Kentness

"It is no secret that the Koch brothers and others of the super-rich seem to have undertaken a final..."

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 20:57:46 -0600

“It is no secret that the Koch brothers and others of the super-rich seem to have undertaken a final push to consolidate control through the conversion of a marginally democratic to an essentially fascist state; extreme right-wing, authoritarian, and demagogic. This kind of government is ideal for control of a populace by the moneyed elite. To carry this out requires the employment of many ‘kept’ politicians to excite and misdirect scared and angry – and ignorant – voters. Lest the citizenry realize who stole their money and storm their castles with torches, the rapacious elite need politicians who will carry out the work of re-directing anger at teachers, or labor unions, or the poor. I can only conclude that the people who now own the country couldn’t find any first-rate psychopaths to carry out their work. Or maybe the smart ones were all occupied. So they had to go to second-stringers, people who could actually believe what they were told to say.”

- David B. Schwartz (via azspot)

Science Friday Archives: Connecting Science and Art. This has me slightly emotional.

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:56:31 -0600

Science Friday Archives: Connecting Science and Art. This has me slightly emotional.:

sethkent@mac.com 720-838-6100

thenoobyorker: drinkthe-koolaid: ryking: Center for American...

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:32:25 -0700

thenoobyorker:

drinkthe-koolaid:

ryking:

Center for American Progress, Infographic: [The GOP’s Favorite] Tax Breaks vs. [Proposed GOP] Budget Cuts

Call me crazy guys but I think I know how we can start getting this deficit down…

If you want to read some enlightening and infuriating work on this kind of policy, I highly recommend Dean Baker and Marxist economist Richard Wolff.

"Talk show hosts cannot afford to be objective. They must make people angry. They must take sides...."

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:40:51 -0700

“Talk show hosts cannot afford to be objective. They must make people angry. They must take sides. They must make you believe that something that belongs to you is being taken away. That’s the fastest way into your pocketbook. You will pay them to defend you from an enemy that may or may not exist. They can’t afford to be objective. They want your money so they have to make you afraid. They must oppose a certain and named enemy, and that enemy must be evil. If they don’t do this, nobody will listen and they won’t make money. We are drawn to sensationalism. Pastors and church leaders who are well known often do the same thing. Not all of them, but many. If you aren’t a Calvinist, you are evil. If you are emerging, you are evil. Only a fool would believe such a thing. But these pastors are not fools. They don’t even believe it themselves. They just get fools to believe it and those fools buy their books and watch their sensational YouTube videos. We’ve all been had. The truth is not so black and white. Consumers are tricked into thinking the way they think but we musn’t be consumers. Critics see the difference. Creators create a new and better reality.”

- Donald Miller (via azspot)

The Vender who changed the world.

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:53:30 -0700

The Vender who changed the world.

Desmond Tutu: Do I Divest?

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:44:19 -0700

Desmond Tutu: Do I Divest?:

guerrillamamamedicine:

somerset:

The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure— in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation.

Divestment from apartheid South Africa was fought by ordinary people at the grassroots. Faith-based leaders informed their followers, union members pressured their companies’ stockholders and consumers questioned their store owners. Students played an especially important role by compelling universities to change their portfolios. Eventually, institutions pulled the financial plug, and the South African government thought twice about its policies.

Similar moral and financial pressures on Israel are being mustered one person at a time. Students on more than forty campuses in the U.S. are demanding a review of university investments in Israeli companies as well as in firms doing major business in Israel. From Berkeley to Ann Arbor, city councils have debated municipal divestment measures.

These tactics are not the only parallels to the struggle against apartheid. Yesterday’s South African township dwellers can tell you about today’s life in the Occupied Territories. To travel only blocks in his own homeland, a grandfather waits on the whim of a teenage soldier. More than an emergency is needed to get to a hospital; less than a crime earns a trip to jail. The lucky ones have a permit to leave their squalor to work in Israel’s cities, but their luck runs out when security closes all checkpoints, paralyzing an entire people. The indignities, dependence and anger are all too familiar.

Many South Africans are beginning to recognize the parallels to what we went through. Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky, two Jewish heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle, recently published a letter titled “Not in My Name.” Signed by several hundred other prominent Jewish South Africans, the letter drew an explicit analogy between apartheid and current Israeli policies. Mark Mathabane and Nelson Mandela have also pointed out the relevance of the South African experience.

Supporting the BDS movement of Israel and drawing parallels to South Africa does not mean you are implying that the work was not done by the ANC and South African people and themselves alone. It is a way of doing what you can when you can’t do much (and was supported by the ANC and called for by Luthuli). Criticizing people who try to support current strategies instead of just, you know, not using them if you don’t agree with them or supporting different strategies instead doesn’t seem all the constructive to me either but hey, different strokes.

oh dear i hate passive aggressiveness. so i am just going to speak to this directly.

1. in palestine there are a variety of opinions on bds.

2. in south africa, among blacks, there were a variety of opinions on how the international community should participate in the ending of apartheid.

3. there are plenty of ways that people can support the ending of the occupation of palestine. but in a lot of senses we dont talk about those other ways, because bds has become THE way to support the liberation of peoples.

4. i know my opinion is unpopular. that is why i said it when i was asked for an unpopular opinion. jesus fucking christ.

5. it is my fucking moral obligation, to critique strategies that i dont think are effective. i owe it to the people i love who live under a genocide and deserve freedom. i personally think it would be bullshit of me to simply not engage the strategies, when i think they are harmful to the people i love, without critiquing the strategies themselves.

6. wouldnt it be more interesting to ask why i dont agree with bds as a primary strategy for the international commty (read: us/europe/first world) to engage in?

designersof: designers of tumblr FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!all you have...

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 07:08:37 -0700

designersof:

designers of tumblr

FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!
all you have to do to enter is
REBLOG TO WIN!

this week we have teamed up with wordboner.com
to giveaway one of their very cool t-shirts!
please show us your support by going over
to their site to check out their massive
collection of witty tees and funny hoodies etc…

NOTE: please don’t remove this description.
remember winner will be selected on TUESDAY!

———————————————————-

If you have a shop and would like to participate in one
of our giveaways then feel free to email us at designersof@gmail.com

azspot: bartcop.com

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:34:28 -0700

azspot:

bartcop.com

"…I am wondering whether the church in Europe decreased in size and impact because of loose, liberal..."

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:20:38 -0700

“…I am wondering whether the church in Europe decreased in size and impact because of loose, liberal theology, or because the church got divided and people got tired of the fighting. You never hear about that loose European theology, but you do hear a lot about bitter fights (historically, to the death) over theological squabbles. I think people just left the dinner party saying to themselves that they’d just rather find community at the pub. If the church dies in America, it wont be because of liberal theology, it will be because people don’t sense Christians actually understand or respect Jesus’ prayer in John 17. It goes without saying, then, that if they will know us by our love, they will also know we are not of God by our inability to acknowledge an individuals sovereignty.”

- Donald Miller (via azspot)

nationalpost: Anger rages through the Middle East and North...

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:10:54 -0700

nationalpost:

Anger rages through the Middle East and North Africa
From Benghazi to Bahrain, a new generation clashed with government forces, demanding more freedom and an end to autocratic control.

Bahrain police break up protest camp, three killed
Bahraini police stormed a protest camp in central Manama on Thursday, killing three people in a swift move to prevent protesters from emulating Egyptians whose Tahrir Square protests helped topple Hosni Mubarak.

Goodspeed Analysis: Is Libya ripe for revolution? Probably not
“Libya’s political order is beginning to fray, but as long as the state continues to provide jobs and services, demands for additional civil and political rights will remain muted,” predicts a recent report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Thomas Paine and the Democratic Revolutions: Egypt 2011, America 1776

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:22:10 -0700

Thomas Paine and the Democratic Revolutions: Egypt 2011, America 1776:

That was a republican integrity, though, not a democratic one. Washington was no believer in democracy. Nor were any of the other famous founders. And Egyptians want democracy. So while the generals should follow Washington’s example, young people seeking inspiration for democracy in the American revolutionary period need to look to figures who do not show up in certified histories of the American Revolution.

Well, one of them does, so let’s start with him: Paine.

Paine wrote “Common Sense,” and along with its bold characterization of all monarchs as tyrants, that pamphlet called for a hyper-democratic republic, when the better-known founder John Adams was calling for a republic in which democratic impulses would be sharply checked. Paine and Adams had a shouting match over it. Later Adams became President of the United States, and Paine became persona non grata in the United States, to whose independence he’d contributed everything he had. So be careful.

With Paine were less well-known radical American democrats. Herman Husband. Christopher Marshall. James Cannon. Thomas Young. Timothy Matlack. Benjamin Rush (he later became unradicalized, went the John Adams way — so we’ve actually heard of him). Hardly names to conjure with today, but these are our revolutionary democrats. What they wanted was to sever the ancient Whig connection between property and rights (a connection beloved by Adams, Madison, etc.), and to use government to restrain wealth, regulate business, and promote economic equality. Some lately have said that without a focus on what’s nowadays called “social justice,” there can be no real democracy in Egypt. If so, I’d love to commend Paine, Husband, Young, and the others to the Egyptian revolutionaries’ attention. History has obscured them, but it’s worth the effort to seek them out.

That crew led the radically democratic revolution that took over Pennsylvania in 1776. They did it in a way that reflects strangely on Egypt’s revolution. “The army is with the people!” some of the Cairo protestors exulted, and we hope it’s true. In 1776 Pennsylvania, however, the army was the people. Militia service was required of all able-bodied adult men. The genius of James Cannon was to organize the unenfranchised, propertyless militia privates throughout the state as a hugely powerful force on which security depended, and then have them seize the franchise simply by declining to take orders from a legislative body, the Pennsylvania Assembly, that had never allowed representation to the propertyless. With that, a new government was instituted in Pennsylvania, which for the first meaningful time anywhere allowed people with no property not only to vote but also to hold office.

Misantropia: Algeria and Yemen Resource List

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:14:09 -0700

Misantropia: Algeria and Yemen Resource List:

pantslessprogressive:

Below is a list of resources for up-to-date information on the protests in Algeria and Yemen. As universalidentity said best, “Keep your eyes on Egypt, but listen to the rumble in the surrounding countries.” Her post inspired me to compile a list of sites and resources available to keep us informed on the uprisings in these two countries. Thanks to the always wonderful NewsFlick for helping out with this list.

Categories will be updated as more resources become available. Message, reblog or email me if you have additional resources that can be added.

Live blogs:

Eye on Algeria: Live Blog | AJE

Blogsofwar.com/algeria (realtime results from Twitter + AJE live stream, all on one screen)

EAWorldview Live Blog

Interactive map: The Guardian’s Twitter network of Arab protests (h/t thepoliticalnotebook)

Google news feed (h/t middlewaypublishing):

Google news feed: Yemen

Google news feed: Algeria

Algeria News, updating regularly:

http://www.echoroukonline.com/eng/

http://algierspost.com/

http://www.zawya.com/countries/dz/default.cfm?cc

Algeria News | Telegraph

Algeria News | Guardian

Algeria News | Reuters Africa

Algeria News | France24

Algeria News | Daily Mail Online

Yemen News, updating regularly:

http://www.newsyemen.net/en/ennewsyemen.asp

http://www.yemenportal.net/english/

http://www.yemenpost.net/

http://armiesofliberation.com/

Yemen News | Daily Mail Online

Facebook:

Algeria Revolution 2011 page

We Want Revolution in Algeria page

Photos: Algeria | Mahmoud.B Facebook

2011 Yemen Revolution Facebook page

Photos and videos:

Photos: Algeria | Iyobo

Photos: Algeria | @yasgard

Videos tagged #Algeria | TrendingTube

Algeria on Twitter:

Algeria Twitter List

Accounts: @AlgerianKhalota, @EyesOnAlgeria, @Elicoopter_mid, @Naddah, @Algerian_Dude, @yasgard, @Taharhani, @dna_algerie, @ayatghanem, @AlgeriaEnglish, @AlgeriaTimes, @marmite_news, @ASLANmedia.

Yemen on Twitter:

Yemen Twitter List

Accounts: @JamjoomCNN, @tomfinn__, @ionacraig, @JebBoone, @JNovak_Yemen, @Abou_3ali, @YemenPeaceNews, @Yemen_Forum, @yemenwatch, @al3ini, @wsaqaf, @AhlamS, @HarunAlAmriki, @yemen4change, @ArabsUnite, @Alaalsam, @YemenEnglish, @WomanfromYemen, @yemen, @FreedomNow2011, @yemenwatch.

Hashtags to follow:

#Algeria

#Algiers

#Algiere

#Bouteflika

#12Fev

#12Feb

#Feb12

#OpAlgeria

#Yemen

#yf

History:

Eye of Algeria: In Depth | AJE

Timeline: Algeria | BBC

Country Profile: Algeria | BBC

A Synopsis of Algeria’s History | Algeria Channel

Timeline: Yemen | BBC

Country Profile: Yemen | BBC

A brief history of Yemen | TIME

Internet access information (h/t streamsofwikileaks):

To bypass government blocking of website names, use numerical IP addresses:

for twitter “ 128.242.240.212” or “128.242.240.52″; for facebook “69.63.189.34”; for google “72.14.204.99”

‎#Algeria users Dial-up on +16504194196 - +390662207294 Or use Speak To Tweet by calling +16504194196 - +390662207294 #Feb12

"In late 2010, members of the Revolutionary Youth Council began to plan a solidarity protest for..."

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:01:42 -0700

“In late 2010, members of the Revolutionary Youth Council began to plan a solidarity protest for Khaled Said for early 2011. Members of the Revolutionary Youth Council deliberately chose Egypt’s national Police Day — Jan. 25 — to publicly disdain rather than commemorate a security force marked by a long history of brutality and human rights abuses. But none of them envisioned that their plans would eventually spark the largest popular uprising in Egypt’s modern history.

The group used a combination of coordinated tactics — including the use of Facebook and Twitter — to deceive state security forces regarding their intentions. Strategy sessions were always conducted in different locations and, as an extra precaution, an “intelligence unit” conducted reconnaissance of the specified meeting places an hour in advance to ensure police were not lying in wait for them, said Faris. Mobile phones, which members believed to be under surveillance, were turned off during meetings. “We also took the batteries out, because the police have the ability to listen in even when phones are off,” said Salah.

Members of the group agreed not to sleep at their own houses one week before the Jan. 25 protest. When that day came, thousands of heavily armed Egyptian security forces were waiting, having fortified their positions at several key locations throughout Cairo. The government fell back on familiar tactics: enclose activists and force them to tire behind a thick cordon of baton-wielding riot troops, utilize violence at will, and detain protesters en masse to slow their momentum and instill fear.

Egyptian youth activists, however, attuned to security tactics following years of smaller-scale street protests, devised a “cat and mouse” strategy to conceal their launching points and surprise the police. Facebook groups, widely believed to have been under surveillance by security, were used as a diversion or decoy, not as the primary means of organization. “We knew the police were following us so we lied online,” said Faris.”

- “Behind Egypt’s revolution: youth and the internet”

It’s important to grasp the multiple levels of occurance and competency which come together to generate amazing things like what has happened in Egypt. Not just inspiration and vision, not only strategic thinking and timing, on top of union and grassroots organizing, but also very smart tactics such as disrupting routines of sleeping and meeting locations, to the remarkable use of social media as a deceptive diversion and decoy for the state.

(via zuky)

"What is going in Egypt represents a remarkable new political coalition striking deep at the heart of..."

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:30:55 -0700

“What is going in Egypt represents a remarkable new political coalition striking deep at the heart of the Washington consensus. Social media mattered, in that it was the language by which the youth expressed themselves and their hatred of the torture inflicted upon them to extract maximal profit. This alliances, of a domestic business-military community, women’s groups, and a youth-driven labor movement, has parallels in the 1930s New Deal coalition and the 1850s anti-slavery coalition. It is also interesting that the pre-Facebook blogosphere of 2004-2005 played an important role in unmasking torture and delegitimizing the authority of the state, including the justice system and the media. Seen in this context, Egypt is part of a global conflict of financial oligarchs fighting with leftist human rights activists, unions, and domestic industries. Egypt’s going to need the money stashed away and stolen by the Mubarak family; getting to that money requires an international crackdown on superrich tax havens. Furthermore, the links between Mubarak corruption and various Rubinites are probably as extensive as the torture trade between the CIA and Egypt. The extent of the cover-up of the Mubarak regime’s behavior will be the way to judge what happens going forward. Obama’s mild-mannered and largely irrelevant statecraft simply reflects the paralysis of the foreign policy establishment as the extent of its complicity in the overall economic and political strategy of this repressive regime is revealed.”

- Matt Stoller (via azspot)

nationalpost: Thousands of protesters march to Bahrain...

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:42:34 -0700

nationalpost:

Thousands of protesters march to Bahrain capital
Thousands of Shi’ite protesters marched into the capital of Bahrain on Tuesday after a man was killed in clashes between police and mourners at a funeral for a demonstrater shot dead at an earlier anti-government rally.

Goodspeed Analysis: Unrest in Bahrain could threaten key U.S. military outpost
Could the tiny Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain be the next U.S. diplomatic domino to fall in a rapidly changing Middle East? As riot police in Bahrain attacked hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades, U.S. strategic interests in the Gulf appeared poised to receive yet another battering from the revolutionary wave that is sweeping the Arab world.

Check out our full visual archive and, if you like what we do, please recommend us in the news directory.

soupsoup: Watch : Live stream of Al-Jazeera English Iran...

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:39:23 -0700

soupsoup:

Watch : Live stream of Al-Jazeera English

Iran Event Link Portal

Iran Bloggers (list courtesy of Iranians Blogs)

Stop Torturing us

Bingala

BroodingPersian

Rotten Gods

Adventures of Mr. Behi

Carry me

Chiz Burger

Cyber Architect

Damn

DDMMYYYY

Designest

Editor: Not myself

Eloy

Eyes Wide Shut

Faith Today

Forbidden

Geek Style

How I learned to stop worrying and write the blog

I am an Iranian doughter

I Learn English

Inside exploration

Inside Iran

Iran News Blog

Iranian Diaries

Iranian girl

Iranian Teacher XP

IranVisitor

Lost for words

Maktoob

Mani on Wordpress

Mansour Nasiri’s Photoblog

Maziar Online Activities

Me Myself and Ehsan

Melancholy Man

My Lucid Dreams

My Stories

Narges

observations of Tehran life

online time

Out on the Loom

Planet Rodmania

Play Next

Scarecrew

So What you think?

Stranger in Iran

Swallow

Sweet Hallucinations Of A Psycho

Tech Guru

Tehran Post

The Biggest Step

The Land of persia

The Minority Report

The Remains of the Day

The seven towns of love

This is not a blog

Thoughts and Ideas

To Write or Not To Write

Under Underground

View from Iran

Words are never enough

Z-LOGS

Emad Baghi

ZiZi Daily

my small life

Fire on Quran

Didaar

Persia Older Than History

Vahid Rahmanian’s photoblog

Iran Travel & Tourism Blog

Liveblogs

PBS

Guardian

New York Times

Twitter

@oli2be List 1

@oli2be List 2

@MisterVizard List

@Jshahryar List

Tumblr

#Iran

Sea of Green

Stand With Free Iran

Mohandas Gandhi

Kateoplis

Quora

Iran question on Quora

Video

Download Livestation Desktop : Mac / PC

TwitVid videos : #Feb20 / #Iran

Frequency videos : #Feb20 / #Iran

Images

Al-Jazeera Flickr Feed

Iran Flickr Pool

This post will be updated as more resources become available

"Egypt and Tunisia, said analyst Masri, by providing a model of leadership change that did not..."

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:31:29 -0700

““Egypt and Tunisia, said analyst Masri, by providing a model of leadership change that did not immediately usher in sectarian violence or Islamic extremism, removed the chief boogeymen typically raised by Arab leaders against democratic change. “It turns out that threat used by the political authorities in the Arab countries, threatening their people with the consequences of democracy, collapsed very quickly,” he said. “The fears are gone.”“”

- The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب (via guerrillamamamedicine)

U.S. defense contractors with the most at stake in Egypt

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:34:45 -0700

U.S. defense contractors with the most at stake in Egypt:

Lockheed Martin — Fort Worth, Texas and Orlando, Fla. Last March, the aerospace giant won a $213 million Air Force contract to provide Egypt with 20 F-16 fighter jets. The following month, its Lockheed Martin Missiles subsidiary in Orlando, Fla. got a $46 million Army contract to provide night vision sensor systems for Apache helicopters.

DRS C3 and Aviation — Horsham, Pa. In December 2010, this subsidiary of the Italian company Finmeccanica received a $46.1 million Army contract to provide vehicles, hardware and services for Egypt’s border surveillance program. That same month DRS landed another $19.6 million Army contract to provide surveillance hardware and services for the Egyptian government.

L-3 Communication Ocean Systems — Sylmar, Calif. and Garland, Texas. The company’s Sylmar operations completed a $24.7 million deal with the Navy last August to provide a sonar system for the Egyptian Navy. And in April 2009, L-3’s EOS Division in Garland, Texas got a $6.6 million Army contract to provide Egypt with military imaging equipment.

Deloitte Consulting — Arlington, Va. The professional services firm won a $28.1 million Navy contract in December 2009 to provide planning and other support for Egyptian aircraft programs.

Boeing — Mesa, Ariz. and St. Louis. Last May, the aerospace firm landed a $22.5 million Army contract to provide Egypt with 10 Apache helicopters. The month before that, the company’s St. Louis operations won a $5.8 million Navy contract to provide logistics support for other governments, with $262,530 of that designated for assistance to Egypt.

Raytheon — Tucson, Ariz. and Andover, Mass. The weapons and electronics firm received a $26 million Navy contract in June 2009 to provide 178 Stinger missiles to both Egypt and Turkey. This past December, it finalized a $5.6 million Army contract to provide Hawk missile system technical assistance to the Egyptian government.

AgustaWestland — Reston, Va. In November 2009, the Navy made definite a previously awarded $17.3 million contract for the company — a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica — to provide helicopter maintenance for the Egyptian government.

US Motor Works — Cerritos, Calif. and Grand Prairie, Texas. The company got a $14.5 million Army contract in June 2009 to provide engines, components and spare parts for vehicles acquired for the Egyptian Armament Authority, with most of that work to be done in Texas.

Goodrich Corp. —- Chelmsford, Mass. In October 2010, Goodrich landed a $10.8 million Air Force deal to procure and deploy reconnaissance systems for use on the F-16 fighter jets purchased by the Egyptian Air Force.

Columbia Group — Washington, D.C. In June 2009, the defense contractor completed a $10.6 million contract with the Navy to provide remotely operated vehicle systems as well as technical support and training to the Egyptian Navy, with most of the work to be performed out of the company’s Panama City, Fla. operations.

The Founding Fathers Would Be Proud of the People of Egypt ... And Disgusted With the People of America

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:51:36 -0700

The Founding Fathers Would Be Proud of the People of Egypt ... And Disgusted With the People of America:

But obviously, the American government is nothing like the Egyptian dictatorship, right?

Let’s compare:

There is a stunning amount of inequality in Egypt. But America is even worse

Mubarak stole billions from his people, while the American oligarchs may have stolen trillions. See this, this, this and this

Egypt have been living under a state of emergency for 30 years. But Americans have been living under a continuous state of emergency for 10 years straight

Mubarak was supported by the military. But the military -industrial complex has taken over America as well (moreover, there is a tradition in countries like Turkey for the military to ensure that religious fanatics do not take over the country)

Mubarak ignored the wishes of his people. But the American government hasn’t been listening to it’s people either. For example, a 2010 Rasmussen poll found that “just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed”. A 2010 Gallup poll determined that nearly half of all Americans believe “the Federal government poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens”. Poll after poll shows that “both national parties are deeply unpopular with an electorate looking for something new and different”. Polls reveal that 82% of all Americans wanted Wall Street to be reined in in a substantial and meaningful manner, and yet nothing has really changed, and the government has let Wall Street have it’s way on all the important issues. Polls find that Americans want the big financial players who acted with fraud to be punished, and yet the government has let all of the big fish off the hook. And the government has ignored many other desires of the American people, including investigations into torture and spying on Americans, impeaching George W. Bush if he lied about Iraqi WMDs (which he did)

Mubarak repressed his people and stifled dissent. Bush and Obama have haven’t been all that protective of liberty either

Mubarak murdered and tortured people without following the rule of law. America hasn’t been wholly saintly in this regard over the last 10 years either (and see this)

Soup: Algeria and Yemen Resource List

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:28:35 -0700

Soup: Algeria and Yemen Resource List:

pantslessprogressive:

Below is a list of resources for up-to-date information on the protests in Algeria and Yemen. As universalidentity said best, “Keep your eyes on Egypt, but listen to the rumble in the surrounding countries.” Her post inspired me to compile a list of sites and…