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 "Warrior Love" by Etana

I'm your queen, your the king beside of me, your my strenght, you are here to guide me, wanna be your warrior break down every barrier with my love as my weapon, I can walk the world without a fear, I can hold my head high without a care and, I can fight the world, every grudgeful one and every badminder with your love as my weapon.

Cho:
Dem caan stop di way a feel for you ma love has no boundry dem caan bully di way mi feel, I fight for you; wen you fight for me, dem caan stop di way, dem wish and, dem hope and, dem fight and dem pray, dem caan stop dis worrior love.

Living in a house wid a bed and a bruk down fridge, I was dere, ah me cook di cabbage wen tings din't go from bad to worst, a kiss from your lips seems to break di curse, now dat we're living glorious, ther's no way I can forget wen it was just us; you and I trying hard to get by, behind every strong man there is a good woman, thats who I lead to be, you seems to be please with who I am, cause your the strongest man I've ever seen,
I'm a whole lotta woman, full of everything and love is worth you to have me on your mind always you must be carrying the weight of the earth..

cho:

Di love inna wi hart it will lead us to jah, mek wi bun down di wicked wid di living fire and, di right of correction will give us direction away from the eden and, bless us di children.

cho:
(Outro)
Dem wish and dem hope and dem fight and dem pray

Posted by impoetryious at 01:28 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Ron Browz's Jumping Out The Window 

Influenced by the sounds of DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, and Havoc, Ron's first big break came in the year 2000 when he produced four songs on the late Big L's album, The Big Picture, including the classic track "Ebonics." Big L taught Ron about the music business, and exposed him to a new network of contracts. The experience gave Ron reason to take the game seriously, and his career began to grow exponentially.

The following year of 2001 Ron Browz gave some beats to Queensbridge emcee Nas during the recording of the 2001 double-platinum album Stillmatic, Ron Browz was not expecting history to be made. Nas used Ron's track as the foundation for his lyrical battle classic "Ether," a scathing comeback to Jay-Z's "The Take-Over." "When I did the beat and Nas picked the track, I didn't know that's what it was gonna be for," explains Ron. "To this day I feel honored. I get a lot of respect for it when people meet me. " The credibility of "Ether" sparked a demand for the Ron Browz sound. His reputation for crafting walloping records grew with songs like the Ludacris smash hit "Blow It Out" from the album Chicken N Beer, which has sold over 2.5 million copies to date. Other platinum-plus albums with Ron's magic touch include Lloyd Banks The Hunger For More with the song "Playboy," DMX's "F'ck Y'all" on the Grand Champ LP, "Whatz The Word" on Lil Kim's La Bella Mafia album, and the Snoop Dogg collaboration with 50 cent "Oh No" on Snoop's Rhythm & Gangsta: The Masterpiece lp.

As time surpassed, Ron's perseverance became more memorable, with a strong showing on Jae Millz Street anthems "Who", and "Bring it back." Ron took the industry by storm when his production was presented as the opening song for 50 Cent's blockbuster film Get Rich Or Die Trying. The track, "I'll Whip Ya Head Boy," which features 50 and Young Buck over Ron's brazen baseline, was also nominated for an Oscar the following year. Ron's captivating, irrefutable sound coincides with the follow up album from Lloyd Banks "Rotten Apple", where you can hear his undeniable drums on "Playboy 2" or the heartfelt keys on the single "Help" which features singer Keri Hilson. His ‘sought-after' sound can also be heard on the Remy Ma song "Fresh" as well as songs with pop-singer Lumidee.

Faced with the fact that Hip Hop fans know his track record but not his name, Ron Browz humbly acknowledges that this should not be and issue much longer. "Every day a different person learns about me, and I want my name to be out there amongst the big names," he states confidently. "I bring raw talent to the game. I taught myself everything about making beats. For a person with eight gold and platinum plaques, I still don't get the recognition. When people hear my name, I want them to say, ‘I know its some fire.'"

The sky is the limit for Ron Browz, as his career progressively gains momentum, and he continues to deliver with such consistency. He continues to remain relevant. His hard work and diligence landed him two tracks on the recently released G-Unit album T.O.S, "Straight Outta South Side" and "Money Make The World Go Round." His impeccable craftsmanship can also be found on the upcoming release of Jim Jones new album, where his innovative sound can be heard on the song titled "Good Stuff." With the shortcomings in hip-hop and the inadequacy revolving around New York artist, Ron took it upon himself to venture out and start EtherBoy Records to make music more meaningful. "I'm not saying its dead, I'm just here to try and resurrect the feel for it, how music use to have a meaning, how it would move your soul." This brings us to his eminent single "Pop Champagne" where Ron introduces the world to his lyrical assertiveness over a pristine drum pattern once again captivating the consumers. When asked about his transition from a producer to an artist Ron stated, "It takes gumption to diversify one self as a producer, and as an artist. In the industry as a producer you're behind the scenes majority of the time. Whereas for an artist it consists of you having to be the front and center, but that's where I belong. It's a progression from one grind to a more complex one." "I realized in order for you to be overly happy with your self you have to follow your personal legend and continue to fulfill it. Find what you're most passionate about and go for it.

It wasn't easy to get where I am today. I worked hard for it. I took all the negative energy and created something big. I had to make it happen."

Ron Browz's Jumping Out The Window 

Posted by impoetryious at 12:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Electrik Red  shows "How to Be a Lady Vol.1

Throughout the history of pop music, few things have been more important than the relationship between artists and their producers. Legendary hit makers like Quincy Jones and Timbaland helped transform singers like Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake into musical icons. Staying in line with this formula for success, Def Jam is set to re-direct the face of popular music with all-girl singing group, Electrik Red. Paired with Grammy Award-winning writing/production team The Dream and Tricky Stewart (Rihanna's "Umbrella"), Electrik Red's edgy brand of hip-hop and R&B exemplifies the future sound of music.

Comprised of Naomi, Sarah, Lesley and Binki, Electrik Red hails from both New York City and Canada. Binki and Lesley, who attended NYC's prestigious LaGuardia School of Performing Arts, met the Toronto born Naomi and Sarah while individually performing as back-up dancers for artists like Usher, Mariah Carey and Ciara. After running into each other time and again at auditions and parties, the girls began to form a friendship. "We'd get together on our off time, and strategize," says Naomi. "For some of us the ultimate was getting to work with an amazing performer, like a Janet or Madonna," explains Binki. "But once you hit that mark it's like ok, now where do I want to take it? In our case, making music was the next plateau to aim for."

Although the move to step to the front of the stage may have seemed risky, the girls knew they were ready. "Everyone had lucrative careers," says Lesley, "but we had the confidence to say. Ok, let's stop all that and go off on our own with no help from anyone we'd worked for."

While their individual careers started with dance, the girls all grew up studying music. Binki learned the business early from her father who was a member in the legendary Caribbean soul group Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Lesley began vocal training at age three while Sarah studied the piano as a young girl. Once they decided to form a group, the girls decided on the name Electrik Red which they felt exuded their collective sensuality.

In 2005, the foursome recorded a demo, and instead of calling on their long list of family friends and contacts in the music industry, Electrik Red decided to keep their new project under wraps. "What's crazy is that as many people we knew, we never really shopped the demo, we were protective of our music," says Naomi. "We felt like we couldn't go to an executive at a label until we feel like we had the best music possible. We believe you only have one shot."

In February of 2007, that one shot came when Electrik Red secured a deal with Def Jam. The girls were then paired with the hottest hit makers in town, The Dream and Tricky Stewart, who had worked with everyone from Mary J. Blige to Beyoncé. "We all looked at each other and said ‘Holy shit guys!'" remembers Binki. "Look where we're at right now!"

The multi-talented group are now getting ready to release their debut album which has rapidly become heavily anticipated thanks to the massive buzz surrounding Electrik Red's first single, "Drink In My Cup." The slinky, yet hard hitting atmospheric "Drink In My Cup" showcases the girl's flowing harmonies and edgy phrasing. The mix of street and seduction makes it clear Electrik Red is taking mainstream R&B to an entirely new level.

Posted by impoetryious at 11:48 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Kristinia DeBarge launches her career with "Goodbye"

(April 13, 2009 – New York, NY) 19-year old Kristinia DeBarge launches her career with the anthemic upbeat smash "Goodbye," her debut single, now hitting at pop radio weeks before the official April 27th impact date. Powerhouse stations such as WKTU (New York), WKQI (Detroit), Z100 (New York), (KHKS) Dallas and WKSC (Chicago) were the first to get on board, with many majors quickly following suit. In addition, Nivea had committed to licensing the new hit smash "GoodBye" as the theme song for their new Network TV Campaign. "Goodbye" is featured in both :15 & :30 spots that began April 6 and runs through July 13th. ("Goodbye" samples the classic #1 hit of 1969, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by the group Steam, distinguished as the record that knocked the Beatles' controversial "Come Together" from the #1 spot in December.) A video shoot to capture the song's sexy fun feel is scheduled to take place shortly in Los Angeles.

Kristinia DeBarge carries on the tradition of her father James DeBarge, keyboardist and founding member of beloved Motown '80s group DeBarge. Kristinia knew she wanted to be a singer at the age of three, but didn't reveal her wishes to her family until she was twelve. To gage her passion, James DeBarge and Kristinia went to the studio and recorded a duet called "How I Feel Inside." Kristinia recalls. "Our session ended at 4am and my dad asked me after all those hours and after all that work if I still wanted to do this. I answered yes, and that's how he knew I was serious about being a singer."

"Goodbye" is the first release from Kristinia's debut album on new label Sodapop Music, set for summertime release. Many tracks on the album were written and produced by Babyface; "Goodbye," is co-produced by Babyface and The Pentagon. Sodapop Music is a full-scale label start-up for Babyface, one of his first since his LaFace Records (home of Toni Braxton, OutKast, TLC, and Usher), the wildly successful label co-founded in 1989 by Babyface and Antonio ‘L.A.' Reid, who today is Chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group. Also, co-founder Jeff Burroughs heads Sodapop Music after serving in senior executive positions over the past decade at RCA Music Group and as Executive Vice President of P. Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment.

Posted by impoetryious at 11:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Method Man & Redman presents:The Blackout 2

Blackout! 2 is the second album by rap duo Method Man & Redman. It's their first album in ten years. The album is scheduled for release on May 19, 2009 under Def Jam.

Blackout! 2, which was originally scheduled for release in 2008 but was pushed back a number of times but now a final release date has been set for this May. After finishing up the Still High Tour with Termanology, The Alchemist, Havoc- from Mobb Deep- and Evidence, Redman and Method Man finished and set a release date for their highly anticipated sequel.

The album features production from Pete Rock and Erick Sermon, as Method Man and Redman promise to satisfy patient fans. The track "A Yo" that was leaked earlier this month has been confirmed to be included on the album. Also the track "City Lights" featuring Bun B leaked over the internet on March 24, 2009. Raekwon has also been confirmed to guest on the album. Featured artists from the previous album such as Ja Rule or LL Cool J may not appear in this album

The sequel to the How High film titled How High 2, is currently being written with production and filming to start this summer.

Blackout! 2 will be released 10 years since the Blackout! album, which was placed at the top of a lot of 1999's best album lists. Entertainment Weekly explained how the two lyricists work so well together. "When Hip Hop's most playfully creative rhyme stylers throw down like two superballs in a rubber room, they're unstoppable, and make rap's most joyous ride." They have shot music videos for the songs "A Yo" and "Mrs. International".

Tracklisting

All songs written and composed by Method Man & Redman. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_2

Posted by impoetryious at 11:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Though Bob Marley is no longer with us, his legend lives on through the music of his children. One Marley who has been getting a lot of attention lately is Julian with his 3rd career album, AWAKE. Julian Marley has been around music all his life. He has been blessed both by his father's great talent and legacy and by the unique perspective that comes with an upbringing in a multicultural community. Born in London, England, Julian's development as a singer/songwriter began when, at age five, he cut his first demo tape, recording a version of his father's classic composition, "Slave Driver," at the Marley family's Tuff Gong studio in Kingston. Since that auspicious beginning, Julian has devoted himself to a life in music, mastering a variety of instruments and writing songs that reflect his dedication to spiritual upliftment and social change. All of these skills are utilized on AWAKE.

Produced by Julian Marley and his Grammy Award-winning brothers, Stephen Marley and Damian Marley, AWAKE's release comes on the heels of an emotionally charged year. His beloved grandmother, Cedella Marley Booker, who went home to Zion in 2008, inspires the young songwriter.

AWAKE is a call for everyone - youths and elders - to awaken to life's joy and rewards and to do something positive with their lives. The roots-reggae sound that Julian Marley has distinctly made his own is supported by the street-energy infusion of hip-hop, bubbling dancehall, and a smooth combination of R&B and reggae.

The first single from AWAKE is "Boom Draw," an easy roots-dancehall tune that will surely have fans moving to its rock solid rhythm. More great tracks on Awake include "Little to Late" with Stephen Marley on guest vocals, "Violence in the Street" with Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, and "Oh Girl" featuring American rapper Mr. Cheeks. For Julian Marley, music is life, life is music and both are blessings from above. "From a small age music has been there in my life. It's just natural. And it is with the inspiration of the Most High that I create my songs."

During his career, Julian formed his own band (The Uprising) and has released two critically acclaimed albums, Lion in the Morning (1996) and A Time and Place (2003). He has toured the world, both as a solo performer backed by Uprising and as a member of Ghetto Youths International, a musical collective whose core members are Julian along with his brothers, Stephen and Damian.

Posted by impoetryious at 01:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

 Still super optimistic, February 10, 2009

India.Arie turns in another stellar effort of her fourth CD. The follow up to "Testimony Vol. 1" which garnered her first US #1 album. Musically, she sticks to her acoustic Soul style almost Folk-like in places, with deep social conscious lyrics.

Lead-off single is the retro organ-drenched sultry "Chocolate high" with Musiq Soulchild. The Folk-y "Therapy" (featuring Gramps Morgan) is a more upbeat fast strummed number. Keeping up the tempo are the groovy Hip Hop/Jazz-tinged "Psalm 23" (with MC Lyte), the Blues/Rock "Better way" (about the issues unearthed by Hurricane Katrina and other ills), and closing bonus cut "A beautiful day".

Standouts to me are the awesome Latin-tinged "Ghetto" ("To be hungry in LA/is just like starving in Bombay" she sings, telling us poverty and hardship is shared by all humanity), her beautiful West African-tinged take on Sade's sombre lament "Pearls" (featuring Dobet Gnahore, some lovely harmonies, and including a woman in Rwanda in the lyrics), the tender acoustic ballad "He heals me" (a beautiful love song), and the retro sounding "Yellow" (featuring Terrell Carter) which sounds like some lost song from seventies Stevie Wonder.

India's lyrics, as usual, brim with over-positivity and optimism, something that oddly puts some people off. I wonder why, lyrics like this are a welcome escape from the harsh and sad realities of the world. Another solid outing from the talented Ms. Arie, a winner!

Posted by impoetryious at 01:07 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Two months into 2009 and we already have a strong contender for album of the year in "Troubadour".

K'Naan is a Somali-born rapper who fled (with his family) to the US, then Canada, and his style can be described as Kanye West meets Bob Marley. "Troubadour" is his second studio CD and lives up to its name as he displays poetic skill right up there with the wisest of sages. His wordplay and subject matter leaves most other rappers (and singers too) trailing in the wake. While they brag about their bling, cars, b**ches and stuff, K'naan's lyrics touch on life in Africa, especially his homeland, but with humour and hope.

Opening cut "T.I.A" is a Ragga-tinged clap-filled groove that M.I.A would kill for. Continuing that Reggae vibe is "I come prepared" (featuring Damian Marley). The bouncy "ABCs" touches on the effect war had on education back in his homeland. "Dreamer" finds him telling us that despite all the problems back home, he too (like everyone esle) had dreams, and they came true.

Next come a pair of Rock-tinged numbers; "Bang bang" (with lyrics about a girl this time, not war :-)) features a catchy chorus sung by Adam Levine, and the groovy "If Rap gets jealous" which features Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (especially on the blistering chorus).

A troupe of African-tinged songs follow; "Wavin' flag" is a very Bob Marley-like chant (right down to the harmonies) with K'naan singing "Born to a throne/stronger than Rome/A violent prone/Poor people zone/but it's my home/all I have known". Very heartfelt and catchy. "Somalia" finds him talking about his homeland, "America" features Mos Def and some Afrobeat samples set to some ethnic-sounding percussion and lyrics in English and his native tongue. "Fatima" is an acoustic tinged groovy ode to his neighbour's daughter.

My absolute favourite song is the majestic guitar driven "Fire in Freetown" which finds him singing rather than rapping, and it has a lovely horn break. Indescribably beautiful! The autobiographical "Take a minute" pays tribute to his mother, as well as name checking other heroes of his like Mandela, Ghandi and even Akon.

The comical "15 minutes" vividly takes a look at the anticipation/excitement a needy one back home feels when he/she receives a money transfer. Closing is the sombre string-swathed "People like me", which finds him in the shoes of someone sent to wage war in Iraq, as well as talking about how he fled Somalia but left his favourite cousin behind in the war.

I am so glad this CD made the top 40 (#32 in the US) as intelligent musical efforts like this usually get passed up for commercial sounding crap. Brilliant! A troubadour indeed.

Posted by impoetryious at 01:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

“When I worked at Monsanto, I warned both scientists and executives that our GM foods may cause disease, but no one was even willing to listen, let alone investigate the unpredicted side effects. For them, it was all about profit. Now our whole population is threatened by the serious dangers described in Genetic Roulette.”
—Kirk J. Azevedo, DC

“Congratulations, Jeffrey Smith, for your courage. Thanks to your tireless investigations, we need wonder no longer why corporations spreading GMOs are so secretive, why they’ve spent hundreds of millions to keep us from even knowing which foods contain GMOs. They don’t want us to examine the shoddy science, the suppressed evidence, and, most of all, the real health risks that GMOs present. Read Genetic Roulette not only to protect yourself and your family but to learn through this breath-taking story what all Americans need to do to reclaim our democracy and protect our planet.”
— Frances Moore Lappé, author of Democracy’s Edge and Diet for a Small Planet

“I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it—unless it says organic. Genetic Roulette tells you why you must avoid genetically engineered foods to stay healthy.”
—John H. Boyles, MD, ear, nose, and throat, and allergy specialist

“Jeffrey Smith is the leading world expert in the understanding and communication of the health issues surrounding genetically modified foods. Genetic Roulette, which brings in original contributions by eminent scientists worldwide, makes it crystal clear that the American FDA should not be so cavalier about the potential dangers of these procedures.”
—Candace Pert, PhD, author of Molecules of Emotion and Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d and former Chief of the Section, National Institutes of Health

“The most comprehensive, well-documented, and highly readable exposé on the serious health dangers of GM foods.”
—Samuel S. Epstein, MD, professor emeritus of Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition

“This is the authentic book on genetic modification that the world has been waiting for. . . . The case presented is absolutely a smoking shotgun that should stop in its tracks any dabbling with GM foods, whether by individual families, food companies, or indeed nations. . . . Jeffrey Smith is one of the great campaigners of our age, a relentless pursuer of the truth, a fearless advocate in the corporate world of secret influence, and a ceaseless promoter of the public interest across the world. He is the modern David against the GM Goliath. This book may well provide the sling-shot to change the global course of events this century.”
—Excerpts from the foreword by Michael Meacher, MP, former UK government environment minister

Eating genetically modified food is gambling with every bite.

The biotech industry’s claim that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe is shattered in this groundbreaking book. Nearly forty health risks of the foods that Americans eat every day are presented in easy-to-read two-page spreads. The left page is designed for the quick scanning reader; it includes bullets, illustrations, and quotes. The right side offers fully referenced text, describing both research studies and theoretical risks. It is presented in the clear, accessible style that made Jeffrey Smith’s Seeds of Deception the world’s best-selling book on genetically engineered foods.

The second half of Genetic Roulette explores why children are most at risk, how to avoid GM foods, false claims by biotech advocates, how industry research is rigged to avoid finding problems, why GM crops are not needed to feed the world, the economic losses associated with these crops, and more.

This book, prepared in collaboration with a team of international scientists, is for anyone wanting to understand GM technology, to learn how to protect themselves, or to share their concerns with others. As the world’s most complete reference on the health risks of GM foods, Genetic Roulette is also ideal for schools and libraries. Consider some findings:

Animals fed genetically modified (GM) foods developed bleeding stomachs, potentially precancerous cell growth, damaged organs and immune systems, kidney inflammation, problems with blood and liver cells, and unexplained deaths.

Soy allergies skyrocketed in the United Kingdom after GM soy was introduced.

Genes from GM crops transfer to human gut bacteria. This might transform our intestinal flora into living pesticide factories.

Posted by impoetryious at 11:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating

By	Patty Apostolides "Author"

Having read a number of articles and books on genetically engineered foods, I found this book to be very comprehensive and very well written. I highly recommend it if you are interested in your health.

As a biologist who has worked with DNA, and respect it, I place great value on Smith's easy to understand explanation on the genetic engineering process on DNA. Smith has also carefully researched FDA reports and quoted several people in his analysis of GMOs and their impact on society. With methodological precision, his research reveals the close ties of the U.S. government with biotechnology industry in several aspects of GMO production. Even more disturbing is the influence of biotechnology companies such as Monsanto, Novartis, Dow, and DuPont having on the government - they gave more than 3.5 million dollars (from 1995-2000) towards campaign contributions, with 3/4 going to Republicans.

His research also reveals the impact of the genetically modifed amino acid L-tryptophan in 1989-1990 that debilitated thousands of people with EMS, a disease that produces severe muscle pain, and even death. Forty people died from taking this L-tryptophan. This product was never labled that it was genetically modified and the Japanese manufacturer - Showa Denko KK did not use the proper filtration level to remove the impurities. Subsequent from these health risks, the product was removed from shelves.

My favorite quotes from this book came from George Wald, Nobel Laureate in Medicine. He said for genetic engineeering - "The results will be essentially new organisms, self-perpetuating and hence permanent. Once created, they cannot be recalled" and "Up to now, living organisms have evolved very slowly and new forms have had plenty of time to settle in. Now whole proteins will be transposed overnight into wholly new associations, with consequences no one can foretell, either for the host organism, or their neighbors." Those are powerful words and cannot be forgotten.

Read this book. It will change your life. You owe it to yourself and your family.

Posted by impoetryious at 11:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"Janine Roberts is that rare individual who unflinchingly speaks truth to power. She battles her way past all the obstacles and provides us a glimpse of those who are in the innermost circles of global power. But instead of being seduced by their power and wealth, she exposes what they do and how they do it and how it comes to hurt us all.

She has hunted down the shady dealers of the diamond cartel and of DeBeers, itself. She reveals here for the first time the disturbing secrets of the individuals, governments, and corporations that have ruled the diamond world for the past one hundred years.

Read and get ready to defy conventional wisdom that no one really cares enough to challenge business as usual in the diamond world. For after reading 'Glitter and Greed', you will be compelled to act. Africans should mine, cut, polish, market, distribute, manufacture, and export the jewelry that originates upon its shores in much the same way that France controls its wine production and the United States controls its defense technology."

--Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

Rare, romantic, and forever: The diamond industry depends on these myths to reap billions of dollars of profit. This sensational investigation explodes such fallacies and reveals how multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns create the impression of rarity and romance. It reveals a very secret and unromantic world, one that is dominated and controlled by a handful of mighty corporations.

With Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie The Blood Diamond making more people than ever aware of the seamy side of the diamond trade, Janine Roberts' explosive exposé, taking us through seven decades of intrigue and manipulation, is the right book at the right time.

Posted by impoetryious at 10:57 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By	Jeff E. Bigler

As a person who, 25 years ago, could do over 2000 sit-ups in 1 1/2 hrs. I now find myself with much less energy and a more sedentary job and 60 years old. I have shunned all the other "hide-under-the-bed" exercise scams. I took a chance on this one and must say that the construction and theory are not bad in practice. For someone who wants to watch TV/listen to music/meditate while springing back-and-forth, I notice positive ab muscle tensioning. It's easy to sit there and rock; and before you know it you're rocking more and more, and easier and easier. Since the abs are the key to lower back muscle strength how can this tiny device, at a mere $100 hurt more than the first few days? This item will NEVER be under my bed. I'll wear it out and ask for one made from stainless steel! I think it's the best ab device available, if you need a device to motivate you to do ab exercises. Apt dwellers, this I recommend for you.   

Offering a revolutionary way to work your lower abs, upper abs, middle abs, and even your sides, the Ab Rocket will give you the body you've always wanted. The Ab Rocket works like a real piece of gym equipment, with a back and head apparatus that comfortably supports your head and neck, along with a rolling cushion that gives you a gentle massage while you perform crunches. Whether you want to tone your abdominals, strengthen your core, or melt inches from your waistline, the Ab Rocket's three levels of resistance are up to the task.

As a bonus, the Ab Rocket comes with a free fat-blasting system, which includes a low-calorie meal plan filled with easy-to-make, mouthwatering low-calorie recipes and an instructional DVD with five-minute ab workouts, a cardio workout, and a Pilates assister. The Ab Rocket, which folds away for easy storage, weighs only 10 pounds.

Posted by impoetryious at 10:47 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Kindle 2 vs Kindle 1,

After 6 months with the first Kindle, I was stoked when I saw gen 2 coming out. After hearing me rave about my Kindle, my wife was more than happy to take the "old" one off my hands so that I could buy the latest gadget. She's nothing if not tolerant of my gadget addiction! :)

Anyhow, I wanted to share my impressions of the old vs. the new.

First of all, the things that the Kindle 2 did better than the original:

1. It's a lot thinner. I travel frequently, so the smaller, the better. This is a noticeable change from the first to the second version and one that I love.

2. The page turn buttons are better. With the Kindle 1, I was constantly at risk of accidentally bumping the next page buttons. They are extremely sensitive and very large. With the Kindle 2, the buttons have been scaled down to a much more manageable size and are a lot less sensitive.

3. I love the 4-way directional button. It took a little getting used to after having used the Kindle 1, especially since the context menus that I was used to in the first gen have changed due to the new directional button, but for any Kindle user, this change is a god send.

4. Power charging via USB. Having a single cord for the Kindle is great. The little USB->Socket converter is great to have, too.

There are a few things that I will miss about my Kindle 1, too.

1. The power buttons. I really liked having control over the power with a simple toggle. Yes, it's great in the Kindle 2 that you can easily put the Kindle to sleep, however, if you want to turn the 2nd Gen off, you have to hold the power slide for 4 seconds. I am going to miss being able to wait until the last second to just flip a switch as I'm putting it away. I'm sure I'll get used to the change, but it will take some time.

2. The location of the headphone jack. In the Kindle 1, the headphone jack was conveniently located on the bottom of the Kindle. This kept the headphone cord out of your way. On the Kindle 2, it's top-center. Now, I don't use audio on my Kindle much, but when I do, it's because I forgot my mp3 player and want to listen to music while I read. Having the cord coming out of the top means I have to adjust it to keep it out of my way when reading. Really, this is just a minor annoyance, but I felt like it was worth sharing.

Finally, the one thing that I still feel like the Kindle is missing (and I knew this going in, so I can't ding the Kindle for it) is global wireless support. It has 3G capabilities, so technology is not the problem, it must just be cost. My hope is that they will allow international access at some point in the future, even if it comes with a small delivery surcharge - although of course we'd all like to see it cost the same! :)

One last thing to mention... I'm an avid reader and was somewhat concerned that losing the feel of true books would take away from my enjoyment of the Kindle. After having used it for 6 months, I went back to a standard paperback book and found myself getting a little frustrated with the more traditional format. I find that it's easy to get lost in the book with the Kindle. The one thing I miss about the traditional format is the ability to peek a page or two ahead to see when the next good stopping point will be.

All in all, I am very pleased with my Kindle(s), and definitely had no hesitation in buying a second.

Posted by impoetryious at 10:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Elite Serial Killers of Lincoln, JFK, RFK & MLK,

"RIVETING" Perhaps the most REVEALING book that I have read as to the "powers" that CONTROL politics, creation of wars and the manner in which we live on an everyday basis. JUST FOLLOW THE "BIG" MONEY. Absolutely frighting and educational as to the "conditions that exist TODAY." This book made me realize how totally ignorant that I am and have been, even though I consisered myself well-informed. An absolute MUST READ for those of us who desire to be aware of the "reasons" that events happen. I have never gone out of my way to FULLY recommend a particular book until I read this one.

Posted by impoetryious at 10:34 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"American Blackout" A documentary   

The right to vote represents one of the strongest elements of democracy within the United States. With his documentary American Blackout, Ian Inaba shows that while voting is a right many Americans take for granted, it's something that's still not a given for many of America's citizens. With his thought-provoking film--which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival--Inaba shows through interviews, documents, and startling images of African Americans waiting in the rain (only to be falsely told they're too late to vote) how districts are systemically trying to exclude blacks from the voting process. By focusing on controversial congresswoman Cynthia McKinney--who has been a vocal opponent of President George W. Bush and his administration--and a few others, Inaba doesn't lose the viewer with too many subjects. Whether or not your political views align with McKinney's, it's difficult not to question some of her opponents' motives for twisting her words, especially pertaining to 9/11. Though no one will be surprised that this film was shot on a low budget, the lack of bells and whistles doesn't take anything away from the production value, which is compelling in its stark reality. --Jae-Ha Kim

Product Description
Most people have heard of the voting irregularities that marred the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Some even know of the resulting challenges to the electoral votes by African-American congressional representatives. However, because the mainstream media shies away from reporting cases of imperiled democracy the public is left to believe these stories are at worst insignificant rumors or at best one-off incidents that result from an overburdened election system.

American Blackout chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who not only took an active role in investigating these election debacles but also found herself in the middle of one after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Some call Cynthia McKinney a civil rights leader among the ranks of Shirley Chisholm and Malcolm X. Others call her a conspiracy theorist and a "looney." American Blackout gains unprecedented access to one of the most controversial and dangerous politicians in America and examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence political dissent.

Posted by impoetryious at 10:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

 Leon and the Peoples 

Leon & The Peoples is a ‘reggae-soul’ band. Lead vocals by actor and singer/songwriter Leon. They have performed live across the nation.

Leon, actor and singer/songwriter, starred in the Disney “Cool Runnings.” Leon has also appeared on television with a re-occurring role on NBC’s “Crossing Jordan,” also on the HBO series “Oz”. Leon’s passion for music was first seen with fans as he portrayed singer David Ruffin in the award winning “The Temptations Mini-Series” and in both “The Little Richard Story” and “The Five Heartbeats”. Leon made his singing debut playing a reggae singer in “The Price of Kissing” in which he sang a reggae rendition of “Daddy’s Home”. In 2008, Leon & The Peoples song, "Life Is A Funny Game" is featured as the closing credit song on the 20th Century Fox movie "Cover" directed by Bill Duke.

Leon & The Peoples has been on BET’s “106 and Park” and have headlined the concert in Central Park celebrating the NYC AIDS WALK (2003 – 2009). Leon & The Peoples performed at NYC Summer Stage and The International Music and Arts Festival in New Orleans, LA. and other Reggae festivals from coast to coast. In 2007 was billed along side reggae greats, Beres Hammond and Marcia Griffiths for the "For The Love of It Tour", playing many sold out dates including House of Blues in LA, San Diego and Atlantic City as well as the Roxy - Boston, BB Kings - NYC & Hard Rock Live in Orlando to name a few. When asked why he dubbed his music "Reggae-Soul" he stated “My music has soul influences, so just saying my music is straight up reggae wouldn’t be accurate,” Leon offers. “It’s basically music for everyone. One good thing with us is that people say it’s hard not to like the album because it doesn’t pinpoint any demographic, its just good music.” Leon doesn't have any direct Caribbean roots. When asked how he got into reggae music he expressed that it is Reggae music that got into him. As a young boy at the age of 11, he heard Bob Marley's “Natty Dread” coming out of a friends window and Leon was hooked. He travels back and forth to Jamaica as an actor so it has become an adopted homeland. Even before he formed Leon & The Peoples, he was involved in reggae music for years, hosting almost every Reggae show imaginable, having friends in the Jamaican music industry, and portraying Jamaicans in some of his movie roles such as Derice Bannock in Cool Runnings . And taking an active role in issues affecting Jamaica. Leon has worked extensively with Upliftment Jamaica, which is a social service organization aimed at providing recreation, education, and health services for St. Thomas.

Posted by impoetryious at 09:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Blessed Seed Oil,

If you've done any kind of research at all on Nigella Sativa oil (aka black seed oil, black cumin seed oil, onion seed oil, etc.) then you have to have heard about it's curative and health properties. Well I concur. I mix black seed oil with virgin coconut oil and use it on my skin and hair and it's truly miraculous. As nearly prohibitive as the price is, I'd be a fool NOT to cut it but the black seed oil shines right on through the coconut oil. I put some of my mixture on my son's skin with his eczema and chronic itchy skin and it kept his skin moisturized, healed his scratch marks where he'd scratched his skin up in his sleep and left him with a wonderful glow. I use it on my skin and hair as well and I love it. I also consume the oil on sprouted grain bread. The oil has a peppery/citrusy taste and is quite different from any other oil that I've ever tasted but there is no denying that if you care about your health, you must have this oil.

Posted by impoetryious at 12:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

NEXT DAY AIR

When two bumbling criminals accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it triggers a series of events that forever changes the lives of ten people. Smalltime hoods Brody and Guch have seen better days. But when a wacked-out courier accidentally brings them a box containing 10 kilos of high-quality cocaine meant for their next-door neighbors, it sets in motion a chain of events that could cost all of them their lives.

Brody and Guch immediately arrange to sell the coke to Brody's drug dealer cousin and his tightlipped bodyguard. But when the intended recipients of the package, wannabe gangster Jesus and his feisty girlfriend, realize the box hasn't arrived, they set out on a desperate search to find it before ruthless drug kingpin Bodega Diablo notices it's missing. But they're too late. Furious over the loss of his shipment, mob boss Bodega will stop at nothing to get the drugs back. With Brody and Guch's drug deal about to go down, all parties are on a collision course that's almost certain to end in heavy gunfire. And whoever's still standing when the smoke clears could walk away with nearly a million dollars in cash and drugs.

Posted by impoetryious at 12:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

What Is BTH And Why You Should Avoid It.

This past week I got an email from Shayna about an ingredient she has been seeing in a lot of skincare products called BHT, which is short for butylated hydroxytoluene. This lipophilic (fat-soluble) phenol is primarily used as an antioxidant food additive as well as in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, jet fuels, rubber, petroleum products, and embalming fluid. Those things all belong in the same category, right? I mean, who doesn’t love using an ingredient that goes into jet fuel or embalming fluid…on their skin!

As for food use, while the United States still allows it to be used as an additive to slow the rate of autoxidation in food, Japan, Australia, Sweden and Romania have banned it’s use in food. Sweet!

In skincare products, it is kind of used in the same way - to preserve the product. But some studies have shown that large doses may cause tumors in lab animals and it can cause allergic contact dermatitis, so why in the world would we want to use it on our skin? Because the FDA says it is safe, that’s why! BHT also contains the chemical Toluene, which has a Material Safety Data Sheet that says:

POISON! DANGER! HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED. HARMFUL IF INHALED OR ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN. VAPOR HARMFUL. FLAMMABLE LIQUID AND VAPOR. MAY AFFECT LIVER, KIDNEYS, BLOOD SYSTEM, OR CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. CAUSES IRRITATION TO SKIN, EYES AND RESPIRATORY TRACT. INHALATION: INHALATION MAY CAUSE IRRITATION OF THE UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT. SYMPTOMS OF OVEREXPOSURE MAY INCLUDE FATIGUE, CONFUSION, HEADACHE, DIZZINESS AND DROWSINESS. PECULIAR SKIN SENSATIONS (E. G. PINS AND NEEDLES) OR NUMBNESS MAY BE PRODUCED. VERY HIGH CONCENTRATIONS MAY CAUSE UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND DEATH. INGESTION: SWALLOWING MAY CAUSE ABDOMINAL SPASMS AND OTHER SYMPTOMS THAT PARALLEL OVER-EXPOSURE FROM INHALATION. ASPIRATION OF MATERIAL INTO THE LUNGS CAN CAUSE CHEMICAL PNEUMONITIS, WHICH MAY BE FATAL. SKIN CONTACT: CAUSES IRRITATION. MAY BE ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN. EYE CONTACT: CAUSES SEVERE EYE IRRITATION WITH REDNESS AND PAIN. CHRONIC EXPOSURE: REPORTS OF CHRONIC POISONING DESCRIBE ANEMIA, DECREASED BLOOD CELL COUNT AND BONE MARROW HYPOPLASIA. LIVER AND KIDNEY DAMAGE MAY OCCUR. REPEATED OR PROLONGED CONTACT HAS A DEFATTING ACTION, CAUSING DRYING, REDNESS, AND DERMATITIS. EXPOSURE TO TOLUENE MAY AFFECT THE DEVELOPING FOETUS.

Awesome! Personally, I would refuse to use an ingredient found in embalming fluid to make my skin smoother or my lips look better, wouldn’t you?

Source: http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2008/02/20/what-is-bth-and-why-you-should-avoid-it/

Posted by impoetryious at 12:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

How to Avoid Genetically-Manipulated (GMO) Food Ingredients

In North America, all soy that is labeled "organic soy" is guaranteed to not be genetically-manipulated and not be treated with herbicides. Look for soy products and ingredients (e.g., tofu, tempeh, miso, soy sauce, soy milk, etc.) which are organic. All other soy ingredients are almost always genetically-manipulated and herbicide-treated. The same is true for canola, corn, dairy products and potatoes. Look for organic corn, potato and dairy ingredients at your local health food store. Check the ingredients labels carefully. It may be best to avoid canola altogether because it is rarely organic and is usually chemically-treated as detailed by world expert, Udo Erasmus. Outside of Europe and Asia it may not be possible at this time to avoid genetically-manipulated ingredients 100% of the time, but it is a good idea to avoid them when possible. The List of Companies Pledging to Remove GMO Ingredients is another very useful resource.

Health Hazards

There are a number of compelling reasons to completely avoid genetically-manipulated and herbicide-treated food ingredients from soy, corn, canola, dairy and potatoes. Children should be particularly careful to avoid such non-organic food ingredients.

1. Scientists attending the Open-ended Working Group on Biosafety of The UN-Convention on Biological Diversity (13-17 October, 1998) implored "all governments to use whatever methods available to them to bar from their markets, on grounds of injury to public health, Monsanto's genetically manipulated (GM) [herbicide-resistant] Roundup-Ready (RR) soybean." Non-organic soy ingredients are made with Roundup-Ready soybeans. Full Text of News Release and Scientists' Statement.
   
   

2. A recent experiment conducted by independent expert Dr. Alpad Pusztai in the United Kingdom has shown that genetically-manipulated foods can, when fed to animals in reasonable amounts, cause very gradual organ damage and immune system damage.
   
   The food used in the experiment was genetically-manipulated potatoes. Two sets of potatoes were grown in the same pot and greenhouse: 1) a genetically-manipulated variety altered to produce a non-toxic "GNA lectin", and 2) a normal variety of potato. The normal potato was fed to animals with no adverse effects. The genetically-manipulated potato caused gradual organ damage and immune system damage.
   
   A separate followup experiment conducted by Dr. S.W.B. Ewen, a Senior Pathologist at the University of Aberdeen, has confirmed that it was not the "GNA lectin," but toxic or infectious by-products of the genetic manipulation process led to the immune system damage and organ damage in the animals fed genetically-manipulated potatoes. Because it was not the lectin in the potatoes, but the genetic manipulation process itself which led to toxicity, similar results might be seen in animals or humans fed genetically-manipulated soy, canola, and corn over a long period of time (i.e., years or decades).
   
   There were initial reports of flaws in the research when government agencies audited the Dr. Pusztai's preliminary notes. But since that time, over 20 top scientists around the world have peer-reviewed the Final Report and stated that the conclusions are justified. Parts of these experiments conducted by Dr. Pusztai and Dr. Ewen were recently published in the scientific journal, The Lancet. Most of The Lancet reviewers deemed it acceptable research for publication.
   
   A couple of reviewers and other scientists and organizations receiving biotech money have been critical of the research. They have made the following statements (paraphrased below):
   
   

   • "Raw potatos should not have been fed to the animals in the experiment." However, the animals eating non-genetically manipulated raw potatos did fine. It was only the genetically manipulated food which caused health problems.
     
     

   • "Too few animals were used." Initial objections of The Lancet's statistician reviewer were satisfied. Enough animals were used to show a statistically significant difference between the test group and control group.
     
     

   • "There was an inadequate control group." This is a non-specific criticism. The experiment wasn't perfect. But the only difference between the two groups of animals was that one group ate genetically manipulated foods and the other didn't.
     
     

   • "One cannot take the results of this experiment and apply it to all genetically manipulated foods." The only difference was the genetic manipulation of the potatos. The same hazards may or may not be found in genetically manipulated soy, canola, etc. It is prudent to assume that all genetically manipulated ingredients have the same slow toxic effects until long-term, independent research can be conducted on each genetically manipulated crop.
     

   
   On ocassion, news reports of flaws in the research are mistakenly repeated, but almost independent scientists who have seen the Final Report of Dr. Pusztai's research and are aware of the results of Dr. Ewen's research agree that the conclusions are justified.
   
   

   • News Report on Dr. Pusztai's Research

   • Interview with Dr. Pusztai

   • Summary of the Peer-Review by Researchers

   • Confirming Research by Dr. S.W.B. Ewen (Scroll Down to Text)

   
   

3. There are several differences between the normal breeding process and the artificial genetic manipulation process. One key difference is the use of highly-infectious viruses for artificial genetic manipulation as a promoter to switch on the introduced gene. One commonly-used virus is a highly-infectious form of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV). (The form of CaMV virus found in normal foods is not highly-infectious and cannot be absorbed by mammals.) The dangers were described in detail by reknowed geneticist Dr. Mae-Wan Ho in a meeting on March 31st 1999 at the invitation of UK Environment Minister, Michael Meacher. Additional scientific information about the dangers presented by infectious promoter viruses such as CaMV are described by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Dr. Joe Cummins, Emeritus Professor of Genetics, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Western Ontario. Finally, a recent scientific report by Molecular Biologist, Angela Ryan provides further concerns regarding the use of the CaMV virus to create genetically-manipulated foods.
   
   

4. Another key difference between normal breeding and artificial genetic manipulation is that the genetic manipulation greatly increases the risk that the plant (e.g., soy) will develop toxic or allergy-causing compounds. Such unexpected changes have already been shown to occur in some genetically-manipulated crops.
   
   The insertion of a new gene can sometimes alter the synthesis of chemicals in the plant. Such an alteration can lead to the change in existing chemical compounds in the plant (including a possible significant increase in existing levels of toxic compounds) or the development of new toxic or allergy-causing compounds. There would be no way to predict these effects in advance and it would be difficult to test for these effects without many years of careful, independent research on human test subjects. Gradual toxic effects could occur over weeks, months, years, or even decades and society would not be aware of the health damage until it was too late.
   
   Genetic Manipulation industry representatives often point out that such unexpected hazards could be seen when breeding plants. This is true. However, the evidence demonstrates that there is a much greater likelihood of these unexpected toxic and allergic effects from genetically-manipulated plants/food ingredients. These potentially dangerous effects and their greater likelihood in genetically manipulated crops/food ingredients were discussed in some detail in by one of the world's top experts on genetically manipulated crops:
   
   

   Scientific principles for ecologically based risk assessment of transgenic organisms
   P.J. Regal, Published in Molecular Ecology (1994) 3:5-13
   (NOTE: Scroll down to the heading: "Ecologically adaptive pleiotropic effects?" approximately 3/5 of the way down the document)
   

   
   For an excellent summary related to toxic and allergy-causing substances appearing in genetically-manipulated foods, please see the summary of "Assessing the Safety and Nutritional Quality of Genetically Engineered Foods" by Dr. John Fagan, Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. At the end of the summary, there are examples provided of genetically-manipulated crops/ingredients that unexpectedly produced toxic or unusual chemical compounds.
   
   

5. Another major risk from genetically-manipulated foods is the possibility that regular exposure to foreign DNA and RNA material inserted into these artificial foods could cause allergic reactions or autoimmune diseases. Recent scientific research has shown that fragments of DNA from genetically-manipulated food ingredients can be detected in the brains of animals fed these food ingredients. Dr. Sharyn Martin, Ph.D. discusses the evidence that DNA and RNA fragments can cause adverse immune system reactions including autoimmune disorders in Immunological Reactions to DNA and RNA.
   
   Scientists in the United Kingdom measured a 50% increase in soy allergies in one year. They believe that the increase in soy allergies may be caused by the increase use of genetically-manipulated soy ingredients.
   
   

6. Finally, some genetically-manipulated crops are changed so that they produce their own high levels of pesticides. For example, genetically-manipulated "Bt" crops have been shown to emit very high levels of toxins. Plants genetically-manipulated to produce Bt toxin produce at least 1000 times more Bt toxin per acre than does a heavy application of Bt directly on the plants. This may lead to problems with long-term ingestion of such foods (such as non-organic corn and corn-based sweeteners). Other hazards related to crops manipulated to produce their own pesticides are discussed in more detail by Dr. Joseph Cummins, Professor of Genetics in "Plant-Pesticides in GE-food: A Potential Health Risk". Even if the genetically-manipulated plant does not produce its own pesticides, it has been shown conclusively in scientific research that the herbicides used on some of these non-organic, genetically-manipulated plants (e.g., soy, canola, corn) are extremely toxic and can cause birth defects.
   

Additional authoritative information written by some of the world's leading scientific experts for laypersons, physicians and scientists can be found at:

• Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology
  

• Is Genetically Engineered Food Safe?
  

• Genetic Engineering and Its Dangers: Essays Compiled by Dr. Ron Epstein
  

• Bio-Safety - Risks From Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs)
  

Environmental Hazards

The risks of irreversible damage to the environment have caused scientists around the world to demand a moratorium on the release of genetically-manipulated crops. This document focuses on health hazards. For a discussion of the environmental risks, please see the Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology web page.

Regulation of Genetically-Manipulated Foods

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not test nor require significant safety tests for genetically-manipulated foods. It has recently become known that the FDA's own scientists have been warning FDA officials that they are ignoring the potential hazards of genetically-manipulated foods. Neither the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nor the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) require any significant tests for the health effects of these crops.

As has been widely-reported, FDA, EPA, and USDA officials are often rewarded with lucrative jobs at companies that they were regulating. A recent report by the Edmonds Institute lists several of hundreds of possible examples of the revolving door between the regulators and the companies they are supposed to regulate.

Many organizations have expressed concern that officials at these government agencies regularly ignore concerns of their own scientists and the general public and then go out of their way to please companies that they regulate. For example, the health department in the U.K. raised the allowable food residue levels of Roundup (Monsanto's soybean and canola herbicide) by 200 times the existing level. This was done despite dangers expressed by the leading food safety experts. Similar increases in allowable pesticide and herbicide residues have been granted in the U.S. and other countries at the request of companies involved in genetically-manipulating foods.

Worldwide Condemnation of Genetically-Manipulated Crops/Foods

In many other countries, reknowned scientists, medical trade organizations and government officials are detailing the known health hazards and potential health hazards from genetically- manipulated food ingredients. For example, in the last several months, a top UK Scientist has warned about potential hazards from genetically-manipulated foods, the British Medical Association (BMA) has called for a ban on genetically-manipulated foods and the French President and German Chancellor listed genetically-manipulated foods under "Global Threats" at a recent summit meeting. Top scientists in Asia and other parts of the world are speaking out as well. This has caused many manufacturers and grocery stores chains all around the world (outside of North America) to ban genetically-manipulated food ingredients. In order to keep up with news from around the world, please read through the following compilation of news articles:

Corporate Public Relations (PR) Strategies

The multinational companies trying to sell genetically-manipulated foods (Monsanto, Dupont, Novartis, Agrevo [Hoechst and Schering]) have spared no expense in their public relations campaign. They have sometimes been successful in getting newspaper and magazine articles or television shows created to help promote genetically-manipulated crops. In addition, these multinational companies give huge sums of money to dietetic associations, farming and seed associations, grocery associations, and PR organizations (e.g., IFIC) in order to obtain help in propogating PR statements to the media and general public. Common PR statements include:

1. "Genetic Engineering is exactly like breeding and has been done for hundreds of years."
   
   As described above, artificial genetic manipulation of plants/food ingredients is different from breeding and has significant hazards associated with it including toxicity hazards seen in recent research.
   
   

2. "Careful tests by the FDA, EPA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have proven that these ingredients are safe." (Alternative: "We have the strictest regulatory process in the world"!)
   
   These government agencies have not conducted, nor required any significant safety testing. Scientists around the world are calling for a moratorium on genetically-manipulated food ingredients and long-term, independent human studies lasting many years before these food are allowed for sale on the market. Because these government agencies are ignoring the hazards of genetically-manipulated foods, a very large alliance of scientists, consumer groups, environmental groups, and religious groups are suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
   
   

3. "Europe and Asia are not making scientific evalations of the issue, but relying on emotional arguments."
   
   Many of the top scientists around the world are speaking out about the hazards of genetically-manipulated crops/food ingredients. A small selection of these scientists have signed the following referenced document calling for a moratorium on genetically-manipulated crops. These are independent scientists who do not receive money from companies researching, creating or selling these genetically-manipulated crops and food ingredients. When U.S. officials make these sorts of public comments (quoted above), they are insulting much of the population of Europe and Asia and perhaps will strengthen the desire of European and Asian countries to avoid imports of food ingredients from the United States and Canada.
   
   

4. "Genetically-manipulated crops are safer because less pesticides and herbicides are used."
   
   In fact, recent research has shown that farmers growing genetically-manipulated crops use, on average, an equal amount or more pesticides than farmers growing non-genetically-manipulated, non-organic crops.
   
   

5. "Farmers are Reaping Rewards of Growing Genetically-Manipulated Crops."
   
   Farmers are being victimized as well. Evidence of problems they are experiencing include:
   
   

   • Research showing reduced yields from genetically-manipulated crops.
     
     

   • More money spent on herbicides and pesticides for genetically-manipulated crops.
     
     

   • Potential of reduced farm land values.
     
     

   • Possible lawsuits and intimidation from Monsanto.
     
     

   • Increased costs in order to segregate their crops
     
     

   • Risk of possible permanent damage to their soil by growing genetically-manipulated crops.

   
   The scientific journal Nature (September 9, 1999) has reported that some farmers are considering class-action lawsuits because the seed and chemical companies (e.g., Monsanto) were misrepresenting their products as benign. The Washington Post reported (September 18, 1999):
   
   

   "American farmers planted [gene-altered crops] in good faith, with the belief that the product is safe and that they would be rewarded for their efforts," the American Corn Growers Association said in a statement last week. "Instead they find themselves misled by multinational seed and chemical companies and other commodity associations who only encouraged them to plant increased acres of these crops without any warning to farmers of the dangers associated with planting a crop that didn't have consumer acceptance."
   

   
   Wheat farmers should prepare to avoid these genetically-manipulated seeds when they come on the market in the next year or two.
   
   

6. "Genetically-Manipulated crops have the potential to produce "functional foods" with extra nutrients and drugs which can save lives!"
   
   The reality is that these nutrients or drugs can be taken separately when needed. The high cost of drugs is largely due to drug commpanies trying to recoup the millions of dollars of research money spent and is rarely due to high production costs. The costs of developing a drug-producing, genetically-manipulated plant is quite high. The costs of drugs will remain high wheather they are genetically-manipulated into plants or not. Therefore, these drugs and nutrients can be produced without genetic manipulation as been the case in the past. It is also important to keep in mind that Alternative Medicine techniques are now begining to replace the use of pharmaceuticals in some cases of disease treatment.
   
   Originally, the corporate PR strategy was to say that genetically-manipulated crops would help "feed the world." But when it was pointed out that the world grows 1-1/2 times the amount of food needed to feed the population, that the problem was food distribution, and that genetically-manipulated crops have reduced yields, the companies changed their PR to say that genetically-manipulated crops will grow drugs and save lives.
   
   There is a very serious danger of pollen from these manipulated crops infecting normal crops of the same species or of different species leading to the unintentional ingestion of drugs by the general population. Pollen can travel a very long way from fields to infect other crops. In addition, scientists are concerned that accidental inhalation of pollen from these genetically-manipulated plants might lead to adverse health effects in some people.
   
   

What You Can Do (7 Steps)

1. Do what you can to remove genetically-manipulated food ingredients from your diet and your family's diet. You can begin to do this by locating stores in your area which sell foods with organic soy, corn, dairy, and potato ingredients. The stores with the largest selection of such products include:
   
   

   • Large natural food supermarket chains (e.g., Wild Oats Market, Whole Foods Market)

   • Smaller health food stores

   • Food Cooperative Markets ( directory 1, directory 2)

   • Online Sources (e.g., Wild Oats Market, Whole Foods Market)

   
    

2. Print this web page out and share it with others!
   
   

3. Join others in creating web page links to the Soy Info Online! web page or this subpage.
   
   

4. Examine the organizations and web page resources below to determine which group(s) you want to work with so that we can keep food free of genetic manipulation.
   
   

5. Keep up-to-date on the latest news by subscribing to a discussion group listed in the Resource section below and/or by checking the Ethical Investing page for news updates on genetically-manipulated food issues.
   
   

6. Move your investments out of stocks, mutual funds, retirement funds, etc. which involve companies that produce genetically-manipulated crops and foods (Monsanto, Dupont, Novartis and Agrevo [Hoechst and Schering]). Europe's largest bank recently warned large investors that " GMOs [investments] are dead". These companies' stocks are falling quickly and you will lose money or certainly not make as much money as you can if you have stocks or mutual fund and retirement fund investments that involve these companies. Please check the list of mutual funds (e.g., Fidelity, Janus) that invest in Monsanto stock. Also, please join others by checking the Ethical Investing Web Page for ideas on moving your investments.
   
   

7. Please contact grocery stores to ask them to carry more organic foods including soy products, corn, potatoes and other produce. Contact food product manufacturers and ask them to replace any non-organic soy, corn, potato, dairy or canola ingredients they have with organic, non-genetically-manipulated ingredients. Sometimes the manufacturer will listen to consumer requests as is happening all over Europe. Sometimes they will claim that there are no non-genetically-manipulated sources for the ingredients they use. That is rarely the case as manufacturers all over Europe and Asia are removing gentically-manipulated ingredients from their products (Examples). Other times, they will respond with statements which originated with the genetic manipulation industry. However, it will only take a few major manufacturers in the U.S. to switch to non-genetically-manipulated ingredients and the rest will follow in order to avoid losing market share. So, please be persistent!
   

Resources

Organizations/Web Pages

• Campaign for Food Safety
  Consumer Association dedicated to protecting food safety. Excellent information on genetically-manipulated foods and actions you can take. They also have a 4-page GE Factsflyer that you can download.
  
  

• People's Earlth Network
  Large and quickly-growing consumer organization managing a letter-writing campaign to encourage companies to eliminate GMO ingredients from their products. Campaign has had enormous success and is looking for others to get involved.
  
  

• Mothers for Natural Law
  "Mothers for Natural Law was founded in June 1996 to transform the overwhelming problems facing Americans into simple, practical action steps everyone can take to safeguard the future for us all. Our agenda originally embraced everything from the environment to crime, education, health and the economy. However, because of its extreme urgency, we have made genetic engineering our only focus, and put all of our other plans on hold." Impressive, easy-to-follow set of web pages including a detailed, How to Avoid Genetically Manipulated Food (How to Shop, What to Eat) web page.
  
  

• Women Say NO to GMOs
  "Like Paul McCartney and his family, we believe GMOs to be one of the most important issues we face in our lifetime. Should it go wrong, genetic engineering could have devastating consequences for our health and the environment. This is why as women we feel we have to make a stand TODAY." Petition signing. Press releases. How you can help section.
  
  

• Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology
  Articles from the top scientists around the world. Scientists and Physicians are encouraged to become a member.
  
  

• Genetic ID Inc.
  Testing Lab that offers "Non-GMO Certification" to all growers, processors, handlers and manufacturers of non-genetically modified food products. Also offers the industry's first dual certification: Farm Verified Organic plus Genetically Natural (TM)
  
  

• Campaign to Ban Genetically Engineered Foods
  An international organization which provides many useful articles and perhaps the most comprehensive News on genetically-manipulated food issues.
  
  

• Ethical Investing
  Dedicated to provided resources to help make responsible investment choices. Helpful for removing investments from mutual funds, retirement accounts, etc. which help support the genetic manipulation industry.
  
  

• Greenpeace International
  Greenpeace has been effective in getting European and some U.S. manufacturers to remove genetically-manipulated food ingredients. They have a web site specific to genetically-manipulated foods. On the Greenpeace USA page, you can join the GE Action Network or sign up to receive action alerts.
  
  

• True Food Campaign
  Sponsored by Greenpeace, the True Food Campaign aims to ban GM food, phase-out industrial farming, and promote organic food. The website will tell you about the issues and how to get involved in the campaign - not just in terms of the food you buy, but through action to set a proper agricultural agenda.
  
  

• Friends of the Earth (FoE) USA Safer Foods, Safer Farms Campaign
  A federation of autonomous environmental organizations. Great place to get addresses of food companies to write and ask them to use organic ingredients to eliminate genetically-manipulated foods. FoE UK site has extensive information and action suggestions for those in the United Kingdom. International FoE site has links to FoE web pages around the world. You can join FoE as well.
  
  

• UK Genetic Engineering Network
  A network of most of the UK organizations working to eliminate genetically-manipulated crops. Network was set up to exchange information between groups. Sponsors an online discussion group and newsletter.
  
  

• Devinder Sharma
  Articles on Links Between Biotechnology, Trade and Food Security
  
  

• Wild Oats Supermarket Chain
  Excellent page on genetically-manipulated foods. Includes a easy-to-understand "Claims vs. Facts" section.
  
  

• Norfolk Genetic Information Network (ngin)
  Excellent United Kingdom-based site with UK and international news, articles, news releases and GM food guide (applicable to residents of the United Kingdom only). NGIN has a great links page that links to additional useful and fun web sites.
  
  

• Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)
  International organization dedicated to the conservation and sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity and to the socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI was instrumental in getting Monsanto to distance themselves from their own deadly Terminator Technology.
  
  

• Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
  "To create a national grassroots consumer campaign for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United States."
  
  

• Natural Law Party
  A growing political party that recognizes the hazards of genetically-manipulated foods and is willing to stand up for the people.
  
  

• Genetix Snowball
  "A Campaign of Nonviolent Civil Responsibility." Publishes the handbook, "A Guide to Safely Removing Genetically Modified Plants From Release Sites in Britain." The Campaign section has articles, press releases, chronology of the campaign, GE Data Center, legal action Monsanto and others have brought against the campaigners, statements, photos, etc.
  
  

• Alliance for Bio-Integrity
  An alliance of scientists, consumer groups, environmental groups and religious groups "dedicated to the advancement of human and environmental health through sustainable and safe technologies." The alliance filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 1999.
  
  

• Edmonds Institute
  The Institute is a non-profit, public interest organization committed to the health and sustainability of ecosystems and their inhabitants. The Edmonds Institute has published some groundbreaking scientific and policy-oriented publications including A Manual for Assessing Ecological and Human Health Effects of Genetically Engineered Organisms and A Brief History of Biotechnology Risk and Policy Debates in the US.
  
  

• Third World Network: Biotechnology/Biosafety
  Articles written by experts from around the world relating to biotechnology and biosafety. International news updates.
  
  

• Biotechcentury.com: A Project of the Foundation on Economic Trends
  Jeremy Rifkin's organization that is helping to spearhead a multi-billion dollar antitrust lawsuit against companies involved in genetic manipulation of foods.
  
  

• Australian Gene Ethics Network
  Information on genetics ethics and genetically-manipulated foods (in the "Food" section).
  
  

• Richard Wolfson, PhD Web Page
  Articles, Information on Subscribing to Genetic Engineering News.
  
  

• Mutanto Web Page
  Spoof on Monsanto's Web Site. Instead of "Food, Health and Hope" Mutanto offers "Fraud, Stealth and Hype." Mutanto has it's own statement on genetically-manipulated foods.
  
  

• Super Heros Against Genetix (S.H.A.G.)
  U.K.-based group which takes action to alert people to the dangers of genetically-manipuated foods. Fun site. Has copies of a few Monsanto internal memos online.
  
  

• Seize the Day
  Includes the MonSatan web site and a free song about Monsanto. Also has a good synopsis of Monsanto's history along the right-hand side of the page. Fun site.
  
  

• Students for Alternatives to Genetic Engineering
  

Soy Info Online! (Premier Guide to Soy and Soy Products)

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Consumer Alert AVOIDING DANGEROUS FOODS 

You bite into what you perceive to be a carefully prepared, lovingly seasoned, perfectly cooked potato casserole tonight during your evening meal. You assumed the food to be safe. You had no idea that the chemical and genetic engineering industries had used a radical new technology to artificially mutate the DNA in your potatoes. The genetically altered potatoes were sold unlabeled, as if they were normal, natural potatoes. In this three-part communication, you will learn about genetically engineered food and the fictional Dr. Frankenfood, and about how the chemical and genetic engineering industries have done exactly the same things that Dr. Frankenfood would have done. You will learn about the immediate dangers of genetically engineered foods, and why national governments and the genetic engineering industry are now releasing untested genetically engineered foods on the world population. You will also learn how to protect yourself and your family by shopping to avoid these foods, and finally, how we can stop the proliferation of these experimental foods.

Let us imagine that the fictional Dr. Frankenstein had a modern day descendent, the evil Dr. Frankenfood. For those people in various parts of the world who do not know the horror story, Dr. Frankenstein created a monster using electricity and various dead body parts. The evil Dr. Frankenfood, like his famous forefather, might also want to do bizarre technical research. But let us imagine that Dr. Frankenfood has a great personal fondness for the food industry. Let us imagine Dr. Frankenfood's mad experimentations. Being in the food industry, and following in his ancestor's recombinant footsteps, he might want to make strange, bizarre food products combining vastly different species. He might create radical new species in the laboratory that could never exist in nature. If he did so, let us imagine what he would do. He would go deep with electon microscopes and sever nature's potato DNA, for example. He would cut the DNA, the precious, living, twirling genetic nucleotide staircase guiding nature's potato with complete instructions of how to build itself and how to interact in any environment thousands of generations hence. He would cut the genetic code formed through millions of years of reproductive natural evolution, natural selection, and reproductive crossbreeding and hybridization.

With a radical experimental technology utilizing a new instrument known as a gene gun, Dr. Frankenfood would replace natural selection with his own unnatural personal selection. He would create a Frankenfood potato by splicing wax moth insect DNA and the DNA of genetically engineered bacterium onto the severed natural potato DNA. He would also use his gene gun to dice and splice the DNA of fish with tomato, pig with human, bacteria with soy, virus with corn.

What if Dr. Frankenfood was also in charge of the USDA (the United States Department of Agriculture), the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration); and what if he was also in charge of giant multi-national chemical companies such as Monsanto, DuPont, Calgene, and Novartis that have become major players in the new global genetically engineered food business? He would then have access to immense capital resources for his strange experimentations. He would wield nearly limitless power, and he could learn how to manipulate the rest of the government, the laws, and even the courts with his influence. He would give grant money to labs in the USDA and to university labs and technicians all over the world. He would have universities, the USDA and the FDA under his control. They would carry out his recombination experiments with the DNA of different species as he directed, and then he would feed these experimental foods to the population unlabeled and without careful testing. He would stealthfully export his mad experimental products to other countries, and if they refused his products, Dr. Frankenfood would use his money, power, influence, and connections to threaten them with trade war.

Of course Monsanto, DuPont, Calgene, Novartis, the chemical corporations, the USDA, and the FDA cannot really have such evil intentions. They are doing their best to do their jobs. Dr. Frankenfood is a mere dramatization. But the chemical companies, the USDA, the FDA, and all of their hardworking food technicians are doing the exact same things that the evil Dr. Frankenfood would do if he was in charge. The multi-national chemical companies, the USDA and the FDA, although well-meaning, operate based on short-range vision and greed. As scientific technicians, they appear to have minimal ability to see long-range consequences. The chemical/genetic engineering industry and the USDA recombine the DNA of vastly different species creating new organisms that have never before existed on earth. The genetic engineering industry then lobbies for regulatory loopholes that allow them to rush their experimental foods to market. Due to large PAC money payments (legalized bribes), good-ole-boy networks, corporate welfare, and continuing conflicts of interest between the USDA, FDA and multi-national chemical/genetic engineering companies, the U.S. and many other governments have encouraged and approved these synthetic foods. The genetic engineering industry sells these products untested and unlabeled. And finally, the U.S. government threatens other nations with WTO sanctions and trade war if they label or reject genetically engineered foods.

We as global consumers have the right to know what we are eating. We have the right to decide whether we want to eat these foods. We have the right to decide whether our children should eat these foods.

Wherever you may live in the world, food markets sell these unlabeled and untested Frankenfoods. Beginning back in 1994, the chemical/genetic engineering industry began to sell genetically engineered tomatoes and milk laced with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Now in 1997, these companies want to quickly earn back their accelerating research costs, and rush approximately 30,000 untested new genetically engineered food products to market.

SPECIFICALLY WHAT ARE THE DANGERS?

Genetically altered supplements and foods have already caused debilitating allergies, permanent cripplings, and deaths simply because consumers were unaware. Fifty-one people died and 1500 people were permanently disabled from toxic and deadly bacteria created during the production of genetically engineered tryptophan. Severe allergies resulted from the introduction of mutated genetically engineered soy combining DNA from brazil nuts. One can predict that more deaths and negative side effects will continue to emerge. Without clear labeling, health problems cannot be avoided or properly traced back to their source.

Genetic damages to the environment and ecosystem can never be cleaned up, reversed, or recalled. Once released, once the microorganisms, plants, and living beings in the food chain and ecosystem become polluted with these mutant foods, destruction of health and virulent, irreversible, permanent, and incomprehensible living mutations will spiral wildly into the future. Genetic pollution becomes immediately locked-in and self-sustaining -- hosted in the very DNA of living organisms. This contrasts, for example with the threats of hazardous nuclear waste and the potential destruction of nuclear war, which, although devastating, can be eventually reversed and cleaned up with the passage of time.

WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?

Widespread sales of genetically altered foods increase the profitability of the chemical/genetic engineering industry. The chemical industry wants to quickly recoup their billions of dollars in accumulated genetic research and investment costs. Their strategy involves rushing genetically-altered Frankenfoods to market en masse as quickly as possible.

The USDA, FDA, and their wealthy supporters, the genetic engineering companies, claim that they intend to solve problems of world hunger. But careful scrutiny shows their true motives. Primarily, the U.S. government intends to ensure the continuing success and prosperity of their wealthy yet irresponsible supporters, the genetic engineering industry, and secondly the chemical/genetic engineering industry intends to dominate the global food markets with their experimental products. We appreciate that governments want to support major businesses and industries. We also understand that big business wants to make money. However, in pursuing these goals, the USDA, FDA, and chemical (bio-tech) companies have chosen to disregard the long-range effects of these products on human life.

The chemical industries have genetically altered foods for the following specific traits: to increase profits by artificially increasing product shelf life; to increase profits by increasing the compatibility of plants with the chemical industry's own pesticides and herbicides; and to increase profits by creating seeds that cost more but save producers money because the vegetables or plants create their own pesticide internally.

While taking these actions for immediate short-term profits, the chemical industry claims that their work represents the cutting edge of science.

TRUE SCIENCE AND FRAUDULENT SCIENCE

If Dr. Frankenfood was in charge, his diabolical scheme would not be true science, because he would never bother to safety-test his experimental foods before putting them on our family's plates and serving them up to the world community. True science uses the "Scientific Method." The Scientific Method involves alternating between theory and observation, checking theory to see if it matches past observations and can correctly predict new observations. The checking comes in the form of experience, in other words: experimentation. New technology should not be applied directly to human life until it has proven itself beyond doubt through the test of time to be safe, useful, beneficial. True science does not make the human race into experimental animals, into guinea pigs. Again, we look and see that the chemical industry does exactly what Dr. Frankenfood would have done, marketing these foods to the world population untested and unlabeled.

We know Dr. Frankenfood's history as a descendent of Dr. Frankenstein. Let us also look at the past, at the track record of one of the major chemical/genetic engineering companies, Monsanto. A look at the past may give some indication of what we can expect from this company and other chemical companies now and in the future.

Monsanto marketed herbicide 2,4,5-T used as a defoliant in Agent Orange in Vietnam. The version tainted with dioxin killed people. Monsanto also was the sole maker of PCBs, (poly-chlorinated-biphenyls), banned by the U.S. Congress in 1976 because of cancer risk and reproductive harm. Recent studies link it to significant developmental harm in children at minute doses. All humans now carry some level of PCBs in their bodies because the chemical is lipophilic and biomagnifies in the food chain, as does dioxin. This means that it gradually spreads into the physiology of all living beings on earth. Monsanto owns and markets Aspartame, the artificial chemical sweetener marketed as Nutra-Sweet, widely known as a cancer-risk-associated drug yet pushed through the regulatory loopholes as a food additive instead of a drug. In recent years Monsanto, the USDA, and the FDA have worked together to add rBGH, bovine growth hormone -- widely implicated in making cows sick and increasing cancer risk, to consumer's milk. Now Monsanto and other chemical companies want to genetically engineer the global food supply. Can we trust these companies with the food supply?

The chemical companies have now genetically engineered not only potatoes, but also tomatoes, corn, soy, squash, canola, cotton seed oil, and milk. The chemical industry claims that these practices come as a normal, natural extension of time-tested reproductive crossbreeding and hybridization techniques. In reality, this is a new, bizarre experiment on the human race utilizing a radical new technology. Dr. Frankenfood would be well pleased.

Distributors export these mutant foods all over the world. A global crisis now exists because many governments have implicit trust in the U.S. government and its decision to promote these foods. Naive trust of the FDA and the USDA creates complacency in the U.S.A. These chemical companies have made global consumers out to be experimental animals, guinea pigs. Although this is a serious crisis, we can stop the proliferation of these Frankenfoods now.

WHAT CAN I DO?

1. Learn all you can about the dangers of genetically engineered foods.

2. Learn how to shop to avoid these foods. Boycott companies using these foods.

3. Tell all your friends family and loved ones about this problem, both on-line and off-line. Your job is not done until they change their eating habits and they teach their loved one's to do the same.

4. Start or join consumer groups to label and ban genetically engineered food.

5. Send letters to your political leaders and representatives.

6. Write and send letters to the media, writers, editors, networkers.

7. Forward this communication to influential people all over the world.

8. Take a leadership role. Contact the sources at the end of part three of this communication.

9. Request parts two and three of this three part communication from your Leader, who should be listed below.

Relevant Websites About Genetic Engineering:
(Easily accessible with Netscape mail programs)

• http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/cbio/geneng.html

• http://www.lisco.com/mothersfornaturallaw

• http://www.lisco.com/mothers

• http://www.mum.edu/Fagan.html

• http://www.mum.edu/PRESS/genetics/ethical_stand.html

• http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/reports/biodiversity/roundup

• http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1527/

• http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/shag/

• http://www.mum.edu/PRESS/genetics/Fagan.html

• http://www.natuurwetpartij.nl/genmanipkampanje

• http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rone/Genetic%20Engineering.htm

• http://www.bio-integrity.org

• http://www.natural-law.org/issues/genetics/ge_hazards.html

• http://www.essential.org/crg/

• http://www.peg.apc.org/~acfgenet/

• http://www.indians.org/welker/genome.htm

• http://www.demon.co.uk/solbaram/articles/clm505.html

• http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/earthfirst.html

• http://www.netlink.de/gen/

• http://www.netlink.de/gen/home.html

• http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-18472/indexeng.htm

HOW TO SHOP TO AVOID GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS:
FOODS TO AVOID OR BOYCOTT:
SPECIFIC BRAND NAME PRODUCTS TO BOYCOTT:
THESE COMPANIES USE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS IN SOME OR ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS:

• Coca Cola (corn syrup and/or Aspartame)

• Fritos (corn)

• Green Giant Harvest Burgers (soy)

• McDonald's French Fries (potatoes)

• Nestle's chocolates (soy)

• Karo Corn Syrup (corn)

• NutraSweet (Aspartame)

• Kraft Salad Dressings (canola oil)

• Fleishmann's margarine (soy)

• Similac Infant Formula (soy)

• Land o Lakes butter (rBGH)

• Cabot Creamery Butter (rBGH)

AVOID ALL OTHER CONVENTIONAL (NOT CERTIFIED-ORGANIC) TOMATOES, POTATOES, CORN, SOY, CANOLA OIL, COTTON SEED OIL, AND YELLOW CROOK-NECK SQUASH:

TOMATOES: Genetically engineered with bacteria-derived kanamycin resistance genes, Antisense backwards DNA, antibiotic marker genes, viruses, and DNA of flounder and North Atlantic shellfish. This and the following genetically engineered foods have antibiotic marker genes used to facilitate the genetic engineering process. They can cause allergies and autoimmune disease.

POTATOES: Genetically engineered with wax moth insect DNA; genetically engineered to produce its own pesticide internally with the DNA of bacillus thuringiensis bacteria.

CORN: Genetically engineered to tolerate high quantities of the chemical pesticide glufosinate, and genetically engineered with a virus and the DNA of the bacteria bacillus thuringiensis.

SOY: Genetically engineered and DNA-altered by Monsanto with bacteria; capable of tolerating heavy doses of Monsanto's Roundup brand chemical pesticide (glyphosate).

YELLOW CROOK NECK SQUASH: Gene-spliced with two experimental viruses and arbitrary marker genes, capable of causing unpredictable and unexpected effects.

CANOLA OIL: Genetically engineered and DNA-altered with California bay turnip and various viruses and bacterium in order to produce high quantities of lauric acid.

COTTON SEED OIL: Genetically engineered and DNA-altered with Arabidopsis bacterium, and viruses to be able to withstand large applications of the chemical pesticide bromoxynil. Bromoxynil causes birth defects in human beings.

AVOID ALL PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM THE ABOVE NON-ORGANIC ITEMS
As of the beginning of 1997, these products will have been genetically engineered and on the market as a percentage of the total conventional food supply. Since they are sold unlabeled in the conventional market, there is no way to tell specifically which tomatoes, potatoes, corn, soy, etc. have been actually genetically engineered. If you live in a nation which may receive imports from the U.S. and Canada, you should also avoid these non-organic foods as a safety precaution. Your own nation or another exporting to yours may be doing genetic engineering. Eat only organic food if possible. Even if you buy seeds to grow your own food, buy only organic seeds.

AVOID EATING IN NON-ORGANIC RESTAURANTS
Unless the restaurant management makes it clear in writing that they are committed to using only non-genetically engineered foods and products, avoid eating out as much as possible. Since genetically engineered foods are not labeled, they also have no idea which of their tomato, potato, corn, soy, canola, yellow-crook-neck squash products may be genetically engineered.

READ LABELS CAREFULLY: BE CAREFUL WITH ALL PROCESSED FOODS
WATCH OUT FOR CONVENTIONAL, NON-ORGANIC CORN AND SOY, BECAUSE THEY ARE IN SO MANY PRODUCTS:
Avoid corn syrup, fructose, and fructose corn syrup in almost all beverages and sodas (even health food brands), and in almost all sweet products, yogurt, and aspirin. Avoid corn oil, corn starch, corn meal, baking soda, baking powder, glycose syrup; Avoid soy; soy flour in baked goods; pizza, cookies, cakes, pasta; fillers in meat products, (for example Big Macs) vegetarian meat substitutes, (for example tofu, tofu burgers, tofu hot dogs) soy milk, infant formula, baby foods; diet and protein shakes, protein bars; chocolate and candy bars; margarine; ice cream; pet food; soy oil in salad dressings & snack chips; soy sauce; lecithin and soy lecithin. In all, well over 30,000 products!

AVOID rBGH MILK & DAIRY PRODUCTS (apologies to strict vegans):
Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH), marketed through veterinarians and injected into dairy cows, causes increased milk production and horrible mastitis. These cows then require constant medical supervision and continuous high doses of antibiotics. Their milk contains high levels of pus. The cow's milk and dairy products made from this milk also contain rBGH, bovine growth hormone. This hormone increases cancer risk in human beings.

EAT ONLY ORGANIC RENNETLESS CHEESE (apologies to strict vegans): Most non-organic cheeses are made with a genetically engineered rennet called chymosin.

AVOID DOUGH CONDITIONER:
This is a code word for a combination of genetically engineered enzymes and other components, found in cheaper breads and baked goods.

OTHER GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ADDITIVES AND ENZYMES
Avoid Amylase (used in making bread, flour, whole wheat flour, cereals, starch), Catalase (used in making soft drinks, egg whites, liquid whey) and Lactase.

FOODS TO FAVOR:

BUY AND EAT ONLY CERTIFIED ORGANIC FOODS:
Certified organic tomatoes, potatoes, corn, soy, canola oil, cotton oil, and yellow-crook-neck squash are safe. Many other genetically engineered products will be coming to market in 1997 and 1998 if the bio-tech industry has its way. By buying only organic foods of every type, you will protect yourself and your family from Frankenfoods. Almost everything that can be found in your conventional food market is also produced by the organic food industry. If you buy a few carefully chosen conventional foods, keep up-to-date on which few conventional foods are safe through the websites and mailing lists at the end of this consumer report.

MEAT AND POULTRY (apologies to vegetarians)
Most livestock are being fed genetically altered feed, as well as a disgusting mix of ground-up and often diseased and discarded animal carcasses. The only safe beef and poultry will be those fed only organically grown grain. Avoid commercially produced seafood. Commercial pork has been genetically altered with DNA from human beings. Great time to decide to be vegetarian.

FAVOR DAIRY PRODUCTS FROM COMPANIES THAT DO NOT USE (rBGH) BOVINE GROWTH HORMONE (apologies to strict vegans)
Research and buy only from suppliers that promise on the package or in other writing that their products are rBGH-free. Be especially careful with butter. Buy only organic butter, because even otherwise good companies buy cheap rBGH milk to make butter, or else they buy their butter (rBGH) from other companies.

DR. FRANKENFOOD WANTS TO DESTROY ORGANIC FOOD
If Dr. Frankenfood was in charge, he would create biological warfare crops that would destroy organic foods, destroy the competition. Just as the evil genius would have hoped, the USDA has allowed genetically altered foods into the conventional market which threaten organic farmers. Scientists of virtually every persuasion realize that Bt soy, corn and potatoes predictably will create Bt resistant insects. Organic farmers use Bt as their main line of defense against insects. Bt resistant insects could wipe out organic crops and organic farming. Destroying the competition just makes good business sense, reasons Dr. Frankenfood.

As of now, certified organic food is still safe. But, just like the evil genius might have planned, the bio-tech industry and the USDA now are attempting to lower U.S. organic standards relative to the rest of the world, and to allow genetically altered foods into the organic market as a new category known as "synthetic organic."

The U.S. Organic Standards Board, comprised mainly of environmentally- conscious and health-conscious organic producers and consumers, will make recommendations to the USDA. Unfortunately, this board has no real power. They can only recommend, and the USDA will decide independently whether genetic alteration of the seeds will be relevant in deciding whether or not an organism can be labeled "organic." Another point for Dr. Frankenfood.

CONTACT THE USDA:
DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE END TO THIS OUTRAGE
Soon, the USDA will publish its new proposals and decisions on organic standards, and any changes to the organic standards that they wish to make in the United States. The USDA invites comments from the public on the issue regarding organic standards. Let the USDA know that we will not tolerate this continuing outrage. Keep up to date on this through the USDA website:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/bbep/bp

CONSIDER STOCKING UP ON SAFE FOODS
Frank Ford, in his book, "The Coming Food Crisis," says that events are pointing to a food crisis of unbelievable proportions. With genetic engineering of the food supply, only a relatively small part of the total food supply can be known to be safe. Since 95% of the food supply contains conventional corn or soy, the rules of supply and demand show that there could possibly be a shortage of safe food over the next several years. You may consider taking advice from Frank Ford's book. He advises stocking up on organic or safe conventional dry foods that are low in oil content--wheat, beans, lentils, grains, dried fruits. If possible, stock enough for yourself, your family, and if possible your friends to live comfortably for two or three years. Create local food co-ops so you can pool resources and make large bulk orders, saving everyone money.

ELIMINATING FRANKENFOODS: JOIN THE FOOD FIGHT!
You can help your loved ones, family, friends, and associates by forwarding them this three-part communication. The next step will be to send parts one and two to consumer groups, writers, editors, media people, journalists, teachers, food producers, organic food producers, food retailers, network marketers, restauranteurs, small companies, and large companies. Send this communication to anyone that eats food. Especially be sure to forward parts one and two to the best, brightest, most creative, most successful, and most well-educated people that you know. Forward this information to people that you respect, to people who are knowledgeable and well-connected. Interested and motivated consumers will request that you send any missing section(s). By not sending everything at first, you qualify them and learn about their level of interest. We need to systematically, step-by-step get this three-part communication to the top people in society. They can easily spread this information far and wide through their network of associates and contacts.

If you have cut, copy, and paste ability with your e-mail program, you can create clean copies of this three-part communication. If you are new to e-mail and the Internet, get help from a personal friend or computer whiz who knows about such things. If you need a new clean copy of this three-part communication, you can order one from your Leader, a person taking a consumer leadership role. Your Leader's e-mail address should be at the bottom of each section of this three-part series.

If you, like many other consumers, feel that this situation regarding the food supply deserves immediate attention and immediate action, then take the first step. Proceed to make a list of everyone that you know. First list loved ones, relatives, family, and friends. Then list associates, everyone else that you know on a first name or on a more formal basis. Pull out your personal phone directory, and your Christmas card list and/or other social register. Then use paper and pen and the phone book to jog your memory about people that you know that you may have temporarily forgotten. Be systematic. Examples: Use the white pages. Ask yourself: Who do I know with the last name Adam; Anderson; Atkinson; etc... Also use the yellow pages. Ask yourself: Do I know any accountants? bankers? commodity brokers? etc...Psychologists have discovered that virtually everyone knows at least 1000 people on a first-name basis. You do too! Bring these people to mind. Make a list of everyone that you know, and send as many of them as possible this three-part series by e-mail.

If you live in a small town, or if most people that you know live nearby, you can simply print this three-part series and hand it out. Teach people to teach others to make copies and give them out to all of their loved ones, relatives, and connections. If you want to send someone this three-part series, but you don't have their e-mail address, try calling them briefly and asking them for their e-mail address. If they don't have e-mail, you can arrange to send this information to one of their nearby friends or relatives who may have an e-mail address. You can also print this three-part communication and mail the printed copies. After giving or sending this communication, follow up with a note or phone call. Use the power of your personal influence. Personally encourage all of your loved ones to avoid genetically engineered foods. By following these suggestions, you will easily find your three Leaders and you will build your own consumer action group. (See "Defeating Dr. Frankenfood" below) In any case, try to get this three-part communication out to at least 50 people that you know personally, and into the hands of as many other consumers as possible.

If you have experience with e-mail and the Internet, then you know that a "flame" is an angry e-mail, and "spam" is generally defined as any unwanted commercial e-mail. You can send part one and part two of this three-part series to on-line mailing lists and to other people that you do not know personally, but this takes more care and more attention. For example, if you send the first section or two to people that you do not know, you may occasionally get "flamed" by people who do not appreciate the message. They may feel that you have "spammed" them.

For every person that flames you, there will be two or twenty who will appreciate this information. As more and more people receive this communication, some may complain that they have already seen it. You may consider e-mailing flamers with a polite note explaining that reading the three-part communication is not enough. People need to change their eating habits and to inform their loved ones. You can prevent flames by first sending short and sweet e-mail notes telling consumers that you will be sending some important information about the food supply. Don't wait for a response, simply go ahead and send the first section or two of this communication.

Leaders, people taking a leadership role, will network together and keep each other informed about events as they happen. They will also have supporting documentation and other information that they can hand out or forward to each other. Leaders will always have the best and most current information. They can work either on-line or off-line or both. Many Leaders will be fundamental to our success in stopping Dr. Frankenfood.

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER
If you feel inspired to become an on-line Leader, record your own Leader's e-mail address. E-mail to your Leader, and tell him or her of your intention to take a leadership role. Ask for his or her list of ancestral Leaders and their e-mail addresses. Leaders can also get information from the mailing lists, websites, and information sources at the end of this third section.

New Leaders should use cut-and-paste, creating a new fresh version of the three-part series and then delete or cut their own Leader's e-mail address at the very bottom of all three sections and carefully write or paste in their own e-mail address. They should also proceed to make their own personal list and then continue with the plan as previously outlined. As a Leader, you will receive periodic requests to forward fresh copies of this three-part communication. You can expect to receive, on average, one or two requests to forward every day.

If your Leader has changed his or her e-mail address, and if you therefore cannot find your Leader or your ancestral Leaders, you can still make good of the situation. You can build and create your own group. You can use the information in this three-part communication and those resources and websites listed at the end of this third section. You can find other Leaders who will be happy to work with you. They will probably be subscribed to the mailing lists listed at the end of this third section.

FEEL FREE TO PRINT ANY INFORMATION
You can print this entire three-part communication and give it out to consumers off-line. They can go to their computer, if they have one, and they can contact their Leader. You also may wish to print the first two sections and hand them out to people in health food stores, supermarkets, or anywhere. If consumers make request, give them a copy of this third section. Be sure to teach everyone working off-line to make their own list of contacts, to make copies of this three-part communication, and to give copies out to all their friends, relatives, associates, and connections. A more detailed consumer action plan for working off-line will be available. Check with your Leader to see if he or she has it or can get it for you. People can use their local copy machine and should teach others to use their local copy machine, etc, etc....If many people tell many consumers about this situation, soon we will have many Leaders and soon consumers everywhere will know about this situation, therefore we will all be able to protect ourselves. Everyone has permission to use this three-part series to write press releases, magazine articles, booklets or books. Request help from your Leaders and your Leader's Leaders. Creative people will be able to build huge consumer information networks on or off-line using this information by utilizing the general duplication strategy, and by utilizing the contacts and information sources at the end of this section three.

DEFEATING DR. FRANKENFOOD USING THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY
Imagine if an evil Dr. Frankenfood had an evil plan to secretly rage biological warfare against the world population. It's really happening! Well, they are not really so evil intentioned, but Monsanto, DuPont, Calgene, Ciba-Geigy, the rest of the bio-tech industry, the USDA, and the FDA are doing exactly what an evil-intentioned genius would do. They are almost worse, because they do not even know that they are doing something wrong. They have narrow, limited, short-range vision of what they are doing. We have to react to what they are really doing, not to their stated good intentions. Along these lines, it may be interesting to note that the Internet was originally started as an experiment by the U.S. military. The original purpose of the Internet was to create a non-centralized network, an evenly spread-out communications network for military use. A non-centralized network would be impossible to stop, because an enemy could never locate and knock out its central operating intelligence. If some part of it was stopped, the rest would just keep going and going....

This consumer action plan, designed to take advantage of this natural strength of the Internet, has no center that could be knocked out. Therefore, it cannot be stopped. This plan is to systematically create hundreds of thousands of consumer Leaders worldwide. The plan also uses the principle of exponential growth. For example, if three Leaders get three Leaders, who in turn get three Leaders, etc.....3 x 3 x 3 x 3... through 15 levels, equals hundreds of thousands of Leaders who in turn will inform millions of consumers. Since this information will be going out over a period of many months all throughout 1997 and 1998, this would not be any kind of burden on Internet bandwidth -- on communications traffic flow. It will come out at peak to be quite manageable, with many hundreds of e-mails per hour worldwide. Exponential mass marketing in this case becomes highly ethical and necessary. Sometime in 1997 or 1998 this issue of genetically engineered food will become a big story on television as well as in magazines and newspapers in the United States and every part of the world. That will be the sign that we will be on the verge of succeeding in our mission to first label and then ban genetically engineered foods. But we have to continue until we have total disclosure and total labeling of all genetically engineered food products, including complete information about all additives and production agents. Then we must continue towards a worldwide ban and moratorium for 50 years.

To be most effective, this consumer action plan needs speed. Your loved ones, your friends, your family, your relatives may be eating genetically engineered Frankenfoods right now. Do not procrastinate. Once begun, this global consumer movement cannot be stopped. New Leaders will be constantly created. The bio-tech industry, made up of multi-billion dollar companies, will try to save their Frankenfood project. They will lobby the government and create new laws. They will work with the USDA and do multi-million dollar pro-genetic engineering campaigns. They will do everything and anything possible to stay in business, to try to stop us from informing our loved ones and fellow consumers about what they are doing. But rest assured: they are doomed. We will not fail. By joining in, by taking action, by making your personal list, by becoming a Leader, and by forwarding, printing, and handing out this three-part communication, you will be completely in harmony with the original purpose of the Internet. We will quickly create an invincible, unstoppable, global communications network. Together, we will use the Internet to stop Dr. Frankenfood from destroying our health, our families, and our planet.


SHORT VERSION, ELIMINATING FRANKENFOODS: WHAT CAN I DO?

1. Learn all you can about the dangers of genetically engineered foods.

2. Learn how to shop to avoid these foods. Boycott companies using these foods.

3. Tell all your friends family and loved ones about this problem, both on-line and off-line. Your job is not done until they change their eating habits and they teach their loved one's to do the same.

4. Start or join consumer groups to label and ban genetically engineered food.

5. Send letters to your political leaders and representatives.

6. Write and send letters to the media, writers, editors, networkers.

7. Forward this communication to influential people all over the world.

8. Take a leadership role. Contact the sources at the end of part three of this communication.

9. Request parts two and three of this three part communication from your Leader, who should be listed below.

Sample Query Note For the Three-Part Series:

Dear Friends, Mary, Editor of Time Magazine, Senator Torry, Veggie mailing list, etc., etc., etc.
(NOTE: everyone who eats food needs to know about this!!)

I have some critically important information about the food supply that all consumers need to know about.

(Exactly what you say depends on your relationship to the receiver--use your own words and if possible make it personal)

Your name and
Your e-mail address

THIS TYPE OF SIMPLE NOTE WILL HELP TO "BREAK THE ICE" AND HELP MAKE THE "3 x 3 Plan" POWERFULLY EFFECTIVE AROUND THE WORLD

ORGANIZATIONS WORKING TO STOP GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD

Greenpeace
1436 U Street N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20009
U.S.A.
Telephone in U.S. (800) 381-4712

Tell them you want to join the crusade against genetically engineered foods.

http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/

The Pure Food Campaign
1660 L St. N.W. #216
Washington, D.C. 20036

or
The Pure Food Campaign
860 Hwy 61
Little Marais, Minnesota 55614

Telephones: (202) 775-1132, (218) 226-4164, or (218) 226-4155
Fax: (218) 226-4157
Toll Free: (800) 253-0681
e-mail: purefood@aol.com

WHAT IS THE PURE FOOD CAMPAIGN?

The Pure Food Campaign (PFC) is a non-profit, public interest organization dedicated to building a healthy, safe, and sustainable system of food production and consumption in the US and the world. The PFC's primary strategy is to help build a national and international consumer/farmer/labor/progressive retailer boycott of genetically engineered and chemically contaminated foods and crops. The PFC is sponsored by the Washington, D.C. based Foundation on Economic Trends, whose President is the author and technology critic, Jeremy Rifkin. The Pure Food Campaign serves as a global clearinghouse for information and grassroots technical assistance to citizen activists and non-governmental organizations concerned about agriculture, food safety, life form patenting, and genetic engineering. The PFC also provides interviews and background material for journalists and news organizations worldwide. The Campaign utilizes a variety of tactics including targetted boycotts, grassroots lobbying, litigation, progressive media and public relations, activist networking, and direct action protests and media events.
The PFC National Director is Ronnie Cummins.

Website:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1527/

Mothers for Natural Law
P.O. Box 1177
Fairfield, Iowa 52556
U.S.A.
Telephone in U.S. (515) 472-2809
Fax in U.S. (515) 472-2683

They have a valuable "Safety First" Information pack --
They need $3.00 U.S. for shipping and handling.
Make checks payable to "Mothers For Natural Law."

HOW TO ORDER NEW COPIES OF THIS THREE-PART SERIES

This three-part series and its action plan was carefully crafted and designed to inform people all over the world about the travesty of GE food.

Your friends, relatives and associates can receive their own original copies of the complete three-part series and/or any missing sections by sending an e-mail with the subject heading "Avoiding Dangerous Foods" to their leader, who should be listed below and at the very end of each section of the three-part series.

IMPORTANT: Your Leader's e-mail address:
pmligotti@earthlink.net

Posted by impoetryious at 11:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Organically grown produce reduces the potential health and environmental hazards posed by pesticides, GMOs, irradiation and additives. Pesticides can cause developmental delays, behavioral disorders, and motor dysfunction, and can even infect children in the womb.

You've made a commitment to healthy eating, adapting the new Food Pyramid to your age, gender, fitness level and lifestyle. This is a great start! Beyond eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and good fats, however, there is the question of food purity. How foods are grown or raised can impact your health. Food labeling can leave you confused as to what terms such as "organic," "natural," "free-range," and "non-GMO" really mean. Understanding this terminology is essential to selecting foods that are the healthiest for you and your loved ones.

Conventional vs. organic foods

The terms "conventional" and "organic" refer to the ways in which food is grown, handled and processed. Whereas conventional farmers use synthetic or chemical means to fertilize soil, control weeds and insects, and prevent livestock disease, organic farmers opt for less invasive methods, such as manure or compost fertilizer, crop rotation and giving animals room to roam.

The USDA has developed the following legal standards for the "organic" certification:

For fruits, vegetables and grains:

• Safe soil, free of sewage sludge, lead salts and potassium chloride, among many other substances, for at least three years prior to the first organic harvest;

• No modification: GMOs, irradiation and additives are prohibited (see below for details);

• Separate storage: handlers, food processors and food manufacturers must separate organic products from non-organic products and take steps to ensure that organic foods don't come into contact with forbidden chemicals or substances.

For meat, milk, eggs and other animal products:

• Timing: animals must be raised organically from the last third of gestation (for livestock) or no later than the second day of life (for poultry).

• Organic feed: livestock feed products must be 100 percent organically grown.

• Hormone- and antibiotic-free: sick animals must be treated—but if an animal has been treated with a prohibited medication, it can't be labeled and sold as organic.

• Outdoor access, including pasture land for animals that graze. Each animal must have shade, shelter, fresh air, direct sunlight and room to exercise appropriate for its species.

• No commingling. Organic animal products must be separated from non-organic products. Organic animal products must not come into contact with prohibited chemicals or substances.

One important caveat:

"Natural" does not equal organic! "Natural" is an unregulated term that can be applied by anyone, and is therefore potentially misleading. While the commonly seen food labels "all natural", "free-range" or "hormone-free" signify that the food has been raised or grown humanely, only the "USDA Organic" label indicates that a food is certified organic.

Pesticide residues in food

We don't tend to think about what is invisible to us, or to calculate the accumulated build-up of years of pesticide exposure in our bodies. While some sources believe the benefits of pesticides to human nutrition outweigh any potential health risks, the research suggests otherwise.

When veteran journalist Bill Moyers had his blood and urine tested as part of a study of pollutant loads in the human body conducted by Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 84 distinct chemicals were found—including some that had been banned more than a quarter of a century before.

This chemical "body burden," as it is medically known, is even more insidious for children, whose developing bodies and brains are more vulnerable. A 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association study reported the incidence of illness linked to pesticide use in and around U.S. schools is on the rise.

Organophosphates—the same class of insecticides detected in Moyers' blood—were most frequently responsible for these poisonings, which have been linked in animal studies to:

• developmental delays,

• behavioral disorders,

• and motor dysfunction.

Because organophosphates are persistent pesticides that remain in the environment and in the human body for many years, they can be passed from mother to child in the womb, as well as through breast milk. Some exposures can cause delayed effects on the nervous system, even years after the initial exposure.

Fruits and vegetables wtih the highest and lowest pesticide levels

These 12 popular fresh fruits and vegetables are consistently the most contaminated with pesticides—buy these organic.

These 12 popular fresh fruits and vegetables consistently have the lowest levels of pesticides.

Will washing and peeling fruits and vegetables help reduce exposure to pesticides?

Excerpted from Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce (Environmental Working Group)

Nearly all of the data used to create these lists already considers how people typically wash and prepare produce (for example, apples are washed before testing, bananas are peeled). While washing and rinsing fresh produce may help reduce pesticide residues, it does not eliminate them. Peeling reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the peel. The best option is to eat a varied diet, wash all produce, and choose organic when possible to reduce exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

GMOs - Genetically Modified Organisms

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are life forms that have been genetically engineered. Genetic engineering (GE) is the process of taking genes from one strain of a plant, animal, or virus and inserting them into another, with the goal of reproducing characteristics of the original species in the receiving species. The U.S. government first sanctioned pharmaceutical gene splicing in 1982. However, GE/GM foods didn't make their way onto supermarket shelves until 1994.

Although three government agencies are involved in the GMO approval process (the USDA, EPA and FDA), there are no mandated pre-market safety studies. As with pesticides and drugs, safety testing for GMOs is done by the companies that produce them, raising concern about ethics and conflict of interest.

Unintended health impacts from GMOs can include:

• Allergens. Because the addition of new genetic material changes protein sequences, the GMO could produce known or unknown allergens—especially in children.

• Nutritional deficiency. Altered DNA could decrease levels of important nutrients in the GE crop.

• Increased toxins. Genetic engineering could inadvertently increase naturally occurring plant toxins—or introduce a new toxic strain created by the marriage of genes.

• Antibiotic resistance. An antibiotic resistant gene inserted into most GM crops may pose the most serious health hazard, since there is the possibility that these genes might transfer to pathogenic bacteria in our bodies and create new, antibiotic-resistant super-diseases.

Food irradiation

Given consumer concern about food safety and the growth of food-borne illness, nearly 40 countries have approved food irradiation, a process in which foods are exposed to a controlled amount of "ionizing radiation" in order to kill harmful bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella. The process can also control insects and parasites, reduce spoilage, and inhibit ripening and sprouting. It does not make food radioactive.

The FDA says, "The (irradiation) process may cause a small loss of nutrients but no more so than with other processing methods such as cooking, canning, or heat pasteurization."

However, the EPA recognizes that all forms of ionizing radiation, including the cobalt-60 and cesium-137 used in food irradiation, are known carcinogens. Irradiation plant workers suffer the highest risk, but consumers are also in jeopardy.

A Washington-based watchdog group, The Center for Food Safety, says the FDA has ignored growing evidence that a new class of chemicals, formed when food is irradiated, could be harmful. The new chemicals, a class of cyclobutanones, were found to cause genetic and cellular damage in human and rat cells.

You may be unwittingly eating irradiated foods containing cyclobutanones. Though most irradiated food sold in stores must be labeled, there is no such requirement for restaurants, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutional settings.

Mercury and other toxics in seafood

Mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal that poses a major public health threat. Because mercury can interfere with development, pregnant women and children are most at risk. Due to the high methylmercury levels that the following species contain, the USDA warns women who are pregnant, women who might become pregnant, and children, to avoid eating:

• swordfish,

• shark,

• tilefish,

• king mackerel,

• and to reduce their intake of tuna.

Mercury is not the only culprit to consider, however. More than 70 percent of the world's fish resources have been overfished, depleted, or mismanaged in ecologically destructive ways.

By becoming an informed seafood consumer, you help your health and support seafood sustainability. When you're seafood shopping, ask where the catch of the day was caught. For example, wild, Alaskan and California salmon are all classed as "good fish": plentiful, sensibly managed, with minimal pollutants. Atlantic salmon, by contrast, is "bad"—not because of mercury levels, but because methods of capture damage habitats and kill other wildlife.

Take the following seafood guide along when shopping, so you can tell at a glance whether the fish you're contemplating buying is good for you and for the environment:

The California Academy of Sciences provides a mercury calculator and clip-and-carry seafood guide that lists good fish, iffy fish, and bad fish and is a handy reference to use while shopping.

Advantages of organic produce

In addition to eliminating the potential health and environmental hazards posed by pesticides, GMOs, irradiation and additives, organically grown produce actually confers health benefits, according to new research. Organic foods are better for the body and the environment because they:

• Have more nutritional value. Organic foods contain higher levels of vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, iron.

• Contain more antioxidants. Food scientists at the University of California, Davis, found that organically grown fruits and vegetables show significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods. Pesticides and herbicides reduce the production of phenolics—chemicals that act as a plant's natural defense and are also good for human health. Organic fertilizers, however, appear to boost the levels of these anti-cancer compounds.

• Promote biodiversity. According to a study called The Biodiversity Benefits of Organic Farming, "organic farms had five times as many wild plants and 57% more species." The organic farms also had more birds, spiders, and non-pest butterflies than non-organic farms.

• Protect the next generation. As explained above, the effects of pesticides and other harmful additives to children are especially acute. Most children today are born with pesticide build-up in their bodies. Feeding your children organic foods and teaching them about the health benefits of organics will promote their good health and well being as well as that of generations to come.

Where can I find organic foods?

In some areas buying organic produce may require a little ingenuity. However, there are numerous resources available. Consider the following ideas:

• Ask your local grocery store manager to carry more organic produce.

• Look into joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, in which individuals and families join up to purchase "shares" of produce in bulk, directly from local farms (see References and resources).

• Find out whether there is a natural foods co-op, also called a cooperative grocery store, in your area.  Co-ops typically offer lower prices to members, who pay an annual fee to belong. However, you do not need to be a member to shop at a food co-op.

• Start a buying club. A buying club is typically comprised of at least seven families who pool their money and order food in bulk from a cooperative distributor. Buying clubs operate very similarly to CSAs, except that the former purchases food through a distributor rather than directly from the grower.

• Shop the Farmers' Markets. Many cities as well as small towns host a weekly Farmers' Market, where local farmers bring their wares to an open-air street market and sell fresh produce direct to you, often for less than you'd pay in the grocery store or supermarket. Bonus: it's a great opportunity to socialize and get to know like-minded people in your neighborhood who might want to join a CSA or start a buying club with you.

How can I eat healthfully on a budget?

CSAs, co-ops, Farmers' Markets and buying clubs are all great ways to save money on organic food. In addition, you can:

• buy non-perishable foods (packaged soups and non-dairy beverages, whole grains, beans, nut butters, etc.) in bulk and store them in your freezer or pantry;

• shop at discount stores for non-perishable items (e.g., Price Club, Costco, Sam's Club);

• buy the store brand, which is often less expensive than the name brand for the same quality;

• clip coupons for healthy foods you like and would buy anyway;

• make a big pot of soup at the beginning of the week or whenever you go food shopping. When you don't feel like cooking, help yourself to a hearty bowlful along with a green salad. This makes a nutritious lunch or dinner anytime.

References and resources for food safety and affordability

Organic food / pesticides

Pesticides (PDF) – Informative summary of pesticide formulations, modes of action, soil retention, and toxicity to humans. (USDA)

Organic Materials Review Institute, Consumers Union landmark study – Press release on the first detailed analysis of pesticide residue data for produce grown organically and conventionally. (OMRI)

IFST Information Statement: Organic Food (UK) – In-depth explanation of organic food market and legislation, and product quality and safety. (IFST)

Why "Organic" Certification Does Not Protect Consumers – A retired psychiatrist argues that pesticide residues in foods pose a negligible health concern and organic standards are overrated. (Quackwatch.org)

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

A Different Perspective on GM Food – A Salk Institute cell biologist weighs in on the potential health dangers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). (Biotech-info.net)

Genetically Engineered Foods Pose Health Risk for Children (PDF) – What's in that innocent-looking soy milk your child's drinking? Maybe some GMOs, which can cause health problems. (Saynotogmos.org)

Food irradiation

Food Irradiation – A Safe Measure – Why and how foods are being irradiated, and their availability to consumers. (FDA)

The Dangers of Food Irradiation Facilities Worldwide (PDF) – Irradiating may protect foods and prolong shelf life, but the irradiation process itself can cause cancer. (Citizen.org)

Safe seafood

Mercury Contamination of Seafood – Important information on mercury levels in fish and other seafood, including a calculator that helps you determine the safety level for your weight, amount and type of seafood consumption. (California Academy of Sciences – Aquatic Biology)

Buying Guide: Becoming A Smart Seafood Shopper – How to make the healthiest, safest seafood selections based on such factors as type of fish, its source and toxicity content. (Oceans Alive)

Affordable healthy foods

AREC Spotlight – Fresh Produce – How changes in the produce industry make it easier than ever before to fix affordable, healthy meals. (University of Arizona)

Other resources that we used when writing this article

JAMA Study of Pesticide Risks in Schools – The level of pesticides and other chemicals affecting our children—and the resultant long-term damage they can cause—is alarming. (Pesticide Action Network North America)

PBS: Trade Secrets: Chemical Body Burden – Bill Moyers' blood and urine samples revealed traces of 84 toxic chemicals—some banned for more than 25 years. (PBS)

Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce (PDF) – Helpful chart ranking the 12 fruits and vegetables that are highest and lowest in pesticide residue, including a downloadable wallet-size shopping guide. (Foodnews.org)

FDA Ignoring Evidence That New Chemicals Created In Irradiated Food Could Be Harmful – Press release from a government watchdog group says irradiation has been shown to cause genetic damage in animals. (The Center for Food Safety)

Seafood Guide (PDF) – How to select the best seafood based on mercury content and environmental sustainability. (California Academy of Sciences)

Report confirms more health benefits of organic food – Research data showing that organically grown foods contain higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants. (Organic Consumers Association)

Community Supported Agriculture Farms Database – A searchable database of CSA farms by state. (Alternative Farming Systems Information Center/USDA)

Coop Directory Service: Find A Natural Food Coop Near You – Searchable database of food cooperative distributors and information on how to start a buying club. (Coop Directory)

Protecting the Next Generation (commercial site) – Includes information on the benefits of organic food for children and the danger of pesticide use. Site also includes other sections on the biodiversity and nutrition benefits of organic farming. (Organic Trade Association)

FAQ on Organic Foods – Common questions and answers about organic farming and the nutrition and safety benefits of organic food. (Nutrition Australia)

What are the health benefits of eating the world’s healthiest foods? – Discussion about the health benefits of eating a variety of whole, fresh foods in your diet. (World’s Healthiest Foods, George Mateljan Foundation)

Amara Rose created this article with contributions from Gina Kemp, M.A., Robert Segal, M.A., and Heather Larson. http://www.helpguide.org/life/organic_foods_pesticides_gmo.htm

Posted by impoetryious at 11:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Tyson:Synopsis

 

R,1hr 30min

Genre:

Documentary

Released:

April 24, 2009

Director:

James Toback

Distributor:

Sony Pictures Classics

Starring:

Mike Tyson

Watch Trailer 

Assembled from over 30 hours of interviews with the controversial heavyweight champion, director James Toback takes the helm for a feature-length documentary exploring the life and career of self-destructive pugilist Mike Tyson. From his early years under the wing of famed boxing promoter Don King to his notorious match against Evander Holyfield and his conviction on sexual assault charges, Tyson's turbulent life is explored in the kind of comprehensive manner that could only have been made possible with the subject's willing participation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Posted by impoetryious at 07:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

 K'Naan A strong Condender for Album of the year

K'naan, born Kanaan Warsame (Somali: Kaynaan Warsame)  in 1978, is a  Somali-Canadian poet, rapper and musician.

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, K'naan spent his childhood in the district of Wardhiigleey ("The Lake of Blood") during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia's most famous singers. K'naan's grandfather, Haji Mohamed, was a poet. K'naan is also a Muslim. His name, K'naan, means "traveller" in the Somali language.

K'naan's father, Abdi, left the country, along with many other intellectuals to settle in New York City and work as a cab driver. He mailed money home to his family. As the civil war continued and the situation in Somalia continued to deteriorate, K'naan's mother, Marian Mohamed, petitioned the United States embassy for an exit visa. In 1991, on the last day the US embassy remained open as the government of Mohamed Siad Barre collapsed their visa was approved, and they boarded the last commercial flight out of the country.

They joined relatives in Harlem, New York City, before moving to the Toronto, Ontario neighbourhood of Rexdale, where there was a large Somali Canadian community. His family still lives there. In his new country, K'naan began learning English, some through hip hop albums by artists like Nas and Rakim. Despite speaking no English, the young K'naan taught himself hip hop and rap diction, copying the lyrics and style phonetically. He then also began rapping. He dropped out of school in grade ten to travel for a time, rapping at open mic events, and eventually returned to Toronto.

K'naan became a friend and associate of Canadian promoter, Sol Guy, who helped him secure a gig speaking before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1999, where K'naan performed a spoken word piece criticizing the UN for its failed aid missions to Somalia.[6] One of the audience members, Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, was so impressed by the young MC's performance and courage that he invited him to contribute to his 2001 album Building Bridges, a project through which K'naan was able to tour the world.

This project lead to his work at other UN events, as well as the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Halifax Pop Explosion. It also helped him meet Canadian producer Jarvis Church and his Track & Field team in 2002, who produced his debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher, which was released in 2005 to critical acclaim. In 2006, it won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year, and was nominated for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize. It also won the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the newcomer category for 2007. The Dusty Foot Philosopher will be re-released and re-packaged as a "Deluxe Edition" featuring new mixes and a bonus DVD in the United States (and various international territories) by the emerging media company and record label iM (Interdependent Media, Inc.) in 2008.

Since then, he has been on tour promoting his album and working on his follow-up release, "Troubadour," his debut album for new label A&M/Octone Records. He has also been working with artists like Nelly Furtado, Mos Def, The Roots, Dead Prez, and Pharoahe Monch on tours such as Live 8[9] and Breedlove Odyssey. He also collaborated with Damian Marley on the "Welcome to Jamrock" touring session.

In 2005, the Canadian music scene featured a low-key feud between K'naan and k-os, one of the most prominent Canadian hip-hop artists. Following the release of the music video for the song Soobax, which was shot by K'naan and a film crew in Kenya, k-os released a track B-Boy Stance attacking K'naan : "They took cameras to Africa for pictures to rhyme / Over; Oh, yes, the great pretenders [...] Religious entertainers who want to be life savers." Though the feud never became high-profile, with K'naan expressing confusion at the attack and respect for k-os, he nonetheless responded with the mixtape Revolutionary Avocado which argued "You the all-knowing with a beer bottle / Wishing you was Plato and me Aristotle? / ...Suburban negro turned hip-hop hero / Is there a reason he really hates me, though?" — a rebuttal CBC's Matthew McKinnon called "cold-cocking the champ". He recently released The Dusty Foot on the Road, a collection of recording made during his recent world tour on Wrasse Records.

His second studio album, Troubadour, was released on February 24, 2009 on A&M/Octone Records, and will be distributed through Universal Music Group worldwide. The album's first single, "ABC's", was released to radio in late 2008. K'naan has featured in several video games such as "Madden NFL 09" with his song ABC's, and "Fifa 06" with his song soobax. The song "If Rap Gets Jealous", a rerecording of a track of the same name - with different verses - from The Dusty Foot Philosopher, features Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. K'naan was also the first featured artist on X3, a collaborative project between CBC Radio 3, Exclaim! magazine and aux.tv to promote new Canadian music.

On April 15th 2009 K'Naan publicly criticised the approach to the problem of Somali piracy after the kidnapping of Richard Phillips (captain) of the United States flagged MV Maersk Alabama container ship 240 nautical miles (440 km; 280 mi) southeast of the Somalia port city of Eyl.

"It has no basis, no roots, and I'm not talking about, when I say basis - it's not the same as justifications [...] but how there came to be pirates, I think that is probably the most undiscussed thing in major media today - it's as if they just sprung from nowhere. But Somalis have long known about the issues."

Critics have said K'naan has "a sound that fuses Bob Marley, conscious American hip hop, and brilliant protest poetry." His voice and style have been compared to Eminem, but his subject matter is very different; according to K'naan, he makes "urgent music with a message", talking about the situation in his homeland of Somalia and calling for an end to violence and bloodshed. He specifically tries to avoid gangsta rap clichés and posturing, saying:

"All Somalis know that gangsterism isn't to brag about. The kids that I was growing up with [in Rexdale] would wear baggy [track] suit pants, and a little jacket from Zellers or something, and they'd walk into school, and all the cool kids would be like, 'Ah, man, look at these Somalis. Yo, you're a punk!' And the other kid won't say nothing, but that kid, probably, has killed fifteen people."

This statement was made to explain his position on the world of difference which exists between where he grew up, and the ghettos of the first world.. Nonetheless, K'naan denies that he is overtly political, instead explaining that he "[shows] the state of the world [and] if you call it like it is you're being political.". His own opinion of his music is that it's a "mix of tradition and [a] kind of articulation of my own life and [..] my past experiences."

K'naan has said that he is influenced by Somali music and the traditional instruments of Somalia.

Discography

• 2004: My Life Is A Movie

• 2005: The Dusty Foot Philosopher (BMG Music)

• 2007: The Dusty Foot on the Road (Wrasse Records)

• 2009: Troubadour (A&M/Octone)

  ___________________

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%27naan

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Morgan gets spiritual with Theocracy Reigns

April 27, 09

Reggae veteran Denroy Morgan on Tuesday released his latest album entitled Theocracy Reigns.
Recorded on Asaph Records label and distributed through VP Records the 14-track album feature Morgan Heritage, LMS
Glenda Phillips-Lee (Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church) and Clifford Branch on piano.
The album, which was three years in the making is more than worth the wait as it packs powerful, uplifting messages where Denroy tells the story, but through it all he gives Jah the praise and glory.
Theocracy Reigns is a musical documentation of the ceremony and launching of the ministry that took place on July 23, 2005 at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of North and South America (Harlem).
In speaking about the experience Denroy shared, “The church has now welcomed the Sabbatical worship in oneness with their Sunday worship. When I come representing Asaph Music and told Abuana that I was ready to launch the musical ministry, he made it possible and gave us a charter to administrate it in the church.”
The CD is aptly titled as each song resonates of heavenly R&B and traditional gospel influenced vocals, soulful piano and guitar leads, international keyboards and the groundation of the Nyobingi drum. As the rhythmic pattern of the Nyobingi drum is blended with Reggae, R&B and gospel - a powerful spiritual revival takes place.
On the album Shy poo (Nashayah Morgan) mixes the R&B emotion on Little Children, while Peter Morgan moves to the choir on Jesus is Still Alive - Kirk Franklin style and on Holy Sabbath he revives the spirit. God Meant For My Good accompanied by Clifford Branch on piano is sentimentally sung by Glenda Phillips.
Among the other tracks on the album are Go Before Us Jah, The Lion of Judah, Theocracy Reigns, Rock My Soul and I’m Still Holding On.
Denroy Morgan is known for his chartbusting single I’ll Do Anything For You and later other hits such as Sweet Tender Love, Happy Feelings and Africa Is Calling.

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50 Cent Returns to the Silver Screen in "Twelve"

Apr 8, 2009
 

According to Variety, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has joined the cast of "Twelve," Joel Schumacher'sadaptation of Nick McDonell’s debut novel of the same name.  Jackson joins previously announced cast members Kiefer Sutherland, Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, and Ellen Barkin.

"Twelve" follows a high school dropout-turned-drug dealer, whose life sours when his cousin is brutally murdered and his best friend is arrested for the crime.

Jackson recently pulled out of Sylvester Stallone's movie, "The Expendables" to finish up on his upcoming albums. The rapper's last big screen role was in "Righteous Kill." He made his acting debut in the semi-biographical pic, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'."

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Source:http://www.blacktalentnews.com/artman/publish/article_2270.shtml

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Lucas' "Red Tails" Gets Star-Studded Cast

Apr 8, 2009
  

Actors Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard have scored starring roles in George Lucas' upcoming WWII epic drama, "Red Tails," based on the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilots in the American military history. Gooding and Howard join previously signed cast members include Nate Parker, Lee Tergesen, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds, Elijah Kelley, Andre Royo, Jesse Williams, and Ne-Yo.

John Ridley ("Three Kings") wrote the script. Lucas has a story credit on the film. Anthony Hemingway ("The Wire") will direct. Production will begin soon in Europe.

Lucas, who is executive producing and financing through his Lucasfilm production banner, told Variety, "I've been wanting to do 'Red Tails' for 20 years, and we've finally got the means to showcase the skill of the Tuskegee pilots. We're working on techniques which will give us the first true look at the aerial dogfighting of the era."

This will be the first Lucasfilm feature film in 15 years unrelated to the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises.

Source:http://www.blacktalentnews.com/artman/publish/article_2274.shtml

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Will Smith Pacts with Sci-Fi Channel

By Monique D. Love  Apr 21, 2009
  

Will Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment, is teaming with the Sci Fi Channel -- which changes its name to Syfy on July 7 -- to produce the crime drama, "Unfinished Business."   The drama is about an ex-cop who starts visions of the memories of the recently deceased. The visions move him to helping these lost souls resolve their unfinished business.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, "Unfinished Business" will air as a two-hour movie as the springboard for a potential series pilot.

Smith will produce alongside his Overbrook Entertainment partners John Lassiter and Ken Stovitz. Emmy winner Mikael Salomon ("Band of Brothers") will direct from a script by Emmy nominee Sally Robinson ("Iron Jawed Angels").

"Sci Fi is excited to begin development on Unfinished Business with Overbrook Entertainment and Will Smith," Mark Stern, executive vp original programming at Sci Fi told THR. "It is a compelling and thrilling drama that is perfect for our audience."

Source: http://www.blacktalentnews.com/artman/publish/article_2286.shtml

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Beyonce's "Obsessed" Tops Box Office

Apr 27, 2009
  

Sony's Screen Gems' romantic thriller "Obsessed," starring Idris Elba and Beyonce, led the box office with $28.5 million from 2,514 theaters for a healthy $11,337 per screen average.  The New School "Fatal Attraction" stars Knowles and Elba as a happily married couple until a sexy young office worker (Ali Larter) begins to stalk the husband.

"Obsessed" was a new career high for Knowles when in a lead role. It was also the second best in company history for Screen Gems. According to studio research, women made up 58% of the audience, while the age range was broad with 51% being over 25. Made for $20 million, "Obsessed" is headed towards a profitable run for Sony.

The Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.-starrer, "The Soloist," opened in fourth place with a disappointing $9.7 million from 2,024 theaters for a $4,800 per screen average.  The $60 million film with two Oscar-caliber actors may have a tough time recouping.

In a limited opening in 11 theaters in New York and Los Angeles, Sony Pictures Classics  Mike Tyson documentary "Tyson" posted a middleweight per-screen average of $7,817, grossing an estimated $85,982.  Sony Pictures Classics acquired MIke Toback's "Tyson" after the film screened in Cannes last year and then played at Sundance. The critically acclaimed documentary examines the life of Mike Tyson, who appears throughout.

The following are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC:

1. "Obsessed," $28.5 million

2. "17 Again," $11.7 million

3. "Fighting," $11.4 million

4. "The Soloist," $9.7 million

5. "Earth," $8.6 million

6. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $8.5 million

7. "State of Play," $6.9 million

8. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $6.4 million

9. "Fast & Furious," $6.1 million

10. "Crank: High Voltage," $2.4 million

Source:http://www.blacktalentnews.com/artman/publish/article_2292.shtml

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Erup's "Click My FInger" video set to release

Kingston, Jamaica - April 9, 2009) Truckback Records is pleased to announce the heavily anticipated release of the music video for the breakthrough song "Click My Finger" by Erup. The video will debut in late-April 2009 and Hype TV will air an exclusive behind the scenes look at the making of "Click My Finger".

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW "CLICK MY FINGER"
 
Filmed around Kingston, Jamaica by sought after director Ras Tingle and his award-winning camera crew, Erup shines throughout as the object of many a beautiful woman's desire. When the big party kicks off at Club Weekenz, Erup is clad in sleek custom Italian apparel including shirt made with genuine Swarovski crystals spelling out "ERUP" on the back. Always the man of the moment, Erup clicks his fingers and a full entourage of sexy beauties gravitate around him.  Star dancehall dancer Chi Ching Ching and model Latoya Grant deliver outstanding supporting roles in a creative storyline directed by Ras Tingle, produced by Danielle Desulme of TD Films and edited by one of the reggae industry's best editors, Mykal Cushnie. The video follows the dance promoter (Chi Ching Ching) as he tries convincingly - and hilariously at times - to woo the girl (Latoya Grant).
 
Dancehall's most recent breakthrough artist, Konshens, also performs along side Erup in a special cameo appearance while the party scenes feature stalwarts in the dance such as Rebel T Sound and Aly Patch as well as dance crews Judgement Yard and Dutty Link, rising stars Deh Deh, Shifta and the Fras Crew along side uber-promoter Dozer of Miami Link Up. Sanchez, of Erup's Fully Govern crew, also represented. The support of Magnum Tonic Wine and Peter Norton's innovative advertising firm, DigiAds.com,helped create a realistic mood on the set.
 
Reaching #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 R&B/Hip Song Chart at the end of 2008 is one of a series of milestones that saw "Click My Finger" touch #9 among overall spins on New York City's influential HOT97 FM, #1 on dancehall reggae charts in New York, London, Jamaica and South Florida and featured on Canada's #1 new Fall television show watched by an average of 1.36 Million viewers, So You Think You Can Dance Canada.
 
Operating out of a retired but still working converted box truck in Kingston, Jamaica, Truckback Records is the creation of Steve Locke, Heather Cameron, and Adrian Locke with promotional support provided by Johnny Wonder and Lisa Marie Edwards. "Click My Finger" is the lead track on Truckback's Gearbox Riddim, which spawned nominations for Riddim of the Year, Song of the Year ("Click My Finger"), Comeback Artist of the Year (Harry Toddler "Don't Run In")

LABEL CONTACT
myspace.com/truckbackrecords
Heather Cameron
truckbackrecords@aol.com
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
954-325-7725

PRESS CONTACT
Soul of the Lion Publicity
soulof_thelion@yahoo.com
Kingston, Jamaica
876-370-1310

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Officials say US deaths expected from swine flu

By SARA KUGLER and CRISTIAN SALAZAR, Associated Press Writers Sara Kugler And Cristian Salazar, Associated Press Writers – Tue Apr 28,

NEW YORK – The global swine flu outbreak worsened Tuesday as authorities said hundreds of students at a New York school have fallen ill and federal officials said they expected to see U.S. deaths from the virus. Cuba suspended flights to and from Mexico, becoming the first country to impose a travel ban to the epicenter of the epidemic.

The mayor of the capital cracked down further on public life, closing gyms and swimming pools and ordering restaurants to limit service to takeout.

Confirmed cases were reported for the first time as far away as New Zealand and Israel, joining the United States, Canada, Britain and Spain.

Swine flu is believed to have killed more than 150 people in Mexico, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the U.S. has 68 confirmed cases in five states, with 45 in New York, one in Ohio, one in Indiana, two in Kansas, six in Texas and 13 in California.

"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," said Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC.

That was echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"It is very likely that we will see more serious presentations of illness and some deaths as we go through this flu cycle," she said.

President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the illness.

In New York, there were growing signs that the virus was moving beyond St. Francis Preparatory school, where sick students started lining up last week at the nurse's office. The outbreak came just days after a group of students returned from spring break in Cancun.

At the 2,700-student school, the largest Roman Catholic high school in the nation, "many hundreds of students were ill with symptoms that are most likely swine flu," said Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. The cases haven't been confirmed.

Twelve teachers reported flu-like symptoms as well, said the principal, Brother Leonard Conway.

A nearby public school for special education students was shut down after more than 80 students called in sick. Frieden said that some of the students have siblings at St. Francis.

"It is here and it is spreading," Frieden said.

Some of the New York students who tested positive for swine flu after a trip to Mexico passed it on to others who had not traveled — a significant fact because it suggests the strain suspected in dozens of deaths in Mexico can also spread through communities in other countries, said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization.

"There is definitely the possibility that this virus can establish that kind of community wide outbreak capacity in multiple countries, and it's something we're looking for very closely," Fukuda said. So-called "community" transmissions are a key test for gauging whether the spread of the virus has reached pandemic proportions.

Fukuda warned, however, against jumping to the conclusion that the virus has become firmly established in the United States.

Still, U.S. officials stressed there was no need for panic and noted that flu outbreaks are quite common every year. The CDC estimates about 36,000 people in the U.S. died of flu-related causes each year, on average, in the 1990s.

The increase in cases was not surprising. For days, CDC officials said they expected to see more confirmed cases — and more severe illnesses. Health officials nationwide stepped up efforts to look for symptoms, especially among people who had traveled to Mexico.

Scientists hope to have a key ingredient for a vaccine ready in early May, but it still will take a few months before any shots are available for the first required safety testing. Using samples of the flu taken from people who fell ill in Mexico and the U.S., scientists are engineering a strain that could trigger the immune system without causing illness.

"We're about a third of the way" to that goal, said Dr. Ruben Donis of the CDC.

The economic toll also spread. Officials said Mexico City is losing $57 million a day amid a shutdown that includes schools, state-run theaters and other public places.

Cuba announced a 48-hour ban on flights to and from Mexico, except in "exceptional cases." The last flight from Mexico touched down in Havana around 4 p.m., then returned to Mexico City with passengers before the two-day suspension officially began.

The U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico. Canada, Israel and France issued similar travel advisories.

For all the government intervention, health officials suggested that efforts to contain the flu strain might prove ineffective. Around the world, officials hoped the outbreak would not turn into a full-fledged pandemic, an epidemic that spreads across a wide geographical area.

"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.

The pork industry was dealing with a public relations nightmare over the virus, which is a never-before-seen hybrid of human, swine and bird influenza that is widely called swine flu.

Public health officials have said people cannot get sick from eating pork, but some countries, such as China, Russia and Ukraine, have banned imports from Mexico and parts of the U.S.

U.S. officials said they may abandon the term "swine flu" for fear of confusing people into thinking they could catch it from eating pork.

"It's killing our markets," said Francis Gilmore, 72, who runs a 600-hog operation in Perry, Iowa, outside Des Moines, and worries his small business could be ruined by the crisis. "Where they got the name, I just don't know."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency to help California agencies coordinate efforts in response to the outbreak. He cautioned, however, that "there is no need for alarm."

In New York, the city called on the CDC for additional resources to investigate the outbreak at St. Francis Prep.

About 1,500 students replied to surveys sent out by the health department about the outbreak, helping the city get a better sense of how the virus is spreading. Some students have complained of sudden nausea; others dealt with high fever, sore throats, coughs and aches.

Rachel Mele and her mother, Linda, were relieved when the 16-year-old's fever broke Tuesday for the first time in five days. It had been hovering around 101.

The family could finally breathe easy — a relief after a terrifying night Thursday in which Mele's parents bundled her into the car and rushed her to the hospital when they realized she was having trouble breathing.

"I could barely even catch my breath. I've never felt a pain like that before," Mele said. "My throat, it was burning, like, it was the worst burning sensation I ever got before. I couldn't even swallow. I couldn't even let up air. I could barely breathe through my mouth."

___

Associated Press Writers Marcus Franklin and Samantha Gross in New York; Peter Orsi, Julie Watson and E. Eduardo Castillo, in Mexico City; Mike Stobbe in Atlanta; Mary Clare Jalonick, David Espo, Philip Elliott and Matthew Lee in Washington; Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva, Maria Cheng in London and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.

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Our Hunger For Cheap Meat Has Created Swine Flu

Originaly Published by http://www.johannhari.com; Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and the Huffington Post. He also writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, The New Republic, El Mundo, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times, and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines.

Posted by impoetryious at 03:47 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Children who kill never had a chance

I have met children who became killers several times in my life

 I have met children who became killers several times in my life: in the warzones of the Congo and the Central African Republic, and in the grey Young Offenders’ Institutes of Britain. When I read about the events that are alleged to have happened last weekend in South Yorkshire, I kept thinking about their small, paranoid eyes. Two brothers – aged ten and eleven – have been charged with torturing two other, younger kids. The victims had been hit with bricks, burned with cigarettes, and slashed with knives in a wild field.

We are a long way from knowing what happened in that field that afternoon, or who carried out these acts. But the visceral temptation when any children face accusations like this is to brand them as inherently evil demons who should be locked far from us for life. But the most famous case of child-on-child killing in British history – that of Mary Bell – shows us how flawed this initial reaction is.

In 1968, in the sagging streets of the poorest part of Newcastle, a ten year old girl strangled two toddlers – Martin Brown, and Brian Howe – to death. She then cut their bodies, and with her best friend, a mentally disabled thirteen year old, she left notes in a nursery saying: “We did murder Martain brown, fuckof you BAstArd.” She was reflexively described in the press as a child who had been “born evil”, a “monster” and “demon.”

Now we know what happened to her to make her into such a child. Mary’s mother, Betty Bell, was a severely disturbed alcoholic who had been sectioned at least once. She worked as a prostitute specialising in sado-masochism – whippings and stranglings. The first thing she said when Mary was placed into her arms after giving birth was: “Take the thing away from me!” She rejected her daughter and repeatedly tried to kill her by feeding her an overdose of sleeping tablets. But eventually, she did find a use for Mary. Once she turned four, she began to pimp her to paedophiles.

Mary never knew who her father was, but she suspected her mother had been inseminated by her own dad. Later in life, she asked her mother point blank if this was the case. She didn’t deny it. Betty simply said quietly: “You are the devil’s spawn.”

When she was ten, Mary made friends with another girl who was being raped by a local paedophile. All they had known in their lives was violent abuse – and they began to act it out. Mary tried to cut off one of the boy’s penises with a razor – a plain, crazed act of revenge for what she had experienced since she was a toddler.

Yet it is strangely comforting to see evil as a primordial external force, something alien that can be hunted down and confined to cages. It dodges the colder truth that I have learned from all the child-killers I have met: we all have the capacity for terrible cruelty and sadism, especially if we are subjected to horror ourselves. Which of us can be confident that, given such Mary Bell’s childhood, we wouldn’t have done something depraved?

Yet the trial of the two children who killed Jamie Bulger – and the websites trying to figure out where they are now, so they can be lynched – suggests we have barely progressed since then. Excellent works of investigative journalism like Blake Morrison’s book ‘As If’ have uncovered evidence that these children were subjected to violent and probably sexual abuse. We don’t want to hear it. We want devils and demons and a black-and-white world that tells us: no, it couldn’t have been you; this crime belongs to a different species.

These killings are not political parables. However much right-wingers want to make this a story about welfare dependency and left-wingers want to make it a story of brutal Thatcherite economics, these rare murders have happened in Britain at the same rate for over a century. They have to be understood at the personal, human level.

To understand and explain these cases is not to excuse, or justify. We are talking about the most terrible thing that can happen to a person: torture, and murder. The children who do this need to be humanely detained for as long as they are a danger. But everything we know about children who kill tells us they are invariably victims of extreme abuse themselves, deserving of compassion, not hysterical condemnation.

I have watched my friend Camilla Batmangelidh – the director of Kid’s Company – work with children in South London who have bricked, bottled and tortured other children. She explains: “Since the Bell and Bulger cases, we’ve learned a lot about how a developing brain reacts to abuse, but the judicial system hasn’t caught up. We now know from brain scans that if you have really poor quality care in childhood, your pre-frontal lobes don’t develop properly. Those are the parts of the brain that think rationally, empathise, and exercise self-control. It is physically impossible for these children to calm down and think a situation through. Their brains haven’t developed that way.” So to treat them like morally responsible mini-adults who just made a bad decision – as the British courts do today – doesn’t make sense. It is a neurological fiction.

When this impaired brain chemistry combines with violent abuse and rape, the children can become time-bombs. “They have been taught to see the world through one template: you’re a victim, or you’re an abuser. That’s how they think human relationships work,” Batmangelidh puts it. “At first, they are abused, and at some point they become determined to be a perpetrator, because then at least they have power and control. If you think those are your only two options in life, it seems preferable.”

As she said this, I remembered the child soldiers in Central Africa who pointed guns into my face and smirked. Their families had been bayoneted in front of them, and they had buried the bodies themselves. In the warzones of the Congo, I met eleven and twelve year old boys who had seen their mothers and sisters snatched away, and were then picked up by the militiamen and trained to rape and kill. Like Mary, they were re-enacting the violence they had experienced in a desperate attempt to switch roles: this time, they were the Big Men.

Children who kill are a question of mental health, not morality. They are internally destroyed children, not devils. Given the love and support that they deserve, such children can develop their frontal lobes and their capacity for empathy over time, and be released. As Gita Sereny’s reportorial masterpiece ‘Cries Unheard’ shows, Mary Bell eventually developed into a morally responsible adult and “a very, very loving mother” – albeit one perpetually haunted by the knowledge of what she had done.

Haven’t we progressed enough since the Middle Ages to see these truths, and reject the barbaric theology of “evil” children?

When accusations like this bleed into the news, we need to stand at the front of the looming lynch mob and say: Stop. Think. In 1861, a leader in The Times commented on the trial of two eight year old boys in Stockport who had tortured and killed a toddler. It said: “Children of that age cannot be held legally accountable in the same way as adults. It is absurd and monstrous that these two children have been treated like murderers.” Isn’t it time we progressed to 1862?

Originaly Published by http://www.johannhari.com; Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and the Huffington Post. He also writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, The New Republic, El Mundo, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times, and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines.
 

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When we rebuild after this disaster, we need to be guided by equality  

It's equal societies that thrive - and survive  

In the smoking rubble of market fundamentalism, we are all being forced to rethink the principles that order our societies – and one small, shining idea is rising from the wreckage. It is the idea of human equality.

The need for us to return to this, our best and most basic instinct, is spelled out in a new book by Professor Richard Wilkinson and Dr. Kate Pickett called ‘The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.’ It is the culmination of twenty-five years of scientific research. The truths it contains provide us with a compass to rebuild our societies – and a reason to be profoundly optimistic. There is a way we can make our societies dramatically better – and the impulse to do it is hard-wired into each of our brains.

It starts with a stark realization. For millennia, there was one obvious and necessary way to improve human life: raise material living standards. If you are hungry, you will be made a lot happier by food. If you are thirsty, you will be made a lot happier by water. The human impulse for self-improvement was simple: give us more, and give it to us now. But we now know from reams of studies that once your basic needs are met – once you pass the magic number of $25,000 a year – something changes.

We carry on accumulating and accumulating, because it’s what we’ve grown to think will give us happiness, but it works less and less. And after a while, this unhindered chasing of More More More by the very richest begins to make us miserable – and corrodes some of the other basics we need as humans.

One of our most basic psychological needs is for status – to feel that we are a valued member of our tribe. We evolved in small, very egalitarian tribes of hunter-gatherers, and have only lived outside them for a few minutes in evolutionary terms. So when we feel our status is threatened – or there is no way of becoming respected by the rest of the tribe – we begin to malfunction in all sorts of ways.

Indeed, other than being chased by a wild animal or worrying that our supplies of food, water and shelter will be cut off, nothing makes humans more anxious than panic about our status. Endless clinical trials show what happens to our bodies when we feel we are going to lose our status and could end up being looked on as inferior. Our bodies lock into a “fight-or flight” response, where our heart and lungs work harder, our blood vessels constrict, and we burn up our energy stores fast. Our systems flood with a hormone called cortisol.

If this lasts only a short period, it can be good for us: it helps us escape that growling lion, or pull ourselves out of the wreckage of a crashed car. But if it goes on for weeks or months, we begin to suffer all sorts of dysfunction – as we’ll see in a moment.

Yet we have built our societies on exaggerating this status panic – and we have been ratcheting it up over the past thirty years. The more unequal a society is, the more intense it becomes. Even if you slip to the bottom in Sweden, it’s not so very different from the top. But when there is a long social ladder and the bottom rung means humiliation and poverty, everyone at every rung feels a sweatier need to cling to their place – and the society starts to go wrong. This isn’t left-wing speculation: it is an empirical fact.

Japan and Sweden are very different societies, but they are consistently at the top of the charts for every indicator of social success. They have low violence, low mental illness, low teenage pregnancy, low drug addiction, low obesity, low prison populations, high life expectancy, and high levels of friendship and trust. They are economically highly equal societies. The US and Portugal are also very different societies, but they are consistently at the bottom of the charts. They are highly unequal societies. If you plot countries on a graph, you see the causal relationships with striking clarity. Increase inequality, and every one of these dysfunctions shoots up with it.

How can this be? When we are locked in stress, we get sicker. High cortisol levels corrode our insides and massively increase the risk of heart-attack. We eat more – and our bodies store fat differently. It hugs them to our middles, rather than storing them lower down, in our hips and thighs. We are far more likely to break down into depression or mental illness, or to snap and attack somebody. James Gilligan – the psychiatrist running the Center for the Study of Violence at Harvard Medical School – explains that acts of violence are “attempts to ward off or eliminate the feeling of shame and humiliation – a feeling that is painful, and can even be intolerable or overwhelming.” He adds that he has “yet to see a serious act of violence that did not represent an attempt to undo this ‘loss of face.’”

And when we are locked in stress, we become more suspicious of the people around us. In highly equal Sweden, 66 percent of people feel they can trust their fellow citizens – and as a result have the highest levels of friendship in the developed world. In highly unequal Portugal, only 10 percent of the population trust the rest: see the bars on the windows.

It can be easier to see how this model of stress and humiliation affects us by looking at our evolutionary cousins. In a recent study, scientists at the University of North Carolina took twenty macaque monkeys, divided them into groups of four, and put them in separate enclosures. In each little group, they formed hierarchies, with some at the top, and some at the bottom. They then made it possible for the monkeys to give themselves a dose of cocaine by pulling a lever. The dominant monkeys took very little cocaine – while the subordinate, humiliated monkeys took huge amounts. They were, in effect, compensating themselves for being at the bottom of the pile with no way out. Now think about the rates of drug addiction in Detroit, or South Central Los Angeles, or the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

Our elites have adopted an ideology – the extreme inequality of market fundamentalism – that simply doesn’t suit our species. It makes us sick and aggressive and anxious. This doesn’t just affect the poor: the studies show the disastrous effects of inequality run right up the ladder.

It doesn’t have to be this way. By democratically taxing the rich and using the money to lift up the poor, we can make life better for all of us. Of course there must be some income differentials – but nothing like our own grotesque rates. Plato suggested the richest person should be allowed to earn fives times the wage of the poorest person, which seems fair to me. The evidence is in, and it is plain: a more equal society is a happier, safer, and healthier one. (The obvious exception to this rule is Communist societies. They were incredibly miserable: if equality is imposed by crazed tyrants, at the expense of freedom, then it has none of these positive effects.)

Wilkinson and Pickett explain how the US would change over time if we taxed and invested our way to the same levels of economic equality as social democratic Sweden: “The proportion of the population feeling they could trust others might rise by 75 percent – presumably with matching improvements in the quality of community life; rates of mental illness and obesity might similarly be cut by about two-thirds, teenage birth rates could be more than halved, prison populations might be reduced by 75 percent, and people could live longer while working the equivalent of two months less a year.”

In Britain, “levels of trust might be expected to be two-thirds higher [with all the improvements in community life that brings], mental illness more than halved, everyone would get an additional year of life, teenage birth rates would fall by a third, homicide rates would fall by 75 percent, everyone could get the equivalent of almost seven weeks extra holiday a year, and the government would be closing prisons all over the country.”

It’s a shining vision – and not utopian. It exists now in a free, democratic country. Most Americans and Brits intuitively want it: over 80 percent say the income gap is too high. It is only the undemocratic, concentrated power of the wealthy that holds us up.

And there is another, even more sombre reason why we need to democratically equalize our societies. We are now highly likely to face a series of destabilizing and dangerous climate shocks. In his book ‘Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Survive’, Jared Diamond looks at the societies throughout history that have faced similar shocks. The difference between the ones that died out and the ones that survived was relative equality. If the elite stands far above the population and can insulate itself from the effects of the shock – for a while, at least – then the society doesn’t make it through. We need to reorganize ourselves now, while we can.

At the end of the failed age of market fundamentalism, the long-suppressed democratic cry for equality is emerging once again. Its glow should be at the core of how we move beyond this cold, cold depression.

Originaly Published by http://www.johannhari.com; Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and the Huffington Post. He also writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, The New Republic, El Mundo, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times, and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines.

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The Obama-Nation

by Jalil A. Muntaqim

Will the Obama-Nation become an abomination if it fails to
stop the bombing of nations? From Gaza to Afghanistan, the
American people must take a stand and tell Obama to forge
a better plan to free the land of Zionists and the Taliban. To
stand up against corporate bailouts while prisons are left out
for change like a business without clout as 2.3 million prisoners
remain in chains.

Change became a mantra defined on a political precipice
forged in steep words unprecedented by one who won the
right to be the 44th president. Supported by beliefs sold
in edifices of worship bonding the ideals shuttered in the
hearts of the dispossessed whose hope for tomorrow has
not regressed. Yet, time sours faith in hungry bellies as
the unsheltered endure the storms of lies, alibis and corrupt
government undisguised as the media realized exposing the
truth could result in a coveted Pulitzer Prize.

A future is born with a change of power on this day and in
this hour with an oath of office the Obama-Nation must stand
in allegiance, against torture, Abu Graib, Guantanamo Bay,
rendition and detention just to mention how the U.S. derelictions
became the world’s affliction. Evolving from 8 years of
disconnection, disaffection, humiliation, dissatisfaction with
the Bush administration’s corporate affiliations that led to U.S.
financial ruination.

The Democrats believe they can, since Obama told them
“Yes, we can.” Americans hope this is not a sham - as
participatory democracy is more than a four-year election,
since each day the Americans should strive for perfection,
healing the planet as they heal themselves of racism, sexism
and capitalist exploitation, to improve America’s place in
the world of nations.

No drama in the Obama-Nation is the expectation, void of
hesitation folks’ anticipation the 44th will elevate the level of
peace dividends given in Clintonesque deliberation face to face
with world’s representatives, like ebony and ivory side by side
championing U.S. hegemony in perfect harmony. As Gates
secures the gates of the Pentagon to sustain an imperialist
presence from Iraq to the China Sea, who is to believe change
can be conceived with National Security Agency secrets up
their sleeves.

The continued embargo of Cuba and Haiti a scandalous exercise
of power, as Latin America excises North America in its revolutionary
shining hour. Iran seeks nuclear advancement as the CIA creeps to
hinder its expansion, an inexplicable situation given the arms race has
moved as far as outer space, continuing to militarily arm Israel and
Taiwan. While North Korea produces nuclear energy, the U.S. attempts to
prohibit proliferation not of its control, using food as a weapon toward
an obviously starving nation not in keeping with its humanitarian goals.

Afrika stumbles into the 21st century with corporate proxy wars, none
keeping score as economic devastation brings multiple horrors. The
killing of babies and raping of girls, arming of children leaving the
land trampled with scars. Afrikans hope the Obama-Nation will plant
seeds of democracy, negating the hypocrisy of years of neglect without
regret, and yet, AFRICOM is a serious misstep. While Asians in Malaysia,
the largest concentration of Islamic moderation, confound U.S. inclination
to confront jihadists of Al-Qaeda’s persuasion in its population.

On the home front, Martin L. King Jr. proclaimed we as a people will get
to the promise land, while Malcolm X said it will be either the Ballot or
Bullet, so could it be hard to understand the 44th like a Manchurian candidate
manipulating the political landscape, permitting the Patriot Act to prohibit
progressive or revolutionary tact, believing true liberation after today has
become a point in fact. By virtue of the ballot, the revolution has been highjacked, the Black bourgeoisie has been notified America is now sanctified
and the promised land gentrified as the Obama-Nation is satisfied. But
Cointelpro victims remain classified in prisons, yet to be rectified with
truth and reconciliation, no way to start anew in the Obama-Nation.

So with a historic inauguration by pomp and circumstances though crying
eyes, a new era to inspire a generation of possibilities beyond rhetoric.
Anxious for the audacity of hope to spring eternal in humanity’s fratricidal
brotherhood with service to the nation negating race or class as society’s
underclass tests pomp and circumstances with stark cold reality of growing
unemployment lines with the economic situation continuing to decline.

My warning to all, while the band plays “Hail to the Chief” with a military
seven gun salute, is not to become hoodwinked or bamboozled, nor forgo
the political determination to end the embargo of Haiti and Cuba, to Free
Puerto Rico and Palestine, for this is not the time to recline in building struggle.
To keep U.S. hands off of Assata, because we gotta free all U.S. political
prisoners in the spirit of knowing We Are Our Own Liberators!

Note from Kiilu Nyasha: This is an on-time poem (written on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day) by Jalil Muntaqim, aka Anthony Bottom, one of the San Francisco 8 who, along with Herman Bell, remains locked up in administrative segregation in the San Francisco County Jail for the ridiculously erroneous charge of murdering a police officer in August of 1971. Jalil and Herman have already served at least 35 years in New York prisons for a frame-up in the case of the New York 3. They are truly political prisoners, among our finest revolutionaries. Free ‘em all!

For more of Jalil’s poems, visit www.freejalil.com. And send our brother some love and light: Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom), 2311826, 850 Bryant St., San Francisco CA 94103.

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‘Oakland at war, a civil war, us against the authorities’

Davey D interviews Mistah F.A.B. on the shooting deaths of Lovelle Mixon and four Oakland police officers

After the funeral March 27 that filled the Oakland Coliseum with more than 20,000 cops, motorcycle officers escorted the body of Sgt. Mark Dunakin to its resting place in Tracy. Dunakin was notorious in North Oakland for wreaking havoc on Black Oaklanders. All the OPD officers killed March 21 lived outside Oakland. – Photo: Lance Iversen, SF Chronicle

Davey D hanging here in Austin, Texas, and we have caught up with Mistah F.A.B. By now everybody knows the news that has taken place in the City of Oakland that is now national news. We’ve been around a lot of folks from around the country, from Jadakiss to Bundee, and we’re talking about the situation that has taken place with the four cops that have gotten killed on the eve of the Oscar Grant trial [i.e., the murder trial of former BART cop Johannes Mehserle, which was postponed].

We wanted to catch up with Mistah F.A.B. He’s one of the key voices of the Bay, at least nationally speaking, and we wanted to get your assessment, especially since you were part of the big showcase that was here last night with everybody who was on the bill, from the Bundees on down, and want to get your take on what people are saying and how you personally as an Oakland resident is feeling about this situation.

Mistah F.A.B.: Well, anytime where there’s a death situation, Davey, you don’t want to go out and say, well, they deserved it, because somebody lost a father and somebody lost a friend. And when you deal with death, nothing constitutes a reason for death. Like I don’t wish death on anyone and I don’t wish jail on anyone. Those are horrible things to face.

Unfortunately, when you live in times where it’s really war - and our city, for anybody who doesn’t know, the City of Oakland right now is under war; we’re like a civil war, and it’s us against the authorities - it’s unfortunate that if you get pulled over, you’re so afraid for your life that you’re going to react as someone would react in war.

I mean, man, if you’re hearing about these cops killing all these people, all these young brothers, and you get pulled over, you don’t know if you’re going to go to jail or if you’re going to die. So it’s a Catch 22, man, and it’s unfortunate because, like I say, more than one person lost their life here; more than two people lost their life here: The cops lost their lives and Brother Lovelle lost his life. That’s five deaths, man, as a result of 1) self defense and 2) being afraid for your life. So what do you do?

It’s a civil war, us against the authorities - if you get pulled over, you’re so afraid for your life that you’re going to react as someone would react in war.

Davey D: So let me ask you, one of the things people are saying is that it was wrong for people around the country - and we saw this last night when dead prez announced it and people cheered, well, I don’t know if they cheered at your spot, but they definitely cheered at the other spot - and some people are like, well, I don’t understand.

I mean when I talked to a cat from Philly, they had horror stories, and the people from Houston have horror stories. All these people come from communities where they have horror stories and it seems like you would think that after the tragedy of Oscar Grant or Annette Garcia or a Sean Bell or anybody that law enforcement would use that tragedy - the good people in law enforcement would use that tragedy - as a way to bridge that gap, strengthen the bonds with the community. And apparently that hasn’t happened. It seems that things have gotten worse.

Mistah F.A.B.

Mistah F.A.B.: I’m not a guy that says all police officers are bad because there are some cops that really handle their obligations and their duty to their position. There are many cops that along the way they’ve spared me. There’s been times where they know you’re doing wrong but they’re like, “Get outta here, man; it’s bigger than that.” So all cops aren’t bad.

And, like they said, when they announced it, people cheered, like, “Fuck the cops!” “Kill ‘em!” “Kill the cops!” “Kill the pigs!” And that’s not going to settle anything. What that’s going to do is the cops hear - just like we talk, they talk: “So that’s how y’all feel? All right, we’re going to get your ass back!”

It’s war, man. It’s really gang war all over America, all over the world. In Philly, Houston, New York, cops need to realize the only way that this is going to stop is if they step up and take the initiative to say, OK, we’re wrong; we’ve done wrong things. How can we mend these relationships?

How can we sit down and come into the community and make a peace? And if there is no possible way to make a peace, let us admit our faults. Therefore, the people won’t feel like, “Oh, man, I’m getting pulled over.”

A random traffic stop is life or death now. Why does it feel like that, like you don’t even want to stop. So you got a high speed chase, you risk somebody else’s life, you pull over, you shoot a cop: That’s your life. You can’t win. People are blaming the people like they’re stupid for doing that. Why are they doing that? That’s some ignorant asshole wanting to shoot a cop. But no, they’re not.

That’s somebody who’s scared for his life. All over the country, all over the world, they’re afraid for their lives. People of authority are taking advantage of their authority and the good cops aren’t taking the initiative to step up and say, “We don’t support that.” They’re not saying: “Hold on! We’re not like that. All of us aren’t like that.”

A random traffic stop is life or death now. You don’t even want to stop. So you got a high speed chase, you risk somebody else’s life, you pull over, you shoot a cop: That’s your life. You can’t win.

Davey D: That’s something that was talked about last night and the question was asked - we were talking with some brothers off the record because they didn’t want to go on, and that just goes to show you there were folks that were here that were afraid to go on because of past situations and they don’t want to be on record - but they were asking, what was the reaction of the police after Oscar Grant? Did anybody send his mom a flower? Cards? Did anybody hold a press conference to say this is a tragedy? You didn’t see none of that.

Dude broke it down: He said they see us as inhuman. If they see us as inhuman, why should we not see them as inhuman?

Mistah F.A.B.: I don’t see a problem going on record because this is something I really stand firm and believe. I talked to many - I won’t put their name on record - but I talked to some Black officers in our community and I told them: Yo, you know, when this whole situation went down, I felt like you guys should have came forth like, “We’re not supporting that. We definitely don’t believe in the ideologies that some of these officers and these people of authority are enforcing. We want to make amends with the community.”

They see us as inhuman. If they see us as inhuman, why should we not see them as inhuman?

You have to realize, Davey, there are officers who have programs, like these summer programs where there are sports programs for these kids. Like I told one of them, I said, “Bro, you’re one of the main representatives to get kids into school and the initiative to get them into sports and community related type things so when it’s time for these kids to turn 18 and when they become grown, they’re an enemy? These same kids you played with in summer camp and baseball - they’re an enemy now?

“These are the kids that are dying. These are the grown men that were once in those programs. They aren’t your enemy. Don’t treat them like they’re your enemy. These are your offspring, these are kids that played in your camp.”

Davey D: What did these officers say when you broke it down to them like that?

Mistah F.A.B.: It was so humbling to see someone like me really tell them like that. Like one of the officers - I’m in the hood when I see him, and I flag him down and the homies were like, “Man, what you doing?” I’m like, “Hold on, man; this is a homie. He’s a cool dude.” So I flag him down and he pulled over. He like, “F.A.B., what’s up, man?”

I’m like, “Man, why you don’t take a stand to that, dude? Why you didn’t say nothing about that?” He’s like, “F.A.B., man, it’s so many politics.” I said, “Listen, there comes a time when you have to make your own politics. You have to say it even if this is worth losing my job or worth losing whatever rank I have or public persona that people perceive me as.

“What are you going to stand for? This could have been your kid that they killed. Are you going to stand for something or are you going to hide behind your position?”

And to a lot of these artists, a lot of these political figures, these athletes: “Stop hiding behind your position. People say, oh, let’s do it off the record. Why? Let’s put it on the record. Show us how you really feel. Show us what’s going on in your community. Or is it something that you’re not wanting to stand for?”

This is not saying I’m going to kill a cop when I see one. I’m not saying that, ‘cause I honestly do believe that there are cops out there that really do their job. But I’m not going to hide behind my position as a rapper and be afraid that if I get pulled over, they’re going to take this out on me because I represent for my people. If we don’t address the politics and the issues that the public needs to hear, then no one will ever be conscious of what’s really going on.

Davey D: That’s real talk. We’ve been talking with Mistah F.A.B. As we wrap up, we’re here in Austin, Texas, and for people who don’t know, yesterday when the news broke out here at the South by Southwest Music Conference, it reverberated all the way around. Dead prez got on the stage at two concerts and announced it, and in both the concert that I was at, where it was a mixed audience - Black, Brown, white, everybody - the audience cheered - cheered - and that says a lot.

At the concert that F.A.B. was at, same thing: Packed house cheered. And I guess this leads to my last question: With these sorts of relationships, there are two concerns that people have. One is people are speculating, OK, this is how you feel and it will really bring the heat and not just people in Oakland but in all cities where people may feel encouraged or some sort of satisfaction from this are going to catch heat.

But I’m not going to hide behind my position as a rapper and be afraid that if I get pulled over, they’re going to take this out on me because I represent for my people. If we don’t address the politics and the issues that the public needs to hear, then no one will ever be conscious of what’s really going on.

Last night we saw a heavy presence of police. I don’t know if it was because of the closing or whatever but also the question is, what are some of the solutions that we can put forth? What kinds of things should happen?

Mistah F.A.B.: The people must realize that death is not cool. I’m not telling y’all, “Yo, go kill a cop, man. Make your people happy.” It’s not about that. What is that settling?

But if slaves revolted and killed a slave owner, then the people who have been oppressed will feel some type of satisfaction, because for so long they have been getting treated with the injustices of these slave owners. The authorities act like they’re slave owners and they treat us inhuman. They treat us like we’re less than one-third of a man like we used to be when we first came to this country.

If we take a stand and we make examples of these slave owners, then the slave owners will realize, “Wait! Hold on! This ain’t right. Something ain’t right. Wait a minute and they must realize it’s something that they’re doing that raises the level, the intensity level, that forces us to revolt and rebel.

But if slaves revolted and killed a slave owner, then the people who have been oppressed will feel some type of satisfaction … The authorities act like they’re slave owners and they treat us inhuman.

The people must understand that I’m not saying continue to accept the injustices - no way! Put your foot down, stand firm on your decisions that you do make, but also be aware of the fact that this is someone else’s family. If they want to continue to act that way, whatever your decision, stand firm with it. But always try to look for the positive decision out of it. Don’t just always say, “Well, I’m gon’ kill him.”

Like last week, Davey, they just gave my brother 432 years. That’s serious. It’s so serious that it’s unbelievable. When you hear your brother say they just gave me 432 years, what I’m gon’ do? What you gon’ do? 432 years? It’s serious, Davey.

They’re making examples out of us, all because they can. We stand firm on our decision as we gather, as we organize in a worldwide brotherhood realizing that we’re not going to take this anymore.

But let’s come forth with our political leaders and let’s sit down with their authority leaders and let’s make up a solution. And if there’s no solution to be made, then the problem will persist. And it’s not like this problem has just started happening. This has been going on for years. But who’s going to step forward and say, “Let’s make this change, let’s try to do this.”

I have no problem going to sit down with the chief of police and say “Dog, let’s do this. Let’s do that.” And once the public sees someone of my social status and my relevance in the community and I’m bringing those guys that you’re turning your back on, those same guys that you’re racially profiling, that you’re pulling over, that are afraid for their lives, they’re on the front line and they’re willing to say, all right what we gon’ do?

That’s what must happen. So political leaders, community leaders and people of activism all over the country and all over the world must step forth to make a change for power, not a change of continuing the cycle of ignorance.

Davey D: We’ve been talking with Mistah F.A.B. We’re here in Austin, Texas. Davey D hanging out with you. I want to thank you, Mistah F.A.B., for taking time out, sharing your thoughts.

We want people to reflect on this, and let’s figure out how we can really flip this to our collective advantage and move forward. We’ve had the Oscar Grants, we’ve had the Sean Bells, the Annette Garcias, the Adolph Grimes - 12 shootings already at the start of this year. Something has got to change; otherwise, it’s going to be a very, very, very long, hot summer.

Email Davey D at mrdaveyd@aol.com and visit daveyd.com. Listen to Davey on Hard Knock Radio Monday-Friday at 4 p.m. on KPFA 94.1 FM or kpfa.org.

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U.S. Supreme Court rejects Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal for a new trial

by Hans Bennett

“Mumia” by Malik Seneferu, renowned artist and teacher based in Hunters Point, San Francisco

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal for a new guilt-phase trial. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to consider the Philadelphia DA’s separate appeal, which is attempting to execute Abu-Jamal WITHOUT a new sentencing hearing.

In response to today’s rejection, Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney Robert R. Bryan will be filing a “petition for re-hearing” at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Listen to Abu-Jamal’s own response recorded this morning, in an interview by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio. A transcription of the interview is printed below.

What you can do now

Readers are urged to contact the White House to protest this unjust ruling. Call (202) 456-1111 or visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/.

As reported this morning by CNN, Reuters, AP and others, the U.S. Supreme Court announced today that they have rejected death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal for a new guilt phase trial. In official legal terms, they rejected his petition for a “writ of certiorari.”

Abu-Jamal’s appeal was based primarily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 Batson v. Kentucky ruling which stated that a defendant deserves a new trial if it can be shown that the prosecutor used peremptory strikes to remove otherwise qualified jurors simply because of their race. At Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial, prosecutor Joseph McGill used 10 or 11 of his 15 strikes to remove otherwise acceptable Black jurors.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided whether it will further consider the Philadelphia DA’s appeal of the 2001 and 2008 rulings of two lower courts, which held that Abu-Jamal deserves a new sentencing hearing if the death penalty is to be re-instated. Therefore, if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the DA, Abu-Jamal can then be executed WITHOUT a new sentencing hearing!

Prison Radio interview with Mumia

Here is the transcript of Mumia’s interview with Prison Radio this morning:

Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio: Mumia, what’s your reaction?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Well, all I know is, you know, what Christina (Swarns of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund) told me. So there’s nothing. There’s nothing to read. There is no order, other than my name is on a list of “cert denied.”

Noelle Hanrahan: That’s right.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: So we don’t know anything. And you know, if it is the Batson issue, then it just shows you that precedent means nothing, that the law is politics by other means and that the Constitution means nothing. That a fair jury means nothing.

Noelle Hanrahan: You said when I just first talked to you something about that it’s another day and how many days?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Another day? Three decades.

Noelle Hanrahan: When did you stop being surprised?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: When I was at pretrial hearing before Judge Sabo, and he denied the motion. I knew then that he wasn’t working with the Constitution. It did surprise me, and it really shocked me because I’d read the cases. I knew what the law was. I knew what the law books said the law was. I learned then that they’re not going by that kind of law, and apparently they’re not going by that kind of law now. If you read Batson and you read my case, then it’s almost as if you’re in two different universes. And in fact you are. You are.

Noelle Hanrahan: Are there different rules for what type of people?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Well, there’s always been different rules for Black people, you know. If you read Batson, what will surprise people who have never done so, it has nothing to do with the accused, the defendant, the person on trial. Batson, in its own terms, says it protects the rights of those people who are allegedly American citizens, who are denied the right to serve as jurors. That’s what it says; that’s what it says.

But in fact, how does it do that when it allows people to be removed, after Batson became law, for spurious reasons? Batson can be bested and beaten by exactly the way the DA’s office said it could be beaten: by lying, and by getting up and saying, “Well no, we didn’t have any racist reasons, and ah we just ah, we’re not…” Listen, listen to the video tape. [recording from prison: YOU HAVE 60 SECONDS REMAINING] Listen to the video tape and if that doesn’t tell you all you need to know, then you are deaf, dumb or blind.

Noelle Hanrahan: Whose video tape?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: The video tape of the DA, the training videotape of Jack McMahon of the Philadelphia DA’s office from 1986.

This video contains a segment of the infamous official DA training video featuring Jack McMahon: click here

Linn Washington’s response to today’s Supreme Court ruling

I also received a response today from Linn Washington Jr., who is a columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune and a Temple University professor of journalism:

“This Supreme Court decision again underscores the ‘Mumia Exception,’ where courts ignore or radically alter existing precedent to reject granting this inmate the same legal relief given to others raising the same legal points.

“Ample evidence exists documenting improprieties by the prosecutor during jury selection at Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial - the same pattern of improprieties that state and federal courts have cited in overturning over a dozen murder convictions in Philadelphia occurring before, during and after the trial of Abu-Jamal. Exposing the political underpinnings of Abu-Jamal’s decades long persecution, none of those overturned convictions involved a noted Black man charged with killing a white police officer whose case has become an embarrassment for America in the eyes of millions around the world.

“If the current members of this Supreme Court simply applied the motto that is chiseled in stone above the entrance of their court building - equal justice under law - they would have voted to grant Abu-Jamal a new hearing on the mound of legal violations in this case instead of sidestepping their duty to ensure justice.

“However, this Court, in the early 1990s, sidestepped that duty to justice when it denied Abu-Jamal relief on a First Amendment-related issue while granting relief on the same legal issue to a white racist prison gang member facing execution for a murder during a prison escape and a white devil worshipper facing execution for killing his grandparents.

“The continuing refusal of U.S. courts to equally apply the law in the Abu-Jamal case constitutes a stain on America’s image internationally.”

The response of J. Patrick O’Connor

J. Patrick O’Connor, author of “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” responded to today’s decision by telling me:

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to grant Mumia’s request for a writ of certiorari is incredibly surprising to me because it only takes four justices to grant the writ. Granting the writ would have allowed Mumia’s Batson claim of racism in jury selection to be brought before the entire court for consideration. Why I’m so surprised is that last year, in a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court expanded Batson to order a new trial if the prosecution excluded just one potential juror on the basis of race.

“The prosecutor at Mumia’s trial has stipulated he used 10 of his 15 peremptory challenges to exclude otherwise qualified Black jurors. This high strike rate (66.6 percent) is itself a prima facie indication of racism. Denying Mumia’s request for the writ cuts off any possible avenue of legal relief for Mumia.

“The Supreme Court was his last chance for judicial justice. Barring clemency by a future governor of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court has incomprehensively condemned Mumia to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Dave Lindorff’s response

Dave Lindorff, author of the 2003 book, “Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” responded this morning to the ruling by telling me:

“Once again, a court, in this case the highest court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, has created what Philadelphia journalist and legal expert Linn Washington has dubbed ‘The Mumia Exception’ - that is to say a precedent that applies only to one person: Mumia Abu-Jamal. The decision in this case, which involved the high court’s refusal to consider and reverse last year’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling rejecting Abu-Jamal’s claim that his jury was unconstitutionally purged of qualified Black jurors by the prosecution’s use of peremptory challenges to remove 10 or 11 Blacks from the panel, was particularly offensive since it was Justice Samuel Alito, at the time a member of the Third Circuit Court, who wrote an opinion stating that if even one potential juror is removed from a panel for reasons of race or religion, that trial’s verdict is fatally flawed and must be overturned. Alito’s opinion in that case was soundly reasoned and important, but apparently now, in his exalted position as Supreme Court Justice, Alito thinks the precedent needn’t apply to Abu-Jamal.

“By simply not hearing Abu-Jamal’s case, the Supreme Court, which itself has also already established the precedent that the a jury can be tainted by even one racially motivated removal of a juror, has left intact its precedent on this issue, while at the same time leaving Abu-Jamal outside its protection. This is a shameful act of political cowardice on the part of all nine justices and a betrayal of the fundamental promise of ‘equal justice under the law.’

“It is almost a certainty that the Third Circuit will revisit this issue on another death penalty case and that it will re-affirm the precedent, already in place in the Third Circuit, that any racial motive in purging a juror cannot be tolerated. Then we will be left with the Mumia Exception again, where laws are temporarily suspended to keep this one man on death row or in jail all his life.

“The media reports on the court’s latest decision in this case have all gotten it wrong. The court was not ruling that there was ‘no bias’ in his jury, which was composed of two Blacks and 10 whites. What the court was refusing to do was hear his appeal of a 2-1 Third Circuit opinion that Abu-Jamal had not objected soon enough or with adequate evidence to what he claimed was a concerted effort by Prosecutor Joseph McGill to remove over 10 qualified potential Black jurors from his jury.

“In a stinging minority opinion, Appellate Judge Thomas Ambro had criticized his two fellow jurists, asking why, for this one petitioner, they were raising the bar for demonstrating evidence of race-based jury selection, insisting that Abu-Jamal should have protested the removal of Black jurors at the time it happened, despite the fact that it was only five years later that such actions were even found to be unconstitutional. He also asked why his two colleagues were ignoring the precedents of both the Supreme Court and the Third Circuit.

“As Judge Ambro wrote in his dissent: ‘The Supreme Court has never announced a rule requiring a contemporaneous objection … and I see no reason for us to do so now.’ He also wrote, ‘The U.S. Third Circuit Court’s own history bears witness against the use of a contemporary objection rule, signaling that our circuit does not have a federal contemporaneous objection rule - and I see no reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy of our precedents.”

“Judge Ambro’s indictment of his two fellow judges now hangs over the reeking air of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, where placating the politically powerful police union and the right-wing death squads is seen to be more important than dispensing justice.

“The Supreme Court did not rule on the appeal by the Philadelphia District Attorney of a federal district court’s overturning of his death penalty. The High Court could still reverse that ruling, which would leave Abu-Jamal facing death with no more avenue of appeal. Alternatively, if the High Court were to leave standing the Third Circuit’s unanimous decision supporting the district court’s overturning of the death penalty, the DA could ask for a new trial on the penalty alone, in an effort to convince a new jury to reimpose a death sentence.

“If the DA were not to seek a new penalty phase trial, Abu Jamal would face life in prison with no possibility of parole and no more avenue of appeal of his sentence.

“Philadelphia District Attorney Lynn Abraham, in a graphic illustration of the ugly politics that surround and continue to pollute this case, immediately grabbed the news of the Supreme Court’s decision as an opportunity to trumpet her own bloodthirsty credentials as a government execution-monger. Calling Abu-Jamal ‘nothing short of an assassin,’ Abraham once again repeated a fundamental lie of the Abu-Jamal death squad - that he was somehow gunning for Officer Faulkner as a rabid cop-hating Black Power advocate.

“In fact, the prosecution never even attempted to make such a case. Even if one were to accept the story line created by Prosecutor Joe McGill for the jury at the trial at face value, with all the tortured and falsified testimony of prosecution witnesses, it was that Abu-Jamal, who happened to be at the scene of an altercation between his brother and Faulkner, came to his brother’s aid and ended up shooting Faulkner.

“There was never any claim of premeditation or planning, which is part of the definition of an ‘assassination.’ As always, Abraham and her ilk keep attempting to portray Abu-Jamal not just as a killer of a police officer, but rather as a coldly-calculating political assassin bent on attacking not just Faulkner, but all cops.”

Michael Schiffmann’s response

Responding to today’s news, Michael Schiffmann, co-founder of Journalists for Mumia, and German author of the book “Race Against Death - Mumia Abu-Jamal: a Black Revolutionary in White America,” writes:

“According to a new CNN report, the U.S. Supreme Court has turned down Mumia Abu-Jamal’s petition for writ of certiorari, aiming to open the way for a new trial, as usual without giving a reason, while the court has still taken no decision on the prosecution’s petition for writ of certiorari, which aims at reinstituting the death penalty against Mumia, which was thrown out by a federal court on Dec. 18, 2001.

“If true, as it appears to be, this report marks one of the darkest days in the history of the U.S. judicial system. An innocent prisoner who was consecutively framed by the police, the prosecution and a whole succession of courts has apparently just been denied the very least he can demand: not even a new trial, but a hearing about a new trial.

“At the same time, this seems to mean that Mumia is in greater danger to be executed than ever before.

“The U.S. Court can now decide at any moment that it will grant the prosecution’s petition for certiorari. And if so, it can decide within a relatively short time span - about this, one would have to ask experienced lawyers - that the prosecution’s demand to reinstate the death penalty is justified and that the December 18, 2001 decision to throw out the death penalty for Mumia is null and void.

This (Monday’s Supreme Court ruling) seems to mean that Mumia is in greater danger to be executed than ever before. - Michael Schiffmann

“From that point on, the legal barriers against Mumia’s execution would only be paper thin. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (who served as the head of the District Attorney’s office in Philadelphia when Mumia was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for murder in 1982) has repeatedly made clear that should such a situation arise, he would lose no time in signing a new execution warrant.

“In the light of what has been done to Mumia before, the courts decision to turn down his petition is not surprising. It’s another application of what has been called the ‘Mumia Law.’ Mumia is singled out for the most unfair treatment imaginable, reserved for true opponents of the system.

“In J. Patrick O’Connor’s review of Mumia’s latest book, ‘Jailhouse Lawyers,’ O’Connor mentions the fact noted by Mumia himself that of all the prisoners in the American Gulag of 2.5 million people, who are incarcerated in one or another form, the ‘jailhouse lawyers,’ the ones fighting for the rights of other prisoners and their own rights, are singled out for the most brutal and inhumane treatment by the guards and the prison administration.

“The same appears to be true for the courts. I have talked to lawyers, including people who have worked as clerks for State Supreme Court judges, and I was told that Mumia’s brief to the U.S. Supreme Court was extremely strong and convincing, but all the same, the brief was turned down, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejects to even consider the case.

“This despite the fact that the brief cites a whole litany of precedents where the Supreme Court itself and the various federal appeals courts in the country have granted relief in exactly the same circumstances where the U.S. Supreme Court now says it is not even ready to deal with the matter.

“In sum: Here, too, Mumia is being punished for being who he is and acting like who he is, for being Mumia and acting like Mumia, which is exactly what has sparked such a strong international movement around this particular case over the years.

“That said, I do believe it will have negative consequences and will weaken positive U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as the Snyder case, where even reactionary justices such as Sam Alito, took a clear stance against racism in jury selection. The message is: ‘Look, we can and are ready to grant you these rights, but only if you have the right posture, that of one who doesn’t raise his/her head. If, on the other hand, you dare to speak out against injustice, all rights will be taken away from you.’

“This is truly a horrible message.

“From our side, I think that means we must step up the fight: The absence of racism in jury selection and during the trial as a whole can’t be conditioned on some proper behavior of the defendant as defined by ‘the master.’ It is either a right that applies to everybody or it doesn’t offer a real guarantee to anybody.

“On a separate point, the consequences are alarming, that, as reported by CNN and others, the court has already turned down Mumia’s petition while it is still considering the prosecution’s brief.

“And by alarming I mean just that. ‘Alarming’ doesn’t and mustn’t mean going into the shock mode - on the contrary, this is the point where we must raise hell and mobilize anything and everybody in our powers to prevent the ultimate injustice, Mumia’s execution, from happening.

“That said, the prosecution of course has a lot to fear from even a new sentencing hearing ‘for’ Mumia. Facts would come out that would call their entire card-house of lies into question and in fact would bring it down in no time at all. So it’s only too understandable that this is something they are fighting against in ‘tooth and nail’ fashion.

“To sum it all up, this is not the time to bow our heads in disappointed silence. On the contrary, at no point in this whole struggle is it more important to say that THE STRUGGLE FOR MUMIA’S LIFE AND FREEDOM CONTINUES!

“Brave activists in Philadelphia have stood by Mumia right from the beginning, joined by others at the end of the ‘80s. Even in a far away country such as Germany, activists had joined the fray already in 1989. Others all around the world joined, and this would be exactly the wrong point to give up.

“What we can do now? Some speculations:

“As far as I understand, even now the defense can ask the court to reconsider its decision. Our first and foremost task as a movement would be to support such a move with all that is within our powers. Apart from that, we must raise hell against the DA’s countermove to have Mumia executed. And third, last but by no means least, we must not give up our struggle to finally free this innocent man, by any means possible and by any means necessary.

“On this last point, we will need to have intense and open consultations about what to do next. As far as I can see, there are various options here, and apart from what lawyers can still do (for example, ask the court to reconsider), two things seem promising to me: 1) a massive campaign about the facts of the case, which show that Mumia is innocent of murder, and 2) a campaign for an amnesty for all the prisoners we consider ‘political’ and who have already served such an incredibly long time.

“I think this latter point is necessary anyway, as will be evident to at least some of those who read the names Herman Bell, Veronza Bowers, Romaine ‘Chip’ Fitzgerald, Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, Leonard Peltier, Ruchell ‘Cinque’ Magee, Mondo we Langa, Hugo ‘Yogi’ Pinell, Edward Poindexter, Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoats, Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and so many others whose names don’t spring to mind so readily or who we haven’t even heard about.

“The long and the short of all this is that this is a serious setback, but that the struggle continues.

“Hasta la victoria siempre!” ["Keep fighting until victory," the final words of the last letter Ernesto "Che" Guevara sent to Fidel Castro]

Jeff Mackler’s response

This essay by Jeff Mackler of the San Francisco Bay Area Mobilization to Free Mumia has just been released:

“The U.S. Supreme Court refused on April 6 Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal (writ of certiorari) for a new trial based on the racist exclusion of Blacks from the jury panel (using 10-11 of his 15 peremptory strikes) in his 1982 frame-up murder trial. The decision left in place Mumia’s conviction and turned a blind eye to its own ruling in the famous Batson v. Kentucky case and related decisions that nullify murder convictions where Blacks are systematically excluded from juries without cause. The court ruled without comment.

“Even worse, the court left open the possibility that it might consider Pennsylvania prosecutors’ cross appeal to re-instate the death penalty without granting Mumia a new sentencing hearing. A previous ruling had voided the jury’s imposition of the death penalty on the grounds that ‘hanging’ Judge Albert Sabo had improperly instructed the jury regarding mitigating circumstances sufficient to impose a sentence of life imprisonment without parole as opposed to execution by lethal injection. Should the court later rule in favor of the prosecution, an order for Mumia’s execution by lethal injection could be signed by the Pennsylvania’s governor and Mumia could be executed in approximately 90 days.

“Meanwhile, Mumia’s attorney, Robert R. Bryan, told this writer, ‘We have lost a battle but not the war.’ Bryan plans to file another petition before the Supreme Court for a re-hearing on a critical issue related to the death penalty, thus keeping Mumia’s legal options alive, at least for the time being.

“Jamal, an award-winning and innocent journalist and author, has been on Pennsylvania’s death row for 27 years. He has won broad international support for his struggle for a new trial and freedom. Organizations ranging from Amnesty International and the European Parliament to the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, the presidents of France and South Africa and civil and human rights organizations around the world have repeatedly challenged the racist and anti-democratic aspects surrounding his conviction.

“Massive and repeated protests organized by groups including the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, (215) 476-8812, and The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, (510) 268-9429, have played a key role in the ongoing fight for Mumia’s freedom. They are presently planning joint campaigns with several groups that require the solidarity of all.

“Urgent! Send your contributions payable to: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal,
P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610-0328.”

Hans Bennett, born and raised in the SF Bay Area, moved to Philadelphia in 2001 to photo-document the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, the MOVE 9 and all political prisoners. He has also documented the anti-war movement, media democracy, anarchism and other radical political movements. In 2007, he co-founded, with German author Michael Schiffmann, the media-activist group “Journalists for Mumia” (Abu-Jamal-News.com). He can be reached at destroycapitalism@hotmail.com.

Source:http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/us-supreme-court-rejects-mumia-abu-jamal%e2%80%99s-appeal-for-a-new-trial/

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Somalis speak out: Why we don’t condemn our pirates

Several Somali perspectives on Somali pirates

A blogger at Multitunes calls K’naan “the hope of politically conscious rap” and quotes one of his favorite K’naan lines: “Until the lion learns to speak, the tales of the hunt will always favor the hunter.”

“As the first pirate attack on a U.S. ship in 200 years comes to a climax, I’m re-posting an essay I solicited and received several weeks ago from K’naan, a Somali-Canadian singer and activist. A video of a performance by K’naan that I filmed at the All Points West music festival last summer (can be seen here).” - Michael Vazquez, editor at URB. Don’t miss Davey D’s unforgettable interview with K’naan, parts 1 and 2, recorded April 12 and posted in the Bay View video section.
by K’naan

Can anyone ever really be for piracy? Outside of sea bandits, and young girls fantasizing about Johnny Depp, would anyone with an honest regard for good human conduct really say that they are in support of sea robbery?

Well, in Somalia, the answer is: It’s complicated.

The news media these days have been covering piracy on the Somali coast with such lopsided journalism that it’s lucky they’re not on a ship themselves. It’s true that the constant hijacking of vessels in the Gulf of Aden is a major threat to the vibrant trade route between Asia and Europe. It is also true that for most of the pirates operating in this vast shoreline, money is the primary objective.

But according to so many Somalis, the disruption of Europe’s darling of a trade route is just Karma biting a perpetrator in the butt. And if you don’t believe in Karma, maybe you believe in recent history. Here is why we Somalis find ourselves slightly shy of condemning our pirates.

Somalia has been without any form of a functioning government since 1991. And although its failures, like many other toddler governments in Africa, spring from the wells of post-colonial independence, bad governance and development loan sharks, the specific problem of piracy was put in motion in 1992.

After the overthrow of Siyad Barre, our charmless dictator of 20-some-odd years, two major forces of the Hawiye Clan came to power. At the time, Ali Mahdi and Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, the two leaders of the Hawiye rebels, were largely considered liberators. But the unity of the two men and their respective sub-clans was very short-lived. It’s as if they were dumbstruck at the advent of ousting the dictator, or that they just forgot to discuss who will be the leader of the country once they defeated their common foe.

A disagreement of who will upgrade from militia leader to Mr. President broke up their honeymoon. It’s because of this disagreement that we’ve seen one of the most decomposing wars in Somalia’s history, leading to millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead.

But war is expensive and militias need food for their families and Jaad (an amphetamine-based stimulant) to stay awake for the fighting.

Therefore, a good clan-based warlord must look out for his own fighters. Aidid’s men turned to robbing aid trucks carrying food to the starving masses and re-selling it to continue their war. But Ali Mahdi had his sights set on a larger and more unexploited resource, namely the Indian Ocean.

Already by this time, local fishermen in the coastline of Somalia had been complaining of illegal vessels coming to Somali waters and stealing all the fish. And since there was no government to report it to, and since the severity of the violence clumsily overshadowed every other problem, the fishermen went completely unheard.

This barrel, once filled with toxic – possibly radioactive – waste, washed ashore in Somalia after the 2005 tsunami. The Times of London reported online in March 2005 that the tsunami “stirred up tonnes of nuclear and toxic waste illegally dumped” off the coast of Somalia. – Photo: Somalinet

But it was around this same time that a more sinister, a more patronizing practice was being put in motion. A Swiss firm called Achair Partners and an Italian waste company called Progresso made a deal with Ali Mahdi that they were to dump containers of waste material in Somali waters. These European companies were said to be paying warlords about $3 a ton, whereas to properly dispose of waste in Europe costs about $1,000 a ton.

In 2004, after a tsunami washed ashore several leaking containers, thousand of locals in the Puntland region of Somalia started to complain of severe and previously unreported ailments, such as abdominal bleeding, skin melting off and a lot of immediate cancer-like symptoms. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environmental Program, says that the containers had many different kinds of waste, including “uranium, radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury and chemical waste.”

But this wasn’t just a passing evil from one or two groups taking advantage of our unprotected waters. The U.N. envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that the practice still continues to this day. It was months after those initial reports that local fishermen mobilized themselves, along with street militias, to go into the waters and deter the Westerners from having a free pass at completely destroying Somalia’s aquatic life.

Now, years later, the deterring has become less noble, and the ex-fishermen with their militias have begun to develop a taste for ransom at sea. This form of piracy is now a major contributor to the Somali economy, especially in the very region that private toxic waste companies first began to bury our nation’s death trap.

Now Somalia has upped the world’s pirate attacks by over 21 percent in one year, and while NATO and the EU are both sending forces to the Somali coast to try and slow down the attacks, Blackwater and all kinds of private security firms are intent on cashing in.

But while Europeans are well within their rights to protect their trade interest in the region, our pirates were the only deterrent we had from an externally imposed environmental disaster. No one can say for sure that some of the ships they are now holding for ransom were not involved in illegal activity in our waters.

The truth is, if you ask any Somali, if getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western vessels and the producing of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high.

It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end if our pirates are to cease their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums.

“The truth is, if you ask any Somali, if getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western vessels and the producing of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high. … [O]ne man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.” - K’naan

It seems to me that this new modern crisis is truly a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.

This story first appeared April 13, 2009, in the Huffington Post.

Somalis are defending their land and shores

As for the “pirates” of Somalia, it is an encouraging case but also a very sad one. According to some, these so called “pirates” are professional Somalis with different careers behind them; that is, most of them were doctors, engineers, pilots, computer scientists, professors and so on.

I was told by a friend of mine that these ex-professional Somalis were converted to their new job when foreign big boats started clearing their shores, that is, their sea products, different types of fish and sea food. Some of the big international ships come to the Somali seashores in order to dump their toxic waste.

The Somalis are defending their land and their shores, I think very bravely. But it worries me to see that the U.S. and Europeans - the French in particular - are working actively to occupy Somalia.

The world is tired about their terrorist lies, so they are coming to occupy Somalia in the name of “pirates.” Believe me, the Somalis will fight until one person is left in their land.

This is a simple African woman’s opinion.

Renowned historian Runoko Rashidi shared this email message he received April 11, 2009. It is signed, “Your Sister in the Horn of Africa.”

EU firms should stop toxic dumping off Somalia

by Abdimajid Osman

The European Union’s defense ministers launched on Nov. 10, 2008, an anti-piracy mission called “Atalanta” off the coast of Somalia.

The bloc claims that the goal of the enterprise is “to escort the World Food Program’s humanitarian convoys to Somalia and to contribute to the improvement of maritime security off the Somali coast as part of the European Union’s overall action to stabilize Somalia.”
More recently, the EU pushed for a U.N. Security Council resolution that was adopted on Dec. 2 to allow member states to fight pirates off the coast of Somalia.

French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert expressed his satisfaction with the resolution because: “Piracy is killing. Every day more than 3 million Somali people are depending on food aid, on emergency relief, which comes - 95 percent of it - by sea.”

In a time when Somalia is experiencing one of its most serious humanitarian crises ever, one would think that the unexpected determination and speed of the EU in deploying military muscle in the region should be welcomed by the Somali people.

But unfortunately, Atalanta looks like another disappointing duplicity toward the war-torn nation. Doubts hang over whether the EU is genuinely keen to help the people of Somalia in their desperate search for peace and stability.

Securing supply of oil

Two factors undermine the credibility of the EU’s operation in Somalia. Firstly, the main goal of the mission seems to be to secure the supply of goods and oil to the rich countries in the West.
In the past, the European Union resolutely rejected repeated calls from the African Union and Somalia’s neighbors to deploy peacekeeping forces in the country.

The rise of piracy on Somalia’s waters has suddenly ignited a spark in the corridors of EU decision makers, after the hijacking of a large Saudi oil tanker reminded the Western world of the vulnerability of maritime trade at a time of financial crisis.

The organization Refugees International (RI) criticized, recently, this global hypocrisy toward Somalia. The RI stated that “the speed and resolve with which piracy has been addressed by the U.N. Security Council underlines Somali sentiment that economic interests trump humanitarian concerns.”
Secondly, the EU’s inability or unwillingness to stop and punish the European-owned companies that have for many years been dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast seriously undermines the ethical claims of the new EU endeavor.

Toxic waste

In 1996, when I was in the northern autonomous region, Puntland, in Somalia, there was already a widespread fear that foreign ships were taking advantage of the collapse of the Somalian state by using the nation’s waters as a refuse dump.

When the tsunami of 2004 hit the country, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported that many waste containers washed up on the coast of Puntland. It is now widely understood that European companies are systematically dumping toxic waste in these waters.

U.N. special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah has in the past few months repeatedly sounded the alarm about illegal fishing and toxic dumping off Somalia by European firms.
Abdullah said that his organization has “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are dumping the waste - including nuclear waste - in this region.

The European Union has responded to these allegations with silence.
At a press conference on Dec. 2, following the U.N. Security Council resolution on Somalia, a reporter from Inner City Press asked Ambassador Ripert of France, which holds the EU’s presidency, about how the waste issue will be dealt with.

The ambassador answered: “I have no comment on the issue.”
There is now a fear that, if the EU clears Somali waters of pirates, European waste-dumping firms will inherit a safe haven to exercise their criminal and immoral activities.

If Europe wants to help the unfortunate people of Somalia, the most responsible and credible way to start would be stop and punish those companies.
In the long term, the union should also develop a comprehensive plan for the restoration of peace and stability in the country.

The Somali-born author is a chemist at Linkoping University Hospital, Sweden and can be contacted at abdimajid@passagen.se. This story first appeared at EUObserver.com on Dec. 8, 2008.

Editor’s note: To learn more about toxic dumping in Somalia, read “Somalia’s secret dumps of toxic waste washed ashore by tsunami” and “‘Toxic waste’ behind Somali piracy.” Many sources report overfishing by European fleets off both the east and west coasts of Africa. “The sea is being emptied,” said scientist Moctar Ba.

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Why Somalis seize ships

by Abayomi Azikiwe

After the execution of three Somalis and the wounding and capturing of another in the Indian Ocean on April 12, a leader of the so-called pirates vowed to avenge the deaths of these youth who held the U.S. captain of a cargo vessel known as the Maersk Alabama for five days. Capt. Richard Phillips was released while the U.S. military and the corporate media hailed the killings of the Somalis, saying the actions were justified.

[The mother of the 16-year-old youth who was captured is appealing to President Obama for the release of her son. See the sidebar below, followed by a video of her appeal. - ed.]

The Maersk Alabama was never taken over by the Somalis, even though the captain remained in the custody of the pirates for five days. The captain was not harmed during the five-day standoff, and the ship was later docked at the port of Mombasa in the East African nation of Kenya.

Abdi Garad, a spokesperson for the group of Somalis that attempted to seize the Danish-owned 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama about 450 kilometers off the coast, told the French Press Agency (AFP) on April 13 from the eastern coastal town of Eyl, “The American liars have killed our friends after they agreed to free the hostage without ransom. But I tell you that this matter will lead to retaliation, and we will hunt down particularly American citizens travelling our waters.”

Garad went on to say, “We will intensify our attacks even reaching very far away from Somalia waters and next time we get American citizens … they [should] expect no mercy from us.” Garad claimed that after dropping the ransom demand, the Somalis had asked that Capt. Phillips be moved to a Greek ship held by the group.

‘The American liars have killed our friends after they agreed to free the hostage without ransom. But I tell you that this matter will lead to retaliation, and we will hunt down particularly American citizens travelling our waters. - Abdi Garad

Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old Somali from the town of Eyl, stated in Inside Somalia on April 13, “From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them. U.S. forces have become our number one enemy.”

Another Somali, Abdulahi Lami, said in the same article that the pirates would not be intimidated by U.S. military actions in the Indian Ocean. “Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying. We will retaliate for the killings of our men.”

According to the official reports issued by the U.S. military, snipers positioned on the Naval warship the USS Bainbridge shot and killed three Somalis after monitoring their movements for several days. The plan to kill the Somalis was reportedly approved by President Barack Obama.

U.S. Navy spokespeople claimed that the snipers fired on the Somalis when Phillips’ life was endangered. “They were pointing AK-47s at the captain,” said Vice Admiral William Gortney, who heads the U.S. Naval Central Command. His statement was made in a Pentagon briefing from Bahrain and reported by Al Jazeera on April 13.

However, this version of events has been disputed by Somalis who support the vessel seizures. They contend that the three young men were killed after they agreed to end the standoff and release Phillips. This operation took place only two days after similar actions were carried out by French military commandos who stormed a yacht held by Somalis, which resulted in the death of one of the French nationals being held.

Mohammed Adow, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, said in the same report, “U.S. forces are reported to have attacked the lifeboat when the pirates were expecting a diplomatic exchange … [and] have taken the remaining pirate to one of their ships in these waters.”

In another development that further escalated tensions in the region, two low-flying U.S. military helicopters flew over areas at the port city of Harardhere in the northeast of Somalia on April 12. The U.S. military claims that this area is a base for pirate operations against vessels traveling in the Gulf of Aden.

Local residents of the area believed that the U.S. helicopters were planning an air raid on the port. According to a Somali journalist, “The fishermen decided not to fish in the morning because of the helicopters; they are scared.” (Inside Somalia, April 13)

Behind the escalation in ‘piracy’

Over the last several months, Somali pirates have alleged that European corporations are unloading toxic waste off the coast of this Horn of Africa nation. A Ukrainian ship which was held and released by the Somalis garnered a multimillion-dollar payment by the owners, which is reportedly being utilized to clean up the waste being dumped in the area.

In a statement reported by Al Jazeera on Oct. 11, Januna Ali Jama, a spokesperson for the Somali pirates, said that the ransom acquired serves as a means of “reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years.”

A Ukrainian ship which was held and released by the Somalis garnered a multimillion-dollar payment by the owners, which is reportedly being utilized to clean up the toxic waste being dumped in the area.

Jama, who is based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, continued, “The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas.”

Further evidence of toxic waste dumping came from the United Nations envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who told Al Jazeera in the same article that the international body has “reliable information” that both European and Asian corporations are unloading toxic chemicals, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline. “I must stress, however, that no government has endorsed this act and that private companies and individuals acting alone are responsible.”

In the aftermath of the tsunami in late 2004, evidence began to appear confirming such illegal dumping activity in the region. The United Nations Environment Program reported that the tsunmai washed up old, rusting containers of waste on the shores of Puntland, which was formerly part of Somalia prior to the collapse of the Western-backed government of Mohammad Siad Barre in 1991.

A UNEP spokesman, Nick Nuttall, told Al Jazeera in the same article that when the rusting barrels were opened by the force of the waves, dumping that had been occurring for many years was revealed. “Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste starting in the early 1990s, and continuing through the civil war there. European companies found it to be very cheap to get rid of the waste, costing as little as $2.50 a ton, where waste disposal costs in Europe are something like $1,000 a ton,” said Nuttall.

Nuttall went on to say that there are “many different kinds” of waste. “There is a uranium radioactive waste. There is lead, and heavy metals like cadmium and mercury. There is also industrial waste, and there are hospital wastes, chemical wastes - you name it.”

Since the containers have come to shore, there has been a sharp increase in various illnesses among the population, including such symptoms as oral and abdominal bleeding, skin infections and other ailments.

“We [the UNEP] had planned to do a proper, in-depth scientific assessment on the magnitude of the problem. But because of the high levels of insecurity onshore and off the Somali coast, we are unable to carry out an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem,” Nuttall continued.

Nonetheless, Ould-Abdallah said that the practice of illegal dumping of toxic waste continues in the region. “What is most alarming here is that nuclear waste is being dumped. Radioactive uranium waste is potentially killing Somalis and completely destroying the ocean.”

Mohammed Gure, chair of the Somalia Concerned Group, said in the same Al Jazeera article that the social and environmental impact of this toxic waste dumping will be felt for decades. “The Somali coastline used to sustain hundreds of thousands of people, as a source of food and livelihoods. Now much of it is almost destroyed, primarily at the hands of these so-called ministers that have sold their nation to fill their own pockets.”

‘What is most alarming here is that nuclear waste is being dumped. Radioactive uranium waste is potentially killing Somalis and completely destroying the ocean.’ - U.N. envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah

Other factors involved in the exploitation of Somalia are that the Gulf of Aden shipping lane transports billions of dollars of goods through the region every week. Almost none of these funds are utilized for the benefit of the Somali people, who are still suffering from underdevelopment resulting from U.S. interference in their internal affairs.

The U.S. administration under George W. Bush financed and engineered an invasion and occupation of the country by the Western-allied state of Ethiopia in December 2006. As a result of fierce resistance, the Ethiopian military withdrew from the country in January 2009. The formation of a new coalition government has failed to bring all the various political groupings into the regime.

Consequently, Ugandan and Burundian troops remain in the capital of Mogadishu under the auspices of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). The leading resistance group, Al-Shabab, is continuing to demand the withdrawal of the AU forces before it agrees to enter the coalition government headed by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

The fledging government in Mogadishu, which has been endorsed by the U.S., applauded the attack on the Somali pirates on April 12. “We are very happy at this action and the outcome,” said Foreign Minister Mohamad Abdullahi Omaar. “I am not surprised, nor will anyone by surprised, at the actions of the American government to save its citizens and ensure the security of its people,” Omaar told Reuters. (April 13)

Increased U.S. military presence must be opposed

Recent reports coming out of the White House indicate that the Obama administration is divided over how to carry out its foreign policy in the Horn of Africa. Some elements want a more diplomatic approach to the problem of piracy as well as a concerted effort to bring more European and Asian nations into patrolling the waters in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

However, other advisers within the White House want to see a more direct U.S. military involvement on land and off the coast of Somalia. The recent incident involving the Maersk Alabama prompted the dispatching of additional warships to the Indian Ocean region. (Washington Post, April 12)

According to the figures issued by the International Maritime Bureau, at least a dozen cargo ships and more than 200 crew members are being held by Somali pirates in the region. At the same time, fighting inside of Somalia is continuing between the Al-Shabab resistance fighters and the AMISOM forces, which are working in conjunction with the troops loyal to the new coalition government in Mogadishu.

On April 13, Garowe Radio reported that three people had been killed over a two-day period resulting from mortar fire in the capital of Mogadishu. “Suspected insurgents launched at least 10 mortars at the main port in the Somali capital Mogadishu on April 11.”

The report noted: “Islamist rebels vowed war against the Horn of Africa country’s interim government. Witnesses and workers at Mogadishu’s main seaport said AMISOM peacekeepers closed off roads near the port and entered nearby neighborhoods as a ship docked.”

The report continued: “There were many AMISOM soldiers in our area … on top of buildings and they refused to allow us to leave our homes, a witness said. Port workers said the ship unloaded military hardware, including vehicles, which were transported to AMISOM bases in Mogadishu.”

Based on these reports and the U.S. administration’s framing of the killing of the three Somalis, it is vital that anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in the United States emphasize that greater U.S. military involvement in the region will not create a more stable political situation in Somalia and throughout the Horn of Africa.

In fact, as history has proven, the role of U.S. imperialism in the Horn of Africa has created greater instability and underdevelopment in the region. As a result of the Bush administration policy toward Somalia, the worst humanitarian crisis on the continent of Africa came into existence.

During the present period, progressive forces must demand a shift away from militarism in the Horn of Africa and insist on the right of self-determination including reparations for the people of Somalia and the Horn of Africa as a whole.

© 2009 Workers World. This story was originally published April 13, 2009, by Workers World, 55 W. 17th St., New York NY 10011, ww@workers.org, www.workers.org, at http://www.workers.org/2009/world/horn_of_africa_0423/. Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of Pan-African News Wire, an extraordinarily valuable news source designed “to foster intelligent discussion on the affairs of African people throughout the continent and the world.”

Mother of young ‘pirate’ appeals for his release

by Mary Ratcliff

A very thin but broadly smiling Somali teenager, the sole survivor of the four Somali teenagers who seized the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on April 8, arrived Tuesday in the U.S. - the place he had told a crew member he dreamed of visiting to attend school.

He will be the first alleged pirate to stand trial in this country in more than a century. The last pirates to stand trial in the U.S. were the captain and 11 crew members of the Confederate vessel Savannah.

“I cried when I saw the picture of him,” said his mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, who sells milk at a small market in Galkayo, central Somalia, when relatives showed her the photo.

“The last time I saw him he was in his school uniform,” she said. The photo shows a chain wrapped around his waist and his left hand heavily bandaged. A Maersk crew member tells of stabbing him with an ice pick and capturing him after Capt. Richard Phillips had left with the other three Somali teenagers who were later killed by Navy Seal snipers.

“He was brainwashed,” she said of her oldest son, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse. She insists he is only 16, though a law enforcement official says he is at least 18 and can be tried as an adult in a U.S. court.

“I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial,” said his mother, who described young Muse as a “talented boy” and “a good student.”

She said her son had been doing well in school but late last month had failed to come home. Fifteen days later she heard on the radio that he had been captured.

“Hassan says it breaks her heart to think that he will be tried as an adult criminal in the United States,” writes Alisha Ryu from Nairobi for the Voice of America. He was charged Tuesday with five counts, including piracy. “[H]is mother’s claim that he is a 16-year-old juvenile could pose a problem for prosecutors seeking the maximum sentence of life imprisonment,” Ryu reports. “International law is more lenient toward juveniles.

“Determining Muse’s true age is difficult because birth certificates are rare in Somalia, a country which has not had a functioning government for nearly two decades.”

According to the Guardian of London, Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said a legal team to represent Muse is being formed.

“I think there’s a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas,” said Kuby. “This man seemed to come on to the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age.”

Alleged by Capt. Phillips to be the leader of the four youths, Muse appeared in court Tuesday night. “The court proceedings were quickly thrown into turmoil when his lawyer claimed that he was 15 - too young to stand trial as an adult,” the New York Times reported. “The judge dismissed the claim after speaking with Mr Muse’s father in Somalia, who said that the accused was the first of his 12 children and the fourth was born in 1990. Prosecutors said that Mr Muse had admitted he was 18.”

The lawyers representing him Tuesday night asked that Muse be given painkillers for his hand wound and Muslim meals in jail.

Miguel Ruiz, a member of the Maersk Alabama crew, said he asked one of the pirates, “Why do you do that?” The response: “We’ve got 20 million people in Somalia who are poor, that don’t have education. We don’t have no food.”

‘The most powerful navy in the world against barefoot Somali brigands’

An April 18 New York Times story provides this description of the “battle” between the Navy destroyer and the “pirates”:

“Under cover of darkness dozens of U.S. Navy Seals parachuted into the Indian Ocean and made their way in inflatable boats to the USS Bainbridge.

“The $800-million U.S. Navy destroyer, armed with guided missiles, was shadowing a ragtag band of teenage pirates with AK47s holding an American hostage in a drifting 18-foot lifeboat.

“It was the ultimate assymetric stand-off, pitting the most powerful navy in the world against a skiff-load of barefoot Somali brigands.

“‘It’s almost reminiscent of “Black Hawk Down,” where you have high-tech, highly trained units which get into a situation where there is a low-tech environment but some pretty creative people with a lot of experience in a war zone,’ Jamey Cummings, a former U.S. Navy Seal, said. ‘These highly trained Seals are coming in to take out 17-year-old pirates.’”

__________________ 

Source: Bay View editor Mary Ratcliff compiled this sidebar from several major media sources. She can be reached at editor@sfbayview.com.

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Reverse piracy: Toxic Euro and American electronic waste dumping in Africa

by Greenpeace and Ann Garrison  

Now we finally know where “conflict minerals” coltan and cassiterite, essential to the electronics industries, go after being smuggled out of the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda - and from there to who knows where. No one really knows because coltan and cassiterite refiners and electronics manufacturers all assure us that they never buy conflict minerals, even though most of the world’s coltan reserves and much of its cassiterite reserves lie in conflict torn D.R. Congo’s North Kivu Province.

But at least we know where a lot of coltan and cassiterite go, in the end. They go to Ghana and other parts of Africa as toxic electronic waste, often disguised as charity: European and North American “contributions” of worn-out, broken, no longer fashionable tech garbage.

This demonstrates how homicidally Europeans still behave in Africa, including even many from nations like the Netherlands, which seems relatively benign, when compared to the U.S., which continues to expand Africom, the U.S. Africa Command, a chain of U.S. military bases commanded by U.S. Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward, in Africa.

The Netherlands joined Sweden in ending foreign aid to Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s regime, because of human rights violations and war crimes in both Rwanda and neighboring D.R. Congo. The Netherlands is, nevertheless, on Greenpeace’s list of European nations shipping and dumping toxic e-waste “charity” in Ghana.

Isn’t this an international crime more serious than Somali “piracy,” a response to nuclear waste dumping on one end of the Somali coast and to European trawlers fishing out Somali waters, which Somali fishing communities depended on, on Somali’s other coast?

Shouldn’t the same Netherlands politicians who canceled aid to Rwandan President Paul Kagame take the lead in stopping the shipment of toxic Euro e-waste to Ghana and elsewhere in Africa or any other African nation? And shouldn’t President Barack Obama either follow that lead or take it himself?

Ann Garrison is a Bay Area journalist and activist and the website writer-editor of thepriceofuranium.com. She can be reached at anniegarrison@thepriceofuranium.com. This story was first published by Colored Opinions.

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What about the black community?

G20 Summit to deepen theft of Africa's resources

UhuruNews

The following statement was produced by the Uhuru Movement, Mbongwana and Nigeria Liberty Forum

We are opposed to the London G20 Summit, presided over by a black man or not, to attempt to rescue capitalism at the expense of black people everywhere. We are echoing what happened in St. Petersburg, Florida when Uhuru organizers took direct action by challenging Obama’s failure to address the conditions of Africans in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections campaign. Here in London, we are asking the same question: what about six million Africans killed and 48,000 women raped every month in the war in Congo sponsored by the U.S. and Britain in a process of mining coltan, which is used in making mobile phones and computers? What about Sudan where the U.S. and Britain are engaged in a proxy war to contain China’s access to African oil? What about Nigeria where the government has gone to war against the people of Delta Niger to secure oil for the U.S. and Europe?

The capitalist world economy born by attacks and exploitations of Africa.

Key to the birth of this present parasitic capitalist system was the enslavement of the African continent and the kidnapping, dispersal and colonization of African people around the world. It was born as a result of the theft of land, resources and labor from Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, etc.

This current crisis has been delayed for over two decades because the capitalists passed on most of the costs on Africa and other oppressed nations. From the 1980s up to this credit crunch, the G8 escaped credit meltdown because Africa has been paying for the capitalization (social benefits) of European and U.S. banks through IMF, the World Bank and other parasitic neocolonial schemes imposed on us.

Financial crisis of capitalism caused by the growing resistance of national liberation movements reclaiming control over their lives and resources

This is the consequence of the rise of China, India, Iran, the Hugo Chavez-led Bolivar revolution in Latin America and the struggles of other colonized peoples. As these nations continue to rise, imperialist white power is forced on the defensive, and its access to resources is restricted, consequently challenging the reproduction of imperialist economies.

The U.S. and EU governments are trying to extend the G8 gang to G20 to manage the world economy at the expense of nations who have not yet achieved their freedom, especially the divided and dispersed African nation. This G20 meeting, chaired by a black man will not address the way out for black people, but a way out for the imperialists. This can only be done by tightening the grip of strangulation on Africa.

Investment banks can create and sell financial products but cannot create real value. Likewise national banks of England, Europe and the U.S. can print bank notes but can not create value, which is created by labor in society. The role of colonized nations in the current world economy is to create value for imperialist nations.

The real question is not the nature or extent of deregulation, stimulus or fiscal package, but access to real value. Unrestricted theft of Africa’s natural resources and worldwide black labor is the essence of the G20 summit, just as it was when the imperialist states met in the 1884 Berlin Conference.

The solution is not to fix this colonial slavery system, but to end it.

Massive transfer of peoples and social wealth to the bankers and other sectors of the ruling class are a crime. Massive cuts of social programs that are being planned are a crime. We have the obligation to build our own African plan that will allow us to recapture our unity in struggle and our Africa for ourselves.

The road to freedom leads through the creation of the Europe front of the African Socialist International hosted by the African Liberation Day committee on May 23-24, 2009 in Manchester. Building the United States of Africa, led by African workers in alliance with poor peasants is the way forward for black people everywhere.

One Africa! One Nation !

-----------------------------------

http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=what-about-the-black-community                 Contact : ald_Europe@yahoo.co.uk, mbogwanacrm@hotmail.com www.uhurunews.com:Tel : 07862 294364, 0208 265 1731  

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White power in black face: Cabinet selections reveal the real Obama

Penny Hess, Nov 21, 2008

Barack Obama wasted no time bowing down to his Wall Street financial backers and war-mongering advisors. His cabinet selections represent the same old politics of imperialist wars of plunder abroad and police containment policies against the African and Mexican communities here. It could not be clearer that Obama is, as the Uhuru Movement sums up, a neocolonialist essential during these times of deep crisis to hide the vicious reality of U.S. imperialist white power under the cover of an African face.

Here is some information about his cabinet selections so far.

Penny Pritzker, nominated for Secretary of Commerce: Pritzker has reportedly declined this position. If this is true it is obviously because of her instrumental role in the whole subprime mortgage scam and other shady financial dealings that would come under public scrutiny during senate confirmation hearings for her post. According to reports Pritzker's financial record is so dubious she never even filled out the vetting form required for the Obama transition team of which she is a part.

According to today's New York Times, "Burt Ely, a banking consultant who testified at a 2001 Senate committee hearing about the failure [due to subprime mortgage dealings] of [the Pritzker family-owned] Superior Bank, said it had never made sense for Ms. Pritzker to become a nominee. 'The confirmation hearing could have been quite ugly for all that would have been dredged up about Superior as well as possibly other Pritzker dealings,' Mr. Ely said Thursday."

Read the rest of the revealing article in today’s New York Times (Nov. 21, 2008) about her.

For more on Pritzker who is reported to be the inventor of the subprime mortgage scam as an investment tool, see our slide show "Can Obama really bring the change we need?" on the APSC home page. This presentation also has other in-depth info on Obama's positions, backers and advisors.

Janet Napolitano, nominated to Secretary of Homeland Security: Though her appointment to Homeland Security is being heralded as an improvement over the Bush administration by some, Napolitano in fact signals a tough stand for the Obama administration on vicious border enforcement and other policies against Mexican workers. Here is what the Washington Post said about her on June 26, 2006:

“Among the nation's top Democrats, Napolitano has developed some of the toughest policies against illegal immigration. She was one of the first major politicians to call for deployment of the National Guard along the border and declared a state of emergency in her state's counties nearest Mexico. She has aggressively pursued smugglers in Arizona. In February, she joined with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) to outline a plan for immigration reform that called for more funding for border security, more visas for foreign workers and no blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants.”

See the whole Washington Post article on Napolitano.

Eric Holder–Attorney General: Holder is a Clinton-era bureaucrat from the DOJ who played a major role in implementing the Crime Bill’s mandate to put 100,000 new police on the ground when he was assistant Attorney General under Clinton. Though he is being "warmly received" by both Republicans and Democrats, Holder is being criticized for some of his positions and past actions by liberals.

As a private lawyer Holder played a key role in “negotiating an agreement with the Justice Department that got Chiquita Bananas for paying protection money to right wing death squads in Colombia.” Also Holder was part of the legal team that in 2005 developed strategies for securing reauthorization of the Patriot Act. (See article on Nation.com).

No one outside of the Uhuru Movement, however, is criticizing Holder for his most serious crimes: his role in enforcing the brutal policies of police containment of the African community, such as supporting mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and three strikes legislation and putting more and more cops on the streets of black neighborhoods already under siege by U.S. government-imposed martial law.

See yesterday's Uhuru Solidarity blog entry here on Eric Holder.

For an in-depth look at the backgrounds of the top 20 people on Obama's war and plunder-loving foreign policy team see, "This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House," by Jeremy Scahill that appeared on AlterNet.org today.

For the most dynamic analysis of the unfolding Obama presidency and the current economic and political crisis of imperialism from the point of view of the African working class, listen to "Africa Live" at 11 am EST every Sunday on Uhuru Radio featuring Chairman Omali Yeshitela and others, and visit UhuruNews.com.

source: http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=white-power-in-black-face

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Parasitic Capitalism 101

 Penny Hess, Apr 23, 2009

Capitalism was born from the theft of African people, African gold and African labor, along with theft of Indigenous lands and resources throughout the world.

As Omali Yeshitela teaches, impoverished, war-like, disease-ridden, feudal Europe set out to solve its problems by assaulting Africa, the Americas and Asia.

By the year 1500 Europe had already forcibly removed 700 tons of African gold and nearly a hundred thousand African people.

Parasitic Capitalism Began with the Slave Trade

Today stockbrokers discuss the price of oil over martinis at lunch. Two hundred years ago they talked about the price of a shipment of African people over a pint of ale.

The first stock market sprung up in Amsterdam in 1602, at the height of the trade in enslaved Africans that turned human beings into the world’s most lucrative commodity.

The dollar sign ($) is modeled on a symbol resembling shackles used by slave ship owners to keep count of their human cargo.

The unthinkable auctions of African people throughout the Americas not only made large profits for the slave owners, they shaped the modern U.S. economy.

For example, in the Shokoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond Virginia, 350,000 African people were auctioned between 1790 and the 1860s.

That’s just one city among hundreds in the hemisphere where Africans were sold as chattel. In every case the auction markets fed the establishment of hotels, transportation systems, stores and countless other trades, services and opportunities for white people based on the enslavement of Africans.

The abolishment of the official trade in African human beings did not end white society’s dependence on the exploitation of forced African labor. The imperialist extraction from African people today is far greater than it was during the time of chattel slavery.

The U.S. outlawed the importation of African people ended in 1808, but the trade continued with African people smuggled in as contraband.

Additionally, plantation owners began to “breed” African people. Forcing African men and women together in hideous dungeons called “breeding pens,” one Virginia slave owner boasted he had sold 6,000 African children bred under these inhumane conditions.

Slavery Continues as “Convict Leasing”

Following the Civil War, Southern states set up the genocidal system of Convict Leasing that persisted until the 1940s in some states. With mass arrests on Jim Crow laws that made just about everything African people did illegal, hundreds of thousands of African men, women and children were rounded up in state-controlled work camps.

The motto of Convict Leasing was “One dies, get another,” because there was no longer the profit motive for slave owners to keep their property alive. African people were leased out to plantation, mine and railroad owners for hard labor.

Africans were brutalized, worked to death in the heat and bitter cold and starved. Little children were sent into the fields and down in the coal and phosphate mines of Birmingham and northern Florida.

Convict Leasing made so much money that it rebuilt the economy of the south after the Civil War. The state of Alabama, for example made 75 percent of its revenues from Convict Leasing in the 1890s.

Capitalism Loots Africa

After the Civil War was the period of direct colonialism in Africa. The entire continent was carved up by European powers in 1885 to begin the greatest plunder of natural resources in the history of the world.

Rubber, diamonds, ivory, oil, animals, wood and every mineral known to science were extracted with the labor of Africans, coerced through the generous use of gun powder, Christianity and every imaginable form of terror.

At least 20 million African people were slaughtered in Africa during this process. Europe and the U.S. got fabulously rich, beyond imagination.

Source:http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=parasitic-capitalism-101

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Free Abdi Wali Muse! Jail the real pirates! 

Nyabinga Dzimbahwe, Apr 23, 2009

The U.S. government is promoting lynch mob fervor against 15-year-old Abdi Wli Muse.

The stories about so-called “pirates” seizing ships off the coast of Somalia that have peppered the international imperialist media for at least the past year or two became center stage with the April 8 seizure of a ship filled with U.S. sailors called Maersk Alabama. Now with the determination of the U.S. government to try 15-year-old Abdi Wali Muse as an adult after having murdered his other three companions with sniper fire after they had apparently surrendered, a lynch mob fervor inside the U.S. is being mobilized.

However, the question that anyone who knows the history of the U.S. in the East Africa region — or anywhere else in the world, for that matter — has to ask is, “Who are the real pirates?”

The reality is that the Africans being characterized as pirates are mostly fisherman being starved by imperialism’s actions of real piracy. The waters in that region are being overfished by European and Asian companies who steal more than $300 million worth of fish from Somalia’s waters every year. On top of that, European companies have been using Somalia’s waters as a dumping ground for deadly toxic waste that they wouldn’t have anywhere near their own shores for the past two decades.

U.S. and European piracy in Somalia is longstanding

But the U.S. and Europe’s piracy in Somalia began long before the overfishing and toxic dumping became known. The reality is that the Somalia, which is also called the Horn of Africa, plays an important role for the U.S. and Europe’s looting of oil wealth in the region. They used to have a lot of problems stealing that oil so they cut a ditch called the Suez Canal to divide that area of Africa and facilitate ships carrying this stolen wealth getting to Europe.

However, large oil tankers can’t get through the Suez Canal, so they have to go around the Horn of Africa. This has made Somalia of serious geo-political significance for the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. was intervening in Somalia during its struggle with the Soviet Union for geo-political influence.

The Soviets then had a relationship with Said Barre who was in power in Somalia. However, when the Soviet Union developed a relationship with the government that went into power in Ethiopia in coup d’état in 1974, its relationship with Barre soured. This is because of conflicts between the Ethiopian and Somalian states as a result of the artificial borders carved into Africa by Europe for its own interests.

Said Barre then developed a relationship with the U.S. However, when Barre’s despotic regime was chased out of power in 1991, it created a problem for the U.S. The U.S. imperialists started manipulating the situation in Somalia. The forces who overthrew Barre were united by their opposition to Barre’s terrible regime, but with him out of power their basis of unity was gone. There began a struggle for power using U.S. arms and what was left of Soviet arms in the country.

During the time that the U.S.-supported Barre regime was in power the U.S. had him hand over two-thirds of Somalia to U.S. oil companies. So former U.S. president George Herbert Walker Bush initiated a military intervention in Somalia in the 1992 as a lame duck president to protect the U.S. control over what has been described as a “valley of oil” underneath Somalia. In fact, the Conoco oil corporation’s compound in Mogadishu was used as the U.S. government’s headquarters when U.S. Marines landed there.

It was during this vicious military operation to secure the U.S. piracy efforts in Somalia that the events falsely characterized in the Hollywood movie Black Hawk Down occurred. It was during this period that the U.S. was bombing hospitals and residential centers in Somalia in order to facilitate stealing the oil there.

Fisherman from Somalia demand end to imperialist piracy

So now Africans who have been victims of U.S. and European imposed poverty and starvation are now being characterized as pirates. The reality is that in the face of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, skin infections and abdominal hemorrhages resulting from Europe’s deadly toxic dumping — added to severely depleted food supply from the theft of about $300 million of fish per year from Somalia’s waters — African fisherman from Somalia began using speedboats to intercept the U.S., European and Asian pirates to convince them to stop dumping the toxic waste and stealing the food supply of the African people or charge them for compensation.

One fisherman, Sugule Ali, stated, “We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas."

Obama uses Somalia situation as easy political target

The U.S. intervention in Somalia was clearly a political tactic used by neocolonial U.S. president Barack Obama to silence those who have called him too soft militarily. From the moment it was said in the media that U.S. sailors were on the Maersk Alabama ship, it became an opportunity to show his willingness to kill for U.S. imperialism to those who doubted him.

Unlike the quagmires the U.S. has been caught up in both in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Bush regime’s invasions, these four Africans on a lifeboat in the middle of the Indian Ocean served as easy targets wiping out with three quick sniper shots any question of Obama’s ability to kill colonized people for U.S. imperialist interests.

Hands off Abdi Wali Muse

U.S. courts have determined that it doesn’t matter that the young African who surrendered to the U.S. troops is only 15 years old. They will treat him as an adult.

The reality is that young Abdi Wali Muse is not unlike any other young African held in the U.S. prison system. He has no humanity in the eyes of his oppressor. If U.S. imperialism has its way, he will spend the rest of his young life joining the 1.5 million other African people held in U.S. prisons.

His imprisonment has nothing to do with any criminality. The fact is that the law is nothing but the opinion of the ruling class that has the ability to enforce its will by force. His only crime is that he dared to challenge U.S. imperialism’s ability to steal Africa’s resources.

We must demand that this process where the thieves put the victims on trial for piracy end. It is the U.S. and European governments that must be put on trial for theft of African resources and false imprisonment of not only Abdi Wali Muse, but the millions of Africans held in prisons or tied to prison systems in the U.S. and Europe.

Free Abdi Wali Muse! Jail the Real Pirates!

Uhuru!

Source: http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=free-abdi-wali-muse

Posted by impoetryious at 03:07 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

AP IMPACT: Secret tally has 87,215 Iraqis dead

 By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 23,

BAGHDAD – Iraq's government has recorded 87,215 of its citizens killed since 2005 in violence ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings, according to government statistics obtained by The Associated Press that break open one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war.

Combined with tallies based on hospital sources and media reports since the beginning of the war and an in-depth review of available evidence by The Associated Press, the figures show that more than 110,600 Iraqis have died in violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The number is a minimum count of violent deaths. The official who provided the data to the AP, on condition of anonymity because of its sensitivity, estimated the actual number of deaths at 10 to 20 percent higher because of thousands who are still missing and civilians who were buried in the chaos of war without official records.

The Health Ministry has tallied death certificates since 2005, and late that year the United Nations began using them — along with hospital and morgue figures — to publicly release casualty counts. But by early 2007, when sectarian violence was putting political pressure on the U.S. and Iraqi governments, the Iraqi numbers disappeared. The United Nations "repeatedly asked for that cooperation" to resume but never received a response, U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday.

The data obtained by the AP measure only violent deaths — people killed in attacks such as the shootings, bombings, mortar attacks and beheadings that have ravaged Iraq. It excluded indirect factors such as damage to infrastructure, health care and stress that caused thousands more to die.

Authoritative statistics for 2003 and 2004 do not exist. But Iraq Body Count, a private, British-based group, has tallied civilian deaths from media reports and other sources since the war's start. The AP reviewed the Iraq Body Count analysis and confirmed its conclusions by sifting the data and consulting experts. The AP also interviewed experts involved with previous studies, prominent Iraq analysts and provincial and medical officials to determine that the new tally was credible.

The AP also added its own tabulation of deaths since Feb. 28, the last date in the Health Ministry count.

The three figures add up to more than 110,600 Iraqis who have died in the war.

That total generally coincides with the trends reported by reputable surveys, which have been compiled either by tallying deaths reported by international journalists, or by surveying samplings of Iraqi households and extrapolating the numbers.

Iraq Body Count's estimate of deaths since the start of the war, excluding police and soldiers, is a range — between 91,466 and 99,861.

The numbers show just how traumatic the war has been for Iraq. In a nation of 29 million people, the deaths represent 0.38 percent of the population. Proportionally, that would be like the United States losing 1.2 million people to violence in the four-year period; about 17,000 people are murdered every year in the U.S.

Security has improved since the worst years, but almost every person in Iraq has been touched by the violence.

"We have lost everything," said Badriya Abbas Jabbar, 54. A 2007 truck bombing targeting a market near her Baghdad home killed three granddaughters, a son and a niece.

North of the capital in the city of Baqouba, a mother shrouded in black calls to her three sons from her doorstep. She calls out as if they were alive, but they were killed in April 2007, when Shiite Muslim militiamen barged into their auto parts store and gunned them down because they were Sunni.

The Health Ministry figures indicate such violence was tremendously deadly. Of the 87,215 deaths, 59,957 came in 2006 and 2007, when sectarian attacks soared and death squads roamed the streets. The period was marked by catastrophic bombings and execution-style killings.

Quantifying the loss has always been difficult. Records were not always compiled centrally, and the brutal insurgency sharply limited on-the-scene reporting. The U.S. military never shared its data.

The Health Ministry was always at the forefront of counting deaths. Under Saddam Hussein, it compiled casualty figures even as U.S. troops closed in on Baghdad, though it later abandoned that effort. It has started up again in fits, and finally began reliable record-keeping at the start of 2005.

Those data were provided to the AP in the form of a two-page computer printout listing yearly totals for death certificates issued for violent deaths by hospitals and morgues between Jan. 1, 2005, and Feb. 28, 2009.

The ministry does not have figures for the first two years of the war because it was devastated in the aftermath of the invasion, the official said.

Experts said the count constitutes an important baseline, albeit an incomplete one. Richard Brennan, who has done mortality research in Congo and Kosovo, said it is likely a "gross underestimate" because many deaths go unrecorded in war zones.

The Iraqi Body Count numbers are likely even more incomplete, given that many killings occurred in incidents journalists were unaware of or in inaccessible areas.

Mass graves have been turning up as improved security allows patrols in formerly off-limits areas, but how many remain will never be known.

The death toll in Iraq has been a hotly disputed subject because of the high political stakes in a war opposed by many countries and by a large portion of the American public. Critics on each side accuse the other of manipulating the death numbers to sway opinion.

While the Pentagon maintains meticulous records of the number of American troops killed — at least 4,275 as of Thursday — it does not publicly release comprehensive Iraqi casualty figures. American units around the country do compile figures, drawing them mostly from the Iraqi military. They are not released publicly but are used to determine trends, according to Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a U.S. spokesman in Baghdad.

The AP has filed Freedom of Information Act requests since 2005 seeking that data, but has not received it.

The U.S. policy to not fully address civilian deaths has drawn heavy criticism from human rights groups.

"We believe that all warring parties have a duty to keep information on casualties," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch in New York. "It's one of many factors one needs to analyze compliance with international humanitarian law."

The AP has tried since the first days of the war to understand how many Iraqis were being killed.

In 2003, AP journalists traveled across Iraq to search hospital records for civilian deaths during the first chaotic month of the invasion. They found that at least 3,240 civilians died that month, including 1,896 in Baghdad, but acknowledged that number was a fraction of the total because record-keeping often fell victim to the bloodshed.

Beginning in May 2005, the AP has tracked war-related casualties as reported by police, hospital and government officials, mosque workers and verifiable witness accounts, breaking down the victims into civilians, soldiers and police. That tally has reached 46,065, including 37,205 civilians, but also underrepresents the true casualty number because many killings go unreported, especially in more remote areas.

Those numbers rose significantly on Thursday with two suicide attacks that killed dozens of people.

There are other clues to the death toll, such as the number of people buried at the main Shiite cemetery in the holy city of Najaf. But even there, the deaths are limited mostly to Shiites and include natural as well as violent causes, so they cannot be considered definitive.

The director of the cemetery's statistics office, Ammar al-Ithari, said the number of burials jumped from just over 32,000 in 2004 and 2005 to nearly 50,000 in 2006 and 54,000 in 2007. It fell to nearly 40,000 last year, as violence declined. There are no statistics from before the war because records were destroyed in the fighting.

The Iraqi official who provided the Health Ministry figures expressed confidence in its count. He said local authorities consistently reported on violence throughout the war, and that the ministry accurately compiled their reports.

He also defended death certificates as an instrument, because relatives need them to bury a body in most cemeteries, as well as for inheritance and compensation purposes.

He acknowledged some slain insurgents could be included in the count but said he believed that number was low because few insurgents went to hospitals for treatment out of fear of detection, and many insurgent groups buried their own fighters without getting death certificates.

Some experts say casualty tallies based on media reports are inaccurate, because too many deaths go unreported. Some favor cluster surveys, in which conclusions are drawn from a select sampling of households.

The largest cluster survey in Iraq was conducted in 2007 by the World Health Organization and the Iraqi government. It concluded that about 151,000 Iraqis had died from violence in the 2003-05 period, but that included insurgents.

A more controversial cluster study conducted between May and July 2006 by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, published in the Lancet medical journal, estimated that 601,027 Iraqis had died due to violence. The authors said roughly 50,000 more died from nonviolent causes such as heart disease and cancer because of deteriorating health conditions caused by the war.

Critics argue that such surveys are flawed in Iraq because the security situation prevents a proper sampling. They also have margins of error that could skew the numbers by the tens of thousands.

And whatever the number, the ultimate goal is to find ways to reduce it in future conflicts.

"The loss of life among those caught up in conflict is tragic whatever the numbers reported," said Gilbert Burnham, one of authors of the Lancet survey. "And finding approaches which will reduce these deaths is of great importance."

___

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090423/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_death_toll  Associated Press writer John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Rights groups cry whitewash over army's Gaza probe

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Karin Laub, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 22,

JERUSALEM – Human rights activists, some charging whitewash, demanded an independent war crimes probe after Israel's military on Wednesday cleared itself of wrongdoing over civilian deaths in the Gaza war.

Army commanders acknowledged "rare mishaps" during the three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, including an airstrike that killed a family of 21. However, they said Israel did not violate international humanitarian law and that Hamas is to blame for civilian deaths, because it used Gazans as human shields.

At least 1,100 people in Gaza were killed, according to counts by both sides. The military insisted that a majority of the war dead were militants, while the Palestinians said most were civilians.

Israel launched the offensive Dec. 27 to halt years of rocket fire on Israeli border towns. It unleashed unprecedented force in the small seaside strip, including more than 2,000 bombing raids and barrages of artillery and mortar shells, against Palestinian militants, who operated inside residential areas.

Human rights groups say there is grave suspicion that both Israel and Hamas carelessly put civilians in harm's way — Hamas by using them as cover and Israel by using disproportionate force in densely populated Gaza. Since the war ended Jan. 18, calls have been mounting for a war crimes probe of both sides.

A U.N. agency has appointed a widely respected former war crimes prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, to lead an investigation. Israeli officials say it's very unlikely Israel will cooperate, alleging the U.N. agency is biased. Hamas, Gaza's sole ruler since a violent takeover in 2007, said it would work with the investigator.

If Israel has nothing to hide, it should cooperate with Goldstone, a coalition of Israeli human rights groups and the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. They also questioned the military's ability to investigate itself.

The military's findings "seem to be a cover-up for serious violations of international law," Human Rights Watch said, calling the findings an "insult to civilians" killed in the war. "It does not pass the smell-test," the group charged.

The Israeli military assigned five colonels to lead separate investigations into its most controversial actions, including attacks on and near U.N. and international facilities, shooting at medical workers and facilities, as well as the use of white phosphorous shells, a chemical agent that can cause horrific burns.

The military said Israeli forces operated in line with international law throughout the fighting.

It said the killing of civilians was unintentional — either a result of combat in crowded areas, with Hamas using civilians as human shields, or in rare cases because of human error.

In one such case, an airstrike killed 21 members of the Daya family in Gaza City on Jan. 5, including 12 children, according to a Palestinian list of the war dead. The Israeli military said the target was a weapons factory next door.

The military said what it described as unfortunate incidents, such as the shelling of the U.N. headquarters in Gaza City, were a result of urban combat, "particularly of the type that Hamas forced on the (Israeli) military, by choosing to fight from within the civilian population."

It said U.N. facilities were not struck intentionally.

The military alleged Hamas militants often took cover in ambulances or hospitals.

Investigators noted that Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, spent the war at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. Haniyeh did not appear in public during the war, and remained in hiding for weeks after the fighting ended, apparently fearing assassination.

Israel has promised legal and financial support for officers facing trial. In Norway, a group of lawyers filed a war crimes complaint against 10 Israelis on Wednesday, including the former prime minister.

Since the Gaza war, the political deadlock in the region has only hardened, as Hamas has tightened its grip on Gaza, and a hawkish government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected in Israel.

The U.N.'s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, said Wednesday that the international community wants a Palestinian state established alongside Israel.

"The problem is that the parties seem to be less ready and in a position to do what it takes to make peace," he said during a tour of Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

Also Wednesday, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the powerful official handling indirect Israel-Hamas contacts over a cease-fire and prisoner exchange, met with leaders of Israel's new government for the first time.

Relations between the two nations have been tense since Netanyahu took office March 31 because of his hard-line views toward the Palestinians. But Netanyahu's office said Suleiman invited the Israeli leader to visit Egypt.

___

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Associated Press reporter Aron Heller contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.

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Fidel Castro: Obama 'misinterpreted' Raul's words

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA – Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama "misinterpreted" his brother Raul's remarks regarding the United States and bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on dollars people send to the island.

Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation last week that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw after nearly a half-century of chilly relations. The speculation began when the Cuban president said leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss "everything, everything, everything," including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners.

Obama responded at the Summit of the Americas by saying Washington seeks a new beginning with Cuba. But as he prepared to leave the summit Sunday, Obama also called on Cuba to release political prisoners and reduce taxes on remittances from the U.S.

That appeared to enrage Fidel Castro, 82, who wrote in an essay published Wednesday that Obama "without a doubt misinterpreted Raul's declarations."

The former president appeared to be throwing a dose of cold water on growing expectations for improved bilateral relations — suggesting Obama had no right to dare suggest that Cuba make even small concessions. He also seemed to suggest too much was being made of Raul's comments about discussing "everything" with U.S. authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had a different perspective on Fidel Castro's essay while speaking about Cuba policy with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. She said that while Fidel Castro had "contradicted" his brother's previous statements about Cuba's willingness to discuss a whole range of issues with the U.S., it shows "there is beginning to be a debate" inside Cuba about how to move forward with U.S. relations.

Fidel Castro's remarks put into doubt the true meaning of his brother's statements and raised questions about Cuba's position on detente with the United States. Although he surrendered the presidency to Raul in February 2008, he retains enormous influence and remains head of Cuba's Communist Party.

Raul Castro himself, meanwhile, has not jumped in to clarify the confusion and is not likely to, out of respect for his older brother.

"When the President of Cuba said he was ready to discuss any topic with the U.S. President, he meant he was not afraid of addressing any issue," Fidel Castro wrote of his 77-year-old brother, who succeeded him as president 14 months ago.

"That shows his courage and confidence in the principles of the Revolution," Fidel wrote.

"No one should feel astonished that Raul spoke about pardoning those who were convicted on March, 2003, and about sending them all to the United States, should that country be willing to release the Five Cuban Anti-Terrorism Heroes," Castro wrote, referring to five Cubans serving espionage sentences in the U.S.

Fidel also defended Cuba's right to levy a 10 percent fee on every U.S. dollar sent to relatives on the island by Cuban-Americans, saying if the money arriving from abroad "is in dollars, all the more reason we should do it because it is the currency of the country that blockades us."

All top Cuban leaders routinely call the 47-year-old trade embargo against this country a blockade.

"Not all Cubans have family members overseas that send remittances," Castro wrote, adding that Cuba uses the revenue from fees on exchanging dollars to provide free health care, education and subsidized food to all of its population.

The ex-president has previously expressed admiration for Obama, but this time he blasted the new U.S. president for showing signs of "superficiality," and called on him to wait no longer before lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

"We are living in a new era. Changes are unavoidable. Leaders just pass through; peoples prevail," Castro wrote.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_castro

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Poisonous Politics: Arsenic in the Water

The latest political alarm is about arsenic in our drinking water. Yes, Virginia, there is now, has been in the past, and may forever in the future be arsenic in our drinking water. Obviously not a lot or I wouldn't be writing this and you wouldn't be reading it.

As science develops the ability to detect ever more minute traces of all sorts of impurities in water and in the air, politicians have developed propaganda to scare the daylights out of the public, in pursuit of votes, money or power. Who can be against "clean water" or "clean air"? But those things have never existed and probably never will.

The most that we can do is reduce the impurities to a level that does not threaten our health. This can usually be done at a reasonable cost and no one doubts that it should be done. But the economic reality is that making the water or air 99 percent free of some impurity can cost twice as much as making it 98 percent free -- and making it 99.9 percent free can cost ten times as much as making it 99 percent free. Trying to find and eliminate ever more minute traces gets costlier and costlier.

If the impurity is something deadly, then of course we pay whatever it costs to make the water 99.999 percent free of it, if that is what it takes for our health. With arsenic, the standard is no more than 50 parts per billion….

( Click here to read full article )

Posted by impoetryious at 02:43 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

FDA Stamp of Approval: Prozac for Kids

by Michael J. Hurd   

The FDA has okayed Prozac for kids 8-years-old and up. While some physicians have prescribed to kids for years, this puts the stamp of approval on a practice that is still highly controversial due to a lack of studies. The drug's maker, Eli Lilly, has agreed to do more research in this area.
This gives whole new meaning to the concept of "government-business partnership," doesn't it?

In light of this rather appalling (but not surprising) news, I recommend the following for parents before rushing to put your children on Prozac--and before rushing to assume that "because the FDA thinks it's OK, it must be OK:"
Make sure your child can think. In order to make sure your child can think, only let him watch television selectively. Not only will the content of what he puts into his mind improve (assuming you and he select wisely), but it will also teach him that he should consciously decide what he views rather than just "default" to what happens to be served up to him by broadcasters. Have discussions with your child, in age-appropriate ways, about what makes sense to watch, not to watch, and why. The final decision will be yours. This is not dictatorial, so long as a reasoning process usually precedes it. When your child grows up and has his own TV, then he can decide on his own what he wishes to put into his mind. With your rational guidance now, those adult decisions down the road will likely…( click Here to read full article)

Posted by impoetryious at 02:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

What Mandatory Health Insurance Really Means

 by Richard E. Ralston  

When talking about health insurance, "mandatory" is an increasingly popular term among politicians of both major parties, including presidential candidates. What do they really mean by it? Put simply, being uninsured would no longer be a misfortune or a choice, but a crime. And for the insured, the issue is much more complicated.
No politician is going to use the force of law to require you to buy insurance without going further to specify in detail exactly the kind of insurance and what it must cover. Many states now have a long list of requirements for all insurance policies, and that list is sure to get longer if insurance becomes mandatory. And sure to follow will be regulations governing who the insurance companies may, may not or must sell to, and when. A mandate forcing millions more to buy these policies with so many things requiring coverage will create a tremendous magnet for any special interest with an agenda to pile on even more requirements. Then, as costs of such policies go into orbit, more government intervention will be called for to subsidize those increasing costs.

Once all of the regulations are in place, there is plenty of opportunity for regulators or politicians to expand on what mandates can really mean. For example, Senator John Edwards says that his plan for national mandatory insurance would require every individual to take regular physical examinations. What kind of examinations? That would not be left up to you either. After all, if you…( click here to read full article ) 

Posted by impoetryious at 01:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Global Warming and Climate Change in Perspective: Truths and Myths About Carbon Dioxide, Scientific Consensus, and Climate Models 

by William Happer  (April, 2009)

Statement to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University, made on February 25, 2009.

Madam Chairman and members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee on Environment and Public Works to testify on Climate Change. My name is William Happer, and I am the Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics at Princeton University. I am not a climatologist, but I don't think any of the other witnesses are either. I do work in the related field of atomic, molecular and optical physics. I have spent my professional life studying the interactions of visible and infrared radiation withgases - one of the main physical phenomena behind the greenhouse effect. I have published over 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. I am a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Physical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. I have done extensive consulting work for the US Government and Industry. I also served as the Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy (DOE) from 1990 to 1993, where I supervised all of DOE's work on climate change. I have come here today as a concerned citizen to express my personal views, and those of many like me, about US climate-change policy. These are not official views of my main employer, Princeton University, nor of any other organization with which I am associated.....(click here to read full article)

Posted by impoetryious at 01:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Global Warming and Climate Change in Perspective: Truths and Myths About Carbon Dioxide, Scientific Consensus, and Climate Models

Statement to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University, made on February 25, 2009.

Madam Chairman and members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee on Environment and Public Works to testify on Climate Change. My name is William Happer, and I am the Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics at Princeton University. I am not a climatologist, but I don't think any of the other witnesses are either. I do work in the related field of atomic, molecular and optical physics. I have spent my professional life studying the interactions of visible and infrared radiation withgases - one of the main physical phenomena behind the greenhouse effect. I have published over 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. I am a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Physical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. I have done extensive consulting work for the US Government and Industry. I also served as the Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy (DOE) from 1990 to 1993, where I supervised all of DOE's work on climate change. I have come here today as a concerned citizen to express my personal views, and those of many like me, about US climate-change policy. These are not official views of my main employer, Princeton University, nor of any other organization with which I am associated.

Cartoon by Cox and Forkum

Let me state clearly where I probably agree with the other witnesses. We have been in a period of global warming over the past 200 years, but there have been several periods, like the last ten years, when the warming has ceased, and there have even been periods of substantial cooling, as from 1940 to 1970. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased from about 280 to 380 parts per million over past 100 years. The combustion of fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, has contributed to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. And finally, increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere will cause the earth's surface to warm. The key question is: will the net effect of the warming, and any other effects of the CO2, be good or bad for humanity?

I believe that the increase of CO2 is not a cause for alarm and will be good for mankind. I predict that future historians will look back on this period much as we now view the period just before the passage of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution to prohibit "the manufacturing, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors." At the time, the 18th amendment seemed to be exactly the right thing to do - who wanted to be in league with demon rum? It was the 1917 version of saving the planet. More than half the states enacted prohibition laws before the 18th amendment was ratified. Only one state, Rhode Island, voted against the 18th amendment. Two states, Illinois and Indiana, never got around to voting and all the rest voted for it. There were many thoughtful people, including a majority of Rhode Islanders, who thought that prohibition might do more harm than good. But they were completely outmatched by the temperance movement, whose motives and methods had much in common with the movement to stop climate change. Deeply sincere people thought they were saving humanity from the evils of alcohol, just as many people now sincerely think they are saving humanity from the evils of CO2. Prohibition was a mistake, and our country has probably still not fully recovered from the damage it did. Institutions like organized crime got their start in that era. Drastic limitations on CO2 are likely to damage our country in analogous ways.

But what about the frightening consequences of increasing levels of CO2 that we keep hearing about? In a word, they are wildly exaggerated, just as the purported benefits of prohibition were wildly exaggerated. Let me turn now to the science and try to explain why I and many scientists like me are not alarmed by increasing levels of CO2.

The earth's climate really is strongly affected by the greenhouse effect, although the physics is not the same as that which makes real, glassed-in greenhouses work. Without greenhouse warming, the earth would be much too cold to sustain its current abundance of life. However, at least 90% of greenhouse warming is due to water vapor and clouds. Carbon dioxide is a bit player. There is little argument in the scientific community that a direct effect of doubling the CO2 concentration will be a small increase of the earth's temperature -- on the order of one degree. Additional increments of CO2 will cause relatively less direct warming because we already have so much CO2 in the atmosphere that it has blocked most of the infrared radiation that it can. It is like putting an additional ski hat on your head when you already have a nice warm one below it, but your are only wearing a windbreaker. To really get warmer, you need to add a warmer jacket. The IPCC thinks that this extra jacket is water vapor and clouds.

Since most of the greenhouse effect for the earth is due to water vapor and clouds, added CO2 must substantially increase water's contribution to lead to the frightening scenarios that are bandied about. The buzz word here is that there is "positive feedback." With each passing year, experimental observations further undermine the claim of a large positive feedback from water. In fact, observations suggest that the feedback is close to zero and may even be negative. That is, water vapor and clouds may actually diminish the already small global warming expected from CO2, not amplify it. The evidence here comes from satellite measurements of infraredradiation escaping from the earth into outer space, from measurements of sunlight reflected from clouds and from measurements of the temperature the earth's surface or of the troposphere, the roughly 10 km thick layer of the atmosphere above the earth's surface that is filled with churning air and clouds, heated from below at the earth's surface, and cooled at the top by radiation into space.

But the climate is warming and CO2 is increasing. Doesn't this prove that CO2 is causing global warming through the greenhouse effect? No, the current warming period began about 1800 at the end of the little ice age, long before there was an appreciable increase of CO2. There have been similar and even larger warmings several times in the 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age. These earlier warmings clearly had nothing to do with the combustion of fossil fuels. The current warming also seems to be due mostly to natural causes, not to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Over the past ten years there has been no global warming, and in fact a slight cooling. This is not at all what was predicted by the IPCC models.

The climate has changed many times in the past with no help by mankind. Recall that the Romans grew grapes in Britain around the year 100, and Viking settlers prospered on small farms in Greenland for several centuries during the Medieval Climate Optimum around 1100. People have had an urge to control the climate throughout history so I suppose it is no surprise that we are at it again today. For example, in June of 1644, the Bishop of Geneva led a flock of believers to the face of a glacier that was advancing "by over a musket shot" every day. The glacier would soon destroy a village. The Bishop and his flock prayed over the glacier, and it is said to have stopped. The poor Vikings had long since abandoned Greenland where the advancing glaciers and cooling climate proved much less susceptible to prayer. Sometimes the obsession for control of the climate got a bit out of hand, as in the Aztec state, where the local scientific/religious establishment of the year 1500 had long since announced that the debate was over and that at least 20,000 human sacrifices a year were needed to keep the sun moving, the rain falling, and to stop climate change. The widespread dissatisfaction of the people who were unfortunate enough to be the source of these sacrifices played an important part in the success of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

The existence of climate variability in the past has long been an embarrassment to those who claim that all climate change is due to man and that man can control it. When I was a schoolboy, my textbooks on earth science showed a prominent "medieval warm period" at the time the Vikings settled Greenland, followed by a vicious "little ice age" that drove them out. So I was very surprised when I first saw the celebrated "hockey stick curve," in the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. I could hardly believe my eyes. Both the little ice age and the Medieval Warm Period were gone, and the newly revised temperature of the world since the year 1000 had suddenly become absolutely flat until the last hundred years when it shot up like the blade on a hockey stick. This was far from an obscure detail, and the hockey stick was trumpeted around the world as evidence that the end was near. We now know that the hockey stick has nothing to do with reality but was the result of incorrect handling of proxy temperature records and incorrect statistical analysis. There really was a little ice age and there really was a medieval warm period that was as warm or warmer than today. I bring up the hockey stick as a particularly clear example that the IPCC summaries for policy makers are not dispassionate statements of the facts of climate change. It is a shame, because many of the IPCC chapters are quite good. The whole hockey-stick episode reminds me of the motto of Orwell's Ministry of Information in the novel "1984:" "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." The IPCC has made no serious attempt to model the natural variations of the earth's temperature in the past. Whatever caused these large past variations, it was not due to people burning coal and oil. If you can't model the past, where you know the answer pretty well, how can you model the future?

Many of us are aware that we are living in an ice age, where we have hundred-thousand-year intervals of big continental glaciers that cover much of the land area of the northern hemisphere, interspersed with relative short interglacial intervals like the one we are living in now. By looking at ice cores from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, one can estimate past temperatures and atmospheric concentrations of CO2. Al Gore likes to display graphs of temperature and CO2 concentrations over the past million years or so, showing that when CO2 rises, the temperature also rises. Doesn't this prove that the temperature is driven by CO2? Absolutely not! If you look carefully at these records, you find that first the temperature goes up, and then the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere goes up. There is a delay between a temperature increase and a CO2 increase of about 800 years. This casts serious doubt on CO2 as a climate driver because of the fundamental concept of causality. A cause must precede its effect. For example, I hear my furnace go on in the morning about six o'clock, and by about 7 o'clock, I notice that my house is now so warm that I have too many covers on my bed. It is time to get up. It would never occur to me to assume that the furnace started burning gas at 6 o'clock because the house got warm at 7 o'clock. Sure, temperature and gas burning are correlated, just like temperature and atmospheric levels of CO2. But the thing that changes first is the cause. In the case of the ice cores, the cause of increased CO2 is almost certainly the warming of the oceans. The oceans release dissolved CO2 when they warm up, just like a glass of beer rapidly goes flat in a warm room. If not CO2, then what really causes the warming at the end of the cold periods of ice ages? A great question and one of the reasons I strongly support research in climate.

I keep hearing about the "pollutant CO2," or about "poisoning the atmosphere" with CO2, or about minimizing our "carbon footprint." This brings to mind another Orwellian pronouncement that is worth pondering: "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." CO2 is not a pollutant and it is not a poison and we should not corrupt the English language by depriving "pollutant" and "poison" of their original meaning. Our exhaled breath contains about 4% CO2. That is 40,000 parts per million, or about 100 times the current atmospheric concentration. CO2 is absolutely essential for life on earth. Commercial greenhouse operators often use CO2 as a fertilizer to improve the health and growth rate of their plants. Plants, and our own primate ancestors evolved when the levels of atmospheric CO2 were about 1000 ppm, a level that we will probably not reach by burning fossil fuels, and far above our current level of about 380 ppm. We try to keep CO2 levels in our US Navy submarines no higher than 8,000 parts per million, about 20 time current atmospheric levels. Few adverse effects are observed at even higher levels.

We are all aware that "the green revolution" has increased crop yields around the world. Part of this wonderful development is due to improved crop varieties, better use of mineral fertilizers, herbicides, etc. But no small part of the yield improvement has come from increased atmospheric levels of CO2. Plants photosynthesize more carbohydrates when they have more CO2. Plants are also more drought-tolerant with more CO2, because they need not "inhale" as much air to get the CO2 needed for photosynthesis. At the same time, the plants need not "exhale" as much water vapor when they are using air enriched in CO2. Plants decrease the number of stomata or air pores on their leaf surfaces in response to increasing atmospheric levels of CO2. They are adapted to changing CO2 levels and they prefer higher levels than those we have at present. If we really were to decrease our current level of CO2 of around 400 ppm to the 270 ppm that prevailed a few hundred years ago, we would lose some of the benefits of the green revolution. Crop yields will continue to increase as CO2 levels go up, since we are far from the optimum levels for plant growth. Commercial greenhouse operators are advised to add enough CO2 to maintain about 1000 ppm around their plants. Indeed, economic studies like those of Dr. Robert Mendelsohn at Yale University project that moderate warming is an overall benefit to mankind because of higher agricultural yields and many other reasons.

I remember being forced to read Voltaire's novel, Candide, when I was young. You recall that Dr. Pangloss repeatedly assured young Candide that he was living in "the best of all possible worlds," presumably also with the best of all CO2 concentrations. That we are (or were) living at the best of all CO2 concentrations seems to be a tacit assumption of the IPCC executive summaries for policy makers. Enormous effort and imagination have gone into showing that increasing concentrations of CO2 will be catastrophic, cities will be flooded by sea-level rises that are ten or more times bigger than even IPCC predicts, there will be mass extinctions of species, billions of people will die, tipping points will render the planet a desert. A few months ago I read that global warming will soon bring on a devastating epidemic of kidney stones. If you write down all the ills attributed to global warming you fill up a very thick book.

Much is made about tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever devastating the populations of temperate climates because of the burning of fossil fuels and the subsequent warming of the earth. Many people who actually work with tropical diseases, notably Dr. Paul Reiter, a specialist on tropical diseases, have pointed out how silly all of this is. Perhaps I can add a few bits of history to illustrate this point. One of the first military expenditures of the Continental Congress in 1775 was $300 to purchase quinine for the Continental Army and to mitigate the effects of malaria. The Continental Congress moved from the then Capital of the United States , Philadelphia, to my home town of Princeton, New Jersey, in the summer of 1783 for two reasons. The first was that the Congress had not yet paid many soldiers of the Revolutionary War their promised wages, and disgruntled veterans were wandering up and down the streets of Philadelphia. Secondly, there were outbreaks of malaria in cities as far north as Boston. The Congress knew you were less likely to catch malaria in Princeton than in Philadelphia. In 1793 there was not only malaria, but a horrendous outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia. Many thousands of people died in a city with a population of about 50,000. And I should point out that Philadelphia was a bit cooler then than now, since the little ice age was just coming to an end. Controlling tropical diseases and many other diseases has little to do with temperature, and everything to do with curtailing the factors that cause the spread - notably mosquitoes in the case of malaria and yellow fever.

Many of the frightening scenarios about global warming come from large computer calculations, "general circulation models," that try to mimic the behavior of the earth's climate as more CO2 is added to the atmosphere. It is true that climate models use increasingly capable and increasingly expensive computers. But their predictions have not been very good. For example, none of them predicted the lack of warming that we have experienced during the past ten years. All the models assume the water feedback is positive, while satellite observations suggest that the feedback is zero or negative.

Modelers have been wrong before. One of the most famous modeling disputes involved the physicist William Thompson, later Lord Kelvin, and the naturalist Charles Darwin. Lord Kelvin was a great believer in models and differential equations. Charles Darwin was not particularly facile with mathematics, but he took observations very seriously. For evolution to produce the variety of living and fossil species that Darwin had observed, the earth needed to have spent hundreds of millions of years with conditions not very different from now. With his mathematical models, Kelvin rather pompously demonstrated that the earth must have been a hellish ball of molten rock only a few tens of millions of years ago, and that the sun could not have been shining for more than about 30 million years. Kelvin was actually modeling what he thought was global and solar cooling. I am sorry to say that a majority of his fellow physicists supported Kelvin. Poor Darwin removed any reference to the age of the earth in later editions of the "Origin of the Species." But Darwin was right the first time, and Kelvin was wrong. Kelvin thought he knew everything but he did not know about the atomic nucleus, radioactivity and nuclear reactions, all of which invalidated his elegant modeling calculations.

This brings up the frequent assertion that there is a consensus behind the idea that there is an impending disaster from climate change, and that it may already be too late to avert this catastrophe, even if we stop burning fossil fuels now. We are told that only a few flat-earthers still have any doubt about the calamitous effects of continued CO2 emissions. There are a number of answers to this assertion.

First, what is correct in science is not determined by consensus but by experiment and observations. Historically, the consensus is often wrong, and I just mentioned the incorrect consensus of modelers about the age of the earth and the sun. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 in Philadelphia the medical consensus was that you could cure almost anything by bleeding the patient. Benjamin Rush, George Washington's Surgeon General during the War of Independence, and a brave man, stayed in Philadelphia throughout the yellow fever epidemic. He worked tirelessly to save the stricken by bleeding them, the consensus treatment of the day. A few cautious observers noticed that you were more likely to survive the yellow fever without the services of the great man. But Dr. Rush had plenty of high level-friends and he was backed up by the self-evident consensus, so he went ahead with his ministrations. In summary, a consensus is often wrong.

Secondly, I do not think there is a consensus about an impending climate crisis. I personally certainly don't believe we are facing a crisis unless we create one for ourselves, as Benjamin Rush did by bleeding his patients. Many others, wiser than I am, share my view. The number of those with the courage to speak out is growing. There may be an illusion of consensus. Like the temperance movement one hundred years ago the climate-catastrophe movement has enlisted the mass media, the leadership of scientific societies, the trustees of charitable foundations, and many other influential people to their cause. Just as editorials used to fulminate about the slippery path to hell behind the tavern door, hysterical op-ed's lecture us today about the impending end of the planet and the need to stop climate change with bold political action. Many distinguished scientific journals now have editors who further the agenda of climate-change alarmism. Research papers with scientific findings contrary to the dogma of climate calamity are rejected by reviewers, many of whom fear that their research funding will be cut if any doubt is cast on the coming climate catastrophe. Speaking of the Romans, then invading Scotland in the year 83, the great Scottish chieftain Calgacus is quoted as saying "They make a desert and call it peace." If you have the power to stifle dissent, you can indeed create the illusion of peace or consensus. The Romans have made impressive inroads into climate science. Certainly, it is a bit unnerving to read statements of Dr. James Hansen in the Congressional Record that climate skeptics are guilty of "high crimes against humanity and nature."

Even elementary school teachers and writers of children's books are enlisted to terrify our children and to promote the idea of impending climate doom. Having observed the education of many children, including my own, I am not sure how effective the effort will be. Many children seem to do just the opposite of what they are taught. Nevertheless, children should not be force-fed propaganda, masquerading as science. Many of you may know that in 2007 a British Court ruled that if Al Gore's book, "An Inconvenient Truth," was used in public schools, the children had to be told of eleven particularly troubling inaccuracies. You can easily find a list of the inaccuracies on the internet, but I will mention one. The court ruled that it was not possible to attribute hurricane Katrina to CO2. Indeed, had we taken a few of the many billions of dollars we have been spending on climate change research and propaganda and fixed the dykes and pumps around the New Orleans, most of the damage from Hurricane Katrina could have been avoided.

The sea level is indeed rising, just as it has for the past 20,000 years since the end of the last ice age. Fairly accurate measurements of sea level have been available since about 1800. These measurements show no sign of any acceleration. The rising sea level can be a serious local problem for heavily-populated, low-lying areas like New Orleans, where land subsidence compounds the problem. But to think that limiting CO2 emissions will stop sea level rise is a dangerous illusion. It is also possible that the warming seas around Antarctica will cause more snowfall over the continent and will counteract the sea-level rise. In any case, the rising sea level is a problem that needs quick local action for locations like New Orleans rather than slow action globally.

In closing, let me say again that we should provide adequate support to the many brilliant scientists, some at my own institution of Princeton University, who are trying to better understand the earth's climate, now, in the past, and what it may be in the future. I regret that the climate-change issue has become confused with serious problems like secure energy supplies, protecting our environment, and figuring out where future generations will get energy supplies after we have burned all the fossil fuel we can find. We should not confuse these laudable goals with hysterics about carbon footprints. For example, when weighing pluses and minuses of the continued or increased use of coal, the negative issue should not be increased atmospheric CO2, which is probably good for mankind. We should focus on real issues like damage to the land and waterways by strip mining, inadequate remediation, hazards to miners, the release of real pollutants and poisons like mercury, other heavy metals, organic carcinogens, etc. Life is about making decisions and decisions are about trade-offs. The Congress can choose to promote investment in technology that addresses real problems and scientific research that will let us cope with real problems more efficiently. Or they can act on unreasonable fears and suppress energy use, economic growth and the benefits that come from the creation of national wealth.

William Happer is the Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics at Princeton University where his main areas of focus have been on atomic, molecular and optical physics. His professional work has been in studying the interactions of visible and infrared radiation with gases -- one of the main physical phenomena behind the greenhouse effect.

Posted by impoetryious at 01:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Bush Administration authorized use of insects in interrogations   

The Bush Administration Office of Legal Counsel authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to put insects inside a confinement box as part of the Administration's "harsh interrogation" practice, as well as throwing detainees into walls, according to memos released by President Barack Obama on Thursday.

Read the full memos here.

"You would like to place Zubadayah in a cramped confinement box with an insect. You have informed us he has a fear of insects," the Bush White House said.

"As we understand it, no actually harmful insect will be placed in the box. Thus, though the introduction of an insect may produce trepidation in Zubaydah (which we discuss below), it certainly does not cause physical pain."

But, the memo cautioned, to comply with the law, the CIA "must inform him that the insects will not have a sting that would produce death or severe pain."

Part of the text beneath a description of the insect torture was redacted.

Time's Michael Scherer notes, "The insect interrogation technique, as it turned out, was never used by the CIA, according to a second declassified memo released Thursday. 'We understand that — for reasons unrelated to any concerns that it might violate the [criminal] statute — the CIA never used the technique and has removed it from the list of authorized interrogation techniques,' wrote Steven Bradbury, a principal deputy assistant attorney general, in the footnote to a on May 10, 2005 document."

Detailed description of 'walling' detainees

It also provides a detailed description of "walling," a practice in which detainees were thrown against walls as part of the interrogation process (one detainee said his neck was tied with a towel and thrown against a plywood wall in a recently leaked Red Cross report).

"For walling, a flexible false wall will be constructed. The individual is placed with his heels touching the wall. The interrogator pulls the individual forward and then quickly and firmly pushes the individual into the wall. It is the individual's shoulder blades that hit the wall.

"During this motion, the head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a c-collar effect to help prevent whiplash. To further reduce the probability of injury, the individual is allowed to rebound from the flexible wall. You have orally informed us that the false wall is in part constructed to create a loud sound when the individual hits it, which will further shock or surprise in the individual. In part, the idea is to create a sound that will make the impact seem far worse than it is and that will be far worse than any injury that might result from the action."

The White House lawyers characterized this practice as "rough handling."

"While walling involves what might be characterized as rough handling, it does not involve the threat of imminent death or, as discussed above, the infliction of severe physical pain. Moreover, once again we understand that use of this technique will not be accompanied by any specific verbal threat that violence will ensue absent cooperation. Thus, like the facial slap, walling can only constitute a threat of severe physical pain if a reasonable person would infer such a threat from the use of the technique itself. Walling does not in and of itself inflict severe pain or suffering."

As part of the release of the memos Thursday, the Justice Department said they would provide attorneys to any CIA interrogator who engaged in the practice thinking it was lawful under the aegis of the memo.

According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, writing earlier this year, former Bush officials may find themselves in hot water over one of the memos released Thursday.

"An internal Justice Department report on the conduct of senior lawyers who approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics is causing anxiety among former Bush administration officials," Isikoff wrote. "H. Marshall Jarrett, chief of the department's ethics watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), confirmed last year he was investigating whether the legal advice in crucial interrogation memos 'was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys.' According to two knowledgeable sources who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters, a draft of the report was submitted in the final weeks of the Bush administration. It sharply criticized the legal work of two former top officials—Jay Bybee and John Yoo—as well as that of Steven Bradbury, who was chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the time the report was submitted, the sources said. (Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)"

"The matter is under review," Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller is quoted as saying.

Read the full memos here.

Source:http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_Administration_authorized_use_of_insects_0416.html

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It's official: No U.S. prosecution of Bush officials

Bad news for anyone hoping that President Obama might still be open to the possibility of prosecution of high-level Bush officials: It ain't gonna happen.

That much was close to being certain before the torture memos were released Thursday. But the statement from Obama released with those shocking memos included this sentence: "In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution."

By singling out CIA interrogators to assure them they will not be subject to federal prosecution, I thought perhaps he was leaving room for future prosecution of higher ups. Given that he released such explosive materials almost without redactions, I thought perhaps he might allow himself to be influenced by shifting popular sentiment.

Nope: Obama's right-hand man, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, explicitly rejected that possibility this morning on ABC's This Week. Emanuel said that the president believes Bush officials "should not be prosecuted either and that's not the place that we go." Not that that should surprise anyone: Obama said as much from almost his first day in office, when he told reporters he wasn't interested in a proposed Capitol Hill "truth commission."

That commission, of course, still hasn't happened, as our elected representatives reach across the aisle to block any prosecution suggestions.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina: "I think it would be disaster to go back and try to prosecute a lawyer for giving legal advice that you disagreed with to a former president."

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri: "I don't think we want to look in the rearview mirror."

It ain't gonna happen.

-Jeremy Gantz

Source: http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/04/its-official-no-us-prosecution-of-bush-officials/

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Obama suggests Cuba release political prisoners

By BEN FELLER
 

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - President Barack Obama on Sunday suggested that Cuba release its political prisoners and defended his highly publicized handshakes with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, closing an overseas trip that he said heralded a new start in U.S. ties with Latin America.

Obama said the exchanges with Cuba and Venezuela provide "an opportunity for frank dialogue on a range of issues, including critical issues of democracy and human rights throughout the hemisphere." And yet, he quickly added, "the test for all of us is not simply words but also deeds."

Earlier this week, the Obama administration lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans who want to travel and send money to their island homeland and freed U.S. telecommunications companies to seek business there. Havana responded, saying it was open to talks on issues including human rights - a topic long held off-limits.

Obama, speaking to reporters at a closing news conference at the Summit of the Americas, suggested that Cuba could further respond by releasing political prisoners and cutting fees on the money that Cuban-Americans send to their families.

The U.S. president brushed aside Republican condemnation of his friendly exchanges with Chavez. He said Venezuela has a defense budget about one-six hundredth the size of the United States' and noted that it owns the oil company Citgo "It's hard to believe we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States" by talking with Chavez, he said.

The trip was Obama's first presidential journey to the region, and he said the meeting of heads of state had the potential to create greater progress on economic progress, climate control and immigration.

As he did on a recent trip to Europe, Obama stressed in Latin America that the United States is a willing partner, "inclined to listen and not just talk," in trying to advance national interests.

"We recognize that other countries have good ideas, too, and we want to hear them," he said, adding that the fact that an idea comes "from a small country, like Costa Rica," should not diminish its potential benefit.

Besides the discussion about Cuba, which was not invited to the summit, his trip was dominated by images of his handshakes with Chavez, the leftist president of Venezuela who once likened President George W. Bush to the devil. Chavez approached Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the summit and said he was restoring his nation's ambassador in Washington, voicing hopes for a new era in relations.

The Venezuelan leader told reporters he will propose Roy Chaderton, his ambassador to the Organization of American States, as the country's new representative in a move toward improving strained ties with Washington.

"We ratify our willingness to begin what has started: cementing new relations," Chavez said in remarks broadcast on state television. "We have the very strong willingness to work together."

Chavez, an ally of Cuba, a U.S. nemesis, expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, in September in solidarity with leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales, who ordered out the top U.S. diplomat in his country.

Obama welcomed the remarks from both Chavez and Cuban President Raul Castro.

Reminded that he had once favored lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, Obama sidestepped.

"The policy we've had in place for 50 years has not worked," he told reporters. "The Cuban people are not free."

He said freedom of speech and freedom of religions are important "and not something to be brushed aside."

In Washington, both Democrats and Republicans said Sunday that they wanted to see actions, not just rhetoric, from Cuba.

"Release the prisoners and we'll talk to you. ... Put up or shut up," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"I think we're taking the right steps, and I think the ball is now clearly in Cuba's court," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. "They need to respond and say what they're willing to do."

Former Central Intelligence Director Michael Hayden, an official in the Bush administration, expressed caution about any changes in U.S. relations with Venezuela.

"Here's a case where I would watch for behavior, not for rhetoric, and the behavior of President Chavez over the past years has been downright horrendous - both internationally and with regard to what he's done internally inside Venezuela."

Central American leaders who met with Obama said they pressed him on immigration reform. They also said that Obama promised to consider providing better notice before the U.S. deports dangerous criminals back to their nations.

Even Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega, a critic of U.S. policy, said he found Obama receptive to dealing with the issues raised. Ortega said Obama "is the president of an empire" that has rules the president cannot change. Nevertheless, Ortega said, "I want to believe that he's inclined, that he's got the will."

Yet the summit's final declaration carried just one signatory: the host country's prime minister, Patrick Manning.

Chavez and allies including Nicaragua and Bolivia refused to sign chiefly because they want Cuba reinstated the Organization of American States, which suspended it in 1962.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil said he was pleased that what "many people thought would end in a battle royale" over Cuba and other issues ended with the United States and Latin America "creating a new way of looking at each other, of defeating our differences, of debating them with much maturity."

As for Obama, da Silva expressed satisfaction in the knowledge that the new U.S. president was "fully immersed in Latin America" for a weekend.

Hayden, Graham and McCaskill spoke on "Fox News Sunday."

---

Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker in Caracas, Venezuela, and Frank Bajak and Alan Clendenning in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, contributed to this report.

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Iran leader sparks walkout at UN over Israel

GENEVA – Dozens of Western diplomats walked out of a U.N. conference and a pair of rainbow-wigged protesters threw clown noses at Iran's president Monday when the hard-line leader called Israel the "most cruel and repressive racist regime."

The United States decried the remarks by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as hateful — reinjecting tension into a relationship that had been warming after President Barack Obama sought to engage Iran in talks on its nuclear program and other issues.

Ahmadinejad — the first government official to take the floor at the weeklong event in Geneva — delivered a rambling, half-hour speech that was by turns conciliatory and inflammatory. At one point he appealed for global unity in the fight against racism and then said the United States and Europe helped establish Israel after World War II at the expense of Palestinians.

"They resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering," he said.

Jewish groups had lobbied heavily for a boycott of the conference, warning it could descend into anti-Semitism or other anti-Israel rhetoric, which marred the last such conference eight years ago in South Africa.

The meeting turned chaotic almost from the start when the two wigged protesters tossed the red clown noses at Ahmadinejad as he began his speech with a Muslim prayer. A Jewish student group from France said it had been trying to convey "the masquerade that this conference represents."

One of the protesters shouted "You are a racist!" before he and the other demonstrator were taken away by security.

Ahmadinejad interjected: "I call on all distinguished guests to forgive these ignorant people. They don't have enough information."

During his speech, he accused Israel of being the "most cruel and repressive racist regime" and blamed the U.S. invasion of Iraq on a Zionist conspiracy.

At the first mention of Israel, about 40 diplomats from Britain and France and other European Union countries exited the room.

Most of his remarks were not new but their timing and high profile could complicate U.S. efforts to improve ties with Iran. Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., denounced what he called "the Ahmadinejad spectacle."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, asked by reporters about Ahmadinejad's remarks, replied: "Obviously, the president disagrees vehemently with what was said, as, from some of the video I saw, so did many others."

Gibbs said it proved that the United States was right to boycott the conference. Germany, Italy and at least six other countries also refused to attend the event, which began on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"We call on the Iranian leadership to show much more measured, moderate, honest and constructive rhetoric when dealing with issues in the region, and not this type of vile, hateful, inciteful speech that we all saw," Wolff said at the U.N. in New York.

Later, about 100 members of mainly pro-Israel and Jewish groups tried to block Ahmadinejad's entrance to a scheduled news conference.

In a milder protest, Jewish groups outside the venue read out some of the names of the 6 million who died in the Holocaust.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Ahmadinejad before his speech and said he had counseled the Iranian leader to avoid dividing the conference. Ban later said he was disappointed the speech was used "to accuse, divide and even incite," directly opposing the aim of the meeting.

"It was a very troubling experience for me as a secretary-general," he said. "It was a totally unacceptable situation."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the speech and Ban's meeting with Ahmadinejad.

"It is unfortunate that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deemed it appropriate to meet with the greatest Holocaust denier of our time," the Foreign Ministry said. "This matter is especially severe, as it took place on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day."

Ahmadinejad has been praised by some in the Muslim world for his attacks on Israel. The hard-liner has often used international forums to criticize Israel.

Most Muslim delegations in Geneva declined to comment, but Pakistan said the protesters were wrong to interrupt Ahmadinejad.

"If we actually believe in freedom of expression, then he has the right to say what he wants to say," Ambassador Zamir Akram told The Associated Press. "There were things in there that a lot of people in the Muslim world would be in agreement with, for example the situation in Palestine, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, even if they don't agree with the way he said it."

While the speech was interrupted several times by cheers from the large Iranian delegation, it may not be well-received among many others in Iran, which is suffering from high inflation and unemployment partly as a result of its global isolation. Many have criticized Ahmadinejad, who is up for re-election in June, for spending too much time on anti-Israel and anti-Western rhetoric and not enough on the country's economy.

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Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper and Eliane Engeler in Geneva, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Posted by impoetryious at 12:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Bioengineering and the Fate of Africa

What Is Biodiversity? Biodiversity is defined as “the variety of all forms of life, from genes to species, through to the broad scale of ecosystems” ("Biodiversity," 2003).  From this definition we include all of Africa’s agriculture and native species of plants, which means that any change in the African environment results in a change in biodiversity. But how exactly do GMO crops change or have the potential to change African biodiversity?  There are few possibilities: the development of a super weed, extinction of native crops, and the adaptability of pests.

     One of the most prominent concerns is that the growth of GMO crops will produce a “super weed."  The opponent of GMO crops concerns stem from the claims that have been made of GMO crops. These crops have been advertised as “improving crop yields and reducing crop lost” (McDonald, 2004). This enhancement was brought about through the altering of the plants' DNA to increase their resilience and make them immune to drought and disease. 

     The concern is that this modification can be passed to other non target crops which could mutate them into super weeds.  By possessing this gene the weed would be more resilient and harder to clear out of fields. The development of these "Super Weeds" would make farming more difficult, and also threaten delicate plants in other parts of Africa. The threat is becoming worse; some of GMO crops that are coming onto the market are now being enhanced with Roundup pesticide resistance. If these crops passed the resistance gene to weeds, then they would be almost unstoppable.

     Another problem of the growth of GMO crops is the possibility that they could wipe out the native crops of Africa. This problem stems from the common practice of artificial selection. The artificial selection happens at harvest time when a farmer goes through his crop selecting the biggest and best of his crop to be used as seeds for the next planting. When this practice is continued for a few seasons the seeds that are inferior are eliminated and the farmer gets a bigger yield. 

     The method only becomes a problem when GMO and non GMO seeds are mixed. The modified seeds will grow the biggest and yield the most produce and will be selected for planting the next crop--but they are engineered to be sterile and can't germinate. Logic holds that by mixing the GMO seeds and the selection method could “lead to the extinction of native stocks” (Marsh, 2002). Unfortunately for scientists, the loss of native genetic material could even lead to the extinction of bioengineering, as they return to endemic species in order to create more GMOs  (Marsh, 2002).  

     From Fig. 1, it is easy to see that Africa is a biodiverse nation with many threatened plants. Native plant stocks, which are already troubled by rapid deforestation and population growth, could be devastated by GMOs. This could lead to more starvation in Africa and other economic and social issues, which will be discussed later. The scariest part of this diagram is the fact that the country in blue (the most biodiverse) is South Africa, the only place where GM crops are grown commercially.

     The mixing of seeds may have already begun. A study done in South Africa found that “Of the 58 products selected and sampled randomly, 44 tested positive for the presence of GM” (Viljoen, 2006 ).  GMO fields must be completely isolated in order to prevent gene transfer, which is impossible. To test the transfer of genes over distances, two studies were conducted with alfalfa crops.“Both studies indicated that although gene flow can be detected over 1500 feet from the pollen source, and is reduced to less than 0.5% at 900 feet and less than 0.2% at distances greater than 1500 feet.” (Deynze, 2004)  While this might not sound like a far distance, it takes up a circumference of 9420 ft.  This is unfeasible situation for Africa, where crop land is at a premium.

    Critics of GMO crops have also questioned the wisdom of switching from dusting their crops with pesticide to growing crops with pesticide in its genes.  Scientists believe that by incorporating Bacillus thuringiensis into the crop insects will better adapt to the bacteria.  This is not an unlikely concept since insects that survive pesticide applications will often have offspring that are resistant to those pesticides (Ando, 2000). This would eliminate a useful pesticide for farmers, especially useful for organic farmers who are limited in pesticide choices na doften use Bt.  If insects did adapt to Bt then farmers would have to switch harsher pesticides that would kill non targeted species, harming Africa’s biodiversity In contrast, the relatively safe Bt is "harmful only to members of a single family of insects: Lepidoptera” (Ando, 2000).

     It seems that GMOs are only solutions to the problems that modern agriculture has presented. Where monocropping is present, farmers often have more difficulties with pests and disease. The circle of destruction continues as farmers use GMOs and the accompanying pesticides to temporarily relieve the stress of monocroppping on the environment. It is unwise to utilize technology that is only a quick fix for problems that should be addressed by teaching Africans more stable methods of farming. Sustainable farms include many varities of plants, and could help with the Africa's biodiversity issues. 

Posted by impoetryious at 12:07 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)