What Does it Cost to Change the World? from WikiLeaks on Vimeo.

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What Does it Cost to Change the World? from WikiLeaks on Vimeo.

Via Postal Mail - You can post a donation via good old fashion postal mail to: WikiLeaks (or any suitable name likely to avoid interception in your country), BOX 4080, Australia Post Office - University of Melbourne Branch, Victoria 3052, Australia

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

 

by Robert B. Reich

Supercapitalism - by Robert Reich


REASON: why Liberals will win the war - by Robert Reich


The future of Success - by Robert B. Reich


The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

 

As Election '08 Nears, We Need Straight Answers to a Simple Question

By Nancy Scola on October 30, 2007

The hits just keep on coming. Blackwater has been given immunity by the State Department. Whatever has been learned thus far in the inquiry into its violence in Iraq can't be used by the FBI in its investigation.

Keeping in mind that the failings of one private security company are less concerning than the fact that a bastion of U.S. government thought it wise to unleash uncontrollable forces out into the world, this sure smacks of self-protection. Is this the America we want?

Well, the trouble is, we're not getting the information we need to chose a different path. Just 1 percent of Election '08 news stories thus far have focused on candidate records. Just 15 percent concerned public policy. That's troubling in any election. But when the governing style of those in power is to wreak global havoc, it's downright scary.

And so to see today's political landscape clearly, even skilled commentators like the New York Times's Paul Krugman have to dig into their bags of Lord of the Rings world-domination imagery. While progressives have been debating the finer points of trade law, "Sauron was gathering his forces in Mordor." Indeed, some political leaders indeed do have a world view that's perfectly comfortable with Blackwater roaming free in Iraq and being absolved of guilt when 17 Iraqi civilians die.

The question then to put to presidential candidates then is simple: what exactly does America mean to you? If it jibes with your view of her to outsource a war to private interests and then cover-up when those interests commit horrible wrongs, that's all well and good. We just don't want you in the White House. Rest assured though, lucrative consulting and lecture gigs await you.

We desperately need to know how our presidential candidates honestly see this American experiment turning out. Today, getting a straight answer to even that simple question would be a great start.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

 

The Rachel L. CARSON

The Sense of Wonder - by Rachel Carson


The Edge of the Sea - Rachel Carson


The Sea Around Us - by Rachel Carson


Silent Spring - By Rachel Carson


Under the Sea - Wind, By Rachel Carson

 

WikiMedia Foundation


If there is a chance for the ignorant to be educated,
If there is a hope for the faithful to learn,
If there is a dream of a better future,
It must begin with us.

 

Center for Constitutiona Rights

We're writing you today to announce exciting new developments at the Center for Constitutional Rights:

a completely redesigned website;
a new case we've filed; and
a new campaign we're launching,
Beyond Guantanamo: Rescue the Constitution.

When you go to our website today, which you can visit at our NEW address www.ccrjustice.org, you'll see information about our new campaign Beyond Guantanamo: Rescue the Constitution. We're calling this campaign Beyond Guantanamo because it's about more than just President Bush or Guantanamo, it's about all the areas where the government is taking the law into its own hands. It's about the systematic dismantling of the Constitution and the erosion of everyone's rights, not just those of the detainees. It is time that we think beyond Guantanamo and this administration's disastrous policies.

Also many of you have probably also heard about the case we filed recently against Blackwater USA for the killings of innocent Iraqi bystanders in September. This lawsuit cannot bring back those killed at Nisoor Square but it can make Blackwater accountable for its actions. Read more about this case on our new website.

In these months leading up to the December 5 Supreme Court arguments that will decide again whether detainees have the right to contest their detention, CCR will be rolling out ads in magazines and on the web as well as launching a speaking tour and a radio tour.

Our new website features an updated and expanded case index; issue area pages; a much-improved search function so that you can more easily access our resources and find exactly what you need; and new features like podcasts with our attorneys on our issues, clients, and cases. Stay tuned in the coming months, we'll be adding more videos and more actions for you to take on the issues you care about.

You can also watch this video featuring Venssa Readgrave reading from a letter she recieved froma former detainee.

Please take some time today to go to our new website, explore all it has to offer, and read about our new campaign Beyond Guantanamo. Most important - please tell five of your friends about CCR's campaign to not only close Guantanamo but rescue our Constitution. We need your help to spread the word to your friends and family that we're starting this important new campaign.

As a people, we need to move beyond the example of torture and dehumanization set by our government. Let's move Beyond Guantanamo and Rescue the Constitution.

Thank you,
Vincent Warren
Executive Director

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

 

It begins, Saturday.


Sunday, October 21, 2007

 

Poblem-B

Speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives April 2007, the head of the Illinois Department of Entomology had this to say:

"It is an unfortunate consequence of benign indifference to the precarious nature of an overwhelming reliance on a single species that few alternative actively managed species are currently available for use. And despite evidence of their efficacy as crop pollinators, wild species are not being exploited to any significant extent. While efforts to monitor honey bees are inadequate, efforts to monitor the status of wild pollinators in North America are essentially non existent…. There is reliable evidence that some North American pollinator species have gone extinct, become locally extirpated, or have declined in number. At least two bumble bee species, one of which is a crop pollinator, could face imminent extinction, and several other pollinators have declined significantly."

As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

… Since last November, the US has seen a decline in bee populations so dramatic that it eclipses all previous incidences of mass mortality. Beekeepers on the east coast of the United States complain that they have lost more than 70 percent of their stock since late last year, while the west coast has seen a decline of up to 60 percent.

The researchers examined the effects of pollen from a genetically modified maize variant called “Bt corn” on bees. A gene from a soil bacterium had been inserted into the corn that enabled the plant to produce an agent that is toxic to insect pests. The study concluded that there was no evidence of a “toxic effect of Bt corn on healthy honeybee populations.” But when, by sheer chance, the bees used in the experiments were infested with a parasite, something eerie happened. According to the Jena study, a “significantly stronger decline in the number of bees” occurred among the insects that had been fed a highly concentrated Bt poison feed.

Is it not possible that while there is no lethal effect directly to the new bees, there might be some sublethal effect, such as immune suppression, acting as a slow killer?

Given that nearly every bite of food that we eat has a pollinator, the seriousness of this emerging problem could dwarf all previous food disruptions. - San Francisco Chronicle

Personally, I believe situations like this are an opportune moment for reflection - a time to humbly consider a few realities, and perhaps learn a few lessons. Of significance to me is the fact that scientists haven’t got this figured out as yet. It begs the question - which is easier, when dealing with the infinitely complex interactions of nature: 1) predicting specific consequences to our ‘tinkering’ before they occur, or 2) understanding how something happened after-the-fact? I would have thought the latter was the easiest - you know the old saying, “hindsight is a wonderful thing”. Looking back at the results, following the trail of clues, is a lot less challenging than postulating over what could happen. Or, to put it into a framework that might be better understood - if Sherlock Holmes, expert in crime scene deductions, were to turn his attention to predicting crimes rather than solving them, how would he have fared?



Researchers are desperately seeking the ’cause’ of colony collapse disorder. The reductionist mindset would be tempted to pull a single root cause out from amongst those above, but, I would propose that the items listed above, in combination, constitute a great load on the camel’s back - with one or two of the above being the final straw that broke it.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

 

The Ground Truth

The truth on the ground about the U.S. War on Iraq is even more shocking than you can imagine.

This movie will haunt you, but only if you have the courage to face "The Ground Truth".

Without the voice of those who fight these illegal wars how can you learn the true extent of the damage?
Watch this documentary, buy the DVD, then host a screening. Ask everyone you meet, how long will this war last?


Monday, October 01, 2007

 

Hegel on Liberty

Hegel's method in philosophy consists in following out the triadic development (Entwicklung) in each concept and in each thing. Thus, he hopes, philosophy will not contradict experience, but will give to the data of experience the philosophical, that is, the ultimately true, explanation. If, for instance, we wish to know what liberty is, we take that concept where we first find it, in the unrestrained action of the savage, who does not feel the need of repressing any thought, feeling, or tendency to act. Next, we find that the savage has given up this freedom in exchange for its opposite, the restraint, or, as he considers it, the tyranny, of civilization and law. Thirdly, in the citizen under the rule of law, we find the third stage of development, namely liberty in a higher and a fuller sense than that in which the savage possessed it, the liberty to do and to say and to think many things which were beyond the power of the savage. In this triadic process we remark that the second stage is the direct opposite, the annihilation, or at least the sublation, of the first. We remark also that the third stage is the first returned to itself in a higher, truer, richer, and fuller form. The three stages are, therefore, styled:
in itself (An-sich)
out of itself (Anderssein)
in and for itself (An-und-für-sich).
These three stages are found succeeding one another throughout the whole realm of thought and being, from the most abstract logical process up to the most complicated concrete activity of organized mind in the succession of states or the production of systems of philosophy.

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