fought through weird three-times-removed proxy issues that even the participants themselves don't really grasp and heaven knows have no actual information on. The mere continued presence of ingrained racism is nothing surprising. We had strong rattles of the old segregationists during the Reagan years, and over and over in every "immigration" debate from then until these last summer days, where people like Pat Buchanan moan about how we're becoming a not-white nation, thereby destroying their own visions of America, and where Lou Dobbs pivots seemingly effortlessly from virulent anti-immigration rhetoric to being one of the few talking heads to give televised credence to allegations of suspicious foreign-ness against a mixed-race President. That may be the difference; this time we've got a black president, the first one ever, and one that received not a bare minimum of votes but delivered a true political spanking to the conservatives that rallied against him, and maybe that one small fact turns out to be the only thing it takes to turn the usual muttering about federal meddling and states' rights and incipient brownness-slash-socialism into full-on talk of secession and eugenics and organized intimidation explicitly plotted to discredit even the concept of discussing national issues. Because it seems to be the same people -- white, ultra-conservative, mostly from the south and from rural areas -- and the same general arguments, and the same climate of aggressively irrational, proudly uninformed, thoroughly paranoid fury. There is not a conservative politician or talking head in the country that would not deny it up and down, of course, and be red-faced that anyone would even suggest it. But the current climate is the current climate, and has been documented on every television screen. We've got governors yelling about secession, and major politicians peddling stories of imminent threats to your family and your children by the very government they are supposedly a part of, and every day the town hall footage just seems to look more and more like a modernized version of the mob attacks against citizens and legislators during old anti-desegregation rallies, and we don't need to say "sooner or later someone will be shot" because it has already happened, and multiple times, and in truth it never really left us, these last fifty years. As of yet it is only an idle, troubled thought, good for nothing. But as Coates says, even during racism it wasn't about racism, it was always about a nebulous something else. Given how readily every lie is latched on to, and how furiously everything to the contrary is shouted down, one wonders if even the protestors truly know what they are protesting against. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 17:27:53 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:27:53 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat Message-ID: <004301ca1c6d$b0511fc0$10f35f40$@net> MOVING INTO: TOTAL WELLNESS Since it appears that we have now chosen sides and the law of the jungle rule applies in this anything goes free for all, best be prepared for the next 3 plus years to try and maintain some sort of sanity. The Health Care Reform free for all, is the beginning, not the end of a country coming apart at the seams. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 12:34 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat http://www.alternet.org/politics/141929/7_ways_we_can_fight_back_against_the _rising_fascist_threat/?page=entire By Sara Robinson, Campaign for America's Future. Posted August 13, 2009. Why the right-wing extremism must be stopped in its tracks or else we face the threat of outright violence and goon rule. Writing about fascism for an American audience is always a fraught business. Invariably, a third of the readers will dismiss the topic (and your faithful blogger's basic sanity) out of hand. Either they've got their own definition of fascism, and whatever's going on doesn't seem to fit it; or else they're firm believers in a variant of Godwin's Law, which says (with some justification) that anyone who invokes the F-word is a de facto alarmist of questionable credibility. I get letters, most of which say something to the effect of, "Calm down. You're overreacting. We're nowhere near there yet." Another third will pepper me with missives that are every bit as dismissive -- for exactly the opposite reason. To them, anyone who's been paying the barest amount of attention should realize that America has been a fascist state since (choose one:) 1) 9/11; 2) Reagan; 3) McCarthy; 4) the Civil War; 5) July 4, 1776. For them, my careful analysis and worried warnings are dangerously naive -- clear evidence that I'm simply not seeing the full horror of America as it truly is, and always has been, at least since (insert date here). Given this general crankiness, I probably wouldn't bother with the subject at all -- except for that final third who keep me going. From them, I've gotten a blizzard of anecdotes, questions, meditations, ideas, suggestions, manifestos and love letters (including lots of link love). The piece sparked a lot of conversation all across Left Blogistan about what fascism is and what it ain't, and what we need to be watching for. And that kind of thoughtful discussion is exactly what I hoped for. I wanted people to start paying attention. In the post about fascism, I pointed out that the most insidious part of it is that by the time it's finally obvious to absolutely everyone that these people are dangerously out of control, it's too late to do anything about it. Early warnings are even more valuable here than they are in most domains. And since futurists are -- more than anything -- in the business of early warnings, it falls to me to step up there and point out that according to at least a few of the more reputable atlases in the glove box, this looks a lot like the last turn into the parking lot of downtown Fascist Hell. The good news is we're not yet parked and locked, let alone committed to entering the building. (Which is good, because the doors appear to be all one way, just like in the "Hotel California.") We've still got a few minutes to change our minds, back out of this and go spend our future somewhere else. But we are now actively in the process of choosing, whether we're aware of it or not. There are things happening now that are setting us on a course that may prove impossible to change. How do we turn back? A few basic principles: First: The teabaggers must not win this one. Back in elementary school, most of us learned that when a bully learns that intimidation and threats work, he'll will keep doing more of it. In fact, the longer he goes without comeuppance, the bolder and badder he becomes, and the harder it is to make him stop. Every success teaches him something new about how to use terror for maximum effect and tempts him to push the envelope and see what else he can get away with. Do nothing, and he'll soon take over the whole playground. And it happens like this for bullies in groups, too. Living in a fascist regime is just living in a town dominated by the Mob, a street gang, the KKK, or a corrupt sheriff. It only takes a small handful of thugs to terrorize people into giving up their civil rights, abandoning democracy and doing what they're told, just so they can keep their jobs, windows and families intact. The main imperative in life becomes staying off the goons' radar. All the enforcers need to do is make an horrific example out of one or two troublemakers every now and then -- and the resulting fear will keep everybody else quietly in line. Conservatives have tried to subdue other Americans this way for centuries, so there's nothing new going on here. And this is the way they've always done it: they used race (and yes, the birthers and anti-health care rioters are, at root, all about race) and economic calamity to whip up a posse of terrified, well-armed vigilantes, and then turned them loose on society to "enforce order." Given their colossal investment in organizing and indoctinating the teabaggers, we'd be stupid to believe that this is all going to go away when Congress returns to Washington in September. Having had a taste of power and publicity, these newly empowered mobs are very likely to stick around town and see what else they can do to keep the muck stirred up. Our choice now is stark: knock them back while they're still new, small and not yet entrenched; or deal with them later, when they've got some real power to fight back with, and the cost to all of us will be so much higher. Second: Think nationally, fight locally. The conservatives are running this effort as a national campaign -- but that's not where the real fight is. The terror that fuels fascism is always intensely, intimately local in scale. Fascist goon squads always recruit from the neighborhood -- they're built on people you know. Since that's where they start, that's where they have to be stopped. This is why all the best tactics involve community-level action. The high-level fight in Congress and the media is already under way, and the Democratic leadership is fighting it with unusual elan. But anybody who sits this one out because they assume that the folks in D.C. have it all handled for them shouldn't be surprised when they start getting "special treatment" from longtime neighbors, or discover that they can't park their car downtown any more without having it vandalized. That's just the next baby step up from where we are now; and in some places, it's already started to happen. Winning this means getting out there and defending our community's standards and boundaries now, while they're still there to be defended. Third: Brush up on our nonviolent resistance -- but leave the heavy lifting and rough enforcement to the cops. It's true that the only way to stop a bully is to stand up to them. But there are ways to stand up to them that don't involve getting down to the eye-for-an-eye level. Back home, we had a saying: "Never mudwrestle a pig. You will lose, and the pig enjoys it." If we meet thuggery with thuggery, we will lose, because they're just plain better at it. And make no mistake: they will enjoy it. Right now, the right wing is looking -- hard -- to make the case that they're the innocent victim and the left instigated this whole thing. This quote from religious right organizer Gary Bauer is typical of the genre: My fear, given the stakes and emotions on both sides, is that union thugs, ACORN activists and left-wing anarchists (who ransacked the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul during last year's Republican National Convention) will turn violent, and innocent people will get hurt. If that happens, the radical left will bear the responsibility for demonizing free speech. The Nazis used this kind of victim-blaming to tremendous effect as they built up their party. We must not -- must not -- give our proto-brownshirts any basis to make the same kind of argument. (Of course, the absence of evidence will only drive them to make up fake victims; but then we get to call them out as whining liars with a big fat persecution complex, which is always a fun way to spend a news cycle or two.) It's about the moral high ground, people. Any choices we make must be consistent with our own values, or we betray both ourselves and the country. Standing up for health care reform is important; but before that, the country needs to see us standing up for civil discourse and the right to democratic free speech. Since we're defending the rule of law, our best tactic is to use that law. You have a right to attend a public meeting and speak your mind in a civil, respectful manner. You do not have a right to be disruptive or deprive other people of their right to be heard. And most jurisdictions have laws about disturbing the peace and creating a public nuisance -- laws, let's not forget, that the Bush regime didn't hesitate to stretch until the elastic gave out against people who merely showed up at meetings with the wrong bumper stickers or T-shirts. Since we're not Bush goons, we can't go around arresting people who haven't yet broken any laws. But when people -- from either side -- cross that line, it's time for the cops and prosecutors to make the point for us: bullying people in a public meeting (or anywhere else) is illegal and will not be tolerated in this county. Fourth: We need to make absolutely sure that the media get the story right. The teabaggers would run out of power with the flick of a switch if the media would just turn off their cameras. But the cold reality is that this kind of drama is a real ratings-booster. It would be like telling lions to lay off that elephant carcass. Left alone, the media (local news in particular) will turn these people into cultural heroes. They couldn't turn their backs on this if the republic depended on it. Since we can't beat 'em, we'll have to join 'em. The best cure for bad speech is always more speech. This means bringing cameras and documenting everything, getting it up on YouTube, and blogging it. It also means coordinating rapid-response letterwriting to the local paper and keeping down-home reporters well-fed every single day with some new theme that reinforces the idea of concerned nonpartisan citizens trying to keep control over their democratic discourse in the face of organized thugs. Since the media are watching, let's make sure they see it all. Fifth: Support legislators who don't show fear. The Democratic Party seems to be playing this just right (so far). The leadership has made it known that these noisy, scary people don't represent the 73 percent of Americans who support health care reform. The GOP is running the risk of being marginalized as not only the Party of No, but the Party of Moonbat Crazy. If you've never attended a public meeting in your life, August 2009 is the month you need to start. Your congressperson's Web site probably lists a schedule, or at least a number you can call to inquire. But that's just a first step. Do more. Write. Call. Find out where your local congressional office is, and just drop by when you're in the neighborhood. Tell the staff how you feel -- about health care reform, about the teabaggers, about your legislator's brave stance in the face of this. If they're showing stress, encourage them to stand firm. A constituent in the office counts for thousands writing e-mails, so an in-person visit is 15 minutes incredibly well spent. One visit or call is good. More is better. Put it in your schedule to contact your representatives at least once a week for the duration, and make sure they're not buckling under the pressure. Sixth: Shut down the hate talkers. In most parts of the country, the teabaggers are coming straight out of right-wing talk-radio audiences. For hours every day, they're mainlining raw emotion and toxic misinformation. They're going put your kids before "death panels!" They're going to kill your granny! You're going to have to call the White House to get a bone set! You'll be a Real American Hero if you get out there and join the "resistance!" Cutting off this endless torrent of lies, fearmongering and validation will go a long way toward powering down the whole movement. (Conversely, what happens when these kinds of radio instigators are left to spin it all the way out to the end can be summed up in two words: Radio Rwanda.) The basic recipe: Record their shows. Take notes of anything they say that is intimidating, threatening, or aimed at inciting violence against a named target. And while you're at it, note every single advertiser they have. Then write a polite letter the CEOs of the sponsoring companies. Throw them some choice quotes from these shows and ask them if this is the kind of thing they want their product associated with. (Point out that if their own employees said things like this at work, they'd be fired on the spot.) Often, the CEO has no clue that any of this is happening and will pull the ads as soon as she finds out what's being done in her name. This has worked extremely well -- and quickly -- at both the local and national level. Finally: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Even if we succeed this time, let's not kid ourselves that this is over. The conservatives are investing a lot of money and effort to build a mass movement that is explicitly aimed at destroying a Democratic government -- and if we learned anything from the Clinton years, it's that they're not going to let up for a second as long as the Democrats are in control. This is our new reality -- and it comes straight out of Hitler's playbook (check out Chapter 6 of Mein Kampf). Their intention is to keep the outrage junkies high by giving them a never-ending supply of new, made-up reasons to act out. When the birth certificate fracas cools, they're standing by with "death panels." When that one's run its course, there will be something else -- over and over, every few weeks, for as long as the Dems rule. Which means that even if we win this round, we can't stand down. We're going to be pushing back against these bullies, over and over, for the next three to seven years. There are only two outcomes here. Either we get very good at spotting and stopping these attempts at a brownshirt takeover the minute they crop up; or they're going to get very good at public intimidation and keep ratcheting it up further toward outright violence and goon rule. That's how it's going to be for the rest of this administration. The sooner we resign ourselves to the zero-sum nature of this fight, the sooner we can get on with getting good at it. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 17:31:07 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:31:07 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Snapping Up Huge Chunks of Farmland in the Developing World Message-ID: <004401ca1c6e$24a60200$6df20600$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:52 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Snapping Up Huge Chunks of Farmland in the Developing World Why Corporations, Emerging Powers and Petro-States Are Snapping Up Huge Chunks of Farmland in the Developing World http://www.alternet.org/environment/141734/why_corporations%2C_emerging_powe rs_and_petro-states_are_snapping_up_huge_chunks_of_farmland_in_the_developin g_world/?page=entire By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted August 11, 2009. In the past six months, big players in the global economy have grabbed 50 million acres of arable land, from Africa to Southeast Asia. Stop me if you think you've heard this one before: Investment banks, sovereign wealth funds and other barely regulated financial entities in search of fat paydays go on buying binges structurally adjusted to maximize their earnings reports and employee bonuses, while simultaneously screwing their business associates and everyone else in the process. It's all done in near-total secrecy, and by the time everyone finds out about it, they're already in the poorhouse. That's more or less the playbook for the derivatives and credit-default swaps gold rush that ruined the global economy, which cratered in 2007 and has yet to recuperate. The bubble money has now moved on from housing and turned to the commodities markets, especially global food production. Given what that money did to the housing market, things don't look good for local communities whose land is being bought up by governments, sovereign wealth and hedge funds, and other investors on the hunt for real value in a hyperreal economy. Entrenched and developing economic powers -- the U.K., China, South Korea, India and more -- have launched land rushes to outsource production of everything from staples like rice, wheat, corn and sugar to finance bubbles like biofuels. That includes oil-wealthy Gulf States, which recently feasted on commodities speculation that exploded oil prices in 2008. The hard numbers are alarming: According to the Guardian, in the last six months over 20 million hectares (around 50 million acres) of arable land, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, have been sold or negotiated for sale or lease. That's about half the size of all arable land in Europe, or the size of entire U.S. states North Dakota or Oklahoma. The aptly titled report, " 'Land Grabbing' by Foreign Investors in Developing Countries," from the International Food Policy Research Institute, which declined to be interviewed for this article, explains that "details about the status of the deals, the size of land purchased or leased, and the amount invested are often still murky." It's no wonder: The economic valuation of land and water has increased in concurrence with both price commodities and the ravages of climate change, whose droughts, wildfires and other extreme environmental events are quickly shrinking what's left of the planet's arable land and clean water. That exponential process will only be intensified by the biofuels some of these lands will be used to grow, which is a particularly shameless insult. Rather than use the 2.8 million hectares China bought from the Congo -- or the tens of thousands of hectares the U.K. bought from Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania, and so on -- to feed the hungry, those investor nations will use them to grow food for our cars. What biofuels will do is make a few outsider nations very rich at the expense of a great many locals who could use the land to feed themselves. But don't call it a land grab, cautioned Rodney Cooke, technical advisory division director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), who, along with the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also declined to comment on this article, commissioned a study from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to analyze the disturbing trend. "I would avoid the blanket term 'land-grabbing,' " Cooke said. "Done the right way, these deals can bring benefits for all parties and be a tool for development." Keep dreaming, argued Patrick Woodall, research director for Food and Water Watch. "These investments are effectively land grabs for a number of reasons," he told AlterNet by phone. "They're going to be used to grow crops for exports. They're taking arable land out of the domestic food supply. Most of these deals are totally secret, and there are no standards of access to public information. We're also concerned about places with weak legal systems, where farmers and pastoralists won't even know these lands are being sold from beneath them. Some don't even have formal land-titling systems, so this is going to push people off the land and take away their access to food." It already has, said the FAO's Trade and Market division representative David Hallam, using the kind of maddening opacity made legendary by economists and other hedging professionals. "There are economic, political, social and ethical concerns surrounding these investments. The record of foreign direct investment in agriculture over the years does, unfortunately, suggest that many of those concerns are well-founded. A review of the literature on the impacts of foreign direct investment in agriculture leaves us with some unease, and at least not a conviction that there are definitely positive effects to be had." Of course, these diluted revelations didn't stop Hallam from blaming the host countries for its investment partners' shock-doctrine policies. "Most of the onus of actions to attract investment and to make sure it meets the requirements of developing countries," he concluded in a speech to the Woodrow Wilson Institute, "falls very much on the developing countries, on the host countries rather than the investing countries. It's not so much to say no to these investments perhaps, but rather to make sure that the policy and legislative framework is in place to maximize the benefits and minimize the risk." "That's obviously misguided policy prescription," Woodall countered. "The local leadership are usually not interested in cutting good deals for the people who are actually living on the land, so these questions should be dealt with openly. But that is just not always the case. There's no reason to expect the investment houses that have brought down the global economy to treat countries in the developing world fairly." But all of this is prologue. This type of opportunist land-grabbing is not new, nor has its recent escalation gone unnoticed by those with a healthy sense of reality. Ever since the housing bubble popped under the weight of political corruption, financial crime and environmental destabilization, the smart money had its eye firmly on more earthbound commodities. The serious questions worth asking arise after the ink has dried on its secretive contracts: What happens when global warming really takes hold and starving locals get tired of watching their homegrown food and fuel leave their borders? Whose army will enforce these contracts, once they are rendered moot by uprisings and internecine warfare? The answer is: the same thing that's happening already, just on a much, much larger scale. "This is already causing a lot of political upheaval," Woodall said. "The government of Madagascar fell recently because of public fury over of a land deal with South Korea's Daewoo Logistics," which would have given the investor over a million hectares, roughly half the size of Belgium, for literally nothing. "China's deal with the Philippines also got scotched because of resistance. The problem is that most people don't know these deals exist." "We are not against the idea of working with investors," Madagascar's new president Andry Rajoelina explained, after being installed by the military and a constitutional court months after violent protests chased his predecessor, Marc Ravalomanana, out of Iavoloha Palace to an undisclosed location. "But if we want to sell or rent out land, we have to change the constitution, you have to consult the people." Involving people, especially the poor, in deals that sell arable land from underneath them just isn't in the investment playbook. After all, even the $700 billion doled out by ex-U.S. Treasury Secretary and ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson is practically impossible to track, on purpose. And that's America handing out American money to American banks. So what cutthroat land-grabber in his or her right mind, which is focused like a laser on maximum profit by any means necessary, is going to clue in a bunch of poor farmers, who already have little recourse, to food-rush schemes designed to lock down production and pricing for richer countries half a world away? For its part, the FAO believes that some kind of binding global code of conduct is a possible solution, but it admits that such a possibility is closer to fantasy than reality. "Its enforcement is likely to be problematic," the FAO said in a somewhat laughable policy brief called 'From Land Grab to Win-Win.' "It might nevertheless offer a framework to which national regulations could refer, especially if parties realize that compliance with common standards is in their mutual self interest." But it never is, which is why these deals are made in the first place. To be brutally honest, mutual interest is the opposite of what investor countries are looking for, which is a one-sided interest arrangement in which already-rich nations and investors, lost in a haze of wasteful consumption and economic and political corruption, hopscotch the world in search of naive hosts to feed upon. And whether it is rice or sugar cane or palm oil or other fuels for their bloated bodies or cars, they are not invested, literally, in the health and well-being of those hosts. They are survivalists in the purest sense, and survivors just don't share when they can hoard. "Investors are looking at this as scarce land and water in a world of increasing scarcity," Woodall argued, "which is one reason they are pursuing it so actively. They're bringing the plantation mentality to the 21st century and driving people off their land. This is crazy stuff. If the deals that people know about are as big as North Dakota, what does that say about the deals they don't know about?" From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 19:48:37 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:48:37 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Bioneers 2009: Andrew Weil, Michael Pollan, Annie Leonard & More Message-ID: <001001ca1c81$5a51ce30$0ef56a90$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS From: newsletters at motherjones.com [mailto:newsletters at motherjones.com] Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 6:12 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Bioneers 2009: Andrew Weil, Michael Pollan, Annie Leonard & More Every year the dates of the annual Bioneers conference are circled bright red on my calendar. The Bioneers meeting has been the gathering place for an incredible community of creative thinkers and innovators, the source of so much of what I have learned about how to create, power, feed and stitch together a sustainable society. I would never miss it -- they are way ahead of the curve. And this year will be extra special: For their 20th anniversary conference, Bioneers is bringing together writer Michael Pollan, Dr. Andrew Weil, and dozens of other trailblazers dedicated to making the world a better place. Please check out the note below from my friend, Bioneers' founder Kenny Ausubel, to learn more about the California conference or one of the many satellite events across the country. I hope you'll join me there. All the best, Bioneers Dear Mother Jones Reader: It's showtime. As we hurtle into this epoch of radical creative destruction - of peril and promise - it's incredibly hopeful to witness breakthrough solutions entering the mainstream. The hour is late, yet the opportunity is huge and unprecedented. Soon after founding the Bioneers Conference in 1990, we hooked up with Mother Jones to work together to give voice to many of the most brilliant and courageous social and scientific innovators. In 2006, the worm turned - there's unprecedented receptivity to systemic solutions for sustainability, health and justice. Though technology will play a crucial role, the challenges to a healthy and just world are not fundamentally technological: They are political and economic. After all, we're talking about the re-design of an entire civilization in the face of entrenched interests dead set against real change. It's a revolution from the heart of nature and the human heart. But make no mistake: It is a revolution. Register Now for the 2009 Bioneers Conference It's showtime at Bioneers too. Our 20th anniversary Conference will dive deep on transformational politics. Michael Pollan will paint a national food policy. Dr. Andrew Weil will envision real health-care reform. You'll learn how the Democracy School movement helped design the national constitution of Ecuador as the world's first to give legal standing to the rights of nature, and how the groundbreaking Envision Spokane project is using a 2009 municipal ballot initiative to do that as well as put community rights above corporate rights. You'll hear Annie Leonard on the mounting traction of the "Story of Stuff" anti-consumerism movement - Jerome Ringo of Apollo Alliance on the front-line struggle for the emerging green economy - and the Amazon's Chief Almir on using Google Earth technology to successfully preserve native land rights and the tropical rain forest. Among the best-kept secrets are the 50 afternoon panels and workshops and 6 one-day Intensives. A pantheon of the nation's greatest activists, artists, educators, scientists and leaders from every walk of life engage with you in eye-opening conversations seldom heard in public discourse. Unlike most conferences, the speakers hang out because the "audience" is equally amazing. You'll find plenty to feed your personal passions in the wildly diverse program, parties and receptions (we know of 5 Bioneers marriages too.) Please join us and our esteemed friends from Mother Jones at the 20th anniversary Bioneers bash. We gather to advance the critical momentum toward real solutions. It's going to take all of us to make this biggest revolution in the history of civilization. Check out the 2009 Bioneers program and please join us. Kenny Ausubel Kenny Ausubel CEO + Founder Nina Simons Nina Simons President and Co-Founder Bioneers - 1607 Paseo De Peralta #3 ~ Santa Fe, NM 87501 ~ 1-877-BIONEERS ~ www.bioneers.org This message was sent to maryrose333 at att.net. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop receiving Mother Jones' Offers, click to unsubscribe . To stop ALL email from Mother Jones eMail List, click to remove yourself from our lists (or reply via email with "remove or unsubscribe" in the subject line). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 22:10:25 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:10:25 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] 13 Secret Toxins Lurking in Your Food, and How to Avoid Them Message-ID: <000201ca1c95$29770050$7c6500f0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 12:45 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] 13 Secret Toxins Lurking in Your Food, and How to Avoid Them 13 Secret Toxins Lurking in Your Food, and How to Avoid Them http://www.alternet.org/story/141870/13_secret_toxins_lurking_in_your_food%2 C_and_how_to_avoid_them/ By Tina McCarthy, EcoSalon. Posted August 11, 2009. Here are some tips to help you steer clear of hidden toxins that masquerade as safe products. Various shelves throughout every aisle of your grocery store are stocked with wolves in sheep's clothing. Colorful packaging, appetizing pictures, and nutrition claims hide the truth: unhealthy chemicals are lurking in many these seemingly harmless foods. Here are some tips to help you steer clear of hidden toxins that masquerade as safe products. 1. Stay away from processed meats like bacon, hot dogs, and sausage. Sodium nitrate accounts for their appetizing red hue, but this additive can also cause the formation of nitrosamines in your system, which can lead to cancer. 2. Stick to low-mercury fish like American-farmed tilapia instead of swordfish or tuna. Overexposure can cause memory problems, fatigue, and other health issues, and besides, most wild fish stocks are threatened these days. (Looking for an alternative? There's branzini, the fish you've never heard of.) 3. Reduce the amount of canned food you consume. Cans are commonly lined with bisphenol-A, an organic compound that, according to the Lang study, may be associated with diabetes and heart disease. 4. Cut back on meat and dairy products. These animal products may contain trace amounts of harmful contaminants like polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyl and dioxins. Although many of these toxins have been banned, they are still present in the soil. Reducing your intake of animal products is also more friendly to the environment. 5. Skip the diet soda and artificial sweeteners. Prolonged exposure to aspartame, a neurotoxic chemical additive in these products, can lead to nerve cell damage, dizziness, and headaches. Besides, anything that gives rats brain tumors is worth avoiding in my book. 6. Choose the farmed fish carefully. Studies show that farm-raised fish contain more polychlorinated biphenyl and over ten times the amount of dioxin. 7. Opt for organic chicken. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy discovered traces of arsenic in non-organic chickens. Exposure to this dangerous chemical can lead to cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Another study also found numerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria in conventional poultry. 8. Only drink milk that says "no rBGH" on the carton because recombinant bovine growth hormone has been linked with breast cancer. Better yet, opt for responsibly-produced, unsweetened soy, nut or rice milk. 9. Avoid manufactured snacks. Hydrogenated oils are used to lengthen the shelf life of products like crackers and cookies, but they are also associated with diabetes and heart disease. Another reason to stay away from the middle aisles: snack foods are generally loaded with salt, corn syrup and other unhealthy ingredients. 10. Stay away from artificially-colored foods like candy, maraschino cherries, and gelatin. Mice and rats exposed to blue 1 and 2, red 3 and yellow 6 suffered from brain, adrenal gland, thyroid, and kidney tumors. 11. Always buy organic produce. This one's a no-brainer, but the list wouldn't be complete without it. Lingering pesticides can lead to nervous and reproductive system damage, not to mention cancer. 12. Use stainless steel or cast iron cookware to prepare your meals. The Teflon used to create nonstick surfaces can release noxious gases when exposed to high temperatures, which puts you at risk for heart disease. 13. Never microwave food in plastic bowls, containers, or dishes. Exposure to heat causes the bisphenol-A found in plastics to break down and potentially contaminate your food. Also, make sure to hand wash them. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 13 22:12:47 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:12:47 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Replay... David Wolfe Message-ID: <000301ca1c95$7dbd4020$7937c060$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: 144596 at priorityoneemail.com [mailto:144596 at priorityoneemail.com] On Behalf Of Lisa Garr Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:12 PM To: Mary Rose Subject: Replay... David Wolfe Dear Mary, Lisa here... Wow! I just wrapped an incredible call with health and raw food expert David Wolfe who was having the "Best Day Ever"! What a wealth of information! Don't worry - you can still listen to the replay. It is available for the next 48 hours. To listen now visit this page... http://www.TheAwareShow.com/wolfe David is known worldwide as a leading authority for his knowledge in natural health, herbalism, and organic superfoods. And, he even let us know today that natural chocolate, known as cacao, is one of the healthiest foods ever! We discussed the myths surrounding calcium and whether or not we should be taking it as a supplement. David shared his thoughts on the importance of remineralizing bones for optimal health and revealed the 10 best foods ever. If you want to find out about the top immune boosters, ways to have incredible energy, and his thoughts on how to live a long, healthy, vibrant life, I invite you to listen to the Replay of this call... http://www.TheAwareShow.com/wolfe I hope you will walk away as inspired and motivated as I was. Until then, stay aware! Many Blessings and Be Well, Lisa Lisa Garr Host P.S. Oh, and be sure to check out David's very special Thank You Gift, only for listeners of this call. He'll teach you how to make a delicious, nutritious shake so you too, can Have the Best Day Ever! Go to this page to hear the replay... http://www.TheAwareShow.com/wolfe The Aware Show c/o Natural Healing Network, LLC 20929 Ventura Blvd #47-533 Woodland Hills, CA 91364 If you no longer wish to receive communication from us: http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?ID=1070385538&ARID=0&D= To update your contact information: http://autocontactor.com/app/r.asp?c=1&ID=1070385538&D= From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 14 03:09:51 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:09:51 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: 2 Environmental Initiatives and Sonairte position offered Message-ID: <370839.2485.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Thu, 13/8/09, Feasta News wrote: From: Feasta News Subject: 2 Environmental Initiatives and Sonairte position offered To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Thursday, 13 August, 2009, 5:27 PM (Mailing list information, including unsubscription instructions, is located at the end of this message.) 2 Environmental Initiatives and Sonairte position offered Dear Feasta members and subscribers Please find information below on 2 new Environmental initiatives and a Sonairte position which may be of interest to you. As you will have read in recent Feasta mailings there is an opportunity to put yourself up for nomination via the Environmental Pillar to an Strategic Policy Council (SPC), the County/City Development Board (CDB), or the board of your Integrated Local Development Company/Urban Based Partnership. The deadline for the receipt of expressions of interest has been extended to the 31st August due to the late advertising by the Local Authorities. Feasta would like to urge its members to get involved as this represents a new and real opportunity to influence environmental policy in your local area. The procedure for all three is the same as laid out for the SPCs at: http://www.environmentalpillar.ie/archives/179. You can also contact Michael Ewing (SP Environmental Pillar Co-ordinator) directly at if you have any further queries. If you are not a paid up member of Feasta you can sign up via our website (or go directly to the following link; http://www.feasta.org/membership.htm). If you do wish to put yourself forward please let Feasta know at info at feasta.org. Obviously we would also request that you feed back information to Feasta once the bodies are up and running. You are also invited to an EU "listening event" on EU environmental policy that is happening next Tuesday August 18th at 8pm in the Central Hotel, Exchequer St. The event is being organised by Peter Brennan of EPS Consulting Ltd, on behalf of the European Commission. The format will be informal and it will be up to the audience to determine what they want to talk about. Peter Brennan and Eddie McVeigh, of the European Commission Representation, will try to answer the questions raised. Depending on the interest in this event there will be a major conference event in Dublin at the end of the year on relevant environmental topics with senior staff at the Commission in attendance. Contact Peter directly:pbrennan at epsconsult.ie Sonairte are seeking a course director to organise two courses on heritage and diversity on the Meath Coast in Autumn 2009. More details on the Sonairte website. Please contact Kathy Marsh at kathy.marsh at sonairte.org with cvs immediately - the appointment will be made by the end of August Sonairte: The National Ecology Centre The Ninch Laytown Co Meath 041 982 7572 ----------------------------------------------- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: Feasta News using the following email: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: http://www.feasta.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/feasta_news/ If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.feasta.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/feasta_news If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: website at feasta.org The following physical address is associated with this mailing list: FEASTA The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability 14 St. Stephen's Green Dublin 2 Ireland Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail Powered by Dada Mail 2.10.14 Copyright ? 1999-2007, Simoni Creative. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 14 03:45:34 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:45:34 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Support-Bargaining? 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Learn more. [Hide] [Help us with translations!] Registration for Wikimania 2009 is now open. Learn more. [Hide] [Help us with translations!] User:Papersign/support >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia < User:Papersign Jump to: navigation, search Support-Bargaining [edit] Summary Support-bargaining describes the relationship between individuals and society in terms of a bargaining process through which the individual modifies his or her opinions and behaviour to gain the support of friends, acquaintances and society in general.[1] The underlying psychological assumption is that individuals feel insecure and need the support of others to maintain their sense of physical, social and intellectual security.[2] Support is understood as a substitute for actual violence.[3] It functions as a bargaining counter analogous in some respects to money.[4] Support-bargaining provides the mechanism of democracy. Electoral processes can be understood as formalised support-bargaining processes. Majority support in a legislature permits a majority party to pass legislation in accordance with the aims it has formulated.[5] Support-bargaining is also the process by which theories about society are shaped and sustained. Intellectual support-bargaining involves the adjustment of theoretical positions so as to accumulate high volumes of support for a theory.[6] Support-bargaining is associated with money-bargaining.[7] The theory of money-bargaining provides a more realistic account of economic transactions than neoclassical economic theory.[8] Contents[hide] 1 Summary 2 Origins and development of support-bargaining theory 3 Individual Need for Support 4 Social support-bargaining 5 Political support-bargaining 5.1 The support convention 5.2 Electoral structures and legislatures 5.3 Political parties 5.4 Flexibility of Groups 6 Intellectual support-bargaining 6.1 Theory formation 6.2 Foundations of theory 6.3 The echo-chamber effect 7 Institutionalisation of theory-making 8 Notes 9 References // [edit] Origins and development of support-bargaining theory ?A Theory of Support and Money Bargaining? (TSMB) was published in 1984 following research at the London Business School.[9] The book provides a basic account of the theory and identifies academic precursors. Peter Blau?s exchange theory is identified as the main academic precursor: ?Nevertheless, Blau?s attempt to link group theory with general political, social and economic theory using ideas of exchange and power make it the most direct antecedent of the present theory.?[10] The links between Blau?s theory and support-bargaining are traced in an article, ?Blau?s Exchange Theory, Support and the Macrostructure?.[11] Support-bargaining theory is used to elaborate Lindblom?s account of merit in agreement (or ?muddling through?) and Wildavsky?s account of support in budget processes in an article ?Lindblom, Wildavsky and the Role of Support.?[12] A more developed version of the theory was published in 2004 as ?Getting It Right: Economics and the Security of Support? (GIR). This book contrasts situation-related consumer selection with neoclassical marginal theory. It links neoclassical theory with the support-bargaining process. In 2008 ?Support-Bargaining: The Mechanics of Democracy Revealed? (SB) was published. This developed the political aspects of support-bargaining and the idea of intellectual support-bargaining as the process by which social theories are formed. It shows how neoclassical economic theory, including foreign trade theory, has been designed to assemble support for the protection of individual interests in political support-bargaining. [edit] Individual Need for Support Support-bargaining rests on the psychological premise that individuals feel insecure and want the support of those around them to establish a sense of security. This insecurity has three main aspects. Firstly, there is physical insecurity, for which the remedy is a group standing as it were ?shoulder to shoulder? in defence, should the prospect of actual violence present itself. A gang provides this sort of reassurance. Secondly, there is social insecurity. We may feel uncertain about how to behave towards others. The uncertainties seem trivial in isolation ? how to greet people with courtesy, how to behave at meals, who to give presents to. The great range of codes of behaviour in all societies nevertheless testifies to the importance of this kind of insecurity. Thirdly there is intellectual insecurity. The world and human society is complex and confusing, so humans form group theories to explain who they are and where they come from.[13] Allaying these insecurities requires that an individual forms around himself or herself groups of supporting friends and acquaintances. This is done by supporting the approved behaviour and opinions of colleagues and associates.[14] The individual will also seek the support of society in general by conforming to the patterns of behaviour that are known to be acceptable. Strong individuals who feel they have something special to offer their fellows may be inclined to strike out on their own, behaving as they please. They risk the pains of ostracism, though if a group really appreciates the qualities they have to offer, it will give the individual its support, accepting him or her into the group.[15] This process means that individual opinion and group opinion are not separable. All individual opinion is conditioned by the need for support. Altruism is behaviour designed to gain support from the group.[16] [edit] Social support-bargaining Support-bargaining results in the formation of numerous groups across society characterised by certain approved patterns of behaviour and opinion.[17] Groups will form most readily amongst those in similar situations. One of the basic principles of support-bargaining (and of money-bargaining) is that people act by reference to their situation. Interests are understood by reference to situation. Hence people in similar employment, with similar wages, will tend to form a social group amongst themselves more readily than with those in quite different employment, with different incomes. Factory workers will readily support opinion that suggests they are entitled to better working conditions. Wealthier people will readily agree that taxation is excessive and should be reduced. Groups form on the basis of shared interests and support a great variety of distinctive behavioural traits to identify their members and distinguish them from other groups.[18] [edit] Political support-bargaining [edit] The support convention Support is conceived as having some of the psychological implications of violence. Where non-negotiable interests are not threatened, and there is widespread abhorrence of violence, it is possible to establish a support convention. This convention means that volumes of support are accepted as decisive on communal issues. Majority support is normally accepted as entitling the majority group to advancement of the interests of its supporters. The larger army can be expected to win a battle. It saves bloodshed and grief if the larger numbers are deemed to be entitled to advance their interests, within limits, without fighting.[19] The support convention in Britain up to the twentieth century covered only support that was backed by property or income.[20] In 1918 the Representation of the People Act extended the convention to all men and to women over thirty years of age.[21] [edit] Electoral structures and legislatures With a support convention, many people can be involved in the process of government. Elections can be seen as support-bargaining in defined bargaining sets based on geographical location. Support-bargaining structures give opportunities for groups to attain majorities in legislatures.[22] [edit] Political parties Both in support-bargaining and money-bargaining organisations are understood as the strongest bargaining agencies.[23] In support-bargaining political parties are formed to bring organisational bargaining strength to the process. A political party unites candidates in a permanent organisation to take advantage of the opportunities offered by electoral systems. Party candidates successful in constituencies cohere in a legislature to form a majority. A crucial element of organisation is the establishment of money-budgets, so that professional organisational staff can be employed and costs of territory-wide advertising of the policies and measures they offer in exchange for support can be met.[24] [edit] Flexibility of Groups Support-bargaining theory makes it clear that for a ?democracy? to function effectively, social groups have to have a degree of flexibility. Rigidity of groups means that support cannot flow from group to group in response to changing situations. Without such flow, the support convention is likely to be abandoned.[25] Traditional groups are rigid, war-ready groups, so transitions in group commitments are required before traditional societies establish the conditions for democracy.[26] [edit] Intellectual support-bargaining [edit] Theory formation Intellectual support-bargaining develops group support for certain ideas or theories about the world and human society. By bringing wide support together it provides intellectual security.[27] Beyond that, it assembles large volumes of support that can potentially be used in political support-bargaining for the advancement of interests. Theories in support-bargaining societies form reservoirs of support that can be tapped to support measures proposed in the political support-bargaining arena.[28] In the twentieth century two theories about human society commanded widespread support. Capitalism sustained ideas of individual freedom and free enterprise, while socialism sustained ideas of equality and communal endeavour. Within Western European nation states factions committed to these theories competed for political ascendancy. Internationally, capitalist and communist theories were central to the ?cold war? that dominated international relations from the end of the Second World War to 1990.[29] [edit] Foundations of theory There are advantages in holding theories that are ?true? in an absolute sense. Firstly, and most obviously, following a false social theory may lead to material damage, just as ignoring the law of gravity may lead to harm. Secondly, a true theory is non-negotiable, just as the law of gravity is non-negotiable. A theory group with a true theory cannot be expected to concede theoretical ground. Theory groups commonly seek to base their theories on true understandings of the nature of existence, or at least to convince themselves and others that there theories have such solid foundation.[30] Much social theory is based on the idea that a divine being revealed the truth about the world in scriptures transmitted to humanity. Economic theory emphasises that its analysis is based on rigorous logic and mathematics. It commits also to natural scientific method as the test of truth. Karl Marx endeavoured to base his theory on scientific facts regarding the historical evolution of human societies.[31] It is apparent, however, that the theories widely held in society rest principally on the common interest of those holding them. Economic theory advances interests in individualism and free enterprise against the threat of dominance by the masses. Socialism advances the interests of the masses in equality and a transfer of wealth to the poorer sections of humanity. Marxism, as well as being ?scientific?, is explicitly designed to advance the interests of the industrial proletariat. People in similar situations find it easy to group together on the basis of theories that seem likely to advance their interests.[32] [edit] The echo-chamber effect The formation of theories through group support-bargaining amongst people in similar situations means that the foundations of the theories, the theories themselves, and the social prescriptions derived from them are all formed in the same process and are harmonious in their advancement of the group interest. Members of the theory group will see, interpret and understand what is around them by reference to their theory. Hence theory groups tend to operate in echo-chambers, where they observe by reference to their theories, and what they observe confirms the validity of their theories. Economists see and interpret society in terms of market theory, and their observations confirm the validity of their theory. The echo-chamber effect in economic theory is sharply apparent when the marginal model of consumer choice is contrasted with situation-related selection.[33] Support-bargaining incorporates a theory of theory-formation, and consequently provides a ?frame of frames?.[34] [edit] Institutionalisation of theory-making The bargaining strength of organisations is apparent in the control of institutions of learning over theory formation. The theory of intellectual support-bargaining suggests that the isolation of these institutions from ordinary life and the attractive career paths they offer has led to the production and protection of unrealistic theory. Theory has become frozen in institutional moulds.[35] [edit] Notes ^ TSMB 18; GIR 110-13; SB 9-11 ^ TSMB 27; GIR 110-13; SB 9-11) ^ TSMB 8, 17, 22-28; GIR 112; SB 14 ^ TSMB 15-22 ^ TSMB 201-213; GIR 121-24; SB 37-52 ^ TSMB 165-200; GIR 163-72; SB 31-35, Chapter 10 ^ TSMB 8; SB 5-7 ^ GIR 35-87; SB 72-3, 259-63 ^ TSMB ix ^ TSMB 12, see also 30-32, 106-108; SB 13 ^ Blau's Exchange Theory; see also Exchange and Power ^ Lindblom, Wildavsky; see also: Muddling Through; Budgetary Process; TSMB 21-22, 230-240; GIR 110 ^ TSMB 27; GIR 110-13; SB 9-11 ^ TSMB 18; GIR 111; SB 9-13 ^ TSMB 97-109; SB 11-12 ^ GIR 111; SB 161-64 ^ TSMB 101-102; SB 11-13 ^ GIR 35, 114, 149-50, 194; SB 16-18, 303-15 ^ TSMB 8, 16, 20-28; GIR 112-135, 187-88; SB 14-16, 37-9, 121-24, 368-72 ^ SB 386-90 ^ SB 389 ^ TSMB 203-209; GIR 120-29; SB 37-52 ^ TSMB 131-3, 118; GIR 6, 185; SB 39-40 ^ TSMB 209-13; GIR 124-29, 141-43; SB 39-41 ^ TSMB 117-26; GIR 124-27; SB 27-31 ^ GIR 124-7, 177-81, 188-90; SB 30-1, 377-86 ^ GIR 164-72; SB 31-3 ^ GIR 173-7; SB 6, 31-35, 294-5, 437-38 ^ GIR 182-84; SB 1, 278, 306-7, 340 ^ SB 33-4, 280-1 ^ SB Chapter 10 ^ SB 295-314, 70-1, 303-15 ^ GIR, 40-45; 171-172; SB Chapter 11 ^ SB 341-43 ^ SB Chapter 12 [edit] References Blau, Peter (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life, Wiley. (Exchange and Power) Lindblom, Charles E. (1959). "The Science of Muddling Through", Public Administration Review, Vol. 19 (Reprinted in Amitai Etzioni (ed.) (1969) ' 'Readings on Modern Organizations' ', Prentice-Hall. (Muddling Through) Spread, Patrick (1984a). A Theory of Support and Money Bargaining, London, Macmillan. (TSMB) Spread, Patrick (1984b). "Blau?s Exchange Theory, Support and the Macrostructure", British Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXXV, No. 2 (June). (Blau's Exchange Theory) Spread, Patrick (1985). "Lindblom, Wildavsky and the Role of Support", Political Studies, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 274-95. (Lindblom, Wildavsky) Spread, Patrick (2004). Getting It Right: Economics and the Security of Support, Sussex, Book Guild. (GIR) Spread, Patrick (2008). Support-Bargaining: The Mechanics of Democracy Revealed, Sussex, Book Guild. (SB) Wildavsky, Aaron (1964). The Politics of the Budgetary Process, Little, Brown. (Budgetary Process) --Papersign (talk) 14:46, 5 May 2009 (UTC) Category:Politics Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Papersign/support" Views User page Discussion Edit this page History Personal tools Try Beta Log in / create account if (window.isMSIE55) fixalpha(); Navigation Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Search ? Interaction About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia Donate to Wikipedia Help Toolbox What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Printable version Permanent link This page was last modified on 6 May 2009 at 08:50. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia? is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 14 04:59:55 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:59:55 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Future By Design............... Message-ID: <442342.33859.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? Dear All, ? ??????????? The Zeitgeist Movement is still going from strength to strength. It is important from our point of view because ofcourse it is popularising not only technocracy but also the ills of the present interest based financial system. ? Apparently, I have discovered on google videos that the Future By Design film can be seen gratis. I have seen the first part of it, and it is certainly worth viewing. ? ???????????????? http://www.thevenusproject.com/ ? Regards, ? Robert Searle. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From peterchallen at googlemail.com Fri Aug 14 10:40:55 2009 From: peterchallen at googlemail.com (Peter Challen) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:40:55 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: COEXIST - yes, all of us! In-Reply-To: <004f01ca1cfd$098e1310$1caa3930$@co.uk> References: <004f01ca1cfd$098e1310$1caa3930$@co.uk> Message-ID: <1155b3ea0908140940v544450bfk43a8b8e9345ca17f@mail.gmail.com> FYI allies in the search Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: pippa bartolotti Date: 2009/8/14 Subject: COEXIST - yes, all of us! To: coexist at pippa-bartolotti.co.uk *"We don't fear the unknown. We fear how the unknown might cause us to re-evaluate the known."* *It starts in our own back yard.* COEXIST has grown from just a few friends and associates to more than 1500 members worldwide in only a few short months. Many of us have forwarded these emails to friends and colleagues and thus we have grown and spread out thoughts like ripples in a pond. COEXIST has developed constructive dialogue with many of its members and together we are broadening our horizons and discussing the steps which need to be taken to create a more just world. At COEXIST we believe that the mainstays to a truly Peaceful society will be economic justice, social justice and environmental justice. Without these aspects in place, living in a world of minimised violence will not be sustainable. A society seeking peace, whilst striving to have a positive influence on events abroad, must primarily attend to domestic issues. The individual at the heart of the equation has the responsibility of checking the excesses of their own institutions and encouraging positive attitudes through personal example. We will not solve knife crime by sitting mutely in our comfy chairs. We are in this world together ? all of us. WE have the responsibility of building the future we would like to see. It starts in our own back yard. *Refreshing* COEXIST has had many new members of late, and it is time for a quick refresher of our goals: *Economic Justice* The ultimate purpose of economic justice is to free every individual from the tyranny of greed and allow everyone the opportunity to take part in the world economy without fear of exploitation. It means the abolition of unfair economic institutions, controlling monopolies and unfair trade. It means creating economic strategies which allow individuals freedom to pursue activities beyond the pressing needs of income generation, and to engage in the unlimited work of life-building, childrearing and self advancement. It means protecting the rights of the individual to organize and to receive a living wage for their work. *Social Justice* Bound inextricably to economic justice is social justice. This is about developing fair systems of co-operation which span the generations and enable a bedrock of equality and fairness in all that in done. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal responsibility to work with others to design and continually perfect our institutions as tools for personal and social development. It means operating within the values of compassion and respect. Society can only be just if individuals and institutions are just. *Environmental Justice* Environmental justice is a matter of life and death. Affluent nations plunder the resources of countries with little bargaining power. Often the result is brutal poverty, poisoned land and polluted waterways. Environmental justice requires that every individual has the same degree of protection from health hazards, and equal access to the decision -making processes affecting them. It means allowing only sustainable developments, respecting the resources we have and treating the natural world with the same compassion we would afford to each other *So what caused the economic crisis? * Here is a bite sized explanation of the causes of the current financial mis-management and a possible remedy, by Michael Greaney. Reading the first two Q and A?s puts it in a nutshell. http://just3rdway.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-caused-economic-crisis.html *Powerful Words for Global Visionaries* The global political economy does not make pretty reading. Governments are currently injecting trillions of dollars into their financial systems and the broader economy simply to cushion the fall of equity prices, home values and employment rates (and prop up the bonuses of unrepentant bankers). This crisis could catalyse the reorganization of the global political economy. Moeen Yaseen comments on the state of the economy and puts forward ideas for a way out. There is no middle way, he says: http://www.thursdaynightmagazine.com/Yaseen Don?t forget to pass this email on. Catch up with past mailings at www.coexister.blogspot.com *COEXIST is an ever growing group of people and organisations who believe that true and lasting Peace can only be sustained when economic, social and environmental justice have been achieved. * *Our membership is open and free. All we ask is that you pass this email to people in your network who share our values and who would like to be part of the construction of a more just and sustainable future. To join or unsubscribe all you have to do is send us an email at ** coexist at pippa-bartolotti.co.uk* -- A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and the beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." Aldo Leopold -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 46277 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 14 12:20:42 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:20:42 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Fwd: COEXIST - yes, all of us! Message-ID: <004101ca1d0b$f98773d0$ec965b70$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Peter, Thanks for forwarding this. Great idea here. Economic, Social, and Environmental Justice depends upon all of us learning how to use our resources in more efficient and effective ways, and in ways that leave enough for the next generations to come to have their share. And this means making dramatic lifestyle changes that will not be easy as addictive habits die hard. So, I do have to ask the question as to whether "co-existing" is enough to meet the demands of today's world. Perhaps this should be "Creating a sustainable Co-Existence for the Human Family and all life on Earth"? In manifesting our dreams it is very important that we all be very clear about what it is we want and ask for it in very specific terms. With love and appreciation, mary rose From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Peter Challen Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 9:41 AM To: GJM Discussion Subject: [GJM] Fwd: COEXIST - yes, all of us! FYI allies in the search Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: pippa bartolotti Date: 2009/8/14 Subject: COEXIST - yes, all of us! To: coexist at pippa-bartolotti.co.uk "We don't fear the unknown. We fear how the unknown might cause us to re-evaluate the known." It starts in our own back yard. COEXIST has grown from just a few friends and associates to more than 1500 members worldwide in only a few short months. Many of us have forwarded these emails to friends and colleagues and thus we have grown and spread out thoughts like ripples in a pond. COEXIST has developed constructive dialogue with many of its members and together we are broadening our horizons and discussing the steps which need to be taken to create a more just world. At COEXIST we believe that the mainstays to a truly Peaceful society will be economic justice, social justice and environmental justice. Without these aspects in place, living in a world of minimised violence will not be sustainable. A society seeking peace, whilst striving to have a positive influence on events abroad, must primarily attend to domestic issues. The individual at the heart of the equation has the responsibility of checking the excesses of their own institutions and encouraging positive attitudes through personal example. We will not solve knife crime by sitting mutely in our comfy chairs. We are in this world together - all of us. WE have the responsibility of building the future we would like to see. It starts in our own back yard. Refreshing COEXIST has had many new members of late, and it is time for a quick refresher of our goals: Economic Justice The ultimate purpose of economic justice is to free every individual from the tyranny of greed and allow everyone the opportunity to take part in the world economy without fear of exploitation. It means the abolition of unfair economic institutions, controlling monopolies and unfair trade. It means creating economic strategies which allow individuals freedom to pursue activities beyond the pressing needs of income generation, and to engage in the unlimited work of life-building, childrearing and self advancement. It means protecting the rights of the individual to organize and to receive a living wage for their work. Social Justice Bound inextricably to economic justice is social justice. This is about developing fair systems of co-operation which span the generations and enable a bedrock of equality and fairness in all that in done. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal responsibility to work with others to design and continually perfect our institutions as tools for personal and social development. It means operating within the values of compassion and respect. Society can only be just if individuals and institutions are just. Environmental Justice Environmental justice is a matter of life and death. Affluent nations plunder the resources of countries with little bargaining power. Often the result is brutal poverty, poisoned land and polluted waterways. Environmental justice requires that every individual has the same degree of protection from health hazards, and equal access to the decision -making processes affecting them. It means allowing only sustainable developments, respecting the resources we have and treating the natural world with the same compassion we would afford to each other So what caused the economic crisis? Here is a bite sized explanation of the causes of the current financial mis-management and a possible remedy, by Michael Greaney. Reading the first two Q and A's puts it in a nutshell. http://just3rdway.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-caused-economic-crisis.html Powerful Words for Global Visionaries The global political economy does not make pretty reading. Governments are currently injecting trillions of dollars into their financial systems and the broader economy simply to cushion the fall of equity prices, home values and employment rates (and prop up the bonuses of unrepentant bankers). This crisis could catalyse the reorganization of the global political economy. Moeen Yaseen comments on the state of the economy and puts forward ideas for a way out. There is no middle way, he says: http://www.thursdaynightmagazine.com/Yaseen Don't forget to pass this email on. Catch up with past mailings at www.coexister.blogspot.com COEXIST is an ever growing group of people and organisations who believe that true and lasting Peace can only be sustained when economic, social and environmental justice have been achieved. Our membership is open and free. All we ask is that you pass this email to people in your network who share our values and who would like to be part of the construction of a more just and sustainable future. To join or unsubscribe all you have to do is send us an email at coexist at pippa-bartolotti.co.uk -- A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and the beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." Aldo Leopold -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: ATT00006.txt URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Fri Aug 14 03:21:59 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:51:59 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: Four more Vidarbha Drought Hit Farmers Suicides on the Eve of Independence Day -farmers suicide toll is 5 times more than swine flu toll in the country In-Reply-To: <31f677a30908140215h289170bay4d9ddd71677d2325@mail.gmail.com> References: <684211760908140128n7e6bb774xee6c5877df0907d1@mail.gmail.com> <31f677a30908140215h289170bay4d9ddd71677d2325@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30908140221o3be47eb6v2e2567d5ca5e346a@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance < ceasig at gmail.com> Date: Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 2:45 PM Subject: Re: Four more Vidarbha Drought Hit Farmers Suicides on the Eve of Independence Day -farmers suicide toll is 5 times more than swine flu toll in the country To: maharashatra crisis Cc: VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI , kishor tiwari < kishortiwari at gmail.com> Kishore ,How long do u think farmers in Vidarbha would suffer . I would like you to see the finance side of the crisis and focus on that for a while with reference to the following: - to what extent usurious debts are reponsible for the incidence of suicides - to what extent geography is responsible - what is being done by CSOs and agencies for eliminating usurous debts - how many farmers have been provided interest free loans - whether interest free loans would be helpful in eliminating the distress - to what extent farmers are free to choose inedegenous seeds and thus free from the burden of buying GM seeds With warmest regards Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 1:58 PM, maharashatra crisis < vidarbhanews1 at gmail.com> wrote: > *Four more Vidarbha Drought Hit Farmers Suicides on the Eve of > Independence Day* > * > farmers suicide toll is 5 times more than swine flu toll in the country * > > Nagpur-14th august 2009, > when all media is busy reporting swine flu update informing that an elderly > woman and a teenager boy dying of swine flu in Pune and Raipur, the pandemic > toll in the country has risen to 24 but at the time farm suicide epidemic > has claimed four more fresh cases cotton farmers suicides and recent victims > of on going crop failure due to drought are > > *1.Sudam Rathode of villiage Sukali taluka Arni in Yavatmal District* > *2.Dilip Sahare of villige Hiwara barsa in Zari taluka of Yavatmal > District > 3.Hansraj Raut of villige Nilaj in Sakoli of Bhadara District. > 4.Sukhadev Rathode of Gramviratha in Washim District**.* > > They, all from different parts of western Vidarbha, waited for their > brothers who were cotton farmers. These four farmers committed suicide due > to sudden crop failure but the crisis in India is deep as Prime Minister > Manmohan Singh has officially declared that the monsoon has failed and as > many as 161 districts, nearly one third of the country, have been badly > affected and most of standing crop damage beyond the revival .when swine flu > toll in the country has risen to 24 same farm suicide figure reported > allover the India is 5 times more than toll as 124 farmers have committed > suicide since June 14th this year after monsoon failed to active mostly from > vidarbha and andhara ,*Kishore Tiwari Vidarbha JanAndolan Samiti *informed > in press note today. > > > Vidarbha is staring at the worst ever drought this year with an > unprecedented short fall in monsoon rain , pest epidamic destroying standing > crop and steep decline in ground water level as these four-month > (June-September) monsoon is the main source of water for irrigation in the > country. > > Nature seems to have turned against Vidarbha this year as with half of the > kharif season over, the region has received less than 40% of the normal > rainfall. If it does not rain in good measure in next five days, it could > lead to a drought in the region., The situation is worse in western > Vidarbha, a mainly cotton and soyabean growing area, which received a meagre > 35% of the average rainfall this monsoon in the already distressed, farmers' > suicide-hit Amravati division as well in eastern Vidarbha's Nagpur division > for want of rains, sowing could take place in less than 80 per cent of the > total cultivable land, *Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS)* informed in a > letter addressed to Indian prime minister Dr.Manmohan singh urging him to > send team of experts to make spot assessment of emerging severe drought like > condition in farm suicide hit vidarbha . > > 'Maharashtra chief Minister Ashok Chavan should visit vidarbha and arrange > to call for the emergency meeting of all district collectors, agriculture > officers and experts, chief executive officers of zilla parishads, forest > department and electricity distribution company officials to discuss > measures in the event of the drought-like situation getting worse if it does > not rain in the next week 'kishor tiwari of VJAS added. > > As the total water in reservoirs of the major dams in the vidarbha is about > 34 percent as ground water level has dropped down considerably there will > not enough water for drinking water purpose hence VJAS has asked the > administration to take step to protect dam water and henceforth should not > be allowed for crop irrigation. VJAS urge officials to arrange fodder on a > war-footing as demand is already coming for supplies from districts like > yavatmal,akola,washim,buldhana where rainfall this season has been abysmally > poor," said tiwari. > farmers in the drought-prone Vidarbha region of Maharashtra welcomed the > first showers of monsoon which were delayed and completed the sowing of > cotton and soyabean but this dry spell coupled with pest attacks have now > damaged more than 50% standing cash crop of the region which has added fuel > in existing despair gloom in already distressed farmers hence we want urgent > relief from administration ,tiwari added. > > > ================================================= > Posted by vidarbha times at 1:15 AM -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Aug 15 02:34:29 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 08:34:29 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Changing the Market System.......... Message-ID: <107228.55821.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Changing the market system By John Willman, Business Editor Published: January 24 2008 20:00 | Last updated: January 24 2008 20:00 function floatContent(){var paraNum = "3" paraNum = paraNum - 1;var tb = document.getElementById('floating-con');var nl = document.getElementById('floating-target');if(tb.getElementsByTagName("div").length> 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[0]);}}}} The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World Game By John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan Harvard Business School Press, $27.50, ?15.99 The advancement of the human race depends on unreasonable people, the playwright George Bernard Shaw said in his Maxims for Revolutionists at the end of Man and Superman: ?The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.? Entrepreneurs have often been seen by their contemporaries as unreasonable. Think of Henry Ford, paying workers twice the going rate to mass produce identical black cars by the million. Or the pioneers behind low-cost airlines such as Southwest Airlines and Ryanair who launched discount flights with none of the frills offered by traditional carriers. Or Sir James Dyson, inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, who had to create his own company to make it. John Elkington, founder of UK-based think-tank Sustain?Ability, and Pamela Hartigan of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, argue that humankind?s future now depends on one particular new group of unreasonable people. They are the social entrepreneurs striving to solve the knotty economic, social and environmental problems facing the modern world. These pioneers are ?disrupting existing industries, value chains and business models? to find solutions to poverty and hunger, the threat of global pandemics and climate change. More important for Financial Times readers, their skills must be harnessed by conventional businesses if they are to adapt to the risks and opportunities that now face the world. This is not often easy, precisely because such people are, well, unreasonable. They are usually impatient with bureaucracies and prepared to take big risks to tackle seemingly intractable problems. Their goals of sustainable development and social justice appear to challenge existing ways of doing business. Their solutions are often small-scale, tailor-made and dependent on informal networks alien to the modern corporation. Yet the most successful, identified in this book, have changed for the better the lives of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. One of the best-known is Muhammed Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank, which pioneered microfinance and inspired imitators around the world. He has now created new businesses, such as Grameenphone, which built the largest cellular network in Bangladesh with the Village Phone Program to provide access to telecommunications in the countryside. Victoria Hale?s OneWorld Health develops new drugs for diseases that affect the world?s poorest people, such as leishman?iasis. David Green?s Aurolab has become one of the largest manufacturers of eye lenses used to deal with cataracts, selling for less than $4 lenses that would cost $150 in developed countries. Nicholas Negroponte of Massachusetts Institute of Technology is behind a $100 laptop that would be affordable for the poorest young people on the globe. Many big companies have already grasped the environmental and social challenge. Large banks such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are among those working to reduce their carbon footprints and finance new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Retailers such as Wal-Mart of the US and the UK?s Marks & Spencer are working with suppliers to ensure products are made ethically and with less environmental impact. But few have so far addressed the greatest opportunities that lie among the 4bn people who live on less than $2 a day ? the so-called ?base of the pyramid?. Their purchasing power is $5,000bn a year according to the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. And there is money to be made in meeting their needs ? something the most successful social entrepreneurs emphasise in seeking resources to scale up operations. The aim of this book is to help conventional businesses work with those entrepreneurs and to learn from the way they work. The authors are notable in seeing no clash between the ends social entrepreneurs are seeking to achieve and the market system. As a book, it is far from satisfactory. Written in the leaden style of many US business magazines, it cries out for more colourful accounts of the heroes it writes about and how they overcame obstacles. It also mixes true entrepreneurs such as those above with campaigners such as Peter Eigen of Transparency International and Bob Massie, who launched the Global Reporting Initiative. The latter have made an impact through their ingenuity and single-mindedness, but can hardly be described as entrepreneurs. Yet there is no doubting the validity of the message. An increasingly crowded world is full of danger and challenges. The market system can solve those problems far more effectively than government action ? provided the businesses that operate within it learn from these unreasonable people. 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Buzz stumbleupon financial_tim933:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/71d5d4b4-ca9f-11dc-a960-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=02e16f4a-46f9-11da-b8e5-00000e2511c8.html?nclick_check=1 More in this section var documentUUID = getUUIDFromString(document.location.toString());var resolvedChars = String.fromCharCode(60) + 'style type="text'+ String.fromCharCode(47) + 'css"' + String.fromCharCode(62 , 35) + 'linkId' + documentUUID + String.fromCharCode(123) + 'display : none;' + String.fromCharCode(125 , 60 , 47) + 'style' + String.fromCharCode(62);document.write(resolvedChars); #linkId71d5d4b4-ca9f-11dc-a960-000077b07658{display : none;} A swim in unknown waters Health lessons in the field Canada Post delivers corporate change GSBA Zurich gets a fresh perspective Soapbox: The importance of blogs Career revolution for Anderson MBAs A brainwave in the study of leadership Armed with more than a CV Legacy of the ?buy one, get one free? dean Soapbox: Valuable lessons from muddle of life Soapbox: a cultural resolution with China // Do not remove comment SiTrackPage("/cms/s/0/71d5d4b4-ca9f-11dc-a960-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=02e16f4a-46f9-11da-b8e5-00000e2511c8.html?AssetType=story&sub=0&WT.ipCountry_s=GBR&WT.pid_s=undefined&WT.ti=FT.com%20/%20Business%20education%20-%20Changing%20the%20market%20system&WT.uuid=71d5d4b4-ca9f-11dc-a960-000077b07658&FTSection=31biz&FTPage=31busart&subType=1&WT.metroArea_s=slough&WT.regArea_s=south%252520east"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTSectionCode", "31biz"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTPageCode", "31busart"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTP", "null"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTR", "null"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTI", "null"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTC", "GBR"); DM_addEncToLoc("FTCS", "null"); DM_tag(); Front page World Companies Markets Markets Data Managed funds Lex Comment Video & Audio Management Business Education All rankings MBA Masters EMBA Executive education Video lectures Business school news Features of the week Personal Finance Arts & Leisure Wealth In depth Special Reports Jobs & classified Services & tools // Blogs Brussels Blog Clive Crook Capitalism Blog Dear Lucy Don Sull Dragonbeat Economists? 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URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Aug 15 18:18:54 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:18:54 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: A Response to: Ask President Obama to Stop Global Warming Message-ID: <004e01ca1e07$26aac2d0$74004870$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Really good article, Dave. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us Co-learners. -----Original Message----- From: Dave Ewoldt [mailto:dave at reststop.net] Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 4:27 PM To: Daves Posts Subject: A Response to: Ask President Obama to Stop Global Warming A Response to: Ask President Obama to Stop Global Warming by Dave Ewoldt August 2009 http://naturalsystems.blogspot.com/2009/08/response-to-ask-president-obama-t o- stop.html I wrote the following in response to an e-mail alert from Bob Fertik of Democrats.com, but I'm sending it out and posting it on the Natural Systems blog as an open letter to the progressive and environmental movement. On 15 Aug 2009 at 9:49, Bob Fertik (Democrats.com) wrote: > Ask President Obama to Stop Global Warming Hello Bob... if the goal truly is to pass comprehensive legislation that will stand up to the best scientific evidence and analysis, then it should start with being honest with ourselves. After all, life on Earth and the future of Western industrial civilization is at stake. Although the latter must be seen as much less important (if it's actually even necessary) than the former. First, the targets. We must reduce all greenhouse gas emissions (not just CO2) from human sources by 90% below 1990 levels by 2030. And continue down to zero from there post haste. And instead of just rolling your eyes in bemusement at naive idealism, realize that this actually is an obtainable goal if we change our tactics. Scientifically, technologically, and psychologically doable. There is a systemic alternative available that is viable and pragmatic; that works with who we are as living organisms instead of being constantly at odds with natural systems principles. Thus its tendency is to deliver on the always withheld promise of industrialism--to improve quality of life. We must give up the idea that the world will come to an end--or at the very least our lives will lose all meaning--if our efforts toward the first goal should impact the profits of the industries who are at the root of the crises. The beneficiaries of this paradigm is such an infinitesimally small percentage of the population they can safely be ignored. Yes, they own all the big scary weapons, but they have neither the knowledge nor the skill to push the buttons--we do. Just about the last thing we should do is focus inordinate amounts of time or energy in putting people back to work (in America or anywhere else on the globe) stamping out plastic parts for stuff that will be in a landfill in six months, shuffling papers for an insurance company, or working in a call center. Let's start by taking a hard look at who we are, or think we are, as a technologically advanced civilization made up of people who exhibit the qualities we tend to refer to as intelligence and rationality. This begins by realizing and deeply admitting that our planet is our life support system and that due to the interconnected nature of reality, what we do to the Earth in the form of pollution, toxins, and resource depletion we do to ourselves which ultimately degrades any possibility of reaching our potential either as individuals or as a society. This _vastly_ overrides any supposed benefits derived from the industrial system and its methodologies as it stands today. Industrialism and economic cannibalism... err, I mean growth, is making things worse, not better. An interesting and highly relevant factoid is that it only requires one-third of the global population to produce everything the entire global population consumes. This means we should all be working two-thirds less with full global employment. We also make a whole lot of stuff we don't need, and the rest is either so poorly constructed it has to be replaced frequently or it's been built to not be repairable. Properly addressing this and decentralizing the grid would lower our energy requirements to what's available with off-the-shelf renewables. No clean coal. No nukes. No tithing... err, I mean carbon offsets and similar nonsense. This also supports the conclusion that the last thing we should be worrying about is putting people back to work, but should instead concentrate on ensuring their needs are met and they have the time to do what really matters. You know, more quality leisure time instead of spending one billion working hours per year to buy more leisure wear. This would all also go a long way in lowering birth rates and help bring global population down to a sustainable level over the next few generations, especially if we coupled it all with education on family planning, and provided pre-natal care and disease prevention as an intimate aspect of foreign aid. Then we could start providing people with a means of right livelihood that would include work on helping the Earth regenerate and replenish all the ecosystems we've been busy destroying and consuming in our ignorance and greed. The alternative I mentioned above is known as relocalization. This is a process to create a sustainable future based on ecological wisdom, economic equity, social justice, and participatory democracy. One framework starting to seep into the social consciousness for implementing this process are the Transition Initiatives being undertaken in cities and regions around the globe. The underlying paradigm which gives this movement such a high chance of success is its adherence to natural systems principles from which emerges the prime activity of living organisms--the tendency to self-organize into mutually supportive relationships. It's been occurring quite successfully for billions of years. Why have we created, and continue to allow to exist, an entire industry (marketing) whose goal is to fight against it when not busy denying it exists or that basic ecological laws such as carrying capacity must be taken into account? There are numerous studies in the social, psychological, and biological sciences that support the idea that we could raise awareness and change course rather quickly. The Cultural Creative study shows we could count on the support of at least one quarter of the populations of Europe and North America. The democracy and justice movement in the Global South indicate an even higher level of support there. It is congruent with quantum physics. The math is supplied by chaos and complexity theory. Ancient wisdom traditions that understood the Earth, in one way or another, is a partner in our lives and evolution provide other necessary aspects of support. Applied ecopsychology provides ways to intellectually and sensuously reconnect, and experience first hand our nurturing bonds to the natural world and to each other. There is absolutely no need, except to protect other's profits, to waste our time on compromise or incrementalism. The window of opportunity we have left to us negates either of those strategies anyway. So, why don't we all start advocating and supporting change we actually _can_ believe in? For the Earth... _dave_(this entire message is composed of recycled electrons) Natural Systems Solutions http://www.attractionretreat.org http://naturalsystems.blogspot.com Sustainable lifestyles, organizations, and communities From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 16 11:01:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:01:45 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] New loan promises to save USA, global capital Message-ID: <000a01ca1e93$3fba24f0$bf2e6ed0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS A LAUGH A MINUTE Laughter has been found to be an amazing healing modality. Don't deny yourself the benefits of this activity. May we suggest rolling on the floor as part of the process! And there is so much ridiculous stuff going on out there to laugh at finding stuff that brings laughter won't be a problem. I also learned from cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton that laughter is very contagious, so feel free to give it to everyone you can. BTW, in case you have not realized it, laughter is free and so far, as of this date, is not being rationed. So, please get your more than fair share now and pass it on to your family, friends, business associates, and, in particular your enemies. Yes, i did write "your enemies". Remember these guys and gals are already laughing all the way to the bank with your money. But, since you know it is all an illusion, and they are playing for real, you can enjoy the last laugh on them. And, since tomorrow is a New Day -- laugh yourself silly today and be well tomorrow. Nothing like a real good "quick fix" to keep the heart ticking. m r -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 7:49 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] New loan promises to save USA, global capital The Lighter Side Aug 12th, 2009 - 00:30:47 New loan promises to save USA, global capital By Frank Scott Online Journal Contributing Writer http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5004.shtml Aug 12, 2009, 00:15 The international banking firm of Soros, Tsuris & Soros has joined with Goldman, Ponzi & Sachs in announcing plans to finance a one hundred-fifty trillion dollar ($150,000,000,000,000) loan to the USA, made possible through a complex arrangement involving OPEC, the Bulgarian Central Bank, Cosa Nostra, the Colombian Drug Cartel, Albania, the Vatican Zionist Minion, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. The globally secured financial giant, long run by mathematical geniuses from the top secret HPOIIOICNUTOH (High Priests of International Investing of Intriguing Complexity Not Understandable to Ordinary Humans) expect to raise this historic amount via the sale of still to be created world government backed and guaranteed bonds, drawn on faith, hope and a complete and total lack of charity, in keeping with the constraints of harsh reality and profit seeking. "Though there are neither bonds nor investors at the moment," said firm spokesperson Bernardo Batista de Rothschild, "we know that the incredibly high interest rates we will offer -- 30-35 percent -- assure that very soon there will be many rushing to our doors, their brokers, our banks, their keyboards, or other text devices, with thumbs, checkbooks, credit cards, and promissory notes at the ready." The American stock market rose to its highest level in 200 years at this news, while unemployment dropped from its previous high of 44 percent to its lowest point in months: 39 percent. "Things are finally looking up," said President Palin, "and our long recession may finally be over. Again." New court assures continuity with old court The Senate overwhelmingly approved the Supreme Court's first autistic, lesbian, Arab American, atheist member, GloriaGus Fatima AntiCristo, who will join recently appointed Chief Justice Glitzy Morales, the online gossip celebrity and nation's first English speaking illegal immigrant on the court. "We are close to reaching the American dream on this court, with servants for minority capital coming from representatives of the great majority of our people, all divided into identity and ethnic groups but united in their dedication to maintain the system of identity and ethnic groups united in support of finance capital" said court spokesperson and former Mafia lawyer, Vito Nunzio Lieberman Chan, who spoke, as usual, through an interpreter. New coalition of Truthers, Birthers, Frothers and Mirthers A new group uniting previously disparate forces promises to introduce a poli-psych-eco-giggle factor to American politics which has been sorely lacking since the Gerald Ford regime, previously honored as the most hysterical but harmless administration in U.S. history. The group, spanning a host of controversial issues, put out a press release on its forming. What follows are only some major points in a 2,457 page document. Truthers: New Expose Reveals Truth About 911: X-Files Group Suspected Cigarette Man, other Mysterious White Guys and Area 51 captives implicated in intricate plot involving State Department, DMV, Starbucks, Brittany Spears, the Illuminati, and some Jews . . . Birthers: Obama secretly born on Mars in test program to create universal slavery of poor white market investors, He came here on space ship piloted by Fidel Castro as part of plot formed by an interplanetary cabal to change earth-USA into slave colony for the universe run by illegal Mexican immigrant Jews . . . Frothers: Ex-inmates of maximum security mental institutions secretly running United Nations, United States, United Airlines and United Fruit, duping public, media, markets, private sector, athletes, TV stars and stamp collectors into believing there is a reality, advising one and all to watch channel zero when it is off the air to see the real state of the world. Mirthers: Urge all to follow advice of Truthers, Birthers, Frothers, try not to think too much, and have a nice day. Iran! global menace! still! Beware Iran! hurry and beware! New findings indicate Iran working on secret weapon powerful enough to destroy entire planet, especially Israel! Researchers from Israel's world famous think tank, Material Reality is an Oxymoron, announced results of their intensive two-week study of Iran's secret plans to exterminate all Jews and possibly the rest of humanity, except for Mecca and a Starbucks in Tehran. At a press conference which introduced the results of the incredibly efficient and widely supported U.S. financed study, an Israel spokesperson said, "We firmly believe in the results of our painstaking study, so why shouldn't you? "Unless you're an anti-Semite? "Are you? "ARE YOU?" stay tuned . . . From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Aug 17 04:07:45 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:07:45 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Shan Turnbulls Paper. Message-ID: <306087.69672.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Maybe of interest. ? R. Searle ? ? ? ? ? ? Might any folk be able to provide better answers to the 12 mysteries of an illogical and inefficient financial system set out in the Table on page three of my paper?How would the invisible hand handle electronic money? as posted at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1399224? ? ? ? ? ? How Might the Invisible Hand Handle Electronic Money? Shann Turnbull International Institute for Self-Governance May 5, 2009 Abstract: ???? As a potential disruptive technology electronic-money raises fundamental questions on the role of money, how it should be designed, issued and managed. The 2008 financial crisis created the opportunity and need to rethink the role and design of the financial system. The now Governor of the Bank of England raised the possibility that "Free Banking" and/or decentralised banking could replace Central Banks. Profound changes would result in the power of governments, business and the nature of democracy. Four different historical types of money are considered for rebuilding the financial system with e-money: (i) the monopoly form of synthetic or "fiat" money as decreed by governments that can earn interest (ii), fiat money that does not earn interest but has a usage fee (iii) "Free-money" issued privately with a usage fee and (iv) natural money redeemable into specified goods and/or services with a usage fee. Market forces are identified that would favour the adoption of e-money with a use fee redeemable into units of renewable electricity. These arise from: (a) creating a stable unit of local value negating the need for Central Banks; (b) money no longer a store of value; (c) improved equity by reducing unearned income; (d) reversing financialization with real assets becoming more attractive; (e) facilitating steady state economies with a global unit of account but not of value; (f) promoting sustainability by making finance intensive renewable energy more attractive than burning carbon; (g) facilitating community banking (h) mitigating the social power of money and (i) enriching democracy. Keywords: Cost carrying money, Electronic-money, Energy dollars, Financialization, Free banking, Islamic Banking, Natural money JEL Classifications: E42, E50, G20 Working Paper Series Date posted: May 05, 2009 ; Last revised: May 30, 2009 Suggested Citation Turnbull, Shann,How Might the Invisible Hand Handle Electronic Money?(May 5, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1399224 Export to: BibTeX EndNote RefMan RefWorks Export Citation What's this? Contact Information Shann Turnbull (Contact Author) International Institute for Self-Governance ( email ) PO Box 266 Woollahra Sydney, New South Wales 1350 Australia +612 9328 7466 (Phone) ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Aug 17 04:36:56 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:36:56 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Metaeconomics? Message-ID: <296243.54597.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? might be of interest ? ? ????? http://www.metaeconomics.co.uk/ ? ? ? ? RS??????????????????? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 17 11:35:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:35:45 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: News: Health Industry Swarms Congress, Missing Bailout Funds, U.S. Claims Computers Message-ID: <005501ca1f61$29f08dc0$7dd1a940$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS While all of these articles are important, the one IMHO that leads to Total Wellness the quickest is this one titled; ?Health care alone can't make nation healthier, experts say? We are what we eat, so let?s please begin paying attention to what we put in our bodies. From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 10:10 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: News: Health Industry Swarms Congress, Missing Bailout Funds, U.S. Claims Computers To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/009/090817_health_industry_bailout_funds_computers_claimed Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles you may have missed, which include revealing information on the thousands of health industry lobbyists swarming Congress, the Treasury Department's refusal to provide information about how bailout funds have been spent, the Transportation Department's attempt to claim ownership of private computers, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here . The most important sentences are highlighted. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word, we can and will build a brighter future. With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special note: For a Fox News affiliate report on an amazing new energy invention by Paul Pantone, with information on how to reproduce it yourself, click here. If anyone is willing to transcribe this video and send it to us, we will include it in one of our news summaries. And if you want to be blown away by what's possible on a bicycle, watch the six-minute video available here. _____ Health Care Battle: Lobbyists Outnumber Lawmakers August 14, 2009, ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/story?id=8322683 &page=1 The time, money and manpower that lobbying firms devote to courting lawmakers reveals an investment inside the Beltway of staggering proportions. For every lawmaker in Congress, there are about six lobbyists pushing their health care priorities, according to a Bloomberg News investigation released today. That's about 3,300 registered health care lobbyists working Capitol Hill. A total of $263 million has been spent on health lobbying in 2009, according to the latest data from the Center for Responsive Politics. That's more money spent on health than any other sector this year. The list of the top 20 spenders in 2009 across all sectors includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at No. 1, spending more than $26 million, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) at No. 3, spending $13 million, and Pfizer in the No. 6 spot, spending $11 million. Also joining the ranks of the top 20 spenders this year are Blue Cross Blue Shield, AARP, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and Eli Lilly, each having doled out between $7 and $10 million this year. Wendell Potter, a 20-year health insurance veteran and former CIGNA vice president, ... spoke out about insurance companies operating behind the scenes. Potter recalled previous health care fights, saying insurers have undoubtedly tried to shape the battle. "It is usually done through the PR firms that work for them," Potter said. "They want to keep their fingerprints off stuff like that. "With this history, you can rest assured that the industry is up to the same dirty tricks, using the same devious PR practices it has used for many years to kill reform this year, or even better, to shape it so that it benefits insurance companies and their Wall Street investors far more than average Americans," he said. Note: For lots more on the corrupt medical/governmental complex, click here. _____ Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren't sure August 9, 2009, Sacramento Bee/McClatchy News http://www.sacbee.com/838/story/2094756.html Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went. Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless. "TARP has become a program in which taxpayers are not being told what most of the TARP recipients are doing with their money, have still not been told how much their substantial investments are worth, and will not be told the full details of how their money is being invested," a special inspector general over the program reported last month. The "very credibility" of the program is at stake, it said. The program was controversial from the start. Critics say it's unfairly rewarded the big banks and Wall Street firms that pushed the economy to the brink. Note: For many revealing reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here. _____ President Obama in ?snooping? row over US car scrappage scheme August 7, 2009, Times of London (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6742322.ece President Obama?s effort to revive the American car industry with a ?cash-for-clunkers? scheme has become embroiled in a row over government snooping. The problems arose after the Department of Transportation claimed that when dealers logged on to the clunkers website their computers ? and everything on them ? become the property of the US Government. ?This application provides access to the Department of Transportation (DoT) CARS system,? the warning message read. ?When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the United States Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorised CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorised officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign." By the time the disclaimer had been circulated widely on blogs, posted on YouTube and become the subject of a ferocious on-air editorial by the conservative Fox News host Glenn Beck, the Department of Transportation had issued a statement saying that ?we are working to revise the language?. No explanation was given as to why the original disclaimer was worded so aggressively. Members of the general public do not need to log on to the website so were not asked to agree to the same conditions as dealers. Mr Obama?s ... critics argue that the controversy is another example of the intrusiveness that will accompany the President?s plans to expand the role of government in the lives of Americans. Note: Watch a revealing Fox news video report of this unbelievable development at this link. Big Brother at work. _____ Health care alone can't make nation healthier, experts say August 12, 2009, Sacramento Bee/McClatchy News http://www.sacbee.com/273/story/2101966.html Ask around for the healthiest country in the world, and the United States won't come close to topping the list. People live longer in just about every industrialized nation, from Canada to our north, throughout much of Europe, and around the Pacific in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. New mothers and their babies also face a rockier start here, with U.S. infant and maternal death rates double some of our industrialized peers. As debate swirls in Washington and at town halls nationwide over health care reform, there is also a more fundamental question ? what about health? "If you want to see dramatic changes in health, you're not going to get there even by doubling the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system," said Dr. Richard Kravitz, a University of California, Davis, professor of medicine whose research interests include quality of care. "When you need it, you really need it ? but in general, the benefits of medical care to populations are a little bit overrated," he said. When taken all together, the other factors that play a bigger role include education, income, toxins in the environment, crime, violence, family structure, stress, obesity, nutritious food and exercise. Across large populations, he said, numerous studies suggest that medical care contributes only modestly to overall health, perhaps somewhere between 10 percent and 25 percent. Health care for all would provide a "very large" improvement for some deprived populations, Kravitz said, but "a surtax on high fructose corn syrup would probably be more effective ? than anything we could do for the health care system, just because of obesity." Note: For many highly informative reports on health issues, click here . _____ 2 U.S. Architects of Harsh Tactics in 9/11?s Wake August 12, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were military retirees and psychologists, on the lookout for business opportunities. They found an excellent customer in the Central Intelligence Agency, where in 2002 they became the architects of the most important interrogation program in the history of American counterterrorism. They had never carried out a real interrogation, only mock sessions in the military training they had overseen. They had no relevant scholarship; their Ph.D. dissertations were on high blood pressure and family therapy. They had no language skills and no expertise on Al Qaeda. But they had psychology credentials. Seven months after President Obama ordered the C.I.A. interrogation program closed, its fallout still commands attention. In the next few weeks, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to decide whether to begin a criminal torture investigation, in which the psychologists? role is likely to come under scrutiny. The Justice Department ethics office is expected to complete a report on the lawyers who pronounced the methods legal. And the C.I.A. will soon release a highly critical 2004 report on the program by the agency?s inspector general. The psychologists? ... fall from official grace has been as swift as their rise in 2002. With a possible criminal inquiry looming, Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen have retained a well-known defense lawyer, Henry F. Schuelke III. Mr. Schuelke said they would not comment for this article. Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the torture employed by the CIA and US military in "the war on terror," click here. _____ U.S. battling CIA rendition case in 3 courts August 10, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/09/BAHQ195SJR.DTL The Obama administration is fighting on multiple fronts - in courts in San Francisco, Washington and London - to keep an official veil of secrecy over the treatment of a former prisoner who says he was tortured at Guantanamo Bay. The administration has asked a federal appeals court in San Francisco to reconsider its ruling allowing Binyam Mohamed and four other former or current prisoners to sue a Bay Area company for allegedly flying them to overseas torture chambers for the CIA. Most recently, a British government lawyer told her nation's High Court last month that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had threatened to limit U.S. intelligence-sharing with Great Britain if the court disclosed details of Mohamed's treatment in Guantanamo. The British court declared in August 2008 that there was evidence Mohamed had been tortured, but deleted the details from its public version of the ruling at the Bush administration's insistence. Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian refugee and British resident, ... and four other men have sued Jeppesen Dataplan, a San Jose subsidiary of the Boeing Co., for its alleged role in arranging their flights for the CIA. A Council of Europe report in 2007 described Jeppesen as the CIA's aviation services provider. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated the suit in April, rejecting arguments originally made by the Bush administration that the case posed grave risks to national security. Obama administration lawyers endorsed those arguments at a hearing in February and have asked the court for a rehearing. Mohamed's lawyers, Clive Stafford Smith and Ahmad Ghappour of the British human-rights group Reprieve, were threatened with jail after drafting a letter to Obama in February urging him to release the evidence of their client's treatment in U.S. custody or to authorize Britain to do so. Note: For many illuminating reports from major media sources on government secrecy, click here. _____ Judge: CIA interrogations not relevant to 9/11 accused's sanity August 10, 2009, Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/guantanamo/story/1179756.html U.S. military defense lawyers for accused 9/11 conspirator Ramzi bin al Shibh cannot learn what interrogation techniques CIA agents used on the Yemeni before he was moved to Guant?namo to be tried as a terrorist, an Army judge has ruled. Bin al Shibh, 37, is one of five men charged in a complex death penalty prosecution by military commission currently under review by the Obama administration. But his lawyers say he suffers a "delusional disorder," and hallucinations in his cell at Guant?namo may leave him neither sane enough to act as his own attorney nor to stand trial. Prison camp doctors treat him with psychotropic drugs. Army Col. Stephen Henley, the military judge on the case, has scheduled a competency hearing for mid-September. Meantime, the judge ruled on Aug. 6 that "evidence of specific techniques employed by various governmental agencies to interrogate the accused is . . . not essential to a fair resolution of the incompetence determination hearing in this case." Prosecutors had invoked a national security privilege in seeking to shield the details from defense lawyers. Many of the techniques used on the men have already been made public. They included waterboarding, sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation methods meant to break a captive's will. But Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, the Yemeni's Pentagon appointed defense attorney, said court-approved mental health experts -- as well as the judge -- need to know the specifics to assess her client's mental illness. If he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his CIA interrogations, there may be PTSD treatments that could make him competent. Note: For many reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities of "the war on terror," click here. _____ A Window Into C.I.A.?s Embrace of Secret Jails August 13, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/13foggo.html In March 2003, two C.I.A. officials surprised Kyle D. Foggo, then the chief of the agency?s main European supply base, with an unusual request. They wanted his help building secret prisons to hold some of the world?s most threatening terrorists. Mr. Foggo, nicknamed Dusty, ... agreed to the assignment. With that, Mr. Foggo went on to oversee construction of three detention centers, each built to house about a half-dozen detainees. The existence of the network of prisons to detain and interrogate [captives] has long been known, but details about them have been a closely guarded secret. In recent interviews, though, several former intelligence officials have provided a fuller account. Mr. Foggo acknowledged a role, which has never been previously reported. He pleaded guilty last year to a fraud charge involving a contractor that equipped the C.I.A. jails and provided other supplies to the agency, and he is now serving a three-year sentence in a Kentucky prison. Eventually, the agency?s network would encompass at least eight detention centers, including one in the Middle East, one each in Iraq and Afghanistan and a maximum-security long-term site at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba. The C.I.A. has never officially disclosed the exact number of prisoners it once held, but top officials have put the figure at fewer than 100. Mr. Foggo?s success in Frankfurt, including his work on the prisons, won him a promotion back in Washington. In November 2004, he was named the C.I.A.?s executive director, in effect its day-to-day administrative chief. ?It was like taking a senior NCO and telling him he now runs the regiment,? said A. B. Krongard, the C.I.A.?s executive director from 2001 to 2004. ?It popped people?s eyes.? Note: Kyle "Dusty" Foggo's case is highly unusual. Very few high-level CIA officers have ever been imprisoned for corruption. His predecessor as Executive Director of the CIA, quoted in the article above, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, who held the office on 9/11, had been the chief executive of a branch of the investment company which placed the still unexplained "put options" on American and United Airlines stocks the week before the attacks, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of profits to "unknown" parties. _____ Ministers must explain destruction of 'torture flight' papers, says panel of MPs August 9, 2009, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/09/diego-garcia-flights-mps-documents Ministers must explain why crucial documents relating to CIA "torture flights" that stopped on sovereign British territory were destroyed, a panel of MPs has said. In particular, the MPs ... call for an explanation for the missing papers, which might explain the role of Diego Garcia, the British overseas territory, in the US's "extraordinary rendition" programme. The report says: "We recommend that the government discloses how, why and by whom the records relating to flights through Diego Garcia since the start of 2002 were destroyed." Foreign secretary David Miliband admitted 18 months ago that two US planes refuelled on the Indian Ocean island. The committee now wants a detailed account of the record-keeping and disposal policy regarding flights through the territory and "elsewhere through UK airspace". It also criticises the government's inability to offer assurances that ships anchored outside Diego Garcia's waters were not involved in the rendition programme. "The government must address the use of UK airspace for empty flights that may be part of a rendition circuit," says the report. Amnesty International said the MPs' verdict underlined the need for a full, independent inquiry into the UK's involvement in "war on terror" and human rights abuses. The committee also voiced disquiet over claims that British intelligence officers were complicit in the torture of detainees held overseas. According to documents revealed by the high court last month, an MI5 officer visited Morocco three times during the time British resident Binyam Mohamed claims he was secretly interrogated and tortured there. Note: For many reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities of "the war on terror," click here. _____ Wish you weren't here: The devastating effects of the new colonialists August 9, 2009, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers) http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/wish-you-werent-here... Jacques Diouf, head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, has warned that the world may be slipping into a "neo-colonial" system. The extent of this new colonialism is vast. The buyers are wealthy countries that are unable to grow their own food. The Gulf states are at the forefront of new investments. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar ? which between them control nearly 45 per cent of the world's oil ? are snapping up agricultural land in fertile countries such as Brazil, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Egypt. But they are also targeting the world's poorest countries, such as Ethiopia, Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia and Cambodia. The amounts of land involved are staggering. South Korean companies have bought 690,000 hectares in Sudan, where at least six other countries are known to have secured large land-holdings ? and where food supplies for the local population are among the least secure anywhere in the world. The Saudis are negotiating 500,000 hectares in Tanzania. Firms from the United Arab Emirates have landed 324,000 hectares in Pakistan. But they are not the only buyers. Countries with large populations such as China, South Korea and even India are acquiring swathes of African farmland to produce food for export. The Indian government has lent money to 80 companies to buy 350,000 hectares in Africa and recently lowered the tariffs under which Ethiopian agri-products can enter India. One of the biggest holdings of agriculture land in the world is a Bangalore-based company, Karuturi Global, which has recently bought huge areas in Ethiopia and Kenya. Food is not all the new colonialists are after. About a fifth of the massive new deals are for land on which to grow biofuels. _____ Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists August 15, 2009, Daily Mail (One of the U.K.'s most popular newspapers) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease... A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter. The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins. [The letter] tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine. GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal. The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications. It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when: * More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu. * 500 cases of GBS were detected. * The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times. * The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear. * The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected. Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown. The British Neurological Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out. One senior neurologist said last night: ?I would not have the swine flu jab because of the GBS risk.? Note: For more on the swine flu scare and the dangers of vaccines, click here. _____ Scientists explore how the humble leaf could power the planet August 11, 2009, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/11/artificial-leaf-energy It is one of evolution's crowning achievements - a mini green power station and organic factory combined and the source of almost all of the energy that fuels every living thing on the planet. Now scientists developing the next generation of clean power sources are working out how to copy, and ultimately improve upon, the humble leaf. The intricate chemistry involved in photosynthesis, the process where plants use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, is the most effective solar energy conversion process on Earth. And researchers believe that mimicking parts of it could be the ticket to a limitless supply of clean power. The untapped potential for using the sun's rays is huge. All human activity for a whole year could be powered by the energy contained in the sunlight hitting the Earth in just one hour. Harnessing even a small amount of this to make electricity or useful fuels could satisfy the world's increasing need for energy, predicted to double by 2050, without further endangering the climate. Most solar power systems use silicon wafers to generate electricity directly. But although costs are coming down, these are still too expensive in many cases when compared with fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Scientists are keen to develop more efficient and cheaper alternatives sources of energy. At Imperial College London, researchers have embarked on a ?1m project to study, and eventually mimic, photosynthesis. Part of a project called the "artificial leaf", involves working out exactly how leaves use sunlight to make useful molecules. The team then plans to build artificial systems that can do the same to generate clean fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. These would then be used in fuel cells to make electricity or directly to power super-clean vehicles.. Note: For more reports from reliable sources on exciting new energy developments, click here. _____ Taking Charge Taking Charge August 8, 2009, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers) http://www.smh.com.au/news/motoring/news/taking-charge-taking-charge/2009/08/07/1249350680667.html Once upon a time, you needed a crystal ball to see the future. Now all you need is a powerpoint. This week in Japan, Nissan unveiled the future of motoring, the production-ready, plug-in, electric family car. Called the Leaf, this spacious five-door hatch promises to usher in a new paradigm of motoring. Its name was chosen to indicate clean air, or, as the company said, because it "purifies air by taking emissions out of the driving experience." It's not a far-off dream of engineers, either. The Leaf will be on the roads in Japan and the US next year. And Nissan has two more EVs (electric vehicles) that are "imminent," as one senior company executive [said]. Simple in concept yet sophisticated in its execution, the car plugs into regular powerpoints to charge its onboard batteries. Unlike hybrids such as Toyota's Prius, Honda's Insight and the forthcoming Holden Volt, the Leaf doesn't require any petrol. It's 100 per cent electric. So far, Nissan, in its alliance with Renault (the two companies share the one chief executive but have separate boards), has signed understandings or agreements with 27 governments around the world to bring in electric cars. For consumers, though, the biggest hurdle will be its price. Rival Mitsubishi has its first all-electric car, the iMiEV, on the cusp of entering Japanese showrooms but, contrary to its diminutive size, it carries a big price tag there -- nearly $60,000 [Australian]. But Nissan is working on the financing details of the Leaf so it costs less to own and run than a comparable petrol car. It's Nissan's EV strategy to take the technology to the masses. Note: For more reports from reliable sources on exciting new automotive technology and energy developments, click here. _____ Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. To make a donation by credit card, check, or money order: www.WantToKnow.info/donationswtk Explore the mind and heart expanding websites managed by the nonprofit PEERS network: www.peerservice.org - PEERS websites: Spreading inspiration, education, & empowerment www.momentoflove.org - Every person in the world has a heart www.personalgrowthcourses.net - Dynamic online courses powerfully expand your horizons www.WantToKnow.info - Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all To respond to this message, visit www.WantToKnow.info/contactus.php To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the WantToKnow.info list (one email every few days): www.WantToKnow.info/subscribe _____ Change email address / Leave mailing list Powered by YourMailingListProvider -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 18 21:41:48 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:41:48 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult Message-ID: <004601ca207e$ffb91c10$ff2b5430$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Somehow, we must stop this insanity from spreading any further and begin to bring a sustainable coherence pattern back into the thinking of our society. If we do not, it may very well bring the human family to an end. While some have cautioned against writing warnings such as this, insisting they are "fear-based," I must ask if warnings such as this are any different than putting up road signs on steep slippery curving mountain roadways saying "Caution - slippery road ahead". Somehow we must come to grips with the inevitability of change, and that we are going to go through a tremendous amount of change during this time. And, that while this change process may be painful, not undergoing it may very well be terminal. However, once the pain is over, the future looks magnificent. This time is very much like that experienced when society moved from the Agriculture Age into the Industrial Age, only it may be much more dramatic. What we must come to grips with is that creating new green jobs is not going to decrease the loss of jobs and the impact this will cause on the system. The reason being that technological advances are coming on so fast that, as I wrote a day or so ago, by the time some new technologies are on the market they will already be obsolete. Therefore, job training must take place at the same time these new technologies are being designed and built. Also, off-shoring will still be necessary as the competition in pricing will be tremendous, especially now that it is known that "external costs" must be included in the purchase price. But, we must also recognize that many jobs have been off-shored in order to avoid paying These external costs because the environmental laws in the developing countries are not as strict as has been the case in the developed countries. Now, with the recognition of climate change and the restrictions it is imposing upon us, environmental laws must be enacted and obeyed everywhere. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 7:17 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) "The right-wing magazine US Investors' Daily claimed that if Steven Hawking had been British, he would have been allowed to die at birth by its "socialist" healthcare system. Hawking responded with a polite cough that he is British, and "I wouldn't be here without the NHS." Frank Laffer, the right-wing economist lauded by David Cameron, claimed on CNN that it would be a disaster if the government got its hands on Medicare, the program providing healthcare for the elderly, paid for entirely by... the government." The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult August 18, 2009 07:30 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-republican-party-is-t_b_262594 .html Something strange has happened in America in the nine months since Barack Obama was elected. It has best been summarized by the comedian Bill Maher: "The Democrats have moved to the right, and the Republicans have moved to a mental hospital." The election of Obama -- a center-left black man -- as a successor to George W. Bush has scrambled the core American right's view of their country. In their gut, they saw the US as a white-skinned, right-wing nation forever shaped like Sarah Palin. When this image was repudiated by a majority of Americans in a massive landslide, it simply didn't compute. How could this have happened? How could the cry of "Drill, baby, drill" have been beaten by a supposedly big government black guy? So a streak that has always been there in the American right's world-view -- to deny reality, and argue against a demonic phantasm of their own creation -- has swollen. Now it is all they can see. Since Obama's rise, the US right has been skipping frantically from one fantasy to another, like a person in the throes of a mental breakdown. It started when they claimed he was a secret Muslim, and -- at the same time -- that he was a member of a black nationalist church that hated white people. Then, once these arguments were rejected and Obama won, they began to argue he was born in Kenya and secretly smuggled into the United States as a baby, and the Hawaiian authorities conspired to fake his US birth certificate. So he is ineligible to rule and the office of President should pass to... the Republican runner-up, John McCain. These aren't fringe phenomena: a Research 2000 poll found that a majority of Republicans and Southerners say Obama wasn't born in the US, or aren't sure. A steady steam of Republican congressmen have been jabbering that Obama has "questions to answer." No amount of hard evidence -- here's his birth certificate, here's a picture of his mother heavily pregnant in Hawaii, here's the announcement of his birth in the local Hawaiian paper -- can pierce this conviction. This trend has reached its apotheosis this summer with the Republican Party claiming en masse that Obama wants to set up "death panels" to euthanize the old and disabled. Yes: Sarah Palin really has claimed -- with a straight face -- that Barack Obama wants to kill her baby. You have to admire the audacity of the right. Here's what's actually happening. The US is the only major industrialized country that does not provide regular healthcare to all its citizens. Instead, they are required to provide for themselves -- and just under 50 million people can't afford the insurance. As a result, 18,000 US citizens die every year needlessly, because they can't access the care they require. That's equivalent to six 9/11s, every year, year on year. Yet the Republicans have accused the Democrats who are trying to stop all this death by extending healthcare of being "killers" -- and they have successfully managed to put them on the defensive. The Republicans want to defend the existing system, not least because they are given massive sums of money by the private medical firms who benefit from the deadly status quo. But they can't do so honestly: some 70 percent of Americans say it is "immoral" to retain a medical system that doesn't cover all citizens. So they have to invent lies to make any life-saving extension of healthcare sound depraved. A few months ago, a recent board member for several private health corporations called Betsy McCaughey noticed a clause in the proposed healthcare legislation that would pay for old people to see a doctor and write a living will. They could stipulate when (if at all) they would like to be withdrawn. It's totally voluntary. Many people want it: I know I wouldn't want to be kept alive for a few extra months if I was only going to be in agony and unable to speak. But McCaughey started the rumor that this was a form of euthanasia, where old people would be forced to agree to death. This was then stretched somehow to include the disabled. It was flatly untrue -- but the right had their talking point, Palin declared the system "downright evil", and they were off. It's been amazingly successful. Now, every conversation about healthcare has to begin with a Democrat explaining at great length that, no, they are not in favor of killing the elderly -- while Republicans get away with defending a status quo that kills 18,000 people a year. The hypocrisy was startling: when Sarah Palin was Governor of Alaska, she encouraged citizens there to take out living wills. Almost all the Republicans leading the charge against "death panels" have voted for living wills in the past. But the lie has done its work: a confetti of distractions has been thrown up, and support is leaking away from the plan that would save lives. These claims have become so detached from reality that they often seem like black comedy. The right-wing magazine US Investors' Daily claimed that if Steven Hawking had been British, he would have been allowed to die at birth by its "socialist" healthcare system. Hawking responded with a polite cough that he is British, and "I wouldn't be here without the NHS." Frank Laffer, the right-wing economist lauded by David Cameron, claimed on CNN that it would be a disaster if the government got its hands on Medicare, the program providing healthcare for the elderly, paid for entirely by... the government. This tendency to simply deny inconvenient facts and invent a fantasy-world isn't new; it's only becoming more heightened. It ran through the Bush years like a dash of bourbon in water. When it became clear Saddam Hussein had no Weapons of Mass Destruction, the US right simply claimed they had been shipped to Syria. When the scientific evidence for man-made global warming became unanswerable, they claimed, as one Republican congressman put it, that it was "the greatest hoax in human history", and all the world's climatologists were "liars". The American media then presents itself as an umpire between "the rival sides", as if they both had evidence behind them. It's a shame, because there are some areas in which a conservative philosophy -- reminding us of the limits of grand human schemes, and advising caution -- could be a useful corrective. But that's not these what so-called "conservatives" are providing: instead, they are pumping up a hysterical fantasy, that is only a thin skin covering raw economic interests and base prejudices. For many of the people at the top, this is mere cynical manipulation: one of Bush's former advisors, David Kuo, has said the President and Karl Rove would mock evangelicals as "nuts" as soon as they left the Oval Office. But the ordinary Republican base believe it. They are being cruelly manipulated into opposing their own interests through false fears and invented demons. Last week, one of the Republicans sent to disrupt a healthcare town hall started a fight and was injured -- and then complained he had no health insurance. I didn't laugh; I wanted to weep. Indeed, if you spend any time with American right-wingers -- as I have, reporting undercover on events like the National Review cruise and the Christian Coalition Solidarity Tour of Israel -- you soon find that your arguments don't center on philosophy. You have to concentrate on correcting basic factual errors about the real world. They insist Europe has fallen to Islam, since Muslims immigrants are becoming a majority and are imposing sharia law. In reality, Muslims make up 3 percent of the population of Europe, and most of them oppose sharia law. They insist Franklin Roosevelt caused the Great Depression, and should have cut government spending. In reality, whenever he did cut spending -- as he tried periodically throughout the 1930s -- the economy began to tank. But explain this patiently -- with a thousand sources -- and they simply shriek that you are lying, and they know "in their heart" what is true. They insist gay marriage would cause the institution of the family to collapse. In reality, where it has already been introduced in Europe, heterosexual families continue just as before. On the list goes: evolution is a lie, a blastocyst is akin to a baby, torture produces actionable intelligence... How do they train themselves to be so impervious to reality? It begins, I suspect, with religion. They are taught from a young age that it is good to have "faith" -- which is, by definition, a belief without any evidence to back it up. You don't have "faith" Australia exists, or fire burns: you have evidence. You only need "faith" to believe the untrue or unprovable. Indeed, they are taught that faith is the highest aspiration and most noble cause. Is it any surprise this then percolates into their political views? Faith-based thinking spreads and contaminates the rational. Up to now, Obama has not responded well to this onslaught of unreason. He has tried to conciliate the elite economic interests, and joke about the fanatical fringe they are stirring up. He has shamefully assured the pharmaceutical companies that an expanded healthcare system will not use the power of government as a purchaser to bargain down drug prices, while wryly saying that he "doesn't want to kill Grandma." Rather than challenging these hard interests and bizarre fantasies aggressively, he has tried to flatter and soothe them. His healthcare plan is weaker and harder to explain as a result. But this kind of mania can't be co-opted: it can only by over-ruled. Sometimes in politics you will have enemies, and they must be democratically defeated. The political system cannot be gummed up by a need to reach out to the maddest people with the maddest fears. There is no way to expand healthcare without angering Big Pharma and the Republicaloons. So be it. As Arianna Huffington put it, "It is as though, at the height of the civil rights movement, you thought you had to bring together Martin Luther King and George Wallace and make them agree. It's not how change happens." However strange it seems, the Republican Party really is spinning off into a bizarro-cult who believe Barack Obama is a baby-killer plotting to build death panels for the grannies of America. Their new slogan should be -- shrill, baby, shrill. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 19 07:43:09 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:43:09 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: What do we need international reserves for? Message-ID: <13917.61679.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> -??????????? Dear All, ? ????????????????????? The question of international reserves was something which James Quilligan raised with me when he was examing TFE. ? ? This maybe of interest! It comes from Ellen Browns Web of Debt. You have probably seen this site before. ??????????? ?????????? Regards, ? ?????????? ?Robert Searle?? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics ? ? ? ? Reply Ellen Brown, on July 10th, 2009 at 2:12 am Said: ? I?m doing another revision, so a m ironing out a few things. One issue I?m thinking about is the matter of international reserves and SDRs. The question is, what do we need international reserves for? I posed that question to the socialcredit forum and got a response from Ken Palmerton, which I?ll post here so I can post my response. I?m really trying to think this through, so feedback is welcome! ? Hi Ken, you write ? ?We only need ?reserves? to prop up the mythology of money being finite. And only lent from ?savings?. My own view is that such a thing is unnecessary.? I agree! I have trouble conceptualizing it all in my mind, but ordinary people don?t need reserves to engage in international trade. We just trade across borders using our Visas and MasterCards, and somebody somewhere figures out what the exchange rate is and bills us when we get home. Where do the reserves come in? I don?t even think banks should need reserves or capital, IF they are public banks issuing ?the full faith and credit of the people.? Why do you need reserves of your own credit to issue credit? Banks need reserves because they?re pretending to be lending something that they have title to and are therefore entitled to collect interest on for parting with it for a period of time. I?m not actually opposed to interest either, but I think it should go back into the public coffers, since it?s interest on the credit of the public. It?s basically a service fee, and a little something extra to cover the loans that default, bringing the numbers in balance. Ellen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 20 07:01:21 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:01:21 -0700 Subject: [GJM] IMPORTANT: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Netanyahu behind Obama birth rumors: Report Message-ID: <000001ca2196$76102120$62306360$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS This is something IMHO that needs to be disseminated widely. This message makes me wonder if Rush Limbaugh and the others involved in the "lies, lies, and more lies" drama are being paid to do what they are doing as this to me looks like an extension of the war games now taking place on battlefields in the Middle East. We are seeing engagement on every front. We must begin asking ourselves "How do we stop this deadly game?" Perhaps by turning off our TV sets? And refusing to listen and watch the crap that is on-going there -- mostly to keep us entertained and our focus away from what is happening while we are distracted. Garbage in, garbage out. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:46 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Netanyahu behind Obama birth rumors: Report Netanyahu behind Obama birth rumors: Report http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14763 Global Research, August 13, 2009 August 20, 2009 The Israeli government has allegedly used its influence in American politics to strengthen the rumors about US President Barack Obama's birthplace. On Monday, well-known investigative journalist Wayne Madsen said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's entrenched alliance with the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), various neoconservative groups and fundamentalist Christian organizations had made it "very easy for him to bring this whole canard back" about allegations that Obama has been born in Kenya rather than the United States. "And it looks like he has done that as a way to put political pressure and try to tip Obama off his high favorability ratings at the present time," he added. The Constitution bars people born outside the US from running for president. Obama's birthplace has been verified as Hawaii by the island state's Health Department and the president has presented his birth certificate online. The claimants to the contrary, called 'birthers', are lead by California attorney Orly Taitz who has filed in the federal court Kenyan papers, which certify that Obama is Kenyan-born. The Washington-based journalist said that "just after this fake birth certificate came out, she [Taitz] pops up in Tel Aviv two days later." "She is originally from Moldova, very closely tied to Likud, Netanyahu and also Foreign Minister (Avigdor Lieberman) who is also a native of Moldova," he told Russia Today. Asked about the Israeli motive for the move, the Washington-based journalist said "The Netanyahu government is very upset with Obama over the Obama administration's insistence that there be a freeze on settlements including in East Jerusalem [al-Quds]. So that couples with the reticence of the Obama administration to take any military action against Iran, which Netanyahu's government favors, has brought this old story back to life." From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Thu Aug 20 10:49:16 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:49:16 +0100 Subject: [GJM] No-Fly List for journalist. Message-ID: <016b01ca21b6$28159cf0$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear All, Just to to show how nasty it's getting, Daniel Estulin (the (Canadian/Spanish journalist who breaks the news about the Bilderburg Group) has been placed on the USA No Fly list. This was revealed yesterday when he tried to fly to New York to be interviewed by Jesse Ventura. So now you know -- a journalist who breaks open the secrets has had his travel stopped. Rodney Shakespeare. . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 20 11:36:28 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:36:28 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War Message-ID: <003501ca21bc$f0591a60$d10b4f20$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS This article is very long, but I urge each and every one of you to read it as it provides some very enlightening information on who the real players in the world game are. Many of you will remember Blackwater and the discussions we had surrounding it. Here is a excerpt from this article as it talks about the role of private companies in Iraq while at the same time revealing who some of the most influential players in the Republican Party are, but who have remained fairly invisible. However, through doing some "tracking" we are able to link the Republican Party and The Christian Right. Here is the quote I have taken from the article, followed by some other information: "Blackwater was the most notorious example; Erik Prince, its founder and sole owner, is part of a family that figures among the major contributors to the Republican Party and other right-wing causes, such as the Council for National Policy. His sister once told the press that "my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party."[29] mr: Recall that Erick Prince's sister Betty, referred to above, was married to the son of Amway Co-founder Richard DeVos. The son, Dick Devos, was also at one point President of Amway. And, at one point Betty DeVos was Chairperson of the Republican Party. Recall also that I first began to track this lead due to a valid report that Erick Prince had made a large donation to Presidential Candidate Ron Paul Below is some information taken from Wikipedia re: Amway. Commentators have identified Amway as supporting the U.S. Republican Party,[53] and its founders contributed $4,000,000 to a conservative 527 group in the 2004 election cycle.[54] Amway states that its business opportunity is open to people regardless of their religious and political beliefs.[55] Rolling Stone's Bob Moser has contended that former Amway CEO and co-founder Richard DeVos is connected with the dominionist political movement in the United States. Moser states that DeVos was a supporter of the late D. James Kennedy, giving more than $5 million to Kennedy's ministry.[56] Multiple high-ranking Amway leaders such as Richard DeVos and Dexter Yager are also owners and members of the board of Gospel Films, a producer of movies and books geared towards conservative Christians as well as co-owner (along with Salem Communications) of Gospel Communications.[57] One of Amway's most successful distributors, Dexter Yager, has criticized Democratic President Bill Clinton. Mother Jones reported that Yager stated in voice mail to his downline network of distributors, "If you analyze Bill Clinton's entire inaugural address, it is nothing but a New Age pagan ritual. If you go back and look at how it was arranged and how it was orchestrated, he talked about forcing the spring. So what they're trying to do is...force the emergence of deviant lifestyles, of a socialist agenda, and force that on us as American people."[58] Yager also allowed Republican George W. Bush to send messages through that voicemail system to thousands of distributors.[59] Doug Wead, who was a Special Assistant to U.S. President George H. W. Bush, is a successful IBO who is a regular speaker at group rallies.[citation needed] In 2000, President George W. Bush appointed Timothy Muris, a former anti-trust lawyer whose largest client was Amway to head the FTC, which has direct federal regulatory oversight over multi-level marketing plans.[citation needed] Amway co-founder, the late Jay Van Andel (in 1980), and later his son Steve Van Andel (in 2001) were elected by the board of directors of the United States Chamber of Commerce as chairman of that organization.[60] m.r. You may also want to take the time to read a little more about Amway since it was established in 90 countries around the world and it seems likely the company could have exerted influence in political circles in these countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway But, don't miss the main article below: -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:02 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War by Prof. Peter Dale Scott Global Research, August 11, 2009 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14672 "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Dwight David Eisenhower, "Military-Industrial Complex Speech," 1961, [1] "My observation is that the impact of national elections on the business climate for SAIC has been minimal. The emphasis on where federal spending occurs usually shifts, but total federal spending never decreases. SAIC has always continued to grow despite changes in the political leadership in Washington." Former SAIC manager, quoted in Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." Vanity Fair, March 2007[2] "We make American military doctrine" Ed Soyster, MPRI[3] The Myth of the Grand Chessboard: Geopolitics and Imperial Folie de Grandeur In the Road to 9/11 I summarized the dialectic of open societies: how from their energy they expand, leading to a higher level of more secretive corporations and agencies, which eventually weaken the home country through needless and crushing wars.[4] I am not alone in seeing America in the final stages of this process, which since the Renaissance has brought down Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. Much of what I wrote summarized the thoughts of writers before me like Paul Kennedy and Kevin Phillips. But there is one aspect of the curse of expansion that I underemphasized: how dominance creates megalomanic illusions of insuperable control, and how this illusion in turn is crystallized into a prevailing ideology of dominance. I am surprised that so few, heretofore, have pointed out that from a public point of view these ideologies are delusional, indeed perhaps insane. In this essay I will argue however that what looks demented from a public viewpoint makes sense from the narrower perspective of those profiting from the provision of private entrepreneurial violence and intelligence. The ideology of dominance was expressed for British rulers by Sir Halford Mackinder in 1919: "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the heartland commands the World Island; Who rules the World Island commands the World."[5] This sentence, though expressed after the power of Britain had already begun to decline, accurately articulated the anxieties of imperial planners who saw themselves playing "the Great Game," and who thus in 1809 sacrificed an entire British army of twelve thousand men in the wilderness of Afghanistan. Expanded by Karl Haushofer and other Germans into the alleged "science" of geopolitics, this doctrine helped to inspire Hitler?s disastrous Drang nach Osten, which in short order terminated the millenary hopes of the Nazi Third Reich. One might have thought that by now the lessons of Napoleon and Hitler would have subdued all illusions that any single power could command the "World Island," let alone the world. Kissinger for one appears to have learned this lesson, when he wrote that: "By geopolitical, I mean an approach that pays attention to the requirements of equilibrium."[6] But (largely because of his commitment to equilibrium in world order) Kissinger was swept aside by events in the mid-1970s, leading to the triumph of the global dominance mindset, as expressed by thinkers like Zbigniew Brzezinski.[7] Brzezinski himself has recognized how his gratuitous machinations in Afghanistan in 1978-79 produced the responses of al Qaeda and jihadi terrorism. Asked in 1998 whether he regretted his adventurism, Brzezinski replied: "Regret what? The secret operation was an excellent idea. It drew the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? On the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, saying, in essence: 'We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.'" Nouvel Observateur: "And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?" Brzezinski: "What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" When he was asked whether Islamic fundamentalism represented a world menace, Brzezinski replied, "Nonsense!"[8] In some ways, the post-Afghanistan Brzezinski has become more moderate in his expectations from U.S. power: he notably warned against the Gulf War in 1990 and also Vice-President Cheney?s agitations when in office for some kind of preemptive strike against Iran. But he has never retracted the Mackinderite rhetoric of his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard, which revives the illusion of "controlling" the Eurasian heartland: For the first time ever, a non-Eurasian power has emerged not only as a key arbiter of Eurasian power relations but also as the world's paramount power. The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power." (p. xiii) "For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia... Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia - and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained." (p.30) "To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together." (p.40)[9] This kind of brash talk is not unique to Brzezinski. Its call for unilateral dominance echoed the 1992 draft DPG (Defense Planning Guidance) prepared for Defense Secretary Cheney by neocons Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis "Scooter" Libby: "We must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."[10] It is echoed both in the 2000 PNAC Study, "Rebuilding America?s Defenses," and the Bush-Cheney National Security Strategy of September 2002 (NSS 2002).[11] And it is epitomized by the megalomanic JCS strategic document Joint Vision 2020, "Full-spectrum dominance means the ability of U.S. forces, operating alone or with allies, to defeat any adversary and control any situation across the range of military operations."[12] Such overblown rhetoric is out of touch with reality, dangerously delusional, and even arguably insane. It is however useful, even vital, to those corporations who have become accustomed to profiting from the Cold War, and who faced deep cuts in U.S. defense and intelligence spending in the first years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are joined by other groups (discussed below) that also have a stake in preserving the dominance mindset in Washington. These include the new purveyors of privatized military services, or what can be called entrepreneurial violence, in response to defense budget cuts. The Real Grand Chessboard: Those Profiting from Enduring Violence The delusional grandiosity of Brzezinski?s rhetoric is inherent above all in the false metaphor of his book title. "Vassals" are not chess pieces to be moved effortlessly by a single hand. They are human beings with minds of their own; and among humans an unjust excess of power is certain to provoke not only resentment but ultimately successful resistance. One can see this easily in Asia, from the evolution of anti-Americanism in Iran to the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) in Central Asia: although still ostensibly nonviolent, HT?s rhetoric is now more and more aggressively anti-American.[13] The notion of a single chess player is equally false, especially in Central Asia, where dominant states (the U.S., Russia, and China) and local states are all alike weak. Here major multinational corporations like BP and Exxon are major players. In countries like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan they dwarf both local state power and also the U.S. governmental presence, whether official or covert. The true local powers are apt to be two which governments are notoriously inept at controlling: first, the "agitated Muslims" which Brzezinski insanely derided, and second, illicit trafficking, above all drug trafficking.[14] Ultimately however Brzezinski is not constrained by his chess metaphor. The goal of a chess game is to win. Brzezinski?s goal is quite different: to exert permanent restraints on the power of China and above all Russia. He has thus sensibly opposed destabilizing moves like a western strike on Iran, while supporting the permanent containment of Russia with a ring of western bases and pipelines. (In 1995 Brzezinski flew to Azerbaijan and helped negotiate the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline linking Azerbaijan to Turkey.)[15] As I have argued elsewhere, Brzezinski (though he no doubt thinks to himself in terms of strategy) thus promotes a policy that very much suits the needs of the oil industry and its backers. These last include his patrons the Rockefellers, who first launched him into national prominence.[16] In March 2001 the biggest oil majors (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco, and Shell) had their opportunity to design the incoming administration?s energy strategies, including Middle East policy, by participating secretly in Vice-President Cheney's Energy Task Force.[17] The Task Force, we learned later, developed a map of Iraq?s oil fields, with the southwest divided into nine "Exploration Blocks." One month earlier a Bush National Security Council document had noted that Cheney?s Task force would consider "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields."[18] Earlier the oil companies had participated in a non-governmental task force calling for "an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/diplomatic assessments."[19] Of course, oil companies were not alone in pushing for military action against Iraq. After 9/11, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Douglas Feith established the Pentagon?s neocon Office of Special Plans (OSP), which soon "rivalled both the C.I.A. and the Pentagon?s own Defense Intelligence Agency, the D.I.A., as President Bush?s main source of intelligence regarding Iraq?s possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda."[20] Neocon influence in the Administration, supported by Lewis Libby in Vice-President Cheney?s office, trumped the skepticism of CIA and DIA: these two false charges against Saddam Hussein, or what one critic called "faith-based intelligence," became briefly the official ideology of the United States. Some, notably Dick Cheney, have never recanted. Many journalists were eager to promote the OSP doctrines. Judith Miller of the New York Times wrote a series of articles on Saddam?s WMD, relying, like OSP itself, on the propaganda of Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi.[21] Miller?s book collaborator Laurie Mylroie went even further, arguing that "Saddam was not only behind the '93 Trade Center attack, but also every anti-American terrorist incident of the past decade, from the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to the leveling of the federal building in Oklahoma City to September 11 itself."[22] Many of these advocates, notably Feith, Libby, and Mylroie, had links to Israel, which as much as any oil company had reasons to wish for U.S. armies to become established militarily in Central Asia.[23] Private Military Contractors (PMCs), Whose Business is Violence for Profit The inappropriateness of a military response to the threat of terrorism has been noted by a number of counterterrorism experts, such as retired U.S. Army colonel Andrew Bacevich: the concept of global war as the response to violent Islamic radicalism is flawed. We ought not be in the business of invading and occupying other countries. That's not going to address the threat. It is, on the other hand, going to bankrupt the country and break the military.[24] Because of budgetary constraints, America has resorted to uncontrollable subordinates to represent its public power in these remote places. I shall focus chiefly in this essay on one group of these, the so-called Private Military Contractors (PMCs) who are authorized to commit violence in the name of their employers. These corporations are reminiscent of the marauding condottieri or private mercenary armies contracted for by the wealthy city states of Renaissance Italy.[25] With the hindsight of history, we can see the contribution of the notoriously capricious Condottieri to the violence they are supposedly hired to deal with. Some, when unemployed, became little more than predatory bandits. Others, like the celebrated Farinata whom Dante placed in the Inferno, turned against their native cities. Above all, the de facto power accumulated by the condottieri meant that, with the passage of time, they came to dictate terms to their ostensible employers.[26] (They were an early example of entrepreneurial violence, and the most common way of avoiding their path of destruction was "to buy reprieve by offering bribes."[27]) To offset the pressure on limited armed forces assets, Donald Rumsfeld escalated the increasing use of Private Military Contractors (PMCs) in the Iraq War. At one point as many as 100,000 personnel were employed by PMCs in the US Iraq occupation. Some of them were involved in controversial events there, such as the Iraq Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the killing and burning of four contract employees in Fallujah. The license of the most controversial firm, Blackwater, was terminated by the Iraqi government in 2007, after eight Iraqi civilians were gratuitously killed in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion.[28] (After much negative publicity, Blackwater renamed itself in 2009 as Xe Worldwide.) Insufficiently noticed in the public furor over PMCs like Blackwater was the difference in motivation between them and the Pentagon. Whereas the stated goal of Rumsfeld and the armed forces in Iraq was to end violence there, the PMCs clearly had a financial stake in its continuation. Hence it is no surprise that some of the largest PMCs were also political supporters for pursuing the ill-conceived "War on Terror." Blackwater was the most notorious example; Erik Prince, its founder and sole owner, is part of a family that figures among the major contributors to the Republican Party and other right-wing causes, such as the Council for National Policy. His sister once told the press that "my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party."[29] Private Intelligence Companies and the Provision of Violence Blackwater has attracted the critical attention of the American Mainstream Media. But it was a mere knight on the grand chessboard, albeit one with the ability to influence the moves of the game. Far less noticed has been given to Diligence LLC. Diligence, a more powerful company, that unlike Blackwater interfaced heavily with Wall Street, "set up shop in Baghdad [in July 2003] to provide security for companies involved in Iraqi reconstruction. In December, it established a new subsidiary called Diligence Middle East, and expanded its services to include screening, vetting and training of local hires, and the provision of daily intelligence briefs for its corporate clients."[30] Certainly the political clout of Diligence outshone and outlasted Blackwater?s. Two of its founding directors (Lanny Griffiths and Ed Rogers) were also founders of the influential Republican lobbying team Barbour Griffiths and Rogers (later renamed BGR). Haley Barbour, the senior founder of BGR, also served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997. Diligence LLC was licensed to do business in Iraq as a private military contractor (PMC). But it could be called a Private Intelligence Contractor (PIC), since it is virtually a CIA spin-off: Diligence was founded by William Webster, the only man to head both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mike Baker, its chief executive officer, spent 14 years at the CIA as a covert field operations officer specializing in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations. Whitley Bruner, its chief operating officer in Baghdad, was once the CIA station chief in Iraq.[31] Its partner in Diligence Middle East (DME) is New Bridge Strategies, whose purpose has been described by the New York Times as "a consulting firm to advise companies that want to do business in Iraq, including those seeking pieces of taxpayer-financed reconstruction projects."[32] Its political clout was outlined in the Financial Times: New Bridge was established in May [2003] and came to public attention because of the Republican heavyweights on its board ? most linked to one or other Bush administration [officials] or to the family itself. Those include Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush?s presidential campaign manager, and Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith, former George H.W. Bush aides.[33] The firm of Barbour, Griffith and Rogers was the initial funder of Diligence, which shares an office floor with BGR and New Bridge in a building four blocks from the White House. The Financial Times linked the success of New Bridge in securing contracts to their relationship to Neil Bush, the President?s brother.[34] When Mack McLarty, Clinton?s White House Chief of Staff, resigned, he became a director of Diligence, and also joined Henry Kissinger to head, until 2008, Kissinger McLarty Associates. Another Private Intelligence Contractor or PIC is Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), an $8 billion corporation involved in defense, intelligence community, and homeland security contracting. In the words of veteran journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele, SAIC has displayed an uncanny ability to thrive in every conceivable political climate. It is the invisible hand behind a huge portion of the national-security state?the one sector of the government whose funds are limitless and whose continued growth is assured every time a politician utters the word "terrorism." SAIC represents, in other words, a private business that has become a form of permanent government .[SAIC] epitomizes something beyond Eisenhower's worst nightmare?the "military-industrial-counterterrorism complex."[35] (Later their article made it clear that SAIC is not a unified bureaucracy, but more like a platform for individual entrepreneurship in obtaining contracts: "at SAIC your job fundamentally was to sell your high-tech ideas and blue-chip expertise to [any] government agency with money to spend and an impulse to buy.")[36] Before becoming Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates was a member of SAIC's board of directors. SAIC personnel have also been recruited from CIA, NSA, and DARPA. Scores of influential members of the national-security establishment clambered onto SAIC's payroll, among them John M. Deutch, undersecretary of energy under President Jimmy Carter and C.I.A. director under President Bill Clinton; Rear Admiral William F. Raborn, who headed development of the Polaris submarine; and Rear Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, who served variously as director of the National Security Agency, deputy director of the C.I.A., and vice director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.[37] SAIC helped supply the faulty intelligence about Saddam?s WMD that then generated ample contracts for SAIC in Iraq. SAIC personnel were instrumental in pressing the case that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and that war was the only way to get rid of them. When no weapons of mass destruction were found, SAIC personnel staffed the commission set up to investigate how American intelligence could have been so disastrously wrong, including Gordon Oehler, the commission's deputy director for review, a 25-year CIA veteran, Jeffrey R. Cooper, vice president and chief science officer for one of SAIC's sub-units and Samuel Visner, a SAIC vice president for corporate development who had also passed through the revolving door and back to the NSA. David Kay, who later chaired the Iraq Survey Group (which showed that Hussein didn't possess WMD, thereby proving that the war was launched under false pretenses), is also an SAIC shareholder and former director of SAIC's Center for Counterterrorism Technology and Analysis.[38] Needless to say, this SAIC-stuffed commission did not report that SAIC itself had been a big part of the problem. But according to Barlett and Steele, the same David Kay in 1998 told the Senate Armed Services Committee: that Saddam Hussein "remains in power with weapons of mass destruction" and that "military action is needed." He warns that unless America acts now "we're going to find the world's greatest military with its hands tied." Over the next four years, Kay and others associated with SAIC hammered away at the threat posed by Iraq. Wayne Downing, a retired general and a close associate of Ahmad Chalabi, proselytized hard for an invasion of Iraq, stating that the Iraqis "are ready to take the war overseas. They would use whatever means they have to attack us." In many of his appearances on network and cable television leading up to the war, Downing was identified simply as a "military analyst." It would have been just as accurate to note that he was a member of SAIC's board of directors and a company stockholder . 9/11 was a personal tragedy for thousands of families and a national tragedy for all of America, but it served the interests of private intellience and military contractors including SAIC. In the aftermath of the attacks, the Bush administration launched its "Global War on Terror" (GWOT), whose chief consequence has been to channel money by the tens of billions into companies promising they could do something?anything?to help. SAIC was ready. Four years earlier, anticipating the next big source of government revenue, SAIC had established the Center for Counterterrorism Technology and Analysis. According to SAIC, the purpose of the new unit was to take "a comprehensive view of terrorist threats, including the full range of weapons of mass destruction, more traditional high explosives, and cyber-threats to the national infrastructure." In October of 2006 the company told would-be investors flatly that the war on terror would continue to be a lucrative growth industry.[39] Barlett and Steele could have mentioned that SAIC senior analyst Fritz Ermarth, a long-time associate of Gates from his years in the CIA, is now an official of the Nixon Center. Commenting in 2003 on State Secretary Colin Powell?s briefing to the UN Security Council, Ermarth praised Powell for his charges (repeating one of Judith Miller?s false stories) about Saddam?s acquisition of aluminum tubing "for centrifuges and not rocketry." Ermarth faulted Powell however for not mentioning two matters: Iraqi involvement in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 (a charge by Laurie Mylroie now generally discredited), and that "During the 1970s and 1980s the USSR and its allies supported terrorists in Western Europe and in Turkey," (alluding to the false charges, promoted at the time by Robert Gates and Claire Sterling, about Mehmet Ali Ag?a?s attempted assassination of Pope Paul II).[40] I certainly do not wish to suggest that SAIC single-handedly created the will to fight in Iraq. The combined efforts of defense contractors, oil companies, PMCs and PICs created a mindset in which all those eager for power were caught up, including, I have to say, career-minded academics. In Iraq as in Afghanistan and Vietnam a generation earlier, a sure ticket to consultations in Washington was support for interventions that ordinary people could see would be disastrous. The yea-saying of academics has approved even the privatization of intelligence which we have just been describing. According to political scientist Anna Leander, Private firms not only provide, but also analyse intelligence. Private translators, analysts and ?interrogators? are hired, as illustrated by the involvement of Titan and CACI in Abu Ghraib. Even more directly, private firms are hired in to assess threats and risks and suggest what to do about them. This involves constructing a security picture as done for example, by Diligence LLC and SAIC, two firms specialised in intelligence gathering and analysis .. This privatisation of intelligence has direct consequences for the relation between PMCs and security discourses. It places the firms in a position where they are directly involved in producing these discourses. They provide a growing share of the information that forms the basis of decisions on whether or not something is a security concern. Leander concludes that this privatization is beneficial: it "empower[s] a more military understanding of security which, in turn, empowers PMCs as particularly legitimate security experts."[41] Another political scientist, Chaim Kaufmann, has noted more critically that arguments for escalation and what he calls threat inflation against Iraq were not adequately disciplined by "the marketplace of ideas." He gives five reasons for this failure, duly supported by other political scientists. But the obvious reason mentioned by Barlett and Steele ? profit ? is not mentioned.[42] What we have been talking about until now is advocacy disguised as expertise. But overseas associates of Diligence LLC and its allies have also been accused of false-flag operations intended to provoke war. The passage of the Patriot Act generated a new realm of profit for SAIC contractors -- domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens ? as well as new intelligence fusion centers to carry this out. ?As part of the Pentagon?s domestic security mission, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld created the Counterintelligence Field Activity office in 2002 and filled its staff with contractors from Booz Allen, BAE systems, SAIC, and other suppliers of cleared personnel. CIFA, as we?ve seen, was used against people suspected of harboring ill will against the Bush administration and its policies .At present, there are forty-three current and planned fusion centers in the United States where data from intelligence agencies, the FBI, local police, private sector databases, and anonymous tipsters are combined and analyzed by counterterrorism analysts.... According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the project ?inculcates the project ?inculcates DHS with enormous domestic surveillance powers.?[43] These fusion centers, ?which combine the military, the FBI, state police, and others, have been internally promoted by the US Army as means to avoid restrictions preventing the military from spying on the domestic population.? [44] Responding to such criticisms, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano stated in March 2009 that the mandate of fusion centers was not to launch independent domestic surveillance operations but connect the dots between lawfully obtained information already in fragmented ?siloed? databases.[45] She did not mention that some of this information was from private and even anonymous sources. One SAIC contractor, Neoma Syke, worked at such a fusion center, wearing two hats: During 2003-2004, she was "working for SAIC" as a force protection analyst with "SAIC's" 205th Military Intelligence Battalion. And while she was "a contractor for SAIC", specifically, "SAIC's" 205th Military Intelligence Battalion, apparently she served as Counterintelligence Watch Officer at USARPAC's Crisis Action Center.[46] Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. His latest prose books are The Road to 9/11 (2007) and his reissued and expanded War Conspiracy (2008). His new book of poems (including political poems) is Mosaic Orpheus, from McGill-Queen's University Press. Visit his website at http://www.peterdalescott.net/ Notes [1] Dwight David Eisenhower, "Military-Industrial Complex Speech," 1961, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp. [2] Former SAIC manager, in Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." Vanity Fair, March 2007, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703?currentP age=1. [3] The Economist, July 8, 1999. [4] Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 7-9. [5] Halford J. Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality (New York: Holt, 1919). [6] Henry Kissinger, in Colin S Gray, G R Sloan. Geopolitics, Geography, and Strategy (Portland: Frank Cass Publishers, 1999). [7] For the events leading to the displacement of Kissinger see Scott, The Road to 9/11, 50-54, etc. [8] Le Nouvel Observateur, January 15-21, 1998. In his relentless determination to weaken the Soviet Un ion, Brzezinski also persuaded Carter to end U.S. sanctions against Pakistan for its pursuit of nuclear weapons (David Armstrong and Joseph J. Trento, America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise (Steerforth, 2007). Thus Brzezinski?s obsession with the Soviet Union helped produce, as unintended byproducts, both al Qaeda and the Islamic atomic arsenal. [9] Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (New York: basic Books), xiii, 30, 40. [10] Memorandum of February 18, 1992, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb245/index.htm. [11] For specific parallels to The Grand Chessboard, see Scott, Road to 9/11, 191-2. [12] "Joint Vision 2020 Emphasizes Full-spectrum Dominance," DefenseLink, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45289, emphasis added. [13] Zeyno Baran, "Hizb-ut-Tahrir: Islam?s Political Insurgency," Nixon Center, December 2004, www.HizbutahrirIslamsPoliticalInsurgency.pdf. [14] Brzezinski was so unafraid of Islamic jihadism that when National Security Adviser he convened a working group to deliberately stir up Muslim dissatisfaction inside the Soviet Union (Scott, Road to 9/11, 70-71). [15] He has since taken credit for persuading President Aliyyev of Azerbaijan to commit to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Geopolitically Speaking: Russia's `Sphere of Influence? - Chechnya and Beyond," Azerbaijan International, Spring 2000, p. 24, http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/81_folder/81_articles/81_brzez inski.html. This pipeline, a favor to U.S. and British oil companies, makes geopolitical but not economic sense; and is further destabilizing an already tense region. See Pepe Escobar, "Liquid War Across Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific: Postcard from Pipelineistan," The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, http://japanfocus.org/-Pepe-Escobar/3149. [16] Scott, Road to 9/11, 70-79. [17] Dana Milbank and Justin Blum, "Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force," Washington Post, November 16, 2005. This story noted that CEOs of three majors had falsely denied this: " A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress .In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate `to my knowledge,? and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know. Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that 'gave detailed energy policy recommendations' to the task force." [18] Scott, Road to 9/11, 188-89; citing Linda McQuaig, Crude Dudes," Toronto Star, September 20, 2004; Jane Mayer, "Contract Sport," New Yorker, February 16-23, 2004. [19] Scott, Road to 9/11, 189; "Strategy Energy Policy: Challenges for the 21st Century," Report of the James A. Baker Institute of Public Policy and Council on Foreign Relations Task Force, 40, emphasis added. [20] Seymour M. Hersh, "Selective Intelligence: Donald Rumsfeld Has His Own Special Sources. Are They Reliable?" New Yorker, May 6, 2003 [21] Michael Massing, "Now They Tell Us," New York Review of Books, February 26, 2004, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16922. [22] Peter Bergen, "Armchair Provocateur -- Laurie Mylroie: The Neocons' favorite conspiracy theorist," Washington Monthly, December 2003, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0312.bergen.html. [23] For Israel links, see Michael Lind, Made in Texas (New York, Basic Books), 139 (Feith); John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), 166, etc. (Libby); Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (New York: Crown, 2006), 68-70 (Mylroie). [24] Jon Wiener, "Obama's Limits: An Interview With Andrew Bacevich," Nation, August 28, 2008, http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/350252/obama_s_limits_an_interview_wit h_andrew_bacevich. Cf. Andrew Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008). Michael Scheuer also argues that the campaign against terrorism took a big step backwards when the U.S. invaded Iraq. "Experts Fears ?Endless? Terror War," MSNBC, July 9, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8524679. Peter Bergen agrees: "Many jihadists are so happy that the Bush administration invaded Iraq. Without the Iraq war, their movement?under assault from without and riven from within?would have imploded a year or so after Sept. 11" (Bergen, "The Jihadists Export Their Rage to Book Pages and Web Pages," Washington Post, September 11, 2005). So does Richard Clarke (Against All Enemies, 246): "Nothing America could have done would have provided al Qaeda and its new generation of cloned groups a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country." [25] I am not the first to notice the analogy. See e.g. Thomas J?ger and Gerhard K?mmel, Private Military and Security Companies (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag f?r Sozialwissenschaften, 2007), 22; Eugene B. Smith, "The New Condottieri and US Policy: The Privatization of Conflict and Its Implications," U.S. Army War College, Parameters, Winter 2002, www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/02winter/smith.pdf, 104. [26] Michael Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy (Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1974), 22. [27] Donald J. Kagay and L. J. Andrew Villalon (eds.), Crusaders, Condottieri, and Cannon (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002), 286. [28] "Iraq Reviewing Security Firms After Blackwater Shooting," FoxNews.com, September 18, 2007, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297153,00.html. [29] "The former Betsy Prince -- Edgar and Elsa's daughter, Erik's sister -- married into the DeVos family, one of the country's biggest donors to Republican and conservative causes. (`I know a little something about soft money, as my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party,? Betsy DeVos wrote in a 1997 Op-Ed in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.) She chaired the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2003 to 2005, and her husband, Dick, ran as the Republican candidate for Michigan governor in 2006. Erik Prince himself is no slouch when it comes to giving to Republicans and cultivating relationships with important conservatives. He and his first and second wives have donated roughly $300,000 to Republican candidates and political action committees" (Ben Van Heuvelen, "The Bush administration's ties to Blackwater," Salon, October 2, 2007, http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/02/blackwater_bush/). Cf. Robert Young Pelton, Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror (New York: Crown Books, 2006). [30] David Isenberg , "Corporate Mercenaries ? Part 2: Myths and mystery," AsiaTimes, May 19, 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FE20Ak02.html. [31] David Isenberg, "Myths and mystery," Asia Times, 5/20/04. While in CIA, Bruner negotiated the deal for Ahmad Chalabi and the CIA to work together (Aram Roston, The Man Who Pushed America to War [New York: Nation Books, 2009], 76). Bruner later joined BGR and in 2007 became the full time chairman of BKI Strategic Intelligence. In 2004 Bruner participated with BGR and an Israeli PMC operative in a scheme to help re-elect George W. Bush. (Laura Rozen, "From Kurdistan to K Street," Mother Jones, November 2008, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/11/kurdistan-k-street). [32] Douglas Jehl, "Washington Insiders' New Firm Consults on Contracts in Iraq," New York Times, September 30, 2003. [33] Financial Times, 12/11/03. Ed Rogers, Diligence's vice chairman, was one of George H.W. Bush's top assistants when he was US president. On resigning from the White House, he negotiated a lucrative contract to act as lobbyist for the former Saudi intelligence chief and BCCI front man Kamal Adham, at a time when American and British prosecutors were preparing criminal cases against him. Rogers used Adnan Khashoggi as a go-between to secure the contract, which was canceled after White House criticism of it (Truell and Gurwin, False Profits, 362-64). [34] Ibid. Cf. Mother Jones, March/April 2004: "More recently, Bush scored a $60,000-a-year consulting deal from a top adviser to New Bridge Strategies, the firm set up by George W.'s ex-campaign manager to "take advantage of business opportunities" in postwar Iraq. His job description: taking calls for three hours a week." [35] "SAIC, which employs 44,000 people and took in $8 billion last year?sells brainpower, including a lot of the "expertise" behind the Iraq war .[SAIC is] a "stealth company" with 9,000 government contracts, many of which involve secret intelligence work" (Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." Vanity Fair, March 2007, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703?currentP age=1). [36] Barlett and Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." [37] Barlett and Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow: "Mark A. Boster left his job as a deputy assistant attorney general in 1999 to join SAIC, and was already calling Justice three months later on behalf of his new employers?a violation of federal law. Boster paid $30,000 in a civil settlement." Yet another PIC for a while was Interop, combining former CIA director James Woolsey and former FBI director Louis Freeh with former Mossad chief Danny Yatom (Rozen, "From Kurdistan to K Street). [38] Charlie Cray, "Science Applications International Corporation," CorpWatch, http://www.corpwatch.org/section.php?id=17; cf. Barlett and Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." [39] Barlett and Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." [40] Fritz W. Ermarth, "Colin Powell's Briefing to the Security Council: Brief Comments from an Ex-Intelligence Officer," In the National Interest, http://inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Powell%27s%20UN%20Speech/Powell%27 s%20UN%20speech%20ermarth.html. Ermarth?s remarks were also posted by Laurie Mylroie, "Fritz Ermarth, Iraq & Al Qaeda, In The National Interest," February 5, 2003, www.mail-archive.com/sam11 at erols.com/msg00040.html. [41] Anna Leander, "The Power to Construct International Security: On the Significance of Private Military Companies," Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 2005; 33; 803, emphasis added. At the time the Observer reported from " sources in the Bush administration" an allegation that "members of the al-Qaeda network, detained and interrogated in Cairo, had obtained phials of anthrax in the Czech Republic" ("Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks,?" Observer, October 14, 2001, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/terrorism.afghanistan6). [42] Chaim Kaufmann, "Threat Inflation and the Failure of the Marketplace of Ideas," International Security (Summer 2004). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/international_security/v029/29.1kaufmann.html. Neither SAIC nor Diligence is mentioned in his essay. [43] Tim Shorrock, Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 344. [44] Julian Assange, ?The spy who billed me twice,? Wikileaks, http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_spy_who_billed_me_twice. The March 2009 Army manual ?US Army Concept of Operations for Police Intelligence Operations? contains phrases such as "It [fusion] does not have constraints that are emplaced on MI [Military Intelligence] activities within the US, because it operates under the auspice and oversight of the police discipline and standards." [45] Phil Leggiere, ?Napolitano Praises Fusion Centers.? HSToday, March 13, 2009, http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/7616/149/ . [46] Assange, ?The spy who billed me twice.? From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 20 12:36:48 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:36:48 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] "Working Poor" report: Nearly 30 percent of US families subsist on poverty wages. Message-ID: <001001ca21c5$5c8dc7f0$15a957d0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS It is imperative I feel that we move these people into rural areas where they can begin supporting themselves by growing their own food and starting small sustainable community-oriented endeavors directed toward barter and trade using local currencies. These rural areas in the southern states where climate is temperate year round, can be set up as "tent communities" initially so that food-growing can begin ASAP. Then the community can aid one another in building homes and other community structures using straw bale, recycled paper, or other appropriate materials. The first step in creating these communities would be to consider "where it is appropriate to do what" so that we are considering how to maintain our fragile ecosystems in peak operating condition while at the same time increasing carrying capacity. Or, another option is to, as I have suggested before, begin to utilize the large green areas around industrial and office complexes to raise food using "edible landscaping" to do so. And, to also begin to convert these large industrial/office buildings into housing units since they are adjacent to these green spaces which can be made productive rather than just ornamental. Still another option is to move them into the large supply of homes that are vacant in sub-divisions due to foreclosures. The small yards that accompany many of these homes can be effectively converted to green houses where food production can be an all year round endeavor. There are ways to do this effectively using the concept of tiered gardening and drip or sprinkler systems. What is necessary is to ensure a good supply of water is available. With everyone in suburban communities raising their own food in this manner and doing it organically, a weekly Farmer's Market can provide for purchases and/or exchanges. A small group of other services can make up permanent structures where other goods and services can be brought together for exchange. Also, services like bicycle repair, equipment rental (even small tools, e.g., shovels, rakes, etc. can be made available to the community so that not everyone need to have one that only sits in the garage unused most of the time. Likewise, not everyone needs a private washer so laundry facilities should be available for community use with drying lines provided rather than electric or gas dryers. Setting up a "community information and learning center is the first step in determining which of the above is the most appropriate First Step so that priorities are considered first as well as what "needs" must be met first. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:23 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] "Working Poor" report: Nearly 30 percent of US families subsist on poverty wages. "Working Poor" report: Nearly 30 percent of US families subsist on poverty wages. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14715 Global Research, August 10, 2009 wsws.org - 2008-10-30 A report released in October 2008 by the Working Poor Families Project reveals that more than 28 percent of American families with one or both parents employed are living in poverty. The report, "Still Working Hard, Still Falling Short," is based on data for the period from 2004 through 2006 gathered from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey and the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. The report finds that 9.6 million households can be described as low-income or "working poor"-defined as families that earn less than 200 percent of the official poverty level. There were 350,000 more such families in 2006 than in 2002. More than 21 million children now live in low-income working families-an increase of 800,000 in four years. In 2006 there were more than 29 million jobs in the US that paid below the official poverty level-defined as $9.91 an hour for full-time labor-an increase of nearly 5 million poverty-wage jobs from 2002. Family income inequality also increased rapidly between 2002 and 2006, the report says. In 2006, the top 20 percent of US households earned on average 9.2 times as much as the bottom quintile. The report notes that working poor families "lack the earnings necessary to meet their basic needs-a struggle exacerbated by soaring prices for food, gas, health and education." About 60 percent of low-income working families are forced to spend more than one-third of their income on housing, and nearly 40 percent lack health insurance for one or both parents. These families struggle under poverty conditions despite parents working long hours. According to the report, "Adults in low-income working families worked on average 2,552 hours per year in 2006, the equivalent of almost one-and-a-quarter full-time workers." This total is about one third of all the hours that pass in a year. It is nearly twice the total yearly work hours of the average German worker, who works 1,362 hours per year, and 162 hours more per year than the average South Korean worker, according to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The report documents the sharp decline in living standards for wide layers of the working class, the result of decades of corporate downsizing and wage-cutting presided over by Democratic and well as Republican administrations. It shows that poverty-level jobs are increasingly common and are held by broad sections of the population. Contrary to certain stereotypes promoted by the media, the majority of families living on poverty wages are neither immigrants, minorities or families with a single parent. Some 72 percent of poor families, according to the report, hold jobs. More than half are headed by married couples, 69 percent have only American-born parents, 89 percent have a parent between the ages of 25 and 54, and 43 percent have white non-Hispanic parents. Only 25 percent receive food stamp assistance. The study breaks its statistics down to the state level. In general, the conditions of working families are worst in the South and the non-Pacific West. Texas, for example, has the fourth highest number of working families defined as low-income, the second lowest percentage of low-income families who have a high school diploma or its equivalent, the second highest number with no post-secondary school experience, the fewest with health insurance, and the third highest family income inequality. New York has the highest family income inequality in the nation, California the fourth highest. The impoverishment of ever-larger sections of the working class population is the outcome of a number of processes: the dismantling of large sections of basic industry, the wave of union-busting and strike-breaking in the 1980s, the gutting of social welfare programs, the betrayal of the working class by the trade union organizations. The other side of this process is the vast enrichment of the top 10 percent of the US population and the ever-greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the financial elite. A survey carried out in March by Equilar and reported by the New York Times revealed that the CEOs of the 200 largest publicly traded companies earned an average of $11.7 million in 2007. In 2005, the top 1 percent of US households accounted for 21.8 percent of all pre-tax income, twice the figure in 1970s. This represented the greatest concentration of income since the year before the onset of the Great Depression, 1928, when about 24 percent of national income went to the top percentile. It should be noted that the "Still Working Hard, Still Falling Short" report reflects conditions that existed prior to the eruption of the financial crisis in August of 2007 and the subsequent slide into recession. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 20 13:24:07 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:24:07 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Hearts of Fire Project Message-ID: <002401ca21cb$fc9c7470$f5d55d50$@net> As many of you know, Future Dawning is focusing on working with Bob Ballard in addressing the homeless issue as we see this as the place where change of any magnitude is likely to take place. As discussed before, the homeless have nothing to lose and thus are more willing to venture into new territory, whereas the rest of us want to hold on to what we have for as long as we can - remaining in our comfort zone. But, as the economy crashes around us, and with it the old structures and way of doing things come tumbling down as well due to the corruption that has accrued within them over time, we are either forced to adapt and create new ways or die off. And the former offers a far more enticing scenario than the latter. Anyway, here for your consideration is an example of what Bob is doing in Phase I of the project. Phases II and III will go into other areas -- things like learning to grow one's own food again, revamping vacant buildings, creating Farmer's Markets and other local endeavors, and creating community currencies so that they are serving as "lifeboats" for those being disenfranchised from the corporate sector as it disintegrates along with many of our other conventional institutions. This organization will go national and then international. If you are Interested in creating a Chapter in your community, let us know. If you are considering making donations to a good cause this year, please consider the Hearts of Fire Project. There is a Pay Pal account for your convenience. Bob Ballard posted an announcement to the cause Hearts Of Fire Project. ---------------- You are INVITED! On Saturday, August 22, we will exhibit the art work created at the homeless shelters we have visited. In addition, we will show the documentary film of our tour. The event will be held from 1-5PM in the Elizabeth R. Topping Room at the E.P. Foster Library, located at 651 E. Main Street, Ventura, CA. It is really an amazing experience to see this art; I hope you will take advantage of it. A donation of $2 per person is requested for admission. At this event, we will exhibit more than 60 original paintings and will be taking orders for prints of these works. We will also screen our documentary film and display a slide show about the Project. The film captures the inspiration and courage of the people who participated in our program at the shelters and provides real insight into the nature of being human. We will also offer memberships in Ventura Values, a discount program involving more than 60 local businesses. Ventura Values is committed to supporting the local economy and is contributing 40% of each sale to the Hearts Of Fire Project. Hope to see you there! Bob Ballard Executive Director www.heartsoffireproject.org 877-827-2012 (toll free) 805-646-5773 (direct) heartsoffire at ureach.com ---------------- View Announcement - Invite Friends Thanks, The Causes Team Stop receiving emails from this cause FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 20 14:15:12 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:15:12 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Living Economies Message-ID: <004301ca21d3$2065f7d0$6131e770$@net> Please examine this website to see what Helen Drew down in New Zealand is doing to aid in creating sustainable living economies. Notice interview with Tom Greco, author of "Re-inventing Money and the Future of Civilization." http://www.le.org.nz/tiki-index.php The other thing I want to note in this regard is, if you want to get involved and stop "just talking" about things and really do something, then you need to get involved in Social Networking. You know, I met Bob Ballard on Facebook which resulted in our linking up. I met Tom Greco on the Discussion Forum for Global Justice, and I just met Helen Drew when she contacted me from the Transition California list and requested a "friend" connection and provided me with her website information. I am talking with the host of a new radio show next Monday called "Anything is Possible" and I don't know where our next move will be after our discussion, but his promises to be very exciting. Last year, I received a proposal from a huge firm in Europe asking me to do consulting for them. I turned this offer down because I felt ready to do my own thing and not work with anyone else in a paid position. So far, this has been working out very well with supporter's chipping in to cover my expenses as name recognition grows. Through contacts made both on Facebook and Plaxo, I am now able to converse with some of the most recognized people in the fields of sustainability, human consciousness, music, new technology, politics, science, etc. I now have 1, 465 connections on Plaxo and 670+ on Facebook. Recently I got on Twitter where I am now following and being followed by The Dalai Lama. As a result, I am able to now reach out to these people and "make things happen" rather than sitting on the sidelines and waiting and watching for things to happen. So, I very much recommend that if you want to make things happen also, get involved in social networking Via the Internet and build your little black book so to speak, so that when you have an idea you want to get in front of the right people, and vice versa, you are directly connected with them. No secretaries or to get by or other barriers to move through. So, let's just DO IT and stop talking about it. m r FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 20 14:32:34 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:32:34 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] This is No Recession: It's a Planned Demolition Message-ID: <004801ca21d5$89dd1ac0$9d975040$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS OK, everyone while this looks gloomy, remember we need to get the corruption out of the system and create a new healthier model So, just as it is necessary to let all of the pus drain out of a boil before it can heal, we are witnessing the same process as the economy seeks to right itself, but must hit bottom first so that everything is cleansed. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:42 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] This is No Recession: It's a Planned Demolition This is No Recession: It's a Planned Demolition http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14751 by Mike Whitney Global Research, August 12, 2009 Credit is not flowing. In fact, credit is contracting. That means things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. When credit contracts in a consumer-driven economy, bad things happen. Business investment drops, unemployment soars, earnings plunge, and GDP shrinks. The Fed has spent more than a trillion dollars trying to get consumers to start borrowing again, but without success. The country's credit engines are grinding to a halt. Bernanke has pulled out all the stops. Bernanke has increased excess reserves in the banking system by $800 billion, but lending is still slow. The banks are hoarding capital in order to deal with the losses from toxic assets, non performing loans, and a $3.5 trillion commercial real estate bubble that's following housing into the toilet. That's why the rate of bank failures is accelerating. 2010 will be even worse; the list is growing. It's a bloodbath. The standards for conventional loans have gotten tougher while the pool of qualified credit-worthy borrowers has shrunk. That means less credit flowing into the system. The shadow banking system has been hobbled by the freeze in securitization and only provides a trifling portion of the credit needed to grow the economy. Bernanke's initiatives haven't made a bit of difference. Credit continues to shrivel. The S&P 500 is up 50 percent from its March lows. The financials, retail, materials and industrials are leading the pack. It's a "Green Shoots" Bear market rally fueled by the Fed's Quantitative Easing (QE) which is forcing liquidity into the financial system and lifting equities. The same thing happened during the Great Depression. Stocks surged after 1929. Then the prevailing trend took hold and dragged the Dow down 89 percent from its earlier highs. The S&P's March lows will be tested before the recession is over. Systemwide deleveraging is ongoing. That won't change. No one is fooled by the fireworks on Wall Street. Consumer confidence continues to plummet. Everyone knows things are bad. Everyone knows the media is lying. Credit is contracting; the economy's life's blood has slowed to a trickle. The economy is headed for a hard landing. Bernanke has pulled out all the stops. He's lowered interest rates to zero, backstopped the entire financial system with $13 trillion, propped up insolvent financial institutions and monetized $1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and US sovereign debt. Nothing has worked. Wages are falling, banks are cutting lines of credit, retirement savings have been slashed in half, and home equity losses continue to mount. Living standards can no longer be bandaged together with VISA or Diners Club cards. Household spending has to fit within one's salary. That's why retail, travel, home improvement, luxury items and hotels are all down double-digits. The easy money has dried up. According to Bloomberg: "Borrowing by U.S. consumers dropped in June for the fifth straight month as the unemployment rate rose, getting loans remained difficult and households put off major purchases. Consumer credit fell $10.3 billion, or 4.92 percent at an annual rate, to $2.5 trillion, according to a Federal Reserve report released today in Washington. Credit dropped by $5.38 billion in May, more than previously estimated. The series of declines is the longest since 1991. A jobless rate near the highest in 26 years, stagnant wages and falling home values mean consumer spending. will take time to recover even as the recession eases. Incomes fell the most in four years in June as one-time transfer payments from the Obama administration's stimulus plan dried up, and unemployment is forecast to exceed 10 percent next year before retreating." (Bloomberg) What a mess. The Fed has assumed near-dictatorial powers to fight a monster of its own making, and achieved nothing. The real economy is still dead in the water. Bernanke is not getting any traction from his zero-percent interest rates. His monetization program (QE) is just scaring off foreign creditors. On Friday, Marketwatch reported: "The Federal Reserve will probably allow its $300 billion Treasury-buying program to end over the next six weeks as signs of a housing recovery prompt the central bank to unwind one its most aggressive and unusual interventions into financial markets, big bond dealers say." Right. Does anyone believe the housing market is recovering? If so, please check out this chart and keep in mind that, in the first 6 months of 2009, there have already been 1.9 million foreclosures. featured stories This is No Recession: Its a Planned Demolition The Fed is abandoning the printing presses (presumably) because China told Geithner to stop printing money or they'd sell their US Treasuries. It's a wake-up call to Bernanke that the power is shifting from Washington to Beijing. That puts Bernanke in a pickle. If he stops printing; interest rates will skyrocket, stocks will crash and housing prices will tumble. But if he continues QE, China will dump their Treasuries and the greenback will vanish in a poof of smoke. Either way, the malaise in the credit markets will persist and personal consumption will continue to sputter. The basic problem is that consumers are buried beneath a mountain of debt and have no choice except to curtail their spending and begin to save. Currently, the the ratio of debt to personal disposable income, is 128% just a tad below its all-time high of 133% in 2007. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's "Economic Letter: US Household Deleveraging and Future Consumption Growth": "The combination of higher debt and lower saving enabled personal consumption expenditures to grow faster than disposable income, providing a significant boost to U.S. economic growth over the period. In the long-run, however, consumption cannot grow faster than income because there is an upper limit to how much debt households can service, based on their incomes. For many U.S. households, current debt levels appear too high, as evidenced by the sharp rise in delinquencies and foreclosures in recent years. To achieve a sustainable level of debt relative to income, households may need to undergo a prolonged period of deleveraging, whereby debt is reduced and saving is increased. Going forward, it seems probable that many U.S. households will reduce their debt. If accomplished through increased saving, the deleveraging process could result in a substantial and prolonged slowdown in consumer spending relative to pre-recession growth rates." ("U.S. Household Deleveraging and Future Consumption Growth, by Reuven Glick and Kevin J. Lansing, FRBSF Economic Letter") A careful reading of the FRBSF's Economic Letter shows why the economy will not bounce back. It is mathematically impossible. We've reached peak credit; consumers have to deleverage and patch their balance sheets. Household wealth has slipped $14 trillion since the crisis began. Home equity has dropped to 41% (a new low) and joblessness is on the rise. By 2011, Duetsche Bank AG predicts that 48 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage will be underwater. As the equity position of homeowners deteriorates, banks will further tighten credit and foreclosures will mushroom. The executive board of the IMF does not share Wall Street's rosy view of the future, which is why it issued a memo that stated: "Directors observed that the crisis will have important implications for the role of the United States in the global economy. The U.S. consumer is unlikely to play the role of global "buyer of last resort"- other regions will need to play an increased role in supporting global growth." The United States will not be the emerge as the center of global demand following the recession. Those days are over. The world is changing and the US role is getting smaller. As US markets become less attractive to foreign exporters, the dollar will lose its position as the world's reserve currency. As goes the dollar, so goes the empire. Want some advice: Learn Mandarin. SAGGING EMPLOYMENT: A "no new jobs" recovery July's employment numbers came in better than expected (negative 247,000) lowering total unemployment from 9.5% to 9.4%. That's good. Things are getting worse at a slower pace. What's striking about the BLS report is that there's no jobs-surge in any sector of the economy. No signs of life. Outsourcing and offshoring are ongoing, and downsizing is the new path to profitability. Businesses everywhere are anticipating weaker demand. The jobs report is a one-off event; a lull in the storm before the layoffs resume. Unemployment is rising, wages are falling and credit is contracting. In other words, the system is working exactly as designed. All the money is flowing upwards to the gangsters at the top. Here's an excerpt from a recent Don Monkerud article that sums it all up: "During eight years of the Bush Administration, the 400 richest Americans, who now own more than the bottom 150 million Americans, increased their net worth by $700 billion. In 2005, the top one percent claimed 22 percent of the national income, while the top ten percent took half of the total income, the largest share since 1928 Over 40 percent of GNP comes from Fortune 500 companies. According to the World Institute for Development Economics Research, the 500 largest conglomerates in the U.S. "control over two-thirds of the business resources, employ two-thirds of the industrial workers, account for 60 percent of the sales, and collect over 70 percent of the profits." . In 1955, IRS records indicated the 400 richest people in the country were worth an average $12.6 million, adjusted for inflation. In 2006, the 400 richest increased their average to $263 million, representing an epochal shift of wealth upward in the U.S." "Wealth Inequality destroys US Ideals" Working people are not being crushed by accident, but according to plan. It is the way the system is supposed to work. Bernanke knows that sustained demand requires higher wages and a vital middle class. But what does he care. He's not a public servant. He works for the banks. That's why the Fed's monetary policies reflect the goals of the investor class. Bubblenomics is not the way to a strong/sustainable economy, but it is an effective tool for shifting wealth from one class to another. The Fed's job is to facilitate that objective, which is why the economy is headed for the rocks. The free market is a sham to conceal the crimes of the rich. Read Taibbi. Read Marx. Karl, not Groucho. The financial meltdown is the logical outcome of the Fed's monetary policies. That's why it's a mistake to call the current slump a "recession". It's not. It's a planned demolition. From ceasig at gmail.com Mon Aug 17 09:45:44 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:15:44 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Future By Design............... In-Reply-To: <442342.33859.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <442342.33859.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30908170845j4c302f6ej9065f69f8128e53b@mail.gmail.com> Dear Robert, I would be grateful if you could enlighten us with the bullet point list of key propositions. I would be studing them as well from the site. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 4:29 PM, robert searle wrote: > > > Dear All, > > The Zeitgeist Movement is still going from strength to > strength. It is important from our point of view because ofcourse it is > popularising not only technocracy but also the ills of the present interest > based financial system. > > Apparently, I have discovered on google videos that the Future By Design > film can be seen gratis. I have seen the first part of it, and it is > certainly worth viewing. > > http://www.thevenusproject.com/ > > Regards, > > Robert Searle. > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Mon Aug 17 10:02:29 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:32:29 +0530 Subject: [GJM] [WaterWatch] Praful Bidwai on India's role internally and externally on climate change In-Reply-To: <15db1d50908112154h6751e957h3eb4fb02f9be5c42@mail.gmail.com> References: <15db1d50908112154h6751e957h3eb4fb02f9be5c42@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30908170902u25fd16fej86bb7f1e3681ea25@mail.gmail.com> Respected members, I would like endorse the call of Praful Bidwai and suggest more and more support for action on climate change without getting in the trap of competetive advantage like US under bush administration. Now, there is citizen based movement called Transition US http://transitionus.org and networks such as http://transitionus.ning.com http://transitionindia.ning.com and http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com all working for addressing peak oil and climate change. More than governments dominated by immediate corportate interests, it is the citizen movemeent for reducing the emission of green house gases that is important. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 10:24 AM, Himanshu Thakkar wrote: > > > http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20090828261710900.htm > FrontLine Aug 28, 2009 > *The climate impasse * > > PRAFUL BIDWAI > > *India must show real leadership in global climate talks by accepting > responsibility within an intra-nation and inter-nation equity framework. * > > SUCH is the hypersensitivity of India?s elite opinion on climate change > that the mere mention of a desirable upper limit for global warming can > trigger accusations of a dishonourable compromise and sellout. That is > exactly what happened after India signed the declaration of the 17-member > Major Economies Forum (MEF) held in Italy in July. It said: ?We recognise > the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above > pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2?C?? and pledged ?to identify a > global goal for substantially reducing emissions by 2050.? > > The declaration was quickly condemned as a retreat from India?s > long-standing position that it will accept no binding caps on its greenhouse > gas (GHG) emissions. A former member of India?s climate negotiations team > called it ?a body blow to everything we have fought for? and said that > ?India?s poor will pay the price for this political declaration? through > deprivation of their fair share of global carbon space. > > However, the argument that the declaration allows the rich nations to > occupy more than their equitable share of the global atmospheric or carbon > space while leaving India ?stranded at much lower levels of emissions? is a > non sequitur. > > For one, this is not a legally binding commitment to a GHG target on > India?s part. Indeed, it does not even refer to a limit on the overall > concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to a number such as 450 > parts per million (ppm) compared with the present 380 ppm. > > And for another, it does not mention caps for any group of countries by a > specific date such as 2020/2030. (The G-8 statement does, by saying the rich > nations are willing ?to share with all countries the goal of achieving at > least a 50 per cent reduction ? by 2050?, but without mentioning the base > year. This is a serious flaw.) > > The 2?C figure has a solid scientific basis. According to the Fourth > Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there is > a 50 per cent probability of averting irreversible climate change if global > temperature rise is limited to that limit corresponding to a > CO{-2}-equivalent concentration of 450 ppm. > > There is growing expert agreement, in the light of new evidence on the > rapid melting of Arctic ice, that 450 ppm might be too high; 350 ppm is > necessary, corresponding to a lower temperature rise like 1.5?C, as the > ultra-vulnerable small island-states are demanding. > QUESTION OF EQUITY > > Equally specious is the view that the declaration marks a departure from > India?s insistence on an equitable allocation of global environmental space > to a negotiating strategy that emphasises bargaining about country- or > group-specific targets, and that this will impede India?s ?development? and > its goal of reducing poverty. Equity remains, with environmental > effectiveness, the legitimate driving force of the global climate agenda. > > Or else, the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on > Climate Change (UNFCCC) would not have imposed the target of a 5.2 per cent > reduction in GHG emissions from their 1990 levels on the Annex-I > industrialised countries, while exempting developing countries from > undertaking GHG cuts. Equity is at the very heart of the climate crisis ? > and its solution. > > Indian policymakers? prickliness over 2?C derives from fundamental > ambiguities and contradictory approaches to equity. The real fear of the > critics of the MEF declaration is that the forthcoming climate conference at > Copenhagen in December will lead to future limits on the amount of GHGs > India and other ?emerging economies? such as China, Mexico, Brazil and South > Africa can emit before they cap and reduce their emissions. > > They resent and dread the prospect that India can only treble or quadruple > its per capita emissions from its present level of 1.2 tonnes before it must > reduce them, whereas the rich nations have already reached 10-12 tonnes (and > the U.S., 20 tonnes). ?Catching up? with the rich, whose past emissions have > brought the planet to the present sorry pass, is not a reasonable notion of > equity. > > The legitimate question to ask is how India can fulfil the worthy > objectives of eradicating widespread poverty and providing access to > adequate energy resources for all of its people without wildly raising its > emissions by following the unsustainable northern growth model plus > trickle-down. > > The official Indian premise that we must have high gross domestic product > (GDP) growth to eliminate poverty, and that this inevitably entails higher > emissions, is questionable. India had higher rates of poverty reduction in > periods when GDP growth was lower than in the past decade. Trickle-down is a > myth. > > What matters is not so much GDP growth as its distribution, which has > become increasingly skewed under the neoliberal policy regime. Besides, > raising the living standards of the poor need not mean vertiginously higher > consumption of fossil fuels and hence higher emissions. There are low- or > no-carbon alternatives. > > Nor is equity confined to historical contributions to, and hence > responsibility for remedying, climate change. Equity also pertains to *current > emissions*, which are rising in the emerging economies much faster than > the world average. > > China has overtaken the U.S. as the world?s largest emitter. But it is > building a big new coal-fired power station every fortnight. India has > overtaken Japan to become the world?s number four emitter. India?s emissions > are rising at twice the global average rate. Brazil, South Africa and Mexico > too are spewing out more GHGs. > > India?s stress on per capita emissions as the sole metric or criterion of > equity and the only limit it will accept is equally problematic. In an > extremely unequal and hierarchical society like ours, per capita emission > means little. They can be a cynical way of *hiding behind the poor*, whose > contribution to emissions is low and hardly rising. It is India?s rich and > middle classes ? which are pampered by the state?s elitist policies, and > which are consuming as if there were no tomorrow ? that account for the bulk > of our emissions increase. There is probably an order-of-magnitude > difference in carbon footprints between India?s rich and poor. > > Surely, intra-national equity is as important as inter-nation equity. On > this criterion, India fails badly. What is needed is an approach based on > both equity criteria, which assigns responsibility to different classes of > people according to their consumption and ability to pay the poor for making > a transition to low-carbon technologies. > > Several alternative solutions exist ? for example the Bolivian carbon debt > proposal, the Mexican proposal for a global climate fund and the ?Greenhouse > Development Rights? approach advocated by EcoEquity and Stockholm > Environment Institute. > > This does not argue that the global climate regime is fair. It is not. Most > Annex-I countries will not meet even the modest Kyoto target by 2012. If > 2005/2006 is smuggled in as base year in place of 1990, they will get a > licence to emit 15 per cent *more* GHGs. > > Domestically, most northern countries are not getting on to a low-carbon > trajectory. Their GHG-reduction plans rely more on offsets ? trading carbon > credits with the South ? than on cutting their own emissions. Their offers > for voluntary cuts by 2020 are meagre, such as 2.7 per cent by Canada, 4 per > cent by the U.S., 8 per cent by Japan, and 20-30 per cent by the European > Union (half of which could be offsets). This, when a 40 per cent cut is > needed. > > The U.S., the world?s most greenhouse-addicted country, is debating a > climate law that mandates a 17 per cent GHG cut by 2020 (over 2005) and 83 > per cent by 2050. Although the second figure is impressive, its date is > distant. > > The big cuts are to be made through a flawed cap-and-trade system in which > 85 per cent of quotas are gifted away to polluting corporations. > > Southern governments are right in arguing that the North must be the first > to cut emissions and also finance the South?s transition to low-carbon > growth, which it has shown little will to do. But soon, the South?s > emissions will equal and exceed the North?s. There is no way that the 450 > ppm target, leave alone the more stringent 350 ppm level, can be reached > through the North?s cuts alone. > > The emerging economies will have to reverse their emissions growth > trajectories within one to two decades even as the North makes deep cuts, 40 > per cent by 2020 and 90 per cent-plus by 2050. > > This demands real leadership and statesmanship on India?s part. India must > not be seen as obstructionist and a nay-sayer. It is not good enough for us > to announce the National Climate Action Plan and then default on generating > the eight mission documents. All these were to be ready by December last. > > Only five have been drafted so far ? largely without consultation with > independent experts or civil society groups. Going by what has been leaked, > they are incredibly shoddy, without coherent strategies, action plans, > timelines or budgets. > > India?s climate talks approach and negotiating strategy have become the > preserve of a handful of conservative jaded bureaucrats and diplomats > lacking a democratic mandate and impervious to external inputs. This must > change if India is to assume leadership at Copenhagen. > > __._,_.___ > Messages in this topic > > (1) Reply (via web post) > | > Start a new topic > > Messages| > Files| > Photos| > Links| > Database| > Polls| > Calendar > MARKETPLACE > Mom Power: Discover the community of moms doing more for their families, > for the world and for each other > [image: Yahoo! Groups] > Change settings via the Web(Yahoo! ID required) > Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest| Switch > format to Traditional > Visit Your Group > | > Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe > > Recent Activity > > - 8 > New Members > - 1 > New Files > > Visit Your Group > > Yahoo! Finance > > It's Now Personal > > Guides, news, > > advice & more. > Yahoo! Groups > > Mom Power > > Kids, family & home > > Join the discussion > Celebrity Parents > > Spotlight on Kids > > Hollywood families > > share stories > . > > __,_._,___ > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Thu Aug 20 08:17:05 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:47:05 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Transforming the hearts and minds of Usurers:Montheistic communion Rothschild Connection.....! Message-ID: <31f677a30908200717s269d1385ob1b9c18db3dff920@mail.gmail.com> Dear Mary and all concerned with project for transforming the hearts and minds of usurers, I would like to thank you for detailed response for my small comment on transforming the minds and hearts of usurers like Rotschilds. I am noting my comments along with a sharing of conceptual organisation that I could complete after denunciation of Samuel Huntington and Michel Foucault. I would like you to have a look. Islam for me is a choice after detailed study of all the narratives on personal, local and global governance. On Sat, Aug 8, 2009 at 11:17 PM, mary rose wrote: Since this is an area that I am researching in for The Sacred Quest, even though you directed this to Robert, Mukhtar, I?m going to jump in here and try to shed a little light on how transformation takes place. In order to accomplish transformation, the sub-conscious mind has to be reprogrammed. In other words, we need to change the way we think because if we change the way we think then we also will ultimately change the way we act and thus obtain a different outcome. What do you propose for getting this reprogramming of the sub-conscious mind? Who would be the leaders? What agencies would be involved? For getting the impact for the masses, governments would have to vet this project and departments of education will have to be involved .Dear Mary, I am pretty clear on how to go about this transformation and for me it is the way of messengers, men and women devoted to the love of Allah who called for adopting the gesture of balance that is possible through adoption of culture of prayer and other inter faith and inter text ecologically sensitive commands that I have listed in the attached paper entitled Agenda for Ecologically Sustainable Cities and villages??. I continue to find this path in the narratives of the inter-faith workers. I would like to be enlightened if you could outline your project, as I understand clearly that your programme would be different and it would be in opposition to what I write. One of the major problems in your programme is that of changing people like me and similarly my major problem is changing your thought pattern, despite the fact, that we agree so much on the identification of the problem. I think, I have written on this earlier, But this letter, I would like to specially focus on this mimetic relationship of the understanding of hurdles in the way, even though, it is inversely related. I don?t blame you neither you would blame me, as in my case, it is the atheistic philosophers primary in Europe who wished to create public space for the exercise of all freedoms including Satanic ones. What science knows today is that the human has several different ?states of mind? which appear as a result of ?brain waves? and the frequency with which they resonate. Five different states of mind are known today, and there may be more, but we do not as yet have the instrumentation to measure them. So you think, a project would have to be designed to induct atheism and generate theta wave in this perspective. I believe that billions of men who believe in Creator of the universe have these waves in plenty and they have the effect especially Muslims praying 5 times a day, donating for poor, paying zakat, taking care of parents ,relatives and neighbors including global neighborhood of humanity created out of single parents. So, what we are beginning to realize is that these brain waves, and especially the Theta wave, is our sub-conscious connection to the rest of the universe. Learning how to manage these brain waves is the secret to managing and maintaining our personal power in order to exert influence upon the rest of the world. While this power is inherent within us and was once known to all, through manipulation, the priests of old, in order to maintain control of the masses began to secret this knowledge and replace it with ?religious orders? designed to dumb down the general population in order to maintain control over us. That is an atheistic social constructivist view and not acceptable to believers. Some priests did wrong things and most of them worked in the community where they were situated. They also accomplished it through the influence of priests and aristocrats who became united in their efforts and took over the monetary system. Prior to the time when money became popular in the form of coinage, gold was brought into the churches and used to decorate the altars and the church itself. Then the aristocrats began to covet this gold and conspired with the pagan priests to take over the official duties of the church and turn it into a business which relied upon certain acts in order to create revenue. Some of these acts were and still are those associated with marriage, baptism, confession, tithing, etc. Why do not you extract the history of usury as gold though coveted was also used for tithing and those who tithed did that for the purpose of seeking pleasure and eternal wellbeing. You are not related to what happened in the Muslim world. This is a very long and complex subject which has been maintained for about six thousand years and is referred to as the ?dominator paradigm?. Please consider deconstructing this with the Islamic criterion. Things would have been different if the Mosaic elders would have followed commands against usury for all. Church prohibited usury. Men and women following the commands control each other and none is dominating. Please consider reviewing this atheistic social constructivist analysis. What is needed is the guidance of Mosaic brothers and sisters who refused the mission of Jesus (Peace be upon Him) and Muhammad (PBUH). At one point, the Rothschild family became very adept at manipulating the public and gained a tremendous amount of control. Mosaic/Jewish elders and youth can reconstruct a new future in Islam of Moses (PBUH) and Muhammad(PBUH) renewed through Holy Qur?n forgetting the satanic rigidities and softening the hearts. Again short version here. With the advent of modern media, it became easier to manipulate the mass mind and subvert it in the interests of a few over the many. However, with the emergence of the Internet, it has not been so easy for the clergy and the aristocrats to keep their ways of manipulation secret. I do not think for men and women endowed with intellect, there ever have been secrets as people have always believed what they chose expect in autocratic regimes where dissent is persecuted. And the mass mind has thus become unshackled and is beginning to break free from the hold that both religion and money have held over us. As we move into the future, we will see both religion and money become obsolete and as this happens more and more people will be able to step outside of the matrix, freed from the chains that bind us. I do not think Muslims will give up Islam though all the forces are working for obliteration of Muslims and Islam. You appear to have a modernist atheistic project supposedly for ecological safety but full of hatred for faith based practices and measures just because some priest ignored the Holy Qur?n and supported wars against Muslims in the medieval times. Please study Islam first hand and reconsideration your generalization for religion that is always there even within atheistic framework. U are already there through with an atheistic perspective. But, make no mistake the belief systems by which we live today have been embedded within us for many thousands of years, and they will not give way easily. However, what we also know today is that music and light have great transformative powers and I am currently exploring this phenomenon with a group called Transformative Media and Entertainment on the Architects of a New Dawn social networking site hosted by Carlos Santana. Music in important and I think carbon-neutral modes of musical renditions need to supported only not the energy guzzling ecologically hostile modes of Music with adoption of prayer 5 times a day. Or else, you will end up being a source for generation of green house gas emissions. I am also interacting with the Institute of HeartMath which is researching the interaction of the heart and brain with regard to the creation of ?coherence? patterns in the human body/mind, and as to how these patterns extend out from the heart and ?entangle? with the energy of other individuals and with the Universe itself. This entanglement between individuals is referred to as ?social intelligence? and for the first time, scientists are beginning to research human consciousness with regards to how individuals ?influence? one another. I have copyrighted a concept called *ecological intelligence *for ensuring that ecostrategic responses are made and this is done best with mandatory adoption of culture of prayer 5 times a day. Again, a very long and complex subject which I will be covering in the book in detail. But for now, too much to cover here. However, here are a couple websites from which one can learn more about the Theta and other states of mind. wrote: > Since this is an area that I am researching in for The Sacred Quest, even > though you directed this to Robert, Mukhtar, I?m going to jump in here and > try to shed a little light on how transformation takes place. In order to > accomplish transformation, the sub-conscious mind has to be reprogrammed. > In other words, we need to change the way we think because if we change the > way we think then we also will ultimately change the way we act and thus > obtain a different outcome. > > > > What science knows today is that the human has several different ?states of > mind? which appear as a result of ?brain waves? and the frequency with which > they resonate. Five different states of mind are known today, and there may > be more, but we do not as yet have the instrumentation to measure them. > > > > The five states are: > > > > 1) Beta which is a state in which the brain waves cycle between 14 to > 30 hz per second. > > 2) Alpha ? 13 to 9 hz > > 3) Theta - 8 to 4 hz > > 4) Delta 3 to 1 hz. > > 5) Gamma unable to measure > > > > The Theta state is the hypnotic state and then one into which we enter just > before dropping off to sleep. However with training, it is possible to > maintain this state without going into the sleep pattern. And, it is when > we are in this state that access to the sub-conscious mind is opened so that > we may ?insert a new tape? and replace the old one much as we do when > putting new or updated software into our computer. > > > > Scientific tests reveal that when we are in this state of mind, we can > also accomplish what is referred to as ?remote viewing? when trained to do > so. In fact, the military has trained personnel to do remote viewing of > enemy fortifications in order to determine their exact whereabouts and > strength. And, ?remote viewers? are employed by police departments today in > order to aid them in solving crimes. > > > > So, what we are beginning to realize is that these brain waves, and > especially the Theta wave, is our sub-conscious connection to the rest of > the universe. Learning how to manage these brain waves is the secret to > managing and maintaining our personal power in order to exert influence upon > the rest of the world. > > > > While this power is inherent within us and was once known to all, through > manipulation, the priests of old, in order to maintain control of the > masses began to secret this knowledge and replace it with ?religious orders? > designed to dumb down the general population in order to maintain control > over us. They also accomplished it through the influence of priests and > aristocrats who became united in their efforts and took over the monetary > system. Prior to the time when money became popular in the form of coinage, > gold was brought into the churches and used to decorate the altars and the > church itself. Then the aristocrats began to covet this gold and conspired > with the pagan priests to take over the official duties of the church and > turn it into a business which relied upon certain acts in order to create > revenue. Some of these acts were and still are those associated with > marriage, baptism, confession, tithing, etc. > > > > This is a very long and complex subject which has been maintained for > about six thousand years and is referred to as the ?dominator paradigm?. At > one point, the Rothschild family became very adept at manipulating the > public and gained a tremendous amount of control. Again short version here. > > > > > With the advent of modern media, it became easier to manipulate the mass > mind and subvert it in the interests of a few over the many. > > > > However, with the emergence of the Internet, it has not been so easy for > the clergy and the aristocrats to keep their ways of manipulation secret. > And the mass mind has thus become unshackled and is beginning to break free > from the hold that both religion and money have held over us. > > > > As we move into the future, we will see both religion and money become > obsolete and as this happens more and more people will be able to step > outside of the matrix, freed from the chains that bind us. > > > > But, make no mistake the belief systems by which we live today have been > embedded within us for many thousands of years, and they will not give way > easily. > > > > However, what we also know today is that music and light have great > transformative powers and I am currently exploring this phenomenon with a > group called Transformative Media and Entertainment on the Architects of a > New Dawn social networking site hosted by Carlos Santana. I am also > interacting with the Institute of HeartMath which is researching the > interaction of the heart and brain with regard to the creation of > ?coherence? patterns in the human body/mind, and as to how these patterns > extend out from the heart and ?entangle? with the energy of other > individuals and with the Universe itself. This entanglement between > individuals is referred to as ?social intelligence? and for the first time, > scientists are beginning to research human consciousness with regards to how > individuals ?influence? one another. > > > > Again, a very long and complex subject which I will be covering in the book > in detail. But for now, too much to cover here. > > > > However, here are a couple websites from which one can learn more about the > Theta and other states of mind. > > > http://formulaformiracles.net/about-theta-healing.htm > > > > > > > > > > > *From:* discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto: > discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] *On Behalf Of *Dr.Muhammad > Mukhtar Alam > *Sent:* Saturday, August 08, 2009 4:10 AM > *To:* Discussion Forum for Global Justice > *Subject:* Re: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! > > > > Dear Robert, I am interested in transforming the thoughts of Rothschilds > who have appropriated usury. How do we do that? > > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052 > Tel:9968345380 > > --- On *Sat, 8/8/09, robert searle * wrote: > > > From: robert searle > Subject: [GJM] The Rothschild Connection.....! > To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > Date: Saturday, 8 August, 2009, 2:46 PM > > > > Turn autoplay off > > Turn autoplay on > > Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off > > - Jump to content [s] > - Jump to site navigation [0] > - Jump to search [4] > - Terms and conditions [8] > > > - Sign in > - Register > - Mobile version > - Text larger > - smaller > > [image: guardian.co.uk home] > > Search [image: Location][guardian.co.uk \/] [Search] > > - News > - Sport > - Comment > - Culture > - Business > - Money > - Life & style > - Travel > - Environment > - Blogs > - Video > - Community > - Jobs > - Shop > > > - News > - Politics > - Peter Mandelson > > > > > -----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > > ------------------------------ > > Love Cricket? Check out live scores, photos, video highlights and more. Click > here . > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Fri Aug 21 00:19:25 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:49:25 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Accelelerating Ecologically Benevolent Recession/ This is No Recession: It's a Planned Demolition Message-ID: <31f677a30908202319i409cfba0uf474d3aca19ff500@mail.gmail.com> Distinguished member, Mary is right in suggesting that corrections must take place for the emergence of new era of ecologically safe economy , culture and leisure . I am sharing a presentation here that is also posted at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam. Rectifying usurious finance system is an ecologically neccesity and alleviating poverty of millions who are being forced out of the ecologically sustainable habitats. Carbon neutral leisure is the need of the hour for reducing GHGs. Dr.Mukhtar Alam On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 2:02 AM, mary rose wrote: > Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS > > OK, everyone while this looks gloomy, remember we need to get the > corruption > out of the system and create a new healthier model So, just as it is > necessary to let all of the pus drain out of a boil before it can heal, we > are witnessing the same process as the economy seeks to right itself, but > must hit bottom first so that everything is cleansed. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net > [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of > TradingPostPaul > Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:42 PM > To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net > Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] This is No Recession: It's a Planned > Demolition > > > This is No Recession: It's a Planned Demolition > http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14751 > by Mike Whitney > Global Research, August 12, 2009 > > Credit is not flowing. In fact, credit is contracting. That means things > aren't getting better; they're getting worse. When credit contracts in > a consumer-driven economy, bad things happen. Business investment drops, > unemployment soars, earnings plunge, and GDP shrinks. The Fed has spent > more than a trillion dollars trying to get consumers to start borrowing > again, but without success. The country's credit engines are grinding to > a halt. > > Bernanke has pulled out all the stops. > > > Bernanke has increased excess reserves in the banking system by $800 > billion, but lending is still slow. The banks are hoarding capital in order > to deal with the losses from toxic assets, non performing loans, and a $3.5 > trillion commercial real estate bubble that's following housing into the > toilet. That's why the rate of bank failures is accelerating. 2010 will > be even worse; the list is growing. It's a bloodbath. > > The standards for conventional loans have gotten tougher while the pool of > qualified credit-worthy borrowers has shrunk. That means less credit > flowing into the system. The shadow banking system has been hobbled by the > freeze in securitization and only provides a trifling portion of the credit > needed to grow the economy. Bernanke's initiatives haven't made a bit > of difference. Credit continues to shrivel. > > The S&P 500 is up 50 percent from its March lows. The financials, retail, > materials and industrials are leading the pack. It's a "Green Shoots" > Bear market rally fueled by the Fed's Quantitative Easing (QE) which is > forcing liquidity into the financial system and lifting equities. The same > thing happened during the Great Depression. Stocks surged after 1929. Then > the prevailing trend took hold and dragged the Dow down 89 percent from its > earlier highs. The S&P's March lows will be tested before the recession > is over. Systemwide deleveraging is ongoing. That won't change. > > No one is fooled by the fireworks on Wall Street. Consumer confidence > continues to plummet. Everyone knows things are bad. Everyone knows the > media is lying. Credit is contracting; the economy's life's blood has > slowed to a trickle. The economy is headed for a hard landing. > > Bernanke has pulled out all the stops. He's lowered interest rates to > zero, backstopped the entire financial system with $13 trillion, propped up > insolvent financial institutions and monetized $1 trillion in > mortgage-backed securities and US sovereign debt. Nothing has worked. Wages > are falling, banks are cutting lines of credit, retirement savings have > been slashed in half, and home equity losses continue to mount. Living > standards can no longer be bandaged together with VISA or Diners Club > cards. Household spending has to fit within one's salary. That's why > retail, travel, home improvement, luxury items and hotels are all down > double-digits. The easy money has dried up. > > According to Bloomberg: > > "Borrowing by U.S. consumers dropped in June for the fifth straight > month as the unemployment rate rose, getting loans remained difficult and > households put off major purchases. Consumer credit fell $10.3 billion, or > 4.92 percent at an annual rate, to $2.5 trillion, according to a Federal > Reserve report released today in Washington. Credit dropped by $5.38 > billion in May, more than previously estimated. The series of declines is > the longest since 1991. > > A jobless rate near the highest in 26 years, stagnant wages and falling > home values mean consumer spending. will take time to recover even as the > recession eases. Incomes fell the most in four years in June as one-time > transfer payments from the Obama administration's stimulus plan dried up, > and unemployment is forecast to exceed 10 percent next year before > retreating." (Bloomberg) > > What a mess. The Fed has assumed near-dictatorial powers to fight a monster > of its own making, and achieved nothing. The real economy is still dead in > the water. Bernanke is not getting any traction from his zero-percent > interest rates. His monetization program (QE) is just scaring off foreign > creditors. On Friday, Marketwatch reported: > > "The Federal Reserve will probably allow its $300 billion Treasury-buying > program to end over the next six weeks as signs of a housing recovery > prompt the central bank to unwind one its most aggressive and unusual > interventions into financial markets, big bond dealers say." > > Right. Does anyone believe the housing market is recovering? If so, please > check out this chart and keep in mind that, in the first 6 months of 2009, > there have already been 1.9 million foreclosures. > > featured stories This is No Recession: Its a Planned Demolition > > The Fed is abandoning the printing presses (presumably) because China told > Geithner to stop printing money or they'd sell their US Treasuries. > It's a wake-up call to Bernanke that the power is shifting from > Washington to Beijing. > > That puts Bernanke in a pickle. If he stops printing; interest rates will > skyrocket, stocks will crash and housing prices will tumble. But if he > continues QE, China will dump their Treasuries and the greenback will > vanish in a poof of smoke. Either way, the malaise in the credit markets > will persist and personal consumption will continue to sputter. > > The basic problem is that consumers are buried beneath a mountain of debt > and have no choice except to curtail their spending and begin to save. > Currently, the the ratio of debt to personal disposable income, is 128% > just a tad below its all-time high of 133% in 2007. According to the > Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's "Economic Letter: US Household > Deleveraging and Future Consumption Growth": > > "The combination of higher debt and lower saving enabled personal > consumption expenditures to grow faster than disposable income, providing a > significant boost to U.S. economic growth over the period. In the long-run, > however, consumption cannot grow faster than income because there is an > upper limit to how much debt households can service, based on their > incomes. For many U.S. households, current debt levels appear too high, as > evidenced by the sharp rise in delinquencies and foreclosures in recent > years. To achieve a sustainable level of debt relative to income, > households may need to undergo a prolonged period of deleveraging, whereby > debt is reduced and saving is increased. > Going forward, it seems probable that many U.S. households will reduce > their debt. If accomplished through increased saving, the deleveraging > process could result in a substantial and prolonged slowdown in consumer > spending relative to pre-recession growth rates." ("U.S. Household > Deleveraging and Future Consumption Growth, by Reuven Glick and Kevin J. > Lansing, FRBSF Economic Letter") > > A careful reading of the FRBSF's Economic Letter shows why the economy > will not bounce back. It is mathematically impossible. We've reached peak > credit; consumers have to deleverage and patch their balance sheets. > Household wealth has slipped $14 trillion since the crisis began. Home > equity has dropped to 41% (a new low) and joblessness is on the rise. By > 2011, Duetsche Bank AG predicts that 48 percent of all homeowners with a > mortgage will be underwater. As the equity position of homeowners > deteriorates, banks will further tighten credit and foreclosures will > mushroom. > > The executive board of the IMF does not share Wall Street's rosy view of > the future, which is why it issued a memo that stated: > > "Directors observed that the crisis will have important implications > for the role of the United States in the global economy. The U.S. consumer > is unlikely to play the role of global "buyer of last resort"- other > regions will need to play an increased role in supporting global growth." > > The United States will not be the emerge as the center of global demand > following the recession. Those days are over. The world is changing and the > US role is getting smaller. As US markets become less attractive to foreign > exporters, the dollar will lose its position as the world's reserve > currency. As goes the dollar, so goes the empire. Want some advice: Learn > Mandarin. > > SAGGING EMPLOYMENT: A "no new jobs" recovery > > July's employment numbers came in better than expected (negative 247,000) > lowering total unemployment from 9.5% to 9.4%. That's good. Things are > getting worse at a slower pace. What's striking about the BLS report is > that there's no jobs-surge in any sector of the economy. No signs of > life. Outsourcing and offshoring are ongoing, and downsizing is the new > path to profitability. Businesses everywhere are anticipating weaker > demand. The jobs report is a one-off event; a lull in the storm before the > layoffs resume. > > Unemployment is rising, wages are falling and credit is contracting. In > other words, the system is working exactly as designed. All the money is > flowing upwards to the gangsters at the top. Here's an excerpt from a > recent Don Monkerud article that sums it all up: > > "During eight years of the Bush Administration, the 400 richest > Americans, who now own more than the bottom 150 million Americans, > increased their net worth by $700 billion. In 2005, the top one percent > claimed 22 percent of the national income, while the top ten percent took > half of the total income, the largest share since 1928 > > Over 40 percent of GNP comes from Fortune 500 companies. According to > the World Institute for Development Economics Research, the 500 largest > conglomerates in the U.S. "control over two-thirds of the business > resources, employ two-thirds of the industrial workers, account for 60 > percent of the sales, and collect over 70 percent of the profits." > > . In 1955, IRS records indicated the 400 richest people in the > country were worth an average $12.6 million, adjusted for inflation. In > 2006, the 400 richest increased their average to $263 million, representing > an epochal shift of wealth upward in the U.S." "Wealth Inequality > destroys US Ideals" > > Working people are not being crushed by accident, but according to plan. It > is the way the system is supposed to work. Bernanke knows that sustained > demand requires higher wages and a vital middle class. But what does he > care. He's not a public servant. He works for the banks. That's why the > Fed's monetary policies reflect the goals of the investor class. > Bubblenomics is not the way to a strong/sustainable economy, but it is an > effective tool for shifting wealth from one class to another. The Fed's > job is to facilitate that objective, which is why the economy is headed for > the rocks. > > The free market is a sham to conceal the crimes of the rich. Read Taibbi. > Read Marx. Karl, not Groucho. > > The financial meltdown is the logical outcome of the Fed's monetary > policies. That's why it's a mistake to call the current slump a > "recession". It's not. It's a planned demolition. > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Beating recession.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 424302 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Aug 22 02:48:12 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:48:12 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] A Little Bit of Banter with Austrian Economics!! Message-ID: <612386.31938.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear All, ? ?????????? Might be of interest! However, I have had more intelligent comments from other people on other sites. Most ofcourse do not comment on my TFE work but when they do they can show their?real colours, and often or not their own ignorance!! ? RS. ? ? ? Post 1 You wroteat 14:19 on 19 August 2009 (Ref Facebook) I think reader will find this of interest. It is my project in development known as TRANSFINANCIAL ECONOMICS. http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics It goes beyond the narrow confines of Austrian Economics!!! Reply to your post Post 2 2 replies Erik Oswald wroteat 00:07 on 21 August 2009 "However, the Non-Debt Based Economy could lead to a degree of inflation ofcourse but it could be directly, and easily contained with the use of advanced technology." What "advanced technology"are you talking about, or are you assuming that somebody would invent it so that your silly economic idea can work? "At the present time there are huge growing global problems. These include food security, poverty alleviation, population growth, and most notably global warming which if largely unchecked could lead to gargantuan economic costs, and massive loss of life. " Poverty Alleviation can be "alleviated" by a return to Free Market Capitalism. Population Growth is not a concern or threat to human civilization, not at it's present rate anyway. Global Warming is a hoax. "It can work with the vested interests notably banks, and corporations in such as way to bring about mass environmental sustainability, and even a high degree of global justice." The vested interests of banks and corporations? Banks which are by and large responsible for the down fall of every western nation by means of fiat currency, inflation etc, and corporations which exist as a by product of a free market - obviously not - or corporations which exist solely due to government subsidies, privileges, and favors? "High degree of global justice" - justice by what standard? Justice implemented by whom? "our present financial/economic system needs to be urgently addressed, and reformed into something more advanced, and beneficial." Say it with me "Free Market Capitalism"! I don't recommend anybody waste time reading this persons little wiki page or taking anything he says seriously. To suggest that Austrian Economics is "narrowly confined" is foolish since Austrian economics leads to capitalism which is the only moral and proper economic model for man to partake in. It rewards those of ability, and defeats those who would seek to live off of those with ability. Reply to ErikReport Post 3 Randy McKeen (BYU) replied to Erik's postat 00:29 on 21 August 2009 I wish there was a "like" on comments made in threads in the groups, Erik would definitely get my thumbs up on almost every response he gives. Here are my two cents. If every person was collected and put in one spot we could all fit in Jacksonville, FL. If we were all given a home plot of land (Man, Woman, Child individually) We could all fit in Texas as happy neighbors. "Population" is not an issue for the Earth as a whole. It's the fact that we all want to live in deserts and pretend we live in a rainforest, etc... those social/cultural issues should be confronted, not sheer human numbers. Global Justice is just a way of being upset when someone succeeds. Austrians are only as narrow as far as they want to inform. The farther "back" an economic theory goes in their view, the more power then desire and need to force it to happen. Since controlling the economy, and choice, by one person/power/entity is the antithesis of being Austrian, it's hard for power hungry economic tyrants to understand. Reply to RandyReport Post 4 You replied to Erik's post2 seconds ago I was amused by this predictable response!! This is why I posted my link here!! Free Market Capitalism can work well to a large extent. However, in the case of banks it failed spectacularly!! Thus, more regs are necessary but not "too many" of them!See Toxic Textbooks on Facebook, and elsewhere on the internet! Thank you for your response! Amusing but predictable as already said! Reply to your postEdit PostDelete post Reply (post is 1 characters too long) Create an Advert Play SET Online Play the card game SET online or on your iPhone! See if you can make it on the high scores list. ??? West Ham V Tottenham West Ham V Tottenham Live On ESPN Derby Day Live. Only on ESPN ??? More Ads Facebook ? 2009 English (UK) About Advertising Developers Careers Terms ? Find Friends Privacy Mobile Help Centre -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 18:06:00 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:06:00 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Masters of Defeat: Retreating Empire and Bellicose Bluster part 2 Message-ID: <011201ca2517$dfa0bfd0$9ee23f70$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:18 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Masters of Defeat: Retreating Empire and Bellicose Bluster part 2 (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Masters of Defeat: Retreating Empire and Bellicose Bluster part 2 http://91.192.36.61/reviews/11174-global-depression-and-regional-wars-review ing-james-petras-new-book-part-i-and-ii.html Despite America's imperial and diplomatic defeats, militarism under Obama continues to serve the usual constituencies that benefit, while at the same time unmet human needs are ignored and disdained. As the economic crisis deepens, reckless national resource amounts are diverted to powerful corporate interests and to maintaining America's imperial footprint globally in spite of clear failures with Iraq as Exhibit A. Over six years of war and occupation left "enormous military casualties and over a half a trillion in economic losses, without securing any political, military or natural resource gains." Iran is Exhibit B. Despite Israeli-Washington efforts to isolate the country, in October 2008, Shell Oil and the Austrian energy company OMV sponsored a Teheran conference promoting "gas export opportunities and potentials of the Islamic Republic of Iran." After losing out on tens of billions in potential oil revenues, Big Oil may have decided that "economic-centered empire building" is preferable to the military kind. Shell's move perhaps is an overture for what's to come if the Obama- Netanyahu axis doesn't intervene militarily to stop it. Afghanistan and Pakistan are Exhibits C and D with US forces targeting them both in a futile effort to secure control and extend America's South Asia influence. After nearly eight years of conflict and occupation, Taliban forces are now resurgent, and stepped up efforts to defeat them will likely prove as unsuccessful as previous campaigns. Yet vast sums are wasted trying while vital domestic needs go begging. America's one-sided Israeli support is equally futile and "has led to a sharp decline (of) US influence in the region" as well as enormous Arab street opposition that promises one day to explode. It's also been bad for business. "Zionist-Israeli usurpation of US Middle East policy has led to strategic losses of investments, markets, profits and partnerships for the entire multi-national oil and gas industry" as well as other global economic losses. Washington is also losing out in Latin America where its influence is waning. For business, it amounts to hundreds of billions in lost trade and investments as global competitors like China have profited at America's expense. Washington's belligerency has a price, and its fallout is also felt at home. Besides its declining competitiveness, America's economic strength has weakened. Conditions at home are in disarray, and "the financial system is disconnected from the real economy and on the verge of collapse...." It's only a matter of time before it rubs off on Obama and he's blamed for it, as well he should be, given the destructiveness of his economic policies. In lieu of progressive alternatives, administration extremists seek confrontation with Russia, China and Iran as well as Latin American states like Venezuela. These nations and others show more resistance, and most states prefer cooperative economic growth over futile military conflict - a lesson Washington and Israel have yet to learn, and they're paying for it. The Obama Regime, The Zionist Power Configuration and Regional Wars Obama's Israel-Firster officials and 51 influential Zionists organizations define America's counterproductive Middle East belligerency - an agenda destined to fail, yet it persists despite urgent domestic needs left unaddressed. Edward Said once said that in a matter of hours, the Israeli Lobby could marshal the entire Senate to come together for Israel on virtually anything - even policies counterproductive to America's best interests. In addition, outliers in both Houses of Congress are purged, appointments with dubious Israeli loyalties are blocked, and regional belligerency is the preferred option over diplomacy because Israel expects it with regards to Iraq under Saddam, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Gazans under Hamas - targeted by slow-motion genocide that continue with Washington's approval but couldn't persist without it, or Israel's illegal West Bank settlements either. For decades, and especially since 9/11, Muslims and Arabs have been ferociously targeted by vicious propaganda and military aggression. Obama is following the same agenda, in Afghanistan with stepped up efforts. America's pro-Israeli media as well as influential business, academic and other figures support open-ended militarism and all policies benefitting Israel regardless of their destructiveness. As a result, the US is in terminal decline with nothing in evidence to stop it. Israeli Middle East Supremacy from Gaza to Tehran: Imperial Overstretch? Iran poses no regional threat nor has it for the past 200 years. Yet Israel targets it for removal as its sole remaining rival, so perhaps Operation Cast Lead was preparatory target practice. Washington appears supportive, given Obama saying at the July G 8 meeting that "we're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow (Iran to develop a) nuclear weapon." European and Arab states may not object. Israeli influence demands it. The major media is in tow, and extremist US elements want regime change at any cost, even a devastating holocaust if nuclear weapons are used against underground Iranian sites. For decades, Israel has been a serial aggressor and threat to the region. It's used "repeated threats and aerial and ground assaults on neighboring countries....to assert (unchallenged) regional supremacy." Washington's support under Republicans and Democrats permits it in spite of huge risks of uncontrollable fallout. "The election of the ultra-militarist Binyamin Netanyahu promises (stepped up) Israeli plans for a massive assault on Iran," regardless of its foolhardiness. The Israeli prime minister calls the Islamic Republic the "terrorist mother base (and) that Israel cannot accept an Iranian terror base (Gaza) next to its major cities." So far, belligerency is on hold, but perhaps preparations are underway, given Obama's G 8 remark and Joe Biden's earlier one about America not intervening to stop a "preemptive" attack. The New York Times quoted him saying: "Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination - if they make a determination - that they're existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country." Iran plans no conflict and poses no threat to Israel or the region. An Israeli and/or American attack will openly defy international law that permits defensive measures only until the Security Council acts. Yet naked aggression is possible with the Obama administration "openly threaten(ing) war if Iran does not accept unilateral disarmament with intrusive inspection of its strategic (nuclear) installations, allowing Israel and the US a unique opportunity for pinpointing vital targets for their first wave of attack" if one comes. Retaliation is Iran's only deterrent, including against America in Iraq. Yet "Israel's military success in Gaza (against a defenseless civilian population) has created an irrational triumphalist war fever among all of its leaders and their" American Zionist supporters. If it comes, "major military and political retaliatory action (will respond) throughout the Middle East" inflicting enormous economic losses," including disruption of regional oil operations. Opposition efforts, however, are building to stop it, including Israeli war crimes investigations, the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, and growing number of Jews worldwide no longer willing to tolerate a destructive Zionist ideology that violates Judaism's basic tenets. Unfortunately, Israel may have to be shocked militarily before the lesson is learned. If so, Arabs and Jews alike may pay dearly as a result. The Politics of An Israeli Extermination Campaign: Backers, Apologists and Arms Suppliers Well before Operation Cast Lead, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe explained that Israel has conducted state-sponsored genocide against Palestinians for decades and intensively in Gaza. In March 1998, international law expert Francis Boyle proposed that "the Provisional Government of (Palestine) and its President institute legal proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague for violating the" Genocide Convention - an "undeniable fact to the entire world," according to Boyle. Petras explained that "Israel's totalitarian vision is driven by the vision and practice of a permanent (Zionist-driven) purge of Arab Palestine....an ethno-racist ideology....enforced and pursued by its organized backers in the United States." Operation Cast Lead was the latest example - a pre-planned mass-murder/scortched earth campaign to turn Gaza to rubble and its population to the edge of despair, deepening further from the horrors of a medieval siege that's starving people to death. Washington lets Israel: - "commit what leading United Nations and international human rights experts (call) 'crimes against humanity' with total impunity;" - get "an unlimited supply of the most technologically advanced and destructive weapons (and license to) use them without limit on a civilian population" in violation of international and US laws; and - avoid UN sanctions and condemnations because America vetoes them in the Security Council. Israel's chokehold on policy is key - from grassroots America to the major media, business, academia, the clergy, key professions, both Houses of Congress and every administration, Republican or Democrat. Influential figures voicing opposition assures they're targeted, intimidated, blackmailed, smeared, pressured and removed from positions of authority. The major media support and trumpet the most outrageous Israeli crimes. Presidents of the 51 Major American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO) back them with "the Big Lie" and disseminate it through their Daily Alert propaganda organ, a tactic "reminiscent of totalitarian regimes." Major Jewish religious organizations are also involved, spewing hate instead of core Judaic principles. On January 3, 2009, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism defended Israel's Gaza reign of terror saying: "Every congregation should issue a statement supporting Israel. Solicit statements from elected officials at the city, state or provincial, or federal levels. Solicit statements from local religious, ethnic and other prominent personalities...." It added "talking points," propaganda, and support for the most egregious crimes of war and against humanity - justifying mass murder of civilian men, women, children and infants, Arab lives that don't matter if killing them helps Jews. Enough is enough. Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions are essential until Israel complies with international law and the universal principles of human rights. Nothing less is tolerable in the interest of justice, a sovereign Palestinian state, and enforceable peace. Israel must be condemned, isolated, and held accountable for its grievous crimes. All support should be withheld. A battle of ideas must be waged to counter vicious dominant media lies. Israel must be denounced as a serial aggressor, a rogue state, a scourge to the region and humanity, and a violator of core Judaic dogma. America's complicity must also be outed. And Zionism must be exposed as the enemy of Jews - extremist, corrosive, hateful, repugnant, indefensible, a dagger in the heart of its host, essential to expunge to save it. Iranian Elections: The "Stolen Elections" Hoax On June 12, Iran held presidential elections. Four candidates participated, but only two contended seriously. Final results showed incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a 62.63% majority with second place finisher Mir Hossein Mousavi a distant 33.75%. At once street protests erupted with claims of electoral fraud. Yet a May 11 - 20 independent poll sponsored by two US organizations (the Center for Public Opinion and the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation) showed Ahmadinejad way ahead enough to win overwhelmingly. Washington and the major media cried foul. All elections "in which the White House has a significant stake, where" pro-US candidates are defeated, are "denounced as illegitimate by the entire political and mass media elite" with no evidence offered as proof. PMAJO demanded harsher sanctions and further isolation of the Islamic Republic. "Western leaders rejected the results because they 'knew' that their reformist candidate could not lose." They portrayed Mousavi as a "voice of moderation" despite his hardline record as prime minister in the 1980s, and his support from Iran's ruling elite, urban middle class, as well as youths and students favoring better relations with America. In contrast, Ahmadinejad has widespread support among the urban and rural poor for providing vital social services that Mousavi disdains. Western propaganda predicted a landslide Mousavi victory in spite of convincing evidence of Ahmadinejad's popularity. Is it surprising that he won? A Mousavi victory was clearly unexpected, especially as an independent candidate who became politically active again after a 20 year hiatus and only campaigned in Iran's major cities. Ahmadinejad, in contrast, made over 60 nationwide trips in less than three months. It paid off. Post-election, the Los Angeles Times published a photo of a huge pro-Ahmadinejad crowd cheering the re-elected president - a far larger assemblage than any demonstration opposing him. It's not hard imagining why. Most Iranians are low income workers who rely on essential social services. It's no surprise that they fear losing them under a leader saying he'll cut them. "The scale of the opposition's electoral deficit should tell us how out of touch it is with its own people's vital concerns:" real needs like food subsidies, housing, security, jobs, and more. Ahmadinejad promised to keep addressing them. Mousavi wants closer ties to the West and the usual free-market "reforms" that include lower wages, fewer benefits, privatized state enterprises, and less attentiveness to public needs in the interest of greater corporate profits. What's ahead now is "open to debate." On June 26, USA Today reported that: "The Obama administration is moving forward to fund groups that support Iranian dissidents, records and interviews show, continuing a program" begun under George Bush. Brent Scowcroft told Al Jazeera television that "of course" Washington "has agents working inside Iran," and it's well-known that Congress, for years, has directed millions of dollars for regime change, thus far without success. Extremists in the Obama administration cite a stolen election and want "preemptive war (because) no negotiations are possible with an 'illegitimate" government...." While abhorring violence and supporting the "aspirations of the Iranian people to be achieved through peaceful means" and free expression, "no EU leader (except France's Sarkozy) has questioned the outcome of the voting." Along with US hard-liners, Netanyahu is "the wild card," and it's up for grabs whether his bellicose stance signals conflict. If it comes, it'll be Washington's war as well, a disastrous one for the region and beyond, and further proof of America's terminal decline. Perhaps Israel's as well. Whether cooler heads can prevent it remains to be seen. The New Agro-Industrial Neo-Colonialism: Two, Three, Many Mass Revolts "Colonial style empire building is making a huge comeback, and most of the colonialists are latecomers" to the game - "newly emerging neo-colonial economic powers (ENEP)....seizing control of vast tracts of fertile lands from poor" African, Asian and Latin American countries. Landless peasants and rural workers are being exploited, "repressed, assassinated or jailed (and forced) into disease-ridden urban slums." Agribusiness imperialism is to blame: - over half of Madagascar's arable land has been leased to South From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 18:08:59 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:08:59 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: News: CIA Used Mock Executions and Outsourced Assassinations, Fabricated DNA Evidence Message-ID: <011301ca2518$69e700f0$3db502d0$@net> From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 10:12 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: News: CIA Used Mock Executions and Outsourced Assassinations, Fabricated DNA Evidence To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/009/090824_cia_mock_executions_assassinations_tiring_war Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles you may have missed, which include revealing information on a CIA report that the agency used mock executions and the threat of death in its interrogations, new evidence that the CIA outsourced its assassination operations to Blackwater Corporation, a poll showing a majority of Americans want the war in Afghanistan to be ended, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here. The most important sentences are highlighted. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word, we can build a brighter future. With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special Note: Thanks so much to the many people who have generously contributed to the work or PEERS and WantToKnow.info after our recent appeal. We are most grateful to have received over $1,200 so far. For others who would like to help us cover our remaining $5,000 deficit for the year, please click here . And for what may be the most powerful video documentary showing the official story of the JFK assassination can not be true, click here . This amazing 48-minute video produced by NBC affiliate KRON does not appear to be available anywhere else on the Internet. For a description of the documentary, click here. _____ Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions August 21, 2009, Newsweek magazine http://www.newsweek.com/id/213188 A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned. The report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one [source]. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death." The report also says ... that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee, during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's report alludes to more than one mock execution. Before leaving office, Bush administration officials confirmed that Nashiri was one of three CIA detainees subjected to waterboarding. They also acknowledged that Nashiri was one of two Al Qaeda detainees whose detentions and interrogations were documented at length in CIA videotapes. But senior officials of the agency's undercover operations branch, the National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes be destroyed, an action that has been under investigation for more than a year by a federal prosecutor. The new revelations are contained in a lengthy report on the CIA interrogation program completed by the agency's inspector general in May 2004. Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the illegal methods used by the CIA and US military in its wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, click here. _____ C.I.A. Sought Blackwater?s Help to Kill Jihadists August 20, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials. Executives from Blackwater ... helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects. It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations. Officials said the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Over the years, Blackwater has hired several former top C.I.A. officials, including Cofer Black, who ran the C.I.A. counterterrorism center immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. C.I.A. operatives also regularly use the company?s training complex in North Carolina. The complex includes a shooting range used for sniper training. Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on the frequent use of assassinations to advance state objectives, click here. _____ Americans tiring of war in Afghanistan August 21, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/20/MNFU19BG53.DTL The violence-scarred elections in Afghanistan provided a stage for the Taliban to show war-weary Americans and Afghans that it has rebounded and can strike - even after eight years of war. For President Obama's policies, the timing couldn't be worse. With memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks dimming, Americans are tiring of the conflict. New polling shows a majority - 51 percent - of those surveyed now believe the war is not worth the fight, an increase of 6 percentage points in a month. Obama's answer to the mounting skepticism is to say that, in a way, the war has just begun. The final push to wipe out [the] Taliban ... is not 8 years old but really got started when he took office and ordered 17,000 more troops into Afghanistan. In short order, he also installed a new commander and persuaded Pakistan to join the United States in what on Thursday he called a pincer movement to squeeze the enemy astride the common border. Note: As shown over and over again, presidents and politicians of both major political parties in the U.S. support the war machine in order to get the war chest they need to be elected or re-elected. Obama is no exception. For lots more on this, click here. _____ Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall August 21, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent. They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s. The recent news about resurgent Wall Street pay has seemed to suggest that not even the Great Recession could reverse the rise in income inequality. But economists say ? and data is beginning to show ? that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon. Last year, the number of Americans with a net worth of at least $30 million dropped 24 percent. Few economists expect the country to return to the relatively flat income distribution of the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, they say that inequality is likely to remain significantly greater than it was for most of the 20th century. In 2007, the top one ten-thousandth of households took home 6 percent of the nation?s income, up from 0.9 percent in 1977. It was the highest such level since at least 1913, the first year for which the I.R.S. has data. The top 1 percent of earners took home 23.5 percent of income, up from 9 percent three decades earlier. Note: Two researchers into income inequality, Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, recently released a detailed report showing that income inequality in 2007, just before the real estate bubble burst and the financial crisis unfolded, was the highest since 1917. To read their report, "Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States," click here . For analysis of the report, click here. _____ DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show August 18, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18dna.html Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases. The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person. ?You can just engineer a crime scene,? said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which has been published online by the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics. ?Any biology undergraduate could perform this.? Dr. Frumkin is a founder of Nucleix, a company based in Tel Aviv that has developed a test to distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones that it hopes to sell to forensics laboratories. The planting of fabricated DNA evidence at a crime scene is only one implication of the findings. A potential invasion of personal privacy is another. Using some of the same techniques, it may be possible to scavenge anyone?s DNA from a discarded drinking cup or cigarette butt and turn it into a saliva sample that could be submitted to a genetic testing company that measures ancestry or the risk of getting various diseases. Tania Simoncelli, science adviser to the American Civil Liberties Union, said the findings were worrisome. ?DNA is a lot easier to plant at a crime scene than fingerprints,? she said. ?We?re creating a criminal justice system that is increasingly relying on this technology.? Note: For lots more on government threats to civil liberties, click here . _____ Oil lobby to fund campaign against Obama's climate change strategy August 14, 2009, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/14/us-lobbying The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama's climate change strategy. A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 "energy citizen" rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace , Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a "sensitive" plan to stage events during the August congressional recess to put a "human face" on opposition to climate and energy reform. "Our goal is to energise people and show them that they are not alone," said Cathy Landry, for API, who confirmed that the memo was authentic. The email from Gerard lays out ambitious plans to stage a series of lunchtime rallies to try to shape the climate bill that was passed by the house in June and will come before the Senate in September. "We must move aggressively," it reads.The API strategy also extends to a PR drive. Gerard cites polls to test the effectiveness of its arguments against climate change legislation. It offers up the "energy citizen" rallies as ready-made events, noting that allies ? which include manufacturing and farm alliances as well as 400 oil and gas member organisations ? will have to do little more than turn up. "API will provide the up-front resources," the email said. "This includes contracting with a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns." Note: For important reports from major media sources on global warming and oil company manipulation of public perception, click here. _____ UFO 'appeared above jazz stage at Glastonbury' August 18, 2009, CNN http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/08/17/ufo.sightings/index.html An alien with a lemon-shaped head and a jazz-themed encounter with a UFO at the Glastonbury Festival are among hundreds of UFO sightings detailed in the latest batch of documents released Monday by the UK's Ministry of Defence. Fourteen files, containing over 4,000 pages of UFO sightings from 1981 to 1996, have now been placed on Britain's National Archives database and are publicly available online. The sightings range from lights in the sky to close contact with aliens, and the files contain detailed analysis on some of the UK's most popular cases -- a number of which remain officially unexplained. The files ... shed new light on Britain's own 'Roswell', the Rendlesham Forest sightings of December 1980 in which American air force men saw a series of mysterious lights in the trees at the perimeter of an air base used by the U.S. Air Force. The then government of Margaret Thatcher was quick to dismiss the incident, but a letter from a former chief of defense staff in 1985 warned that the affair could prove a 'banana skin' for the Ministry of Defence. "The case has puzzling and disquieting features which have never been satisfactorily explained ... which continue to preoccupy informed sections of the public," said the letter. This latest release of documents represents the fourth set of UFO files released since 2008 as part of a three-year project in conjunction with the National Archives. Note: For a powerful two-page summary of evidence for UFOs presented by highly respected and credible former government and military personnel from many countries, click here. For excellent information on the Rendlesham Forest case, click here. _____ MoD's latest UFO files reveal saucerful of secrets August 17, 2009, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/17/mod-report-ufo-sightings Two terrified youths who ran into a Staffordshire police station were in no doubt they had seen a UFO land in a field near Chasetown after they experienced an intense heat when they were walking up Rugeley Road, Burntwood, at 11pm on 4 May 1995. "Their skin turned a glowing red," said the Staffordshire police inspector's report. "They saw a darkish silver inverted saucer shaped object in a field, which was glowing red beneath. The object was about four houses high in the sky and about 40ft away from them. Neither was drunk or under the influence of illegal substances and the next day both provided the police with detailed written reports of what they had seen. The release of the latest batch of the Ministry of Defence's UFO files reveals a hidden British obsession with flying saucers and such close encounters. Bright lights seen across Devon and Cornwall, South Wales and Shropshire in the early hours of 31 March 1993 by 70 police and military witnesses were documented in more than 30 sightings reported to the MoD over a six-hour period. The reports said it was very big, shaped like a catamaran and was completely silent. The head of the UFO section told Sir Anthony Bagnall, the assistant chief of the air staff, that given the quality of the witnesses the sightings could not simply be written off: "It seems that an unidentified object of unknown origin was operating in the UK air defence region without being detected on radar; this would appear to be of considerable defence significance." Note: For a powerful two-page summary of evidence for UFOs presented by highly respected and credible former government and military personnel from many countries, click here. _____ Abducted by Aliens: Believers Tell Their Stories August 17, 2009, ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=8330290 In a small New England town, members of a support group, which boasts a growing membership of 1,500, gather for a "secret" meeting. The group that's assembled for this meeting is not struggling with alcohol, drugs, sex addition or gambling. They're part of Starborn , an alien experience and awareness support group [for those who believe] they've been abducted by aliens. Nearly half of all Americans and millions more globally believe we're not alone, according to a 2000 ABC poll. While 40 million Americans say they have seen or know someone who has seen an unidentified flying object, or UFO, a growing number believe they've actually met aliens. Terrell Copeland, a former U.S. Marine, traveled the farthest to attend the "secret" meeting, driving 600 miles from rural Virginia. Copeland's foray into the paranormal began two years ago with a UFO sighting he said was captured on his cell phone from his apartment. But after the video ... was posted on YouTube, he said a strange visitor came to his front door. "I woke up from the nap by the sound of someone trying to enter my apartment," he said. "You could see the door knob moving. And I keep a firearm. My thought was to get up and check, [but] I was in complete paralysis. And I heard a voice through the door say, 'You don't need that weapon. We won't harm,'" Copeland said. "I was in complete paralysis, the only thing I could move were my eyes." Copeland's otherworldly convictions are shared by thousands of believers. Hundreds flocked to the national convention of the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON , in Denver this month to share their experiences with like-minded believers. Note: In the past couple years, the media appears to be focusing more on UFOs than before. For a powerful two-page summary of evidence for UFOs presented by highly respected and credible former government and military personnel from many countries, click here. _____ Questions for Dr. Marcia Angell August 12, 2009, New York Times blog http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/questions-for-dr-marcia-angell/ [Anne Underwood:] President Obama hopes to increase the number of Americans with insurance and to rein in costs. Do you believe any of the plans under consideration by Congress will accomplish those goals? [Dr. Marcia Angell:] They won?t, and that?s the essential problem. If you keep health care in the hands of for-profit companies, you can do one or the other ? increase coverage by putting more money into the system, or control costs by decreasing coverage. But you cannot do both unless you change the basic structure of the system. Q. Segments of the health care industry ? pharmaceutical companies, for instance ? are promising to cut costs. A. It?s not going to happen. These are investor-owned companies. Their fiduciary responsibility is to maximize profits. If they behaved like charities, heads would roll in the executive suites. Q. But what about market mechanisms for reducing costs? Wouldn?t the public option, for instance, provide competition for the insurance companies? A. Theoretically it would, but I doubt the public plan will pass. Industry is lobbying against it, and the president has not said this is a ?must.? Even if it does pass, I?m afraid the private insurance industry will use their clout in Congress ? and they have enormous clout in Congress ? to hobble the public option and use it as a dumping ground for the sickest while they cream off the young and healthy for themselves. Q. How? Won?t insurance companies have to cover all applicants regardless of health status? A. It?s hard to regulate an enormous industry without setting up a bureaucracy to oversee it. That?s very expensive and creates a whole new set of problems. Note: Dr. Marcia Angell is a senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. A longtime critic of the pharmaceutical industry, she has called for an end to market-driven delivery of health care in the United States. To read a two-page summary of her critique of market-driven health care, click here . _____ Strange New Air Force Facility Energizes Ionosphere, Fans Conspiracy Flames July 20, 2009, Wired magazine http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-08/mf_haarp The senior senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, enjoyed a reputation for inserting projects into the federal budget to benefit his home state, most notoriously a $223 million bridge from the town of Ketchikan to, well, not much of anyplace. In 1988, [physics] researchers sat down with Stevens and assured him that an ionospheric heater would be a bona fide scientific marvel and a guaranteed job creator, and it could be built for a mere $30 million. Just like that, the Pentagon had $10 million for ionospheric heater research. In a series of meetings in the winter of 1989-90, the field's leading lights ... pitched the Navy and the Air Force. Haarp, they asserted, could lead to "significant operational capabilities." They'd build a giant phased antenna array that would aim a finely tuned beam of high-frequency radio waves into the sky. The beam would excite electrons in the ionosphere, altering that spot's conductivity and inducing it to emit its own extremely low frequency waves, which could theoretically penetrate the earth's surface to reveal hidden bunkers or be used to contact deeply submerged submarines. Of course, the scientists said, you'd need a brand-new, state-of-the-art ionospheric heater to see if any of this was even feasible. The Pentagon ... began using Stevens' earmarked cash to fund the appropriate studies. For more than a year, planning proceeded largely out of public view. Then, in 1993, an Anchorage teachers' union rep named Nick Begich?son of one of Alaska's most important political families?found a notice about Haarp in the Australian conspiracy magazine Nexus. In 1995, he self-published a book, Angels Don't Play This HAARP. It sold 100,000 copies. He started giving speeches on Haarp's dangers everywhere, from UFO conventions to the European Parliament. Note: For more excellent information on HAARP, click here. There is much more than meets the eye here. _____ We Are All Hindus Now August 15, 2009, Newsweek magazine http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155 America is not a Christian nation. Recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity. The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life" -? including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, [says] "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga works, great?and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too." Then there's the question of what happens when you die. In reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. _____ Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. 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URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 18:15:47 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:15:47 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The vaccines are far more deadly than the swine flu Message-ID: <011801ca2519$5ec83670$1c58a350$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 7:32 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The vaccines are far more deadly than the swine flu (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) The vaccines are far more deadly than the swine flu http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14869 by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins Global Research, August 21, 2009 Institute of Science in Society - 2009-07-27 The vaccines are far more deadly than the swine flu. Mass vaccinations is a recipe for disaster Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins This report has been submitted to Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer of the UK, and to the US Food and Drugs Administration A swine flu outbreak occurred in Mexico and the United States in April 2009 and spread rapidly around the world by human-to human transmission. The new type A H1N1 influenza virus is unlike any that had been previously isolated [1, 2], judging from the first data released in May. It is a messy combination of sequences from bird, human and swine flu virus lineages from North America and Eurasia. A senior virologist based in Canberra, Australia, told the press he thought that the virus could have been created in a laboratory and released by accident [3]. Some analysts even suggest, without corroborating evidence, that it was made intentionally as a bioweapon [4], while others blame the intensive livestock industry and extensive trafficking of love animals over long distances, which provide plenty of opportunity for generating exotic recombinants [5]. But what worries the public most is the mass vaccination programmes governments are putting in place to combat the emerging pandemic, which could well be worse than the pandemic itself. Watchdog opposes fast-track vaccine for school children The US government is intending to vaccinate all children in September when school re-opens, and the country?s vaccine watchdog National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) has called on the Obama Administration and all state Governors to provide evidence that the move is [6] ?necessary and safe?, demanding ?strong mechanisms for vaccine safety screening, recording, monitoring, reporting and vaccine injury compensation.? The US Departments of Health and Homeland Security had declared a national public health emergency in April soon after the swine flu outbreak. As a result, some schools were closed, people quarantined, and drug companies were given contracts worth $7billon to make vaccines that are being fast tracked by the Food and Drugs Administration [7]. That means they will only be tested for a few weeks on several hundred children and adult volunteers before being given to all school children this fall. Furthermore, under federal legislation passed by Congress since 2001, an Emergency Use Authorization allows drug companies, health officials and anyone administering experimental vaccines to Americans during a declared public health emergency to be protected from liability if people get injured. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has granted vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that may result from any new swine flu vaccine. And some states may make the vaccination mandatory by law. The NVIC is asking whether the states are prepared to obey vaccine safety provisions in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which include: 1. Giving parents written information about vaccine benefits and risks before children are vaccinated; 2. Keeping a record of which vaccines the children get, including the manufacturer?s name and lot number; 3. Recording which vaccines were given in the child?s medical record; and 4. Recording serious health problems that develop after vaccination in the child?s medical record and immediately making a report to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. NVIC also wants to know if the states are prepared to provide financial compensation to children injured by the swine flu vaccines, whether parents will be given ?complete, truthful information about swine flu vaccine risks?, and have the right to say ?no? to vaccination. Co-founder and president of NVIC Barbara Loe Fisher said [6]: ?Parents and legislators should be asking themselves right now: Why are children the first to get experimental swine flu vaccines? Are schools equipped to get signed informed consent from parents before vaccination, keep accurate vaccination records and screen out children biologically at high risk for suffering vaccine reactions? Will people giving these vaccines know how to monitor children afterwards and immediately record, report and treat serious health problems that develop? And will states have the financial resources to compensate children who are injured?? WHO and mass vaccination fever The mass vaccination order has come from the World Health Organization (WHO) [8]. In early July 2009, a group of vaccination experts concluded that the pandemic is unstoppable, and Marie-Paul Kieny, WHO director on vaccine research said all nations will need access to vaccines, and that a vaccine should be available as early as September. Critics point out that the ?vaccination experts? are dominated by the vaccine makers standing to gain from the enormously lucrative vaccine and antiviral contracts awarded by governments. But the decisive argument against mass vaccinations is that flu shots simply don?t work and are dangerous [9]. Flu shots ineffective and increase risks of asthma There are widely acknowledged reasons why flu vaccines won?t work, as already pointed out with regard to the much touted vaccines against the ?pandemic bird flu? that has yet to materialize [10] (How to Stop Bird Flu Instead, SiS 35). The flu virus changes quickly - even without the help of genetic engineering in the laboratory, and especially with the help of the intensive livestock industry - whereas the vaccines target specific strains. Furthermore, flu vaccination does not give permanent protection, and must be repeated annually; the vaccines are difficult to mass-produce, and some strains won?t grow at all under laboratory conditions. Numerous studies have documented that flu shots give little or no protection against infection and illness, and there is no reason to believe that swine flu vaccines will be different. A review of 51 separate studies involving more than 294 000 children found that in children aged from two years, nasal spray vaccines made from weakened influenza viruses and injected vaccines made from the killed virus prevented 82 and 59 percent of illnesses. The prevention of 'flu-like illness' caused by other types of viruses was only 33 and 36 percent respectively. In children under the age of two, the efficacy of inactivated vaccine was similar to placebo. It was not possible to analyse the safety of vaccines from the studies due to the lack of information, and lack of standardization on the little information available [11]. A report published in 2008 found flu vaccines in young children made no difference in the number of flu-related doctor and hospital visits [12]. On the other hand, a study of 800 children with asthma found that those receiving a flu vaccine had a significantly increased risk of asthma-related doctor and emergency room visits [13]; the odds ratios were 3.4 and 1.9 respectively. This was confirmed in a report published in 2009, which showed children with asthma who received FluMist had a 3-fold increased risk of hospitalization [14] Flu vaccines are equally useless for adults, including the elderly, giving little or no protection against infection or illnesses including pneumonia (see [9]). Toxic adjuvants in flu vaccines Vaccines themselves can be dangerous, especially live, attenuated viral vaccines or the new recombinant nucleic acid vaccines [10], they have the potential to generate virulent viruses by recombination and the recombinant nucleic acids could cause autoimmune diseases. A further major source of toxicity in the case of the flu vaccines are the adjuvants, substances added in order to boost the immunogenicity of the vaccines. There is a large literature on the toxicities of adjuvants. Most flu vaccines contain dangerous levels of mercury in the form of thimerosal, a deadly preservative 50 times more toxic than mercury itself [9]. At high enough doses, it can cause long-term immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioural dysfunctions. Also associated with mercury poisoning are autism, attention deficit disorder, multiple sclerosis, and speech and language deficiencies. The Institute of Medicine has warned that infants, children, and pregnant women should not be injected with thimerosal, yet the majority of flu shots contain 25 micrograms of it. Another common adjuvant is alum or aluminium hydroxide, which can cause vaccine allergy, anaphylaxis, and macrophage myofascitis, a chronic inflammation syndrome, In cats, alum also gives rise to fibrosarcomas at the site of injection [15]. Numerous new adjuvants are no better, and could be worse. According to a recent review in a science and business pharmaceutical publication [15], most newer adjuvants including MF59, ISCOMS, QS21, AS02, and AS04 have ?substantially higher local reactogenicity and systemic toxicity than alum.? Current status of swine flu vaccines Five different companies have been contracted to produce vaccines worldwide: Baxter International, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis and AstroZeneca [16]. Already stretched beyond capacity, there is every intention to make smaller vaccine doses go further with a range of new adjuvants [17], with the blessing of the WHO (see later). Flu vaccines are traditionally produced from non-virulent (attenuated or weakened) influenza viruses (see Box for a description of the viruses). To be effective, the genes of the non- virulent virus used must match those of the viral strain spreading in the population. Activation of the immune system by exposure to the non pathogenic form of the circulating pathogenic strain leads to the production of antibodies that will confer protection against the pathogenic strain. Producing the non-virulent virus involves first identifying and then recreating the subtypes of two of the virus?s surface proteins, haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), which determine the strain?s virulence and ability to spread, and are also the target proteins for vaccine production. Influenza viruses There are 3 types of influenza viruses, A, B and C. The influenza A type virus is the main one that cause diseases in birds and mammals. Its genome consists of 8 segments of RNA coding for 11 proteins, and the viruses are further classified by subtype on the basis of the two main surface glycoproteins (proteins with complex carbohydrate side chains): haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) [18]. The segmented genome enables the virus to? reassort? (shuffle) segments as well as recombine within segments, thereby greatly increasing the rate of evolution and generation of new strains. Reassortment is also widely exploited in the laboratory in the process of creating vaccine strains. To-date, 16 H and 9 N subtypes have been detected in numerous combinations circulating in wild birds [19]. Seed viruses are first made to provide the starting material for large scale production of live non-virulent flu viruses. The seed viruses are approved by the WHO or the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The usual method of seed virus production is reassortment (see Box). Fertilized chicken eggs are injected with both a standard non-pathogenic influenza strain known to grow well in eggs and the strain that carries the genes expressing the desired vaccine H and N protein subtypes. The two viruses multiply, and their eight genome segments reassort with 256 possible combinations. The resulting recombinant viruses are then screened for the desired virus with the six genome segments that allow the standard strain to grow so well in eggs and the H and N genes from the circulating strain. The seed virus is then injected into millions of eggs for mass production of vaccine. This conventional method of seed stock production takes about one to two months to complete [20]. Cell culture systems may eventually replace chicken eggs. Baxter International applied for a patent on a process using cell culture to produce quantities of infecting virus, which are harvested, inactivated with formaldehyde and ultraviolet light, and then detergent [21]. Baxter has produced H5N1 whole virus vaccines in a Vero cell line derived from the kidney of an African green monkey, and conducted phase 1 and 2 clinical trials with and without aluminium hydroxide as adjuvant [22, 23]. The main finding was that the toxic adjuvant did not increase neutralising antibodies against the vaccine strain. Baxter has agreed to ship H1N1 vaccine by the end of July or early August 2009 but details of the production of that vaccine have not yet been released to the public [16]. In December, a Baxter facility in Austria sent a human flu vaccine contaminated with the deadly H5N1 live avian flu virus to 18 countries, including the Czech Republic, where testing showed it killed the ferrets inoculated [24]. Czech newspapers questioned whether Baxter was involved in a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic. Norvatis, another big pharma, announced on 13 June that it, too, has produced a swine flu vaccine using cell-based technology and the proprietary adjuvant MF59?. The MF59? adjuvant is oil based and contains Tween80, Span85, and squalene [25]. In studies of oil-based adjuvants in rats, the animals were rendered crippled and paralyzed. Squalene brought on severe arthritis symptoms in rats, and studies in humans given from 10 to 20 ppb (parts per billion) of squalene showed severe immune system impact and development of autoimmune disorders [26]. Novartis was in the news in 2008 for a clinical trial of a H5N1 vaccine in Poland. The trial was administered by local nurses and doctors who gave the vaccine to 350 homeless people, leaving 21 died; and were prosecuted by the Polish police [27, 28]. Novartis claimed the deaths were unrelated to the H5N1 vaccine [29], which had been ?tested on 3500 other people without any deaths.? GlaxoSmithKline?s vaccine will be made up of antigens of the recently isolated influenza strain, and also contains its own proprietary adjuvant system AS03 that has been approved in the EU along with its H5N1 bird flu vaccine in 2008. According to the European Public Assessment Report [30], AS03 adjuvant is composed of squalene (10.68 milligrams), DL-?-tocopherol (11.86 milligrams) and polysorbate 80 (4.85 milligrams). The H5N1 vaccine also contains 5 micrograms thiomersal, as well as Polysorbate 80, Octoxynol 10, and various inorganic salts. The company is aggressively promoting various adjuvant systems as its ?adjuvant advantage? that reduces the dose of vaccines [31]. A recent WHO survey of primary vaccine producers concluded that the potential output of 4.9 Billion doses of H1N1 vaccine per year is a best-case scenario, assuming among other factors that the most dose-sparing formulation (that will include toxic adjuvants) be selected by each manufacturer and that production will take place at full capacity. WHO Director-General, Dr .Margaret Chan, and the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, met with senior officials of vaccine manufacturers on 19 May and asked them to reserve part of their production capacity for poor countries that would otherwise have no or little access to vaccine in the case of a pandemic [32]. The last mass-vaccination in the US was a disaster. In 1976, cases of swine flu were found in soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and one of them died, most likely of physical overexertion rather than from the infection [7]. This led to the launch of a mass vaccination of 40 million against a pandemic that never materialized. Thousands filed claims for injury. At least 25 died and 500 developed paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome [33, 34]. Swine flu syndromes mostly mild As of 22 July 2009, the CDC listed a total of 40 617 cases in the US, with 319 fatalities, giving a fatalites/case ratio of 0.8 percent [35]; though the real death rate ? among all cases of infection including the mild ones that go unreported ? is probably much lower. Experts estimate that only 1 out of 20 cases are reported [36]. The UK is the worst affected European country, and the pandemic is in the headlines everyday in July. A new telephone helpline was set up on 23 July to let people get advice and tamiflu without seeing a doctor. In that week, there has been a record rise in cases to 100 000 and a total of 30 deaths so far [37], giving a fatalities/case ratio of 0.03 percent, a more accurate reflection of the actual death rate. UK?s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson has ordered the NHS to plan for as many as 65 000 deaths, with 350 a day at the peak [38]. There has been no plan as yet for mass vaccination; but the UK government has advance orders for 195 million doses of vaccine with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The vaccine that GSK is developing will be tested on a limited number of people as the UK drug company reportedly [39] ?weighs the pandemic danger against the risks of an unsafe shot.? This was criticized as ?risky? by Prof. Hugh Pennington, a retired microbiologist at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. ?By limiting clinical trials, Glaxo raises the danger that the vaccine dose isn?t properly calibrated, and could lead to shots that don?t protect people from the virus or at worse are unsafe,? Pennington said. Pennington added that the shot?s ability to trigger the body?s defences is crucial and requires tests to determine the best dose and whether an adjuvant is needed to bolster the immunity. (As we know, GSK is definitely promoting its new range of toxic adjuvants.) He also referred to the Fort Dix incident in 1976 (see earlier). France has ordered vaccines from Sanofi, GSK and Novartis, but sees no reason to ask vaccine makers to shorten or skip clinical trials [16]. Sanofi-Aventis, the French drug maker developing its own swine flu vaccine will begin testing the product in early August, and estimates it will need as much as two and a half months of tests before having a shot that?s ?both safe and protective?, according to Albert Garcia, speaking for the company?s vaccine unit, ?the vaccine will be ready in November or December, he said. Baxter, however, will produce a vaccine by early August for clinical tests. Glaxo also said it is developing a face mask coated with antivirals to prevent infection and boosting production of its Relenza drug for patients already suffering from swine flu. There are obviously safer and more effective ways to combat the pandemic than mass vaccinations: washing hands often, sneezing into a tissue that can be safely disposed of, avoiding unnecessary gatherings, and delay opening schools ? all advised by governments - and we would add, eating healthily, exercise, and getting enough vitamin D to boost your natural immunity [10]. References 1. New details on virus?s promiscuous past?, Jon Cohen, Science 2009, 324, 1127. 2. Garten RJ, Davis CT,Tussell CA et al. Antigenic and genetic charaatcteristics of swine-origin 2009 A (H1N1) influenza viruses circulating in humans. Science 2009, 325, 197-201. 3. Virologist to make his case for lab origin of swine flu?, Peter Duveen, Opednews.com, 4 July 2009, http://www.opednews.com/articles/Virologist-to-make-his-cas-by-Peter-Duveen- 090630-103.html 4. Is swine flu a biological weapon??, Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com 27 April 2009, http://www.prisonplanet.com/is-swine-flu-a-biological-weapon.htm 5. CDC confirms ties to virus first discovered in U.S. pig factories? Michael Greger, 3 May 2009, http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/swine_flu_virus_origin_1998_042909.htm l 6. ?Swine flu vaccine should not be given to children in schools?, Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center, 22 July 2009, http://www.nvic.org/NVIC-Vaccine-News/July-2009/Swine-Flu-Vaccine-Should-Not -Be-Given-to-Children.aspx 7. ?Now legal immunity for swine flu vaccine makers? F, William Engdahl, Global Research 20 July 2009, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14453 8. Swine flu pandemic now ?unstoppable?: WHO official?, Agence France-Presse 13 July 2009, Calgary Herald, http://www.calgaryherald.com/Swine+pandemic+unstoppable+official/1788693/sto ry.html 9. What are the dangers of mandatory swine flu vaccination? Dr. Mercola, June 2009, http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2009/07/15/What-are-the-Da ngers-of-MandatoryMandatory-Swine-Flu-Vaccination.aspx 10. Ho MW. How to stop bir flu instead of the vaccine-antiviral model. Science in Society 35. 40-42, 2007. 11. Jefferson T, Rivett A, Harnden A, DiPietrantoni C, and Demicheli V. Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children (Review). Cochrane Database Systematic Review 23 April 2009, http://mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD004879/pdf_fs .html 12. Szilagyi PG, Fairbrother G, Griffin MR et al. Influenza vaccine effectiveness among children 6 to 59 months of age during 2 influenza seasons: a case-cohort study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2008, 162, 943-51. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18838647 13. Christy C, Aligne C, Auinger P, Pulcino T and Weitzman M. Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations. Arch. Dis Child 2004, 89, 734-5, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid =15269071 14. Flu vaccination may triple risk for flu-related hospitalization in children with asthma, 25 May 2009, http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/703235 15. Petrovsky N, Heinzel S, Honda Y, Lyons AB. New-age vaccine adjuvants, friend or foe? BioPharm International 2 August 2007, http://biopharminternational.findpharma.com/biopharm/article/articleDetail.j sp?id=444996&sk=&date=&pageID=5 16. ?Update: 1-Baxter can take no more H1N1 flu vaccine orders?, Bill Berkerto, 16 July 2009, Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsnews/idINN1644290820090716?rpc=33 17. H1N1 ?swine flu? vaccine, postnote, May 2009, number 331, http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn331.pdf 18. Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) CDC, 18 November 2005, http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/flu-viruses.htm 19. Olsen B, Munster VJ, Wallensten A, Waldenstrom J, Osterhaus ADME and Fouchier RAM. Global patterns of influenza A virus in wild birds. Science 2006, 312, 384-8. 20. Hood E. Environews Innovations 2006 Environmental Health Perpectives 114,A108-111. 21. Kistner,O,Tauer,C, Barrett,N. Mundt,W. Method for Producing Viral Vaccines 2009 Patent application US2009/0060950A1 22. Ehrlich HJ, M?ller M, Oh HM, Tambyah PA, Joukhadar C, Montomoli E, Fisher D, Berezuk G, Fritsch S, L?w-Baselli A, Vartian N, Bobrovsky R, Pavlova BG, P?llabauer EM, Kistner O, Barrett PN; Baxter H5N1 Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Clinical Study Team. A clinical trial of a whole-virus H5N1 vaccine derived from cell culture. N Engl J Med. 2008 Jun 12;358(24):2573-84. 23. Ketel.W,Dekker,C,Mink,C,Campbell,J,Edwards,K,Patel,S,Ho,D,Talbot,H,Guo,K,Noa h,D,Hill,H.Safety and immunogenicity of inactivated, Vero cell culture-derived whole virus influenza A/H5N1 vaccine given alone or with aluminum hydroxide adjuvant in healthy adults Vaccine 2009 in press doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.03.015 24. ?Bird flu mix-up could have spelled disaster?, NewScientist 6 March 2009, http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126983.400 25. Kenney RT and Edelman R. Survey of human-use adjuvants. Expert Review of Vaccines April 2003; 2(2):167-88, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12899569?ordinalpos=5&itool=EntrezSys tem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVD ocSum 26. ?Vaccines may be linked to Gulf War Syndrome?, Chiroweb.com, June 12, 2000, http://www.chiroweb.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=31730 27. ?Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland?, Mathew Day, Telegraph, 2 July 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2235676/Homeless-peo ple-die-after-bird-flu-vaccine-trial-in-Poland.html 28. ?Homeless people die after trials of bird-flu vaccine?, 10 July 2008, Pharmaceutical Portal for Poland, http://www.pharmapoland.com/next.php?id=62409 29. ?Polish industry not dented by deaths?, Emma Dorey, Entrepreneur, 21 July 2008, http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/181991358.html 30. Pandermrix = European Public Assessment Report [EMEA] 27 September 2009, http://www.emea.europa.eu/humandocs/Humans/EPAR/pandemrix/pandemrix.htm 31. Vaccine adjuvant system technology background information. GlaxoSmithKline, accessed 25 July 2009, http://www.gsk.com/media/flu/flu-adjuvant.pdf 32. Collin N, de Radigu?s X, Kieny MP; the World Health Organization H1N1 Vaccine Task Force.New influenza A(H1N1) vaccine: How ready are we for large-scale production? Vaccine. 2009 Jun 26 in press doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.06.034 33. 1976 swine flu outbreak, Wikipedia, 22 July 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_swine_flu_outbreak 34. Haber P, Sejvar J, Mikaeloff Y and DeStefano F. Vaccine and Guilaain-Barre syndrome. Drug Saf 2009, 32, 309-23. 35. 2009 flu pandemic in the United States?, Wikipdeia, 22 July 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic_in_the_United_States 36. 2009 flu pandemic, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic 37. ?Swine flu website overwhelmed by demand as new cases double in a week?, Owen Bowcott and Severin Carrell, The Guardian, 23 July 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/23/swine-flu-website-overwhelmed 38. ?Swine flu: medical chief orders NHS to prepare for 65 000 deaths ? with a toll of as many as 350 a day?, Daniel Martin, The Daily Mail, 17 July 2009, T, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200012/Swine-flu-Every-child-16-vac cinated--when.html 39. ?Glaxo to limit tests of flu vaccine, citing urgency?, Jason Gale and Trista Kelley, Bloomberg Press, 22 July 2009, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=apkg_4J.PCEw From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 18:19:57 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:19:57 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Message-ID: <011901ca2519$f4bce270$de36a750$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 6:47 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Starting the Conversation on Our Survival http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4 76&Itemid=65 by Jan Lundberg 06 July 2009 With species extinction now at the highest rate since the disappearance of the dinosaurs, one might assume this crisis is on everyone's mind and discussed widely. One would be wrong. No one knows if it's 100 species a day, many of which have not been named. Massive species loss has been known for many years, but it is "old news" or "boring." Neither are other critical topics discussed enough to match their import: melting of the ice caps and glaciers, nuclear weapons and nuclear waste, out of control arms sales, ongoing starvation or malnourishment of hundreds of millions of people, overpopulation, the greed of financiers openly stripping nations of wealth, etc. In reality, they are all related. It comes down to compassion and taking action wisely. When people manage to discuss the most pressing issues, they can see past the immediate crisis possessing the power to distract. Then a whole-systems approach can serve to unite people into one movement. In the 1960s there was "The Movement." People had many definitions for it, and some members were more interested in stopping the bombing over Indochina than securing all rights for the Afro-American population, for example. But The Movement included those concentrating on expanded consciousness, back-to-the-land agrarianism, communalism, armed revolution, women's liberation, environmental protection. It could all be seen as a whole: challenging "plastic society" and the false materialistic values of the flag-waving pro-war older generation. We can blame the end of The Movement on its splintering into separate movements, or on the end of the Vietnam War draft, or the commercialization and corporatization of popular music, or assassinations of leaders in the 1960s -- or all of them combined. The biggest mistake was to stop having the conversation about society in general. Instead people began to take the easy way out and earn more money and stay out of trouble, Those who did not cease the conversation became known as activists, and it was no longer "the youth" or "the students" or "The Movement." Instead activists were on the fringes and mocked by "being stuck back in the 1960s." The federal COINTELPRO operations against organizations and leaders took a toll, and there were pleasant distractions such as disco music or take your pick. Social change comes down to communication. Great efforts have resulted in fine books, stories for films and books, and there have been some wonderful speeches. But it must really start and end with the conversation wherein the top topic is the issues of the day approached honestly and without fear. When people talk about a problem openly, then there is a chance of solving it. There may be no solution, but the attempt to converse about it may have other beneficial effects and lead to unexpected breakthroughs. When people avoid talking about serious matters, much harm can be done by others who are intent on opportunism or worse. Distracting people with other issues is therefore the prime tool for those trying to maintain an advantage in the status quo. It can also be said that the main tool is enslavement through economic dominance -- a giant distraction from realizing a liberated life style. Many robotic or sheep-like people today have no concept of liberation except personal enrichment. Talking about food security We would not know it from the corporate media or our politicians, but we should be worrying big time that food supply will fail untold millions of people. All one has to do is look at energy, topsoil, pressures of the market (such as rising demand for food), and mix in some catastrophic weather that is assured, and we have a huge disaster ahead. It is just a matter of time. There is a movement to appreciate local food, slow food, organic food. But it has not reduced the average number of miles a piece of food travels via petroleum in the U.S.: 1,500. To produce industrial food -- probably 95% of what is eaten in the U.S. -- ten caloric units of fossil-fuels produce one caloric unit of food. Farm workers are among the lowest paid in the nation, which is strange when everyone wants to eat. Time in the hot sun, subjected to pesticides and possible immigration raids, make the profession all the less attractive. There is no longer a designation for farmer in the U.S. census when so few people live on their own farms anymore. It was no wonder that when Max Yasgur, who hosted the Woodstock Festival in 1969, began his welcome with "Now I'm a farmer..." at that he was drowned out by cheers and applause. That was The Movement expressing itself for nature. Get the record album and hear it. Today I picked three pint-sized baskets of three kinds of berries. It took me about an hour, even when the season is just right. I still had to pay eight dollars for the fruit. It is not designated as organic, which would allow for a higher price, but it was unsprayed. If the value of my time is $20 an hour, my overall cost was $28. I spent no money on transportation because I bicycled. There's a problem we don't have a name for: a labor problem? We are not producing our own food locally because we "cannot afford to." Rather, we subsidize the food in unsustainable ways while upper classes of consumers can afford to pay others to grow, gather, process, truck and prepare the food. This system only works for a few people in a division-of-labor society geared toward surpluses for the elite: i.e., Western Civilization. In the berry patch a father said bitterly to his daughter, "You guys dragged me here and I don't have time for all this work." She replied "It's fun!" I'm glad to report that he had no further retort. Perhaps he should have a conversation with his family and friends about what he thinks he can do with his time, what he is allowed to do, and how he may provide for his family as well as raise a child directly. Inane conversation or prattling More alarming than empty talk and avoiding critical issues is no talking at all, when some modern humans live in a computer-game world, or they communicate mostly in isolation using a cell phone or email. Of these, many don't have much in the way of friendships, and family is something to occasionally visit. Meanwhile, conversation is still key, especially if it can be elevated beyond the personal need to connect to another human being (even to just discuss clothes or beer). The art of conversation is getting harder to encounter. People don't seem to have time. Before we can work toward starting the conversation on our survival, what is going on all around us that passes for discussion? My observation is that the quality of conversation is almost always and everywhere inane. Wars being fought in the name of the United States of America, in Iraq and Afganistan, are not prime topics of discussion or debate at any given time by "the average person." After all, there's endless celebrity news, the latest unemployment statistics, the latest iPhone technology, a fire in southern California, President Obama's latest pronouncement on medical care, and a lost doggy found in another city after a heart-rending odyssey. Admittedly, there is also news in the background on climate change, assassinations, bankruptcies of iconic corporations, and other serious stories. But there's never a common thread in the corporate news media or in a politician's speech. On the street you're more likely to hear something real: "the system sucks." If it does, what do we do about it? It should be no wonder that the quality of conversation -- whether in the living room of "the average person," in the employee lunch room, or at a bar or party -- is usually inane. Sports news or a review of a television show are favorites, along with gossip or tales of a weekend adventure. When the subjects of politics or ecology come up, these are treated with argument, jokes and derision as often are statements of concern. Rare is a vow of "I will bicycle to work and get rid of my television." As for everyday banter with meaning, there can be comparisons of home gardening techniques. Reviving the economy back to growth is the hottest topic in the serious realm, with climate change ranking at bottom. The latter is denied by some, or is too scary to tackle. The tendency is to let "the experts" or public officials deal with it -- as they're dealing with the economy and everything else. They're not bringing us peace. They're not stopping species extinction. They're not redistributing the wealth or jailing the white collar criminals (Madoff is an exception, a sop). If the rulers should not rule, shouldn't this be a major topic of conversation? What we need is the conversation that's not happening. In the 1960s and into the 1970s the politically minded street threater group The Yippies (Youth International Party) took matters into their own hands to bring attention to the issues. One method was disruption of business as usual. Stunts included burning dollar bills, sewing the American flag on to one's pants, or kissing during college lectures. A book by one of the main instigators, Jerry Rubin, was titled Do It. (The author became a stockbroker, a fate probably from losing his hippie support system.) Who is "doing it" today? Bloggers? Internet activists? Artists? Obama? There's some good journalism and activism, but the masses of people are somehow left out of the conversation. They want to be left out, when they avoid discussing serious issues relating to their survival on an imperiled planet. The question is, can they be made to discuss it before things are totally out of control, when rational discussion may be impossible? No end of secret government subversion can overcome a big enough conversation. We Are Many, They Are Few - Really? If all the able-bodied homeless people in the greater New York City area decided to converge on Wall Street and seize some wealth or demand housing, they could do it. If the millions of minorities discriminated against by ruthless corporate employers staged sit ins and used economic boycotts, such action could earn large concessions. But instead, masses are herded like sheep by a small number of agents of the elite. The corporate state does have effective tools such as the military, prisons, police -- the "stick" -- to go with bribes and perks and promises of mild reform -- the "carrot." Yet, numerically, if enough people wanted to bring about a truly equitable society, or in particular end the unpopular wars, this could be done with little or no violence in a short amount of time. The reason it does not happen is that the right conversations are not taking place except by the very few. Even with the huge and growing number of people on mood-control and psychiatric drugs, that sad population unwittingly enriching pharmaceutical companies rather than actually healing is in good enough condition to talk sensibly and stimulate some community action. The greatest crowd control of all time may be happening right now when a popular U.S. president can give the idea that he is pursuing meaningful change. The sleight of hand includes the idea that he can make substantial change. Obama knows his limitations, as every top politician comes to know. In addition to promising improvements and the impossible return to a growth economy -- and the trickle-down prosperity that never really worked -- Obama and his allies have some key issues dear to many hearts. Unfortunately, they are bogus: the technological fix for climate mitigation, cleaner energy upon peak oil, and better cars. Obama is such a nice and eloquent guy that most people want to believe he will bring about more jobs, higher wages, peace, and an end to terrorism, the threat to polar bears, etc. Smooth propaganda -- hard for most people to pick apart: President Barack Obama: "These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals. These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America." - Fourth of July Statement, 2009 Obama is a perfect maestro for keeping people from dealing directly with the global mix of crises. Above all, we should regard Obama as personifying the hierarchy which is seldom questioned. The hierarchy certainly sets the tone at all possible times. Obama is the current "one," and everyone else is many, but because of laws and convention he is given the right to be master and Pied Piper for a time. Then, in 2012, and only then, he can be re-elected or replaced by a Republicrat or Demopublican. Who the next president might be is NOT the conversation that needs to take place. The fact that the U.S. can feel it has cleansed itself of racism by electing Obama is a perfect distraction from more serious issues of extinction. For if we consume enough plastic, are exposed to enough radiation, and cling to a lifestyle divorced from nature and health, our species can indeed go extinct -- even without the extinction of the Earth's climate as we know it. Our best hope to avoid waiting for the worst may well be collapse of the economic system. This may usher in a sustainable culture. Maybe people will talk about it and take action in anticipation. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 18:41:01 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:41:01 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] US Supported Afghan Government Warlords Control World Heroin Trade Message-ID: <014101ca251c$e3f337c0$abd9a740$@net> A comment: As long as there is a demand for drugs, the cartels will flourish. We need to stop this at its source -- the demand. As I have written before, we don't have a drug problem, we have a pain problem with billions of people worldwide living in deprived environments which deny them even the basic human rights. The only way to stop this is to say "no more" by pledging to move into TOTAL WELLNESS. And, I am beginning a plan to aid all of us in moving into this state of being. I have begun to assemble a team of people on the LinkedIn website to aid me in putting this plan together and am overwhelmed by the number of people who are signing on to this commitment. I hope all of you will choose to move into TOTAL WELLNESS with me. It won't be easy -- it means changing lifestyle -- giving up many of the things we do today in favor of choosing healthier patterns of living. We will only be a few in the beginning but as we move into health and abundance, those around who were afraid in the beginning will soon begin to see the rewards we are achieving from giving up our old death-defining lifestyle and choosing a new life-enhancing one full of magnificence. The choice is yours to make. M R -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 6:59 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] US Supported Afghan Government Warlords Control World Heroin Trade (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) US Supported Afghan Government Warlords Control World Heroin Trade Written by Craig Murray Thursday, 20 August 2009 05:29 http://91.192.36.61/news/1/11207-us-supported-afghan-government-warlords-con trol-world-heroin-trade.html Craig Murray is the former U.K. Ambassador for Uzbekistan who was sacked over his protests of the US and UK's use of the country as a torture pit stop in the 'War on Terror'. He is a human rights activist, writer, Rector of the University of Dundee and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law. There is an excellent interview with former head of the Pakistani intelligence service, General Hamid Gul, here. He makes some very strong points. It is undoubtedly true that it is warlords in the US-backed Karzai government who control 90% of the world heroin trade, and that the trade has expanded to its highest ever levels under coalition control. It is undoubtedly true that US foreign policy in the region is dictated by the desire to access Central Asian oil and gas. It is also undoubtedly true that the US works closely with Mossad and with India in Central Asia, and that many of its attacks appear calculated to stir up rather than ease conflict. Turning the focus of our discussion to the Afghan drug problem, I noted that the U.S. mainstream corporate media routinely suggest that the Taliban is in control of the opium trade. However, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Anti-Government Elements (or AGEs), which include but are not limited to the Taliban, account for a relatively small percentage of the profits from the drug trade. Two of the U.S.'s own intelligence agencies, the CIA and the DIA, estimate that the Taliban receives about $70 million a year from the drugs trade. That may seem at first glance like a significant amount of money, but it's only about two percent of the total estimated profits from the drug trade, a figure placed at $3.4 billion by the UNODC last year. Meanwhile, the U.S. has just announced its new strategy for combating the drug problem: placing drug traffickers with ties to insurgents -and only drug lords with ties to insurgents - on a list to be eliminated. The vast majority of drug lords, in other words, are explicitly excluded as targets under the new strategy. Or, to put it yet another way, the U.S. will be assisting to eliminate the competition for drug lords allied with occupying forces or the Afghan government and helping them to further corner the market. I pointed out to the former ISI chief that Afghan opium finds its way into Europe via Pakistan, via Iran and Turkey, and via the former Soviet republics. According to the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, convoys under General Rashid Dostum - who was reappointed last month to his government position as Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Afghan National Army by President Hamid Karzai - would truck the drugs over the border. And President Karzai's own brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been accused of being a major drug lord. So I asked General Gul who was really responsible for the Afghan drug trade. "Now, let me give you the history of the drug trade in Afghanistan," his answer began. "Before the Taliban stepped into it, in 1994 - in fact, before they captured Kabul in September 1996 - the drugs, the opium production volume was 4,500 tons a year. Then gradually the Taliban came down hard upon the poppy growing. It was reduced to around 50 tons in the last year of the Taliban. That was the year 2001. Nearly 50 tons of opium produced. 50. Five-zero tons. Now last year the volume was at 6,200 tons. That means it has really gone one and a half times more than it used to be before the Taliban era." He pointed out, correctly, that the U.S. had actually awarded the Taliban for its effective reduction of the drug trade. On top of $125 million the U.S. gave to the Taliban ostensibly as humanitarian aid, the State Department awarded the Taliban $43 million for its anti-drug efforts. "Of course, they made their mistakes," General Gul continued. "But on the whole, they were doing fairly good. If they had been engaged in meaningful, fruitful, constructive talks, I think it would have been very good for Afghanistan." Referring to the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, General Gul told me in a later conversation that Taliban leader "Mullah Omar was all the time telling that, look, I am prepared to hand over Osama bin Laden to a third country for a trial under Shariah. Now that is where - he said [it] twice - and they rejected this. Because the Taliban ambassador here in Islamabad, he came to me, and I asked him, 'Why don't you study this issue, because America is threatening to attack you. So you should do something.' He said, 'We have done everything possible.' He said, 'I was summoned by the American ambassador in Islamabad' - I think Milam was the ambassador at that time - and he told me that 'I said, "Look, produce the evidence." But he did not show me anything other than cuttings from the newspapers.' He said, 'Look, we can't accept this as evidence, because it has to stand in a court of law. You are prepared to put him on trial. You can try him in the United Nations compound in Kabul, but it has to be a Shariah court because he's a citizen under Shariah law. Therefore, we will not accept that he should be immediately handed over to America, because George Bush has already said that he wants him "dead or alive", so he's passed the punishment, literally, against him." Referring to the U.S. rejection of the Taliban offer to try bin Laden in Afghanistan or hand him over to a third country, General Gul added, "I think this is a great opportunity that they missed." Returning to the drug trade, General Gul named the brother of President Karzai, Abdul Wali Karzai. "Abdul Wali Karzai is the biggest drug baron of Afghanistan," he stated bluntly. He added that the drug lords are also involved in arms trafficking, which is "a flourishing trade" in Afghanistan. "But what is most disturbing from my point of view is that the military aircraft, American military aircraft are also being used. You said very rightly that the drug routes are northward through the Central Asia republics and through some of the Russian territory, and then into Europe and beyond. But some of it is going directly. That is by the military aircraft. I have so many times in my interviews said, 'Please listen to this information, because I am an aware person.' We have Afghans still in Pakistan, and they sometimes contact and pass on the stories to me. And some of them are very authentic. I can judge that. So they are saying that the American military aircraft are being used for this purpose. So, if that is true, it is very, very disturbing indeed." The full interview ranges more widely and is well worth reading. I was unaware that Gul had been banned from the UK and US. But I am unsurprised. I can tell you from direct inside knowledge that the UK/US view is that the ISI is riven with Al-Qaida sympathisers. This suspicion is directed at Pakistanis who are in fact not in any way Al-Qaida sympathisers, but simply ask sceptical and critical questions about the "War on Terror". The demonisation of such people again tends to create the very conflict and anti-Western feeling which is pretended to be the concern. In fact conflict, which the US sees itself as in a position ultimately to win militarily, tends to be the aim. General Gul evidently feels that destabilisation of Pakistan is a US strategic goal. That is certainly increasingly the result of US policy, but I doubt it is acknowledged, even internally, as an aim. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 19:00:31 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:00:31 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Global Depression and Regional Wars - Reviewing James Petras' New Book: Part I Message-ID: <015201ca251f$9ff2e4f0$dfd8aed0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS I say "hurray for the crash". With it comes the opportunity to begin again -- to design the future in a conscious state of mind -- one that sees clearly now that sustainable life-enhancing living is the only way. For thousands of years, we have lived in a way that preserved enough for future generations that follow the present one. Yet, we find that in the relatively few years since the end of World War II, we have used so much more than our fair share that the continuance of the human family here on Earth is in doubt. And, it appears the only thing that can stop this rush into certain disaster is an economic crash so deep and so broad that the only thing to do is to create a new system. So, I say "viva" for the systemic crash we are in -- may we learn from the past and begin anew! -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:18 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Global Depression and Regional Wars - Reviewing James Petras' New Book: Part I (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Global Depression and Regional Wars - Reviewing James Petras' New Book: Part I Written by Stephen Lendman Thursday, 20 August 2009 03:54 James Petras is Binghamton University, New York Professor Emeritus of Sociology. Besides his long and distinguished academic career, he's a noted figure on the left, a well-respected Latin American expert, and a longtime chronicler of the region' popular struggles. He's also a prolific author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books, most recently his new one titled, "Global Depression and Regional Wars" addressing America, Latin America and the Middle East. Part I - Global Depression Variety's famous October 30, 1929 headline is again relevant: "Wall Street Lays an Egg," or as economist Rick Wolff puts it: "Capitalism hit the fan" following a familiar pattern of boom and bust cycles punctuated by bubbles that always burst. Petras explains it this way: "All the idols of capitalism over the past three decades have crashed. The assumptions and presumptions, paradigms and prognosis of indefinite progress under liberal free market capitalism have been tested and have failed. We are living the end of an entire epoch (and bearing witness to) the collapse of the US and world financial system." Grim prospects are ahead: - a world depression with one-fourth of the labor force unemployed; - global trade in free fall; - a proliferation of bankruptcies with General Motors a metaphor for a decaying system; - free-market capitalism in disrepute; and - "planning, public ownership, nationalization(s and other) socialist alternatives have become almost respectable" because most sacred cow "truisms" and solutions have failed. Today's global crisis reflects an unsustainable system - crisis-prone, unstable, anarchic, ungovernable, self-destructive, and eventually doomed to collapse. Its early death throes may now be audible - despite intense "psycho-babble" reengineering of facts to portray the current situation as a "failure of leadership....lack of understanding....willful ignorance of what markets need, (and) loss of confidence." Samuel Boswell explained that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Perhaps "psycho-babble" is its equivalent for "capitalist ideologues, academics, (self-styled) experts, and financial page editorialists, all of whom use "shoddy economic arguments" to pump life into a bankrupt ideology - one based on: - repeated boom and bust cycles; - unsustainable growth to stay viable; - direct foreign investment for the highest rates of return, producing a race to the bottom the result of some nations benefitting at the expense of others and all of them eventually losing out; - technological advances for "greater social and political power;" - pillaging countries, crushing labor, cutting wages, and limiting or ending social services; - privatizing "public enterprises, land, resources and banks;" and - reducing governments to servants of business with America the hub of the corporate universe. Today's crisis is systemic - "embedded in the contradiction between impoverished labor and concentrated capital" gone wild. "The current world depression is a product of the 'over-accumulation' process of the capitalist system in which the crash of the financial system was the 'detonator' but not the structural determinant: the exploitation of labor" that sooner or later bites back. The longer capital interests pillage state resources at their expense, the less tolerant they'll be for mass unemployment, homes and savings lost, grim futures, and the end of the American dream. Then, watch out. The World Depression: A Class Analysis "It is a well-known truism that those who caused (today's) crisis are also (the) greatest beneficiaries of government largesse." Rulers create crises. Workers pay for them. Since the early 1970s, capitalism went global at the expense of workers experiencing "a relative and absolute decline in (their) share of material income" and well-being. As business consolidated more power, it began "exercis(ing) near absolute control over the location and movements of capital" as well as the ability to exploit labor globally in newly industrialized countries like China, the Asian subcontinent, capitalist Russia, former Soviet republics, and undeveloped ones in Central America and elsewhere. Huge profits came at the expense of growing inequality from wealth transfers to the rich. A race to the bottom cut wages and benefits, and lower living standards resulted from "the (permanent) conversion from high wage/high skill manufacturing jobs to lower-paid service" ones. Financialization-caused speculative excesses were fueled by cheap credit and lax regulations. Bubbles resulted producing inevitable collapse. First felt "at the bottom of the speculative chain," they reached the biggest banks responsible for the crisis and major corporations as well - "all of which had been deeply engaged in leveraged buyouts and acquisitions" as well as other unsustainable excesses. Depression indicators are everywhere, and the parallels to the early 1930s are ominous: - business bankruptcies up 64% from a year earlier; household ones up 33%; - according to the IMF, global banks must write down $4.1 trillion, two-thirds of which is yet to come; loss estimates will likely go higher given the state of world economies and enormity of their toxic asset portfolios -at yearend 2008, around $680 trillion, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS); - worldwide financial assets have already plunged by over $50 trillion - the equivalent of annual global output; - America's estimated 2009 budget deficit will be about 12.3% of GDP, a recklessly high ratio "that will ultimately ruin public finances;" - world financial markets have plunged since peaking in mid to late 2007, and respected experts say the end of this cycle is far from over despite expected rallies they call bear traps; - world trade has collapsed causing industrial output to plummet; - direct foreign investment to "less developed capitalist countries....were predicted to shrink by 82% and credit flows by $30 billion USD;" and - America's economy is experiencing its worst decline since the 1930s with GDP, exports, retail sales, construction activity, capital goods investment, and other indicators down sharply; the only one rising is unemployment - according to the Labor Department U-6 measure (including categories left out of the headlined lower U-3 figure), it's 16.5%; economist John Williams' reverse engineered data has it at nearly 21% and rising, and all other economic indicators much worse than official numbers. The conclusion is clear - all "signs point to a deep and prolonged depression," worse still by current economic policies reflecting "the most drastic curtailment in public spending in American history," according to Michel Chossudovsky. It's a "War Budget (affecting) all major federal (programs except): 1. Defense and the Middle East War(s and whatever new ones are planned); 2. the Wall Street bank bailout, (and) 3. Interest payments (of around $500 billion annually) on a staggering (growing) public debt." The toll is enormous. "Rising business inventories, declining investment, (business and household) bankruptcies, foreclosures, insolvent banks, massive accumulative losses, restricted access to credit, falling asset values, and a 20% reduction in household wealth (amounting to trillions of dollars) are the cause and consequence of the depression" that promises to be deep and protracted. Globalization's toxic effects have exacerbated the crisis. Linked together under WTO rules and finance capital, what affects one nation affects all, directly or indirectly, to a greater or lesser degree. "At the same time, regions" were positioned differently so "the effects on them varied substantially." Latin America Brazil is faring poorly due to "its high velocity fall in exports and industrial production (and) All indications are that negative growth will persist and deepen during the rest of 2009." President Lula's privatization and globalization policies exacerbated Brazil's crisis. Everything is down except skyrocketing unemployment as growing hundreds of thousands lose jobs. Growing poverty is also evident, including "5 million impoverished landless rural workers and the 10 million families living on a one-dollar-a-day food-basket handout (as well as) tens of millions of minimum wage workers living on $250 a month." As the crisis deepens, new investments have stalled. Private credit evaporated. Foreign investment plunged, consumer spending declined, and what's true for Brazil affects other regional economies, especially in Central America and the Caribbean. Being "highly 'integrated' with the US and world economy (they're) experiencing the full force" of its collapse, including rising poverty, crime, and "a potential for popular social upheavals against the incumbent right and center-left governments....The depression demonstrates with crystal clarity the pitfalls of imperial-centered globalization and the stark absence of any remedies for its collaborators in Latin America." It also augurs change with hard times "spurring the return of the nation-state, as 'de-globalization' accelerates." It's for Latin America to refocus, declare globalization dead, and democratically generate wealth and employment broadly, not shift it upward to the usual recipients. Eastern Europe and the Ex-communist Countries These nations experienced hardline shock therapy full force - a destructive cocktail of deregulation, mass-privatizations, state enterprise closings, wage cuts and loss of benefits, wealth transfers to the rich, millions thrown out of work, repressive laws to contain resulting unrest, unrestricted access for foreign corporations to pillage local economies, and arranging their need for foreign investment and credit under terms they negotiate for their own benefit. As a result, when Western economies crashed, so did Eastern European ones, leaving them dependent on the IMF and other international lending agencies "on onerous terms" favoring capital over people. The same pattern played out globally, including in America where the Fed and Treasury direct public wealth to the top, mainly the giant Wall Street banks that plundered the country and are free to keep doing it, given that Obama facilitates the process. Asia: The End of the Illusions of De-coupling and Autonomous Growth "The Great Depression of 2009 (hit) every economy in Asia," including Japan, China, India, and Tiger countries showing even the mighty aren't immune, given their dependency on export, financial and commodity markets. The global crisis left them vulnerable to lost trade followed by production cuts, bankruptcies, negative growth, mass-unemployment, and millions thrown overboard into deep poverty. Large public capital injections haven't been able to turn sick economies around. Doing it requires measures not taken - shifting "capital back from private real estate, stock markets and overseas bond purchases (like US Treasuries)....to finance universal health care, education and pensions and the restoration of land to productive use rather than (to) real estate (and other) speculation." Instead strategies are based on "the usual capitalist solution" - aiding the privileged at the expense of all others in a part of the world where many countries have no safety net and those with them made big cutbacks. The human fallout is immense, much as in other parts of the world and America. The Middle East: Depression and Regional Wars Its crisis is rooted in Israel's belligerency and collapse of commodity prices, namely oil that recently made a modest recovery but may soon sink again given weak demand. Large producers like the Saudis reap huge revenues even during hard times, then (re-cyle them) into large-scale finance, real estate and military purchases." US Treasuries also that finance our militarism, public debt, corporate takeovers, and speculative excesses creating bubbles, economic crises, and resulting global fallout. Regional collapse "began with the frenzied commodity oil boom between 2004 - 2008 (that fueled) a construction and real estate boom - and the accumulation of debt and labor importation." Crisis followed with growing deficits replacing budget and trade surpluses. With lower oil prices producing less capital, prospects for near-term recovery remain dim, much like they do worldwide. Israeli destabilization exacerbates the problem by "projecting its power and colonial ambitions throughout the region" - greatly reinforced by Washington's enormous support. An Unprecedented Crisis Its depth and severity have taken a toll on rich and developing countries alike and will for many years to come. As for America, the depression "takes place in the context of a de-industrialized economy, unprecedented public debt, multi-trillion dollar foreign debt and well over $800 billion dollars committed in military expenditures for several ongoing wars and occupations." These factors exacerbate the current situation, leaving it vulnerable to hard times ahead. No previous crisis resembles it. Solutions adopted are counterproductive, the result being "the most rapid and widespread reduction of living standards and mass impoverishment in recent US history" - perhaps ever, as never before has so much been done for so few at the expense of throwing so many overboard. The Failure to Address the Structural Basis of the Crisis As explained above, Obama's economic measures will exacerbate, not improve (let alone reverse) current conditions. Instead of closing, nationalizing, or breaking up insolvent banks, he's looting the nation's Treasury to reward them for the crisis they caused and should be held criminally responsible. As important, recapitalizing them won't work. They'll need continued cash infusions, and resources wasted on them aren't available for real productive use. Thus, the economy will keep weakening, and millions more Americans will lose jobs, homes, savings and futures. So far, Obama has done virtually nothing to help them beyond rhetorically saying he cares. The General Motors bankruptcy highlights capitalism's failure. It also augurs war on working Americans, about to be downgraded to lower pay, fewer benefits, and for growing numbers opportunities only in the military or unskilled, low-paying service jobs - if they can find them. Obama's economic agenda is turning America and other developed nations into Guatamala - so far with no uproar great enough to stop him. In addition, he's destroying, not creating, jobs because no public investment is allocated for it. Instead, he's "channel(ling) billions toward the privately owned telecommunication, construction, environmental and energy corporations, where the bulk of the government funds go to salaries and bonuses for senior management and staff and provide profits to stock holders, while" mere crumbs go to wage earners. Economic regeneration and reversing past failures are off the table. Rewarding corporate predators takes precedence along with stepped up imperial adventurism and the enormous sums it costs. Speculative excesses will continue. Budget deficits and the national debt have soared to stratospheric and unsustainable levels. Wealth disparities will persist and increase. Human deprivation will grow. Obama promised change. Instead, he's "totally committed to saving the capitalist class and the US empire" at the expense of ignored worker needs. His failed agenda is highlighted by: - today's economic structure "which once generated employment, profits and growth (but) no longer exists;" - so-called "stimulus" benefits to Wall Street and other favored industries, not people where they'll do the most good; and - what's directed to these sectors denies help to households that comprise 70% of GDP; "the only (way to) increas(e) demand and stimulat(e) recovery is to restore the purchasing power of working Americans." Rebalancing the economy depends on stimulating demand through "direct state ownership and long-term, large-scale investment in the production of goods and social services." It also requires "Dismantling the entire financial speculative 'superstructure' " responsible for the current crisis and will cause future ones if allowed to keep operating. Real productive investment and growth must replace destructive financialization - a fraud-laden casino operation generating great wealth for privileged bankers but few others. Other vital change requires: - retraining FIRE sector and other employees for productive new jobs; and - dismantling America's military empire; downsizing the Pentagon; slashing the defense budget, closing hundreds of global bases abroad and at home, and ending alliances with belligerent foreign powers; then redirecting those funds for productive use. "Reversing domestic decay requires the end of empire and the construction of a democratic socialist republic." Today's America is fundamentally flawed, corrupted, unsustainable, and heading for demise if not reversed in time. The Basic Priority of Public Policy: A Better Life for All Egalitarianism defines it, something missing in America's roots, so it's high time it got there with little time to waste. Democratic socialism "is a means to a better material life (as reflected in) higher living standards, greater political freedom, social equality of conditions, and internal and external security." Successful socialist states effectively serve the majority of workers. They use internal resources for their own needs, not licensed for foreign predators to exploit them for profit unavailable for domestic use. "Capitalism thrives on social inequalities." Socialism strives for equality, lessening poverty, providing essential services, and helping the most needy with subsidies and other benefits. Policies must include: - "massive investment in quality housing, household appliances, public transport, environmental concerns and infrastructure;" - economic diversification focusing on major investments in raw material industrialization, "producing quality goods of mass consumption....and in agriculture" - to efficiently address essential needs; and - investment in education, health care, jobs creation, and other essential areas for public well-being. Twenty-first century socialism must achieve "solidarity at home" with the general welfare as top priority. "Above all, socialism is about social equality - in income, schools and hospitals....between (and within) classes" and achieving it by "effectively re-distribut(ing) wealth and property to all workers, white and black, Indian farmer and urban worker, men and women, and young and old." Bernard Madoff: Wall Street Swindler Strikes Powerful Blows for Social Justice Consummate insider Madoff's clients represented a who's who of high net worth individuals and institutions, including banks, pension funds, universities, charities, insurers, other money managers, synagogues, his Palm Beach Country Club, and prominent figures like Thyssen family members, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Liliane Bettencourt (called the world's wealthiest woman), and many others - over 4000 in all now poorer for the experience. Until collapsing, he reputedly never had a losing year, a clear sign something was wrong, but as long as the good times lasted, who cared - including the SEC, advised of his Ponzi scheme but ignored it. The signals were obvious: - "constant high returns; - unmatched by any other broker; - a lack of third party oversight; - a backroom accounting firm physically incapable of auditing the multi-billion dollar operation; - a broker-dealer operation directly under his thumb; and" - an atmosphere of total secrecy. Once exposed, it turned out that some of Wall Street's "biggest exploiters and smartest swindlers were completely 'taken' by one of their own....There is nothing worse for the ego of a respectable swindler than to be trumped" by an even bigger one and to have it go on for so long. But consider the positive side, including: - denting America's "Zionist funding of illegal Israeli colonial settlements in the Occupied Territories;" - less for AIPAC to buy congressional influence; - discrediting other speculative hedge fund operators; - exposing the corrupted SEC that takes care of its own like all other so-called regulatory agencies - because they're run by officials from industries they regulate and return to them in high-paying jobs; - Madoff having been a former Nasdaq chairman and NASD vice-chairman shows that stock exchange insiders ignore transgressions from one of their own because they have similar ones themselves to hide; - less global inequality as mostly rich investors got taken; - clear evidence that capital's golden rule is to produce more of it, even by fleecing other swindlers as well as close family members and friends; - infamous slumlords, sweatshop owners, and predatory real estate moguls were had; - anti-Semites were hurt - ones "who claim that there is a 'close-knit Jewish conspiracy to defraud Gentiles;' ' - "financial know-it-alls" also; and - 51 major Jewish American organizations as well - receiving smaller contributions from their less well-healed supporters. Madoff and others like him are "product(s) of a systemic imperative and (capitalism's) economic culture...." But give him credit. On his own, he "struck a bigger blow against global financial capital, Wall Street and the US Zionist Lobby/Israel First Agenda than the entire US and European Left combined over the past half century!" He "inadvertently rendered an historic service to popular justice by undermining some of the financial props of a class-ridden injustice system." Maybe he should receive a medal or at least a commemorative plaque. The Election of the Greatest Con-Man in Recent History On November 4, the nation exhaled. The Bush era ended and a new Obama one began. Celebratory exuberance followed this " 'historic moment,' a 'turning point' in American history," and why not. Forgetting past pledges made and broken, voters were mesmerized by promises of change, taxing the rich, ending the Iraq war and occupation, and delivering health care for all and other measures. Obama mania swept the country, but cooler heads saw other signals early on. A "transformational presidency" wasn't to be nor was one planned. Throughout the campaign, "telltale signs of (Obama's) true orientation surfaced," including promising Zionists "more....than had ever been conceded by any previous US administration - inter alia, support for Israel's illegal annexation of greater East Jerusalem." Once elected, Obama's transition team and key appointments included "political dregs who brought on the unending wars of the past two decades, and the economic policy makers responsible for the financial crash and the deepening recession afflicting tens of millions of Americans today and for the foreseeable future." Obama's election indeed marked a "historic moment in American history: the victory of the greatest con man and his accomplices and backers in recent history." He promised peace but delivered war; trillions to corrupted bankers, not beneficial social change; millions of lost jobs, not new ones; handouts across the board to industry favorites, not vital help for the unemployed, homeless, impoverished, or states facing potential ruin. "Obama, on a bigger stage, is the perfect incarnation of Melville's Confidence Man. He catches your eye while he picks your pocket. He gives thanks as he packs you off to fight wars in the Middle East...." He promises everything "while he empties your Social Security funds to bail out" Wall Street swindlers. "He appoints and praises the architects of collapsed pyramid schemes to high office while promising you that better days are ahead." He promised change and delivered hell to tens of millions - the same agenda as George Bush and in some respects worse given the dire economy, no effort to fix it, expanded militarism, his first coup d'etat in Honduras, an attempted color revolution against Iran, destabilization mischief in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, and recently introduced outlandish pro-corporate legislation and administration proposals, all harmful to millions of Americans. He's surrounded by "a network of confidence people. They are a well-organized gang of prominent political operatives, money raisers, mass media hustlers, real estate moguls and academic pimps....joined and abetted by the elected officials and hacks of the Democratic Party." He represents privilege and disdain for working Americans. He's an avowed militarist, empire builder, and "unabashed Wall Street Firster," placing their agenda above all others. Behind his smooth rhetoric, his agenda is firm and irreversible - an "abiding commitment to....military-driven empire building (and his Wall Street funders) even in the midst of a collapsing domestic economy and" growing deprivation for millions. How long they'll put up with it is the question. Lessons from the Collapse of Wall Street The fallout from today's economic collapse has been devastating. It includes: - "The near bankruptcy of Social Security" as Treasury funds were looted for Wall Street bailouts; - "The insecurity of private pension funds," the result of all of them having lost from 23 - 30% or more during the crisis; - "The loss of a real economy manufacturing base" has transformed the country into a low wage and benefit service one, in many cases requiring few skills and no future; offshoring a "diversified manufacturing economy is the root cause of the collapse of the US financial system and the emerging long-term recession;" and - Capital flight "from productive sectors to FIRE (and a) huge surge of (it) overseas" leaving the economy even more vulnerable. Obama's domestic and foreign policies make economic recovery impossible, but "one thing is increasingly clear: his agenda is unsustainable; none of this can continue - whether the political and financial elite like it or not...The world's future is not safe in" the hands of the ruling oligarchy, and sooner or later an aroused public will assert itself. It's just a matter of time. Latin America: Perspectives for Socialism in a Time of World Capitalist Recession/Depression Economist Jack Rasmus calls the economic crisis an "epic recession," heading toward a full-blown depression. Petras calls it a "recession-depression (RD) because the negative growth of capitalism is a current ongoing process that is still in its opening phase," but moving in the same direction. Its unique features include: - nearly all world economies are integrated under a common system - so-called free-market capitalism controlling production and world markets; as a result, they all sink or swim together to a greater or lesser degree; - "The level of integration....is deeper and more widespread than ever before in history" so that good or bad times have a global effect; - concentrated, centralized capital, especially in finance, reached unprecedented levels, heightening trouble in periods of hard times; - the "size and extension of wage and salaried workers is qualitatively greater than any other period" in history; - finance capitalism's dominance contributes to destructive boom and bust cycles; - "Latin America's 'restructured' capitalist economy (anchored its growth) in agro-mineral exports," increasing its dependency "on overseas markets and diversified trading partners in Asia" like China; - neoliberalism was strengthened in Latin America, and state policy was structured to "favor agro-mineral exporters and accommodate the poorest section through vast clientelistic 'poverty programs,' " and - America's dominant finance capital led to: (1) "de-capitalization of manufacturing; (2) the massive expansion of real estate speculation; (3) debt-financed consumer-based growth; (4) the stimulation of Asian manufacturing growth and exports; and (5) the boom in commodity production, exports and prices in Latin America." Combined, the above factors fueled growth until 2007, followed by the subsequent collapse and deepening recession. America has been especially hard hit, and few prospects promise relief. All economic indicators point down, and households are so over-indebted they've been forced to curb their spending for the first time in decades. A combination of "Unemployment, bankruptcy, credit freeze, corporate losses and debt - a general depression - has devastated the domestic US economy" and spilled over into the rest of the world. Monetary and fiscal measures have been so misdirected they've failed. All major banks are insolvent. Industry is flat on its back. Small and larger businesses are vulnerable to collapse. As economist Rick Wolff explains, "capitalism hit the fan." The entire system broke down and "no longer performs its most basic functions....to produce, lend, employ, consume, trade and house." Like other world regions, Latin America has been greatly impacted by weakened export markets, frozen credit, capital flight, and overall economic malaise. All regional economies have felt the full brunt of the crisis - in terms of declining "trade, domestic production, investment, employment, state revenues and income. (As a result), bankruptcies will proliferate and state spending on social services will decline." Propping up banks and key businesses takes precedence. Public and private unemployment will thus grow. Wages and benefits will be cut. Latin America's "entire socio-economic class configuration (on which its growth model is based), is headed for a long-term, large scale transformation." Trade unionists and social movements must act or lose relevance. With dominant business sectors needing state subsidies and debt relief, "workers, employees, small farmers and (common) businesspeople" are bearing the recession's brunt on their backs - through lower wages, reduced social services and state repression ready to crush resistance. If trade unions aren't up to the task of bargaining for worker rights, "new forms of mass organizations of the semi-employed and unemployed workers will likely emerge" to do it in their place by applying direct action tactics - "paralyzing the roadways and transport networks, and occupying closed plants and public buildings," as in Argentina from 2000 - 2003. Popular struggles "will be directed to conserve jobs, block mass layoffs and" occupy factories and enterprises. Greater state involvement may be demanded as recessionary effects deepen. During crisis-ridden times, renewed opportunities arise to advance social movements. With imperial capital power in decline and Washington struggling to preserve it, US-Latin American strains will grow. The 1990 - 99 "Golden Age of Imperial Pillage" has passed. "Popular urban uprisings, massive rural movements, and the emergence of Indian-based takeovers of regional and local governments" replaced it - undermining America's influence and shifting the balance of power center-left even without "enforcing any fundamental changes in property or class relations." >From 2005 - 08, Washington focused on foreign wars and occupations, the Global War on Terror, and backing Israel's serial aggression. It freed Latin America "to pursue a more autonomous political agenda, including greater regional integrations...." >From 2008 to the present, grim economic times have prevailed. Regional exports, growth and reserves declined, but later than in America and Europe. Currently, however, Latin America is feeling the recession's full brunt that's sparing no country anywhere. A familiar regional pattern is repeating. Its "debt trap....awaits." It can't "sustain (or even stabilize its) growth...not in an ocean of depressed advanced capitalist countries" it depends on. Capitalism and socialism are now weak. "The question becomes which side will be able to intervene, reorganize and recompose its forces to take advantage of the other." Recent mass mobilizations were in Argentina (1999 - 2003), "the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST - from 1985 - 2002, but in decline under Lula since 2003), and the Bolivian workers-peasant/Indian (2000, 2003 and 2005) urban insurrections." Between 2000 - 2005, the most successful mobilizations occurred, followed by a relative decline from that time to the present as "fragmentation, dispersion and internal conflict among Leftist parties" limited their effectiveness. With "sectoral leadership" alone, and without independent financial and material resources, they're unable to exert power for social change. As for relations with America, they're "profoundly influenced by political-economic-military contingencies, such as: war and peace, economic booms....recessions (and) crises, revolutions, uprisings and reactionary coups." Even so, all of Latin America, "from independent (Venezuela), autonomous competitive capitalist (Brazil), autonomous and critical (Bolivia), selective collaborator (Chile) to....imperial collaborators (Colombia, Mexico and Peru) operate within a capitalist economy and class system, in which market relations and the capitalist classes are still central players." Obama's election changed nothing. He's as imperial as George Bush, but not without constraints. Given current conditions, Latin America is relegated to a "fifth level priority" after economic issues, military adventurism elsewhere, and other matters taking precedence. As a result, large-scale investments and loans won't be forthcoming. America's overreach weakens the region's ruling class and opens opportunities for the Left. It needs to focus on: - "The central role that the domestic ruling class plays in sustaining the imperial edifice;" - new alliances with European and Asian nations; - the emergence of Brazil as a regional power and what effect it has on national and class struggles; and - unifying "fragmented economic demands and (formulating them) into a socialist political program in the face of a (systemic) economic crisis and class-wide unemployment." No easy solutions are apparent, but the "strategic advances of the Left in Latin America are found in its heritage of recent class victories over neo-liberalism, (America's current) weakness, and, above all, the deepening world recession." It's up to "conscious socialist political formations (to engage in popular) struggles capable of linking economic conditions to political action." Part II continues Petras' analysis of the global depression, regional wars, and the decline of America's empire. Obama's Latin American Policy At all times under all administrations, policy, not rhetoric, defines priorities, and it's no different for Obama. With regards to Latin America and its people, he's been hostile and dismissive by: - allocating half a billion dollars "in military and related aid" to aid the right wing Calderon regime and militarizing the US - Mexican border; - on the pretext of fighting drugs trafficking and regional security, funding to Mexico and Colombia goes for military purposes; Colombia gets the most - billions under Plan Colombia; economic aid is ignored; - beyond the timeline of Petras' book, Hugo Chavez and other regional leaders voiced concern over Washington's intention to supply Colombia with new weapons and technology, continued billions for the hardline "Uribe doctrine," and of greatest concern the plan to access seven new military bases - three airfields, two naval installations, and two army bases besides nine others currently stationing US forces all supplemented by the reactivated Fourth Fleet in April 2008; - continuing US trade policies that have been devastating to regional farmers and peasants; likely new protectionist measures will hurt them more; - practicing the same Bush anti-Latino immigrant policies with talk now about new legislation to harden them and establish a new bracero policy; - targeting regional left of center regimes, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba; the latter's long-standing embargo remains in place despite some relaxed travel and other restrictions; and - maintaining a three-fold regional strategy: (1) supporting hard right Colombian, Mexican and Peruvian regimes; (2) aiming for more influence over centrist governments in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay; and (3) "isolating and weakening leftists and populist governments" in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Overall, Obama is continuing the same Bush policies. Latin America remains a low priority, but military aid and an imperial agenda define it along with supporting the region's most hard right, repressive regimes. He also "talk(s) free markets while practicing protectionism," very typical of how America operates - one-way to benefit its corporate interests at the expense of its trading partners. The current economic crisis added a new wrinkle. Obama is "absorbing most of the hemisphere's credit (for his) financial bailout," so regional exporters are hard-pressed to finance their operations. Capital repatriated to America's domestic market compounds the problem by extending and deepening Latin America's recession. "All the major countries in the region are headed toward negative growth (exacerbated by) double-digit unemployment, rising levels of poverty, and mass protests." They're vulnerable because of the "production and development strategies (they) adopted" with emphasis on "privatization of all key productive sectors." Now in the face of their deepening crisis, center-left regimes (like in Brazil and Argentina) have made no or few provisions for unemployed workers, peasants, public employees and small business. Instead, (in pursuit of new markets and investors) "bankers, export elites and multi-national corporations" are favored as in America. However, Venezuela's center-left regime pursued an alternate strategy, including nationalizing key sectors, protecting vital social ones like food, and expanding agrarian reform to increase production. Chavez vows to maintain social services and is practicing Keynesian policies to do it - large-scale public investments combined with subsidizing the most needy. Still, Venezuela's dependence on oil revenues makes it vulnerable to declining prices, something very much in play today that threatens social stability along with high inflation and "mal-distribution of income, property and power." Overall throughout the continent, "Mass protests, general strikes, and other forms of social unrest are beginning to manifest themselves." America will try to capitalize on them to maintain dominance over its "back yard." Addressing Economic Needs Via Electoral Processes: The Case of Venezuela Democratic political processes require: - "Free and equal competition for political office; - access to the means of communication; and - competing ideas and freedom to speak and act without physical or psychological coercion." In contrast, authoritarian and faux democratic regimes: - control the mass media, access to it, and one-sidedly support free-market dominance to the exclusion of alternative systems; - let monied interests control the process through unrestricted spending for favored candidates to the detriment of others, especially independent ones that are entirely shut out; - exert state repression and vote-rigging to deny opposition candidates an equal chance; - accept foreign financing for regime favorites, and - allow other hard line tactics and embedded systems to make democratic governance impossible. The mass media play a crucial role. Their power influences public opinion, supports favored candidates, and it's no different in Venezuela than elsewhere. Yet Hugo Chavez and his party won impressive victories in every presidential, congressional and municipal election since 1998 by promising and delivering social changes - real ones for essential needs that lifted millions of out of poverty by using the nation's resources to help them. In recent years, other Latin American electoral systems have also been democratized as neoliberal practices receded, popular mass movements arose, and "oligarchic uprisings" for authoritarian rule were defeated. Venezuela represents the most impressive example. Prior to Chavez' election, the country had oligarchic rule for 40 years under two parties competing (like Republicans and Democrats) "to represent the petrol-rentier oligarchy, powerful importers, and the real estate-financial speculative elite." Both parties "pillaged the public treasury" until Chavez won office in December 1998 and reformed the system. He survived the Washington-backed April 2002 coup, the later in the year-early 2003 oil management lockout, the August 2004 recall election, and remains the most popular political figure in the country. It's prospered under his leadership, and Venezuelans have benefitted by policies delivering beneficial social change. Chavez deepened the nation's democracy through: - elected community councils; - encouraging, promoting and financing "a vast array of neighborhood cooperatives, peasant organizations and trade unions; - "weakening....linkages between the oligarchic political and economic elites" and reducing authoritarian power over civil society; - establishing publicly financed television and community radio stations to challenge the corporate media's control of information; - supporting free expression, including by his fiercest opponents; and - conducting free, fair, and open democratic elections that shame America's rigged ones favoring a corrupted two-party oligarchy. Today, the pro-Chavez United Socialist Party of Venezuela ((PSUV) enjoys overwhelming support as evidenced in the November 2008 election when it won 72% of state governorships and 58% of the popular vote. In February 2009, Venezuelans passed a constitutional amendment permitting an incumbent president and government officials to run for office without term limits. In other words, to let people vote their officials in or out, not party bosses in back rooms. Over the past decade, it shows in Venezuela: - media choices are more diverse; - more social classes than ever exist at state and local levels; - the electoral process is free, fair and open as judged by independent observers; - campaigns and procedures are less corrupt, violent and unable to be manipulated by the powerful; - citizen participation is widespread and impressive; and - governance under Chavez has lessened inequalities and encouraged the citizenry to participate in their democracy. Obstacles nonetheless remain, principally "in the continuation of vast concentrations of oligarchic wealth and ownership of strategic banking, mass media, real estate, agricultural lands, distribution networks and the manufacturing sectors." As a result, "vast social inequalities" exist, though less extreme than before 1999. Chavez's most pressing task is to "formulate a comprehensive socio-economic strategic plan to confront the global collapse of capitalism," especially in light of lower oil prices and demand. Advancing his social agenda depends on it. Masters of Defeat: Retreating Empire and Bellicose Bluster continued next post From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 19:05:08 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:05:08 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civilization Message-ID: <015401ca2520$40ccb860$c2662920$@net> This may be of great interest to some. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:01 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civilization (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civilization Written by James Petras Friday, 21 August 2009 06:27 http://91.192.36.61/news/1/11210--the-us-war-against-iraq-the-destruction-of -a-civilization.html Introduction The US seven-year war and occupation of Iraq is driven by several major political forces and informed by a variety of imperial interests. However these interests do not in themselves explain the depth and scope of the sustained, massive and continuing destruction of an entire society and its reduction to a permanent state of war. The range of political forces contributing to the making of the war and the subsequent US occupation include the following (in order of importance): The most important political force was also the least openly discussed. The Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC), which includes the prominent role of long-time, hard-line unconditional Jewish supporters of the State of Israel appointed to top positions in the Bush Pentagon (Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz ), key operative in the Office of the Vice President (Irving (Scooter) Libby), the Treasury Department (Stuart Levey), the National Security Council (Elliot Abrams) and a phalanx of consultants, Presidential speechwriters (David Frum), secondary officials and policy advisers to the State Department. These committed Zionists 'insiders' were buttressed by thousands of full-time Israel-First functionaries in the 51 major American Jewish organizations, which form the President of the Major American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO). They openly stated that their top priority was to advance Israel's agenda, which, in this case, was a US war against Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, occupy the country, physically divide Iraq, destroy its military and industrial capability and impose a pro-Israel/pro-US puppet regime. If Iraq were ethnically cleansed and divided, as advocated by the ultra-right, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and the 'Liberal' President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and militarist-Zionist, Leslie Gelb, there would be more than several 'client regimes'. Top Zionist policymakers who promoted the war did not initially directly pursue the policy of systematically destroying what, in effect, was the entire Iraqi civilization. But their support and design of an occupation policy included the total dismemberment of the Iraqi state apparatus and recruitment of Israeli advisers to provide their 'expertise' in interrogation techniques, repression of civilian resistance and counter-insurgency. Israeli expertise certainly played a role in fomenting the intra-Iraqi religious and ethnic strife, which Israel had mastered in Palestine. The Israeli 'model' of colonial war and occupation - the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 - and the practice of 'total destruction' using sectarian, ethno-religious division was evident in the notorious massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, which took place under Israeli military supervision. The second powerful political force behind the Iraq War were civilian militarists (like Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney) who sought to extend US imperial reach in the Persian Gulf and strengthen its geo-political position by eliminating a strong, secular, nationalist backer of Arab anti-imperialist insurgency in the Middle East. The civilian militarists sought to extend the American military base encirclement of Russia and secure control over Iraqi oil reserves as a pressure point against China. The civilian militarists were less moved by Vice President Cheney's past ties with the oil industry and more interested in his role as CEO of Halliburton's giant military base contractor subsidiary Kellogg-Brown and Root, which was consolidating the US Empire through worldwide military base expansion. Major US oil companies, who feared losing out to European and Asian competitors, were already eager to deal with Saddam Hussein, and some of the Bush's supporters in the oil industry had already engaged in illegal trading with the embargoed Iraqi regime. The oil industry was not inclined to promote regional instability with a war. The militarist strategy of conquest and occupation was designed to establish a long-term colonial military presence in the form of strategic military bases with a significant and sustained contingent of colonial military advisors and combat units. The brutal colonial occupation of an independent secular state with a strong nationalist history and an advanced infrastructure with a sophisticated military and police apparatus, extensive public services and wide-spread literacy naturally led to the growth of a wide array of militant and armed anti-occupation movements. In response, US colonial officials, the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agencies devised a 'divide and rule' strategy (the so-called 'El Salvador solution' associated with the former 'hot-spot' Ambassador and US Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte) fomenting armed sectarian-based conflicts and promoting inter-religious assassinations to debilitate any effort at a united nationalist anti-imperialist movement. The dismantling of the secular civilian bureaucracy and military was designed by the Zionists in the Bush Administration to enhance Israel's power in the region and to encourage the rise of militant Islamic groups, which had been repressed by the deposed Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. Israel had mastered this strategy earlier: It originally sponsored and financed sectarian Islamic militant groups, like Hamas, as an alternative to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization and set the stage for sectarian fighting among the Palestinians. The result of US colonial policies were to fund and multiply a wide range of internal conflicts as mullahs, tribal leaders, political gangsters, warlords, expatriates and death squads proliferated. The 'war of all against all' served the interests of the US occupation forces. Iraq became a pool of armed, unemployed young men, from which to recruit a new mercenary army. The 'civil war' and 'ethnic conflict' provided a pretext for the US and its Iraqi puppets to discharge hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police and functionaries from the previous regime (especially if they were from Sunni, mixed or secular families) and to undermine the basis for civilian employment. Under the cover of generalized 'war against terror', US Special Forces and CIA-directed death squads spread terror within Iraqi civil society, targeting anyone suspected of criticizing the puppet government - especially among the educated and professional classes, precisely the Iraqis most capable of re-constructing an independent secular republic. The Iraq war was driven by an influential group of neo-conservative and neo-liberal ideologues with strong ties to Israel. They viewed the success of the Iraq war (by success they meant the total dismemberment of the country) as the first 'domino' in a series of war to 're-colonize' the Middle East (in their words: "to re-draw the map"). They disguised their imperial ideology with a thin veneer of rhetoric about 'promoting democracies' in the Middle East (excluding, of course, the un-democratic policies of their 'homeland' Israel over its subjugated Palestinians). Conflating Israeli regional hegemonic ambitions with the US imperial interests, the neo-conservatives and their neo-liberal fellow travelers in the Democratic Party first backed President Bush and later President Obama in their escalation of the wars against Afghanistan and Pakistan. They unanimously supported Israel's savage bombing campaign against Lebanon, the land and air assault and massacre of thousands of civilians trapped in Gaza, the bombing of Syrian facilities and the big push (from Israel) for a pre-emptive, full-scale military attack against Iran. The US advocates of sequential and multiple simultaneous wars in the Middle East and South Asia believed that they could only unleash the full strength of their mass destructive power after they had secured total control of their first victim, Iraq. They were confident that Iraqi resistance would collapse rapidly after 13 years of brutal starvation sanctions imposed on the republic by the US and United Nations. In order to consolidate imperial control, American policy-makers decided to permanently silence all independent Iraqi civilian dissidents. They turned to the financing of Shia clerics and Sunni tribal assassins, and contracting scores of thousands of private mercenaries among the Kurdish Peshmerga warlords to carry out selective assassinations of leaders of civil society movements. The US created and trained a 200,000 member Iraqi colonial puppet army composed almost entirely of Shia gunmen, and excluded experienced Iraqi military men from secular, Sunni or Christian backgrounds. A little known result of this build up of American trained and financed death squads and its puppet 'Iraqi' army, was the virtual destruction of the ancient Iraqi Christian population, which was displaced, its churches bombed and its leaders, bishops and intellectuals, academics and scientists assassinated or driven into exile. The US and its Israeli advisers were well aware that Iraqi Christians had played a key role the historic development of the secular, nationalist, anti-British/anti-monarchist movements and their elimination as an influential force during the first years of US occupation was no accident. The result of the US policies were to eliminate most secular democratic anti-imperialist leaders and movements and to present their murderous net-work of 'ethno-religious' collaborators as their uncontested 'partners' in sustaining the long-term US colonial presence in Iraq. With their puppets in power, Iraq would serve as a launching platform for its strategic pursuit of the other 'dominoes' (Syria, Iran, Central Asian Republics.). The sustained bloody purge of Iraq under US occupation resulted in the killing 1.3 million Iraqi civilians during the first 7 years after Bush invaded in March 2003. Up to mid-2009, the invasion and occupation of Iraq has officially cost the American treasury over $666 billion. This enormous expenditure attests to its centrality in the larger US imperial strategy for the entire Middle East/South and Central Asia region. Washington's policy of politicizing and militarizing ethno-religious differences, arming and encouraging rival tribal, religious and ethnic leaders to engage in mutual bloodletting served to destroy national unity and resistance. The 'divide and rule' tactics and reliance on retrograde social and religious organizations is the commonest and best-known practice in pursuing the conquest and subjugation of a unified, advanced nationalist state. Breaking up the national state, destroying nationalist consciousness and encouraging primitive ethno-religious, feudal and regional loyalties required the systematic destruction of the principal purveyors of nationalist consciousness, historical memory and secular, scientific thought. Provoking ethno-religious hatreds destroyed intermarriages, mixed communities and institutions with their long-standing personal friendships and professional ties among diverse backgrounds. The physical elimination of academics, writers, teachers, intellectuals, scientists and professionals, especially physicians, engineers, lawyers, jurists and journalists was decisive in imposing ethno-religious rule under a colonial occupation. To establish long-term dominance and sustain ethno-religious client rulers, the entire pre-existing cultural edifice, which had sustained an independent secular nationalist state, was physically destroyed by the US and its Iraqi puppets. This included destroying the libraries, census bureaus, and repositories of all property and court records, health departments, laboratories, schools, cultural centers, medical facilities and above all the entire scientific-literary-humanistic social scientific class of professionals. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi professionals and family members were driven by terror into internal and external exile. All funding for national, secular, scientific and educational institutions were cut off. Death squads engaged in the systematic murder of thousands of academics and professionals suspected of the least dissent, the least nationalist sentiment; anyone with the least capacity to re-construct the republic was marked. The Destruction of a Modern Arab Civilization Independent, secular Iraq had the most advanced scientific-cultural order in the Arab world, despite the repressive nature of Saddam Hussein's police state. There was a system of national health care, universal public education and generous welfare services, combined with unprecedented levels of gender equality. This marked the advanced nature of Iraqi civilization in the late 20th century. Separation of church and state and strict protection of religious minorities (Christians, Assyrians and others) contrasts sharply with what has resulted from the US occupation and its destruction of the Iraqi civil and governmental structures. The harsh dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein thus presided over a highly developed modern civilization in which advanced scientific work went hand in hand with a strong nationalist and anti-imperialist identity. This resulted especially in the Iraqi people and regime's expressions of solidarity for the plight of the Palestinian people under Israeli rule and occupation. A mere 'regime change' could not extirpate this deeply embedded and advanced secular republican culture in Iraq. The US war planners and their Israeli advisers were well aware that colonial occupation would increase Iraqi nationalist consciousness unless the secular nation was destroyed and hence, the imperial imperative to uproot and destroy the carriers of nationalist consciousness by physically eliminating the educated, the talented, the scientific, indeed the most secular elements of Iraqi society. Retrogression became the principal instrument for the US to impose its colonial puppets, with their primitive, 'pre-national' loyalties, in power in a culturally purged Baghdad stripped of its most sophisticated and nationalistic social strata. According to the Al-Ahram Studies Center in Cairo, more that 310 Iraqi scientists were eliminated during the first 18 months of the US occupation - a figure that the Iraqi education ministry did not dispute. Another report listed the killings of more than 340 intellectuals and scientists between 2005 and 2007. Bombings of institutes of higher education had pushed enrollment down to 30% of the pre-invasion figures. In one bombing in January 2007, at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University 70 students were killed with hundreds wounded. These figures compelled the UNESCO to warn that Iraq's university system was on the brink of collapse. The numbers of prominent Iraqi scientists and professionals who have fled the country have approached 20,000. Of the 6,700 Iraqi university professors who fled since 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported than only 150 had returned by October 2008. Despite the US claims of improved security, the situation in 2008 saw numerous assassinations, including the only practicing neurosurgeon in Iraq's second largest city of Basra, whose body was dumped on the city streets. The raw data on the Iraqi academics, scientists and professionals assassinated by the US and allied occupation forces and the militias and shadowy forces they control is drawn from a list published by the Pakistan Daily News (www.daily.pk) on November 26, 2008. This list makes for very uncomfortable reading into the reality of systematic elimination of intellectuals in Iraq under the meat-grinder of US occupation. Assassinations The physical elimination of an individual by assassination is an extreme form of terrorism, which has far-reaching effects rippling throughout the community from which the individual comes - in this case the world of Iraqi intellectuals, academics, professionals and creative leaders in the arts and sciences. For each Iraqi intellectual murdered, thousands of educated Iraqis fled the country or abandoned their work for safer, less vulnerable activity. Baghdad was considered the 'Paris' of the Arab world, in terms of culture and art, science and education. In the 1970's and 80's, its universities were the envy of the Arab world. The US 'shock and awe' campaign that rained down on Baghdad evoked emotions akin to an aerial bombardment of the Louvre, the Sorbonne and the greatest libraries of Europe. Baghdad University was one of the most prestigious and productive universities in the Arab world. Many of its academics possessed doctoral degrees and engaged in post-doctoral studies abroad at prestigious institutions. It taught and graduated many of the top professionals and scientists in the Middle East. Even under the deadly grip of the US/UN-imposed economic sanctions that starved Iraq during the 13 years before the March 2003 invasion, thousands of graduate students and young professionals came to Iraq for post-graduate training. Young physicians from throughout the Arab world received advanced medical training in its institutions. Many of its academics presented scientific papers at major international conferences and published in prestigious journals. Most important, Baghdad University trained and maintained a highly respected scientific secular culture free of sectarian discrimination - with academics from all ethnic and religious backgrounds. This world has been forever shattered: Under US occupation, up to November 2008, eighty-three academics and researchers teaching at Baghdad University had been murdered and several thousand of their colleagues, students and family members were forced to flee. The Selection of Assassinated Academics by Discipline The November 2008 article published by the Pakistan Daily News lists the names of a total of 154 top Baghdad-based academics, renowned in their fields, who were murdered. Altogether, a total of 281 well-known intellectuals teaching at the top universities in Iraq fell victim to the 'death squads' under US occupation. Prior to the US occupation, Baghdad University possessed the premier research and teaching medical faculty in the entire Middle East attracting hundreds of young doctors for advanced training. That program has been devastated during the rise of the US-death squad regime, with few prospects of recovery. Of those murdered, 25% (21) were the most senior professors and lecturers in the medical faculty of Baghdad University, the highest percentage of any faculty. The second highest percentage of butchered faculty were the professors and researchers from Baghdad University's renowned engineering faculty (12), followed by the top academics in the humanities (10), physical and social sciences (8 senior academics each), education (5). The remaining top academics murdered at Baghdad University spread out among the agronomy, business, physical education, communications and religious studies faculties. At three other Baghdad universities, 53 senior academics were slaughtered, including 10 in the social sciences, 7 in the faculty of law, 6 each in medicine and the humanities, 9 in the physical sciences and 5 in engineering. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's August 20, 2002 pre-invasion joke, ".one has to assume they (scientists) have not been playing 'tiddlywinks'(a child's game)"( justifying the bloody purge of Iraq's scientists in physics and chemistry. An ominous signal of the academic bloodletting that followed the invasion. Similar bloody purges of academics occurred in all the provincial universities: 127 senior academics and scientists were assassinated at the various well-regarded universities in Mosul, Kirkuk, Basra and elsewhere. The provincial universities with the highest number of murdered senior faculty members were in cities where the US and British military and their Kurdish mercenary allies were most active: Basra (35), Mosul (35), Diyala (15) and Al-Anbar (11). The Iraqi military and allied death squads carried out most of the killing of academics in the cities under US or 'allied' control. The systematic murder of academics was a nation-wide, cross-disciplinary drive to destroy the cultural and educational foundations of a modern Arab civilization. The death squads carrying out most of these assassinations were primitive, pre-modern, ethno-religious groups 'set loose' or instrumentalized by US military strategists to wipe out any politically conscious intellectuals and nationalist scientists who might pursue an agenda for re-building a modern, secular society and independent, unified republic. In its panic to prevent the US invasion, the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate provided a list, which identified over 500 key Iraqi scientists to the UN on December 7, 2002. There is little doubt that this list became a core element in the US military's hit list for eliminating Iraq's scientific elite. In his notorious pre-invasion speech to the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell cited a list of over 3,500 Iraqi scientists and technicians who would have to be 'contained' to prevent their expertise from being used by other countries. The US had even created a 'budget' of hundreds of millions of dollars, drawn from the Iraqi 'Oil for Food' money held by the United Nations to set up 'civilian re-education' programs to re-train Iraqi scientists and engineers. These highly touted programs were never seriously implemented. Cheaper ways of containing what one American policy expert termed Iraq's 'excess scientists, engineers and technicians' in a Carnegie Endowment Paper (RANSAC Policy Update April 2004) became clear. The US had decided to adopt and expand the Israeli Mossad's covert operation of assassinating selected key Iraqi scientists on an industrial scale. The US 'Surge' and 'Peak Assassination' Campaigns: 2006-2007 The high tide of terror against academics coincides with the renewal of the US military offensive in Baghdad and in the provinces. Of the total number of assassinations of Baghdad-based academics for which a date is recorded (110 known intellectuals slaughtered), almost 80% (87) occurred in 2006 and 2007. A similar pattern is found in the provinces with 77% of a total of 84 scholars murdered outside of capital during the same period. The pattern is clear: the murder rate of academics grows as the occupying US forces organize a mercenary Iraqi military and police force and provide money for the training and recruitment of rival Shia and Sunni tribesmen and militia as a means of decreasing American casualties and of purging potential dissident critics of the occupation. The terror campaign against academics intensified in mid-2005 and reached its peak in 2006-2007, leading to the mass flight of tens of thousands of Iraqi scholars, scientists, professionals and their families overseas. Entire university medical school faculties have become refugees in Syria and elsewhere. Those who could not afford to abandon elderly parents or relatives and remained in Iraq have taken extraordinary measures to hide their identities. Some have chosen to collaborate with the US occupation forces or the puppet regime in the hope of being protected or allowed to immigrate with their families to the US or Europe, although the Europeans, especially the British are disinclined to accept Iraqi scholars. After 2008, there has been a sharp decline in the murder of academics - with only 4 assassinated that year. This reflects the massive flight of Iraqi intellectuals living abroad or in hiding rather than any change of policy on the part of the US and its mercenary puppets. As a result, Iraq's research facilities have been decimated. The lives of those remaining support staff, including technicians, librarians and students have been devastated with few prospects for future employment. The US war and occupation of Iraq, as Presidents Bush and Obama have declared, is a 'success' - an independent nation of 23 million citizens has been occupied by force, a puppet regime is ensconced, colonial mercenary troops obey American officers and the oil fields have been put up for sale. All of Iraq's nationalist laws protecting its patrimony, its cultural treasures and national resources, have been annulled. The occupiers have imposed a 'constitution' favoring the US Empire. Israel and its Zionist flunkies in the Administrations of both Bush and Obama celebrate the demise of a modern adversary.and the conversion of Iraq into a cultural-political desert. In line with an alleged agreement made by the US State Department and Pentagon officials to influential collectors from the American Council for Cultural Policy in January 2003, the looted treasures of ancient Mesopotamia have 'found' their way into the collections of the elite in London, New York and elsewhere. The collectors can now anticipate the pillage of Iran. Warning to Iran The US invasion, occupation and destruction of a modern, scientific-cultural civilization, such as existed in Iraq, is a prelude of what the people of Iran can expect if and when a US-Israeli military attack occurs. The imperial threat to the cultural-scientific foundations of the Iranian nation has been totally absent from the narrative among the affluent Iranian student protesters and their US-funded NGO's during their post-election 'Lipstick Revolution' protests. They should bear in mind that in 2004 educated, sophisticated Iraqis in Baghdad consoled themselves with a fatally misplaced optimism that 'at least we are not like Afghanistan'. The same elite are now in squalid refugee camps in Syria and Jordan and their country more closely resembles Afghanistan than anywhere else in the Middle East. The chilling promise of President Bush in April 2003 to transform Iraq in the image of 'our newly liberated Afghanistan' has been fulfilled. And reports that the US Administration advisers had reviewed the Israeli Mossad policy of selective assassination of Iranian scientists should cause the pro-Western liberal intellectuals of Teheran to seriously ponder the lesson of the murderous campaign that has virtually eliminated Iraqi scientists and academics during 2006-2007. Conclusion What does the United States (and Britain and Israel) gain from establishing a retrograde client regime, based on medieval ethno-clerical socio-political structures in Iraq? First and foremost, Iraq has become an outpost for empire. Secondly, it is a weak and backward regime incapable of challenging Israeli economic and military dominance in the region and unwilling to question the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinian Arabs from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Thirdly, the destruction of the scientific, academic, cultural and legal foundations of an independent state means increasing reliance on the Western (and Chinese) multinational corporations and their technical infrastructure - facilitating imperial economic penetration and exploitation. In the mid 19th Century, after the revolutions of 1848, the conservative French sociologist Emil Durkheim recognized that the European bourgeoisie was confronted with rising class conflict and an increasing anti-capitalist working class. Durkheim noted that, whatever its philosophical misgivings about religion and clericalism, the bourgeoisie would have to use the myths of traditional religion to 'create' social cohesion and undercut class polarization. He called on the educated and sophisticated Parisian capitalist class to forego its rejection of obscurantist religious dogma in favor of instrumentalizing religion as a tool to maintain its political dominance. In the same way, US strategists, including the Pentagon-Zionists, have instrumentalized the tribal-mullah, ethno-religious forces to destroy the secular national political leadership and advanced culture of Iraq in order to consolidate imperial rule - even if this strategy called for the killing off of the scientific and professional classes. Contemporary US imperial rule is based on supporting the socially and politically most backward sectors of society and applying the most advanced technology of warfare. Israeli advisers have played a major role in instructing US occupation forces in Iraq on the practices of urban counter-insurgency and repression of civilians, drawing on their 60 years of experience. The infamous massacre of hundreds of Palestinian families at Deir Yasin in 1948 was emblematic of Zionist elimination of hundreds of productive farming villages, which had been settled for centuries by a native people with their endogenous civilization and cultural ties to the soil, in order to impose a new colonial order. The policy of the total deracination of the Palestinians is central to Israel's advise to the US policymakers in Iraq. Their message has been carried out by their Zionist acolytes in the Bush and Obama Administrations, ordering the dismemberment of the entire modern Iraqi civil and state bureaucracy and using pre-modern tribal death squads made up of Kurds and Shia extremists to purge the modern universities and research institutions of that shattered nation. The US imperial conquest of Iraq is built on the destruction of a modern secular republic. The cultural desert that remains (a Biblical 'howling wilderness' soaked in the blood of Iraq's precious scholars) is controlled by mega-swindlers, mercenary thugs posing as 'Iraqi officers', tribal and ethnic cultural illiterates and medieval religious figures. They operate under the guidance and direction of West Point graduates holding 'blue-prints for empire', formulated by graduates of Princeton, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale and Chicago, eager to serve the interests of American and European multi-national corporations. This is called 'combined and uneven development': The marriage of fundamentalist mullahs with Ivy League Zionists at the service of the US. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 19:14:44 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:14:44 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Perception . . . Message-ID: <015501ca2521$9ea76740$dbf635c0$@net> Too much to send, I excerpted this from David West's Sunday Humor and am forwarding it for your consideration. Thanks David Perception Thanks to Blain ..something to think about... http://sites.google.com/site/dgwhumour/_/rsrc/1250983995939/sunday-humour-22 nd-august/imageb1.jpg Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. 4 minutes later: the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. 10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly. 45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. 1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing? Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 35860 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 19:25:51 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:25:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Role of Attention, and Meta-rational thought Message-ID: <018401ca2523$296553f0$7c2ffbd0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS My comment on this is that human kind creates the problems in order to solve them. What pulls us forward into the future is our attraction to "fulfilling one's potential". Without the challenge, nothing would take place. And, at this point in the game of life, we have had to create us one humdinger of a challenge in order to move ourselves into the next level of consciousness. And, the only way we can do this is to move each of us individually into a state of TOTAL WELLNESS as we know it today. Tomorrow may be different. m r From: lawrence kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 6:12 PM To: lawrence kiely Subject: The Role of Attention, and Meta-rational thought The role attention plays in building our subjective experiences by Giorgio Marchetti URL: www.emergentmind.org/marchettiI2.htm Abstract: The phenomenon of qualia is explained by considering the organ of attention as the source of the organism's nervous energy (a kind of energy that directs all the other kinds of energy of the organism), and attention as the nervous energy that gives the organism the possibility of performing actions capable of directly affecting the state of its nervous energy. The attentional activity performed by the organism involves a variation in the state of the nervous energy: it is precisely this variation that constitutes the phenomenal aspect of consciousness. Meta-rational thought by Leslie Fieger URL: www.emergentmind.org/fiegerI2.htm Abstract: Albert Einstein once remarked, "The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." The gift of rational thinking has brought humankind to a present threshold of almost unimaginable potentiality to self-actuate or self-destruct. The self-named creature, Homo Sapiens (wise man) must now somehow find the wisdom to transform the way he thinks in order to supersede and solve the problems he has created. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 24 19:49:19 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:49:19 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] House 'Under Water'? Do Like the Banks Do and Just Walk Away Message-ID: <018901ca2526$7191b580$54b52080$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Last year, I already knew this scenario was just around the corner. It was quite evident to me that the lenders would not be able to take back the number of properties going into foreclosure and have the ability to handle all of them. And, having been a real estate broker myself and having lost my home in the last big recession, if I were a home-owner in an upside down mortgage, I would certainly "walk" as fast as I could. The: "but you will ruin your credit" ploy of lenders is pure bull shit. With the inventory they have on hand now, in the future a buyer's credit rating will not matter as homes go begging for owners and lenders are desperate for buyers at any cost. Since lender's themselves are walking away from foreclosing, why shouldn't the public be able to do the same without reprise. I mean, after all, who caused this mess? The buying public or the lender's who are now handing out very large bonuses to the very people who engineered this. I mean who engineered this mess anyway? And, granted THEY -- that is, the engineers of this mess -- put Obama into office, but would we have been any better off with the continuation of the Christian Right regime in power as represented by George W. Bush, who said essentially: "God made me do it". It is definitely time for a new system, IMHO. Isn't there an old saying that goes something like "If you don't like the way things are now, just hang around for the change. It is the only thing that is constant. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 9:45 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] House 'Under Water'? Do Like the Banks Do and Just Walk Away (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) House 'Under Water'? Do Like the Banks Do and Just Walk Away http://www.alternet.org/workplace/142032/house_%27under_water%27_do_like_the _banks_do_and_just_walk_away/?page=entire By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted August 19, 2009. "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." -- Warren Buffett Here's a terrible new twist to a housing meltdown tortured by too many of them. Banks are refusing to take possession of houses after the foreclosure process because of the prohibitive cost, from legal to maintenance fees, of being stuck with the same worthless mortgages with which they've saddled American homeowners. It's a problem of their own making: Foreclosures shot up 7 percent in July, and the rate is nearly a third higher than this time last year. There is no end in sight. That's led to increased homeowner abandonment of their properties, which in turn has led to escalating blight that has depressed property values and tax revenues even further. By 2011, around half of the mortgages in the shell-shocked United States could be underwater, which is a softball euphemism for utterly worthless. The financial industry is well known for such empty metaphors -- including "class warfare," ably dissected above by Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Warren Buffet. That's because they are easier to stomach than the purposefully labyrinthine, fearsomely destabilizing details. Take "jingle mail," for instance, industry-speak for homeowners who mail back their keys and purposefully walk away from lenders who have left them to drown underwater; that is, with homes whose market value is significantly below their mortgage debt. It's a cute euphemism for such a fucked-up state of affairs engineered by the financial industry, and its colluders in the government and media. Greased by a thoroughly unregulated over-the-counter derivatives market that is fast approaching $600 trillion (that is not a typo) and now under investigation for antitrust trading, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and other titans of Wall Street seized the opportunity to lock homeowners into unfair mortgages that could ruin their balance sheets, and the American economy, for good. Sure, they should have known what they were getting into, but when is the last time you read your pages-long disclosure contracts on your home or credit card? Derivatives thrive on such mind-numbing complexity, which is why the financial press and industry continually lionizes bankers like Merrill Lynch's John Thain, whose firm lost billions and had to be acquired by Bank of America to stave off a systemic economic collapse, "as the smartest guy[s] in the room." And even they don't know, or are just fine with not knowing, all the details of their dense financial contracts: When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was asked by Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., where $500 billion of American taxpayer money exported by the Federal Open Market Committee to foreign central banks went, his response was probably the same as most homeowners asked about the details of their mortgage contracts: "I don't know." This is why Buffet called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction," a more apt euphemism for an industry in love with depersonalized terminology. So the argument that homeowners should intimately know the twists and turns of their mortgage contracts, most of which are designed to lock them into debt for a very long time, is disingenuous, at the least. Especially when it is the banks who locked them into those contracts, rather than the supposedly cold, calculating jingle-mailers that are walking away from houses the banks marketed, sold and then foreclosed, only to leave them with stunned homeowners who find they're liable for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in city fees. "It is just bone stupid," the Center for Responsible Lending's Kathleen Day told AlterNet by phone. "Banks foreclose on families, kick them out of their houses, which puts even more people underwater. And then they walk away from those same houses. It's almost like a sitcom, but it's a situation tragedy." The tragedy has gone viral. Small and large banks across the country have punted these compromised mortgages, often located in cities sundered by the housing bubble like Buffalo, N.Y., Cleveland and others. The banks' reason is simple enough: They're not worth anything to them either. A sobering analysis from the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls those mortgages "toxic titles," but the problem is beyond terminology now. In an enlightening piece, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel locally "found more than $400,000 in back taxes, fees and demolition costs owed on nearly three dozen properties that lenders foreclosed on in the past two years but didn't complete the process," with many more to come. In other words, banks aren't just walking away from homeowners, after leading them through Kafkaesque foreclosure suits and pocketing fees for it. They're also walking away from their practically bankrupted cities, which are slowly swelling with abandoned, vandalized and otherwise-ruined properties, further depressing their already-broken local economies. But even though the disturbing and nearly impossible-to-trace practice has gone viral, it has nevertheless been ignored. "We really are not up on any of this," American Bankers Association spokesman Jim Eberle said by phone to AlterNet. "We really don't know about that happening in the banking industry. I don't think we really want to be in your story, because we really don't know enough about what's happening and which lenders and servicers are possibly doing this sort of thing. We really don't have a handle on it, if it is going on." For those keeping score, that's three "We don't know" qualifiers in three straight sentences, but Eberle's financial services organization is evidently not alone in its ignorance. Representatives I spoke with by phone and e-mail from the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and Mortgage Bankers Association refused to go on record with AlterNet about the trend. To be fair, even Day's Center for Responsible Lending hasn't looked at the problem in depth. These deafening silences, compounded by inscrutable mortgage legalese, compels underwater homeowners, bogged down by maddening fine print on worthless mortgages parceled out in bad faith, to do something that many of them would probably rather not do, which is run. Run like hell. Of course, if homeowners could, like corporations, declare bankruptcy and allow judges to modify their contracts -- a process called cramdown (another hilarious econo-term) -- then they would arguably be able to pay off their debts, stay in their homes and make their lenders happy. But it is those very lenders who not only successfully lobbied against allowing bankruptcy judges to take over mortgage terms, but also have steadfastly refused to do so themselves. The Obama administration, which publicly and lamely passed on the opportunity to take a stand on a cramdown amendment floating through the Senate in May, has supposedly tried to pull its head of the sand on this issue. It has promised to publicly disclose which mortgage servicers and lenders, who are receiving $50 billion in subsidies, are failing to live up to their agreements with the White House to stem the foreclosure bloodbath. "Right now," Day explained, "bankruptcy judges can modify any contract but mortgages. They can modify everything but the roof over your head. When Obama first proposed his plan, there were lots of carrots but one stick: Bankruptcy modification." But that agreement, named the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, has so far given less than 10 percent of delinquent borrowers a break, with few banks modifying at all and some modifying even less. According to the Washington Post, J.P. Morgan Chase has modified 20 percent of its borrowers, Morgan Stanley's Saxon Mortgage Services has modified 25 percent, Citigroup has modified 15 percent, Wells Fargo has modified 6 percent and Bank of America, probably the worst of all economic offenders (next to the unrepentantly greedy Goldman Sachs, that is) has modified a paltry 4 percent. That's pretty ridiculous for a financial services organization that, as the Washington Post article explained, told at least one denied homeowner that it wasn't participating in Obama's plan, although it was. This is the same cutthroat bank that bought mortgage-fraud poster boy Countrywide and the failing Wall Street powerhouse Merrill Lynch, perhaps to help both avoid bankruptcy due to balance sheets filled with toxic titles. In fact, Bank of America's buyout of Thain's Merrill Lynch was such a secretive process that it reportedly compelled Henry Paulson -- former Treasury secretary, Goldman Sachs CEO and mentor to Thain -- to shred what ethics guidelines the Bush administration had left in its shock-doctrine portfolio. The same Bank of America that, according to investors and federal prosecutors, abetted Ponzi schemer Nicholas Cosmo, who sucked over $400 million dollars out of their pockets. The same bank that can't even persuade a judge to allow a supposedly simple $33 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, because of lies tied to bonuses handed over during the Merrill Lynch takeover. The same bank ... well, do I really need to go on? Because of lying entities like these, cramdown died a painful death, even though it could have saved everyone's sorry asses, from homeowners who can't read their mortgage contracts to corrupt lenders who, pardon the pun, bank on it. And that's left us with this ugly game of toxic potato, where banks and homeowners pass around the plutonium-enriched house until it detonates in the city's lap as one more vandalized money pit that needs to be bulldozed. Throw in the fact that each state has its own circuitous way of executing such extreme displays of financial chess, and you have a scenario ripe for disorder. "There's not any true uniformity," Eberle explained of the state of American foreclosures and disclosures. "I'm guessing that each state has a different method and timetable involved. There are some states that allow the lender to go back to the homeowner to make up the difference on what's owed on the mortgage and what's been received on the foreclosure auction. If you don't get bidders, the mortgage lender or the bank would typically bid as much as the property is worth. "But whether it is the banks or the lenders, once they foreclose on a property, they own it. And they're obligated to take care of the property, in many cases, by city, county and state laws." Of course, that's the conventional legalese that has been turned on its head by increasing bank walkaways, whose math has been found challenging, to say the least. In July, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reported that J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sucks -- does a day go by without a reason to hate them? -- and more banks receiving bailout billions from taxpayers via Paulson and George W. Bush's ludicrous Troubled Asset Relief Program handed out more in bonuses last year than they received in earnings. It doesn't take a mathematician to realize that a bank like J.P. Morgan Chase, which made $5.6 billion but paid out $8.69 billion in bonuses is grifting the American people of at least some of the $25 billion it took from their pockets. These are banks, after all, that will possibly collect $38 billion in overdraft fees alone this year. Given those numbers, it also doesn't take a political scientist, or a Federal Reserve chairman, to divine that an underwater homeowner wouldn't be well within his or her rights to tell those banks to, in the words of that great American poet Dick Cheney, go fuck themselves. Which is what they should do, right? No, says Day and the CRL, advice that every bank in the nation -- ones not currently being seized, that is -- probably agrees with. "The bottom line is, if you walk away, it really hurts your credit rating," she argued. "The credit card companies will use any excuse to raise your interest rates. You're walking away from any money you put into the house. If you can't afford the payments, and the lenders are negotiating in bad faith, there's no pretty picture. But walking away wouldn't be our first choice. "If homeowners can do it another way, that's always better. What if they can get a modification? if they can stay in their house, then they can rebuild their equity. People are getting jerked around in all kinds of ways, but if they can stick through it, they should." From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 25 07:10:24 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:10:24 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Message-ID: <003501ca2585$929c10e0$b7d432a0$@net> Jim, thanks for your comment. And, I agree with you. But what is the problem today is the subliminal programming going on by the media that keeps us in a constant state of disease. And the only way to get rid of this is to turn off the TV and be very selective as to the music one listens to and the viewing one sees, and as well what one puts into one's body in the form of food. All of these things affect coherence patterns. When we are talking about human consciousness, we are talking about the subtle energy patterns of our body/mind field. These patterns are either "coherent" or "in chaos" or somewhere in between. And what we want to strive for is to maintain patterns that are highly coherent since these patterns express themselves in the form of "emotions". What the media strives for is to create "incoherent" patterns since this allows the elite among us to maintain control over our thoughts and keep our body/mind in a diseased state. And while TV is not the only source where this is coming from, it is the main source. With love and appreciation m r -----Original Message----- From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 10:04 PM To: 'mary rose' Subject: RE: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival It is all about consciousness. If enough people become conscious enough soon enough, all good becomes possible. Jim -----Original Message----- From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 5:20 PM To: 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'; FixGov at yahoogroups. com Subject: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 6:47 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Starting the Conversation on Our Survival http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4 76&Itemid=65 by Jan Lundberg 06 July 2009 With species extinction now at the highest rate since the disappearance of the dinosaurs, one might assume this crisis is on everyone's mind and discussed widely. One would be wrong. No one knows if it's 100 species a day, many of which have not been named. Massive species loss has been known for many years, but it is "old news" or "boring." Neither are other critical topics discussed enough to match their import: melting of the ice caps and glaciers, nuclear weapons and nuclear waste, out of control arms sales, ongoing starvation or malnourishment of hundreds of millions of people, overpopulation, the greed of financiers openly stripping nations of wealth, etc. In reality, they are all related. It comes down to compassion and taking action wisely. When people manage to discuss the most pressing issues, they can see past the immediate crisis possessing the power to distract. Then a whole-systems approach can serve to unite people into one movement. In the 1960s there was "The Movement." People had many definitions for it, and some members were more interested in stopping the bombing over Indochina than securing all rights for the Afro-American population, for example. But The Movement included those concentrating on expanded consciousness, back-to-the-land agrarianism, communalism, armed revolution, women's liberation, environmental protection. It could all be seen as a whole: challenging "plastic society" and the false materialistic values of the flag-waving pro-war older generation. We can blame the end of The Movement on its splintering into separate movements, or on the end of the Vietnam War draft, or the commercialization and corporatization of popular music, or assassinations of leaders in the 1960s -- or all of them combined. The biggest mistake was to stop having the conversation about society in general. Instead people began to take the easy way out and earn more money and stay out of trouble, Those who did not cease the conversation became known as activists, and it was no longer "the youth" or "the students" or "The Movement." Instead activists were on the fringes and mocked by "being stuck back in the 1960s." The federal COINTELPRO operations against organizations and leaders took a toll, and there were pleasant distractions such as disco music or take your pick. Social change comes down to communication. Great efforts have resulted in fine books, stories for films and books, and there have been some wonderful speeches. But it must really start and end with the conversation wherein the top topic is the issues of the day approached honestly and without fear. When people talk about a problem openly, then there is a chance of solving it. There may be no solution, but the attempt to converse about it may have other beneficial effects and lead to unexpected breakthroughs. When people avoid talking about serious matters, much harm can be done by others who are intent on opportunism or worse. Distracting people with other issues is therefore the prime tool for those trying to maintain an advantage in the status quo. It can also be said that the main tool is enslavement through economic dominance -- a giant distraction from realizing a liberated life style. Many robotic or sheep-like people today have no concept of liberation except personal enrichment. Talking about food security We would not know it from the corporate media or our politicians, but we should be worrying big time that food supply will fail untold millions of people. All one has to do is look at energy, topsoil, pressures of the market (such as rising demand for food), and mix in some catastrophic weather that is assured, and we have a huge disaster ahead. It is just a matter of time. There is a movement to appreciate local food, slow food, organic food. But it has not reduced the average number of miles a piece of food travels via petroleum in the U.S.: 1,500. To produce industrial food -- probably 95% of what is eaten in the U.S. -- ten caloric units of fossil-fuels produce one caloric unit of food. Farm workers are among the lowest paid in the nation, which is strange when everyone wants to eat. Time in the hot sun, subjected to pesticides and possible immigration raids, make the profession all the less attractive. There is no longer a designation for farmer in the U.S. census when so few people live on their own farms anymore. It was no wonder that when Max Yasgur, who hosted the Woodstock Festival in 1969, began his welcome with "Now I'm a farmer..." at that he was drowned out by cheers and applause. That was The Movement expressing itself for nature. Get the record album and hear it. Today I picked three pint-sized baskets of three kinds of berries. It took me about an hour, even when the season is just right. I still had to pay eight dollars for the fruit. It is not designated as organic, which would allow for a higher price, but it was unsprayed. If the value of my time is $20 an hour, my overall cost was $28. I spent no money on transportation because I bicycled. There's a problem we don't have a name for: a labor problem? We are not producing our own food locally because we "cannot afford to." Rather, we subsidize the food in unsustainable ways while upper classes of consumers can afford to pay others to grow, gather, process, truck and prepare the food. This system only works for a few people in a division-of-labor society geared toward surpluses for the elite: i.e., Western Civilization. In the berry patch a father said bitterly to his daughter, "You guys dragged me here and I don't have time for all this work." She replied "It's fun!" I'm glad to report that he had no further retort. Perhaps he should have a conversation with his family and friends about what he thinks he can do with his time, what he is allowed to do, and how he may provide for his family as well as raise a child directly. Inane conversation or prattling More alarming than empty talk and avoiding critical issues is no talking at all, when some modern humans live in a computer-game world, or they communicate mostly in isolation using a cell phone or email. Of these, many don't have much in the way of friendships, and family is something to occasionally visit. Meanwhile, conversation is still key, especially if it can be elevated beyond the personal need to connect to another human being (even to just discuss clothes or beer). The art of conversation is getting harder to encounter. People don't seem to have time. Before we can work toward starting the conversation on our survival, what is going on all around us that passes for discussion? My observation is that the quality of conversation is almost always and everywhere inane. Wars being fought in the name of the United States of America, in Iraq and Afganistan, are not prime topics of discussion or debate at any given time by "the average person." After all, there's endless celebrity news, the latest unemployment statistics, the latest iPhone technology, a fire in southern California, President Obama's latest pronouncement on medical care, and a lost doggy found in another city after a heart-rending odyssey. Admittedly, there is also news in the background on climate change, assassinations, bankruptcies of iconic corporations, and other serious stories. But there's never a common thread in the corporate news media or in a politician's speech. On the street you're more likely to hear something real: "the system sucks." If it does, what do we do about it? It should be no wonder that the quality of conversation -- whether in the living room of "the average person," in the employee lunch room, or at a bar or party -- is usually inane. Sports news or a review of a television show are favorites, along with gossip or tales of a weekend adventure. When the subjects of politics or ecology come up, these are treated with argument, jokes and derision as often are statements of concern. Rare is a vow of "I will bicycle to work and get rid of my television." As for everyday banter with meaning, there can be comparisons of home gardening techniques. Reviving the economy back to growth is the hottest topic in the serious realm, with climate change ranking at bottom. The latter is denied by some, or is too scary to tackle. The tendency is to let "the experts" or public officials deal with it -- as they're dealing with the economy and everything else. They're not bringing us peace. They're not stopping species extinction. They're not redistributing the wealth or jailing the white collar criminals (Madoff is an exception, a sop). If the rulers should not rule, shouldn't this be a major topic of conversation? What we need is the conversation that's not happening. In the 1960s and into the 1970s the politically minded street threater group The Yippies (Youth International Party) took matters into their own hands to bring attention to the issues. One method was disruption of business as usual. Stunts included burning dollar bills, sewing the American flag on to one's pants, or kissing during college lectures. A book by one of the main instigators, Jerry Rubin, was titled Do It. (The author became a stockbroker, a fate probably from losing his hippie support system.) Who is "doing it" today? Bloggers? Internet activists? Artists? Obama? There's some good journalism and activism, but the masses of people are somehow left out of the conversation. They want to be left out, when they avoid discussing serious issues relating to their survival on an imperiled planet. The question is, can they be made to discuss it before things are totally out of control, when rational discussion may be impossible? No end of secret government subversion can overcome a big enough conversation. We Are Many, They Are Few - Really? If all the able-bodied homeless people in the greater New York City area decided to converge on Wall Street and seize some wealth or demand housing, they could do it. If the millions of minorities discriminated against by ruthless corporate employers staged sit ins and used economic boycotts, such action could earn large concessions. But instead, masses are herded like sheep by a small number of agents of the elite. The corporate state does have effective tools such as the military, prisons, police -- the "stick" -- to go with bribes and perks and promises of mild reform -- the "carrot." Yet, numerically, if enough people wanted to bring about a truly equitable society, or in particular end the unpopular wars, this could be done with little or no violence in a short amount of time. The reason it does not happen is that the right conversations are not taking place except by the very few. Even with the huge and growing number of people on mood-control and psychiatric drugs, that sad population unwittingly enriching pharmaceutical companies rather than actually healing is in good enough condition to talk sensibly and stimulate some community action. The greatest crowd control of all time may be happening right now when a popular U.S. president can give the idea that he is pursuing meaningful change. The sleight of hand includes the idea that he can make substantial change. Obama knows his limitations, as every top politician comes to know. In addition to promising improvements and the impossible return to a growth economy -- and the trickle-down prosperity that never really worked -- Obama and his allies have some key issues dear to many hearts. Unfortunately, they are bogus: the technological fix for climate mitigation, cleaner energy upon peak oil, and better cars. Obama is such a nice and eloquent guy that most people want to believe he will bring about more jobs, higher wages, peace, and an end to terrorism, the threat to polar bears, etc. Smooth propaganda -- hard for most people to pick apart: President Barack Obama: "These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals. These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America." - Fourth of July Statement, 2009 Obama is a perfect maestro for keeping people from dealing directly with the global mix of crises. Above all, we should regard Obama as personifying the hierarchy which is seldom questioned. The hierarchy certainly sets the tone at all possible times. Obama is the current "one," and everyone else is many, but because of laws and convention he is given the right to be master and Pied Piper for a time. Then, in 2012, and only then, he can be re-elected or replaced by a Republicrat or Demopublican. Who the next president might be is NOT the conversation that needs to take place. The fact that the U.S. can feel it has cleansed itself of racism by electing Obama is a perfect distraction from more serious issues of extinction. For if we consume enough plastic, are exposed to enough radiation, and cling to a lifestyle divorced from nature and health, our species can indeed go extinct -- even without the extinction of the Earth's climate as we know it. Our best hope to avoid waiting for the worst may well be collapse of the economic system. This may usher in a sustainable culture. Maybe people will talk about it and take action in anticipation. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Aug 25 07:58:33 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:58:33 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Queen asky no one saw the credit crunch coming? Message-ID: <56116.43597.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> crunch coming By Daniel at 29 July, 2009, 1:21 pm google_protectAndRun("render_ads.js::google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad); http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/3386353/The-Queen-asks-why-no-one-saw-the-credit-crunch-coming.html 05 Nov 2008 ?If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?? During a briefing by academics at the London School of Economics on the turmoil on the international markets the Queen asked: ?Why did nobody notice it?? British economists apologize, tell Queen Elizabeth II no one saw the financial crisis coming http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/26/business/main5189189.shtml LONDON, July 26, 2009 ?In summary, your majesty, the failure to foresee the timing, extent and severity of the crisis and to head it off, while it had many causes, was principally a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people, both in this country and internationally, to understand the risks to the system as a whole? Interest rate negative, Unemployment rate 1x%-2x%, excess liquidity, printing machine, debts, DOW 10000, P/E 130. joint venture with the unholy???.. That?s too sad for Her Majesty to see these kind of mess in her lifetime for more than TWICE..Did you like this? Please If so, please addthis_pub = ''; bookmark it , to everyone you know, and subscribe to the blog RSS feed. google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad); var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-2133317-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); Did you like this? If so, please addthis_pub = ''; bookmark it , about it, and subscribe to the blog RSS feed. Related Posts: The government of Iceland today became the first to be effectively brought down by the credit crunch. Breaking info: Germany braces for second wave of credit crunch We will remain in the bottom of the V or U or even W. Why people are buying? Consider: Is unemployment a ?leading? or a ?lagging? economic indicator?Share this Post[?] ???????? 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URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 25 21:22:08 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:22:08 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: SIBEL EDMONDS' DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED Message-ID: <000201ca25fc$8d357e80$a7a07b80$@net> From: lawrence kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:35 PM To: lawrence kiely Subject: SIBEL EDMONDS' DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED SIBEL EDMONDS' DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED Long-gagged FBI whistleblower's full under-oath testimony from Ohio election case, details Congressional blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, more... http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374 Just over two weeks ago, FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was finally allowed to speak about much of what the Bush Administration spent years trying to keep her from discussing publicly on the record. Twice gagged by the Bush Dept. of Justice's invocation of the so-called "State Secrets Privilege," Edmonds has been attempting to tell her story, about the crimes she became aware of while working for the FBI, for years. Thanks to a subpoena issued by the campaign of Ohio's 2nd District Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate David Krikorian, her remarkable allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, and criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of the government of Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the first time, in her under-oath deposition. Both the complete video tape and transcript of the deposition follow below. Though there was much concern, prior to her testimony, that the Obama Dept. of Justice might re-invoke the "State Secrets Privilege" to keep her from speaking, they did not do so. Nor did they choose to be present at the Washington D.C. deposition. The BRAD BLOG covered details of some of Edmonds' startling disclosures made during the deposition, as it happened, in our live blog coverage from August 8th. The deposition included criminal allegations against specifically named members of Congress. Among those named by Edmonds as part of a broad criminal conspiracy: Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Dan Burton (R-IN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Livingston (R-LA), Stephen Solarz (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA), as well as an unnamed, still-serving Congresswoman (D) said to have been secretly videotaped, for blackmail purposes, during a lesbian affair. High-ranking officials from the Bush Administration named in her testimony, as part of the criminal conspiracy on behalf of agents of the Government of Turkey, include Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman, and others. During the deposition --- which we are still going through ourselves --- Edmonds discusses covert "activities" by Turkish entities "that would involve trying to obtain very sensitive, classified, highly classified U.S. intelligence information, weapons technology information, classified Congressional records...recruiting key U.S. individuals with access to highly sensitive information, blackmailing, bribery." Speaking about current members of Congress during a break in the testimony, Krikorian told The BRAD BLOG that "for people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don't take action against it, in my opinion, it's negligence." (More video statements from Krikorian, Edmonds and attorneys from all parties, taped before, during, and after the 8/8/09 testimony, are available here.) Edmonds' on-the-record disclosures also include bombshell details concerning outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's front company, Brewster Jennings. Edmonds alleges the front company had actually been shut down in August of 2001 --- three years prior to Bob Novak's public disclosure of the covert operative's identity --- following a tip-off to a wire-tap target about the true nature of the CIA front company. The cover was blown, Edmonds alleges, by Marc Grossman, who was, at the time, the third highest-ranking official in the U.S. State Department. Prior to that, Grossman served as ambassador to Turkey. He now works "for a Turkish company called Ihals Holding," according to Edmonds' testimony. An unclassified FBI Inspector General's report, released on her case in 2005, declared Edmonds' classified allegations to be "credible," "serious," and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI." In 2002, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-NE) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), then the senior members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, co-wrote letters on Edmonds' behalf to Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and DoJ Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, calling on all of them to take action in respect to her allegations. And in a 2002 60 Minutesreport on Edmonds' case, Grassley noted: "Absolutely, she's credible...And the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story." The 8/8/09 deposition was brought by Krikorian as part of his defense in a case filed against him before the Ohio Election Commission (OEC) by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH). The 2nd district Congresswoman has accused Krikorian, an Armenian-American who ran against her as an independent in 2008, of "false statements" during the campaign last year alleging that she had accepted "blood money" from Turkish interests. Krikorian says that Schmidt, co-chair of the Congressional Turkish Committee, accepted more money from Turkish interests during last year's campaign than any other member of Congress, despite few, if any, ethnic Turks among her local constituency. He has suggested she may have been instrumental in helping to hold off a Congressional vote on a long-proposed, much-disputed resolution declaring the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI as a "genocide" by the Turks. Edmonds herself happens to be a Turkish-American, though she was recently attacked by the Turkish Lobby, following her long-sought, long-blocked testimony. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Aug 25 23:57:56 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:57:56 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Time magazine: high cost of cheap food Message-ID: <000d01ca2612$5527a9d0$ff76fd70$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS When I think about the fabulous job David Wolfe is doing introducing people to raw food diets, and getting the amazing following he has, the better approach to solving the food issue may be to get more people like him on the road rather than to use the "scare 'em to death" Time magazine approach. Or, maybe it's both. And, that's what I am hoping to accomplish with the Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS program. I think we have to do this in face-to-face presentations and get-togethers like home parties as David is doing. As the old saying goes: there is nothing like word-of-mouth. Jim Bell does a fabulous job of getting the word out by throwing fund-raising parties with great live music and good food donated by those who support him. But a real good idea also is to show a good video and hold a discussion afterwards. Then the music could come on later. But however you do it, make it fun and interesting. People like a good cause to rally around and we have plenty of them. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 8:07 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Time magazine: high cost of cheap food Time magazine: high cost of cheap food * Tom Laskawy Posted 5:57 PM on 20 Aug 2009 http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-20-sustainable-ag-meets-the-msm-and-win s/ TIME Magazine?s current cover story wants you to know that our fossil-fueled, chemically intensive industrial food system is destined to fail. Granted, the second part of that sentence isn?t news to Grist readers. But the first part of that sentence is news. Personally, I wouldn?t have expected to read the following positively Philpottian (if not Pollan-esque) prose in a national newsweekly cover story: With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil ? which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills ? our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy ? demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 ? but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs ? and bland taste. Sustainable food has an ?litist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants ? and as every farmer knows, if you don?t take care of your land, it can?t take care of you. TIME Magazine talking about exhausted soil? Whooda thunkit? The importance of Bryan Walsh?s piece, of course, isn?t in the particulars of its insights or its prescriptions. The importance (aside from its very existence as a cover story) is in its declarative nature. For openers, Walsh offers a whirlwind tour of industrial ag practices which covers swine tail docking, sub-therapeutic antibiotic use, manure lagoons, ag subsidies, nitrogen fertilizer run-off and the Gulf of Mexico deadzone?all in the first paragraph. And better yet, Walsh doesn?t fall back on that tired journalistic trope of the ?third party fact.? ?Experts? don?t ?claim? nor do ?critics? ?observe? nor even does ?Michael Pollan? ?relate? this or that fact of industrial ag?s excesses: they are instead plainly stated as established, if awful, truth. How refreshing. Indeed, in these two paragraphs Walsh brings into stark relief the very issues over which Big Ag willfully and relentlessly refuses to engage. One of the more surprising aspects of the article is a total lack of any boilerplate denials from Big Ag of all responsibility for the ills of industrial food that typically get some play whenever the topic of food production gets attention from the MSM. I don?t think it?s an oversight that we didn?t hear from the National Corn Growers Association or the American Farm Bureau or Monsanto or Smithfield or any other Big Ag mouthpiece in this article?it?s likely that nothing they said was worth repeating. Honestly, the best you can expect to hear from them is some paean to American agricultural ingenuity and productivity such as in soy farmer and AFM official Blake Hurst?s Omnivore?s Delusion (though after you read it, be sure to rinse your brain with Tom Philpott?s able riposte). Hurst, as it happens, manages to ignore or elide just about every damaging issue regarding industrial agriculture that TIME Magazine has so pointedly raised. And it?s no coincidence?the fact is that Big Ag doesn?t have the answers to sustainability. What they do know about is succeeding in a status quo of abundant oil, chemicals and subsidies. Change the rules of the game?spiking fuel prices, fertilizer shortages, superweeds, superbugs, etc.?and they no longer know how to play. If I have a regret about this piece, it?s in the conclusion. Walsh invokes the concepts of ?conscious? eating on the one hand, versus ?selective forgetting? of the consequences of our food choices on the other. Consumers must be open to change, he declares, if we?re to move toward a more sustainable system. This is no doubt true. But I would have liked a final invocation as well of industrial agriculture?s ?ticking clock.? Right now, consumer choice is surely a crucial factor. But if, for example, worldwide demand for meat is in fact set to rise 25% by 2015, it seems to me that we?ll be having unpleasant ?choices? thrust upon us much sooner than we may expect. And after 2015 things are only going to get worse (Peak Oil, anyone?) America?s Food Crisis and How to Fix It may have been one of the most thorough and alarmist articles on the industrial food system ever to appear in a major magazine. Sadly, it may not have been nearly alarmist enough. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Aug 26 04:47:08 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:47:08 -0700 Subject: [GJM] [Worldchanging: Bright Green] Recommendation: The Fair Tracing Project Message-ID: <200908261047.n7QAl8CM010482@127.0.0.1> dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk has sent you a link! This is interesting, and shows how technology can be useful. It also has relevance ofcourse to Transfinancial Economics http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economic RS Title: The Fair Tracing Project Link: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006245.html From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 26 13:38:24 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:38:24 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Message-ID: <006001ca2684$f44b3af0$dce1b0d0$@net> Jim, again, while this is easy for you, for millions perhaps even billions of people, it is not. Back in the late '90's shortly before I moved to the backcountry, Manuel and I attended a presentation given by Jean-Michael Costeau here in San Diego. In his presentation, Jean-Michael brought out some things that San Diego needed to do to clean up the bay, etc. He then asked the people attending the presentation to go home and look their children or grand-children in the eye and think about their future, or lack of one if we don't begin doing these things soon. I have witnessed other environmentally-concerned speakers use this same approach with people going back over twenty-five years, but to no avail -- most of us, unfortunately remain in the same state of mind and think that the way we live today is "normal". We have been using the same type of "think" as you express here for decades, yet in most areas things are getting worse instead of better. Now with new breakthroughs in the understanding of human consciousness, thanks the work of scientists like cellular biologist, Bruce Lipton, M.D., Vernon Woolf, Ph.D., and new findings by NASA, we now have a better understanding of what it takes to transform the childhood programming we receive via parents, schools, and continuing with media the rest of our lives. If what you say is true, then it seems to me the rooftops of San Diego would have had photovoltaic cells on them years ago, as we would also be further advanced in our technology than we are today and be better prepared to do the job. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11:39 PM To: 'mary rose' Subject: RE: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Hi Mary, Consciousness is complicated. But it is also simple. Look reality straight in the eye, get connected to our descendents and work to be the best person we can be -- all that exists given. Jim -----Original Message----- From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 6:10 AM To: 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'; FixGov at yahoogroups. com Subject: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Jim, thanks for your comment. And, I agree with you. But what is the problem today is the subliminal programming going on by the media that keeps us in a constant state of disease. And the only way to get rid of this is to turn off the TV and be very selective as to the music one listens to and the viewing one sees, and as well what one puts into one's body in the form of food. All of these things affect coherence patterns. When we are talking about human consciousness, we are talking about the subtle energy patterns of our body/mind field. These patterns are either "coherent" or "in chaos" or somewhere in between. And what we want to strive for is to maintain patterns that are highly coherent since these patterns express themselves in the form of "emotions". What the media strives for is to create "incoherent" patterns since this allows the elite among us to maintain control over our thoughts and keep our body/mind in a diseased state. And while TV is not the only source where this is coming from, it is the main source. With love and appreciation m r -----Original Message----- From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 10:04 PM To: 'mary rose' Subject: RE: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival It is all about consciousness. If enough people become conscious enough soon enough, all good becomes possible. Jim -----Original Message----- From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 5:20 PM To: 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'; FixGov at yahoogroups. com Subject: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 6:47 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival Starting the Conversation on Our Survival http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4 76&Itemid=65 by Jan Lundberg 06 July 2009 With species extinction now at the highest rate since the disappearance of the dinosaurs, one might assume this crisis is on everyone's mind and discussed widely. One would be wrong. No one knows if it's 100 species a day, many of which have not been named. Massive species loss has been known for many years, but it is "old news" or "boring." Neither are other critical topics discussed enough to match their import: melting of the ice caps and glaciers, nuclear weapons and nuclear waste, out of control arms sales, ongoing starvation or malnourishment of hundreds of millions of people, overpopulation, the greed of financiers openly stripping nations of wealth, etc. In reality, they are all related. It comes down to compassion and taking action wisely. When people manage to discuss the most pressing issues, they can see past the immediate crisis possessing the power to distract. Then a whole-systems approach can serve to unite people into one movement. In the 1960s there was "The Movement." People had many definitions for it, and some members were more interested in stopping the bombing over Indochina than securing all rights for the Afro-American population, for example. But The Movement included those concentrating on expanded consciousness, back-to-the-land agrarianism, communalism, armed revolution, women's liberation, environmental protection. It could all be seen as a whole: challenging "plastic society" and the false materialistic values of the flag-waving pro-war older generation. We can blame the end of The Movement on its splintering into separate movements, or on the end of the Vietnam War draft, or the commercialization and corporatization of popular music, or assassinations of leaders in the 1960s -- or all of them combined. The biggest mistake was to stop having the conversation about society in general. Instead people began to take the easy way out and earn more money and stay out of trouble, Those who did not cease the conversation became known as activists, and it was no longer "the youth" or "the students" or "The Movement." Instead activists were on the fringes and mocked by "being stuck back in the 1960s." The federal COINTELPRO operations against organizations and leaders took a toll, and there were pleasant distractions such as disco music or take your pick. Social change comes down to communication. Great efforts have resulted in fine books, stories for films and books, and there have been some wonderful speeches. But it must really start and end with the conversation wherein the top topic is the issues of the day approached honestly and without fear. When people talk about a problem openly, then there is a chance of solving it. There may be no solution, but the attempt to converse about it may have other beneficial effects and lead to unexpected breakthroughs. When people avoid talking about serious matters, much harm can be done by others who are intent on opportunism or worse. Distracting people with other issues is therefore the prime tool for those trying to maintain an advantage in the status quo. It can also be said that the main tool is enslavement through economic dominance -- a giant distraction from realizing a liberated life style. Many robotic or sheep-like people today have no concept of liberation except personal enrichment. Talking about food security We would not know it from the corporate media or our politicians, but we should be worrying big time that food supply will fail untold millions of people. All one has to do is look at energy, topsoil, pressures of the market (such as rising demand for food), and mix in some catastrophic weather that is assured, and we have a huge disaster ahead. It is just a matter of time. There is a movement to appreciate local food, slow food, organic food. But it has not reduced the average number of miles a piece of food travels via petroleum in the U.S.: 1,500. To produce industrial food -- probably 95% of what is eaten in the U.S. -- ten caloric units of fossil-fuels produce one caloric unit of food. Farm workers are among the lowest paid in the nation, which is strange when everyone wants to eat. Time in the hot sun, subjected to pesticides and possible immigration raids, make the profession all the less attractive. There is no longer a designation for farmer in the U.S. census when so few people live on their own farms anymore. It was no wonder that when Max Yasgur, who hosted the Woodstock Festival in 1969, began his welcome with "Now I'm a farmer..." at that he was drowned out by cheers and applause. That was The Movement expressing itself for nature. Get the record album and hear it. Today I picked three pint-sized baskets of three kinds of berries. It took me about an hour, even when the season is just right. I still had to pay eight dollars for the fruit. It is not designated as organic, which would allow for a higher price, but it was unsprayed. If the value of my time is $20 an hour, my overall cost was $28. I spent no money on transportation because I bicycled. There's a problem we don't have a name for: a labor problem? We are not producing our own food locally because we "cannot afford to." Rather, we subsidize the food in unsustainable ways while upper classes of consumers can afford to pay others to grow, gather, process, truck and prepare the food. This system only works for a few people in a division-of-labor society geared toward surpluses for the elite: i.e., Western Civilization. In the berry patch a father said bitterly to his daughter, "You guys dragged me here and I don't have time for all this work." She replied "It's fun!" I'm glad to report that he had no further retort. Perhaps he should have a conversation with his family and friends about what he thinks he can do with his time, what he is allowed to do, and how he may provide for his family as well as raise a child directly. Inane conversation or prattling More alarming than empty talk and avoiding critical issues is no talking at all, when some modern humans live in a computer-game world, or they communicate mostly in isolation using a cell phone or email. Of these, many don't have much in the way of friendships, and family is something to occasionally visit. Meanwhile, conversation is still key, especially if it can be elevated beyond the personal need to connect to another human being (even to just discuss clothes or beer). The art of conversation is getting harder to encounter. People don't seem to have time. Before we can work toward starting the conversation on our survival, what is going on all around us that passes for discussion? My observation is that the quality of conversation is almost always and everywhere inane. Wars being fought in the name of the United States of America, in Iraq and Afganistan, are not prime topics of discussion or debate at any given time by "the average person." After all, there's endless celebrity news, the latest unemployment statistics, the latest iPhone technology, a fire in southern California, President Obama's latest pronouncement on medical care, and a lost doggy found in another city after a heart-rending odyssey. Admittedly, there is also news in the background on climate change, assassinations, bankruptcies of iconic corporations, and other serious stories. But there's never a common thread in the corporate news media or in a politician's speech. On the street you're more likely to hear something real: "the system sucks." If it does, what do we do about it? It should be no wonder that the quality of conversation -- whether in the living room of "the average person," in the employee lunch room, or at a bar or party -- is usually inane. Sports news or a review of a television show are favorites, along with gossip or tales of a weekend adventure. When the subjects of politics or ecology come up, these are treated with argument, jokes and derision as often are statements of concern. Rare is a vow of "I will bicycle to work and get rid of my television." As for everyday banter with meaning, there can be comparisons of home gardening techniques. Reviving the economy back to growth is the hottest topic in the serious realm, with climate change ranking at bottom. The latter is denied by some, or is too scary to tackle. The tendency is to let "the experts" or public officials deal with it -- as they're dealing with the economy and everything else. They're not bringing us peace. They're not stopping species extinction. They're not redistributing the wealth or jailing the white collar criminals (Madoff is an exception, a sop). If the rulers should not rule, shouldn't this be a major topic of conversation? What we need is the conversation that's not happening. In the 1960s and into the 1970s the politically minded street threater group The Yippies (Youth International Party) took matters into their own hands to bring attention to the issues. One method was disruption of business as usual. Stunts included burning dollar bills, sewing the American flag on to one's pants, or kissing during college lectures. A book by one of the main instigators, Jerry Rubin, was titled Do It. (The author became a stockbroker, a fate probably from losing his hippie support system.) Who is "doing it" today? Bloggers? Internet activists? Artists? Obama? There's some good journalism and activism, but the masses of people are somehow left out of the conversation. They want to be left out, when they avoid discussing serious issues relating to their survival on an imperiled planet. The question is, can they be made to discuss it before things are totally out of control, when rational discussion may be impossible? No end of secret government subversion can overcome a big enough conversation. We Are Many, They Are Few - Really? If all the able-bodied homeless people in the greater New York City area decided to converge on Wall Street and seize some wealth or demand housing, they could do it. If the millions of minorities discriminated against by ruthless corporate employers staged sit ins and used economic boycotts, such action could earn large concessions. But instead, masses are herded like sheep by a small number of agents of the elite. The corporate state does have effective tools such as the military, prisons, police -- the "stick" -- to go with bribes and perks and promises of mild reform -- the "carrot." Yet, numerically, if enough people wanted to bring about a truly equitable society, or in particular end the unpopular wars, this could be done with little or no violence in a short amount of time. The reason it does not happen is that the right conversations are not taking place except by the very few. Even with the huge and growing number of people on mood-control and psychiatric drugs, that sad population unwittingly enriching pharmaceutical companies rather than actually healing is in good enough condition to talk sensibly and stimulate some community action. The greatest crowd control of all time may be happening right now when a popular U.S. president can give the idea that he is pursuing meaningful change. The sleight of hand includes the idea that he can make substantial change. Obama knows his limitations, as every top politician comes to know. In addition to promising improvements and the impossible return to a growth economy -- and the trickle-down prosperity that never really worked -- Obama and his allies have some key issues dear to many hearts. Unfortunately, they are bogus: the technological fix for climate mitigation, cleaner energy upon peak oil, and better cars. Obama is such a nice and eloquent guy that most people want to believe he will bring about more jobs, higher wages, peace, and an end to terrorism, the threat to polar bears, etc. Smooth propaganda -- hard for most people to pick apart: President Barack Obama: "These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals. These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America." - Fourth of July Statement, 2009 Obama is a perfect maestro for keeping people from dealing directly with the global mix of crises. Above all, we should regard Obama as personifying the hierarchy which is seldom questioned. The hierarchy certainly sets the tone at all possible times. Obama is the current "one," and everyone else is many, but because of laws and convention he is given the right to be master and Pied Piper for a time. Then, in 2012, and only then, he can be re-elected or replaced by a Republicrat or Demopublican. Who the next president might be is NOT the conversation that needs to take place. The fact that the U.S. can feel it has cleansed itself of racism by electing Obama is a perfect distraction from more serious issues of extinction. For if we consume enough plastic, are exposed to enough radiation, and cling to a lifestyle divorced from nature and health, our species can indeed go extinct -- even without the extinction of the Earth's climate as we know it. Our best hope to avoid waiting for the worst may well be collapse of the economic system. This may usher in a sustainable culture. Maybe people will talk about it and take action in anticipation. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Aug 27 03:29:31 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:29:31 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Money in a Participatory Economy/ Ref Wikipedia Message-ID: <572176.54321.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Money in a Participatory Economy Money in a parecon would be more akin to a bookkeeping system than a traditional capitalist currency. Money would be non-transferable between consumers, and would be only usable at a store to purchase goods. Electronic "credits" would be awarded to workers for their work, as a means of saying that this worker benefited society with their work. The more effort and sacrifice, the more credits are awarded. Credits would then be used to buy goods and services. Once used to purchase something, a credit would be deducted from the consumer's total, it "disappears" and does not go into a till or bank, it is simply deducted for the consumer's total. There would be no banks in the capitalist sense. Workers would have to work more to get more credits. In this way, there would be no flow of money. Workers would be able to borrow money if approved by an appropriate board, but no interest would be charged. The non-transferability of parecon credits would make it impossible to bribe or even beg for money. People would still be free to barter their individual goods with each other, e.g. exchange a couch for a stereo, but any attempt to create an exchangeable currency would be discouraged, as this might lead to attempts to reinstate capitalism. Credits might be shareable amongst family members, depending on how the parecon is set up. A lost or stolen "credit" card would not be usable by another person, as presumably there would be means to verify the identity of a citizen at shopping centers. Albert and Hahnel did not clarify how a currency of this form would be used in international trading with non-parecon countries. If a capitalist country refuses to be paid for their bought goods in this way, it is likely that a parecon nation would use a normal currency for international trading, but keep it's unique currency for internal purposes. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Aug 27 04:06:46 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:06:46 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Romer, the Post-Scarcity Prophet!! Message-ID: <724526.83444.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Post scarcity prophet iGreen introduction -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Aug 27 04:18:25 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:18:25 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Big Economic Ideas for PM Radio Four Programme...! Message-ID: <802106.90793.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear All, ? ?????????? I am unable to send a direct link but I have cut, and past the relevant data. Apparently, PM Radio Four Programme has been asking the audience for any "original" ideas about economics. Ofcourse, I include my work but I doubt whether it would get a mention on the show as it is too "radical". Radio Four listeners can only stomach so much!! ? Ofcourse, the ideas already presented to PM blog are not very new if we are serious about genuine full-scale economic reform which can only really occur with the introduction of Transfinancial Economics. ? R.Searle. ? ? >From the PM Blog below... ? ? Eddie Mair | 17:40 UK time, Wednesday, 26 August 2009 Our original thread is here. Terry Stiastny writes: "Tonight's big economic brain is Professor Andrew Gamble of Cambridge University; although his job title is professor of politics, he describes himself as a political economist. He's written on economic ideas across the political spectrum from Marx to Hayek. His latest book is "The Spectre at the Feast: capitalist crisis and the politics of recession". He believes governments need to learn the lessons of the 1930s in order to deal with the current crisis, and that the international economy risks breaking apart unless they do. He tells me they should take a leaf out of the book of one of that period's great economists, John Maynard Keynes, and pursue his idea of creating a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar. You can read more about the ideas of Paul Romer, of Stanford University, who we heard from yesterday, he has set out his plans for Charter Cities on his website. And we'll be discussing the ideas we've heard through the week on the programme tomorrow." Bookmark with: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit - What's this? #dna_commentbox_holder{display: block;} #dna_commentbox_holder_error{display: none;} CommentsPost your comment You are currently signed as Searle88. Sign out. Previous Next 1. At 5:56pm on 26 Aug 2009, skintnick wrote: You want an economist who knows the score? Try Herman E. Daly and his 1989 book "For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy towards Community, the Environment and a Sustainable Future". Yes, really - 1989. 20 years later and still it seems everyone in the popular media and politics refuses to accept what seems plain obvious to me and a growing number of people. Oh that Mr Daly was listened to in 1989 and we might already have a steady-state economy and enjoying sustainability in the real sense of the world both now and for future generations. As it is, we are in deep trouble and all the establishment can do is pile on the trouble for the poor inheritors of the mess. Complain about this comment 2. At 6:01pm on 26 Aug 2009, UKBaptistNewsWeek wrote: You guys should check out the thread of Economic thinking started by Henry George in the 1890s. He was a huge figure whose thinking has sadly been all but eradicated from Economic study and history. Some of his ideas are promoted by a Land Value Tax group in the Lib Dems (some big names there support the idea. They are called ALTER (http://www.libdemsalter.org.uk/)and there is a Labour group too (http://www.labourland.org/). There are various Henry George societies and I think the School of Economic Science (inasmuch as they still focus on economics and justice more than 'philosophy')are heavily influenced by George. Alternatively, why not feature Herman Daly and E.F. Schumacher? These are names that will be familiar to many of those concerned with climate change and both were respected public and academic figures. Complain about this comment 3. At 6:01pm on 26 Aug 2009, Joseph Walker wrote: Oh joy! I'm just enjoying the brain exercise of listening to some imagination and free(ish)-thinking being applied (and broadcast on prime-time R.4 no less!) to this county's dire crisis at last. It's such a relief not to find myself being forced to endure the usual institutional formulaic drivel. Thank you! Complain about this comment 4. At 6:04pm on 26 Aug 2009, gerundive wrote: You can go back futher than 1989 for an analysis of the failures of the economic paradigm that was failing then and has failed again. Fritjof Capra did so in the 70s. One of the main issues is the detachment between labour and the share of wealth created. The other is the detachment between wealth manipulators and social/environmental responsibility. A system that distributed wealth among those who contribute to its creation would prevent the excesses of recent years. It's hardly a new idea. Robert Owen and the co-operative movement led the way, but there were too many too greedy to follow such exemplary balance between enterprise and social justice. Complain about this comment 5. At 6:04pm on 26 Aug 2009, steelpulse wrote: The Spectre at the Feast: Capitalist Crisis and the Politics of Recession by Andrew Gamble Eddie, As your correspondent seemed to suggest - you have read the title - you have read the book - allegedly. Well being in one of those household where no-one is working and looking at the tomes price tag - that is my excuse and I am sticking to it. Stephanie Flanders though. All for the price of your TV licence. Now that is value in my opinion. No offence Mr Gamble. I bet it is a great read - for those with more little grey cells than I have and more economic nouse. Complain about this comment 6. At 6:08pm on 26 Aug 2009, mastermatthewtimms wrote: I believe that what we really need to get the world fully back on its feet is a big new invention [ like the railway, the car or the computer ]...these all had huge effects when they appeared creating employment and wealth...so come on inventors ,we're waiting ! Matthew Timms. Complain about this comment 7. At 6:16pm on 26 Aug 2009, nick_horslen wrote: Yes Paul Romer has it and to extend beyond the work going on on new cities like DongTan (China), Curitiba (Brazil) and ecotowns (Sweden) like that planned near NW Bicester has to be the right approach. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongtan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-towns_(UK) re www.p3eco.com Embedding a "triple bottom line" to future cities where economic responsibility with social responsibility and environmental responsibility all underline core values and innovation, why wouldnt you!? Make all the dots join up, for business and people, ensure everyone is self subscribing and participating and benefiting, not easy to believe or do but that progress! The big issue is can this be retro fitted or do we have to or even "can we" start with a clean slate. The emergent economy is already building that direction of travel but we need more leadership, action and risk taking to make it happen faster while preparing ourselves, our behaviours and lifestyle for a new and better way of sustaining this planet and future generations. There is more about this on my blog and twitter pages if people want to find it. Roll on triple bottom line sustainable cities!! Complain about this comment 8. At 6:41pm on 26 Aug 2009, rlwise wrote: I am disappointed that this item made no mention of marxist economics which has consistently predicted the kind of economic instability we have been witnessing based on a rigorous analysis of the circulation of capital. There are plenty of people you could interview with this perspective -- David Harvey for example whose lucid "Reading Capital" podcast is available at the iTunes store. I took an Economics degree in the 1960s & have taught the subject. Since the 1980s have been shocked & dismayed at the way in which rigourous traditions of academic economics, not just marxian, have been jettisoned in favour of the simplistic free market model favoured by Thatcher & New Labour. It is an economic model which redistributes national income to a plutocracy while impoverishing everyone else. We even have Lord Peter Mandleson as unelected Minister for the Filthy Rich. I am a great admirer of your programme & the BBC but I would like to see PM live up to your Public Service principles & air a range of opinions on the economy rather than just the current right-wing orthodoxy. Complain about this comment 9. At 7:36pm on 26 Aug 2009, nick_horslen wrote: Re: my earlier post > Oops the link i meant to post was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-towns_(UK) and the link i should have posted was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curitiba and http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/ but they are all on http://www.twitter.com/nick_horslen and/or http://nickhorslen.blogspot.com including http://www.p3eco.com/intro.html Complain about this comment 10. At 9:06pm on 26 Aug 2009, Normstanley wrote: One small, but potential solution to the socioeconomic woes of today: Governments to legislate fixed pricing models for investment banks brokering no-risk, captive, gravy-train public-debt business on the fixed-income markets. Not a panacea, but an ethical and workable solution to banking bonuses; akin to the the sociological model of fixing broken windows. Complain about this comment 11. At 9:11pm on 26 Aug 2009, PeoplesMandate wrote: The problem is not government spending (how could it be were it all spent on the poor and their welfare?) The problem is the huge quantities of finance capital in private hands that is ideologically driven. This Big Money CREATES Radical Uncertainty and uses it for its ends. This capital has a repertoire of modes. First the Speculative Bubbles. ('We are SO certain!') Then the Investment Strikes ('We are SO uncertain!') Then the Ideological Phase ('It's government that is ruining the economy by helping the poor'). Then the Inflation Threat when Big Money speculates against the currency of the offending government. And so back to ....Speculative Bubbles. The aim of all this is to make labour cheap at home, to preserve hegemony against competing foreign capital, to make a quick buck for the war chest during the speculative periods and to bring down left wing governments. The failure to acknowledge (he certainly would have recognised) that finance capital both creates and uses as policy weapons the radical uncertainty he identifies is what makes Keynes ultimately an anti-Marxist. That, and, of course, that real Marxism had a solution to the angsts, political, intellectual and personal of Keynes, Kings College and Cliveden, a solution William Morris would have approved of for them, namely callouses on the hands from hard manual labour. Stephanie Flanders on all this will be a treat since it is little more than a year ago that in a 4.30 pm Radio 4 prog she pronounced Keynes complete news to her. As of course both he and Marx are, unless to be sneered at, for anyone brainwashed in the English Universities after 1980 in the Thatcher-Blair era. It is instructive that this crisis of capitalism is centrally about capital itself and the theory of capital that capitalists hold. That they have got it wrong is what every Marxist economist was telling them throughout the 20th Century. Complain about this comment 12. At 9:31pm on 26 Aug 2009, PeoplesMandate wrote: Last night Newsnight interviewed one of the mathematical economists, Robert Lucas. They just don't get it do they? The problem is not the mathematical expression of the theory but being mathematical about an erroneous theory. Lucas is one of the 'crowding out' theorists. He should be. He argues government spending crowds out private investment. Which is exactly the wrong way round, but notice how Big Money in reality takes advantage of naff theories like Robert Lucas's.: Oh, says Big Money, government is spending too much. Our spending and their spending together will be inflationary. They're crowding us out. So they get their money out of that government's currency, devalue it sharply and so...cause inflation. One would have some sympathy with the theory were it INVESTMENT that this private money puts itself to. In fact it creates speculative bubbles in paper assets, and creams off the capital gains for luxury goods spending. The threat of Lucas's spurious views causes great pressure on governments to cut their welfare spending. Big Money merely has to mention being crowded out ('As Robert Lucas proved' (Not)) and its comes to be GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON THE POOR that gets crowded out. Like with the 15 percent cuts in welfare spending promised here. Complain about this comment 13. At 10:11pm on 26 Aug 2009, nikki noodle wrote: Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) are used as a unit of account by the IMF and several other international organizations, including the Universal Postal Union, some international mobile telecoms operators, and the insurance liabilties of air and shipping carriers. In late March 2009 Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China proposed using the SDR as a worldwide reserve currency in place of the dollar as a way to cope with some of problems associated with the US Dollar and the Euro being used as world reserve currencies. This was just prior to the augmentation of SDRs by the IMF in April 2009 to the tune of $200 billion US equivalent, mostly into the reserves of the US, the UK, Japan and France. Whether the Governor of the People's Bank of China had political or financial reasons for his proposal, he has certainly drawn attention to the IMF's use of these instruments. http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13447239 Complain about this comment 14. At 11:11pm on 26 Aug 2009, StroudContrarian wrote: Please let's hear from a Green economist. You could try Molly Scott-Cato (http://www.gaianeconomics.org/molly.htm). Her views have largely influenced the Green Party economic policy. In the last half-century or so we've automated all our manufacturing and invented countless gadgets to make our lives easier - so why aren't we all living lives of leisure (as many people predicted back in the '70s)? In fact we're working longer hours (especially when you consider that most families now have 2 bread-winners) and we're more stressed than ever. The answer is that we're all slaves to an economic system that requires constant growth or it collapses. The fundamental cause of this need for growth is the way that money is created, as debt, by the banks. That debt has to be repaid with interest which means that new economic "value" needs to be constantly created. Of course, the "value" that's measured in economic terms bears no relation to people's happiness, and takes no account of the damage being done to the earth. There ARE better ways of doing things, if only we could see past the mess we're created. Complain about this comment 15. At 11:43pm on 26 Aug 2009, skintnick wrote: Are growth and sustainability mutually exclusive in a finite system? Someone please tell me the answer. Complain about this comment 16. At 01:20am on 27 Aug 2009, i_flint wrote: The biggest open secret is how ?fractional reserve banking? works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_banking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_ratio >From the above it can be seen that banks lend out more money than they actually have several times over. Banks are only allowed to do this because they have a licence from the Bank of England ? the Bank of England checks the organisation is sound then issues the licence for a Guinea. http://www.compliancy-services.co.uk/banking-license.htm Until recent times the Basel rules only allowed bank to lend out x8 more money than they actually had. This factor was increased in recent times and now is an average of x35 across all UK banks (or in Northern Rocks case this x150) ? did you wonder where all the money came from? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_adequacy_ratio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Capital_Accords Is it surprising that if banks can command interest on loans, which are x35 more than the money, they have? It can be seen from this that a ?Banking Licence? is literally a ?licence to print money?. My suggestion is to auction a limited number 10 year banking licences to the highest bidders in the same way as ITV broadcast licences or telecom 3 G licences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_license http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/spectrumauctions/press/200221.htm Such auctions would raise 100?s of billions for the government and will recover the losses government has suffer due to the banking crisis and will stop future TAX rises. This method of funding would be fair on several accounts: - Firstly the banks would be free to bid for a licence or not -it would not be like an imposed tax. Secondly this can be thought at an underwriting fee that paid to the UK in case they have to rescue banks. Finally this mechanism will impose some ?market discipline? on banks which have been shown cannot be allowed to die. Darwinism shows clearly what happens to species where there is no predator ? their population simply expands until they run out of food. Thus unless some market force ?eats bankers? in this case loosing a bid for a limited number of licences they will eat the complete financial system. Complain about this comment 17. At 08:00am on 27 Aug 2009, boredonjersey wrote: I am amazed that in all the comments and articles by various financial journalists over the last few months,that none have mentioned Professor Nikolai Kondratieff. He was the Russion author of what is sometimes referred to as the Long Wave Theory. An economic cycle of approximately 60 to 70 years. He was hired by Stallin in the early 1920's to make a study of World economies. Unfortunately for Mr. Kondratieff, who made his study by looking back through the history of economic cycles around the world, told stallin what he didn't want to hear. He was sent to Sibeira and eventually shot in 1938. In his study, he found that there was a patten to the economic activity of the Global economies. This was usually brought about by the excesses of mountains of debt, commodity prices going through the roof and property prices moving out of kilter with the general pace of things. There were other signs to watch out for but generally it was these things that were indicative of his Long Wave Theory. On making a study of the graphs he made, it will be seen that the falls of the stock markets over the last 12ish months and the recent movement upwards of the last 3 or 4 months, are nothing as to what is likely to happen, in I believe the very near future. If he is right, I believe we will see a major correction in the not too distant future taking the various markets around the World to about 25% of their highs. Perhaps taking the footsie to a level nearer to 2000 than it's current level. Look out. According to his cycle we came out of the recession of the thirties because of the second World war and started the current cycle in the late forties. Here we are 60 ish years on and in big trouble. There has also been little comment of the financial woes in Eastern Europe. Hungary for example but not alone, has borrowed massif amounts of Euro's from Austria, I believe the figure is about 270 billion Euro's. This is about 80% of Austria's GDP, another Iceland?? Sure the Euro zone will help out but when will all this artificial tinkering stop. I look forward to any comments particularly from your financial journalists. Maybe Robert Peston might like to look into this. Complain about this comment 18. At 08:00am on 27 Aug 2009, Tapsalterie wrote: May I suggest a glance at the Alpha version of PIPP.org.uk? This is a proposal to move politics and economics into the 21C. In particular the economics section sets out to 'solve' economic problems by getting back to the roots of the word: good housekeeping. If we ran our economy as a good household is run (i.e. always within our means and steering clear of living off capital rather than income), then the mess would be avoided. The real message is to aim at total self-reliance at all levels from personal, family, community, locality, county, region, country, continent, to planetary. This entails each nation reducing both imports and exports in favour of national self-reliance. Imports of goods and services we could and should produce for ourselves should be steadily reduced. Our exports should be brain-based and used to buy in goods and services that we can't do for ourselves. This involves a change of culture and diet, and our attitude to what is real wealth as contrasted to the merely material. The goal is comfortable survival together with assisting the same for other nations. In other words, global free trade is exactly the opposite of what is needed. The notion of Africa exporting food while Africans starve is a nonsense! Complain about this comment 19. At 09:58am on 27 Aug 2009, David_McNickle wrote: PM 12, I quite enjoy mathematics, but know nothing about economics. Complain about this comment 20. At 10:23am on 27 Aug 2009, oldgreenman wrote: A world with limited resources simply cannot follow the free market model for economic growth. Adam Smith, were he alive today, would surely advocate "environmental economics". Environmental Economics seeks to build a world economy where resource depletion and the value of the natural world are fully accounted for and where the term "sustainable" really means something and is not simply a wish. In the early 1990s the University of York started a Department of Environmental Economics and Environmental Management to lead the way in such thinking but the foolish, government-driven Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) killed it within years simply because the subject material did not neatly fit any of the RAE's categories. Essentially free market ideas killed off the one radical way ahead. Any system of economics that does not embrace the ideas of Environmental Economics is simply unsustainable. Complain about this comment 21. At 10:45am on 27 Aug 2009, you wrote: Yes, there is in the process of development a highly advanced form of economics using modern technology. It is called TRANSFINANCIAL ECONOMICS. However, it may well be "too advanced" for its time. It would be advisable to read the p2pfoundation.net entry.... http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics I should point out that the above subject was accepted as a paper for a respected scholarly journal but I withdrew it after a tussle with the editor. However, copyright release forms had been signed. I wish I could give a simple presentation of Transfinancial Economics but I am pressed for time. It would be great if mention of it was made on the radio, and possibly reference to the p2pfoundation entry which gives the most accurate, and authorative data of this evolving project. Complain about this comment Previous Next View these comments in RSS Post a comment All posts are post-moderated. What does this mean? Your Comment Send your comment if (window.dna) { if (window.glow) { dna.comments.apply({targetForm: 'div.comments form',timeBetweenComments: '180',viewingUser: 'Searle88',viewingUserGroup: ''}); } else { dna.comments.queue({targetForm: 'div.comments form',timeBetweenComments: '180',viewingUser: 'Searle88',viewingUserGroup: ''}); } } Jump to more content from this blog About this blog The blog for the afternoon news and current affairs programme presented by Eddie Mair. Subscribe to PM You can stay up to date with PM via these feeds. PM Feed(RSS) PM Feed(ATOM) If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful. More BBC Blogs iPM The World Tonight News Editors Nick Robinson's Newslog Evanomics Mark Mardell's Euroblog Open Secrets Peston's Picks Pods and Blogs Newsnight World Have Your Say Listen to PM Listen to PM iPM: our interactive sister programme Radio 4 Audience Panel Sign up to join the Radio 4 Audience Panel. Window on Your World Galleries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41. 42. 43, 44 (external) More from this blog... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From black_gunion at yahoo.es Thu Aug 27 04:01:20 2009 From: black_gunion at yahoo.es (Ron Picasso) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:01:20 +0200 Subject: [GJM] Money in a Participatory Economy/ Ref Wikipedia In-Reply-To: <572176.54321.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <572176.54321.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4A965970.7010008@yahoo.es> And who decides how much credit/time is paid for any job? If it is the old capitalist pig, I don't see any positive change. If it is some bureaucrat, it could be even worse. It seems a lot as a pure fiat money system -what we already have-, but it does not says anything about the problem of money as debt (specular of money as credit), and who get paid for the interest on that debt (the mother of all monetary problems). The American Monetary Act sounds much more plausible and appealing to me. robert searle wrote: > Money in a Participatory Economy > Money in a parecon would be more akin to a bookkeeping system than a > traditional capitalist currency. Money would be non-transferable > between consumers, and would be only usable at a store to purchase goods. > Electronic "credits" would be awarded to workers for their work, as a > means of saying that this worker benefited society with their work. > The more effort and sacrifice, the more credits are awarded. Credits > would then be used to buy goods and services. Once used to purchase > something, a credit would be deducted from the consumer's total, it > "disappears" and does not go into a till or bank, it is simply > deducted for the consumer's total. There would be no banks in the > capitalist sense. Workers would have to work more to get more credits. > In this way, there would be no flow of money. Workers would be able to > borrow money if approved by an appropriate board, but no interest > would be charged. > The non-transferability of parecon credits would make it impossible to > bribe or even beg for money. People would still be free to barter > their individual goods with each other, e.g. exchange a couch for a > stereo, but any attempt to create an exchangeable currency would be > discouraged, as this might lead to attempts to reinstate capitalism. > Credits might be shareable amongst family members, depending on how > the parecon is set up. A lost or stolen "credit" card would not be > usable by another person, as presumably there would be means to verify > the identity of a citizen at shopping centers. > Albert and Hahnel did not clarify how a currency of this form would be > used in international trading with non-parecon countries. If a > capitalist country refuses to be paid for their bought goods in this > way, it is likely that a parecon nation would use a normal currency > for international trading, but keep it's unique currency for internal > purposes. > > > start: 0000-00-00 end: 0000-00-00 > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > From ceasig at gmail.com Wed Aug 26 10:38:05 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:08:05 +0530 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival In-Reply-To: <003501ca2585$929c10e0$b7d432a0$@net> References: <003501ca2585$929c10e0$b7d432a0$@net> Message-ID: <31f677a30908260938t7e9ab3cic597dc0a62ce5aae@mail.gmail.com> This is wonderful suggestion and one of the best way is also to suggest faith based measures such as prayer ..I am sure with these we get more attuned to thinking and working for collective survival and eternal wellbeing. People need engagement for leisure. On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 6:40 PM, mary rose wrote: > Jim, thanks for your comment. And, I agree with you. But what is the > problem > today > is the subliminal programming going on by the media that keeps us in a > constant state > of disease. And the only way to get rid of this is to turn off the TV and > be > very > selective as to the music one listens to and the viewing one sees, and as > well what one > puts into one's body in the form of food. All of these things affect > coherence patterns. > > > When we are talking about human consciousness, we are talking about the > subtle energy > patterns of our body/mind field. These patterns are either "coherent" or > "in > chaos" or > somewhere in between. And what we want to strive for is to maintain > patterns > that are > highly coherent since these patterns express themselves in the form of > "emotions". > > What the media strives for is to create "incoherent" patterns since this > allows the > elite among us to maintain control over our thoughts and keep our body/mind > in a diseased > state. And while TV is not the only source where this is coming from, it is > the main > source. > > With love and appreciation > > m r > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] > Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 10:04 PM > To: 'mary rose' > Subject: RE: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our > Survival > > It is all about consciousness. If enough people become conscious enough > soon > enough, all good becomes possible. > Jim > > -----Original Message----- > From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] > Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 5:20 PM > To: 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'; FixGov at yahoogroups. com > Subject: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our > Survival > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net > [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of > TradingPostPaul > Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 6:47 PM > To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net > Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Starting the Conversation on Our Survival > > > Starting the Conversation on Our Survival > > http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4 > 76&Itemid=65 > by Jan Lundberg > 06 July 2009 > > With species extinction now at the highest rate since the disappearance of > the dinosaurs, one might assume this crisis is on everyone's mind and > discussed widely. One would be wrong. No one knows if it's 100 species a > day, many of which have not been named. Massive species loss has been known > for many years, but it is "old news" or "boring." > > Neither are other critical topics discussed enough to match their import: > melting of the ice caps and glaciers, nuclear weapons and nuclear waste, > out of control arms sales, ongoing starvation or malnourishment of hundreds > of millions of people, overpopulation, the greed of financiers openly > stripping nations of wealth, etc. > > In reality, they are all related. It comes down to compassion and taking > action wisely. When people manage to discuss the most pressing issues, they > can see past the immediate crisis possessing the power to distract. Then a > whole-systems approach can serve to unite people into one movement. > > In the 1960s there was "The Movement." People had many definitions for it, > and some members were more interested in stopping the bombing over > Indochina than securing all rights for the Afro-American population, for > example. But The Movement included those concentrating on expanded > consciousness, back-to-the-land agrarianism, communalism, armed revolution, > women's liberation, environmental protection. It could all be seen as a > whole: challenging "plastic society" and the false materialistic values of > the flag-waving pro-war older generation. > > We can blame the end of The Movement on its splintering into separate > movements, or on the end of the Vietnam War draft, or the commercialization > and corporatization of popular music, or assassinations of leaders in the > 1960s -- or all of them combined. The biggest mistake was to stop having > the conversation about society in general. Instead people began to take the > easy way out and earn more money and stay out of trouble, Those who did not > cease the conversation became known as activists, and it was no longer "the > youth" or "the students" or "The Movement." Instead activists were on the > fringes and mocked by "being stuck back in the 1960s." The federal > COINTELPRO operations against organizations and leaders took a toll, and > there were pleasant distractions such as disco music or take your pick. > > Social change comes down to communication. Great efforts have resulted in > fine books, stories for films and books, and there have been some wonderful > speeches. But it must really start and end with the conversation wherein > the top topic is the issues of the day approached honestly and without > fear. > > When people talk about a problem openly, then there is a chance of solving > it. There may be no solution, but the attempt to converse about it may have > other beneficial effects and lead to unexpected breakthroughs. > > When people avoid talking about serious matters, much harm can be done by > others who are intent on opportunism or worse. Distracting people with > other issues is therefore the prime tool for those trying to maintain an > advantage in the status quo. It can also be said that the main tool is > enslavement through economic dominance -- a giant distraction from > realizing a liberated life style. Many robotic or sheep-like people today > have no concept of liberation except personal enrichment. > > Talking about food security > > We would not know it from the corporate media or our politicians, but we > should be worrying big time that food supply will fail untold millions of > people. All one has to do is look at energy, topsoil, pressures of the > market (such as rising demand for food), and mix in some catastrophic > weather that is assured, and we have a huge disaster ahead. It is just a > matter of time. > > There is a movement to appreciate local food, slow food, organic food. But > it has not reduced the average number of miles a piece of food travels via > petroleum in the U.S.: 1,500. To produce industrial food -- probably 95% of > what is eaten in the U.S. -- ten caloric units of fossil-fuels produce one > caloric unit of food. Farm workers are among the lowest paid in the nation, > which is strange when everyone wants to eat. Time in the hot sun, subjected > to pesticides and possible immigration raids, make the profession all the > less attractive. There is no longer a designation for farmer in the U.S. > census when so few people live on their own farms anymore. It was no wonder > that when Max Yasgur, who hosted the Woodstock Festival in 1969, began his > welcome with "Now I'm a farmer..." at that he was drowned out by cheers and > applause. That was The Movement expressing itself for nature. Get the > record album and hear it. > > Today I picked three pint-sized baskets of three kinds of berries. It took > me about an hour, even when the season is just right. I still had to pay > eight dollars for the fruit. It is not designated as organic, which would > allow for a higher price, but it was unsprayed. If the value of my time is > $20 an hour, my overall cost was $28. I spent no money on transportation > because I bicycled. There's a problem we don't have a name for: a labor > problem? We are not producing our own food locally because we "cannot > afford to." Rather, we subsidize the food in unsustainable ways while upper > classes of consumers can afford to pay others to grow, gather, process, > truck and prepare the food. This system only works for a few people in a > division-of-labor society geared toward surpluses for the elite: i.e., > Western Civilization. > > In the berry patch a father said bitterly to his daughter, "You guys > dragged me here and I don't have time for all this work." She replied "It's > fun!" I'm glad to report that he had no further retort. Perhaps he should > have a conversation with his family and friends about what he thinks he can > do with his time, what he is allowed to do, and how he may provide for his > family as well as raise a child directly. > > Inane conversation or prattling > > More alarming than empty talk and avoiding critical issues is no talking at > all, when some modern humans live in a computer-game world, or they > communicate mostly in isolation using a cell phone or email. Of these, many > don't have much in the way of friendships, and family is something to > occasionally visit. Meanwhile, conversation is still key, especially if it > can be elevated beyond the personal need to connect to another human being > (even to just discuss clothes or beer). The art of conversation is getting > harder to encounter. People don't seem to have time. > > Before we can work toward starting the conversation on our survival, what > is going on all around us that passes for discussion? My observation is > that the quality of conversation is almost always and everywhere inane. > Wars being fought in the name of the United States of America, in Iraq and > Afganistan, are not prime topics of discussion or debate at any given time > by "the average person." After all, there's endless celebrity news, the > latest unemployment statistics, the latest iPhone technology, a fire in > southern California, President Obama's latest pronouncement on medical > care, and a lost doggy found in another city after a heart-rending odyssey. > > Admittedly, there is also news in the background on climate change, > assassinations, bankruptcies of iconic corporations, and other serious > stories. But there's never a common thread in the corporate news media or > in a politician's speech. On the street you're more likely to hear > something real: "the system sucks." If it does, what do we do about it? > > It should be no wonder that the quality of conversation -- whether in the > living room of "the average person," in the employee lunch room, or at a > bar or party -- is usually inane. Sports news or a review of a television > show are favorites, along with gossip or tales of a weekend adventure. When > the subjects of politics or ecology come up, these are treated with > argument, jokes and derision as often are statements of concern. Rare is a > vow of "I will bicycle to work and get rid of my television." As for > everyday banter with meaning, there can be comparisons of home gardening > techniques. > > Reviving the economy back to growth is the hottest topic in the serious > realm, with climate change ranking at bottom. The latter is denied by some, > or is too scary to tackle. The tendency is to let "the experts" or public > officials deal with it -- as they're dealing with the economy and > everything else. > > They're not bringing us peace. They're not stopping species extinction. > They're not redistributing the wealth or jailing the white collar criminals > (Madoff is an exception, a sop). If the rulers should not rule, shouldn't > this be a major topic of conversation? > > What we need is the conversation that's not happening. In the 1960s and > into the 1970s the politically minded street threater group The Yippies > (Youth International Party) took matters into their own hands to bring > attention to the issues. One method was disruption of business as usual. > Stunts included burning dollar bills, sewing the American flag on to one's > pants, or kissing during college lectures. A book by one of the main > instigators, Jerry Rubin, was titled Do It. (The author became a > stockbroker, a fate probably from losing his hippie support system.) > > Who is "doing it" today? Bloggers? Internet activists? Artists? Obama? > There's some good journalism and activism, but the masses of people are > somehow left out of the conversation. They want to be left out, when they > avoid discussing serious issues relating to their survival on an imperiled > planet. The question is, can they be made to discuss it before things are > totally out of control, when rational discussion may be impossible? No end > of secret government subversion can overcome a big enough conversation. > > We Are Many, They Are Few - Really? > > If all the able-bodied homeless people in the greater New York City area > decided to converge on Wall Street and seize some wealth or demand housing, > they could do it. If the millions of minorities discriminated against by > ruthless corporate employers staged sit ins and used economic boycotts, > such action could earn large concessions. But instead, masses are herded > like sheep by a small number of agents of the elite. The corporate state > does have effective tools such as the military, prisons, police -- the > "stick" -- to go with bribes and perks and promises of mild reform -- the > "carrot." Yet, numerically, if enough people wanted to bring about a truly > equitable society, or in particular end the unpopular wars, this could be > done with little or no violence in a short amount of time. > > The reason it does not happen is that the right conversations are not > taking place except by the very few. Even with the huge and growing number > of people on mood-control and psychiatric drugs, that sad population > unwittingly enriching pharmaceutical companies rather than actually healing > is in good enough condition to talk sensibly and stimulate some community > action. > > The greatest crowd control of all time may be happening right now when a > popular U.S. president can give the idea that he is pursuing meaningful > change. The sleight of hand includes the idea that he can make substantial > change. Obama knows his limitations, as every top politician comes to know. > In addition to promising improvements and the impossible return to a growth > economy -- and the trickle-down prosperity that never really worked -- > Obama and his allies have some key issues dear to many hearts. > Unfortunately, they are bogus: the technological fix for climate > mitigation, cleaner energy upon peak oil, and better cars. Obama is such a > nice and eloquent guy that most people want to believe he will bring about > more jobs, higher wages, peace, and an end to terrorism, the threat to > polar bears, etc. > > Smooth propaganda -- hard for most people to pick apart: > > President Barack Obama: "These are some of the challenges that our > generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have > us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue > that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy > economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving > too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale > back our goals. These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, > as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did > not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 > colonies became the United States of America." - Fourth of July Statement, > 2009 > > Obama is a perfect maestro for keeping people from dealing directly with > the global mix of crises. Above all, we should regard Obama as personifying > the hierarchy which is seldom questioned. The hierarchy certainly sets the > tone at all possible times. Obama is the current "one," and everyone else > is many, but because of laws and convention he is given the right to be > master and Pied Piper for a time. Then, in 2012, and only then, he can be > re-elected or replaced by a Republicrat or Demopublican. Who the next > president might be is NOT the conversation that needs to take place. > > The fact that the U.S. can feel it has cleansed itself of racism by > electing Obama is a perfect distraction from more serious issues of > extinction. For if we consume enough plastic, are exposed to enough > radiation, and cling to a lifestyle divorced from nature and health, our > species can indeed go extinct -- even without the extinction of the Earth's > climate as we know it. Our best hope to avoid waiting for the worst may > well be collapse of the economic system. This may usher in a sustainable > culture. Maybe people will talk about it and take action in anticipation. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Aug 26 14:05:27 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:05:27 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] LobbyBlog Message-ID: <006301ca2688$b99778c0$2cc66a40$@net> Moving into: Total Wellness Until we clean the corruption up, we aren't going to be able to get anything constructive done. And just like with the plumbing in your home, it may take a whole new system to do the job. Rusty pipes really won't hold water and are not worth repairing. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 10:56 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] LobbyBlog (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) SEE attached chart LobbyBlog http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/09/lobbyblog_n_228657.html First Posted: 07- 9-09 03:50 PM | Updated: 08-26-09 09:37 AM August 26, 2009 In a nod to the House Republicans who devised a chart supposedly showing the bureaucratic nightmare that would result from Democratic health care reforms, the Campaign for America's Future has devised a chart of its own, titled "Who's Paying to Kill Health Reform?" It's a tangled web, with big lobbying firms, industry groups, and Astroturf organizers all linked to townhall meetings. Reflecting a widely-held view among progressives, the big kahuna behind it all is the health insurance industry, via trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. "They're playing a sophisticated game at the front of the pack," said Campaign for America's Future's Roger Hickey in an interview with the Huffington Post. "They're trying to pretend that they're in favor of reform and they're spending some money on advertising that looks like it's pro-reform. And at the same time they're working pretty hard to make sure the public plan is not in the final version. They're primarily using their political contributions and their lobbying efforts to do that." As the chart shows, AHIP is encouraging the employees of its members to attend town hall meetings. The chart also has AHIP pumping money into big PR firms, something unproved that AHIP denies -- though reform advocates suspect it's true. "'Launder' is a strong word, but that's essentially what happens," said Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA executive turned reform advocate. "They pay money to big PR firms and set up front groups and use connections with members of Congress. These are their shills." "It's what I saw as someone who was in the industry for 20 years and who worked on a lot of industry committees -- committees of America's Health Insurance Plans in particular," Potter said. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2009-08-26-AHIP_chart7.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 199335 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 09:39:47 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:39:47 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Press Release - Call to Action - "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day" on Earth - November 11, 2009 - ***Russ Michael - - - TEXT VERSION Message-ID: <003b01ca272c$c3a90a00$4afb1e00$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS FYI and consideration. Imho, Learning to forgive ourselves as well as others is a large part of the healing process. And making mistakes is part of the learning process. From: Russ Michael [mailto:age-reversal at aon.at] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 12:22 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Press Release - Call to Action - "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day" on Earth - November 11, 2009 - ***Russ Michael - - - TEXT VERSION Dear Mary Rose & staff - (Press Release below) It is wonderful 'work' that you do for our human family! Greetings, beloved, beautiful, very 'spiritually awakened' ones! Hope all is going well with you! (Your Light Is Needed Now) (***79 days to go) Please SET your calendar for Nov. 11, 2009 - as our collective Earthwide "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day." Nothing happens by accident...and all things on Earth at one level always work to the 'good of all.' I hope you will be with us and support our collective human consciousness by posting my Call to Action notice at your websites, and notifying your list members of our now 'set' - Nov. 11, 2009 - "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day." IF you see any of my 33 + book title covers at my website below that you would like as a free copy, let me know and I will happily email a word doc or a PDH file copy to you immediately. As you may know, I was inspired to introduce the concept and the word "soulmate" to mass human consciousness on Earth in 1971 with my first book on soulmates, "Finding Your Soulmate" - (still selling in 12 languages 38 years later) a word unknown to the masses then, but after more than 500 Radio and TV talk show appearances--over a period of 10 years--the word 'soulmate' is now dearly embedded in the hearts and on the lips of almost everyone abiding on Earth--in all languages! As you further well know, nothing can stop an idea 'when it's time' has come! Ditto - for our "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day." Nov. 11, 2009 Your email reply and confirmation of this "Call to Action" letter is appreciated. Bless us all. In loving brotherhood. I am Russ Michael Age-Reversal at aon.at www.soulmatebooks.com Press Release - Aug 13, 2009 - Russ Michael, Founder 'Peace and Forgiveness of All Day' - November 11, 2009 CALL TO ACTION (Note from Russ Michael...our already activated 'game plan' is to create a "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day." The below "Call to Action" was posted to many thousands of Lightworkers in my Aug. 3, 2009 'Michael Worldwide Newsletter' edition - first 'picked up' and re-posted by swift action of Lightworker Caroline Dawley in her wonderful daily Pathway of Peace Global Messenger! Bless dear Caroline's caring, sharing heart.... As our Archangels and Ascended Masters of Earth have revealed, the vibratory frequency of Gaia, our living Earth planet, and all life on Earth has now reached a required high 'end times" pitch and THUS NOW a 'collective human INTENT' immediately AND IMMENSELY calls 'quantum physics' into play! Miracles, instant manifestations, instant healings, and seeming magical collapses of time, space and motion will become more and more humanly common, public and self evident. For those of us who are awake, ready and willing, our individual and mass physical body and Being Ascension--without experiencing physical body death--is assured! Remember, if it is just you and me alone, As Jesus the Christ Consciousness Master we know and love dearly said--"when two or more are gathered together in My Name"--we have His promise of us then creating an immense power of manifestation, so let's you and I begin! Let us now begin--you and I--let us set the date of Nov, 11, 2009 as the first agreed 'collective' conscious human INTENT of a "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day" be established. Let those beloved others who join us--who the ever present Law of Attraction "calls to action'--respond in their own right and in their own chosen time. So be it! If you and I send this message to our email lists, and we ask others to do the same, and we talk to our loved ones and friends, asking them to do the same--spreading 'the word"-- that this vitally important "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day" 'movement' will have now effectively begun. And..so it is! Perhaps we can soon convince an already stable and respected existing Lightworker website to 'host' and spread this movement worldwide via the Internet--"in a flash." Are you with me on this? Let's do it. Let's have fun, companionship, forgiveness of all...and peace on Earth! It's about time! If so, let me know. What are your ideas or plans? Do you know an individual or a group of Lightworkers, or women and men of a good heart, or a head of a Lightworker Organization you can sent this urgent "call to action" message to? All is well. Bless us all. We are One. Be at peace, now. I am Russ Michael. Age-Reversal at aon.at - - www.soulmatebooks.com **************************************************************************** ******* Carolyn Dawley wrote PEACE IS THE PATHWAY OF PEACE...WE ARE ONE FAMILY, ONE HEART, ONE SPIRIT FOR PEACE ON EARTH..THANK YOU FOR PASSING IT ON... WHITEFAWN STAR ***Contact dear Caroline at: PathwayofPeace at Yahoo.com FEEDBACK (a very brief portion flooding in...keep them coming!) Alan Bradley writes Hi Russ Your idea for a world peace day is a simple way to bring about a dramatic change quickly If you print "spiritual" in your search engine it will show there are 350,000,000 web sites involved in spirituality in one way or another. If you prepared a standard letter and asked for volunteers from your readers each could contact an agreed number of sites. In the first instance a small pilot scheme could be tried to see what response there is. Blessings Alan Bradley Caroline Dawley writes Dearest Soul, Russ Michael, You can count me in for our ONENESS 4 PEACE day 11-11-11.. Thank you for your wise words very helpful to so many and for your daily offerings in service to the ONE...Please check out my Global Messenger today that has your article in it...and I will continue sending. WE ARE GATHERING NOW...and the 12 Tribes are coming together as ONE FAMILY 4 Peace...thank you and sending much love and blessings your way... Caroline Dawley Carmel McGrath Hi, I wish to request a Call To Action form.I am ready for this. Thank you Sue Ann Russ, This is a wonderful idea!!! I will send this out...... Love ya' Sue Ann Dr. Henry Stephenson Dear brother Michael, of course I want the letter to share with my contacts. Thgis is one of the finest most forthright show of support for Love and Peace that has hit cyberspace for some time. With love and appreciation for all that you do, your loving brother Henry Michael Clarke I will be happy and pleased to send out your Call to Action letter and forward to as many organizations or people as i can. Maribel Todd Excellent, excellent, excellent! We will be joining all of you on that day. Calendar is marked! Blessings, MIchael Marilyn (Italy) I'll be brief but pleeeease just "know" that I AM WITH YOU all the way. Just wanted to suggest to include the "Call to Action" letter in each of your newsletters right up to the date of 11-11-11 so that folks can be continually reminded about it. Yes - let's do it !! Jane Young-Belk Please sent to me the "Call to Action" letter I can use to forward to my friends in NM and all over. Thanks. Jane Young-Belk Zan Benham writes Thank you Russ for your timely communication and most certainly, we will participate here with all in Sarasota, FL. I have forwarded your email to a compatriot. A woman named Jo Mooy and knowing Jo, she will probably make contact with you as well. Her website is www.starsounding.com Flo Deems writes I do think that the more special days we have to do world wide Light Work, the faster we'll be getting the ascension accomplished. So yes, I plan to participate in the special activities of November 11, 2009! Love & Light, Flo Deems Ray Rankin Michael, Count me in for 11-11-11 Event !!! I use Ho'oponopono on a regular basis with feeling and intent, and have had some startling results. (Thoughts really do have wings guys) Just simply repeat silently to yourself the following : " I love you, I am sorry, please forgive me, I thank you " repeatedly for 5 minutes daily, or while walking barefoot in nature. (for the grounding) I'll leave you with a thought to ponder. "When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, the World will know Peace" In Love and Light, So, how about it? Volunteers - please contact me at Age-Reversal at aon.at I will be happy and pleased to send you a 'standard' Call to Action letter which you each and all, print out, hand out, post, and can forward freely to various and countless peace and forgiveness loving organizations or people. Do not be concerned about duplicates, for is that not a clear and dynamic living 'example' of a powerful INTENT THAT IS MANIFESTING? Let me know if you want to contact websites and send them my "Call to Action" letter? Bless us all. Yes, Yes, Yes - We are doing it! P.S. My idea is that since we will have many loving millions of 'peace desiring" individuals (***vision tens of millions) instead of a 'set hour' time (difficult for many to attend together) we ask each blessed "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day" on Earth...participant to spend 10 to 15 minutes upon awakening--on Nov. 11, 2009, as well as before falling asleep that haloed night, and a few more times during this haloed "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day." With such an immense mass of participants...and this 'game plan' it allows for a continual, 24 hour stream of tens of "two or more" or tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands--COLLECTIVELY FEELING AND HOLDING our sacred and divine Human INTENT for PEACE AND FORGIVENESS OF ALL DAY on Earth--at any given moment--of this now so 'long DESTINED' DAY! We have now less than 90 days to prepare...and we are doing it! DENNIS KUCINICH Does anyone receiving this call to action have a direct link with Dennis Kucinich? Or Obama? Or "The Elders" - Or...??? Dennis is the obvious one to help legislate our "Peace and Forgiveness of All Day...on Earth in our USA! Bless us all. We are One. P.S. We are already snowballing along!! Many, more and more, quite eager Lightworkers, are contacting me and asking for a copy of my "Call to Action" letter to print out and to share with others! Please 'get in line' if you feel 'moved' to help this sacred movement. We can do it! In loving brotherhood. I am Russ Michael Age-Reversal at aon.at - www.soulmatebooks.com ***We are the bearers of Peace and Forgiveness of all on Earth! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 09:42:29 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:42:29 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Thinking With Someelse's Head - ON VACCINES Message-ID: <004001ca272d$2a3aab20$7eb00160$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Check this article out on "Re-thinking Vaccines". http://somebodyelseshead.blogspot.com/ Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 10:58:13 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:58:13 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Where does AT&T stand on healthcare? Not with you Message-ID: <005501ca2737$bea5c560$3bf15020$@net> For your information and consideration. From: newsletters at motherjones.com [mailto:newsletters at motherjones.com] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:05 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Where does AT&T stand on healthcare? Not with you Dear friend, I'd like to make a personal pitch for you to consider this offer from CREDO Mobile. CREDO is truly a different kind of phone company?they're helping lead the progressive charge on issues from civil liberties and choice to peace, climate change, and social justice. In the last few weeks, they've focused their significant resources on the campaign for real, substantive health care reform that isn't a cave-in to insurance interests and Big Pharma. Point is, with CREDO Mobile, there's a high-quality alternative to companies like AT&T. I mean, do you really want to give your business to AT&T? Their political action committee supported John McCain and they twice donated the maximum amount to elect George W. Bush and Dick Cheney! No noble sacrifices required: CREDO Mobile will free you from your current contract by covering the cost of your early termination fees (up to $200), and give you 10% off your monthly service fee for two years. So, please: hear them out. I think you'll be impressed. Publisher, Mother Jones The following is a sponsored message: put your phone bill to work for real healthcare reform CREDO Mobile, brought to you by Working Assets Is your phone company fighting for real healthcare reform? Choice of phones plus contract buyout* The BlackBerry Curve is a full-featured smartphone with integrated solutions for work and personal email, plus web browsing, a video camera, and much more. BlackBerry? Curve? 8330 smartphone for just $49.99 (special offer code: 500389) The Samsung M320 is a stylish two-tone phone, equipped with all the absolute essentials, like a camera, speakerphone, and Bluetooth?. free Samsung M320 (special offer code: 500389) The LG Rumor slides open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, and has a built-in MP3 player to store and play your favorite music; it also has a 1.3 megapixel camera and video recorder. LG Rumor? QWERTY Slider for just $19.99 (special offer code: 500389) learn more Not if your phone company is AT&T. AT&T twice contributed the maximum amount to help elect George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. We all know their record on healthcare: zero help for consumers and a massive handout for pharmaceutical companies. So why not switch to CREDO Mobile? We're the only phone company fighting for a robust public option in any healthcare-reform legislation. We?re also the only one supporting Rep. John Conyers? H.R. 676, which would create a single-payer system. Sign up with CREDO Mobile today and you?ll get a special discount on your monthly fee, along with:* * Contract buyout credit up to $200 * 10% off your monthly service fee for 24 months * No contract for 30 days** * Number portability: bring your current phone number with you * Nationwide coverage on the all-digital Sprint? network, reaching more than 280 million people? And that?s not all. Every time you call with CREDO Mobile, you support the causes you believe in. That?s because CREDO donates a portion of all charges to progressive nonprofits like Physicians for a National Health Program, Doctors Without Borders, Planned Parenthood and Global Fund for Women ? a total of $63 million since 1985. These donations are automatic and come at no extra cost to you. We never contribute to elected officials. But we do make it easy for you to give them a piece of your mind with free calls to the White House and Congress and convenient talking points on critical issues. So next time you pay your phone bill, ask yourself: is your phone company supporting your progressive values? Think about it. Then think about CREDO Mobile. Click here to join now and get FREE 2-day shipping and no activation fee. Offers expire September 1, 2009. free solar charger and wireless headset Sign up no later than September 1 to get 10% off your monthly service fee for 24 months! Click here for the details. _____ Kay R. "I've been a CREDO member for over two years. I selected CREDO because they help me support the causes I believe in and give me a say in how the contributions are distributed. I remain a CREDO member for those reasons, and also because of CREDO's respect for my privacy, their superior telephone service, their friendly and respectful customer service representatives. All that at a competitive price! What's not to love?" ? Kay R., CREDO Mobile customer _____ Take Action! Tell Obama: The public option is not optional. Start torture investigation with Cheney and Addington. Tell your senators: Monsanto can't feed the world Free Ringtones Obama Inaugural Address: The Time Has Come Obama Inaugural Address: Let It Be Said Will Durst - "Hello" Paul Wellstone - Keep on Marching * All with a two-year CREDO Mobile service agreement. Offer subject to credit qualification. Contract buyout credit: CREDO Mobile will credit your account (up to $200) 30 days after receiving a copy of your prior carrier's early termination fee charges; details to follow by mail. ** No early termination fee for the first 30 days; all service charges and late/damaged equipment-return fees apply. ? Sprint is the network provider only; your service is handled exclusively by CREDO Mobile. Sprint is a trademark of Sprint Nextel. BlackBerry?, RIM?, Research In Motion?, SureType?, SurePress? and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. AT&T is a registered trademark of AT&T Intellectual Property and is not associated with CREDO. credomobile.com | workingassets.com | credoaction.com This message was sent to maryrose333 at att.net. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop receiving Mother Jones' Offers, click to unsubscribe . To stop ALL email from Mother Jones eMail List, click to remove yourself from our lists (or reply via email with "remove or unsubscribe" in the subject line). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 11:01:28 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:01:28 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Shaping Tomorrow Insight Newsletter Message-ID: <005a01ca2738$27cdefe0$7769cfa0$@net> FYI From: Bruce Lloyd [mailto:info at shapingtomorrow.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 1:48 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Shaping Tomorrow Insight Newsletter If you have trouble viewing our newsletter via email please click here to view it online: http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/newsletter.cfm Click here to go to the website Insight Newsletter 26 August 2009 Edited by Bruce Lloyd _____ Asia's water crisis Countries in south and east Asia must spend billions of dollars to improve antiquated crop irrigation and poor water management systems to cope with rapid population increases Insights: Water Crisis To Hit Asian Food World Water Week and the Challenges of the Future Our quick, high level, global assessment of this trend's Signal Strength Change perspective Penetration widespread Impact very high Likelihood very high Urgency very high Time-frame now Implications Millions of farmers have taken the responsibility for irrigation into their own hands, mainly using out-of-date and inefficient pump technology. This means they can extract as much water as they like from their land, draining a precious natural resource. Governments inability to regulate this practice is giving rise to scary scenarios of groundwater over-exploitation, which could lead to regional food crises and widespread social unrest. Our Strategic Thinking service contains thousands more of these trends. We are spotting on a daily basis. _____ Latest Insights We aim to alert you to upcoming changes from which you can explore issues of interest further. We offer a hand-picked selection of resources, reports and publications from commercial organisations, government agencies, NGOs, think-tanks and other public interest organizations. Every week our members add many new insights to Shaping Tomorrow. By viewing the new insights you can anticipate how tomorrow will be different for you and your organisation. You can also add insights to create a personal database of emerging change. Shaping Tomorrow subscribers can also access unique discovery analyses such as 360 degree views of emerging issues, timelines, tag clouds, latest citations, sources and country impacts. They also have access to special collections including industry analysis, regional potential and social change, plus an advanced search facility. Subscription costs just 95 British Pounds (+17.5% tax for those based in the European Union), or $139 in the United States. You can pay using one of many credit cards directly at our web site. Why put yourself at a disadvantage to our 13,051 subscribers and your competition when you can join today; you won't find a more comprehensive service at such low cost anywhere! Welcome to our latest Insight newsletter. Read the trend alerts, article and video links below to find your Trends before others do. Our weekly newsletter is just a gentle reminder of what's maybe changing imperceptibly around you. The website itself contains a much larger selection of structured content, with likely high relevance to you and your organisation, and is updated daily. We have added 426 new links this week including Employers Crack Down On Social Networking, Web Surfing At Work More companies now block social networking sites than block Web mail, online shopping, or sports sites Bulldoze Cubicles For Better Collaboration Companies are finally realizing what their employees have known for ages: Cubicle cultures just don't work 3D Movies Making A Comeback In the past five years, about 20 3-D films have hit theaters, most recently Disney Pixar's "Up" earlier this year. Another 50 or so are in production, including "Avatar," the latest film from "Titanic" director James Cameron. Metal Coating That Repairs Itself Electroplated metal could be used to make self-healing construction materials, car parts, and machinery Dollar: Soon to Swoon? A flood of greenbacks from the Federal Reserve and the Obama and Bush Administrations may be necessary now to prop up the ailing economy. But the government must control its debt in the future?or risk the consequences Help Not Wanted How quickly will firms start hiring again as the economy recovers? Advance Toward An 'Electronic Tongue' With A Taste For Sweets In a new approach to an effective "electronic tongue" that mimics human taste, scientists are reporting development of a small, inexpensive, lab-on-a-chip sensor that quickly and accurately identifies sweetness -- one of the five primary tastes. Intelligent Harvesting Robot To Cut Costs For UK Farms Researchers have developed imaging technology to be used in an intelligent harvesting machine that could minimise wastage and solve an impending labour shortage for UK farmers Future Tourism May Include Robot Relationships It sounds like science fiction, but robot bar staff, hotel rooms that change colour, cruise ships as big as aircraft carriers and even robot sex are part of the future for travellers. Autonomous Autos: New Kit Converts Any Vehicle Into A Robot (With Video) Utah-based Kairos Autonomi sells a conversion kit called the Pronto4 Strap-On Autonomy System that can transform any steered vehicle into an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle. _____ Futures Research Methodology We are pleased to offer Futures Research Methodology (FRM) Version 3.0 at a 15% discount from normal price. FRM Version 3.0 produced by The Millennium Project is the largest, most comprehensive collection of internationally peer-reviewed handbook on methods and tools to explore future possibilities ever assembled in one resource. Over half of the chapters were written by the inventor of the method or by a significant contributor to the method?s evolution. Editors: Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon. The CD-ROM contains 39 chapters totalling about 1,300 pages. Each method is treated in a separate file in word (.doc) and PDF format. ISBN: 978-0-9818941-1-9 Normal Price: $49.50 but to ST members just ?43.00 US dollars plus shipping Contact us today to get your copy. _____ A Guide To Practical Foresight - 37. Recording insights Part 37 of a year long series on how to use Practical Foresight for competitive advantage: When you start to record your insights as scanning hits, you are working at the initial stage of the Foresight Process. You are working out how to present your scanning hits in ways that will make sense to you and your organization. Depending on the scope of your scanning, you can manage the recording process manually, or you can use a database online. (Shaping Tomorrow offers a free database to record your scan hits). Either way, it's probably a good idea to have one or two people whose job it is to coordinate receipt of the scanning hits from all scanners. This will allow some consistency to emerge in how the hits are recorded and summarized. When you identify a hit that you wish to record, ensure you capture the following: * a title for the scanning hit * the source where you located the hit, and the date it was published * a brief description of what the change is all about * the future implications that you see from this change * the url if appropriate * any tags you to use to find your material again, for instance, keywords, project names, or dates. Once a week, review your hits and tags and clusters of like hits will begin to emerge. At this stage, you are starting to identify trends. Share the weekly report among the scanning team and get their feedback on what is important to explore more deeply. You might share via email or you might have a meeting - whatever works for your organization. Over time, your preliminary clusters of scanning hits will become stronger and you will recognise common or similar patterns of change. At this stage, you probably have a trend, and you will be able to write a short summary statement about that trend, so that people will understand its importance to your organization. Questions about the trend's implications for your organization will also probably start to emerge at this stage - keep a note of these questions as they will be useful at the reporting stage. You may also start to see connections (both positive and negative) among trends. Keep a record of them as well, as they will be useful "conversation starters" further along in the strategy development process. You can record trends at Shaping Tomorrow for a small fee as follows. You can read the full guide or contact us to learn how to improve Practical Foresight in your organisation. Contents ? Asia's water crisis <> ? Latest Insights <> ? Futures Research Methodology <> ? A <> Guide To Practical Foresight - 37. Recording insights ? Strategy in a box with <> 'My Analysis' ? Recession Watch <> ? Need a speaker <> Strategy in a box with 'My Analysis' Ever wanted a complete suite of tools, techniques and content to quickly create your business plan or futures research on your desktop fast and share it dynamically with your associates? Now you can, for as little as ?985. If you are a futurist, strategist, change agent, risk or innovation manager, marketer or business developer you?ll find this world-leading scanning, planning and actioning tool invaluable in staying ahead of the curve, understanding the potential world you face and determining your response. Shaping Tomorrow now offers 'My Analysis', a unique, ultra low-cost service to all but the smallest organisations and sole traders including: * Access to thousands of continuously updated, searchable, sortable, and selectable Insights on what the future may hold for all of us * Access to thousands of hand analysed, ranked and selectable global trends, uncertainties and wildcards that are changing all about us * Your ability to add, analyse, rank, and select your own private Insights and Trends for detailed analysis * A comprehensive suite of best practice tools and techniques to help you see potential futures, understand their impacts on you, your organisation and rivals, plan your response and track your actions. As the world changes you can modify your plans and communicate your evolving strategy to your colleagues and publics thus inspiring, engaging and enabling them to reach your aim in real time. And, if you are looking to create your own private, fire-walled site with your own logo, taxonomy, regular newsletter, trends publishing capability, collaboration tools and an ability to share your plans with your people prices start at just ?9,185. Contact us today for a free demonstration or to subscribe. Recession Watch "When will this recession end?" This is the question most on our clients lips. Use this social network graph to see which way our contributors think the world is heading. Last updated 25th August 2009. Take advantage of any upturn or prepare for a further downturn, ahead of the pack, by reading our 'what to do now' recession tips for how to survive and get to more positive futures, faster. Read more Need a speaker Planning your next company conference, meeting, workshop or retreat? Looking for an exciting, provocative guest speaker to get the audience thinking about future opportunities and risks and how to address them? Contact us with your needs and we will put you in touch with the right person. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 12:03:58 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:03:58 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: AMI Blog is blogging Message-ID: <007401ca2740$ee89d100$cb9d7300$@net> FYI and consideration. From: AMI [mailto:ami at taconic.net] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 9:25 AM To: AMI Subject: AMI Blog is blogging Dear Friends of the American Monetary Institute, Three items in this message: First a salute, a moment of silence and Good bye to Senator Edward Kennedy, who worked tirelessly to help the American stressed classes and especially to get health care protection for us. Watching the memorials to him today, one is struck by his speech on Health Care back in 1980, which might have been made yesterday! So little progress has been made on this. "Teddy" pressed on, despite the sacrifices his family suffered in the evil against his two brothers, John and Robert. And don't forget the oldest brother who died in volunteering to fly an extremely dangerous one plane mission in WW2. The Kennedy family is to America what the Gracchan family was to Rome (See my book The Lost Science of Money, Chapter 2 on Rome). The difference being that we will not fail as the Gracchus's ultimately did. Lets hope President Obama finally grows a spine and starts at least trying to deliver what he promised (but don't hold your breath while Geithner, Summers and Emmanuel surround him)! Second, we've assembled a really great line up of speakers for the Conference at Roosevelt University. "After Downing Street" was impressed and gave us this nice write up at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/45464 Remember friends registrations postmarked by August 30th get a $100 discount! See http://www.monetary.org/2009schedule.html Third, AMI Researcher Jamie Walton has completed a study on why pushing the State governments to enter the banking business is a big mistake and a distraction at best, and would actually work against reform. You can see his essay and comment on it (we have reactivated our blog) at http://www.monetary.org/moneyscenefive.html Warm regards to all! Stephen Zarlenga Ami P.S. For those of you in the Chicago area, we have a free monetary Seminar on Wednesday Sept. 2nd at the NEAR NORTH PUBLIC LIBRARY, 310 W. Division Street, 6:30 PM to 9. Call 224-805-2200. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 12:05:23 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:05:23 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Climate alarm: September 21st Message-ID: <007901ca2741$22983b80$67c8b280$@net> From: Ben Wikler - Avaaz.org [mailto:avaaz at avaaz.org] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 5:54 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Climate alarm: September 21st Dear friends, On climate, it's now or never. We have just over 100 days left to reach a new global treaty to avert climate disaster (and unleash a new green economy) -- but we're nowhere near getting it done. We have a choice to make: should we pull out all the stops this month to beat climate change? Avaaz is considering a massive, network-wide push for a "global wake-up call" to world leaders on September 21st. This would be the biggest organizing effort we've ever done, aiming to bring our whole network out (peacefully!) to the streets, ringing alarms, holding massive rallies in major cities, and gathering to send wake-up messages from schools, homes, and public squares. From all these places, we would flood world leaders with phone calls, and the actual sound of these millions of voices would be recorded, condensed and presented to heads of state at the UN climate summit in New York the next day. If we do this, Avaaz will spend the next 4 weeks almost non-stop on it, and it will take hundreds of thousands of us joining efforts to pull it together -- hosting and attending events, reaching out to our communities, using all our creativity and dedication. This is an important decision, and we need to make it together. From now until September 21 -- should we do it? The goal of our wake-up call is a big one: to convince the world's leaders to meet at the final climate talks in Copenhagen this December and sign an ambitious, fair and binding treaty to stop catastrophic climate change. Talks on the treaty have been building for years. Now, 100 days from Copenhagen, we're nearing a tipping point -- and a huge global roar could make the difference. If we take this on, we won't be alone. Avaaz has been working closely with a new, massive coalition of global civil society groups, from Oxfam to WWF to Greenpeace, to multiply the world's voices for climate action. The joint campaign's name is Tck Tck Tck -- the sound of a ticking clock, as time runs short. Every group involved shares the vision of success in Copenhagen, and we can't succeed without everyone. The question is -- should Avaaz make this climate wake-up call its #1 priority through September 21? Yes, make climate the #1 priority No, continue on as before It has been said that if the people lead, the leaders will follow. This is our time to lead. Politicians know as well as we do that it's time for action on climate change, but they fear the consequences of doing what's right. Let's show them they've got it backwards: the world will settle for nothing less than the right thing. It's our decision: whether to wake up the world. With hope, Ben, Ricken, Taren, Iain, Alice, Paula, Graziela, and the whole Avaaz team -------------------- Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here . ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter! You are getting this message because you signed "Stand with Tibet - Support the Dalai Lama" on 2008-03-30 using the email address maryrose333 at att.net. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=profile&user=a98a963da1ffa62878f25e4ba46af430&lang=en, or simply go here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us via the webform at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 17:46:26 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:46:26 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Sustainable Agriculture: Curing America's Eating Disorder Message-ID: <000d01ca2770$c3f7ae50$4be70af0$@net> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqNBeSp1MRw This is a really good video for those who are interested, and who have developed a mind set (belief system) that is focused on creating lifestyle changes that are "life-enhancing" rather than death-defining. Whether one views this video and gets the message, all depends upon how one's sub-conscious mind has been programmed and whether or not the script has been updated since childhood whether or not this message will be received and acted upon. What we are talking about is one's state of consciousness. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Aug 27 23:21:52 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:21:52 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Watch my video w/ John Assaraf (of The Secret) Message-ID: <004001ca279f$a18f0af0$e4ad20d0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS I urge everyone to watch closely anything that David Wolfe is sending out. And, I feel it imperative for everyone to be careful of the type of music they listen to and suggest only healing music as defined by the Solfeggio Scale which is music played between 417 and 528hz. We are not only what we eat, but research shows that the subtle energy vibrations of music outside of the Solfeggio Scale, have a major effect on our body's coherence pattern which, in turn, effects the immune system and lowers our defense against disease. Ref: Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse" by Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Dr. Joseph S. Puleo. James A. L. Dussault, N. D., .D.D., Ph.D - President of the World Natural Health Organization writes with regard to this book: "This book belongs in every home, church, synagogue, and religious temple around the world. I could not put his book down. It is filled with some of the most enlightening, spellbinding, and scientifically proven information ever written. . ." From: David Wolfe [mailto:Dave at longevitynowprogram.com] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:59 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Watch my video w/ John Assaraf (of The Secret) Hi Friends, I have something very cool for you. I was recently interviewed by a friend of mine, John Assaraf. You may know John as one of the stars of the hit film, The Secret, or as best-selling author of "The Answer." Well we just filmed an incredible in depth conversation about the real secrets behind living longer, looking younger and most importantly feeling better. You Can Watch It For F-R-E-E Here... John had originally planned to release this private footage to his inner circle of coaching clients, but after the flood of positive responses, he felt inspired to share. This multimedia presentation has something for everyone... Video, Audio, My Personal Photos, You Will Love It Have the best day ever, David "Avocado" Wolfe P.S. By demand, our sold out Longevity Now Program is back, but the $2000+ in bonuses from my friends (hair growth, memory improvement, weight loss, and more) are about to expire. You Can Check Out More About Program And Bonuses Here This message was sent from David Wolfe to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: leonard foley, 9 Carlito Rd NM , Sante Fe, NM 87508. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! Manage your subscription -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Aug 28 00:06:12 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:06:12 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Town Hall Lunacy Includes Outraged Calls to 'Keep Government Out of Medicare, ' Message-ID: <005601ca27a5$d0615fd0$71241f70$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 9:09 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Town Hall Lunacy Includes Outraged Calls to 'Keep Government Out of Medicare,' Town Hall Lunacy Includes Outraged Calls to 'Keep Government Out of Medicare,' When Medicare Is Government http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/142174/town_hall_lunacy_includes_outr aged_calls_to_%27keep_government_out_of_medicare%2C%27_when_medicare_is_gove rnment/?page=entire By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted August 27, 2009 Some can't reconcile what they believe about the propaganda that is fed to them with their own positive experiences with public programs like Medicare. As the health care discussion has descended from contentious to surreal, there is perhaps one message that encapsulates better than any other the incoherence of those expressions of rage seen at town hall meetings across the country: "Keep government out of my Medicare!" The rallying cry has been heard again and again as lawmakers have returned home to discuss health reform during the summer recess. In South Carolina, an enraged constituent told Republican Rep. Bob Inglis to "keep your government hands off my Medicare!"; a woman reportedly sent a letter to the White House stating in no uncertain terms, "I don't want government-run health care, I don't want socialized medicine and don't touch my Medicare." Slate's Timothy Noah put out an open invitation for readers to submit more examples of this kind of confusion. The incoherence isn't limited to the low-information rubes turning out at town halls either. Supply-side, "voodoo economist" Arthur Laffer cautioned during a recent interview on CNN, "If you like the post office and the Department of Motor Vehicles, and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government." And in a wildly convoluted interview on Fox News this week, RNC Chairman Michael Steele argued simultaneously that Medicare is an inefficient, deeply flawed program that must be protected at all costs. The outrage is a perfect picture of right-populism, argues Chip Berlet, an expert on right-wing movements. "The town meeting confrontations over health care are an example of right-wing populist protests that periodically sweep across the United States," he says. "The anger, fear and resentment are often mobilized by cynical political elites as part of an orchestrated response." Many observing these debates from abroad have probably concluded that we, as a nation, have finally gone completely mad. And it's hard to argue otherwise. How sane could be a polity that sits by with relative complacence when its leaders launch devastating and groundless invasions of foreign lands but approach a full-on rebellion when those leaders make some modest moves to deliver decent health care at a price people can afford? And how could these people be so divorced from the dynamics of their own health care that they don't appear to understand that the Medicare they value so highly is very much a government-run health care program? The most frequent answer from liberals is that these people are simply uneducated buffoons who listen to too much Rush Limbaugh, an argument that's not without merit. But historian Rick Perlstein thinks that the statement reflects, at least in part, zero-sum thinking among one of the few groups of Americans whose health care is guaranteed by the government. "It's almost like: 'I got mine and screw you.' People think that any expansion of the [public] health care pie means that their slice will get smaller," he told me. Perhaps a more straightforward explanation can be found in the psychological literature. In their 1950 classic, The Authoritarian Personality, UCLA psychologists Theodor Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford identified a cluster of traits that they argued were inherent in the conservative worldview, including a fierce protectiveness of the status quo, a tendency to lash out at opponents, an embrace of stereotypes and cynicism. All are traits that have been on display in abundance as conservatives lash out at lawmakers for what they believe, erroneously, to be in the health care bill. More recently, Bob Altemeyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Manitoba, added to the literature with his model of "right-wing authoritarianism." Drawing on years of empirical research, Altemeyer found that the right-wing authoritarian personality is "almost totally uninfluenced by reasoning and evidence." They are likely to believe those they perceive as authorities on an issue without question, even when, as in the health reform debate, those leaders come out with fantastic lies about what the measure would look like, complete with ashen bureaucrats deciding how much health care you deserve based on your lifestyle and elderly people being forced to argue their worth in front of Sarah Palin's now-infamous "death panels." But one aspect of the right-wing authoritarian personality is especially relevant to the question of how someone might demand that government's hands be kept off of Medicare. Altemeyer found in the personality a tendency to avoid cognitive dissonance -- the discomfort caused by holding two contradictory ideas -- at all costs and to lash out when confronted with it. In this case, the conservative mind simply overrides the inherently contradictory ideas, "Medicare is good" and "government health care is bad" by imagining the former as something other than the popular publicly administered program that it is. Those yelling at town hall meetings across the country are deeply indoctrinated with all of the major tenets of right-wing anti-governmentalism. They believe there's "rot at the top," that government intervention in the "free market" is "socialism" -- and not in the Swedish style, but as a brutal and totalitarian system epitomized by the former Soviet Union or today's North Korea. "Government," in their view, is not represented by a heroic firefighter or an organization that is incredibly effective at its task like the United States military. It's a long line at the DMV. So they believe, as Ronald Reagan said, that government cannot be a solution to their problems, only a cause. And yet . they have Medicare. Not only does the program have lower administrative costs than private health insurance, but people who take part in it express a great deal of satisfaction with their coverage. In fact, study after study after study show that people on Medicare are more satisfied with their access to care and the quality of that care than the rest of the population. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There is arguably no area of public policy in which reality more profoundly clashes with the cherished right-wing myth that the government can do no right -- and the "free market" no wrong -- than in health care. Recipients of Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program are the beneficiaries of health care covered by the functional equivalent of a government-run, single-payer program, and most are quite satisfied. Not only does their care come with less overhead, but, according to a study by the Rand Corp., the even smaller group of Americans, veterans, who have truly socialized medicine -- government-run clinics providing care directly -- have the best health care in the country in every measure, except for emergency care. (That's because the emergency care available to veterans is the same as that available to anyone else: Everyone can get treatment in any emergency room, regardless of the ability to pay). The push to reform the system runs headlong into another cherished belief -- one not limited to conservatives: American exceptionalism. In the U.S., we take it for granted that We're No. 1! And while we are number one by a long way in terms of the amount per person that we spend on health care, the World Health Organization ranks our system as the 37th in the world; we lag behind all other developed countries in terms of deaths prevented by medical treatment. And, according to a Gallup survey of the citizens of 30 advanced democracies, Americans come in 18th in terms of their satisfaction with the health care they receive. Chip Berlet admonishes: "Calling these protesters 'extremists' or 'wing nuts' suggesting they are mere puppets of elite rightist spinmasters or demanding they be silenced, undercuts the basic concepts of the democratic process." Berlet recommends that Democrats and progressives "need to learn how to rebut false and misleading statements and beliefs without name-calling; calmly rebuke those spreading the misinformation as harming civil society; and develop strong and clear arguments to defend their proposed programs." He's right, but it's easier said than done when communicating with people who are fighting to establish some degree of cognitive consonance between what they believe about the pernicious nature of government in general and their own experience with good public programs like Medicare. It's hard to respond with anything more than condescension when faced with an angry person screaming at you to keep your dirty government paws off their pristine Medicare program. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 28 03:52:39 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:52:39 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] We must play with the Big Boys...whether we like it, or not! Message-ID: <77402.41170.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? The message below comes from a blog comment awaiting moderation. I feel strongly that interest free monetary reform is largely a waste of time...though I agree entirely with its aims. I think a more pragmatic approach is needed, and a far more important issue needs to be addressed...that of Global Warming.? This should be our focus.With a new financial system it, and many other things could be dealt with successfully. ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics ? ? ? ? I think we all need to understand something very important. It is called money, and its use, and indeed abuse can lead to all sorts of problems with limited resources. If businesses, and indeed massive corporations were given huge financial incentives (electronically monitored)to go green (especially in areas where there is no commercial viability) things would change. This could be done COMPREHENSIVELY on a scale presently unimaginable, and "impossible" with the present financial system. ? What I am referring to in the above is Transfinancial Economics which I believe holds the key to the future.I am becoming increasingly convinced that we have to work with the "big boys" in such a way as to achieve global transformation otherwise we are heading down the road to disaster. ? ?TFE can be presented as something pro-capitalist, pro-corporation, and pro-green. More importantly when the subject is understood the rich, and super-rich would be INCENTIVISED to lobby democratic governments to introduce TFE. Otherwise the present economic ideology, and the present day politicians are going to do little in order to seriously deal with environmental, and resource issues. ? Small grassroots movements to achieve economic/financial reform are probably not going to go far....and moreover time may not be on our side if global warming is true which I suspect it probably is... ? A new understanding of capital is the key, and it can work for the rich, and indeed, the poor because there would always be the finance to help them as far as TFE is concerned. This would not always come from governments but also from reformed banks whose computers could also be electronically monitored to prevent fraud by an independent body. My p2pfoundation entry on Transfinancial Economics explains more. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 28 03:53:29 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:53:29 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: AMI Blog is blogging Message-ID: <924460.43331.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Thu, 27/8/09, AMI wrote: From: AMI Subject: AMI Blog is blogging To: "AMI" Date: Thursday, 27 August, 2009, 4:53 PM Dear Friends of the American Monetary Institute, Three items in this message: First a salute, a moment of silence and Good bye to Senator Edward Kennedy, who worked tirelessly to help the American stressed classes and especially to get health care protection for us. Watching the memorials to him today, one is struck by his speech on Health Care back in 1980, which might have been made yesterday! So little progress has been made on this. "Teddy" pressed on, despite the sacrifices his family suffered in the evil against his two brothers, John and Robert. And don't forget the oldest brother who died in volunteering to fly an extremely dangerous one plane mission in WW2. The Kennedy family is to America what the Gracchan family was to Rome (See my book The Lost Science of Money, Chapter 2 on Rome). The difference being that we will not fail as the Gracchus's ultimately did. Lets hope President Obama finally grows a spine and starts at least trying to deliver what he promised (but don't hold your breath while Geithner, Summers and Emmanuel surround him)! Second, we've assembled a really great line up of speakers for the Conference at Roosevelt University. "After Downing Street" was impressed and gave us this nice write up at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/45464 Remember friends registrations postmarked by August 30th get a $100 discount! See http://www.monetary.org/2009schedule.html Third, AMI Researcher Jamie Walton has completed a study on why pushing the State governments to enter the banking business is a big mistake and a distraction at best, and would actually work against reform. You can see his essay and comment on it (we have reactivated our blog) at http://www.monetary.org/moneyscenefive.html Warm regards to all! Stephen Zarlenga Ami P.S. For those of you in the Chicago area, we have a free monetary Seminar on Wednesday Sept. 2nd at the NEAR NORTH PUBLIC LIBRARY, 310 W. Division Street, 6:30 PM to 9. Call 224-805-2200. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Fri Aug 28 04:14:56 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:14:56 +0100 Subject: [GJM] We must play with the Big Boys...whether we like it, or not! References: <77402.41170.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <004c01ca27c8$650f6290$0301a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear Robert, 1. You say that interest-free reform is a waste of time. But interest-free loans are:- a) the only thing which is understood by, and acceptable to, the world in general b) the only thing which is acceptable in Islam, for example and everybody is now coming to understand that the national banks can most certainly issue loans (as they are doing on a huge scale to bail out the banks) Moreover, it is so easy to understand that interest-free loans (coming from the national bank) can easily replace interest-bearing loans coming from the banking system -- thereby halving, even quartering the cost of public capital projects, for example. Interest-free loans are practical and easily possible now. 2. The loans -- with greatly extended implementation -- are the method (probably the only method) by which global warming can be addressed. They allow cheap money for clean electricity generation and environmental capital projects and, crucially, ensure an income and income security for everybody thereby making possible a change in consuming attitudes and promoting the voluntary control of population levels -- see www.binaryeconomics.net -- the Environment page. Rodney Shakespeare. ----- Original Message ----- From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 10:52 AM Subject: [GJM] We must play with the Big Boys...whether we like it, or not! The message below comes from a blog comment awaiting moderation. I feel strongly that interest free monetary reform is largely a waste of time...though I agree entirely with its aims. I think a more pragmatic approach is needed, and a far more important issue needs to be addressed...that of Global Warming. This should be our focus.With a new financial system it, and many other things could be dealt with successfully. http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics I think we all need to understand something very important. It is called money, and its use, and indeed abuse can lead to all sorts of problems with limited resources. If businesses, and indeed massive corporations were given huge financial incentives (electronically monitored)to go green (especially in areas where there is no commercial viability) things would change. This could be done COMPREHENSIVELY on a scale presently unimaginable, and "impossible" with the present financial system. What I am referring to in the above is Transfinancial Economics which I believe holds the key to the future.I am becoming increasingly convinced that we have to work with the "big boys" in such a way as to achieve global transformation otherwise we are heading down the road to disaster. TFE can be presented as something pro-capitalist, pro-corporation, and pro-green. More importantly when the subject is understood the rich, and super-rich would be INCENTIVISED to lobby democratic governments to introduce TFE. Otherwise the present economic ideology, and the present day politicians are going to do little in order to seriously deal with environmental, and resource issues. Small grassroots movements to achieve economic/financial reform are probably not going to go far....and moreover time may not be on our side if global warming is true which I suspect it probably is... A new understanding of capital is the key, and it can work for the rich, and indeed, the poor because there would always be the finance to help them as far as TFE is concerned. This would not always come from governments but also from reformed banks whose computers could also be electronically monitored to prevent fraud by an independent body. My p2pfoundation entry on Transfinancial Economics explains more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 28 08:12:48 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:12:48 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] A Reply to Rodney on the "Big Boys"....and on making things clearer! Message-ID: <149623.29395.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ?Rodney, ? ??????????? You are missing the point! ? Ofcourse, loans per se are the most acceptable way of "giving" money be they interest free, or not. ? You are also right to say that it would in an ideal world be easy to?implement unlike TFE which would ultimately require time?for the introduction of advanced bank computers, and inflation? legislation?(ultimately replacing taxation after the transitional phase is over).? ? The problem as always if we are seriously talking about interest free loans (ie. "..largely waste of time.." comment in the original email) are the vested interests, and the narrow Neo-Classical Economic stable they largely come from. I agree it would be great if their power to create repayable interest bearing money were curbed but this seems so unlikely...maybe many decades hence but then our planet maybe completely ruined by environmental pollution, and only a small amount of the worlds population may still be alive... ? So, thats why I promote TFE, and the need to work with the Big Boys (notably bankers!) to bring about the necessary future changes...even though a more ethical "grassroots" approach would be preferred.. ? The other thing you do not understand, or appreciate is that there will be vital green projects which are commercially unviable, and thus,?those making loans would not seriously consider them including venture capitalists .?In TFE the money with the right legal mechanism would always be available to ensure such undertakings. This would be in the form of commercial grants which ofcourse are non-repayable. However, they would be electronically tracked, and any misuse would result in an instant electronic fine by the bank from out of the recipients business account. ? Apart from this in TFE there would be a comprehensive national, and international array of schemes concerned with more "minor" aspects of sustainable development. This is not totally possible with the present debt-based system of taxation utilizing subsidies. Moreover, new forms of private banking could be used to create, and supply the grants created electronically, and inflation checked.However, interest free loans would play a major role at least for sometime in the future economy. The interest itself would be created electronically by an independent authority, and the amount can varying thus encouraging competition. ? It is not really important whether fat cat bankers make loads of dosh. What does matter is whether this leads to greater poverty, and more environmental degradation. In TFE there are always grants, and ofcourse interest free loans at the ready, and thus the question about bankers is to a certain extent unimportant. What is important is whether humanity survives in the next few decades, and for that you need a more advanced financial system which could make a wiser, and more ethical choice of limited resources !! ? I hope I am making myself clear. ? I should also make clear that interest free loans would still make up a major part of the future economy along with commercial?grants where, and when necessary. Admitedly, I may have given the other impression which was misleading (ie.non-repayable grants largely making up an economy which would be unacceptable though it would be perfectly possible with modern computer technology). ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics ? R.Searle. ? ? ? ? ? Dear Robert, 1.??? You say that interest-free reform is a waste of time. But interest-free loans are:- a)??? the only thing which is understood by, and acceptable to,? the world in general b)??? the only thing which is acceptable in Islam, for example and everybody is now coming to understand that the national banks can most certainly issue loans (as they are doing on a huge scale to bail out the banks) Moreover,? it is so easy to understand that interest-free loans (coming from the national bank) can easily replace interest-bearing loans coming from the banking system -- thereby halving, even quartering the cost of public capital projects, for example.?? Interest-free loans are practical and easily possible now. 2.? The loans -- with greatly extended implementation -- are the method (probably the only method)? by which global warming can be addressed.? They allow cheap money for clean electricity generation and environmental capital projects and, crucially, ensure an income and income security for everybody thereby making possible a change in consuming attitudes and promoting the voluntary control of population levels -- see www.binaryeconomics.net -- the Environment page. Rodney Shakespeare. ? ----- Original Message ----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 29 04:57:26 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:27:26 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Top 100 Islamic banks defy recession. Message-ID: <383001.3438.qm@web94903.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:9968345380 http://muhammmad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicator.ning.com --- On Sat, 29/8/09, Syed Nasiruddin wrote: From: Syed Nasiruddin Subject: Top 100 Islamic banks defy recessionTo: Date: Saturday, 29 August, 2009, 4:22 PM http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Banking_and_Finance/10344339.html ? Top 100 Islamic banks defy recession woes as combined assets grow 66% Staff Report Published: August 28, 2009, 22:43 Dubai: The Asian Banker has released its annual ranking of the world's top 100 Islamic banks by assets. Combined assets of world's 100 top Islamic banks increased 66 per cent last year, bucking the trend of slow growth in other markets. Asia's 300 largest banks, for example, only grew assets 13.4 per cent in the same period according to a survey conducted by The Asian Banker, a Singapore based publication. "Islamic finance has seen an incredible surge in popularity, based on stronger regulatory regimes and a better international understanding of its dynamics," says Emmanuel Daniel, President and chief executive of The Asian Banker. ?that Islamic finance assets are largely concentrated in Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but growth drivers have come from all over the region, in particular Al Rajhi Bank, which saw assets increase 32.1 per cent. Banks in Bahrain, Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Syria, and the United Kingdom also saw significant double or triple-digit asset growth. Despite the financial turmoil in late 2008 that crippled so many large Western institutions, Islamic banks have continued to grow in prominence and size. According to Asian Banker Research, the world's 100 largest wholly Islamic banks ranked by assets held more than $580 billion (Dh2.1 trillion) in assets in 2008, a 66 per cent increase from the $350 billion they held in the previous year. The top ten banks remained largely the same as the ones that dominated the previous year, with Bank Melli Iran (BMI) still topping the list and Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank in second place, albeit catching up rapidly with a 32 per cent surge in assets compared with BMI's negligible growth. Iranian banks are still the biggest Islamic banking players, holding seven out of the top 10 ranks, and 12 of the 100. The Iranian banks also take up around 40 per cent of listing's assets. The four next-largest markets - the UAE, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - each has similar asset sizes to one another, and together carve out nearly another 40 per cent of the ranking's assets combined, with smaller banks in 10 other markets rounding out the list. Although two Islamic banks in the United Kingdom are large enough to be in the top 100, Islamic banks headquartered outside the Middle East, Asia and North Africa are still very small next to longer-established players in the Middle East. East of Iran, as only Mal-aysian and Bangladeshi Islamic banks have a significant amount of assets. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, only has two banks on the list, while Pakistan has three, and Brunei and Singapore one each. Saudi Arabia's representation is proportionately the largest, as the three banks it has in the list are all in the top 35. Sudanese banks appeared to be among the weakest, with only seven appearing in this year's ranking, down from 19 in the previous ranking. Despite the size of the Iranian banks, Saudi Arabian banks are much more profitable - the three Saudi Arabian banks in the top 100 Islamic banks contributed 19 per cent of the ranking's total income. Al Rajhi Bank had the highest net income figure of $1.74 billion - the only bank to break the billion-dollar mark, which was almost three times more than the second-placed Kuwait Finance House. The bank also earned over five times the most profitable Iranian bank, Bank Tejarat. The bank that jumped the greatest in the asset ranking is Dubai's start-up lender Noor Islamic Bank, which climbed up the ranks to 20th this year. ? ________________________________ ? http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi_arabia/10344209.html ? Saudi prince vows to fight terrorism after attack AP Published: August 28, 2009, 16:16 Riyadh: Hours after being lightly wounded by a suicide bomber, a senior Saudi prince largely credited with the kingdom's aggressive anti-terrorism efforts said Friday he was more determined than ever to fight militants in the country. The bombing was the first assassination attempt against a member of the royal family in decades and was also the first significant attack by militants in the kingdom since 2006. Saudi Arabia has waged a fierce crackdown on Al Qaida militants in the country that succeeded in killing or capturing most of its leaders after a string of attacks that started in 2003. Since the crackdown, Al Qaida's branch in the kingdom has largely moved its operations to neighboring Yemen, where instability and poverty have enabled it to take root. Saudi officials have repeatedly expressed concerns that turmoil in Yemen, where the government lacks control of large areas outside the capital, could allow Al Qaida to carry out cross-border attacks in its territory. Prince Mohammad, who is the son of Interior Minister Prince Nayef, told King Abdullah on Friday when the ruler visited him in the hospital shortly after the assassination attempt that the attacker was a wanted militant who had indicated he was going to turn himself in. "I did not want him to be searched, but he surprised me by blowing himself up," said Prince Mohammad, who was shown on state television with a bandage around two of his fingers on his left hand. "However, this will only increase my determination" to fight terrorism in the kingdom, he said. It is customary for senior members of the royal family to hold regular open gatherings during Ramadan where citizens can air grievances, seek settlement of financial or other disputes or offer congratulations. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Al Qaida is believed to have been behind almost all attacks in the kingdom since 2003. The country is the birthplace of Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. The Interior Ministry has spearheaded the kingdom's aggressive campaign against terrorism. On August?19, authorities announced the arrest of 44 suspected militants with Al Qaida links in a yearlong sweep that also uncovered dozens of machine guns and electronic circuits for bombs. Last month, Saudi officials said a criminal court had convicted and sentenced 330 Al Qaida militants to jail terms, fines and travel bans in the country's first known trials for suspected members of the terror group. The 330 are believed to be among the 991 suspected militants that the interior minister has said have been charged with participating in terrorist attacks over the past five years. ? See the Web's breaking stories, chosen by people like you. Check out Yahoo! Buzz. http://in.buzz.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Aug 29 16:44:31 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:44:31 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: When you want a break Message-ID: <000201ca28fa$711ef630$535ce290$@net> Jim, my apologies for not forwarding and commenting on this sooner, but I am now also heavily involved in discussions of several of the Architects of a New Dawn lists where some of the most informed people in the world are gathering to discuss the challenges we face today as the human family. My reply to your question below is that the competition for attention to environmental issues is fierce among those who are even remotely concerned. What has to be taken into consideration is that many among us are simply not strong enough emotionally to even begin to contemplate the crisis before us, let alone address it. As I have pointed out quite frequently you have a large proportion of the population either in a mentally-ill state of being or under the influence of drugs and simply unable to even begin to comprehend and address the issues before us today. Then you have the number of working people who have to hold two and three jobs just to make ends meet, perhaps have children to take care of as well, and simply want to sit down at the end of a long day and turn on whatever entertainment appeals to them. I think you have to realize that entertainment sports take up far more of the average person's time than do issues related to energy even if it means something critical to them over the long run. Now with the financial crisis and so many people losing their homes, energy issues become the last thing on their mind - just surviving and finding a place to lay down their head iis first on their mind. So, now we have arrived at the small number of people who may still have enough awareness left to contemplate the issue at hand. And, certainly text is going to be the last thing to catch one's full attention and convey the message in an easily understood way. So videos or movies obviously are the best way to make a presentation as they capture the attention of both the left and right side of the brain. And the best way to accomplish this appears to be to small groups either in homes or small local movie theatres like Mary and her three other friends did in Nevada City, CA over several years time, following the showing of a film with group discussion so people are really involved. And, if you really want to ensure that the information is retained, exercise is an imperative along with the learning experience since this action is needed in order to myelinate the nerve endings. And certain movements such as crawling appear to help this process along much better than others. But Brain Gym as explained by Dr. Carla Hannaford in her book: "Why Learning is Not All in the Head" is a very good source for information on this. And when one begins to grasp the implications of this, then one begins to understand why human consciousness is a very complex issue and cannot be simplified. It also appears that people like to gather around a "food event" so asking people to bring food to a pot luck dinner is a good idea. But the menu should be meatless and consist of raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds if consideration is to be given as to what is best for brain health as well. And, certainly alcohol should never be served at these types of events since they only serve to dull the mind. I do hope this helps. From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:32 PM To: 'mary rose' Subject: FW: When you want a break Hi Mary, This is an experiment in brevity. How do we state our case in order to recruit more people to help save the human family's butt? Thoughts, edits, additions are appreciated. Jim The Big Picture A Commentary by Jim Bell The human family has transformed itself from having a sustainable (symbiotic) relationship with its planet's life-support system -- into being a cancer on it. Obviously, this is not sustainable. So what should we do to pass on the birthright of a happy, healthy prosperous life-support sustaining world to our youth and future generations? Step one - Become renewable energy self-sufficient. Renewable energy is key. The more renewable energy self-sufficient a city, region, state or country becomes, the more life-support sustaining it will be. Pursuing local renewable energy self-sufficiency will also makes residents and resident businesses and industries more energy supply and price secure -- no matter what happens to the price of energy in national and global markets. Although not yet perfect, most devises and strategies to convert renewable energy into electricity or useable heat have much less negative impact on our planet's life-support systems per unit of energy supplied than does our current energy supply and price status quo. Additionally, there are no technical barriers to making renewable energy collection devises in ways that do not use or release toxins and design them to be perpetually recyclable into new renewable energy collection and conversion devices. Step two - Become renewable water self-sufficient. Being renewable energy self-sufficient allows coastal areas to be renewable water self-sufficient and even export water inland. Water is essential to life. It is essential to the water rich lifestyle most people in the developed world already have and that people in the developing world would like to have. Admittedly, the San Diego/Tijuana Region where I live has an abundance renewable energy sources to draw on, it , choices, is a mix of developed and developing world conditions. With excellent solar conditions, this region could supply all its water needs and even be a substantial water exporter to inland communities by covering 5% of its roofs and parking lots with 15% efficient PV panels. The electricity produced by these panels would be used to power large-scale reverse osmosis (RO) pumps to push saltwater through membranes that exclude salt, other minerals and most pollutants but let freshwater through. Sea life will be protected from the RO process by extracting salt water from the ocean through sea bottom sand filtration and saltwater intrusion into coastal wells. Step three - Become renewable food self-sufficient. With renewable energy and water self-sufficiency comes the ability to become food self-sufficient. It also allows for the growth of a great deal if not all of the fiber and "lumber" required to meet everyone's needs. To make this real, it is essential that we protect our agricultural soils from development and other miss use. My research indicates that we still have enough agricultural soils in the region where I live, and in the world as a whole to feed everyone. This will not be true for long if we do not protect and preserve our best agricultural soils for life-support sustaining agriculture. Putting the above all together, the more self-sufficient in renewable energy, water and food that any city, county, region, state or country becomes, the less vulnerable it will be to energy, water and food supply shortages and price hikes in national and global markets. For details about my work on developing life-supporting sustaining economies and ways of life, go to www.jimbell.com , everything on the site is free. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Aug 30 08:26:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:26:39 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Until Medical Bills Do Us Part Message-ID: <003601ca297e$0dc0aeb0$29420c10$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS What I am feeling as I post this is that we will soon awaken to the fact that health insurance is not the answer. What is being revealed is the power of natural healing as we begin "eating to live" and stop "living to eat". We can either continue the latter and keep on making the insurance companies along with the conventional medical industry wealthy or we can heal ourselves and accrue the dividends in so-doing. Buy into the scam or find authenticity -- the choice is ours to make. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 9:18 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Until Medical Bills Do Us Part (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Until Medical Bills Do Us Part By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: August 29, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/opinion/30kristof.html?_r=5 Critics fret that health care reform would undermine American family values, not least by convening somber death panels to wheel away Grandma as if she were Old Yeller. But peel away the emotions and fearmongering, and in fact it is the existing system that unnecessarily takes lives and breaks apart families. My friend M. - you'll understand in a moment why she's terrified of my using her name - had to make a searing decision a year ago. She was married to a sweet, gentle man whom she loved, but who had become increasingly absent-minded. Finally, he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. The disease is degenerative, and he will become steadily less able to care for himself. At some point, as his medical needs multiply, he will probably need to be institutionalized. The hospital arranged a conference call with a social worker, who outlined how the dementia and its financial toll on the family would progress, and then added, out of the blue: "Maybe you should divorce." "I was blown away," M. told me. But, she said, the hospital staff members explained that they had seen it all before, many times. If M.'s husband required long-term care, the costs would be catastrophic even for a middle-class family with savings. Eventually, after the expenses whittled away their combined assets, her husband could go on Medicaid - but by then their children's nest egg would be gone, along with her 401(k) plan. She would face a bleak retirement with neither her husband nor her savings. A complicating factor was that this was a second marriage. M.'s first husband had died, leaving an inheritance that he had intended for their children. She and her second husband had a prenuptial agreement, but that would not protect her assets from his medical expenses. The hospital told M. not to waste time in dissolving the marriage. For five years after any divorce, her assets could be seized - precisely because the government knows that people sometimes divorce husbands or wives to escape their medical bills. "How could I divorce him? I loved him," she told me. "I explored a lot of options with an attorney here in town," she added. "The attorney said, 'I don't see any other options for you.' It took about a year for me to do the divorce, it was so hard." So M. divorced the man she loves. I asked him what he thought of this. He can still speak, albeit not always coherently, and he paused a long, long time. All he could manage was: "It's hard to say." Long-term care constitutes a difficult and expensive challenge in any health system. But the American patchwork, full of cracks through which people fall, has a special problem with medical expenses of all kinds bankrupting couples. A study reported in The American Journal of Medicine this month found that 62 percent of American bankruptcies are linked to medical bills. These medical bankruptcies had increased nearly 50 percent in just six years. Astonishingly, 78 percent of these people actually had health insurance, but the gaps and inadequacies left them unprotected when they were hit by devastating bills. M. still helps her husband and, quietly, continues to live with him and care for him. But she worries that the authorities will come after her if they realize that they divorced not because of irreconcilable differences but because of irreconcilable medical bills. There were awkward questions from friends who saw the divorce announcement in the newspaper. "It's just crazy," she said. "It twists people like pretzels." The existing system doesn't just break up families, it also costs lives. A 2004 study by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, found that lack of health insurance causes 18,000 unnecessary deaths a year. That's one person slipping through the cracks and dying every half an hour. In short, it's a good bet that our existing dysfunctional health system knocks off far more people than an army of "death panels" could - even if they existed, worked 24/7 and got around in a fleet of black helicopters. So, for those of you inclined to believe the worst about President Obama, think it through. Suppose he is indeed a secret, foreign-born Muslim agent who is scheming to undermine American family values while killing off as many grandmothers as possible. If all that were true, why on earth would he be trying so hard to reform our health care system? We already know how to prod families into divorce and take a life unnecessarily every 30 minutes - all we need to do is reject reform and stick with exactly what we have From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 31 09:15:12 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:15:12 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Out of the eye of the hurricane, back into the storm! Message-ID: <001e01ca2a4e$06670170$13350450$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Somehow going out and buying more unnecessary products in order to "make work" doesn't seem like a viable option to save the world from economic crisis - especially when the Ecological Footprint indicator says that by the year 2030, we will need the equivalent of 1 more earth in order to meet resource demand. And for those who do not clearly understand what I just wrote, what this really means is that we are already teetering into ecological bankruptcy with our account facing overdrafts in an amount that can never be repaid. Sooner or later, we have to "get it"- and what we need to get is that resource depletion through stripping the earth of its vitality is not an answer that is going to work. As Daniel Quinn says in the video "What a Way to Go": What we are doing is equivalent to taking the building blocks out from under the house in order to build a second story. We need to stop consumption now and return to subsistence agriculture in the near run - we are already well into ecological collapse, but could regain our balance through organically restoring the land and stopping species loss. Commercial Real Estate Lurks as Next Potential Mortgage Crisis From: lawrence kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 9:17 PM To: lawrence kiely Subject: Out of the eye of the hurricane, back into the storm! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125167422962070925.html?mod=rss_whats_news_u s -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 31 14:39:33 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:39:33 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Climate trouble may be bubbling up in far north Message-ID: <007001ca2a7b$545b6420$fd122c60$@net> FYI and consideration. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 12:47 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Climate trouble may be bubbling up in far north (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1101ap_cn_climate_09_troubling_bubbles.htm l August 31, 2009 2:03 a.m. PT Climate trouble may be bubbling up in far north MACKENZIE RIVER DELTA, Northwest Territories -- Only a squawk from a sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence - and a low gurgle of bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots around the polar world. "On a calm day, you can see 20 or more `seeps' out across this lake," said Canadian researcher Rob Bowen, sidling his small rubber boat up beside one of them. A tossed match would have set it ablaze. "It's essentially pure methane." Pure methane, gas bubbling up from underwater vents, escaping into northern skies, adds to the global-warming gases accumulating in the atmosphere. And pure methane escaping in the massive amounts known to be locked in the Arctic permafrost and seabed would spell a climate catastrophe. Is such an unlocking under way? Researchers say air temperatures here in northwest Canada, in Siberia and elsewhere in the Arctic have risen more than 2.5 C (4.5 F) since 1970 - much faster than the global average. The summer thaw is reaching deeper into frozen soil, at a rate of 4 centimeters (1.5 inches) a year, and a further 7 C (13 F) temperature rise is possible this century, says the authoritative, U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2007, air monitors detected a rise in methane concentrations in the atmosphere, apparently from far northern sources. Russian researchers in Siberia expressed alarm, warning of a potential surge in the powerful greenhouse gas, additional warming of several degrees, and unpredictable consequences for Earth's climate. Others say massive seeps of methane might take centuries. But the Russian scenario is disturbing enough to have led six U.S. national laboratories last year to launch a joint investigation of rapid methane release. And IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri in July asked his scientific network to focus on "abrupt, irreversible climate change" from thawing permafrost. The data will come from teams like one led by Scott Dallimore, who with Bowen and others pitched tents here on the remote, boggy fringe of North America, 2,200 kilometers (1,400 miles) from the North Pole, to learn more about seeps in the 25,000 lakes of this vast river delta. A "puzzle," Dallimore calls it. "Many factors are poorly studied, so we're really doing frontier science here," the Geological Survey of Canada scientist said. "There is a very large storehouse of greenhouse gases within the permafrost, and if that storehouse of greenhouse gases is fluxing to the surface, that's important to know. And it's important to know if that flux will change with time." Permafrost, tundra soil frozen year-round and covering almost one-fifth of Earth's land surface, runs anywhere from 50 to 600 meters (160 to 2,000 feet) deep in this region. Entombed in that freezer is carbon - plant and animal matter accumulated through millennia. As the soil thaws, these ancient deposits finally decompose, attacked by microbes, producing carbon dioxide and - if in water - methane. Both are greenhouse gases, but methane is many times more powerful in warming the atmosphere. Researchers led by the University of Florida's Ted Schuur last year calculated that the top 3 meters (10 feet) of permafrost alone contain more carbon than is currently in the atmosphere. "It's safe to say the surface permafrost, 3 to 5 meters, is at risk of thawing in the next 100 years," Schuur said by telephone from an Alaska research site. "It can't stay intact." Methane also is present in another form, as hydrates - ice-like formations deep underground and under the seabed in which methane molecules are trapped within crystals of frozen water. If warmed, the methane will escape. Dallimore, who has long researched hydrates as energy sources, believes a breakdown of such huge undersea formations may have produced conical "hills" found offshore in the Beaufort Sea bed, some of them 40 meters (more than 100 feet) high. With underwater robots, he detected methane gas leaking from these seabed features, which resemble the strange hills ashore here that the Inuvialuit, or Eskimos, call "pingos." And because the coastal plain is subsiding and seas are rising from warming, more permafrost is being inundated, exposed to water warmer than the air. The methane seeps that the Canadians were studying in the Mackenzie Delta, amid grassy islands, steel-gray lakes and summertime temperatures well above freezing, are saucer-like indentations just 10 meters (30 feet) or so down on the lake bed. The ultimate source of that gas - hydrates, decomposition or older natural gas deposits - is unclear, but Dallimore's immediate goal is quantifying the known emissions and finding the unknown. With tent-like, instrument-laden enclosures they positioned over two seeps, each several meters (yards) wide, the researchers have determined they are emitting methane at a rate of up to 0.6 cubic meters (almost 1 cubic yard) per minute. Dallimore's team is also monitoring the seeps with underwater listening devices, to assess whether seasonal change - warming - affects the emissions rate. Even if the lake seeps are centuries old, Bowen said, the question is, "Will they be accelerated by recent changes?" A second question: Are more seeps developing? To begin answering that, Dallimore is working with German and Canadian specialists in aerial surveying, teams that will fly over swaths of Arctic terrain to detect methane "hot spots" via spectrometric imagery, instruments identifying chemicals by their signatures on the light spectrum. Research crews are hard at work elsewhere, too, to get a handle on this possible planetary threat. "I and others are trying to take field observations and get it scaled up to global models," said Alaska researcher Schuur. From some 400 boreholes drilled deep into the tundra worldwide, "we see historic warming of permafrost. Much of it is now around 2 below zero (28 F)," Schuur said. A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft is overflying Alaska this summer with instruments sampling the air for methane and carbon dioxide. In parts of Alaska, scientists believe the number of "thermokarst" lakes - formed when terrain collapses over thawing permafrost and fills with meltwater - may have doubled in the past three decades. Those lakes then expand, thawing more permafrost on their edges, exposing more carbon. Off Norway's Arctic archipelago of Svalbard last September, British scientists reported finding 250 methane plumes rising from the shallow seabed. They're probably old, scientists said, but only further research can assess whether they're stable. In March, Norwegian officials did say methane levels had risen on Svalbard. Afloat above the huge, shallow continental shelf north of Siberia, Russian researchers have detected seabed "methane chimneys" sending gas bubbling up to the surface, possibly from hydrates. Reporting to the European Geophysical Union last year, the scientists, affiliated with the University of Alaska and the Russian Academy of Sciences, cited "extreme" saturation of methane in surface waters and in the air above. They said up to 10 percent of the undersea permafrost area had melted, and it was "highly possible" that this would open the way to abrupt release of an estimated 50 billion tons of methane. Depending on how much dissolved in the sea, that might multiply methane in the atmosphere several-fold, boosting temperatures enough to cause "catastrophic greenhouse warming," as the Russians called it. It would be self-perpetuating, melting more permafrost, emitting more methane. Some might label that alarmism. And Stockholm University researcher Orjan Gustafsson, a partner in the Russians' field work, acknowledged that "the scientific community is quite split on how fast the permafrost can thaw." But there's no doubt the north contains enough potential methane and carbon dioxide to cause abrupt climate change, Gustafsson said by telephone from Sweden. Canada's pre-eminent permafrost expert, Chris Burn, has trekked to lonely locations in these high latitudes for almost three decades, meticulously chronicling the changes in the tundra. On a stopover at the Aurora Research Institute in the Mackenzie Delta town of Inuvik, the Carleton University scientist agreed "we need many, many more field observations." But his teams have found the frozen ground warming down to about 80 meters, and he believes the world is courting disaster in failing to curb warming by curbing greenhouse emissions. "If we lost just 1 percent of the carbon in permafrost today, we'd be close to a year's contributions from industrial sources," he said. "I don't think policymakers have woken up to this. It's not in their risk assessments." How likely is a major release? "I don't think it's a case of likelihood," he said. "I think we are playing with fire." From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 31 14:42:21 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:42:21 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Schorched Earth Policy Message-ID: <007101ca2a7b$bc93d770$35bb8650$@net> This is part II of a message forwarded by Steph Sutton. I will also be forwarding Part I HR 2749: Food Safety???s Scorched Earth Policy HR 2749 is being rushed through Congress, and the house may look to suspend the rules and fast track the bill at Obama???s request. Just what can we expect from this legislation? A lot more of the following:? Dick Peixoto planted hedges of fennel and flowering cilantro around his organic vegetable fields in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville to harbor beneficial insects, an alternative to pesticides.? He has since ripped out such plants in the name of food safety, because his big customers demand sterile buffers around his crops. No vegetation. No water. No wildlife of any kind.? ???I was driving by a field where a squirrel fed off the end of the field, and so 30 feet in we had to destroy the crop,?? he said. ???On one field where a deer walked through, didn???t eat anything, just walked through and you could see the tracks, we had to take out 30 feet on each side of the tracks and annihilate the crop.?? ? In the verdant farmland surrounding Monterey Bay, a national marine sanctuary and one of the world???s biological jewels, scorched-earth strategies are being imposed on hundreds of thousands of acres in the quest for an antiseptic field of greens. And the scheme is about to go national. (Lochhead, C. ) The question that must be asked is, do we really want to destroy our local organic farming industry by poisoning ponds, bulldozing crops and killing wildlife all in the name of food safety?? Recently someone asked why I thought that the current food safety legislation would jeopardize organic farming. This is why! People who have no idea what it is to farm, and are in collusion with large corporate food producers, buyers, and sellers, draft legislation that is intolerable to the environment and our health, all in the name of food safety, in order to promote corporate profit.? Not one instance in ???16 years of handling nearly every major food-borne illness outbreak in America, has Seattle trial lawyer Bill Marler had a case where it???s been linked to a farmers??? market?? (Marler, B.). Yet, farmer???s markets and local organic food growers who sell at these markets are included in this legislation, and factory farming scorched earth methods are forced on them.? The Scorched Earth Policy? It is impossible to sanitize the earth. When slash and burn methods are used to supposedly control pathogens in our food supply, nature???s natural balance is destroyed, and with it our health. ???Sanitizing American agriculture, aside from being impossible, is foolhardy,?? said UC Berkeley food guru Michael Pollan. (Lochhead, C? Invisible to a public that sees only the headlines of the latest food-safety scare ??? spinach, peppers and now cookie dough ??? ponds are being poisoned and bulldozed. Vegetation harboring pollinators and filtering storm runoff is being cleared. Fences and poison baits line wildlife corridors. Birds, frogs, mice and deer ??? and anything that shelters them ??? are caught in a raging battle in the Salinas Valley against E. coli O157:H7, a lethal, food-borne bacteria. (Lochhead, C.)? In fact, in the fierce battle to sanitize the earth, one thing has been overlooked:? Some science suggests that removing vegetation near field crops could make food less safe. Vegetation and wetlands are a landscape???s lungs and kidneys, filtering out not just fertilizers, sediments and pesticides, but also pathogens. UC Davis scientists found that vegetation buffers can remove as much as 98 percent of E. coli from surface water. UC Davis advisers warn that some rodents prefer cleared areas. (Lochhead, C.)? Food Safety Fraud Culprits? So who is behind this massive attack on our food supply? You guessed it ??? giant food retailers, agri-business, and anyone with a bankroll larger than the state of Texas. It seems that paying ???more than $100 million in court settlements and verdicts in spinach and lettuce lawsuits?? (Lochhead, C.) as well as realizing a loss in sales is galvanizing these corporate giants to lead the charge in instituting a ???quasi-governmental program of new protocols for growing greens safely, called the ???leafy greens marketing agreement.?? ?? ? A proposal was submitted last month in Washington to take these rules nationwide.?? (Lochhead, C.) And just what is this proposal? HR 2749 Food Safety Enhancement Act.? A food safety bill sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, passed this month in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It would give new powers to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate all farms and produce in an attempt to fix the problem. The bill would require consideration of farm diversity and environmental rules, but would leave much to the FDA. (Lochhead, C.)? The requirements of this bill would put small farmers out of business entirely, but this is not the only threat to the little guy.? Large produce buyers have compiled secret ???super metrics?? that go much further. Farmers must follow them if they expect to sell their crops. These can include vast bare-dirt buffers, elimination of wildlife, and strict rules on water sources. To enforce these rules, retail buyers have sent forth armies of food-safety auditors, many of them trained in indoor processing plants, to inspect fields. (Lochhead, C.)? Most of these inspectors have little to no experience other than inside four walls. Take for example Ken Kimes, who owns New Natives Farms in Santa Cruz County. He was told that ???no children younger than five can be allowed on his farm for fear of diapers?? (Lochhead, C.)? Reaping the Consequences? It is this type of micro-management that our entire nation can look forward to if HR 2749 passes. These are rules no-one can comply with other than large factory operations. Not only do they conflict with common sense, but with organic and environmental standards as well. They are causing what they propose to eliminate, and that is, a dangerous, contaminated food supply controlled by no one but the biggest corporations.? And what can we expect to reap from this harvest? Higher prices due to increased costs to implement the measures and ship the food, nothing but factory-produced food that has travelled for miles to get on the shelf, increased pesticide use, the elimination of organic standards and the family farm, and the rape and desecration of nature itself.? The consequences of California???s draconian measures which are scheduled to go nationwide with the implementation of HR 2749 are already resulting in irreparable harm.? ???trees have been bulldozed along the riparian corridors of the Salinas Valley, while poison-filled tubes targeting rodents dot lettuce fields. Dying rodents have led to deaths of owls and hawks that naturally control rodents. (Lochhead, C.)? The Fear Factor? Why is the public going along with this?? ???It???s all based on panic and fear, and the science is not there,?? said Dr. Andy Gordus, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Game.? Preliminary results released in April from a two-year study by the state wildlife agency, UC Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that less than one-half of 1 percent of 866 wild animals tested positive for E. coli O157:H7 in Central California.? Frogs are unrelated to E. coli, but their remains in bags of mechanically harvested greens are unsightly, Gordus said, so ???the industry has been using food safety as a premise to eliminate frogs.?? ? Farmers are told that ponds used to recycle irrigation water are unsafe. So they bulldoze the ponds and pump more groundwater, opening more of the aquifer to saltwater intrusion, said Jill Wilson, an environmental scientist at the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in San Luis Obispo.? Wilson said demands for 450-foot dirt buffers remove the agency???s chief means of preventing pollution from entering streams and rivers. Jovita Pajarillo, associate director of the water division in the San Francisco office of the Environmental Protection Agency, said removal of vegetative buffers threatens Arroyo Seco, one of the last remaining stretches of habitat for steelhead trout. (Lochhead, C.)? The Real Problem? The problem does not lie squarely in the lap of the farmer, where this legislation places it. It lies in the processing that happens after the produce leaves the farm. This legislation pronounces a death sentence on all small farmers, organic growers, and our nation???s very health as well, yet fails to address the real problem. ???Industry rules won???t stop lawsuits or eliminate the risk of processed greens cut in fields, mingled in large baths, put in bags that must be chilled from packing plant to kitchen, and shipped thousands of miles away?? (Marler, B).? Mass-production is the culprit, not my neighbor down the road who grows strawberries and sells them at the local farmer???s market. Yet the cause of the problem ??? mass-produced, industrialized food production methods are supported, while the innocent victims ??? family farmers, organic producers, and neighbors selling fruit at the local farmer???s market ??? are punished and quite literally put out of business.? ? Not what the American people ordered ??? HR 2749, martial law and the enslavement of their farmers By The Writers??? Collective Source: Food Freedom HR 2749 is a strange bill in many ways. ? While the other ???food safety?? bills have been around since winter, allowing for much public discussion on the internet, HR 2749 has only suddenly appeared. ? It is a mutant conglomeration of the worst of the other bills, with the addition of one very original part ??? martial law. When it was a draft, it was Waxman???s bill. ? But once given a number, it became Dingel???s who already had a ???food safety?? bill, HR 759. ? So Waxman got none and Dingel got two. ? (Was this because Waxman, being Jewish, was a hideous choice to introduce a bill with Codex in it ??? designed by the Nazi pharmaceutical companies that funded Hitler, provided the gas for the gas chambers, experimented on prisoners with vaccines ??? and is expected to kill millions?)? * HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including ???prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.?? ? ? [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home or any pickup someone has eaten take-out in, so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. ? This is using food as a cover for martial law.]? ? Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. ? The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area.? ? [This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.] See this? DailyKos entry . The bill is unusual, too, because? slow as it was to appear. The little bugger of bill has made up for it since. ? It got a number on June 10, went to committee on June 17, passed instantly, and is headed for a vote on the floor of the House. ? ? The first Patriot Act was passed using fear of terrorism.? This Patriot Act is more coy, hiding under a cloak of ???food safety?? and but also using fear ??? fear of food contamination. ? Evidently, Americans are supposed to be so frightened by the slightest possibility of a terrorist or of E-coli, they would trade away all their precious, hard fought freedoms for the promise of safety. ? Or at least, that is what the trade-off has become.? ???Terrorism?? and ???contamination?? are great bugaboos used to open doors to an end to the US Constitution. ? That is exactly what we are left with after those who wrote HR 2749 are done. ? Who did write these bills? ? It seems Monsanto had not only a hand, but a ???defining?? influence. http://farmwars.info/?p=594 This redefining of reality is what seems to be underlying all the loss of freedom. ? Normal and free are disappearing into the maw of corporate definitions of reality. See this Yup Farming piece .? So, we begin with contaminated food from filthy corporate processors and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). ? And what do we end up with after that reality is ground up by corporate legal hands? ? Changes in the definition of risk so that natural things are treated as dangerous and toxic things are untouched, such that:? * Healthy, normal farms are taken over by government as though they were run by criminals and contaminated corporate slaughterhouses are untouched; * The necessary freedom of individuals to live and grow food and be left alone are somehow suddenly destroyed, though they were never the source of any food contamination issue; and such that * The profit and control and power of corporations which were absolutely the source of the increasingly terrible food, is somehow suddenly vastly increased. ? Thanks to corporate control over reality, our wanting to clean up corporate processors and feedlots and CAFOS and end up with farmers??? markets and local farms and organic food has become the industrialization and potential destruction of every healthy part of the food system and the triumph of the most contaminated and toxic part. ? And in the non-bargain, we lost all freedoms and they took all control. ? And ???all?? is not a hyperbole here, for one need only look at another provision of HR 2749 to feel how insane, how distant from all we ever wanted. * HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. ? It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [What is missing in pointing out this astounding control, is that it opens the door to CODEX and WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. ? Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. ? They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will. ? There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. ? Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. ? So, it needs to be made clear where control will take us. ? And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?] ? See this? DailyKos entry . When we wanted not to get E-coli in processed meat, did we intend to put our farmers into corporate servitude? ? Did we plan to have our own lives straight-jacketed by a million new controls over our own gardens, our own desire to grow food, our own plans to start small businesses, our own dreams to have a small piece of land and farm ourselves? ? Who has the audacity to take our needs and grotesquely bastardize them in these ways, while giving the destruction and totalitarian control the sham name of ???food safety?? ? We wanted good food. We never wanted to trap our farmers into an industrial prison on their own land, afraid moment to moment of not fulfilling some monstrous set of instructions that never end ??? rules the farmers loathe, rules that have not only nothing to do with real farming but which are antithetical to it. Why have we ended up with HR 2749, an intense corporate nightmare around the most central and necessary aspects of a free country and of free human beings ??? farming and food? American farming needs to be relieved of the burdens it has been under, not finished off by its corporate competition. ? It needs freedom to flourish again. ? Obviously ??? and Congress people who would think to vote for such absurdities, take note ??? the imposition of surveillance, monitoring, warrantless entry, taking of all records, licensing, fees, Codex and NAIS, in addition to massive penalties and prison terms (all without judicial review over even appropriateness and validity), are not how one thanks American farmers for holding together the only working part of our food system. ? See Literal Enslavement by Linn Cohen-Cole. HR 2749 is the most vicious and insane bill one could imagine. ?nd Who treats our farmers in this way? ?nd Who believes that such police measures can provide for the rebirth of farming and the return of healthy food? ?nd Who wrote this bill that trashes the freedom of all our lives? ? HR 2749 was not what we ordered and it should be sent back the bowels of hell where it came from. HR 2749 is both insane and cruel. And the deceptiveness of hiding a Patriot Act in it and the brutal rush to slip it through Congress are ANTI-democratic. -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 31 15:21:32 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:21:32 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Join the Northwest Earth Institute EcoChallenge!: U.S.-wide Email List Message-ID: <008301ca2a81$3134eba0$939ec2e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: TRANSITION U.S. SOCIAL NETWORK [mailto:mail at transitionus.ning.com] Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 1:56 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Join the Northwest Earth Institute EcoChallenge!: U.S.-wide Email List A message from Northwest Earth Institute to all members of U.S.-wide Email List on TRANSITION U.S. SOCIAL NETWORK! Northwest Earth Institute EcoChallenge! October 1-15, 2009 All are welcome to join! The Northwest Earth Institute is holding its 2nd annual Ecochallenge! This event will demonstrate the collective power of many people taking one action toward a sustainable future, and raise funds for the Northwest Earth Institute programs. Participate by registering at www.nwei.dojiggy.com. Choose your challenge among several options including water conservation, saving electricity, alternative transportation. sustainable eating, or trash reduction. Or you can create your own challenge! For those who do not have the ability to participate, we encourage you to sponsor a NWEI staffer! Check out our Sponsor a Staffer page at http://tinyurl.com/nweistaff For more information on how the EcoChallenge works visit www.nwei.dojiggy.com or contact Kerry Brown at kerry at nwei.org Visit U.S.-wide Email List at: http://transitionus.ning.com/groups/group/show?id=2320371%3AGroup%3A4011 -- To control which emails you receive on TRANSITION U.S. SOCIAL NETWORK, go to: http://transitionus.ning.com/profiles/profile/emailSettings From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 31 16:16:15 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:16:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] A looming water disaster Message-ID: <009501ca2a88$da6ff690$8f4fe3b0$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS Note to Jim Bell: When I consider the ramifications of this, I cannot help but wonder if installing a desalinization plant might not be the first priority for the San Diego Region and installing enough solar panels to ensure its viability and guarantee delivery to all those in the region. When push comes to shove, if the need arises to cut back on electricity use or water use it is evident that we must choose water first. And certainly taking up much of the pavement would be helpful so that there is more space in which people can grow food organically. This would also make for a cooler San Diego since air conditioner use will probably have to be curtailed due to resource depletion and ability to manufacture them. We need to find out more about Reinhold Zeigler's tiered gardening using Charbri as a medium since tests are demonstrating that plants grow 800 times faster in this medium. Overall, it appears to me we are going to be forced into a much simpler lifestyle where jobs as we know them today are simply not going to be available. And one of the main reasons for this being that the resources with which to manufacture products, except for the bare minimum essentials, is not going to be available. And, I am feeling it imperative to be able to grow hemp legally as critical to our survival since it requires little water, no fertilizer, and is a long grain that does not require tilling for planting. It can also be harvested by cutting. Protein rich it can be a vitally-needed food source. Also, 20,000 products have in the past, and can be in the future, manufactured from it. As well, since the Founders of our country grew it and used it regularly we know that it can be manufactured into products vital to our survival without the use of highly sophisticated equipment. We must really begin to prioritize issues. And, this at a time when thousands of people are simply in denial that there is a crisis. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 12:47 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] A looming water disaster (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6594433.html A looming water disaster With its reservoir levels low and the dry season on the way, Mexico City is taking actions that are spreading the thirst By DUDLEY ALTHAUS HOUSTON CHRONICLE Aug. 30, 2009, 11:13PM MEXICO CITY - As it has in much of Texas, drought has clobbered great swaths of Mexico this year, killing crops and livestock and threatening to dehydrate major cities. Among the harder hit is Mexico City and its sprawling suburbs, thirsty home to some 22 million people. Taps already are running dry for weeks at a time in large sections of the metroplex, especially in poorer neighborhoods. Officials warn that without extraordinary deluges in the coming weeks, extreme scarcity will stalk the area once the dry season begins in late October. "We are on a collision course," said Lorenzo Rosenzweig, director of a Mexico City foundation that finances water studies and other environmental programs. "The whole way we manage this watershed has to be rethought." The sierra-encircled basin that holds the Mexican capital was a vast lake bed when the Spaniards took it from the Aztecs nearly 500 years ago. Planners have been draining it ever since to make way for humans, treating the area's water more as a nuisance than a necessity. That worked pretty well for a very long time. It doesn't any more. "We've reached the end of a model," said Arkansas-born Elena Burns, a naturalized Mexican citizen who helped coordinate a recent proposal to re-engineer Mexico City's watershed. "It's not sustainable." Decades of explosive population growth and poor planning have badly stressed the aquifers that supply three-quarters of the area's water. Three times as much water is sucked from the basin's aquifers as trickles back into them. Tunnels today flush most rainfall and sewage runoff to the lowlands northeast of the city and on to the Gulf of Mexico, depriving the groundwater of replenishment. The water flowing daily out of the basin nearly equals the amount pumped into it from aquifers and the distant Cutzamala and Lerma reservoir systems, Burns said. "Poorer people have been living with scarcity for years," she said. "Now this reality is becoming generalized." Drought amid rain In one indication of the stress, "fossil water" that's 2,000 years old is being pumped up from an aquifer beneath one parched section of Mexico City this summer. "The problem in the Valley of Mexico is the over-exploitation of the aquifers," said Jose Luis Luege, director of the National Water Commission. "That is problem number one." Drought might seem a strange notion in the Mexican capital; it has rained most every night - and many days - since the wet season began in earnest three months ago. But few of the showers have been the sort of hail-storming, street-flooding, mudslide-making gully washers that Mexico City residents expect and the basin's fragile hydrology needs. Cutzamala and other systems that supply the Mexico City basin now hold but a fraction of their normal volumes. To assure a supply of water during the coming dry season, local officials this month ordered a 30 percent cutback in the supply from those reservoirs to the city. "This is a high-risk situation that can literally leave us without water," Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard warned this month. "We can find ourselves in a situation in which our reservoirs are empty." Largely dependent on the Cutzamala supply, hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico City's southern reaches already have been going without water for much of this year. "The officials control the valves and decide which neighborhoods get water, " said architect Roberto Fernandez, 41, one of a dozen people filling buckets from the still functioning hose of a neighbor lucky enough to be connected to a ground water supply. "People live with the uncertainty from week to week," Fernandez said. "Next year is going to be really criminal." But Fernandez's community - San Nicolas - explains the roots of the crisis as well as its impact. A grey sprawl of densely packed, working-class houses, it was thrown up haphazardly on what 15 years ago was pasture land and cornfields. 'Too many of us' Impermeable concrete and asphalt covered more porous soil. Rainfall that once seeped into the aquifer now gushes into storm drains out of the city. The muscled creeks that long tumbled from the mountains have shrunk to trash and weed-choked gurgles. Tens of thousands of new residents have replaced the several hundred who lived in San Nicolas. Many more thousands of toilets are flushed, showers taken, dishes washed and drinks drunk than ever before. "There are just too many of us in this city," said diner owner Rafaela Camacho, a San Nicolas native whose family farmed the hillsides for generations. "The earth can't handle so many of us." dudley.althaus at chron.com From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Aug 31 17:04:10 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:04:10 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Christian Fundamentalists Hawk Crackpot Theories With Dinosaur Robots Message-ID: <00a101ca2a8f$86128110$92378330$@net> This is truly hysterical and what can I say but "only in America". What I see is that the people who built this theme park are among those Fundamentalists who make up the Republican Party and want Obama out of office at all costs. These are the followers of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Amway owner Rich DeVos, Rush Limbaugh, Betty DeVos, Eric Prince and the Blackwater group, who, along with others from the tenor of this message, are obviously insane. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 2:39 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Christian Fundamentalists Hawk Crackpot Theories With Dinosaur Robots (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Christian Fundamentalists Hawk Crackpot Theories With Dinosaur Robots http://www.alternet.org/story/142309/christian_fundamentalists_hawk_crackpot _theories_with_dinosaur_robots/?page=entire By Brook Wilensky-Lanford, The Faster Times. Posted August 31, 2009. Creationist theme parks are filled with paleontological wonders. How do Christian fundamentalists reconcile creatures millions of years old with their Young Earth ideas? Recently, reports came out that Florida Adventure Land, a Christian dinosaur theme park in Pensacola, Florida, was shut down for tax fraud. Apparently the owner contended that he was working for God, not the federal government, and so was not required to pay taxes. But let's back up: what on earth do dinosaurs have to do with Christianity? Kent Hovind, the evangelist behind Dinosaur Adventure Land, is not alone in using paleontological wonders as a tool for religious outreach. Last October, I visited the Creation Museum in Bullittsburg, Kentucky, a 27-million-dollar pseudo-scientific complex built in 2006 by a group called Answers in Genesis to promote young-earth creationism. Dinosaurs were everywhere, animatronic jaws opening and closing, letting out pre-recorded elephant-like roars on a constant loop. They were hanging out with Adam and Eve in the lush recreation of the Garden of Eden, marching two by two onto Noah's Ark. I was confused. Wouldn't an organization that wants us to believe the earth has only been around for 6,000 years want to distance itself from creatures which have been proven to be millions of years old? Young-earth creationists have been around forever, but it wasn't until relatively recently that they had 27 million dollars to throw around on dinosaurs. In the 1980s, what had been an obscure, retiring religious movement began to emerge into the limelight as a political faction, led by Jerry Falwell and others. They advanced, Rip-van-Winkle-like, back into a world of carbon dating, genome mapping, and dinosaurs. It's not that the mere existence of dinosaur fossils necessarily vanquished belief in a God-designed planet. In fact, the scientist credited with coining the word "dinosaur" -- British Museum director Richard Owen, in 1842 -- did so entirely convinced that the creatures had been created, and "neither derived from improvement of a lower, nor lost progressive development into a higher type." But dinosaurs, along with meteors and early-hominid remains, became some of science's most compelling discoveries -- real, physical evidence of other worlds and other times. So their co-option by fundamentalist religion struck a particularly sour note. On the fundamentalists' part, borrowing science's headline act for pseudo-science was a savvy decision. Who doesn't like dinosaurs? Nature's mysterious giants would bring people, particular 10-year-old boys, into the fold like never before. Dinosaurs were, after all, too big to ignore. Beyond that, dinosaurs proved that this was a modern movement. By 2006, fundamentalists had amassed so many converts and so much revenue that they had the confidence to create new theology on the fly, without batting an eye. They simply worked backwards: the Bible says (according to their reading) that the earth is only 6,000 years old. Dinosaurs existed. So naturally, they can't be more than 6,000 years old. The Museum's cheerful placards matter-of-factly conclude that dinosaurs co-existed with humans. As a visual aid, a tiny animatronic velociraptor stands next to a giggling caveman child, a benevolent prehistoric pet. By rewriting the ancient past, Answers in Genesis could show that it was in the here and now. And rewrite they did. There were so many dinosaurs at the Creation Museum that I started to wonder whether they would appear with Christ on the cross. The theological move is so new that the dinosaur details haven't been ironed out. Dinosaur Adventure Land contends that the dinosaurs were all killed by Noah's Flood, neatly explaining their extinction. The Creation Museum posits that dinosaurs did make it onto Noah's Ark, and were saved. So why aren't they around today? Past the food court and the gift shop, a plush-seated movie theater showed a 10-minute documentary that claims to prove that dinosaurs actually survived the Great Flood -- as dragons. Which are of course real. (How else would Saint George have converted people to Christianity?) A few individual survivors -- like the Loch Ness Monster, and the Komodo dragons -- were still around centuries later. It's unclear what religious purpose this could serve.