Monthly Archives: June 2015

Expecting ‘Goodies’ for Fast Track Vote? New Report Cautions Lawmakers on Broken Promises

“Members of Congress who have exchanged ‘yes’ votes for such IOUs have more often than not seen the promises broken,” says Public Citizen

Public Citizen’s report is “a cautionary tale to members of Congress who are now contemplating the administration’s pledges of political cover, and offers of various goodies from the president and congressional leaders.” (Photo: The White House)

Written by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-10-2015.

Lawmakers banking on “special favors” in exchange for their votes on controversial trade legislation risk “political peril,” according to a new report (pdf) from the watchdog group Public Citizen.

In the face of stubborn resistance from Democratic lawmakers, the Obama administration has “moved beyond trying to sell Fast Track on its merits,” Public Citizen says, “and is now offering rides on Air Force One, promises of infrastructure legislation, and pledges to help representatives survive the political backlash of a ‘yes’ vote on Fast Track.” What’s more, lawmakers are striving to include amendments to allegedly make pending trade legislation more palatable. Continue reading →

Criminalizing Choice: Georgia Woman Jailed After Taking Abortion Pill

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As states slash health services and pass laws outlawing reproductive rights, advocates say, “‘Pro-choice’ is gone and these are the choices that are left.’

(Photo: Center for Reproductive Rights via CommonDreams)

Written by Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-9-2015.

Following a trend of conservative state governments criminalizing women’s reproductive health choices, Georgia woman Kenlissa Jones was arrested and charged with malice murder after taking an abortion pill.

On Saturday, the 23-year-old Jones reportedly took the drug Cytotec, which is often used in the U.S. in non-surgical abortion procedures, to self-induce an abortion. Jones’ brother Rico Riggins told local news WALB that she went to the hospital after taking the drug because she was “in a world of hurt.” She miscarried the fetus while in the car en route to the hospital. Jones, who is the mother of a two-year-old, was subsequently arrested and taken to the Dougherty County Jail, where she is being held without bond. Continue reading →

Family of Yemeni Drone Victims Seeks Nothing More than Official Apology

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‘If the U.S. was willing to pay off my family in secret cash, why can’t they simply make a public acknowledgement that my relatives were wrongly killed?’ asks Faisal bin Ali Jaber

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published June 8, 2015

Faisal bin Ali Jaber. Photo via YouTube

A Yemeni man, whose nephew and brother-in-law were killed in an August 2012 U.S. drone strike, filed suit in a Washington, D.C. court on Monday, seeking only public acknowledgement that the strike was unlawful.

“Since the awful day when I lost two of my loved ones, my family and I have been asking the U.S. government to admit their error and say sorry. Our pleas have been ignored,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber in a statement. “No one will say publicly that an American drone killed Salem and Waleed, even though we all know it. This is unjust.”

The lawsuit requests that the D.C. District Court issue a declaration that the strike that killed Salem and Waleed was unlawful, but does not ask for monetary compensation.

According to legal charity Reprieve, which along with a pro bono law firm is representing Jaber in his lawsuit, “Leaked intelligence…indicates that U.S. officials knew they had killed civilians shortly after the strike. In July 2014 Faisal’s family were offered a bag containing $100,000 in sequentially-marked U.S. dollar bills at a meeting with the Yemeni National Security Bureau (NSB). The NSB official who had requested the meeting told a family representative that the money came from the US and that he had been asked to pass it along.”

On Monday, Jabar said: “If the U.S. was willing to pay off my family in secret cash, why can’t they simply make a public acknowledgement that my relatives were wrongly killed?”

Jaber previously brought a constitutional claim against Germany, after revelations that Ramstein Air Base, situated in southwest Germany but operated by the U.S. Air Force, is “crucial to facilitating American covert drone strikes in Yemen,” according to Reprieve. A German court ruled against Jaber at the end of last month, though he was granted permission to appeal the court’s decision.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama publicly apologized for the drone deaths of an American and an Italian citizen held in Pakistan, and announced an independent inquiry into their killings. Jaber’s complaint notes the discrepancy in the handling of those cases and the bin ali Jaber case, asking: “The President has now admitted to killing innocent Americans and Italians with drones; why are the bereaved families of innocent Yemenis less entitled to the truth?”

Reprieve’s Cora Crider added:

Faisal’s case demonstrates the madness of President Obama’s drone program. Not only were his two relatives among the hundreds of innocent civilians who have been killed by this misguided, dirty war—they were the very people we should be supporting. His brother in law was a remarkably brave preacher who publicly opposed Al Qaeda; his nephew was a local police officer trying to keep the peace. Unlike recent Western victims of drone strikes, Faisal has not received an apology. All he wants is for the U.S. Government to own up and say sorry—it is a scandal that he has been forced to turn to the courts for this most basic expression of human decency.

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We Don’t Need “More” Culture!

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Image via Facebook.

As world news unfolds daily, one of my alternative news sources interviewed a recent immigrant to the United States. A comment made by this person stays in my mind; “In America, the system is designed to force you to need more: why is it not that you can work hard and have enough?”

They used the example of how they started to save just a few dollars a month, and thought that was part of the dream, until the rent went up and took all of the savings. They worked hard enough to purchase a car – to learn they now had to afford the taxes, plate and title fees, insurance and maintenance.

If you look at the top of any web page, there is almost always a button that says “More.” Television ads have voice-overs that scream “But wait! There’s MORE!” Magazine articles lure you to other content: see “more” on page…” Newspapers move you to other pages and advertisements by making you follow the “More on A18…” just to read an entire article. “More for your dollar” is a familiar line in grocery market ads. New packaging tells us a product is “now with more…” whatever the ingredient-of-the-month club is touting.

Isn’t this the design of a system that got us into this mess in the first place? We were told we needed “more” house. We were told it was easy to get “more” credit. We could ask our lenders for “more” financing. And while we were doing this, they all recognized it really meant “MORE” for them. Continue reading →

Midwest Battlecry Goes Up Against Tar Sands as Thousands March in St. Paul

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‘Increasing the amount of toxic tar sands crude flowing into this region is not in keeping with a much needed transition to clean energy. Rejecting tar sands means fighting for clean water, clean energy, and a safer climate. There is simply no place for dirty oil in America’s future.’

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published June 6, 2015

Thousands of people marched through downtown St. Paul on Saturday making it clear they are willing to do whatever it takes to #StopTarSands and other dirty energy. (Photo: FossilFreeNU/Twitter/@DivestNorthwest)

With the marching crowd stretching “as far as the eye can see” in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota on Saturday, thousands of people from across the Midwest came together to protest the construction of new pipelines and other infrastructure projects which they say will deliver only harmful climate impacts for the planet and irreparable destruction to the region, not the jobs and energy security promised by big oil companies and their political backers.

Under the social media tag of #StopTarSands, Saturday’s Tar Sands Resistance March was sponsored by dozens of groups, including national and local environmental organizations, Indigenous communities, and various social justice groups who all agree it will take a unified front to fight back against the pipeline companies and fossil fuel interests pushing for expanded development of tar sands, shale oil and gas deposits, and other forms of extreme energy in the region. Continue reading →

Is there an Alternative for Denmark?

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The outcome of Denmark’s general election on June 18 could depend heavily on the success of a radical new party called The Alternative.

By Lasse Thomasson. Published June 5, 2015 at openDemocracy.net

Uffe Elbaek. Photo by Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org [CC BY 2.5 dk], via Wikimedia Commons

Uffe Elbæk. Photo by Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org [CC BY 2.5 dk], via Wikimedia Commons

Denmark is going to the polls on Thursday, June 18, and much may depend on the success of a new party called The Alternative (Alternativet).

The opinion polls suggest that the right wing will win, and that former Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, will return to his old job. However, the lead is narrowing, and the election is set to be very close. The current Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has turned out to be the Social Democrats’ best asset, and she might just squeeze out a narrow majority as she did in 2011. She is leading a minority coalition of the Social Democrats and the centre-left liberal party Det Radikale Venstre. Continue reading →

WikiLeaks Strikes Again: Leaked TISA Docs Expose Corporate Plan For Reshaping Global Economy

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Leaked Docs reveal that little-known corporate treaty poised to privatize and deregulate public services across globe

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published June 3, 2015

“It’s a dark day for democracy when we are dependent on leaks like this for the general public to be informed of the radical restructuring of regulatory frameworks that our governments are proposing,” said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now. (Image created by Common Dreams)

An enormous corporate-friendly treaty that many people haven’t heard of was thrust into the public limelight Wednesday when famed publisher of government and corporate secrets, WikiLeaks, released 17 documents from closed-door negotiations between countries that together comprise two-thirds of the word’s economy.

Analysts warn that preliminary review shows that the pact, known as the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), is aimed at further privatizing and deregulating vital services, from transportation to healthcare, with a potentially devastating impact for people of the countries involved in the deal, and the world more broadly. Continue reading →

Food, Water, Health, Life: UN Experts Warn of Threats Posed by Secret ‘Trade’ Deals

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‘All draft treaty texts should be published so that Parliamentarians and civil society have sufficient time to review them and to weigh the pros and cons in a democratic manner,’ say officials

Written by Sarah Lazare, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 6-2-2015.

The human rights stakes are too high to keep so-called “free trade” deals secret, say UN experts. (Photo: Jerrick Romero-Backbone Campaign/flickr/cc)

Echoing the protests of civil society organizations and social movements around the world, a panel of United Nations experts on Tuesday issued a stark warning about the threats that secret international “trade” agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pose to the most fundamental human rights.

“Our concerns relate to the rights to life, food, water and sanitation, health, housing, education, science and culture, improved labor standards, an independent judiciary, a clean environment and the right not to be subjected to forced resettlement,” reads the statement, whose ten signatories include Ms. Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Special Rapporteur on the rights of person with disabilities and Ms. Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Continue reading →

Patriotism vs Nationalism

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With a year and a half to go before the 2016 elections, the presidential race is already front and center in the national media. With an unprecedented number of early candidates jockeying for the soundbyte or photo op that will give him or her a leg up on the competition, the rhetoric’s already flying fast and furious. One thing that you’ll almost always hear though is the candidate professing his or her patriotism.

Merriam-Webster defines patriotism as; “love for or devotion to one’s country.” While we’re pretty certain that all the announced candidates so far do love their country, the term sounds a little too tepid for some of the hyperventilating we’ve heard from some of the candidates. Could there be a better term for describing those candidates’ stated views? What about nationalism?

Merriam-Webster (again) defines nationalism as: “a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups” Is this a better fit for some of them?

Via Facebook

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Growing Support in America for a Ground War in Iraq: Why a Sequel is a Worse Idea than the Original

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If you are a regular reader of ours, you are fully aware of our verbose writings regarding Iraq, America’s involvement in the 2003 invasion, our steadfast support of Peshmerga forces and belief in a free and independent Kurdistan, and our disdain of US contractors pilfering the peoples of Iraq to profit from the spoils of an illegal war.

Baghdad on May 28, 2015. Photo via Twitter

So it should come as no surprise that we now are horrified to see a growing support for going back into Iraq to “help defeat ISIS.” But we are not alone in our view. In an article published in August, 2014 via The Diplomat, in a piece titled “Iran Didn’t Create ISIS; We Did,” Ben Reynolds write: Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Midwest Battlecry Goes Up Against Tar Sands as Thousands March in St. Paul

‘Increasing the amount of toxic tar sands crude flowing into this region is not in keeping with a much needed transition to clean energy. Rejecting tar sands means fighting for clean water, clean energy, and a safer climate. There is simply no place for dirty oil in America’s future.’

Patriotism vs Nationalism