By Chycho

In the last eight years implementing the plans for the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) designed "to promote American global leadership" has backfired.

To accomplish PNAC’s goals, all threats needed to be eliminated. From the onset, the United Sates earmarked two countries as mortal enemies: Venezuela and Iran. With Venezuela, it is well documented that the CIA attempted to overthrow the democratically elected government of Chavez. And with Iran, the United States continues to use it as a scapegoat for its failures in Iraq. These cold war tactics however are proving to be US’s undoing.

The United States is hemorrhaging from every orifice, and oil prices can be used to measure the rapidity of its demise.
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by Steve Watson

President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.

Described as a "national contingency plan" the justification for the new law S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, is that it represents preparation for any sort of "public health emergency."

The bill states that the federal government should "continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening" and "maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening… ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly".
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by David Swanson

May 1st is shaping up to be quite a day of resistance, with strikes by the ILWU and other unions, plus immigrant rights rallies, and peace and impeachment activities. It’s Mission Accomplished Day (5 Years!) It’s Downing Street Minutes Day (3 Years!) It’s Impeachment Off the Table Day (2 Years!) It’s May Day, the original Labor Day (122 Years!)

If you care about the future of our republic, we encourage you to visit your congress member’s nearest office at high noon, local time, on May 1st, and ask for impeachment hearings for the Vice President for Torture, Dick Cheney. Let us know you plan to do it, and find others to do it with you at http://democrats.com/mayday

Watch this video. Clarence Thomas, National Co-Chair of the Million Worker March Movement and Executive Board member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, spoke on April 24th, 2008, at the Iraq Town Hall meeting, in the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, CA. The ILWU has committed to blocking ports on May 1st in opposition to the occupation of Iraq.
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Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper.
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Solidarity is proud to offer our 100% support to the oil refinery workers at Grangemouth.

For the “crime” of refusing to accept the tearing up of their pension scheme they have been vilified by the Ineos management and sections of the press in Scotland. In a disgusting campaign the oil workers have been accused of “holding the country to ransom” and of being “hell bent on strike action.”

In reality it is the Ineos Company led by billionaire James Ratcliffe who are responsible for this situation. After buying Grangemouth from BP in 2005 Ratcliffe – who has a personal fortune of almost £2 billion - has embarked on a brutal assault on jobs and working conditions at Grangemouth. This has culminated in their decision to close a pension scheme that was negotiated and has been in existence for years under BP.
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By DAVE LINDORFF

Time for a discussion on … not race, but racism.

One of the clear observations that can be made about the ugly Democratic presidential primary just held in Pennsylvania is that it was marred by racism.

The winning candidate, Hillary Clinton, who bested Barack Obama by just over 9 percent of the vote after a six-week campaign, made a determined effort to court the white, working class voters in Pennsylvania’s midsection and in the heavily ethnic northeastern part of the state, and she succeeded. According to exit polls, for example, white men voted 57 percent for Clinton and 43 percent for Obama. White women went 68 percent for Clinton and 32 percent for Obama. White Catholics, a particular target of the Clinton campaign, went 70 percent for Clinton and 30 percent for Obama—her biggest margin of any grouping.
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By Michael P. Wright

According to Webster, a political revolution does not have to be violent:
 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dict...

It says (2b) that a revolution is "a fundamental change in political organization; especially : the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed."

According to this Oklahoma law (paragraph B), it is a felony crime for anyone over the age of 18 to advocate revolution on a college or public school campus. This is punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment.
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By Stephen Lendman

They’re called "Refuseniks" but not for refusing to serve. They’ve done it proudly and courageously, and here’s how "Courage to Refuse" members state their position:

"We, reserve officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)....have always served in the front lines....were first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, (and we did it) to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.

We....served....long weeks every year, in spite of dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country (but were only given to perpetuate) our control over the Palestinian people. We(’ve)....seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
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By ADAM LIPTAK

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
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By David Glenn Cox

Strother Martin, in the classic film, "Cool Hand Luke," uttered those immortal words: “What we’ve have here is failure to communicate.” That sums up the current war of words between the Peoples Republic of China and CNN. Part of this situation is pure, heavy-handed, government propaganda, and part is American arrogance, quick to point out the sty in other’s eyes while unwilling to deal with the log in their own. A failure to communicate, based on culture, politics, custom, profit and national pride.

While American children are singing the Barney theme, “I love you, you love me,” the children in China are taught to sing, “I love the party, the party loves me.” Americans, without hesitation, will quickly tell you what is wrong with their boss, their company, their Congressman, their President.
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The Treaty Con

The Government has hatched an elaborate plan to deceive voters over the forthcoming EU treaty referendum, the Irish Daily Mail can today reveal.

A leaked email shows that ministers are planning a deliberate campaign of misinformation to ensure the treaty vote is passed when it is put to the public as required by the Constitution. The document also shows that the Government is considering a last-minute change in the date of the referendum - slated for June 12 - to catch out ’No’ campaigners.

Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern has even been personally assured that the European Commission will ’tone down or delay’ any announcements from Brussels ’that might be unhelpful’. Alarmingly, the email says that Ministers ruled out an October referendum, which would have been better procedurally, because they feared ’unhelpful developments during the French Presidency - particularly related to EU defence’.
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By Pat LaMarche

Are we really having discussions about whether or not to participate in the 2008 Olympics? Are people actually sitting in coffee shops discussing whether the civil rights violations in China warrant a U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies or even the games themselves?

Man, this country really cracks me up.

Extraordinary men and women, the absolute cream of our athletic crop, who have — for likely as long as they’ve walked — trained for the moment when they could participate in the Olympic Games, have now become the political pawns of our human rights discussions. And I’m not just talking about discussions with China; but discussions about China by a country that has no right to talk.
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He’ll ask President to help stop profitable U.S.-bound oil pipelines

By Joe Friesen

WINNIPEG — An outspoken Canadian native leader is urging Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to throw his weight behind an attempt to block two multibillion-dollar pipelines that will transport oil from Alberta to the United States.

Terrance Nelson, chief of the Roseau First Nation in Manitoba, met last week with officials at the Venezuelan embassy in Ottawa and yesterday released a letter to Mr. Chavez in which he calls the President "a beacon of hope for poor and oppressed people everywhere."
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How does a government lead its people to war? How does it communicate to its citizens – and to the wider world – the reasons an rationale for initiating military conflict?

What rhetorical devices and techniques are employed? And how is a nation brought to support the profound decision to wage war against another nation? These are the questions that LEADING TO WAR seeks to explore.

This 72-minute film shows the evolution of the United States government’s case for military action against Saddam Hussein’s regime, leading to the Iraq War which began in 2003.
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By Chycho

Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, born 19 September 1986 in Ottawa Canada, “has been detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps since he was captured at the age of 15 following a 2002 firefight between American troops and militants in Afghanistan.” He has been accused by the United States of “throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier, leading to charges of war crimes and providing support to terrorism.” That, of course, is what the Bush administration is officially stating, the truth however is proving to be anything but.

In the summer of 2007, all charges were dropped against Khadr, but he was not released. Then in March 2008 it was revealed that US military command had altered the report on the firefight in Afghanistan to cast blame on Khadr - originally the reported had stated “the assailant who threw the grenade was killed.”

Then we learned that not only was the Canadian government refusing to hand over evidence to the defense, in violation of court orders, but the “United States may well have lied about its evidence against Mr. Khadr.
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Portuguese Judicial Police classifies action against genetically modified corn as a "terrorist" act in Europol report.

In the last "EU terrorism situation and trend report" of Europol, the partial mowing of a field in Silves (Portugal), last summer, is classified as a terrorist act. In France, Germany and the UK, similar actions are often far more radical and happen regularly. Yet, they are not classified as terrorist acts in the report. Currently, in Germany an occupation of experimental GM fields is taking place.

The Portuguese radio station ’Radio Clube’ was the first to report on the Europol document. But even the lawyer of the accusing party declared that he could not see any elements that would justify to label the destruction of the GM field of his client as ’terrorist’. A specialist in penal law also declared he could not establish any relation between the action in Silves and terrorist acts.
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By David R. Hoffman

For almost five years I have served as Legal Editor of Pravda.Ru. During this time I have been praised and criticized for my work. And I’ve appreciated them both. When someone praises my work, I know there is at least one kindred spirit out there in cyberspace, so I don’t feel so alone. When someone criticizes my work, I know they at least took the time to read what I wrote.

But now it is time to expand my horizons. I am no longer content to sit behind a keyboard, hammering out words in an attempt to inspire others to think, to question and to challenge the way things are. So during this election year I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring and announce my candidacy for President of the United States. My party is named the I’ll Never Get Elected Because I’m Not Dishonest, Corrupt or Greedy Party.
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By Andy McSmith

There is a two-word answer to those who think the Olympic torch is a symbol of harmony between nations that should be kept apart from politics – Adolf Hitler.

The ceremony played out on the streets of Paris yesterday did not originate in ancient Greece, nor even in the 19th century, when the Olympic movement was revived. The entire ritual, with its pagan overtones, was devised by a German named Dr Carl Diem, who ran the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Although he was not a Nazi, and was appointed to run the Olympics before the Nazis came to power, Diem adapted very quickly to the new regime, and ended the war as a fanatical military commander exhorting teenage Germans to die like Spartans rather than accept defeat. Thousands did, but not Diem, who lived to be 80.
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By PHILLIPE MARLIERE

Nicolas Sarkozy, allegedly the most Anglophile (or rather Americanophile) president of the 5th Republic failed his Science Po degree in the late 70s because his English was so poor that he was barred from sitting the politics exams. In the run up to the war in Iraq, the allegedly "Anti-American" Chirac was able to explain the French position in English before the US media, a small feat totally out of reach for the monolingual Sarkozy.

Sarkozy did not have to make small talk in English when he recently met the Queen in Windsor Castle since the British Monarch is fluent in French. On this occasion, some may have warned the Queen that Sarkozy’s French is generally most unceremonial: his crude crack at a person who refused to shake hands with him at a Paris farm show or the derogatory use of the "tu" form to address strangers (in the French context, not a cool way to behave, but rather a condescending or bossy one) have become Internet hits.
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by Bellaciao Paris

Worldwide news & intergalactical scoop, especially for you, on Bellaciao: let The Team introduce you to the first video ever realized from A to Z (nigggthhhts of hard work :)) by Biche, Sirieix, Thom, Dr Furioso, La Louve, Bellaciao Collectif, 3x0, Le Scarabée, recorded, engineered and mixed Farra Vox studios: "SILVIO MON AMOUR"

Our italian friends, comrades and compatriots are about to chose new parliamentarian, new government on the 13d and 14th of april...what a harsh choice - well we have to admitt, it’s not that easy to choose between "Lovely left rainbow-bears" or "Mister Rotten"?! :)

No, we’ kiddin’... & please, have no hesitation: "VAFF... SILVIO" !!

Please enjoy this little jewel, thought and made joyfully by us (with our little nimble hands, yes yes!) for you, and, above all, don’t forget: send Buffoonsconi back to the backroom of History, for good.

(Bella)Ciao tutti.
Dr Furioso, Thom, Charlie, Brunz et La Louve
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