Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Massive protests held against US role in Afghanistan

Holding banners "Permanent US military bases equals permanent slavery of Afghan people", "Occupation equals killing plus destruction" in their hands, the protesters shouted "Death to America" as they marched on the downtown street.

KABUL -- Hundreds of Afghans held a massive protest against the United States in the downtown area of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on Sunday, demanding an end of the U.S. role in Afghanistan.
Protest in Kabul

Anti-US protest in Kabul
AFP: About 500 people poured onto the streets of Kabul earlier on Sunday and chanted anti-American slogans over the deaths of the children. Marching through central Kabul they shouted "Death to America -- Death to the invaders." A placard carried by a veiled woman read: "Occupation = killing + destruction."
Holding banners "Permanent US military bases equals permanent slavery of Afghan people", "Occupation equals killing plus destruction" in their hands, the protesters shouted "Death to America" as they marched on the downtown street.
"The involvement of the US government in Afghanistan, that has a long history of cruelty, has not improved conditions in the country, but increased corruption, poverty, murders, poppy cultivation and trafficking," says the pamphlet handed out by the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan, the organizer of the protests.
Hangama, one of the organizers, told Xinhua, "Our aim is to condemn the civilian casualties caused by U.S. troops here in Afghanistan and we don't want the American presence in our country. "
The protesters called for an end of the U.S. role in Afghanistan and strongly condemned the U.S. intention to establish a permanent military base in the country.
"As the United States wants to establish a permanent base in Afghanistan, we call on our people not to allow the U.S. to occupy our country, not allow the Karzai government to sign the shameful agreement," said Hangama.
Women and even children were among the protesters, while a great number of policemen were on high alert in case of security incidents.
At its climax, the protesters burned U.S. President Barack Obama's effigy, shouting "Down with the U.S.".
Azada, a female protester said, "Today we demonstrate here to condemn the civilian causalities caused by the U.S forces and Taliban in our country. We want American troops to stop killing the innocent person, the children and the women."


Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/03/06/massive-protests-held-against-us-role-in-afghanistan.html#ixzz1G4jDnf00

America is not broke.

Speech delivered at Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, March 5, 2011
America is not broke.
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs.  That too caused a reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the system, removing it from circulation.
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It's part of the Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:
1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep your head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.
2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"
The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).
Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!
So how do we get this? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.
Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilots flying people here to Madison. But he's stopped trying to get better pay. All he asks is that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk. The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They wanted to take away his sleep. They wanted to demean and dehumanize him. After all, he's just another slob.
And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold? I mean there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!
"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you...?"
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!
Madison, do not retreat.  We are with you. We will win together.

Follow Michael Moore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MMFlint

Monday, March 07, 2011

Who Really Runs American Politics?

Today it seems there  is a lot of hate in politics. 
Pundits like to point out that politics has always been "dirty". 

Here is what I see: all around, good people, warm hearted people, well meaning people, like yourself. 
Good people on the right, like McCain or Alan Dershowitz on the left. 

People like Noam Chomsky. 

I have seen Chomsky debate Alan Dershowitz. 
Dershowitz clearly makes the case that we here are familiar with, and Chomsky makes the Arab case. 
My guess is that it's because an Arab "charmed" him. 
Have you known any Arabs? 
They can be extremely charming. 
He is a good man with a good heart, yet he is completely wrong on Israel. 
People have a tendency to agree completely with those they really like or admire. 

That's why some people like Obama, and some like Ronald Reagan. 
Obama seems to be mainly practicing the art of politics. 
He is trying to say the right things and do the right things to be re-elected. 
But he's not a Communist. 
I've read his books, I've heard his speeches and listened to people who have known him well. 
Obama wants to remain President. 
That is his goal, that is what he is committed to. 
 
Economics drives politics. 
It's all about economics. 

I believe corporations control the politics of the US,  others believes "the people" do, and that Communists are trying to take over, and that that is the major political economic conflict, that and Islamism, should be our concerns. 

One reason so many people are uncertain about what to do or how to sort out the political complexities is that our major problems today are economic, and economics are complicated, purposely. 

I think we as a nation need to be united, because the elite, the corporate elite, are united, and their interest is the bottom line, not the country or its people. 

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Governor Walker Union Buster, and Proud of it

Some Americans comment on the uprising in Wisconsin by attacking unions.
This question is not whether unions are human institutions. 
No one is asking for the unions to be dubbed as perfect. 
Every human endeavor has the potential for corruption. 
Including the  far rights  beloved corporations. 
The issue is whether or not workers have the right to join together and negotiate about wages, conditions and so on. 
That is what the demonstrations are about. 
Governor Walker has as his demand, abolishing public worker's rights to negotiate with employers. 
Anyone who believes  that corporations do not at least have the potential for being corrupt is ignoring the mountains of evidence that proves otherwise. 
Try this google search: " List of Corporations convicted of felonies" 
Big business is not the grandfatherly caretaker some believe that it is. 
Workers need to be able to defend themselves in some way. 
No human institutions are perfect, we have that as our goal, we have to work towards that, but we shouldn't just , for example, say, 'unions have had problems, therefore, let's trust the magnanimous corporations, they'll take care of us!' " 
The workers of Wisconsin are demonstrating for basic human rights. 
The right to organize to negotiate, as a group, for wages and conditions.