What is Revolution?

We discussed an article by Michael Albert, from ZNet Magazine called "What is Revolution?", (http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-04/08albert.cfm) in one of my classes today (Society: Conflict and Change). While the majority of the class agreed with the agruements made it was shocking to see the degree of complacentcy that many of my fellow classmates had. In my next few blogs I hope to analyse the article along with my classmates reaction, and my prediction of potential revolutionary and social change movements in America.

So stay tuned....

Allies fall out....

Scotsman.com News - International - Blair refuses to back Iran strike

It makes you wonder exactly how "fantasyland" the idea of a US lead strike against Iran is if Blair is alrady making it clear that Britian will not participate. Something tells me that he's know something our administration won't admit to us.

Another line in the sand...(no pun intended)

BREITBART.COM - Iran issues stark military warning to United States

Stuff like this only encourages our cowboy leadership....

Maybe I spoke too soon?

Congressional action urged on gas prices

Props to Senator Durbin, hopefully the Oil-Lobby won't destroy this one....

Perhaps a federal cap on gas prices would be more effective. We subsidize farmers to keep the prices of diary and produce stable, why not do the same with the oil companines?

$36 billion in profits + $3/gallon gas = $400 million retirement package

ABC News: Exxon Chairman Gets $400 Million Retirement Package Amid Soaring Gas Prices

Los Angeles Business from bizjournals: Central Coast area see $3 gas


Honestly...When are we going to say enough is enough? I could understand the price hikes if gas companies were barely breaking even, but they're not. Exxon posted earnings of $36 billion last year. The highest yearly earnings in US history for ANY company.

In one of my classes this week we discussed revolution and change in society and what it would take for the American people to stand up against the giants who are looting our freedom and bank accounts. On of my classmates hypothesized that we would not see an real movements until "the middle class becomes the poor" Will $3 gas be the catalysts bringing the middle class to boil? Probably not. They'll just accumulate more debt, in the world of VISA, MASTERCARD, DISCOVER, and AMEX its easier just to swipe it an forget it than to write your Congressmen, or boycott a particular company, or gas in general (ride a bike, the bus, car pool- all legitimate options that most of us including myself would be too inconvenienced to use). Trough is we may not even realize we've been cooked until its too late. A professor of mine uses the example of the boiled frog: "If you drop a frog into boiling water it will immediately leap away, but if you put it into cool and pleasant water and slowly raise the temperature until the water is boiling the frog will not realize until it's too late."

Are we nothing more than ignorant frogs? Can't we see the carrots, and potatoes, and celery being added to our soup? Prices are going up but wages are staying about the same; corporations are slashing retirement benefits for workers yet rewarding CEO's (the airline industry is most guilty of this). Maybe its too hard for use to imagine, or we feel to alienated to do anything about it, maybe high gas prices don't fuel as much passion as Abortion, Immigration and Gay Rights debates.

Who knows...

Oh and in case you were wondering about that cake retirement package I alluded to...
"Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes." - ABC news

Here we go again...

BREITBART.COM - Iran Leader: Israel Will Be Annihilated

"The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time....

On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon." ..."

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It many not be a popular position but President Ahmadinejad is the only person who addresses the issue at the heart of the Isreal v Palestine conflict: Isreali occupation of Palestine.

When you take land from people who have lived on that land for thousands of years and give it to their sworn enemies, what do we expect the reaction to be?

As far as the world being afriad of Iran nuking Isreal, this just occured to me: why would they nuke the land that they want their Islamic brothers and sisters to have? True maybe they're thinking "if we can't have it no one can", but thousands of Palestinians and other Muslims would die int he offensive or from complications relating to the radiation.

inch by inch we get closer

BREITBART.COM - Iran Hits Milestone in Nuclear Technology

"At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory- scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," Ahmadinejad said.
"I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air.

Saudi Arabia may join nuclear club

United Press International - NewsTrack - Saudi Arabia may join nuclear club

and the plot thickens....

WWIII - This is how it starts folks...

Telegraph News Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'

Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'
By Philip Sherwell in Washington(Filed: 09/04/2006)

"The Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iran, to prevent it acquiring its own atomic warheads, claims an investigative writer with high-level Pentagon and intelligence contacts...

Hersh claims that one of the plans, presented to the White House by the Pentagon, entails the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites. One alleged target is Iran's main centrifuge plant, at Natanz, 200 miles south of Teheran....

Despite America's public commitment to diplomacy, there is a growing belief in Washington that the only solution to the crisis is regime change. A senior Pentagon consultant said that Mr Bush believes that he must do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do," and "that saving Iran is going to be his legacy"...."

read full story

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So, lets say we attack Iran...this will be the result:

Iran and it's allies (nations like Syria and Lebennon) will launch ritalitory attacks against US bases and interests in the region including installations in Iraq. Isreal would be bombed and possibly invade, causing the US and NATO to step up its efforts to not only over throw the regime in Iran, but also defend Isreal and Iraq. Our alliance with the Suadi's will be tested, who will feel pressure to aide its Arab neighbors. Undoubtedly terrorist attacks would take place in the US and allied nations. China and Russia will be in a delicate situation do they alaign themselvs with the US or do they take the opportunity to potentially become world supers and overthrow us? What would happen to the UN? Obviously a pre-emptive nuclear strike would be against any and all treaties and non-aggression pacts.

I don't have all the intelligence of that our military may have but just knowing the history and current events of the region its not to dfficult to predict. Hopefully our leaders will see the same scenarios and avoid getting us into another disaster.

It really did happen....

To my dissmay the LA Times seems to be the only new organization running the story about President Bush's desire to produce new nuclear weapons. I found this on the House Armed Services Committee webpage

3:30pm - 2237 Rayburn (Judiciary Committee) - Open
The Strategic Forces Subcommittee will meet to receive testimony on future plans for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex infrastructure. No audio available. Chairman Everett statement: (pdf)
Witnesses:
Dr. David Overskei, Chairman, Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), Nuclear Weapons Complex Infrastructure Task Force (pdf)
Mr. Peter Stockton, Project on Government Oversight (pdf)
Mr. Tom D’Agostino, Deputy Administrator, Defense Programs, National Nuclear Security Administration (pdf)
Mr. Charles Anderson, Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Environmental Management, U.S. Department of Energy (pdf)

I urge all of you to take action in preventing this proposal from making its way into law. Write your Representative: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

I don't want to know what life in a world where a nation needs to produce 125 Nuclear weapons per year to defend itself.

Beginning of the End?

U.S. Rolls Out Nuclear Plan - Los Angeles Times

The administration's proposal would modernize the nation's complex of laboratories and factories as well as produce new bombs.

The administration, however, wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs per year by 2022,

The blueprint calls for a modern complex to design a new nuclear bomb and have it ready in less than four years, allowing the nation to respond to changing military requirements. Similar proposals in the past, such as for a nuclear bomb to attack underground bunkers, provoked concern that they undermined U.S. policy to stop nuclear proliferation.

This can only be the singla of things to come. I hate to say something like this but I have a feeling that by 2010 we will be in the middle of WW3 and I don't think that this time we will be the good guys.

more to come on that idea...I promise

Devil's Advocate

Did anyone else see this? Study: Bush tax cuts making rich richer

Well DUH!

But I dunno maybe Bush see's his tax cuts in an ideallist way...If rich people an corporations can save a few bucks here and there on their taxes maybe they'll spend the money else where and create more jobs and expand benefits and wages. Or perhaps on a few more lobbyists, or a new factory or call center in Bangladesh, or a golfing trip for a few congress men...the possibilities are endless! Either way he's saving his buddies (and himself) a heck of a lot of money!

Shantytown, USA

We often assume that Illegal Immigrants live 6 to a room in beat up apartments, on the other side of the tracks. As NPR's Weekend Editions Reports, this is not always the case. Listen to this: NPR: A Shantytown in the Shadow of Luxury .

Imagine leaving your home, your family, your friends, in search of a better life. Imagine treking through jungle (not only Mexicans corss the border so so Salvadorians, Guetamalans and othr Central Americans) and desert, risking your life, for a better life. A life where you will work from sun up to sun down for $5 or $6 and hour, you will live in a make-shift hut, without water or electricity. Imagine if this life was actually better than what you left behind.

World Water Day (March22)

Last night while accompanying my roomate for ritualistic indulgance I noticed a sign I had never seen before. The sign was advertising World Water Day, an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. So a few days late, heres my contribution to the celebration.

World Water Facts (http://www.water.org/crisis/waterfacts.htm)

-Presently, 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supply and 2.4 billion to improved sanitation (1). Unless action is stepped up, the number of people who lack access to improved water supply could increase to 2.3 billion by 2025 (13).

-Of all water on earth, 97.5% is salt water, and of the remaining 2.5% fresh water, some 70% is frozen in the polar icecaps. The other 30% is mostly present as soil moisture or lies in underground aquifers. In the end, less than 1% of the world's fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human uses. It is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and in underground sources shallow enough to be tapped at affordable cost (2).

-If all the earth's water fit in a gallon jug, available fresh water would equal just over a tablespoon.

-A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water (3).

-A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive (4, 5).

-The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day (6, 7).

-The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day (7).

-More than 200 million hours are spent each day by women and female children to collect water from distant, often polluted sources (8).

-Approximately 60 to 70% of the rural population in the developing world have neither access to a safe and convenient source of water nor a satisfactory means of waste disposal (9).

-Water systems fail at a rate of 50% or higher (10,11,14,15,16,17).

-According to the UN, 20% of the world's population in 30 countries face water shortages. This number is expected to rise to 30% of the world's population in 50 countries in 2025 (12).

-Some of the world's largest cities, including Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dhaka, Lima, and Mexico City, depend heavily on groundwater for their water supply. It is unlikely that dependence on aquifers, which take many years to recharge, will be sustainable (12).

-Poor people in the developing world pay on average 12 times more per liter of water than fellow citizens connected to municipal systems; these poverty-stricken people use less water, much of which is dirty and contaminated (13).

-Every $1 invested in children, including money to improve access to clean water and sanitation, saved $7 in the cost of long-term public services (18).

I think the facts speak for themselves.... for more info check out www.water.org