Ladywriter

see, its fox faux news

I disagree. first of all this isn't fiction. Americans were not being overlorded by the gitmo detainees. second as a nation we decided long ago the USA does not torture third, if they get away with what they have done it leaves the door open for war crimes to happen again and again and again If Obama is serious about making sure it doesn't happen again he must prosecute those that ordered the torture in the first place. Many organizations will continue to push for indictments despite Obama's ass covering stance; they have my constant support and I'm not the only one writing our reps or chucking cash at the ACLU. Even if the current bushy lovin presedent does not care about justice the American people do and we will not just get over it or let it drop. Its not retrebution to enforce criminal laws (as Obama swore to do when he took public office).

CIA employees won't be tried for waterboarding WASHINGTON - Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said Thursday that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted. The government released four memos in which Bush-era lawyers approved in often graphic detail tough interrogation methods used against 28 terror suspects. The rough tactics range from waterboarding — simulated drowning — to keeping suspects naked and withholding solid food. Even as they exposed new details of the interrogation program, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, offered the first definitive assurance that those CIA officials are in the clear, as long as their actions were in line with the legal advice at the time. (in other words torture) Read Justice Department memo on waterboarding, interrogation methods (.pdf) [ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30254996]Countdown with Keith OlbermannCountdown with Keith Olbermann[/ame] [ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30255241]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame] Fuck you asshole Obama you fucking jerk turd right wing lap dog

It has been the massive pressure from the people that has put the prosecution of Bush-era officials on the agenda. As expected, there is a countervailing campaign from the neo-cons and their apologists. Now, the Obama administration has opted to try to shield Bush administration officials who are guilty of torture and war crimes. We cannot and will not let up. Tens of thousands of you have flooded government officials with the demand for criminal prosecution. The people of this country and the world are standing up to demand justice. We reject the idea that Bush administration officials who ordered torture and crafted legal justification for the most barbaric and inhumane practices should escape criminal prosecution. With the popular will of the people growing in support of prosecution, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder just assured officials in the CIA that those agents who carried out torture will not be prosecuted by Justice Department lawyers, but rather will be defended by them. This announcement does not stop legal actions against torturers from going forward, or stop Congressional investigation, however, as the Justice Department does not have the authority to do so. President Obama said: "This is a time for reflection, not retribution. ... nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past." By this logic, the Justice Department should prosecute no one, ever. This flies in the face of internationally and nationally recognized human rights laws that prohibit torture. The International Red Cross has issued a report insisting on prosecution of Bush administration officials. The Red Cross report provides in graphic detail the shocking and sickening methods of torture executed by U.S. officials. These methods are also described in legal papers authored by Bush administration officials and lawyers who sadisticly wrote up and authorized details of torture - papers that are being revealed today at the same time as the White House attempts to stop prosecution of torturers. As they are exonerating CIA torturers, the administration is also putting intense pressure on the Spanish Government not to proceed with the criminal prosecution of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five other officials of the Bush administration, including those who wrote the torture authorizations. This battle is just opening up. There were also attempts by various governments to shield Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet at first - attempts that ultimately crumbled. WE MUST TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW: * Click below to send a letter to your elected official: http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=7RonHJaCDzz7g5kscS8JsA.. * Send a letter to your local newspaper * Call the White House at 202-456-1111 (or TTY/TDD: 202-456-6213) Tell them that in order to uphold and defend the Constitution the criminal prosecution of officials - high and low - is an absolutely necessity. Prosecution of Bush-era officials is not retribution, it is the maintenance of law, and the repudiation of torture and other illegal acts. This is an international grassroots movement. We can't do it without the generous donations of you and thousands of others who believe in justice. Please take action today, -- All of us at IndictBushNow.org

I have exciting news to share. House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman and Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey have introduced The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), which will jumpstart a clean energy economy by creating millions of new clean energy jobs, reducing our dependence on oil, and cutting global warming pollution. But, Big Oil and their cohorts in Congress are determined to throw roadblocks in the way of this legislation at every turn. Reps. Waxman and Markey have said they want this bill out of committee by Memorial Day. That means these next few weeks will be critical in our efforts to make sure this bill moves quickly out of committee and on to a full vote. Will you email your representative, who is on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, today? Click here to ask your represenative to vote yes on this bill in committee and send it to the House floor for a full vote. http://action.lcv.org/campaign/april_gw_house_full/ie87nn54r7ktn8dj? President Obama supports the move to a clean energy economy, but the oil and coal companies aren't going to give up without a fight. So we need to go all out to make sure the committee passes a strong bill. The ACES bill will put us on a path to a clean energy future that creates jobs, improves our national security, and protects the planet by: **Supporting the development of new clean energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal, by requiring utilities to generate at least 25% of their electricity from renewable resources by 2025; **Dramatically boosting energy efficiency, and using 15% less energy by 2020; and **Reducing global warming pollution 30% by 2020. We also want to make sure that the final bill makes polluters pay for pollution permits. Send a message to your representative today urging him or her to vote for the American Clean Energy and Security Act. http://action.lcv.org/campaign/april_gw_house_full/ie87nn54r7ktn8dj? As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day next week, it could not be a better time to finally make progress on comprehensive legislation that safeguards our planet from global warming and fixes the economy at the same time. Thank you for all that you do, Gene Karpinski President League of Conservation Voters

We recently learned that the chemical industry is angry at First Lady Michelle Obama for NOT spraying toxic chemicals on her family's garden. We were dumbfounded by this, and so were our friends at CREDO. This is all part of a campaign started by the chemical industry to convince America that we need chemicals to grow food. CREDO has been working hard to show support for the First Lady and tell the chemical companies to back off. Show you support by signing their petition. - Drew Drew Hudson TrueMajority/ USAction The pesticide peddlers are not happy with Michelle Obama. The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that - wait for it - Michelle Obama isn't using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House. We are not making this up. Since Saturday, over 50,000 people have joined our campaign against the pesticide company lobbyists attacking the Michelle Obama's organic garden. Help us get to 75,000! Join the fight against pesticide company lobbyists by clicking here: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?rc=tm In an email MACA sent to its supporters, a spokesman wrote, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder." [1] MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals - or what they call "crop protection products" - in her garden. Michelle Obama has done America a great service by publicizing the importance of nutritious food for kids (she's growing the garden in partnership with a local elementary school class) as well as locally grown produce as an important, environmentally sustainable food source. MACA's letter is part of a larger propaganda effort to convince people that chemicals are a necessary part of produce growth - when we know that's not true. Click here to tell the MACA board that we support Michelle Obama's organic garden, and we'll thank them to keep their propaganda out of it: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?rc=tm Please, take action and then tell your friends. And thank you for working to build a more organic world. Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager ?CREDO Action from Working Assets

Fox news is right wing nut job propoganda with a bit of slanted daily news thrown in there TYT on Glenn Beck [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiLppliFzbs]YouTube - Glenn Beck Clown Antics Turn Dangerous[/ame] Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire talks about the latest research from the Pew Research Center that proves that watching Fox News makes you less informed, less accurate, and just plain dumb. See this video and more by visiting www.GoLeft.tv. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMWoT63iDWI]YouTube - Poll: Fox News Makes You Stupid[/ame] Hey, Glenn Beck! (Part 1) [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1KQw5D2Vos]YouTube - Hey, Glenn Beck! (Part 1)[/ame]

Tea-Bagging Is All Fun and Games, Until It Pokes Out an Eye Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on April 15, 2009 at 7:58 AM. Like many progressives, I’ve been laughing a lot about the GOP’s tea-bagging antitaxation demonstrations planned for today. But childish jokes aside, here’s why these protests are so insidious. They will provide a staged, corporate lobbyist-sponsored moment for Republicans and Fox News personalities to amplify their specious objections to President Obama’s tax increase for the rich, while furthering their own right-wing conspiratorial claims about liberal values. By usurping and bastardizing an iconic event from the American Revolution, they offer an ersatz grassroots movement from the right–complete and utter AstroTurf–in an attempt to reclaim the national spotlight. As Think Progress’s Faiz Shakir exclaimed on Fox Business when he ripped the network a new one: These tea parties are a sham. The reason they’re a sham is because they’re directed by lobbyists here in D.C. … And on top of that, you’ve got this network, Fox News, which is advocacy — pushing this, promoting this with all of its heart. And it is not a grassroots movement when you have Jonathan Hoenig, Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, Greta Van Susteren promoting this up the wazoo. That is not a grassroots movement. Faiz, of course, was dead on because corporate lobbyists like Dick Armey’s Freedom Works are orchestrating today’s protests, and Fox has been relentlessly pushing them too. As for the GOP’s ludicrous cries of Obama turning our country socialist, Paul Krugman notes that while Obama will raise taxes on high-income Americans, that tax rate will still be ten percent lower than it was under Reagan. When I was a kid in Philly, Veterans Stadium was known as a “career-killer” because the cement-like AstroTurf wrecked the knees and ankles of so many promising baseball and football players. Let’s hope tomorrow’s AstroTurf movement turns out to be a career-killer for all the lunatic Republicans and hedge fund directors and Fox shock jocks who make the wild accusations that Obama isn’t from our country, or that evolution is a lie.

Fox News Crosses the Line Target: Fox News Sunday Host Chris Wallace Sponsored by: Media Matters For news coverage to be "fair and balanced," there has to be a line separating news from political activism – a clear boundary between legitimate commentary and demagoguery. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace repeatedly characterizes his network as "fair and balanced" – a source of news that should be taken seriously. However, several recent actions on Fox News illustrate that the network is contributing to a culture of conservative paranoia and anti-Obama political activism. For example, since launching his Fox News show, Glenn Beck has engaged in increasingly outrageous rhetoric that promotes a culture of conservative paranoia – from imitating President Obama pouring gasoline onto the "average American" to mocking Obama's aunt's "limp." If Wallace wants to continue to portray his network and influential Sunday show as a credible source of news, he owes it to his viewers to speak out publicly against Fox News' recent behavior. So please join us in asking Chris Wallace to publicly denounce Fox News' recent actions and repair the damage done to his network's credibility. Sign Petition

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYIZnbDC8Kc]YouTube - Who Funds the Republican Tea Parties?[/ame]

[nomedia=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk]YouTube - Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April[/nomedia]

Related.... [ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30227915#30227915]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

Dispensary owners report 50 to 300 percent rise since Obama took office The number of ailing people turning to medical marijuana to ease their symptoms has spiked this year, say dispensary owners in some of the 13 states where it's legal. Requests have jumped anywhere from 50 to 300 percent, they say, since President Barack Obama took office and signaled that he won’t use federal marijuana laws to override state laws as the Bush administration did. Others say the economic downturn may also be responsible as more people without insurance are seeking alternatives to costly medications. Poll: What are your thoughts on medical marijuana?

Violence flares at protest over Afghan sex law KABUL - A group of some 1,000 Afghans swarmed a demonstration of 300 women protesting against a new conservative marriage law on Wednesday. The women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart. The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse — a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone. Women's rights activists scheduled a protest Wednesday attended by mostly young women. But the group was swamped by counter-protesters — both men and women — who shouted down the women's chants. Some picked up gravel and stones and threw them at the women, while others shouted "Death to the slaves of the Christians!" Female police held hands around the group to create a protective barrier. The government of President Hamid Karzai has said the Shiite family law is being reviewed by the Justice Department and will not be implemented in its current form. Governments and rights groups around the world have condemned the legislation, and President Barack Obama has labeled it "abhorrent." Foreigners accused of meddling Though the law would apply only to the country's Shiites — 10 percent to 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people — it has sparked an uproar by activists who say it marks a return to Taliban-style oppression. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative. Shiite backers of the law say that foreigners are meddling in private Afghan affairs, and Wednesday's demonstrations brought some of the emotions surrounding the debate over the law to the surface. "You are a dog! You are not a Shiite woman!" one man shouted to a young woman in a headscarf holding aloft a banner that said "We don't want Taliban law." The woman did not shout back at the man, but told him: "This is my land and my people." Women protesting the law said many of their supporters had been blocked by men who refused to let them join the protest. Those who did make it shouted repeatedly that they were defending human rights by defending women's rights and that the law does not reflect the views of the Shiite community. 'We want our rights' Fourteen-year-old Masuma Hasani said her whole family had come out to protest the law — both her parents and her younger sister who she held by the arm. "I am concerned about my future with this law," she said. "We want our rights. We don't want women to just be used." As the back-and-forth continued, another demonstration of Shiite women who said they support the law began. "We don't want foreigners interfering in our lives. They are the enemy of Afghanistan," said 24-year-old Mariam Sajadi. Sajadi is engaged, and said she plans to ask her husband's permission to leave the house as put forth in the law. She said other controversial articles — such as one giving the husband the right to demand sex from his wife every fourth day — have been misinterpreted by Westerners who are anti-Islam.

The Pirates Might Prefer Fish to Guns President Barack Obama’s promise that the United States and its allies will put an end to Indian Ocean piracy had the forceful ring to it that good American citizens like to hear, like the statement by Dwight Eisenhower’s secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, in 1953 when the president agreed to an armistice to end the Korean War, leaving the country divided. Dulles protested that the Chinese and North Koreans had to be given “one hell of a licking” if Washington wanted to maintain American “credibility.” Eisenhower, according to an anecdote recently recalled by the distinguished biographer Jean Edwards Smith, replied that if such was Dulles’ view, “I’m in the wrong pew.” He overruled Dulles, and in less than four months the armistice was signed. As Smith notes, during the following seven and a half years of his presidency, not one American serviceman was killed in action. It goes without saying that thousands if not hundreds of thousands of potential Cold War enemy combatants also lived. President Obama says that the U.S. “with our partners” will work “to prevent future attacks, be prepared to confront them when they arise ... and assure that those who commit piracy are held accountable for their crimes.” (Why do “we” have to do this? Doesn’t President Obama have enough on his hands right now? Why not let Britain and Italy lead the anti-piracy campaign; after all, Somalia in the past belonged to their empires.) Somalian piracy is a nasty little affair in which hundreds of foreign seafarers have been made prisoner, but the only ones who have died did so during efforts to rescue them. But things are getting out of hand. The pirates now threaten revenge. They haven’t killed anybody. At this writing, they hold some 200 hostages. As Obama indicated, half the NATO navies seem on the way to chase fishing boats in Somalian waters and the Gulf of Aden. Quoting the encyclopedias on Barbary pirates and U.S. Marine Corps lore about the Tripolitan War makes good newspaper stories. But the Marines, and the Tripoli war’s settlement in 1805, did not put an end to piracy on the Mediterranean Barbary Coast; American commerce was being raided as late as 1815. Maybe somebody should tell the president about that. Why is there now piracy off Somalia? If you listen to the pirates, it is retaliation against the piracy of the international fishing industry. Their story is that they were peaceful fishermen until industrial fishing vessels, mainly from Asia, began raiding their waters and sweeping up all the fish, mainly tuna, that provided their principal exports. (Other Somalian exports at the time included cattle, goats, hide products, skins, bananas and clarified butter—ghee.) They had no government to speak of to defend them, or go to the international courts to protest about the theft of their fish. Somalia’s independence in 1960 had been followed by territorial and irredentist struggles with most of Somalia’s neighbors. There was war with Ethiopia and then Kenya between 1964 and 1967. Then there was a “revolutionary” military coup, and the Cold War being fought by the mighty Soviet Union and the U.S. in the region brought a pro-Soviet regime—until Moscow supported Ethiopia against a Somalian invasion of Ogaden in Ethiopia. The Somalians found a new backer in the United States. Then there was guerrilla war, refugees, drought, famine affecting a third of the nation, U.N. relief efforts harassed by warlords, and U.S. support for the U.N. relief mission, leading to an American military effort to sort all of this out, leading to the famous “Black Hawk Down!” episode, which made a good movie—after which, the U.S. checked out for a few years. A Muslim fundamentalist movement grew up half a dozen years ago, which actually pacified the country. But the U.S. war on terror frowns on Muslim fundamentalism, and the United States paid Ethiopia to once again invade Somalia. But Somalian chaos, nationalism, religion (the Ethiopians are mostly Christians), warlords and general disorder drove the Ethiopians out last year. In the meanwhile, a hungry fisherman, watching the ships go by, said what about piracy? Fantastic! Great idea! Within months the fishermen were millionaires. The money poured in. They didn’t have to hurt a fly, merely to cut the victim ships’ fire hoses. They treated the crews chivalrously, locked them up, fed them nicely, gave them videos and television to watch, and shook hands all around when the money arrived. American diplomats today are reported to be keen to take over from the military in putting order back into the world. Why not a big international effort to get an EU, U.N. or NATO-policed agreement governing who can fish in Somalian waters, along with one more try to put together a provisional government? And how about an agreement by the big countries and Somalia’s neighbors to keep their hands off and to let the Somalians be Muslim fundamentalists if that is what they want? And a big international fund set up by the world’s principal shipping companies to help the Somalians get back into the export business?

Its prolly a wax build up My left ear clogs shut when my allergies go nuts. I dunno wtf it is but the sucker produces wax like its going outta style try Debrox ear drops if straight peroxide dun get it

For the past two years, the market for seal fur has been saturated and pelt prices are now the lowest in recent memory. But the quota for Canada's seal hunt this year is 280,000 harp seal pups! This is outrageous and completely indefensible. It's time to stop Canada's commercial seal hunt once and for all. -> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFLji/zj2c/ANR12 If this is a market-based hunt, as the Canadian government claims, the quota for this year should be zero. Especially once you consider the potential European-wide ban on the horizon. No, the only reason the hunt continues is politics. Canadians would be much better served by a government that stopped playing regional politics, stopped the unnecessary slaughter of seals and started investing in alternative, economically viable employment opportunities. Please act today to support the historic bill that would finally stop the slaughter of harp seals. -> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFLji/zj2c/ANR12 Thanks for taking action! Samer ThePetitionSite

On March 11, Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed into law, a bill giving Interior Secretary Ken Salazar the authority to immediately revoke two Bush administration rules that fundamentally undermine protections for the nation's endangered species. The first rule exempts thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act, and the second sharply limits protections for the polar bear and other imperiled Arctic species by excluding greenhouse gas emissions outside the Arctic from regulation. Under the bill, if Secretary Salazar does not withdraw the Bush-era rules by May 9, the regulations will stay in effect. This will be a disaster for endangered species. Under the Bush regulations, federal agencies -- often with little or no biological expertise of their own -- can decide for themselves whether they need to consult with the wildlife agencies. The new regulations also let federal agencies completely off the hook from considering the potential impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants on endangered species. Interior Secretary Salazar must act immediately, or lose this precious opportunity to instantly remedy one of Bush's worst environmental attacks. Please contact Secretary Salazar and demand that he immediately revoke the Bush regulations exempting federal projects, including those that emit greenhouse gases, from scientific review, as well as the special rule for the polar bear. Help the Center for Biological Diversity gather 50,000 signatures to send Secretary Salazar by May 9. Please -- sign the petition and forward this alert to a friend now. ****************************************** Click here to find out more and take action: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/8257/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1878

heres this too By Johann Hari, Independent UK. Posted April 13, 2009. Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side. Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age of piracy" – from 1650 to 1730 – the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: pirates were often saved from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can't? In his book Villains Of All Nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – plucked from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry – you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the Cat O' Nine Tails. If you slacked often, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages. Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century". They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly – and subversively – that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal Navy." This is why they were romantic heroes, despite being unproductive thieves. The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirateing to live." In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas. Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention." At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters." This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence". No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." William Scott would understand. Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats. The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of the sea." The pirate smiled, and responded: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor." Once again, our great imperial fleets sail – but who is the robber?

Four hundred years ago, in the area that would later become the lower 48 United States, there were approximately 220 million acres of wetlands. Today, there is less than half that amount remaining. In fact, we lose 80,000 acres of wetlands a year. Protect these precious resources. -> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFLHI/zj1T/ANR12 Wetlands are the link between land and water, where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients and the energy of the sun combine to create a unique ecosystem sometimes called a "nursery of life." In addition, wetlands replenish and clean water. They provide needed rest places for migratory birds, and help reduce the risk of floods. They provide opportunities to get away from our cities and get in touch with the natural world. We must keep our remaining wetlands safe, and can't afford to lose more acres to human development. Please act today, and help protect America's wetlands. -> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFLHI/zj1T/ANR12 Thanks for taking action! Samer ThePetitionSite

I've known about KC's bullshit for a while but this vid has gut wrenching impact.

Look, Somalia is a fuckin toilet. Pretty much everything on land has been looted/destroyed so they've turned to piracy on the open sea for economic sustainability. It's an obvious act of desperation. Can't give them total sympathy though, their shit was caused by their own clan wars. Still the UN should be fucking doing something to help these mofo's out. The fuckin Muslim community should be doing something for these, their own, fucking people. Although I'm pro killing ppl of nut job Abrahamic religion not all of the "pirates" are pirates. Some of these fuckers are out there trying to stop bottom trawling from destroying their meager food supply or shit being dumped into the ocean making it toxic stew. Me personally, if I had some guns and a posse on a boat and I came across a commercial fishing boat bottom trawling anytime anywhere on the fuckin planet yer mutherfuckin right I'd jump that vessel and fuck it up beyond repair. That would probably make me an eco terrorist though and not a pirate ne? The mainstream media isn't going to give you the full story. Check Alternet, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast ex: By K'Naan , URB Magazine. Posted April 14, 2009. Can anyone ever really be for piracy? Outside of sea bandits, and young girls fantasizing of Johnny Depp, would anyone with an honest regard for good human conduct really say that they are in support of Sea Robbery? Well in Somalia, the answer is: it's complicated. The news media these days has been covering piracy in the Somali coast, with such lopsided journalism that it's lucky they're not on a ship themselves. It's true that the constant hijacking of vessels in the Gulf of Aden is a major threat to the vibrant trade route between Asia and Europe. It is also true that for most of the pirates operating in this vast shoreline, money is the primary objective. But according to many Somalis, the disruption of Europe's darling of a trade route is just Karma biting a perpetrator in the butt. And if you don't believe in Karma, maybe you believe in recent history. Here is why we Somalis find ourselves slightly shy of condemning our pirates. Somalia has been without any form of a functioning government since 1991. And despite its failures, like many other toddler governments in Africa, sprung from the wells of post-colonial independence, bad governance and development loan sharks, the specific problem of piracy was put in motion in 1992. After the overthrow of Siyad Barre, our charmless dictator of twenty-some odd years, two major forces of the Hawiye Clan came to power. At the time, Ali Mahdi, and General Mohamed Farah Aidid, the two leaders of the Hawiye rebels were largely considered liberators. But the unity of the two men and their respective sub-clans was very short-lived. It's as if they were dumbstruck at the advent of ousting the dictator, or that they just forgot to discuss who will be the leader of the country once they defeated their common foe. A disagreement of who will upgrade from militia leader to Mr. President broke up their honeymoon. It's because of this disagreement that we've seen one of the most devastating wars in Somalia's history, leading to millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead. But war is expensive and militias need food for their families, and Jaad (an amphetamine-based stimulant) to stay awake for the fighting. Therefore a good clan-based Warlord must look out for his own fighters. Aidid's men turned to robbing aid trucks carrying food to the starving masses, and reselling it to continue their war. But Ali Mahdi had his sights set on a larger and more unexploited resource, namely: the Indian Ocean. Already by this time, local fishermen in the coastline of Somalia have been complaining of illegal vessels coming to Somali waters and stealing all the fish. And since there was no government to report it to, and since the severity of the violence clumsily overshadowed every other problem, the fishermen went completely unheard. But it was around this same time that a more sinister, a more patronizing practice was being put in motion. A Swiss firm called Achair Parterns, and an Italian waste company called Progresso, made a deal with Ali Mahdi, that they could dump containers of waste material in Somali waters. These European companies were said to be paying Warlords about $3 a ton, where as in to properly dispose of waste in Europe costs about $1000 a ton. In 2004, after Tsunami washed ashore several leaking containers, thousand of locals in the Puntland region of Somalia started to complain of severe and previously unreported ailments, such as abdominal bleeding, skin melting off and a lot of immediate cancer-like symptoms. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environmental Program, says that the containers had many different kinds of waste, including "Uranium, radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury and chemical waste." But this wasn't just a passing evil from one or two groups taking advantage of our unprotected waters, the UN Convoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that the practice still continues to this day. It was months after those initial reports that local fishermen mobilized themselves, along with street militias, to go into the waters and deter the Westerners from having a free pass at completely destroying Somalia's aquatic life. Now years later, that deterance has become less noble, and the ex-fishermen with their militias have begun to develop a taste for ransom at sea. This form of piracy is now a major contributor to the Somali economy, especially in the very region that private toxic waste companies first began to bury our nation's death trap. Now Somalia has upped the world's pirate attacks by ove r21 percent in one year, and while NATO and the EU are both sending forces to the Somali coast to try and slow down the attacks, Blackwater and all kinds of private security firms are intent on cashing in. But while Europeans are well in their right to protect their trade interest in the region, our pirates were the only deterrent we had from an externally imposed environmental disaster. No one can say for sure that some of the ships they are now holding for ransom were not involved in illegal activity in our waters. The truth is, if you ask any Somali if they think getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western vessels, and the production of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high. It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man's pirate is another man's coast guard.

this thing is a riot http://ladywriter.mybrute.com

Police arrested an estimated 872,720 persons for cannabis violations in 2007, the highest annual total ever recorded in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent, 775,137 Americans were charged with possession only. An American is now arrested for violating cannabis laws every 38 seconds. Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation

they've got nuttin to dance about their party is over