Archive for the ‘Companies & Projects’ Category

This incredible interview with Ralph Nader came across my e-mail box today… well worth a read.

Reflections on the 2004 Election
An Interview with Ralph Nader
by Merlin Chowkwanyun
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 30, 2004

Ralph Nader ran as an independent candidate in 2004 for US President. Unlike both John Kerry and George W. Bush, Nader unequivocally opposed the US invasion of Iraq. During his candidacy, Nader embraced single-payer health care and tackled numerous issues ignored by the two major parties’ candidates, including the proliferation of the racist prison-industrial complex, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and increasing concentration of corporate power. If the Democrats continued to adopt “Bush-lite” policies, argued Nader, they might well lose the election by alienating their traditional base.

Nader’s run earned harsh scorn from Democrats and many of his former supporters in 2000, such as Medea Benjamin, Norman Solomon, and Jeff Cohen. Yet in light of emerging post-election commentary partially attributing the Democrats’ loss to the party’s tepid economic policies, many of Nader’s campaign arguments now seem utterly prophetic in hindsight. In a recent article blasting John Kerry’s hasty election concession, Harper’s Magazine publisher Rick MacArthur expressed regret over not voting for Nader.
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This came through my e-mail today… (by Carl J. Mayer)

1) I will never, ever, let so-called progressive leaders and corporate Democrats tell me I have to vote for a pro-war candidate to end a war and achieve peace.

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I think this speaks for itself…

“WASHINGTON — FBI agents have lodged repeated complaints of physical and mental mistreatment of prisoners held in Iraq and Cuba, saying in reports that military officials have placed lighted cigarettes in detainees’ ears and humiliated Arab captives by wrapping Israeli flags around them, according to new documents released Monday.”

Group Says FBI Ruse Used at Guantanamo

RHR is a somewhat well known Israeli organization supposedly fighting for human rights. Recently they published a somewhat nasty letter condemning the Presbyterians for beginning a divestment process against companies involved in the brutal Israeli occupation. This is my response to that letter.

Dear Rabbi Ascherman,

You probably do not remember me, but we stood side by side at a protest near Budrus last spring. I had volunteered as a human rights activist with the ISM at the time, and it was an absolute honor to have met you and I know that your organization does much good work.

I am however writing because I am tremendously disappointed by your organization’s response to the divestment campaign being waged in the US, starting with the Presbyterian church’s divestment. Words cannot begin to describe my disappointment when I saw your organization’s statement on the Presbyterian Divestment. Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning Vietnam! Err I mean VietIraq! Err Viraq? Good morning Iraq!

Once again. Did we not tell them so? Did we not protest by the millions in the streets, saying that the very things happening in Iraq now (house-by-house fighting, a quagmire) will happen?

US Isn’t Winning Against Iraqi Insurgents, Agencies Warn

I like this bit: “A theocratic state in Iraq “is not exactly what the United States or the Europeans had in mind before the war,”"

So it looks like our new Secretary of State Condi-Betray-All-That-You-Are Rice is going to be pushing us into a cold war posture against Russia.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Really, can’t the apocalypse wait?!
Seeking Putin’s Soul

I am not sure why, but I read this as good reason to curtail religion period in this country. The right-wing lunatics are leading us right into a religious war.

MSNBC – Poll shows U.S. views on Muslim-Americans
ITHACA, N.Y. – Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans, according to a nationwide poll.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims’ civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Scott Ritter, former chief nuclear weapons inspector for the United Nations has written an incredible article giving a very to-the-point analysis of the uprising against the American occupation of Iraq.

It is just so amusing that the Americans haven’t learned from the Israelis — occupation DOES NOT WORK. People do not like to be occupied. Plain and simple.

Anyway, this is well worth a read…
Aljazeera.Net – The risks of the al-Zarqawi myth

You know Rummy’s in trouble when even William Kristol is calling for his resignation. Sadly, he wasn’t in nearly as much hot water when thousands of American citizens did the same thing last year. And as the good folks over at The Left Coaster point out, now’s a horribly convenient time for Kristol, Hagel, McCain, Collins and the like to develop such sudden concern.

By Stephen DeVoy from http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/305622.shtml

Every morning Elizabeth joined her classmates in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. She never thought about what it meant, she just followed through with the other students repeating the words which came out like one very long run-on sentence. It was a mechanical exercise.

Today was different. A new girl, Amy, had transferred to her school from a school in another city. When the time came for the Pledge of Allegiance, she remained sitting, drawing on her notebook. No one ever gave much thought to the process before, until that day, but it was as if someone had scraped their fingernails on the chalkboard. Everyone felt very uncomfortable and they knew it was because one student was not reciting the pledge but they did not know why this bothered them.

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