[LAAMN] Syria - Uneven Islolation
http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/ Uneven Isolation!http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/11/uneven-isolation.html *The Assads are not the only ones facing isolation. The protesters are being isolated as well and in that splendid isolation imposed on all, they are left to fend for themselves against a killing machine that remains well-oiled and well-committed to the task at hand.* *Tuesday 15, 2011 * *16 people* including 2 children were killed in the ongoing crackdown by pro-Assad militias, including 6 in Idlib City, 5 in Homs City, 3 in Hama Province and 2 in Deraa/Hauran Province. Moreover, clashes between loyalists and defectors near the town of *Kafroumah* in Idlib Province left 14 loyalists dead. 5 more looyalists were killed in clashes near Harrah Town in Deraa/Hauran Province. In the city of Homs, 19 unidentified bodies were found in the streets by locals, the bodies are believed to belong to people who were kidnapped and killed by pro-Assad militias. Clashes were also reported in *Rastan* and in a number of Damascene suburbs, including * Harasta* and *Daraya* where local security branches seem to have been targeted. Meanwhile, and in the hope of averting confirmation of the countrys suspension from the Arab League, Syrian authorities *released* 1180 detainees, including the well-known activist Kamal Al-Labwani, jailed more than 6 years ago, following a visit to the United States in which he met with American officials and called for increased diplomatic pressures on the Assads over their human rights record. *Links* *Syria Game Change*http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577038193266089440.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ** *Syria's Homs Pays Heavy Price in Uprising*http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Syrias-Homs-Pays-Heavy-Price-in-Uprising-133886708.html ** *Syria crisis: Erdogan steps up Turkey pressure on Assad*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15745199' ** *Turkey-Syria relations reach new lows after embassy attacks*http://turkey.setimes.com/en_GB/articles/ses/articles/features/departments/national/2011/11/15/feature-01 ** Ammar Abdulhamid, a US-based Syrian poet and activist who runs the Tharwa Foundation, says The Turkish government is now forced to make hard choices. Neutrality is not a viable option here, and the question now confronting Mr. Erdogan and his advisers regarding Syria deals with the extent of their potential involvement in managing the looming transition there, he told SES Turkiye. This calls for a greater engagement with opposition groups, and not only the SNC, but also greater logistical and material support to the Syrian Free Army, he said. The Assads are not the only ones facing isolation. The protesters are being isolated as well and in that splendid isolation imposed on all, they are left to fend for themselves against a killing machine that remains well-oiled and well-committed to the task at hand.* Moreover, the Assads have their supporters in the international community, even in isolation. The protesters have none. The Assads keep getting arms, the protesters keep getting words. Impunity on the hand, frustration on the other, add a dash of rebellious hope, and, voilà, a civil war unfolds. * *Funerals took place in protest communities throughout Syria** **HOMS PROVINCE*: *Houleh* http://youtu.be/0KZXSOZoiUc *DERAA/HAURAN*: *Mleiha Sharqiyeh* http://youtu.be/Hdfs3HkHeuY *Mleiha Atash* http://youtu.be/KFLrd0RK1yw *Nahteh* http://youtu.be/oz7exxdwdXA *Basr Al-Harir* http://youtu.be/WSEPguLi04M *Sanamein* http://youtu.be/1mlUZ1hgZ48 *IDLIB*: *Idlib City* http://youtu.be/YDkkVlQz5Ow nighttime funeral for a dead child http://youtu.be/TuO-N7Qest8 *Gilli* http://youtu.be/eG4xfG41MWAHzano http://youtu.be/FsmTOXvbSHo *HOMS CITY*: http://youtu.be/URuVR9fmnso * Bayadah* http://youtu.be/zZOJslV4ouM *DAMASCUS*: *Daraya* http://youtu.be/qQsLtQc_Ges *Wadi Barada* http://youtu.be/wjZaIMYNCK4 But mourners soon get under attack http://youtu.be/3KkXtOZYShk *HAMA*: *Taybat Al-Imam* http://youtu.be/ZL-fVpTUeQ4 *DEIR EZZOR*: *Deir Ezzor City* http://youtu.be/nHrcrmoSMYQ *HOMS CITY*: the havoc in *Baba Amr* Minaret destroyed http://youtu.be/DWKwRFZgcpE Houses destroyed http://youtu.be/CcBwy_6OEvI , http://youtu.be/JvfwbaEyfOk , http://youtu.be/lBh9_Pnf33Q , http://youtu.be/vrm_7WXida0 , http://youtu.be/Px5d5QoSSes Still people take to the streets at night http://youtu.be/PV9AaYbaFU0 Earlier in the day, fighters affiliated with the *Free Syrian Army*destroyed a tank taking part in the crackdown against the neighborhood http://youtu.be/SpJt20hBacU *Bab Dreib* sniper tries to pick targets http://youtu.be/ykfnzY05RdA Still people take to the streets at night http://youtu.be/nRmZF21j10E *Major demonstrations took place in* *Bab Houd* http://youtu.be/rtFW63-6d5M *Khaldiyeh* http://youtu.be/KRKZPsjC-iY *Wadi Al-Arab* http://youtu.be/GWe1_jK0PZU *Inshaaat* http://youtu.be/rCfZ0rYdXOc * Qoussour* http://youtu.be/kibMHbHlQrk
[LAAMN] Today's LUV News: 16 November, 2011
*CREEPING FASCISM VS. DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT * ** *Jim Davidson begins a piece http://www.facebook.com/notes/jim-davidson/new-york-police-begin-day-one-of-occupation/10150370428883045 yesterday ***The New York Police Department has begun Day One of their occupation of Zuccotti Park. It is unclear what their demands are. Many observers have expressed concern that the NYPD is a violent group and that their occupation of the park undermines its historical purpose as a gathering place for the public.** ** *There have also been concerns about litter, rape, illegal drug use, and assaults in the park during the NYPD occupation, thus far. The leadership of this hierarchical collective appears to be vested in one Michael Bloomberg, an apparently psychotic misanthrope who believes in violence toward women, children, and the disabled. * *NYPD estimates they arrested 200 people in their 1 a.m. raid against Occupy Wall Street yesterday morning. John Nichols has a good piece http://www.thenation.com/blog/164613/raid-1st-amendment-new-yorks-assault-press-freedom on New York's Assault on Press Freedom. When reporters tried to cover the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street, they were not allowed, and many journalists were arrested and detained by police http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/15/police-arrest-reporters-as-press-complains-of-media-blackout-at-occupy-wall-st/ in a clear violation of the First Amendment. * *It would appear the night time raid was planned to avoid police being filmed, with darkness protecting them so that they could be brutal, slashing the tents of protesters and confiscating their belongings, which were apparently destroyed. These Gestapo tactics were largely covered up by our mass media. * *Denying protesters tents with winter approaching is an obvious attempt to shut down the protest. * *In response,**Occupy Wall Street announced on its Facebook page the plan for tomorrow: On the morning of November 17, we will shut down Wall Street. We will ring the People's Bell, and initiate a street carnival in which we rebuild and celebrate the neighborhoods that the Wall Street economy has destroyed. They promise a block party the 1 percent will never forget.* *Peter Rothberg goes over the actions http://www.thenation.com/blog/164612/occupy-everywhere-november-17 planned for tomorrow's International Day of Action. * *And even as crackdowns have taken place against the Democracy Movement in cities across the nation over the past week, in a sign of a crack in unity for the establishment, the Seattle City Council unanimously gave its approval http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/15-3 to the Occupy Seattle group. * *AMERICAN CENSORSHIP DAY * ** *Today is American Censorship Day http://americancensorship.org/, as activists oppose new laws allowing corporations to shut down web sites. Activists from the political left to the political right are opposing this new legislation intended, many believe, to give the corporate persons that bribe our elections with unlimited donations (unlike mere human persons who are limited in what they can donate) the right to impose control over internet web sites based on their perception of nebulously-defined copyright violations. It's possible Congress could pass this bill this month. * ** ** ** ** **What we are experiencing in the Democracy Movement is a temporary setback. Thank you, from /LUV News/, to everyone sleeping in the streets, everyone sending the precious seed money to support the occupations, everyone passing the word on to others to spread the dream of democracy. The magnificent Chris Hedges, who signed the pledge to support this movement in May, together with me and many of my heroes, says he now sees a glimpse of potential victory --Jack ** *THIS IS WHAT REVOLUTION LOOKS LIKE http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/15-8 * * * *by Chris Hedges * *Welcome to the revolution. Our elites have exposed their hand. They have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share. They can talk but they cannot speak. They are as dead and useless to us as the water-soaked books, tents, sleeping bags, suitcases, food boxes and clothes that were tossed by sanitation workers Tuesday morning into garbage trucks in New York City. They have no ideas, no plans and no vision for the future. * *Our decaying corporate regime has strutted in Portland, Oakland and New York with their baton-wielding cops into a fool's paradise. They think they can clean up the mess---always employing the language of personal hygiene and public security---by making us disappear. They think we will all go home and accept their corporate nation, a nation where crime and government
[LAAMN] California Faces $13 Billion Budget Deficit Next Year, as State Fiscal Crisis Continues
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/11/16/california-faces-13-billion-budget-deficit-next-year-as-state-fiscal-crisis-continues/ California Faces $13 Billion Budget Deficit Next Year, as State Fiscal Crisis Continueshttp://news.firedoglake.com/2011/11/16/california-faces-13-billion-budget-deficit-next-year-as-state-fiscal-crisis-continues/ By: David Dayen http://news.firedoglake.com/author/dday/ Wednesday November 16, 2011 11:33 am [image: Tweet]Tweethttp://news.firedoglake.com/2011/11/16/california-faces-13-billion-budget-deficit-next-year-as-state-fiscal-crisis-continues/# [image: digg]http://digg.com/submit?phase=2url=http://fdl.me/uk4fwXtitle=California+Faces+%2413+Billion+Budget+Deficit+Next+Year%2C+as+State+Fiscal+Crisis+Continues [image: stumbleupon]http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://fdl.me/uk4fwXtitle=California+Faces+%2413+Billion+Budget+Deficit+Next+Year%2C+as+State+Fiscal+Crisis+Continues http://news.firedoglake.com/?p=24628akst_action=share-this If you look at the economic statistics, what should cause the most worry for policymakers is the troubling bifurcation between private sector and public sector jobs. The private sector hasnt created jobs at a spectacular or even a good pace, but theyve seen modest, sustained growth for 20 straight monthshttp://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/05/3247351/october-job-grew-slightly-in-the.html. By contrast, the public sector has hemorrhaged jobs. Over the past two years, over 570,000 state, local and federal government jobs have been lost. If the public sector was growing at the same pace as it was in 2009, there would be 2 million more Americans at workhttp://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/07/338946/public-sector-jobs-plan/and the unemployment rate would be around 8%. Clearly, the proper move for the economy is to bolster the public sector with state fiscal aid, increasing consumer demand and directly creating jobs. But none of that is happening. Senate Republicans blocked a state fiscal aid bill that was part of the American Jobs Act. Were going to see a continued negative consequence from that decision. California just announced its latest fiscal figures for next year, and they show a $13 billion deficithttp://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/11/legislative-analyst-2-billion-of-mid-year-cuts.htmlstarting in July. Whats more, because tax receipts for the current year have been softer than anticipated, some immediate cuts, particularly to schools, could ensue: California would impose $2 billion in mid-year trigger cuts next month, mostly through K-12 school reductions, under a new revenue forecast issued this morning by the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office. The LAO also said the deficit for the year beginning July 1, 2012 would be nearly $13 billion. The analysts report is not the sole determinant of whether the state will impose those cuts, but it is one of two tools the Department of Finance must rely upon before deciding whether to slash spending. The finance department will issue its own forecast in December. The Analyst said the state will not receive $3.7 billion of the $4 billion revenue bump that Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers optimistically relied upon to help close the budget in June. The enacted budget projected the state would receive $88.5 billion in revenues and transfers; the analyst says it will only get $84.8 billion. Some of this was expected, because to get out of last years budget debacle, the state projected revenues above where they had any right to expect them. A $13 billion deficit, in a state with a balanced budget requirement, would mean that $13 billion will have to be taken out of demand next year, in the form of tax increases or spending cuts (and its California, with its absurd 2/3 requirement for taxes, so the answer is itll be cuts). And thats close to 13 times the impact, from a macro-economic standpoint, of the veterans hiring initiative, one of the only parts of the American Jobs Act that will pass. That is projected to cost a little over $1 billion, all told. There are a lot of areas of attack with the economy. But state fiscal aid, just based on the statistics everyone knows, should be the big one. Instead, the plan is to do nothing, and further this depression in the public sector. Those kids on California university campuses should prepare for another round of protestshttp://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-college-occupy-2016,0,2175355.story, because theyre going to see another round of cuts. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com
[LAAMN] Over It
OVER IT by Eve Ensler I am over rape. I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook. I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame. I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke. I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don't have a sense of humor, and women don't have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don't think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot. I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape. I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages. I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable. I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice. I am over rape happening in broad daylight. I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight. I am over one in three women in the U.S military (Happy Veterans Day!) getting raped by their so-called comrades. I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion. I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still running for the President of the United States. And I'm over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain. Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys, or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after knowing what was happening to them. I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public. I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate. I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it's their fault or they did something to make it happen. I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime -- the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself. No women, no future, duh. I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it. I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters -- film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes -- while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile. I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you? You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren't you standing with us? Why aren't you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us? I am over years and years of being over rape. And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old. And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape. And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day. I am over being polite about rape. It's been too long now, we have been too understanding. We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club, alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine -- once and for all -- what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and our compassion connect us so we can change the paradigm of global rape. There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated. ONE BILLION WOMEN. The time is now. Prepare for the escalation. Today it begins, moving toward February 14, 2013, when one billion women will rise to end rape. Because we are over it. http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=141308 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
[LAAMN] Gideon Levy: A new Israel in the making
From: John Jones [mailto:j...@13thfloor.net] Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 1:03 AM Israel is Israel's own worst enemy. Here's Gideon Levy at his usual excellence in Haaretz. John 11-13-11 A new Israel in the making The future is now. The revolution is in progress; just wait for what's to come. By Gideon Levy One day not long from now we will wake up to a different kind of country, the country that's now in the making. It won't look like the country we know, which already has its share of flaws, distortions and ills. And when we become aware of this, it will be too late. At that point, the old Israel will be described in glowing terms, a model of democracy and justice, compared to the new version that is taking shape as we close our eyes to it, day after day, new law after law. The way of life in the new Israel where we will live and die won't remind us in the least of the country we're used to. Even this article won't be publishable. Only proper opinions will be put into print, the ones approved by the new government-sponsored journalists' association, whose people will sit in every newsroom so there is no divergence from the accepted chorus of opinion. Laws and regulations (clearly they will be passed as emergency regulations ) will bar publication of anything that could, in the eyes of the authorities, harm the state. A new law will bar defamation of the state, and the newspaper you will hold in your hands will be different. It will only report good news. Radio and television broadcasts won't be what you're familiar with either. No media outlet will be able to go beyond the bounds of the law due to the draconian penalties for running afoul of them. The word occupation will be illegal, as will the expression Palestinian state. Treasonous journalists will be pilloried or arrested, or at least fired. That day is not long in coming. In the not too distant future, the urban landscape will look different. What is happening today in Jerusalem will play itself out in the whole country tomorrow, when the likeness of women will be banished from public view. Today Jerusalem, tomorrow the whole country. Separate buses and streets for men and women. Radio and television will only broadcast men singing. At some point, women will be required to cover their heads. Then it will be the men's turn. They will be barred from appearing clean-shaven or without a head covering. That day is not long in coming. The cities will be shut down on Shabbat. Not a store or movie theater will be open. Then will come the ban on driving on Shabbat. Non-kosher restaurants will be illegal. Mezuzahs will be required on the doorpost of every room in every home. Couples not registered with the rabbinate will not be allowed to live together, and couples in which only one party is Jewish will be deported immediately. Unmarried couples will be barred from walking arm-in-arm in public. Once a month all the country's schoolchildren will make solidarity visits to West Bank settlements. Every lesson will begin with the singing of the national anthem and a salute to the flag. Those who don't serve in the army will lose their citizenship and be deported. And the Jewish state will have a Jewish Knesset. First Arabs will be barred from running for parliament in their own parties. Then they won't be allowed to be elected at all. Until then, MKs who at the beginning of every Knesset session don't sing the national anthem's words about the yearning of the Jewish soul will be permanently removed. Arabs will be denied the right to a university education, with the exception of a symbolic quota approved by the Shin Bet security service. It will be illegal to rent to Arabs, other than in their own towns and villages, and the Arabic language will be banned. The poetry of Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish and his Jewish compatriots Aharon Shabtai and Yitzhak Laor will also be banned. Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and David Grossman will have to decide. They, and all the country's citizens, will be required to declare themselves Zionists to get published. The West Bank will be annexed, but the Palestinians living there will not be. Left-wing organizations will be made illegal and their leaders arrested. The government will publish a blacklist of those with offensive views who will not be allowed to leave the country or speak to the foreign media. Only someone who murders Jews will be deemed a real murderer, and the statute books will be divided into two parts, one for Jews and one for non-Jews. The death penalty will only apply to Arabs. Special legislation will give settlers the right to take control of any land in the West Bank, and military censorship will ban any news item that could harm the strength of the Israel Defense Forces. The Supreme Court will only serve as a court of appeals and will not consider direct petitions on civil rights violations. Supreme Court justices will be selected by the Knesset and slots on the bench will be
