The power you gave them...

"The power you gave them to torture me, rape me ... search me naked and to present me in court, I am dead....

I was dead the first time I was raped.

...I do not consider you a judge, a court!...

This country [USA]. Leave me alone or send me back to my country Pakistan."

-Dr. Aafia Siddiqui during court hearing Feb 2010

I do not wish to preach to the choir on the issue of Aafia Siddiqui: I have blogged several times on her plight. For those of you who are unfamiliar, click on one of the following links and read the first two paragraphs in any one. My purpose here is to get those who are too busy, just living, to ask questions about their own responsibility as to their role in creating governments who have such power and such control over the media, as to inflict upon a person, that which Aafia Siddiqui has, so far, suffered.

• Was neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui raped and tortured at US Bagram prison?
• US 'dark side' raised in Pakistani scientist case
• Aafia Siddiqui - Again and again and again..
• Update - Aafia Siddiqui
• Aafia Siddiqui was indeed Prisoner 650

My purpose here is to present for all readers the opportunity to awaken in themselves compassion, and courage to take back the power they have given away to their repressive governments, in many countries.

If the people lead, the government must follow. -anon

Before we can run we must walk, and before we walk we must crawl. First though, we must desire to move; and if in tiny episodes of awareness and compassion, we must crawl toward controlling our governments, then I hope Aafia's story is the beginning of a beginning for more and more people. A moment of curiosity is all it takes to stir the best in human nature. All that is required is a willingness to be aware.

Today is Good Friday, the day on which Jesus was crucified. Though I do not celebrate Holy Days in the traditional sense, including Easter and Christmas, I always like to have a good think about the meaning of the event the holiday commemorates.

Many people have been crucified, physically and symbolically, through abuse of power throughout history. They lie in unknown graves,vanquished and anonymous, the pain which they suffered consigned to oblivion. They have been the victims of power weilded by those who wish to rule as much of the universe as they can manage. We shall never know them all.

If the lament of Good Friday is anything, it is the sadness we feel that Jesus, duly convicted in a court of law, was executed on Good Friday for his policy of preaching love and forgiveness. Sedition was his crime. He was convicted by the people themselves and meted the horrible death He suffered, by the people.

I think this should raise some questions in our collective psyche about the individual integrity that is required for a democracy to function for 'good' instead of 'evil'.

I hope this story of Aafia awakens in us the power we possess, unused, to create a better world for our children.


Links for Aafia's recent US trial:

Justice for Aafia

10 Steps to end democracy - Naomi Wolf

Revenge of the bees: watch and learn

Feeling powerless and helpless as a single force for change in the world? Think you little input doesn't matter because you are just one person?

Take a lesson from the bees. One bee sting might hurt: many might cause death. The bees have their thing together when it comes to defending their homes. I had thought humans were supposed to be smarter than bees?

Rescue workers attacked by bees
after truck carrying beehives crashes

Click above url to view video

Compassionate existentialism: don't fuck with us

Well I am not going to post an informative article or even a distraction from the chaos in which we are living. I am only going to say that I am totally disgusted with the situation in which we find ourselves today.

First, I would love to blame someone - where the feck is a scape goat when you need one? There are plenty of candidates:

First, the elite 'masters of the universe' including bankers, multi-national corporations, and the entire capitalistic structure that participates in creating much for the few and little for the many. There is no sophisticated philosophical justification for this: the powerful do what they do, because they can. The goal of power is power, getting it, keeping it and defending it. It's not rocket science. And might makes right.

Second I would like to blame the common people who make all this possible with their stampeding mentality right over the cliff - into consumer zombie land. Me Me Me, More More More, Now Now Now. One has to admire the effectiveness of corporate marketing in its ability to turn human beings into little profit units. They are to be congratulated because they have succeeded in replacing human creativity with material acquisition.

Many argue that the media has taken over managing the populace to such an extent, that it is not the people's fault. Proganda is all we ever get via the main media..our perceptions of the world are entirely created by an electronic box. Lies to manipulate the public, in this way or that way, the elite media cowboys round up the herd in the direction of the market where profits are the highest.

Who is responsible for a lie? Is the liar or the believer of a lie more culpable? Suppose someone lied about you...and someone else believed it,resulting in bad things happening? Certainly the person who told the lie would be guilty; but, what about the person who believed the lie swallowing it whole?
Don't we have a responsibility to evaluate what we hear? I always thought there was something called intellectual intregity in giving fair consideration to opposing premises; by which we determine the survival of ourselves and others. People who want freedom cannot expect it if too lazy to develop a healthy crtical faculty in determining the 'truth'.

When I think of all the years I was duped into being the kind of person advertising told me I should be, from Ozzie and Harriett to Mary Tyler Moore and Posh, it's difficult to hold others in contempt of being duped by commercial culture after having fallen victim to its allure myself.

Feck it. Both are guilty...that is to say responsible.
What to do? What to do?

I prefer to take the existentialist way out; maybe its a cop out, but no more or less so, than anyone else's method. The universe is a chaotic mess with no reason to chose one 'truth' over another (since humans like to think that all truth must be reason-based; and since reason is naught but a high class whore).

So I am trapped into deciding my own truth, not necessarily reason based. How nice - I have a choice. After giving this a great deal of thought and attention, I have found the winner: something I can commit myself to whether it makes sense or not.

Compassion. It is the only quality that if it did not exist, there would be no reason for human beings to exist, for me anyway. Compassion seems to be what has been drained out of us to be good little competitive zombies. Everyone knows the webs of rational argument that are spun from a 'ME first, and feck YOU' attitude about others in society and, indeed, on every intimate level.

Compassion is the bedrock of love. And I can't live in a world without one or the other.

I can hear the realist whines already: Try using compassion to stop someone bombing women and children! Try using compasssion to reason with your boss that you need your job! Try using compassion to stop a bullet passing through your body!

Ok ok. I said I am committed to compassion: I did not say I am a delusional wimp. As hard as I try, I cannot turn the other cheek to the intentional cruelty and horrow inflicted on the innocent by brutes of the elite. Those who use others mercilessly for the advancement of their own agendas by virtue of might, must be found with might. Because they have not consciences. Because they have not compassion.

Might must be met with might. One does not reason to compassion - the compassion challenged have little incentive to change unless their agendas are interrupted. And this takes power. Power of united action, or even single acts of great courage must stay the agendas of the 'masters of the universe', who consign the fate of humans to the utilitarian profitibility serving their strategies. Yes, power must stop power.

Bloodshed though is not the appropriate response to power mongers oppression and lies....I do not believe in violence. Violence begets violence. Instead I find the concept of non-compliance, Ghandhi-esque, quite attractive. Even a few million elite masters of banking, war and international trade.....cannot control billions if the the billions do not agreed to be controlled.

I propose general strikes...shut down governments, multi-nationals, communications, and trade. Stay home - and do nothing. If only 30% of the population of any country employed this strategy, the people would scare the big dogs shiteless and regain power over a world where most feel totally impotent to chart a better course for the planet and species.

There are not enough jails or personnel drag 30% of a population from their homes and imprison them for doing nothing!! No bloodshed, no violence, no protesting....just non-compliance.

Compassionate existentialists can be extremely dangerous. Big dogs better take note: or we will just organise everyone to do nothing! And then who will do the labour in your big capitalist machine?

Man demolishes house before repo

With all the tragic foreclosures going on, it's nice to see at least one person getting some satisfaction from losing his home to the bank. My guess is this: if people were going to destroy their homes before the bank reposessed them, the banks would be much more flexible. Or maybe, the destruction of foreclosed homes would help to stem the glut of homes on the market, meaning that the bottom of the housing bubble might finally arrive.

In either case, it's refreshing to see one man who refused to walk away with nothing, not even satisfaction.

Enjoy the video. Read article here

Double, double, toil and trouble...

'Double, double, toil and trouble: Fire, burn, and cauldron, bubble.'
-The Witches, 4.1, Macbeth

Not in eighty years have the conditions for global revolution been so ripe. A glance at the following thirteen headlines, taken together, should be enough to alarm anyone with synaptic activity that revolutionary consciousness is awakening internationally.

Why now? Because never has so much affluence been lost in the Western standard of living than in the period we are currently experiencing. And things will get worse. The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and the middle class is quickly disappearing.

The more protests and demonstrations, the better; the quicker the Masters of the Universe will get the message that they cannot rule people who are unwilling to be impoverished for the coffers of the Elite. Capitalism is dying an ugly death; but in the end, people will not care about ideology - they will care about the decline in the stardard of living to which they have become accustomed.

People are about to change the Darwinistic political/economic paradigm that has dominated earth for so long. And there will be blood.

Truly wise Masters of the Universe would act now to eliminate the suffering of ordinary people. However, it does seem we are ruled by madmen. Time for a challenge to the status quo; and the cauldron is seething.

Injustice boils in men's hearts as does steel in its cauldron,
ready to pour forth,white hot,
in the fullness of time. -Mother Jones

European farmers protest to demand help on milk prices

May 26, 2009

Furious farmers have blockaded roads and forced a halt to production at scores of dairies as part of Europe-wide protests designed to reverse a slump in the wholesale price of milk.

As they gathered on Monday, European Union farm ministers met to discuss the crisis, with nations divided over those wanting the quota system, set to be scrapped within six years, maintained in one form or another.

In Brussels, farm tractors blocked major roads in the city's European quarter, where police said about 900 demonstrators had rallied to make their voices heard by the agriculture ministers.

Riot police were seen trying to hold back the protesters, who converged on the Belgian capital from 10 countries, but the farmers broke through their barricade, despite receiving truncheon blows from some officers. Read entire article

FACTBOX-Trade union activity in Western Europe

May 28, 2009

Unions across Europe protesting. Read entire article

Civil Unrest

Michael C. Ruppert
27/02/09

It Seems as if The World is Holding Its Breath for Obama's change...

Already devastated by auto layoffs and other massive corporate failures, Ohio's industrial areas border and are in close proximity to Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Lots of kindling in those states. At the same time as Ohio is devastated by DHL, auto and other layoffs, much of the nation's high-tech wind turbine industry in Ohio is also shutting down at the same time... just when we need it. The snake eats its own tail for nutrition. It is the way money works... for now.

Civil unrest in Ohio could easily infect across state lines here, and cross another fault line that runs east and west, separating north from south; the Mason Dixon. Other earthquakes might be triggered. Eastward from Ohio are Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I wonder how much inter-agency advance planning DHS and FEMA have gone through so that they might operate fluidly across many borders, radio frequencies and jurisdictions. Those contingencies were planned for in the Patriot Act which congress didn't or couldn't read before voting on it. Read article

George Soros, the man who broke the Bank,
sees a global meltdown

March 28, 2009

This recession, he explains, is a “once-in-a-lifetime event”, particularly in Britain. “This is a crisis unlike any other. It’s a total collapse of the financial system with tremendous implications for everyday life. On previous occasions when you had a crisis that was threatening the system the authorities intervened and did whatever was necessary to protect the system. This time they failed.” Read entire article

California's new budget proposal
slashes welfare, releases inmates

By Kevin Yamamura
The Sacramento Bee

In California's latest doom-and-gloom announcement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance on Tuesday proposed closing the state's main welfare program, releasing nonviolent prisoners one year early and shuttering up to 80 percent of state parks to shrink the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit. Read entire article

Amnesty Report Warns World on Verge of Global Unrest

29 May 2009

Amnesty International released its annual report yesterday, warning that that the world is on the verge of global unrest, with existing poverty severely worsened by the international economic crisis. In every major geographic area the report details conditions relating to social and economic insecurity, poverty and deprivation, and more. Read entire article

World Bank warns of social unrest

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned of the destabilising effects of unemployment.

The head of the World Bank has warned that the global economic crisis could lead to serious social upheaval.

"If we do no take measures, there is a risk of a serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications," Robert Zoellick said. Read entire article

Cities across the world become platform for hundreds of thousands of protesters against Gaza fighting

11th January 2009

Cities across the world became the platform for protest on Israel's military action in Gaza today.

Organisers said more than 250,000 people marched through Spain's capital of Madrid, with other European cities including Athens, Brussels, Rome, Naples Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin also the focal points of protesters.

The protest in Madrid was the largest of demonstrations across Europe, although there were expressions of both support and opposition for the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Read article; see photos

More EU protests planned over unemployment

May 15, 2009

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Protests are expected to continue in Brussels on Friday after tens of thousands marched on the streets of Spain's capital Thursday to demand better protection for workers hit hard by the economic crisis. Thousands take part in the Madrid demonstration, organized by the European Trade Confederation.

Dressed in funeral black to mourn the estimated 4 million jobless in Spain, demonstrators had a simple message for the government: Enough corporate bailouts; it's time to focus on the workers. Read article

Up to 100,000 demonstrate in Berlin for more job protection

16.05.2009

The protests came only two weeks after massive demonstrations on May 1. Up to 100,000 protestors have marched through the heart of Berlin, demanding the government do more to protect jobs during the recession. The rally was part of a series of protests across the European Union.

Trade union officials said 100,000 people took part in Berlin's protest, while police put the total at "several tens of thousands".

The rally was organized by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) as part of a series of four demonstrations across Europe with the motto "Fight the crisis. Europe needs a new social deal".

Amidst Germany's deepest recession since World War Two, unemployment has risen consecutively in the past 6 months and forecasts for the coming year are even bleaker. Demonstrators accused the government of putting big business first, and not doing enough to protect the people. Read entire article

Economic crisis damaging human rights, report says

ELITSA VUCHEVA
28.05.2009

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Human rights violations remained widespread across the world in 2008, including Europe, with the global economic crisis not only aggravating the existing problems, but creating new ones as well, human rights group Amnesty International's yearly report released on Thursday (28 May) shows.

"The global economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis. A combination of social, economic and political problems has created a [across the world]," said Irene Khan, the group's secretary general.

"There are growing signs of political unrest and violence, adding to the global insecurity that already exists because of deadly conflicts which the international community seems unable or unwilling to resolve. In other words: we are sitting on a powder keg of inequality, injustice and insecurity, and it is about to explode," she wrote in the introduction to Amnesty's report on the situation of human rights in the world. Read article

France NATO protesters, police clash; Michelle Obama hospital visit cancelled over security worries

April 4th 2009

STRASBOURG, France — Black-clad protesters attacked police and set a customs station ablaze Saturday on a bridge linking France and Germany that served hours earlier as the backdrop for a show of unity by NATO leaders.

AP photographers saw other protesters storm a nearby Ibis hotel, setting fires and pilfering alcohol from its bar.

Stacks of old tires were also set ablaze, unleashing thick plumes of black smoke that could be seen from across the river. Near the bonfire was a sign welcoming visitors to Strasbourg.

First lady Michelle Obama and other spouses canceled a visit to a cancer hospital out of concern for security, the French president's office said. Some 1,000 protesters were staked out near the hospital they were to visit.

Some of the protesters say they want an end to war and call NATO a tool of Western imperialism. Others simply appear bent on causing chaos. Read article

Civil Unrest in America?

José Miguel Alonso Trabanco
Global Research
March 9, 2009

The only thing that can be taken for granted and that one can be sure of is that the unthinkable has now become thinkable.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor and early supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, has warned that civil unrest on American soil is a possibility that should not be dismissed. Brzezinski explains that "[the United States is] going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America…" Brzezinski concludes with this noteworthy remark "…hell, there could be even riots"....

Professor Michel Chossudovsky observed that the US Army 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade Combat Team returned from Iraq some months ago. That information is extremely disturbing because such military unit "may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control", according to official sources. Now, what scenario could possibly require the operational deployment of said units on American soil? Professor Chossudovsky puts forward an intriguing hypothesis that must be borne in mind. He argues that "Civil unrest resulting from from the financial meltdown is a distinct possibility, given the broad impacts of financial collapse on lifelong savings, pension funds, homeownership, etc". Read full article

Some day the workers will take possession of your city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of profit! -Mother Jones

Stop hoping and Start demanding.

People talk alot about hope these days. Hope is not an unworthy emotion; in fact, you can't really live without it. But when hope becomes the excuse one clings to placing the burden of changing things on someone else, it is more an anesthetic than a commendable stance.

The article below by Naomi Klein cleverly puts this dreary miasma into focus. When we will decide to demand basic human rights? If the New World Order is coming, and surely it is, will people be its victims or it architects? Putting hope into action to demand that people's well being be the priority over banksters profits is the only way out. It requires moving from a victim's role to that of a responsible actor in creating the world.

Sometimes one has to stop begging the elite Big Dogs of society, 'Please help us and provide for us! Pretty please?', and start demanding, 'We will not tolerate for another moment this wreckage of your greed as a legacy for our children!' Until this happens, hope will be a toxin in the body politic rather the emergence of a better world.

‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

Network video clip

Hopebroken and Hopesick:
A Lexicon of Disappointment

By Naomi Klein
Source
April 17, 2009 "The Nation" -- All is not well in Obamafanland. It's not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury's latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama's silence during Israel's Gaza attack.

Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.

This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding.

The first stage, however, is to understand fully the awkward in-between space in which many US progressive movements find themselves. To do that, we need a new language, one specific to the Obama moment. Here is a start.

Hopeover. Like a hangover, a hopeover comes from having overindulged in something that felt good at the time but wasn't really all that healthy, leading to feelings of remorse, even shame. It's the political equivalent of the crash after a sugar high. Sample sentence: "When I listened to Obama's economic speech my heart soared. But then, when I tried to tell a friend about his plans for the millions of layoffs and foreclosures, I found myself saying nothing at all. I've got a serious hopeover."

Hoper coaster. Like a roller coaster, the hoper coaster describes the intense emotional peaks and valleys of the Obama era, the veering between joy at having a president who supports safe-sex education and despondency that single-payer healthcare is off the table at the very moment when it could actually become a reality. Sample sentence: "I was so psyched when Obama said he is closing Guantánamo. But now they are fighting like mad to make sure the prisoners in Bagram have no legal rights at all. Stop this hoper coaster-I want to get off!"

Hopesick. Like the homesick, hopesick individuals are intensely nostalgic. They miss the rush of optimism from the campaign trail and are forever trying to recapture that warm, hopey feeling-usually by exaggerating the significance of relatively minor acts of Obama decency. Sample sentences: "I was feeling really hopesick about the escalation in Afghanistan, but then I watched a YouTube video of Michelle in her organic garden and it felt like inauguration day all over again. A few hours later, when I heard that the Obama administration was boycotting a major UN racism conference, the hopesickness came back hard. So I watched slideshows of Michelle wearing clothes made by ethnically diverse independent fashion designers, and that sort of helped."

Hope fiend. With hope receding, the hope fiend, like the dope fiend, goes into serious withdrawal, willing to do anything to chase the buzz. (Closely related to hopesickness but more severe, usually affecting middle-aged males.) Sample sentence: "Joe told me he actually believes Obama deliberately brought in Summers so that he would blow the bailout, and then Obama would have the excuse he needs to do what he really wants: nationalize the banks and turn them into credit unions. What a hope fiend!"

Hopebreak. Like the heartbroken lover, the hopebroken Obama-ite is not mad but terribly sad. She projected messianic powers on to Obama and is now inconsolable in her disappointment. Sample sentence: "I really believed Obama would finally force us to confront the legacy of slavery in this country and start a serious national conversation about race. But now whenever he seems to mention race, he's using twisted legal arguments to keep us from even confronting the crimes of the Bush years. Every time I hear him say ‘move forward,' I'm hopebroken all over again."

Hopelash. Like a backlash, hopelash is a 180-degree reversal of everything Obama-related. Sufferers were once Obama's most passionate evangelists. Now they are his angriest critics. Sample sentence: "At least with Bush everyone knew he was an asshole. Now we've got the same wars, the same lawless prisons, the same Washington corruption, but everyone is cheering like Stepford wives. It's time for a full-on hopelash."

In trying to name these various hope-related ailments, I found myself wondering what the late Studs Terkel would have said about our collective hopeover. He surely would have urged us not to give in to despair. I reached for one of his last books, Hope Dies Last. I didn't have to read long. The book opens with the words: "Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up."

And that pretty much says it all. Hope was a fine slogan when rooting for a long-shot presidential candidate. But as a posture toward the president of the most powerful nation on earth, it is dangerously deferential. The task as we move forward (as Obama likes to say) is not to abandon hope but to find more appropriate homes for it-in the factories, neighborhoods and schools where tactics like sit-ins, squats and occupations are seeing a resurgence.

Political scientist Sam Gindin wrote recently that the labor movement can do more than protect the status quo. It can demand, for instance, that shuttered auto plants be converted into green-future factories, capable of producing mass-transit vehicles and technology for a renewable energy system. "Being realistic means taking hope out of speeches," he wrote, "and putting it in the hands of workers."

Which brings me to the final entry in the lexicon.

Hoperoots. Sample sentence: "It's time to stop waiting for hope to be handed down, and start pushing it up, from the hoperoots."

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and syndicated columnist and the author of the international and New York Times bestseller The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, now out in paperback. Visit her website http://www.naomiklein.org/

Cows with Guns - A sing along

This song is dedicated to all those too ignorant or mindless to understand what is happening around them until the very last moment (lyrics below with chords if you have a hankering to play the tune with your geetar). It includes cows, chickens, sheep, Americans, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Australians, Canadians, Mexicans, Russians and any other group who feel they would like to be included in this prestigious category.

When you are finished listening to the song, do have a look at the movie, the Obama Deception, here.
And good luck.

Cows With Guns

Copyright 1996 Lyons Brothers Music (BMI)
All Rights Reserved
Source

Intro
------
Am G Am

[Am]Fat and docile, big and dumb
They look so stupid, they aren't much fun
[G]Cows aren't [Am]fun


[Am]They eat to grow, grow to die
Die to be et at the hamburger fry
[G]Cows well [Am]done

[Am]Nobody thunk it, nobody knew
No one imagined the great cow guru
[G]Cows are [Am]one

[Am]He hid in the forest, read books with great zeal
He loved Che Guevera, a revolutionary veal
[G]Cow Tse [Am]Tongue

[Am]He spoke about justice, but nobody stirred
He felt like an outcast, alone in the herd
[G]Cow dol[Am]drums

[Am]He mooed we must fight, escape or we'll die
Cows gathered around, cause the steaks were so high

[G]Bad cow [Am]pun

[Am]But then he was captured, stuffed into a crate
Loaded onto a truck, where he rode to his fate
[G]Cows are [Am]bummed

[Am]He was a scrawny calf, who looked rather woozy
No one suspected he was packing an Uzi
[G]Cows with [Am]guns

[Am]They came with a needle to stick in his thigh
He kicked for the groin, he pissed in their eye
[G]Cow well [Am]hung

[Am]Knocked over a tractor and ran for the door
Six gallons of gas flowed out on the floor
[G]Run cows [Am]run!

He picked up a bullhorn and jumped up on the hay
We are free roving bovines, we run free today

We will [F]fight for bovine [C]freedom
And [E]hold our large heads [Am]high
We will [F]run free with the [C]Buffalo, or [E]die
Cows with [Am]guns

[Am]They crashed the gate in a great stampede
Tipped over a milk truck, torched all the feed
[G]Cows have [Am]fun

[Am]Sixty police cars were piled in a heap
Covered in cow pies, covered up deep
[G]Much cow [Am]dung

Black smoke rising, darkening the day
Twelve burning McDonalds, have it your way

We will [F]fight for bovine [C]freedom
And [E]hold our large heads [Am]high
We will [F]run free with the [C]Buffalo, or [E]die
Cows with [Am]guns

[Am]The President said "enough is enough
These uppity cattle, its time to get tough"
[G]Cow dung [Am]flung

[Am]The newspapers gloated, folks sighed with relief
Tomorrow at noon, they would all be ground beef
[G]Cows on [Am]buns

[Am]The cows were surrounded, they waited and prayed
They mooed their last moos,
they chewed their last hay
[G]Cows out[Am]gunned

The order was given to turn cows to whoppers

Enforced by the might of ten thousand coppers
But on the horizon surrounding the shoppers
Came the deafening roar of chickens in choppers

We will [F]fight for bovine [C]freedom
And [E]hold our large heads [Am]high
We will [F]run free with the [C]Buffalo, or [E]die

Cows with [Am]guns


Dana Lyons: Guitar and Vocals
With Mi Tierra Mariachi Band members:
Alberto Leyva: Vihuela
Rafael Leyva: Guitarron

Humpty Dumpty and the G20

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

There is wisdom in this old nursery rhyme for the G20 summit: one which will most likely go unheeded as those invested in capitalism try to glue the pieces back together. Anyone pinning their hopes on the G20 summit for relief from this Fat Cat, Big Dog economic meltdown of capitalism, had better keep their money in their pockets. Getting even three countries to agree on anything would be a minor miracle - 20 would require a cosmic reconstruction of the universe.

No doubt, the focus of the G20 Summit will be how to restore the capitalist system. But some things broken cannot not be fixed. We have all experienced such consequences: ever had to deal with infidelity of a partner? how about a car involved in a head on collision? Chances of repairing the damage of such events is close to nil. Sometimes the consequences of our destructive are irrevocable.

People of the world know this and are demonstrating and rioting in countries all over the world.
The big lie of capitalism has been revealed to all now and the international clamour for a system which puts people before profits is deafening. The fairy tale smokescreen has been blown away and nasty greed and callousness of an economic order designed for the benefit of the rich to become richer is laid bare for everyone on earth now. Yet, like addicts who seek to clean up and get healthy, we will suffer the painful withdrawal cleansing us of our illusions:change will come only after blood, tears and determination.

The words of the evil genius of our times, George Soros
, may be the writing on the wall.

The G20 summit in London next week is, he says, the last chance to avert disaster. “The odds would favour that it fails because there are such differences of opinion. It’s difficult enough to get it right in your own country let alone with 20 governments coming together, but if it’s a failure I think then the global financial and trading system falls apart.”

If the G20 is nothing but a talking shop then he thinks we are heading for meltdown. “That could push the world into depression. It’s really a make-or-break occasion. That’s why it’s so important.” The chances of a depression are, he says, “quite high” – even if that is averted, the recession will last a long time. “Look, we are not going back to where we came from. In that sense it’s going to last for ever.”

There is only one way out for us, trite tho it is: worker's of the world unite. And before our internet freedoms are curtailed by those who wish to retain control of people as labour commodities for their own benefit. The article below details the efforts of Europeans to begin the painful fight to take back planet earth from the Fat Cats who feel entitled to use the rest of us for their own purposes of power and greed.

Read and feel empowered: this process will take much courage.


G20 demonstrators march in London
Source with video and links

Tens of thousands of people have marched through London demanding action on poverty, climate change and jobs, ahead of next week's G20 summit.

The Put People First alliance of 150 charities and unions walked from Embankment to Hyde Park for a rally.

Speakers called on G20 leaders to pursue a new kind of global justice.

Police estimate 35,000 marchers took part in the event. Its organisers say people wanted the chance to air their views peacefully.

Protesters described a "carnival-like atmosphere" with brass bands, piercing whistles and stereos blasting music as the slow-paced procession weaved through the streets.

Police said one man was arrested during the march for being drunk and disorderly.

Unite union, general secretary Derek Simpson said: "I think it's an important message but whether it will get through to the people meeting in London I don't know. Anyone who sees the numbers on this march should realise how important it is."

G20 march in London
Protesters came from across the UK and around the world

Families with children in pushchairs were among those marching along the 4.2-mile route under banners with slogans including 'capitalists - you are the crisis' and 'justice for the world's poor'.

As protesters passed the heavily-policed gates of Downing Street, there were chants and jeers with one person shouting "enjoy the overtime".

BBC News reporter Mario Cacciottolo said people were clearly angry, but the atmosphere was not tense.

Milton McKenzie, 73, from Essex, told him: "How the hell can we have a situation here in Britain where we have people out of work and the bankers just cream it off and are helped by the government."

G20 LONDON SUMMIT
World leaders will meet next week in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See our in-depth guide to the G20 summit.
The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the US and the EU.

Italian trade unionist Nicoli Nicolosi, who had travelled from Rome, said: "We are here to try and make a better world and protest against the G20."

Glen Tarman, chairman of the Put People First co-ordination team, said: "An exciting alliance has been born today. We will keep up the pressure on world leaders and the UK government to address our demands and put people first."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said he wanted to see G20 leaders agree a plan of action to deal with the financial downturn.

"Where I hope we will see a consensus emerge is in the recognition that unless they act together, then the problems are only going to get worse.

"This, unlike any other recession, is a recession right across the world."

The Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said it was important for the G20 to make commitments on helping the environment as well as the economy.

"There are some people who will say you can either tackle the economic crisis or the climate crisis.

"But the truth is that both come together with this idea of a Green New Deal, of investing in the jobs of the future, which are going to be in the green industries of the future."

The director of the the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, said governments have caused the economic crisis.

Protesters with a model made out of money
Many protesters were calling for social justice

"The world market economy is actually a very moral system that raised a billion people out of poverty in the last 10 years," he said.

A huge security operation is under way in the run-up to the G20 summit, at which world leaders will discuss the global financial crisis and other issues.

There have been fears that banks and other financial institutions could be the focus for violent protests.

Commander Simon O'Brien, one of the senior command team in charge of policing security, said: "It's fair to say that this [the march] is one of the largest, one of the most challenging and one of the most complicated operations we have delivered.

"G20 is attracting a significant amount of interest from protest groups. There is an almost unprecedented level of activity going on."

Saturday's march will be followed by a series of protests on Wednesday and Thursday by a variety of coalitions and groups campaigning on a range of subjects, from poverty, inequality and jobs to war, climate change and capitalism.

Berlin march

Ahead of the summit, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been visiting a number of countries seeking support.

On Friday, during a visit to Chile, he said people should not be "cynical" about what could be achieved at next week's summit, saying he was optimistic about the likely outcome.

However, in an interview with Saturday's Financial Times, German Chancellor Angela Merkel dampened expectations of a significant breakthrough.

She said one meeting would not be enough to solve the economic crisis and finish building a new structure for global markets.

In Berlin, thousands of protesters have also taken to the streets with a message to the G20 leaders: "We won't pay for your crisis".

Another march took place in the city of Frankfurt. The demonstrations attracted as many as 20,000 people.

Banners accused the Germany government of being too willing to spend billions bailing out financial institutions and too slow to protect ordinary workers, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg said from Berlin.

Related:

Rescuing Socialism

Chinadaily BBS - World Affairs Today - Is Capitalism dying?

News you WANT to read - Bankers beware!

Hooray for the British, the French, the Irish and every country in which the citizens now rise up against the greed of the capitalist gluttons. Best news I have read in weeks. Much success to all who put their lives on the line to change the world. Put people first.

Bankers told keep low profile as public anger rises

Fri Mar 27, 2009
By Olesya Dmitracova
Source
LONDON (Reuters) - Leave the flash car at home, spend the night in a hotel, hire a bodyguard. This is the kind of advice security experts are giving bank executives who fear attacks from people angered by the financial crisis.

In London, where leaders of the world's largest economies will gather for a G20 summit next Thursday, the discontent may spill out into protests starting with a rally on Saturday that police expect will draw 40,000 demonstrators.

In France there have been cases of workers holding bosses hostage over layoffs and shut downs, while in Scotland a prominent banker's home was attacked. With these incidents in mind, police and security providers are getting ready for busy times.

One company, Control Risks, has seen its workload in Europe rise by 20 to 25 percent since November, director Sebastian Willis Fleming said, including more work with financial institutions.

Control Risks, like its competitor Kroll, helps companies plan security measures, including when they have to announce unpopular decisions, such as mass layoffs or office closures.

"Usually companies come to us in crisis," said Eden Mendel at Kroll. "The type of work that we are getting is much more geared as a response to the financial crisis."

Beyond advice, Kroll can provide bodyguards with background in specialist police forces.

"It will be interesting to see if, following the G20 and following the Fred Goodwin attack, we start seeing more and more financial services calling us," she added.

On Wednesday vandals smashed windows and damaged a car at the Edinburgh home of the 50-year-old former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland who refused to give up an estimated annual pension of about 700,000 pounds ($1 million) after the government rescued his bank.

Bankers in the United States also have reasons to take extra care after death threats were sent to some executives of American International Group, which paid out $220 million in bonuses despite being kept afloat by taxpayers' money.

British police say they are likely to deploy about 2,500 officers on London's streets during the G20 summit in reaction to intelligence suggesting the City of London financial district is one of the areas targeted by protesters.

Businesses have been advised to cancel non-essential meetings, stagger staff arrivals and departures and to warn staff "not to antagonize protestors."

The Times newspaper also reported police were suggesting bank employees not wear suits or carry bags with company logos. Both the City of London police and London's Metropolitan Police declined to comment.

Videos

London echoes of 1933 in G20 summit

Spoof FT hits London ahead of G20
Mar 27 - A group of anti-capitalism protesters have distributed a mock copy of London's famous Financial Times newspaper. This is hilarious....don't miss it.

Carpe Diem - The bogey man IS under the bed.

Carpe Diem People! The time is right to kick the bums out.- all of them.

Not so slowly anymore, panic is spreading across Europe and the United States as it has been globally for some time now. Being the 'developed' world has given Westerners a stay of execution as far as the effects of its ill-fated capitalistic excesses. The other shoe is about to fall tho as millions realise their jobs, homes, pensions, social benefits, health infrastructue and their lives of Riley are about to kick the bucket.

In Europe there are riots from Romania to Ireland, in Greece and Iceland: now, the people of the USA begin to wake up and realise, 'Hey, these bad things are really happening to us!? Maybe we should do something?' The excesses and abuses of power using citizen's money for private elite agenda's and keeping the people mollified with mass marketing, is finally becoming crystal clear for anyone who is looking.

Ironically, the far left and the far right are both radicalising in their focus on bringing down the current system; tho the ideological underpinnings differ, the issues of revolutionary consciousness and their practical expressions can be quite similar. Survivalists and comrades have in common the loathing of the waste of capitalism and a desire to end the current structure of capitalistic oppressions. This is always the problem with labelling political preferences; sometimes one can't tell one from the other - it seems almost any governmental/economic system or doctrine can apply its principles to the detriment of the citizenry it is designed to serve. To simplify for the 'left' or 'right' semanticists, the term 'revolutionary consciousness' will emcompass both sides.

On one thing everyone agrees, the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer and the middle class is going bye bye. Exactly where and how the losers of the capitalist game decide to act is anyone's guess, but no crystal ball is needed to know it will be soon. Revolutionary consciousness is increasing at an accelerating rate; the people know it, and so do the Masters of the Universe.

What to do? What to do? No one has the answers to the problems we have created but, us, ourselves. Organic action based coalitions are springing up everywhere; to stop forclosures, and to protest savage budget cuts to public services, even in Ireland where the Gardai and pensioners have filled the streets of Dublin and made international news. (Let us not forget for a moment that riots in the 3rd world - which we rarely hear of - have been going on for 6-7 months....albeit for food and basic survival needs.)

The first thing we can do is to remove our blindfolds and take the cotton out of our ears...because this time, the bogeyman really is under the bed. Hiding under the covers will not make him go away.

The next best idea is to scream for help: the people who live nearest will be the best source of help. If no one comes, you will have to do some quick thinking...jumping out the window, baseball bat, running as fast as you can. Eventually tho, you will have to do something.

Each person who realises this is a tiny pixel in the picture of revolutionary consciousness. When enough of these pixels come together, left-right, conservative-liberal etc etc, a picture of class warfare will emerge globally; the people taking back their power from those they have trusted who have betrayed them. Here is California's bit of the puzzle and California: Laid-off Spansion employees outraged over execs' pay increases

Carpe Diem - The bogey man IS under the bed.

The California Budget and Class War

Source
By Ann Robertson
February 26, 2009
"Information Clearing House" -- On February 19, the California legislature, after weeks of wrangling, passed a special budget to address the historically high $42 billion deficit. It represents an unadulterated washout for working people who are attacked on almost every front by the Democratic Party, which controls a broad majority in the legislature. For example, public education’s $58 billion budget for K-12 (kindergarten through high school) will be slashed by $8.4 billion, even though California currently allocates less money than almost all other states to education.

The state college and university systems will be cut $163 million and $115 million respectively, resulting in many faculty and staff layoffs, despite the fact that both systems are currently turning away qualified students, due to lack of funding. Meanwhile, student tuition will be raised. Regressive taxes will be imposed, meaning that they will represent a heavier burden on working people and the poor than on the rich, including a sales tax increase from 8.5 to 9.5 percent and a vehicle license fee increase.

But while paying more, working people will receive considerably less from the state. Public transportation will be slashed while health and human services will be gouged by a $1.6 billion cut. And state employees will continue to be forced to take two days off per month, with no pay, of course. But what went unreported by The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle is that those on the other side of the class ledger – the corporations – enjoyed a startlingly different fate. According to the Los Angeles Times, “About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks – directed mostly at multi-state and multinational companies – is tucked into the proposal.”

Not only were corporate taxes not raised, they were actually reduced, thereby contributing to the deficit rather than alleviating it. And this corporate welfare comes on the heels of a steady decline in corporate taxes. In the 1980’s, 9 percent of corporate profits were taxed by the states. In 2001, it dropped to 6 percent, meaning that in that year and every year thereafter, California lost $1.34 billion in revenue (see The New York Times, July 16, 2003). Evidently The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle viewed the corporate largess concocted by California politicians in this current budget as nothing new and consequently unworthy of reporting.

The moral of this budget is clear. Corporations are well organized and consequently have successfully pressed for their own narrow interests. Lacking any social conscience, which should surprise no one, they fail to pursue the common good but remain obsessively fixated on ever-greater profits for themselves.

In order to avoid a repeat of this disaster and actually reverse this course of events, working people will need to organize themselves in order collectively to insist that society operate in the interests of the majority. This should begin with a demand that the government tax the rich – who have acquired unprecedented wealth during the past three decades – in order to fund social services. Taxing the rich and transferring wealth to working and poor people makes both sound moral and economic sense.

When inequalities in wealth are allowed to grow unchecked, the moral fabric of society is strained. Members of the same society no longer find themselves sharing common interests or goals, due to their starkly different economic positions. When working and poor people have more money in their pockets, they tend to spend it immediately, thereby stimulating the economy. The rich, with their hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars, have a substantial cushion and hence are not compelled to curtail their consumption when their taxes increase.


And many of the rich are the bankers who triggered this economic disaster. They should be required to pay for it. When working people are united, they have the power to take history into their own hands. After all, there can be no corporate profits, let alone business as usual, if workers collectively refuse to work. Now is the time to organize!

Ann Robertson is a teacher at San Francisco State University and a writer for Workers Action
( www.workerscompass.org ). She can be reached at aroberts45@aol.com