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Corporate personhood cannot withstand organized persons

There are many schemes now for undoing the doctrines under which corporations claim constitutional rights and bribery is deemed constitutionally protected "speech." Every single one of these schemes depends on a massive movement of public pressure all across the homeland formerly known as the United States of America. With such a movement, few of the schemes can fail. Without it, we're just building castles in the air. Nonetheless, the best scheme can best facilitate the organizing of the movement.

The U.S. Constitution never gave any rights or personhood to corporations or transformed money into speech. It ought not to be necessary to amend a document to, in effect, point out that the sky is blue and up is not down. If the Supreme Court rules that Goldman Sachs can send legislation directly to the White House and cut out the congressional middleman, will we have to amend the Constitution to remove the Goldman Sachs branch of government? Where will this end?

Church of the Dude, inspired by The Big Lebowski, sets up in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand -- People who intuitively perceive 2,500-year-old Chinese and Greek concepts, while knowingly nod to California's detached hippie philosophy and quote droll lines from The Big Lebowski movie, are joining a revelatory religion which illuminated its American founder in northern Thailand.

The Church of the Latter-Day Dude also invites "mellow, unflashy chicks who hang around in their bathrobes and take baths with candles and whale sounds," said the religion's Dudely Lama, Oliver Benjamin.

"Everyone feels oppressed by society's pressures. Everyone wishes they had more freedom. Everyone wishes they could be more carefree, to worry less about money and status," Oliver said.

His church is heavily influenced by the Tao of Lao Tzu (6th century BC), Epicurus (341-270 BC), and the The Big Lebowski movie, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, which stars Jeff Bridges as a surreal, hilarious, ironic, marijuana-smoking, satirical, forty-something character nicknamed the Dude. (Dude)

Keystone XL denied

The U.S. Department of State and President Obama, if only temporarily, handed out a big victory for human health and the environment this afternoon by rejecting the proposed permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. In the tense moments leading to the Congressional Christmas recess, Republicans attached a rider to the payroll tax cut extension calling for a sped-up, 60-day review process of the pipeline to leverage President Obama into approving the project. By attaching the pipeline review to a politically charged piece of legislation designed to extend a two-percentage-point payroll tax cut in addition to providing a reduction in Medicare payments to doctors and desperately needed extensions for unemployment benefits, Republicans ostensibly had the perfect mechanism to force a decision on Keystone XL in the favor of Big Oil.

This afternoon, the Department of State recommended to President Obama that he reject the presidential permit based upon insufficient time for a proper review and insufficient evidence that the construction of the pipeline is in the national interest. President Obama agreed.

The Palestinian Arab In/Outsiders

"The Palestinian Arab In/Outsiders" is an apparently comprehensive text book on the newspapers and journals published in Palestine, and more specifically after the nakba, within the Israeli green line. It provides extensive references to the many papers and journals, daily, weeklies, successful and not so successful, that have played a role in Palestine/Israel.

It recognizes difficulties of publishing efforts within a country that accepts the ideal of democracy, but that at the same time, controls to varying degrees the contents of the news. It also recognizes the important difference between works published 'for' the Arab population used to 'normalize' their actions and thoughts, and works published 'by' the Arab population which contained more emphasis on problems with the Palestinian people. The latter also contained an element of 'normalization', as the Arab papers increased their circulation by publishing more than political news but also sections on sports, fashion, and other entertainment items.

A moment of cynicism

“But no matter how futile, repulsive or dysfunctional war may be,” Barbara Ehrenreich wrote in her book Blood Rites, “it persists.”
A fascinating story in the New York Times just after Christmas showed this persistence unfolding before our very eyes.
The sale of arms to Iraq (remember Iraq?) — $11 billion worth of almost everything, fighter jets, battle tanks, cannons, armored personnel carriers, armor and helmets, even sport utility vehicles — is going to move forward even though it makes little sense from multiple points of view, including U.S. geopolitical interests. As far as I can tell, the sale is going to go through because “war persists” — or something persists, a force invisible to reporters and beyond the control of diplomats (at least those who speak on the record).

“The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale . . .” the Times informs us, “despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.”

Thailand's Islamist war could become Yemen or Afghanistan, diplomats warn

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's war against minority Islamist guerrillas in the south, which killed more than 5,000 people during the past eight years, could escalate into an international security crisis similar to Yemen or Afghanistan, Britain's ambassador said.

"We know from other conflicts that these conflicts cannot always be contained," the British Ambassador to Thailand, Asif Ahmad, said.

"There may come a day when the troubles of the south will become the troubles of the region as a whole. And I dare say this, it might become a magnet for people to create havoc from elsewhere.

"We've seen it in Yemen. We've seen it in Afghanistan. You cannot be immune," Mr. Ahmad said.

"South Thailand has undergone a very tragic period over the last seven or eight years, with 5,000 people killed, maybe up to 10,000 people injured, and in recent times the situation has even deteriorated," the European Union Ambassador to Thailand, David Lipman, said.

"Almost two people per day are being killed on average at the moment in south Thailand, so this is obviously very, very worrying.

Book just published surveys current state of the military industrial complex

Published today, MLK Day 2012: The Military Industrial Complex at 50 is the most comprehensive collection available explaining what the military industrial complex (MIC) is, where it comes from, what damage it does, what further destruction it threatens, and what can be done and is being done to chart a different course.

Authors (from within and without the MIC) contributing chapters to this collection (and available for interviews) include: Ellen Brown • Paul Chappell • Helena Cobban • Ben Davis • Jeff Fogel • Bunny Greenhouse • Bruce Gagnon • Clare Hanrahan • John Heuer • Steve Horn • Robert Jensen • Karen Kwiatkowski • Judith Le Blanc • Bruce Levine • Ray McGovern • Wally Myers • Robert Naiman • Gareth Porter • Chris Rodda • Allen Ruff • Mia Austin Scoggins • Tony Russell • Lisa Savage • Mary Beth Sullivan • Coleman Smith • Dave Shreve • David Swanson • Pat Elder • Jonathan Williams • Ann Wright.

Short bios of the authors are available here David Swanson

The book is available at MIC50.org in paperback, bulk discount, audio, PDF, kindle, Epub, and iPad/iPhone.

The Keystone XL Pipeline would be an environmental disaster

To Democratic citizens of the U. S.:
The proposal for the Keystone XL Pipeline to move oil from the northern Canadian sand tar pits to Texas was included in essential legislation late last year. Read the following letter to learn that The Keystone XL Pipeline would be disastrous environmentally, and would not provide jobs gasoline, or diesel fuel in the U.S.

It would be very profitable for the big oil companies which now have a fallacious advertising campaign.

On Saturday, December 17, 2011 the Senate passed a Bill 98 to 10 (39 Republican Senators (80%) voted for it.) to extend the FICA (Social Security) Tax cut, extend unemployment insurance benefits, and continued the pay primary care physicians at the current rate to care for Medicare patient. The fees were scheduled to be cut by 27% on January 1st. That would weaken Medicare by denying some patient care. The Senate then adjourned for the year.

Demand that Mumia Abu-Jamal be transferred to General Population! Demand the Shutdown of RHU (Restricted Housing Unit) Torture Blocks!

Since December 14, Mumia has been kept in solitary in SCI Mahanoy's dungeon. Its restrictions and conditions belie its modern construction. On January 6 Mumia told us that he wants all of his supporters to broaden this call, to not just focus on his case, but to understand that all torture units must be shut down.

The Human Rights Coalition is a group of prisoners, family members, and supporters that have been exposing and challenging state torture in Pennsylvania for years. HRC states "Mumia may be in solitary, but he is not alone. The PA Department of Corrections holds approximately 2,500 people in solitary confinement on any given day, many of them for years at a time." Please visit these websites to learn more: Human Rights Coalition and Solitary Watch.

Please write, call, and email today! The defeat for the State, having to openly declare that Mumia will live, and recognizing that they can no longer legally execute Mumia, has resulted in a severe backlash. After his transfer off of death row, Mumia was thrown in the hole at SCI Mahanoy.

Aljazeera coverage: The revolution will be televised, and also manipulated

In the final days of the Libyan conflict, as NATO conducted a nonstop bombing campaign, an Aljazeera Arabic television correspondent’s actions raised more than eyebrows. They also raised serious questions regarding the journalistic responsibility of Arab media – or in fact any media - during times of conflict.

Using a handheld transceiver, the journalist aired live communication between a Libyan commander and his troops in a Tripoli neighborhood targeted by a massive air assault. Millions of people listened, as surely did NATO military intelligence, to sensitive information disclosed by an overpowered, largely defeated army. The Doha-based news anchor sought further elaboration, and the reporter readily provided all the details he knew.

Did Abdel-Azim Mohammed, a journalist reputed for his gutsy reports from Iraq’s Fallujah, violate the rules of journalism by transmitting information that could aid one party against another, and worse, cost human lives?

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