The Second Gaza War…

A war tells a people terrible truths about itself. That is why it is so difficult to listen.

We were determined to avoid an honest look at the first Gaza war. Now, in international waters and having opened fire on an international group of humanitarian aid workers and activists, we are fighting and losing the second. For Israel, in the end, this Second Gaza War could be far more costly and painful than the first….@

From Mondoweiss…

As for the fact that elite Israeli soldiers can in one instant be portrayed as invincible and yet the next as hapless victims — that is a paradox that can be resolved only in the minds of Israelis...@

From Andrew Sullivan…

It staggers me to read defenses of what the Israelis have done. They attacked a civilian flotilla in international waters breaking no law. When they met fierce if asymmetric resistance, they opened fire. And we are now being asked to regard the Israelis as the victims…@

Need more be said ?..damn don’t ya all just appreciate writing that gets to the motherf#*@ing  point !

Obama : The more things change the more they stay the same

Change you can believe in, but actual change…

Well that’s just not going to be happening anytime soon. Like they say the prove is in the pudding.

And that prove was there for all to read with the release of the “National Security Strategy” by the White House.

Under the heading of , “Strengthen the Power of Our Example”:

The increased risk of terrorism necessitates a capacity to detain and interrogate suspected violent extremists, but that framework must align with our laws to be effective and sustainable. When we are able, we will prosecute terrorists in Federal courts or in reformed military commissions that are fair, legitimate, and effective. For detainees who cannot be prosecuted—but pose a danger to the American people—we must have clear, defensible, and lawful standards. We must have fair procedures and a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified. And keeping with our Constitutional system, it will be subject to checks and balances. The goal is an approach that can be sustained by future Administrations, with support from both political parties and all three branches of government…@

….”For detainees who cannot be prosecuted—but pose a danger to the American people” …what exactly does that mean ?

O, on second thoughts  I get it now…  its kinda like  what Dubya use to do, i.e , no-crime-no-proof-no-problem-lock-em-up,hell throw away the keys.

Or as  Glenn Greenwald states…

…of course we’ll provide a fair tribunal for proving your guilt — as long as we’re certain we can convict you — otherwise, we’ll just imprison you indefinitely without charges. ..@

Welcome to the one party state of A-merry-ca

Open letter to the students of Nipissing University Class of 2010

Please take a moment to reflect on the upcoming convocation sessions this June.

Particularly, since on this the occasion of your educational successes,  the powers that be will also be using the occasion,again of your success, to  confer an honorary doctor of letters on Mike Harris, June 11.

We’re talking Mike Harris “I want the fucking Indians out of the park”.

Doctor of Letters…wtf ?

Ask yourself  does this not send out all the wrong messages, indeed does it not make a mockery  of education and or Indigenous-Settler relationships ? In fact ask yourselves exactly how is Mike Harris qualified to speak on leadership or as the University administrators states…

their role is to show students how leadership develops, and how actions shape the world around us...@

Excuse me , ‘Mike -I-want-the-fucking-Indians-out-of-the-park -Harris’, are you fucking serious.

What possible wisdom could Harris pass on in regards to leadership ?  This is the guy who’s lack of leadership not ‘only’ cost an innocent man his life but   inflamed anti-native sentiments.

Indeed the  Harris government was described by one senior OPP officer as a bunch off…

gun-loving rednecks who couldn’t care less about aboriginals.The comments surfaced on recordings played Wednesday at the public inquiry into the death of Dudley George. The activist was shot during an occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park…@

Honor the memory of  Dudley George,R.I.P.

H/T  Crazy Bitches R Us

——————————————————————————————————————–

UPDATE; It would seem the students of Nipissing U are way way ahead of me,indeed I am a johnny-come-lately . To add insult to insult  Harris will not only be getting an honorary doctorate , there are rumors that the University is also planning  to name the new library after him.

And if all that were not enough,the library in question  is funded in part by  First Nations, yikes talk about getting no respect .

Damn…some white people just don’t get it and I fear they never will ! There’s no “Indian problem” but there’s  definitly a white problem.

In addition to the honorary degree, Chief Madahbee said Mr. Harris is not worthy of another honour: naming the university’s new $25-million library after the former premier, who grew up in North Bay.Nipissing First Nation Chief Marianne Couchie threatened to pull financial support from the new library if it is named after Mr. Harris.

“The leaders and I are quite disappointed,” Chief Madahbee continued. “We think it’s more appropriate to name a shooting range after him rather than a library. He hasn’t contributed anything to this province.” A Facebook group called “Nipissing Students (and Friends) Against the Mike Harris Library” has garnered support from more than 3,000 people, nearly half the population of Nipissing University.

Nipissing University president Lesley Lovett-Doust said the university sticks by its selected honorees…@

Nipissing Students (and friends) Against the Mike Harris Library

Some peoples kids;Doing the folks proud

Hyenas cackling over the spoils…(click on pic for the full affect)

A Palestinian woman whose house has been occupied by Jewish settlers argued with Israelis who came to celebrate Jerusalem Day in the mainly Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, Wednesday…@

According to Cnd author & journalist Terry Glavin this is just part of the process of … “normal urban development“…

I see no particular cunning either right wing or otherwise in the normal urban development of Jerusalem…@

Normal you say …

My,my is there no limit to the level that some will  not stoop  too, in order to justify their support for the  racist ,nationalistic and colonialist policies of the settler state of Israel ?

For more  on the issue of Palestinian home demolitions in the occupied territories ,over 24,000 to-date, check out the following  interview with Israeli activist & author Jeff Halper(Jewish), Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)

Drone Wars…

Since Obama became President, drone attacks against targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan have reached levels far and above anything during the George ‘Dubya’ Bush administration.

I suppose  this reality should not come as much of a shock.  Push button warfare from afar, being the ultimate fantasy/wet dream of the U.S.  What better way to project American power and without  risking American lives.

American lives being the most precious & exceptional…’O’ to be born American.

And who ever said , you can’t have your cake and eat it to ?

To add insult to injury  Obama thought it   acceptable to joke about Predator Drone attacks .

Why Obama, why…? And here I thought things would be different.,such were my ‘naive’ hopes.

That said, it is worth remembering  that the Democrats were not so much against war as a solution. Rather their beef with Dubya et al was more over issues of management and methods of prosecuting  the war(s).

Who cares about  the “collateral damage”…

Judging by  past & current realities not the American government, whether Democrat,Republican, Obama or Bush.

Any honest assessment, by a caring human being that is, would quickly come to the conclusion that the supposed gains of these hundreds of drone attacks are few if any. Particularity when one factors in the number of innocent victims killed.

If anything these attacks anger and radicalize the very people that the U.S & NATO claim to be helping.

And on it goes, the politicians drone on,the war machine drones on-constantly  re-inventing ways to kill & profit- the little people reap the whirlwind…

Also read  ‘Of Drone wars and Buffalo Urine‘ @ Foreign Policy in Focus

Some of the designers of the current counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan, David Kilcullen and Andrew Exum, have denounced it as a “technology” fix that has alienated Pakistanis by chalking up a kill ratio of 50 civilians for every targeted Taliban or al-Qaeda leader. “Every one of these dead noncombatants represents an alienated family, a new desire for revenge, and more recruits for a militant movement,”

Common sense prevails;Despite Richard Warman’s war on the right to be stupid

And thank god for that…

I posted on this a while back about…

…self described  human rights advocate/ law-suit-instigator extraordinaire, Richard Warman (god-bless his heart) has  unleashed his paternalistic self-righteousness,yet again .

His target this time ,  anonymous commentators,specifically those that comment  on web sites that he has a particular “fondness” for.

In a nut shell Warman wants the state to pass a law,which would  force website owners/administrators (without first having to show cause) to disclose the names and IP addresses of those who would dare say bad/rude things about others,in particular himself.

Remember we are talking  about comments here,not actions.  Comments made  during on-line conversations & debates. Usually on personal blogs & websites discussing political & social issues,subjects that can very easily go from passionate (but respectable) debate to juvenile name calling. Jeez…welcome to life…@

Anyway as the title implies Richard Warman has lost yet another “case”…

The targets of  his latest suit, Connie &  Mark Fournier of Free Dominion -a one stop talk shop for all your bigotry needs,will not have to disclose the ISP’s & e-mail addresses of  the eight anonymous commentators who posted comments that Warman did not like.

The idea that Warman , a lawyer who should know better,would even launch such a suit defies common sense. On top of it all, Richard Warman’s actions have given ‘Free Domain’ much more publicity than they deserve,or that the site would have ever gotten otherwise.

Perhaps Mr Warman over looked the adage…’any publicity good or bad is better than none’ ?  Then again maybe that’s the point publicity,albeit for himself ?

That said ,we all know which side is having the last laugh now yet again…

Way-to-go Richard for helping to boost   ‘Free Dominion’s’ credibility & visibility. Just like you  did for Marc Lemire &  ‘Freedomsite.org’ ,in-fact just 7 short months ago.

The boy’s on a roll…

H/T  Big City Lib

Open Letter Protesting the Presence of Anti-Native “Militia” Leaders at the May 5th Aboriginal Policy Forum at Mount Royal University

Seems  Frances-the-talking-mule-Widdowson is set on stirring the  anti-native pot, yet again.

We’re talking bottom of the barrel scraping here …

[...] Widdowson personally invited Mark Vandermaas and Gary McHale to be discussants on a panel entitled “Aboriginal Sovereignty and the Rule of Law.” McHale and Vandermaas are leading figures in grassroots anti-Native organizing against the Six Nations people of the Grand River Territory in south-western Ontario; they have played key roles in the formation of a non-native “militia” aimed at repressing Indigenous land protests and they have also organized a variety of anti-Native protests, a number of which have attracted the support of neo-Nazis and far right racists. While Vandermaas and McHale claim to speak for Caledonians, their activities have consistently increased tensions in this community facing a well documented land claims dispute.

That should be a hoot, Mark Vandermaas and Gary McHale discussing Native issues ? These  two clowns don’t do discussions they rant ,in fact both…

…continuously cast Six Nations people protesting the continued theft of their land as “terrorists”, “militants”, “thugs,” “criminals”, “sociopaths” and as a part of a “Native Supremacy Movement.”

Widdowson want’s to legitimize these two  by including them in a  discussion on Indigenous issues ,in an acdemic setting no less, yikes ?  What’s up with that, Mount Royal University ?

Even supposed allies, want nothing to do with McHale or his ilk…

“I want nothing to do with McHale. All he’s trying to do is continue his natives-against-non-natives thing. Nobody needs this. I don’t want to fight anyone. Fighting’s too easy.”…@

Please add your signature and help get the word out.

Read letter & more @ Solidarity with Six Nations

Happy May Day

The more things change the more they stay the same.

That said there are different ways of thinking & being ,on which we could build & learn from. In fact the seeds of future possibilities exist right here in Canada. For example, to name but one…

The Iroquois Confederacy…

And a wonderful constitution it is, this gentile constitution, in all its childlike simplicity! No soldiers, no gendarmes or police, no nobles, kings, regents, prefects, or judges, no prisons, no lawsuits – and everything takes its orderly course. All quarrels and disputes are settled by the whole of the community affected, by the gens or the tribe, or by the gentes among themselves; only as an extreme and exceptional measure is blood revenge threatened-and our capital punishment is nothing but blood revenge in a civilized form, with all the advantages and drawbacks of civilization. Although there were many more matters to be settled in common than today – the household is maintained by a number of families in common, and is communistic, the land belongs to the tribe, only the small gardens are allotted provisionally to the households – yet there is no need for even a trace of our complicated administrative apparatus with all its ramifications. The decisions are taken by those concerned, and in most cases everything has been already settled by the custom of centuries. There cannot be any poor or needy – the communal household and the gens know their responsibilities towards the old, the sick, and those disabled in war. All are equal and free – the women included. There is no place yet for slaves, nor, as a rule, for the subjugation of other tribes. When, about the year 1651, the Iroquois had conquered the Eries and the “Neutral Nation,” they offered to accept them into the confederacy on equal terms; it was only after the defeated tribes had refused that they were driven from their territory. And what men and women such a society breeds is proved by the admiration inspired in all white people who have come into contact with unspoiled Indians, by the personal dignity, uprightness, strength of character, and courage of these barbarians….

Quote taken from Frederick Engels ; Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State 1884

On a side note this post has given me an idea for a series of posts.

That being an exploration,or a kinda of reconnaissance, of the relationship,from a left/progressive perspective, between Indigenous Peoples and ordinary/working Canadians/settlers. How can the two sides support each other, how does the discourse of the “left” , organized labor,etc…fit in with the Indigenous point of view. Indeed are they even on the same page ?

Personally I think not.. .

My reason’s for believing this will be the topic of my first post…stay tuned