Day: May 6, 2010

Take Back Parliament!

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6 May, 2010 — Take Back Parliament

Hi,
Just minutes ago, we found out – to no one’s great surprise – that our broken system has stolen our election.

We held up our end of the bargain today – we voted. But tonight’s result is a Parliament that simply doesn’t represent the ballots we cast.

We’ve got the BBC coverage on here at the office and it seems clear that the seats the three main parties are about to win will have almost nothing to do with the share of the national vote they get.

Tonight – right now – we must demand an end to the broken electoral system that delivered today’s ridiculous results.

Sign our petition now and then forward this email to all your friends:

http://www.takebackparliament.com/SignThePetition

We’re utterly fed up with the status quo. That’s why organisations from across the political spectrum are joining forces to launch a new campaign for change: Take Back Parliament.

We have two simple demands:

No more broken elections. Fair votes now.

Join us – sign the petition and begin mobilising your community:

http://www.takebackparliament.com/SignThePetition

To start off strong we need 5,000 signatures by tomorrow morning. I hope you’ll sign on to our campaign, and ask your friends to join too.

We have one, absolutely crucial goal – a Parliament that at long last belongs to us – and we’ll only make it happen with your help.

This is just the beginning.

Mark Ross
Head of Campaigns, POWER2010

MEDIA LENS ALERT: BREAK THE SILENT SPRING – A MEDIA LENS APPEAL FOR YOUR SUPPORT

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6 May, 2010 — MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

Sometimes humanity catches a glimpse of itself in the mirror of some great disaster and is shocked by what it sees. The war of 1914-1918 demolished, forever, the assumption that ‘progress’ was pre-ordained, a God-given gift buried in the natural world, so that all we had to do was uncover the path and follow it. Instead, we learned that technology could just as easily deliver mass death as mass production. The Second World War confirmed the terrifying amorality of science – we can build a world glittering with labour-saving, health-giving devices, and +still+ end up with a lifeless, incinerated planet.

But climate change is the ultimate mirror. In our lifetimes it will reveal the answer to the great question of who we are as a species: Is human society basically rational and free, or are we slaves to a billion selfish thoughts and actions that have become encrusted in political institutions over decades, centuries and millennia? Are the forces of reason able to transcend the forces of greed? Is the need for collective human action able to overcome the individual concern for instant gratification and familial security?

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The “Evil Guys List”? “Free Journalism” in the Service of US Foreign Policy: The Role of Reporters without Borders By F. William Engdahl

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5 May, 2010 – Global Research

An organization calling itself Reporters Without Borders (RWB; French: Reporters sans frontières, or RSF) has just named Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, China’s President Hu Jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to their list of Forty Worst Predators of Press Freedom for 2010. Most significant about their list of ‘bad guys’ is the geopolitical relation of those leaders and those countries to the current ‘enemies list’ of the US State Department. That is no accident, as becomes clear when we look more closely at who funds RWB.

In their declaration RWB states, “Since these predators have faces, we must know them to better denounce them. Reporters without Borders has decided to draw their portraits.” Their colourful language is no accident. The term predator conjures up images of horror in most people.

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Irish Parliamentarians call for “Veto” against Israel OECD membership By Omar Barghouti

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6 May, 2010

Irish Senators and Members of Parliament (TDs in Irish) are leading the way in explicitly calling on the Irish government to VETO Israel’s membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an exclusive club of 30 of the richest industrialized states. 

Standing up to the “common sense” approach of official Europe of following the US hegemonic lead and praising Israel’s restraint for not killing off or ethnically cleansing all Palestinians, these Irish senators and TDs have proven that principle and commitment to human rights can — and should — overcome political convenience and complacency, even in a country whose economy is relatively small and suffering from a deep financial crisis. A true Irish spirit of justice!

We hope parliamentarians in Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Norway, Belgium, Spain, among other members of the OECD, will live up to the same level of moral and political responsibility and act to end Israel’s impunity before it is too late. 

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It’s political, not personal – Hossam el-Hamalawy interviews Charles Glass

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6 May, 2010 – Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

Hossam el-Hamalawy meets up with renowned journalist Charles Glass in Cairo

Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1951, Charles Glass is a broadcaster, journalist and author of several books, who began his journalistic career in 1973 at the ABC News Beirut bureau. He covered the October 1973 War on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts and the civil war in Lebanon, where artillery fire wounded him in 1976. He was ABC News Chief Middle East from 1983 to 1993. In 1987, Glass himself was abducted and held hostage for two months before escaping from his Hizbollah captors. In 1988, he exposed Saddam Hussein’s then-secret biological weapons program. The U.S. government rejected Glass’s claims, until Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. For his reporting and investigative pieces, Glass has been honored by the Overseas Press Club and has shared Commonwealth and George Foster Peabody Awards.

Q: Despite your negative encounter with the resistance forces in the Middle East you still label yourself as an anti-Zionist, how come?

A: Things happen. I might have been pro-Israeli and an Israeli soldier could have shot me by mistake. It doesn’t mean you change your mind about it. What happened to me: 1) was political not personal, 2) Something I don’t really bear a grudge about, 3) My reasons for criticizing Israel are more profound and very much pre-date the existence of Hizbollah. I don’t think Israel has the right to occupy the West Bank and Gaza or the Golan Heights under any international law or any other morality. Israel doesn’t have the right to expel Palestinians from their homes and build settlements. These things were all clear no matter what happened to me. So I don’t see why I’d change my mind.

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Black Agenda Report 5 May, 2010: Environmental Racism / Obama's Oil Slick / Black-Latino Divide

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Black Agenda Report 5 May, 2010

Putting Nukes In A Poor Black GA Town: If A Black President Does It, Is It Still Environmental Racism?

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
In the weeks since President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors next to an existing pair of nukes in mostly black Burke County, GA, the inconvenient questions, unanswered and mostly unasked, continue to pile up. The first and most obvious questions are why nukes, and why Burke County?

If you like what you read and hear on Black Agenda Report…
Please help us keep it going.
We don’t need much, but we do require assistance from
our readership if we are to continue.
Go to the PayPal icons scattered around the page.
Or else, one of these Wednesdays…
BAR might not be there.

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BREAKING: BNP candidate attacks young man in street

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5 May, 2010 — Hope Not Hate

Hours ago, BNP candidate Bob Bailey – the party’s top official in London – viciously attacked a young man in the street.

A camera team caught the attack on video – you need to watch it and then share it with everyone you know.

Watching Bailey mercilessly kick a young man in the head isn’t for the faint of heart.

But I urge you to watch it – then take action to make sure the BNP’s jackboots don’t march into power tomorrow:

The man shouldn’t have spat on Bailey. But it’s clear this moment unleashed the streak of violence that underpins the BNP’s entire political agenda.

Just look at the pleasure Bailey took at attacking this lad – and continuing to pummel him as he lay on the ground, defenseless and bloodied.

Bailey and his thugs could be running Barking & Dagenham by this weekend.

Thanks.

Nick

BREAKING: BNP candidate attacks young man in street

Leave a comment

5 May, 2010 — Hope Not Hate

Hours ago, BNP candidate Bob Bailey – the party’s top official in London – viciously attacked a young man in the street.

A camera team caught the attack on video – you need to watch it and then share it with everyone you know. Watching Bailey mercilessly kick a young man in the head isn’t for the faint of heart. But I urge you to watch it – then take action to make sure the BNP’s jackboots don’t march into power tomorrow:

The man shouldn’t have spat on Bailey. But it’s clear this moment unleashed the streak of violence that underpins the BNP’s entire political agenda. Just look at the pleasure Bailey took at attacking this lad – and continuing to pummel him as he lay on the ground, defenseless and bloodied. Bailey and his thugs could be running Barking & Dagenham by this weekend.

I have never been so determined to defeat these racist thugs than I am right now – with polls opening in less than 12 hours. Please, forward this email to everyone you know tonight.

Thanks.

Nick