Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
1. On My Oath (Opinion/Opinion)
Author : Andrew Bard Schmookler
YOU SWORE ON THE BIBLE: WHAT AN OATH MEANS
by Andrew Bard Smookler
A promise is always an important thing. But an oath is not just an ordinary promise. An oath is a promise made in such a way as to accentuate its importance, and to make it binding, as much as is possible to do.
An oath has been defined thus:
“Invocation of a supernatural or holy being called to verify the veracity of a statement… An oath was a special appeal, an expression of sincerity backed up by the threat of divine retribution should the uttering prove false — hence the term ‘oath-breaker’. An oathbreaker was assumed to have committed a crime against God or of some divine entity, which would lead to damnation or another form of severe penalty.”
I certainly agree with those who regard Barack Obama as an appealing and impressive fellow. And I thought John Edwards was a dynamite public speaker with an effective message when he ran for president in 2004. But I don’t think either of them –or anyone else who lacks extensive experience in world affairs– is what America needs, or what the world needs, in the next president of the United States.
These are not ordinary circumstances into which the next president will step. He or she will be following upon a presidency that has done extensive and profound damage to the world system, and to America’s position within that system. The job of repairing that damage is of vital importance, and it is not a job for a neophyte in the workings of international affairs.
It is a vital job because American leadership has been, before the Bushite era, a valuable asset for both the United States and for the world. Many on the left don’t care to recognize this fact, but it has been widely understood by most of the peoples of the world. This is not to deny America’s various abuses of its power over the several generations before the Bushites. But had American leadership been absent during the period from, say, 1940 to 2000, the world would have been even more messed up than it has been.
The Bushites have made America into a feared and despised nation in a way the U.S. has never been before. And that leaves the world without any good and effective leadership, and nowhere else from which it is likely to come. Certainly not from Putin’s Russia. Nor from the one-party, authoritarian regime that gunned down the students at Tienamen Square. Nor does Europe show any capacity yet to act together to fill that role.
2007: Annus Mirabilis and the Smiling Garden of Eden
by Pablo Ouziel In 1905 Albert Einstein, presented the Annus Mirabilis ("Wonderful Year") Papers, in which he explained the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc2, which led to the development of nuclear energy.
In 1955, a few days before his death, Einstein together with Bertrand Russell issued the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, highlighting the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, and calling for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict.
One of the paragraphs in the manifesto read; “We shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another. All, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it.”
Langford Exchange: Of Misinformation and Conflicts of Interest
by Cheryl Bryce
The response below is to a letter Denise Blackwell submitted to the editor of a local paper, Goldstream Gazette. I don’t think my response will be published but the message has been sent.
From: cheryl bryce
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:47 PM
To: editor@goldstreamgazette.com
Cc: premier@gov.bc.ca; kevin.falcon.mla@leg.bc.ca; council@district.langford.bc.ca
Subject: Repsonse to: Misinformation mars interchange project
Dear Editor; I want to thank you, for publishing Denise Blackwell’s letter. It demonstrates to the public the lack of transparency and accountability. I am sure people residing in Langford, Greater Victoria, BC and potentially internationally will write an opposing response to Blackwell’s opinions.
However, one issue I would like to bring to light in reading Blackwell’s letter is potential conflict of interest.
Capital Region District Director and Langford Counsellor, Denise Blackwell
Blackwell fails to mention one of her titles in her letter, BC Archaeology Branch Administrator Assistant to Justin Batten, Director.
O! Canada '08: Reviewing the Unrecognizable Nation
by C. L. Cook
The Century has not so far been kind to those Canadians pining reminiscent for the days the country was a liberal democracy; run by relatively responsible actors on the world stage, the brokers of peace, guarantors of civility and fair governance in a dangerous, chaotic world.
To be fair to the successors of Brian Mulroney, the prime minister who hitched the nation's wagon to America's seemingly forever rising star through the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), destiny dealt them a crummy hand; but both the Jean Chretien and Paul Martin administrations went beyond the investment oriented FTA (later to morph, with the inclusion of Mexico, into the tripartite NAFTA agreement) "committing" Canada to both America's foreign policy objectives, and the military methods it employs to achieve them.
Canada, the C.B.C. tells me, was voted first of a dozen countries in the esteem of the global community. This not due to great works or world leadership, but because a poll conducted with folks on the street in more than a hundred nations.
'The National' was a little short on the details of the poll, as they often are when "reporting" this type of datoid factums and their possible interpretations. The essence though was this: Of a list of twelve countries, Canada, U.S.A., Israel, Russia, Iran, Japan, France, and others unspecified in the report, which do you believe most and least favourably serves the greater well-being of the planet? Or something to that effect.
The big news was, our preeminent do-good reputation is still Aces!
Of Torture, Transfers, and Travesties of Justice
by C. L. Cook
Looking at the Leap Year news today, all I can say is: "Thank Christ it only happens once every four years!" (insert rimshot here).
But seriously, folks. Tomorrow and tomorrow, and tomorrow will be more of the same I fear, because February 29th is everyday lately. An even more demented Hell than made famous in Bill Murray's Groundhog's Day, we witness the same glaring injustice and astonishing immorality, replaying as if on a loop. Round and round we go, each revolution a tightening spiral into an abyss of utter barbarity.
What can we make of it? If the philosopher is right, and each day is emblematic of everyday, thus signifying the potentiality of the entirety; what does today tell us of where we human Earthlings are, and where we're likely to shore up, given the prevailing current? For Canadians, three stories of torture, transfers, and a travesty of justice serve grim instruction.
Today, (Wed. Mar. 19, 2008) Canada's Supreme Court ruled a motion filed by lawyers for "Canadian Taliban" Omar Khadr, currently imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, can proceed for the court's consideration.
They will hear arguments and rule on whether the treatment meted out to Khadr violates his rights under international law and whether his incarceration is contrary to the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war.
They will also hear arguments questioning the ability of American Justice to meet internationally required benchmarks for fairness in the case.
Disabuse Your Illusion: Weighing Obama in the Balance of Reality
by Chris Floyd
Hope, said Emily Dickinson, is the thing with feathers, a tough little bird that sounds sweetest in the midst of a storm. It's a commonplace by now, but no less true, that Barack Obama's winged words of hope have borne him up to the high place where he stands now, on the threshold of the White House.
And these words shine all the more brightly against the torrent of filth that the Bush Regime has rained down upon the American people for years. Thus it's no surprise that millions of people have been inspired by Obama – including a million who have put their money where their hope is, in the most remarkable grass-roots funding campaign in U.S. political history.
Arthur Silber, as always, talks good and damning sense about the maddening moral idiocy of the entire American establishment and the whole "national debate" about the Iraq war. He limns with brutal accuracy the inability of our movers and shakers -- and most of the public they manipulate so thoroughly -- to comprehend the true nature of this bloodsoaked hell: that it is a monstrous crime, conceived in evil, steeped in murder, breeding death, brutality and corruption in everything it touches.
Silber's penetrating ire is sparked off by the witless flap over John McCain's remark about the "waste" of American lives in shoddy execution of the war. McCain, like Barack Obama before him, quickly and cravenly apologized for letting this one little sliver of truth escape their lips -- for as we all know, it is poor form, a terrible social faux pas, to mention the rotting corpse beneath the canape table at the great Beltway Cocktail Party.
You can't make an "O" without a big empty spot in the middle. And as Peter Birkenhead reminds us in his excellent article on Salon.com, the Big O of American culture, Oprah Winfrey, is using her tremendous reach and influence to accelerate the evisceration of meaning in American life – and beyond – through her championing of the genuinely moronic "self-help" system called, moronically, "The Secret."
This cargo cult – which guarantees untold riches and endless happiness simply by wishing really hard and "ordering" whatever you want "from the Universe" – might seem too witless and trivial to think about, especially in an age of aggressive war, state terror and its "asymmetrical" offshoots, growing tyranny, economic ravages and social decay.
NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 31 (IPS) - Iraqi government lies over the killing of
hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent
investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.
Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle
broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres
northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.
One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people
lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S.
helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of
the Iraqi security force were also killed.
"We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every
year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a
leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe told IPS.
"We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing
civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed
five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the
soldiers."
The confrontation took place on the Shia holiday of Ashura which
commemorates Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the most
revered of Shia saints. Emotions run high at this time, and
self-flagellation in public is the norm.
Now, that the 2008 Presidential race is heating up with Senator Hillary Clinton’s announcement of her candidacy, it is important to take in the news reports (or lack thereof) thoughtfully and analytically.
Recently, Noam Chomsky made the following observation about political coverage on the part of U.S. mainstream media:
“Just to give one last illustration, I was driving home from work the other day and torturing myself by listening to NPR...But they had a section on Barack Obama, the great new hope. And it was very exuberant: what a fantastic personality he is and a great candidate, thousands of people coming out. And it went on for about 15 minutes of excited rhetoric. There's only one thing missing. They didn’t say a word about what his policies were on anything.”
Professor Chomsky’s comments about the media’s reportage on Senator Obama are applicable to coverage of all candidates. Americans today tend to be overly practical in regard to politics, while eschewing ideology.
Governor Siegelman will be the guest of nationally renowned journalist Tavis Smiley this evening Tuesday April 22. Check your local listings for the shows time in your area.
Tavis Smiley's show is a unique mix of news and pop culture to combine for one thought-provoking and entertaining program. A hybrid of news, issues and entert ainment, it features interviews with artists, activists, newsmakers, politicians and everyday people.
The symmetry was perfect. Up in New Haven, where I spent the weekend at the War, Documentary and Iraq conference, we watched “IRAQ FOR SALE” and learned how the war has in many respects been outsourced to private contractors, ie. mercenaries and politically connected corprations, who have profited while the killing goes on and on. And then, yesterday, we learned on page one of the New York Times that, lo and behold, we’ve lost our own country too to the same interests. The war had come home or maybe clearly came from "home." The headline was stark and the facts undeniable:
“In Washington, Contractors Take on Biggest Role Ever.”
contracting has soared during the Bush presidency, fueled by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost all government work.
LETS BE FRIENDS
And while privatization runs rampant in the sewer of corruption that is our Nation’s capitol, the horse-traders and deal-makers in our Congress were being courted by George W. W Bush who knows that to get get along he has to go along with the new power equation. And so there he was “aw shucksing” in with that down home country style asking as Nancy Pelosi spoke of a new era of bi-partisanship. The co-optation of the Democratic majority has begun anew as The Prez told his critics how much he respects them and their right to disagree with him in this “time of war.”
In a rare appearance before an audience of Democrats, President Bush said Saturday that he did not question the patriotism of those who disagreed with his Iraq strategy and asked lawmakers not to let dissension over the war entirely erode their trust in him.
“I welcome debate in a time of war, and I hope you know that,” Mr. Bush said. “Nor do I consider a belief that if you don’t happen to agree with me, you don’t share the same sense of patriotism I do. You can get that thought out of your mind if that’s what some believe.”
Over a quarter of a century ago, a group of students, with the backing of the religious government of Iran, invaded and took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding Americans there hostage for months. It was an action so violative of international law (embassies and consulates are considered to be the terrority of the nation that occupies them) that the U.S. has never forgiven Iran, and never restored relations.
How ironic then, to learn that our president, the loony George W. Bush, personally ordered our troops in "sovereign" Iraq to attack and overrun the Iranian consulate in Irbil, arrest and take as hostages six Iranians there, and confiscate consular equipment such as computers, as well as documents.
How predictable that days later, the U.S. embassy in Greece was hit with a rocket-fired grenade — an action which was immediately denounced by the U.S. as an "act of terror," though thankfully no one was hurt.
We don't know who fired the RPG at the U.S. embassy, but if it was the Iranians, or if it was a Greek leftist acting on behalf of the Iranians, they'd be well within their rights, under the internation rules of war, which include the doctrine of reciprocity. It would be, not terrorism, but an act of war.
An Immodest Proposal: Hillary for Veep...of the GOP
by Dave Lindorff I've got an idea. The way to get Hillary Clinton out of the Democratic race so Barack Obama can focus on the general election is to encourage John McCain to name her as his choice for vice president!
It's perfect. On foreign policy, Johno and Hill are an excellent match. They both want to blow up Iran. They both thought invading Iraq was a peachy-keen idea. And they both want to keep freezing out Cuba--or maybe worse.
Keeping America Safe: Prosecuting Children as Terrorists
by Dave Lindorff President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the rest of the warmongers and terror-pimps in the White House would have us believe that Omar Khadr is a monster. Khadr is the 21-year-old Canadian who is facing one of the first show-trials at Guantanamo.
But let’s just step back a minute and consider Mr. Khadr’s case.
Omar Khadr aged 15
The son of an alleged Islamic fundamentalist, Khadr was sent to one of those fundamentalist madrassa schools in Pakistan back when he was 14. From there, he went to Afghanistan, to join with the Taliban in fighting against the remnant warlord backers of the Soviet Union, which had attempted to run Afghanistan as a vassal state.
A key element of the drawdown plans, not mentioned in the President’s public statements, is that the departing American troops will be replaced by American airpower.
There’s an air war over Iraq. It’s invisible (here). It’s deadly (there).
The Iraq air war may be the longest such war in history. In one way or another it has been undermining Iraq’s sovereignty, destroying its infrastructure, and killing and maiming Iraqis for some 16 years.
20. O! HAPPY DAY! (Opinion/Opinion)
Author : Ernest Partridge
Let’s Stifle the Happy Talk
by Ernest Partridge
Happy days are here again!
The GOP is in disarray. The factions of this improbable alliance of religious fundamentalists, neo-con war hawks, and market absolutists have discovered, with the emergence of their presumptive nominee, John McCain, that they have little in common. James Dobson, leader of the fundamentalist “Focus on the Family,” has announced that rather than vote for McCain, he will not vote at all.
Ann Coulter says that she might even support Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, the Democratic base remains solid as party loyalists tell pollsters that they would be quite happy with either Clinton or Obama. And in the primaries so far, seventy percent more Democrats have voted than Republicans. Moreover, the Democratic party is enjoying a substantial funding advantage over the Republicans. Among liberal pundits and talk show hosts, there is a sense of inevitable Democratic triumph in the coming election.
by Ernest Partridge
My computer and I have been through a bad spell these past couple of weeks. First, my router/modem developed a terminal malfunction, and then my new anti-virus software failed to install. Thankfully, three very capable and patient gentlemen at various technical support facilities found solutions.
These three gentlemen were, respectively, from India, the Philippines, and once again, India. If you or someone in your family is about to graduate with a degree in computer science, don’t expect to find a job in the U.S. any time soon.
Amidst my computer worries, I bought a dozen or so electrical supplies from the local hardware: a surge protector, extension cords, a phone, that sort of thing. Glancing at the labels, I found that each and every one was made in China. And a new hard drive? From Malaysia.
No need to go on with this, you know about it already. It’s called “outsourcing.”
$300 MILLION FROM CHAVEZ TO FARC A FAKE
by Greg Palast Here’s the written evidence… and - please say it ain’t so! - Obama and Hillary attack Ecuador
Do you believe this?
This past weekend, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they’re using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!
That’s what George Bush tells us. And he got that from his buddy, the strange right-wing President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.
hi all; i'm in mcallen texas, preparing (along with approximately 125 others), to cross the border into mexico with about 100 tons of aid destined for cuba.
our intention is to leave around 6 am, and spend however long at the border, then drive through mexico to tampico and put the stuff on a barge and then all the caravanistas will fly to havana for a week.
“What kind of a society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that system.”
---Milton Friedman
What kind indeed? Certainly not a prodigious society such as ours. Thanks to Capitalism, the United States is replete with opulence, might, and benevolence.
Guided by the brilliant foresight of Hamilton, manacled by men like Keynes, Galbraith, and FDR, and ultimately granted a refreshing degree of freedom by the heroic intellectual efforts of Rand and Friedman, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” has wrought a citadel for those wishing to pursue healthy greed, self-interest, and enlightened oppression. While Capitalism in the United States is still afflicted with the diseases of a mixed economy, government regulation and socialistic tendencies, America’s socioeconomic system is far superior to any rival, past or present.
You may have read the transcript of a speech given by George McGovern in The Nation last week in which he rightly condemns the hubris, and inanity of those actions, by our president, that have cost the lives of more than the 3018 service members the former senator, and presidential candidate, cites. McGovern is right, too, to confirm what many of us already suspected which is that Bush pere was opposed to his son's preemptive manuevers in the Persian Gulf; right, too suggest that W. would have fared better had he listened to his "physical father" rather than the advice he claims came from a higher authority.
I confess, while I was a vocal, and persistent protestor against the war in Vietnam, and among the first on my block to speak out against that debacle, George McGovern wasn't at the top of my list for president the year he ran. He was too low on testasterone for me, at the time, though I now wonder if the warrior hormone, in the end, produces more worriers than peace.
After yesterday's announcement, we now have a candidate
who has no shortage of testosterone, Hillary Clinton. What she lacks is
credibility. Not only did Clinton vote in favor of the war, but she
watered down her pro-choice statements, so they'd be more palatable to
centrist Democrats and Republicans making one wonder just how far the
Senator is prepared to bend with respect to Roe v. Wade, an important
question in light of the current composition of the Supreme Court, and
the tenuousness of a constitutional amendment that guarantees a woman's
right to choose. One would also like to hear Clinton speak out against
the Military Commissions Act, the USA Patriot Act, the NSA electronic
surveillance program, and challenges to a free press instead of trying
to look commander-in-chiefish' during her Internet appearances.
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service has expanded its round-up of
immigrants, legal and illegal, coast to coast, last week, and has now
set up shop in Los Angeles where INS teams have conducted impromptu
raids of dwellings, and businesses of those it suspects to illegal
aliens, and/or convicted felons.
I agree with the concept behind Operation Return to Sender,
only I think that the government is going after the wrong folks:
having made it perfectly clear that he's in Washington, D.C. illegally,
this president needs to be sent home, as do the rest of his minions.
Oh, and as for Tony Snow, there's a parking space in Limbo with his name on it...
Stephen Harper has been making much of himself lately, promoting his version of how to achieve global peace and prosperity, with talks and presentations on Afghanistan and Colombia.
The central tenet of his global approach is apparently to support those ideas and governments that are of convenience to American foreign policy.
What a wonderful political distraction is Senator Barack Hussein Obama. Perhaps a good part of his attractiveness is that he is in so many ways the complete opposite of George W. Bush.
Yet, what amazes me is how our bipartisan obstacle to true political competition continually creates illusions of change and reform. Thus it keeps a grip on Americans’ hope for the future, and preempts public support for more profound political change. Is Obama just another example of how our corrupt political system ingeniously creates candidates to keep hope alive? Is the self-professed progressive Obama the real thing? Is he something other than a conventional politician? I have read many of his speeches and other statements. I applaud his upbeat rhetoric, but few policy details are given.
Joseph Sobran opined that “the Democrats are looking for a political messiah, and many of them think they’ve found one in Illinois’s junior senator, Barack Obama. And Obama is, without question, a very charming, intelligent, and impressive young man who is, moreover, catnip to the press corps.” Cal Thomas made the good point that many Americans look at presidential candidates as political messiahs. He said Obama “can also play dual roles of messiah figure and one of the Wise Men.” And he astutely asked: “Have political ‘messiah figures’ become false gods?”
In truth, none of the current presidential hopefuls have obtained the political messiah mantle as much as Obama has.
Yet I remain skeptical. Is he willing to do whatever it takes to become President? In our diseased political system, whatever-it-takes-candidacy produces screw-the-public-politics-as-usual. Here are some things that would truly impress me about Obama’s uniqueness, and that would support viewing him as something other than just another opportunistic politician – albeit with a race, good looks, anti-Iraq war, and intelligence advantage.
The Issue is Zionism
by Jonathan Cook If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s most intractable, much the same can be said of the parallel debate about whether its resolution can best be achieved by a single state embracing the two peoples living there or by a division of the land into two separate states, one for Jews and the other for Palestinans.
The philosopher Michael Neumann has dedicated two articles, in 2007 and earlier this week, for CounterPunch discrediting the one-state idea as impractical and therefore as worthless of consideration. In response, Kathy Christison has mounted a robust defence, neatly exposing the twists and turns of Neumann’s logic. I will not trouble to cover the same ground.
I want instead to address Neumann’s central argument: that it is at least possible to imagine a consensus emerging behind two states, whereas Israelis will never accept a single state. That argument, the rallying cry of most two-staters, paints the one-state crowd as inveterate dreamers and time-wasters.
Shortly after President Bush’s State of the Union address last week Jim Webb, the freshman Senator from Virginia, delivered the Democrats’ televised response to Bush’s annual speech. Many antiwar progressives were pleased to hear a Democrat confront the Bush rhetoric head-on. Media critic Jeff Cohen went even further and argued that Webb’s riposte was not only aimed at the Bush administration, but also at Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“Whether intended or not,” wrote Cohen, “Webb was offering a way for Democrats to win elections — a script for any presidential candidate who wants to distinguish him or herself in the primaries, and then defeat the Republicans in Nov. 2008.”
Cohen and I must have been watching different programs. Sen. Webb’s position on the Iraq war was little more than a sugarcoated pill packed full of the usual irony. Webb painted the situation in Iraq as a result of Bush’s poor planning and not the more obvious illegalities and lies that drove our country into battle. As Webb put it, “We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable — and predicted — disarray that has followed.”
Never once did we hear Webb utter the bitter truth about the Iraq crisis. Certainly the invasion and subsequent occupation were not “mismanaged” as Webb and many others have put it, rather the civil war now engulfing Iraq is a result of a criminal performance carried out by President Bush that was enabled and encouraged by the leaders of the Democratic Party dating back to President Clinton.
TRYING TO CREATE “MOHAWK-OKA CRISIS” (by issuing illegal development permits on Haudenosaunee Territory)
by Kahentinetha Horn
The “imperialist formula” is: the colonial government issues illegal permits to developers and sell bonds. These are paper investments based on the theft of our land and resources which they use as collateral to borrow and raise money. The government expects future taxes from developments such as mining, condos, etc. The Indigenous owners defend our land.
The colonists go to their courts to get an “injunction” to remove us by force. Remember 1990 when Mohawks demonstrated peacefully against a golf course expansion and condo development in “the Pines” at Kanehsatake? Mayor Ouellette of the Parish of Oka, which sits on Mohawk land, had asked Quebec for an injunction to get us off our land so he could force the development through.
Women Title Holders Assert the Great Law over ALGONQUINS
by Kahentinetha Horn
The Kahtihon’tia:kwenio have been forced to assert their responsibilities as caretakers of Haudenosaunee land.
The land in question is south of the Ottawa River which was Huron [Wyandot] territory 308 years ago. After many years of warfare between the Iroquois and the French and their allies, the Hurons, there was a meeting in Montreal in 1700. At this time, this land passed to the Haudenosaunee in exchange for prisoners.
Beware of Certain Unscrupulous "Algonquin"
and Arms Dealers Seeking Profits
by Kahentinetha Horn Just what is legitimate representation anyway? Certain unscrupulous “Algonquins” continue to try to make deals with Ontario over Haudenosaunee land.
The land south of the Ottawa River is Haudenosaunee. They are just “visitors” in this area. This hasn’t stopped developers and those involved in the colonial land claims game from attempting to choreograph a strange dance.
On January 21st Brian Crane lawyer for Ontario and Bob Potts negotiator for the Algonquins of Ontario met with Harold Perry and Robert Lovelace, the chief and the negotiator for the Ardoch Algonquins, at the Holiday Inn in Kingston.
Dead Grecian Formula Terrorist
by Kurt Nimmo In an effort to explain away the glaring discrepancy between the 2004 and the 2007 Osamas, Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, tells us “bin Laden’s beard appears to have been dyed, a popular practice among Arab leaders,” and if that is not absurd enough, Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East who now runs the Paris-based consultancy Terrorisc, adds “bin Laden is well aware that his reappearance on the world stage—looking fit and with his beard dyed a youthful black—was itself a victory that went beyond anything he actually said” in his latest video.
As for the message, the AP informs us it “is a hodgepodge of anti-capitalist vitriol, impassioned Islamic evangelism and what can best be described as a twisted attempt at reconciliation: Join us, or we’ll kill you.” Of course, it is not explained how a dead nemesis will kill us, a few million infidels.
Crusade of Surge and Siege
by Manuel Valenzuela Sojourn into the outer recesses of a nation bordering on madness, into a land deeply disturbed and emotionally bewildered, a world of anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism, of fanaticism and fundamentalism, entering a case study into fantasyland and escapism, taking a pilgrimage into realms both of purposeful ignorance and blindness, of electing lifelong incompetents based on wanting to have a beer with them, walking through the dark valley of indifference, climbing the monolithic mountain of hubris, finally reaching the hallowed halls of smoke and mirrors, a place where only the blind lead the blind and where the deafening roars of death and destruction are easily suppressed in delusion and denial.
Journey, if you will, into a nation that lost its moral compass inside the dungeons of fear and hatred.
To say that this election could go
either way is not to say that the Republicans have any chance of
winning it. As a civic entity responsive to the voters' will, the
party's over, there being
no American majority that backs it, or that ever would. Bush has left
the GOP in much the same condition as Iraq, Afghanistan, the global
climate, New Orleans, the Bill of Rights, our military, our economy and
our national reputation. Thus the regime is reviled as hotly by
conservatives as by liberals, nor do any moderates support it.
So slight is Bush's popularity that his own party's candidates for
Congress are afraid to speak his name or to be seen with him (although
their numbers, in the aggregate, are even lower than his). It seems the
only citizens who still have any faith in him are those who think God
wants us to burn witches and drive SUVs. For all their zeal, such
theocratic types are not in the majority, not even close, and thus
there's no chance that the GOP can get the necessary votes.
And so the Democrats are feeling good, and calling for a giant drive to
get the vote out on Election Day. Such an effort is essential—and not
just to the Democrats but to the very survival of this foundering
Republic. However, such a drive will do the Democrats, and all the rest
of us, more harm than good if it fails to note a certain fact about our
current situation: i.e., that the Democrats are going to lose the
contest in November, even though the people will (again) be voting for
them. The Bush Republicans are likely to remain in power despite the
fact that only a minority will vote to have them there. That, at any
rate, is what will happen if we don't start working to pre-empt it now.
All You Need is Hate
by Mickey Z. I did something unexpected the other day: I watched a little of The O’Reilly Factor. The host made two proclamations that might’ve made me chuckle if they weren’t so frighteningly emblematic of America’s intellectual vacancy.
According to O’Reilly, Arianna Huffington is a member of the “far left” and her website, Huffington Post, is home to “hate speech.”
Of course, the myth of a monolithic Left—one that includes everyone from Dan Rather to Derrick Jensen, from Barack Obama to Ward Churchill—is extremely useful to anyone seeking to stifle public debate. However, it only requires an iota of objectivity to recognize that Arianna Huffington dwells in the realm of what might generously be characterized as the “liberal Left” (or, more accurately, the “soft Left”).
Help 
A promise is always an important thing. But an oath is not just an ordinary promise. An oath is a promise made in such a way as to accentuate its importance, and to make it binding, as much as is possible to do.
However, one issue I would like to bring to light in reading Blackwell’s letter is potential conflict of interest.
Today, (Wed. Mar. 19, 2008) Canada's Supreme Court ruled a motion filed by lawyers for "Canadian Taliban" Omar Khadr, currently imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, can proceed for the court's consideration.
Hope, said Emily Dickinson, is the thing with feathers, a tough little bird that sounds sweetest in the midst of a storm. It's a commonplace by now, but no less true, that Barack Obama's winged words of hope have borne him up to the high place where he stands now, on the threshold of the White House. 
Arthur Silber, as always, talks good and damning sense about the maddening moral idiocy of the entire American establishment and the whole "national debate" about the Iraq war. 
by
Daithí Mac Lochlainn
Over a quarter of a century ago, a group of students, with the backing of the religious government of Iran, invaded and took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding Americans there hostage for months. It was an action so violative of international law (embassies and consulates are considered to be the terrority of the nation that occupies them) that the U.S. has never forgiven Iran, and never restored relations. 
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the rest of the warmongers and terror-pimps in the White House would have us believe that Omar Khadr is a monster. Khadr is the 21-year-old Canadian who is facing one of the first show-trials at Guantanamo.
A key element of the drawdown plans, not mentioned in the President’s public statements, is that the departing American troops will be replaced by American airpower. 
You may have read the transcript of a speech given by George McGovern in The Nation last week in which he rightly condemns the hubris, and inanity of those actions, by our president, that have cost the lives of more than the 3018 service members the former senator, and presidential candidate, cites. McGovern is right, too, to confirm what many of us already suspected which is that Bush pere was opposed to his son's preemptive manuevers in the Persian Gulf; right, too suggest that W. would have fared better had he listened to his "physical father" rather than the advice he claims came from a higher authority. 
Stephen Harper has been making much of himself lately, promoting his version of how to achieve global peace and prosperity, with talks and presentations on Afghanistan and Colombia. 
What a wonderful political distraction is Senator Barack Hussein Obama. Perhaps a good part of his attractiveness is that he is in so many ways the complete opposite of George W. Bush.
Shortly after President Bush’s State of the Union address last week Jim Webb, the freshman Senator from Virginia, delivered the Democrats’ televised response to Bush’s annual speech. Many antiwar progressives were pleased to hear a Democrat confront the Bush rhetoric head-on. Media critic Jeff Cohen went even further and argued that Webb’s riposte was not only aimed at the Bush administration, but also at Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. 
The Kahtihon’tia:kwenio have been forced to assert their responsibilities as caretakers of Haudenosaunee land. 
In an effort to explain away the glaring discrepancy between the 2004 and the 2007 Osamas, Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, tells us “bin Laden’s beard appears to have been dyed, a popular practice among Arab leaders,” and if that is not absurd enough, Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East who now runs the Paris-based consultancy Terrorisc, adds “bin Laden is well aware that his reappearance on the world stage—looking fit and with his beard dyed a youthful black—was itself a victory that went beyond anything he actually said” in his latest video. 
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no American majority that backs it, or that ever would. Bush has left
the GOP in much the same condition as Iraq, Afghanistan, the global
climate, New Orleans, the Bill of Rights, our military, our economy and
our national reputation. Thus the regime is reviled as hotly by
conservatives as by liberals, nor do any moderates support it.
