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POPSTen Ways to Make Sure That Peace Stays Dead Too many people on each side see the other as wholly culpable. Too many people on each side see themselves as wholly innocent, wholly victimized, ill-served by the well-meaning, abandoned by former allies, betrayed by the media, misunderstood by people who should know better, forgotten by the world. Too many people on each side see only the suffering that has been caused them. Too many people have learned to wall themselves off from the suffering that they have caused.
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POPSRead this clip and try not to say WTF!! I mean, are you kidding me!? Rachel Ray and Dunkin Donuts were offering "symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism" because she was wearing a black and white scarf. After this one, it's going to take a whole to shock me :) Honestly, i just tagged this clip dunkin donuts, rachel ray and terrorism - WTF indeed!!
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POPSBush's America: LESS Safe, LESS Free. In a new book, "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the problem lies in the aggressive "preventive paradigm" the Bush administration adopted in the wake of 9/11.
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POPS President above the law, Nominee for US Attorney General says
This warmongering White House just keeps unraveling our Constitution, our principle, our ideals, our society and our politics day after day. A common idea we use to have, for example, was that "No man is above the law." But apparently this nominee thinks the President is above the law. And the talk is still how he's suppose to be approved!? Screw him. Screw any politician who votes for him. Of course in the real world we all know that the rich, if not 'above the law,' normally have a 'better,' law, better results with the law, better lawyers, special consideration. So too big names, celebrities, Hollywood stars. Most of US prisons, for example, are overpopulated with the poor, the least educated and the minorities. (The USA has the biggest prison populations in the world, BTW, by %) The audaciousness of these warmongers. Theyshoot you in the face and expect/get the victim to apologize for being there (a Cheney factual example). Well...no longer a good country. Hopefully
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POPSThe Biggest Threat to the West Lies Within Itself, Not with Islam Simon Jenkins on threats to peace and democracy. This defeatism led the American Congress to allow its president to authorise torture and detention without trial in what Senator Robert Byrd called “the slow unravelling of the people’s liberties”. It enabled a British Home Office to curb free speech and habeas corpus. It arms police, fortifies buildings and impedes the free movement of citizens. It makes every Christian suspicious of every Muslim.
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POPSThe Assasination of Benazir Bhutto When in power, corruption hemmed in around her, and her visions were stalemated by the reality of bureaucratic government. She was at her best when she was disenfranchised, chiding those in control. In power she was a bureaucrat, but in opposition she was an icon. Now she has died as icons die, as opposition leaders die, in an explosive annihilation of waves of humanity. ...at the back gate of a park after a speech, on the eve of her comeback.
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POPSParadox of the false positive "Here's how that works: imagine that you've got a disease that strikes one in a million people, and a test for the disease that's 99% accurate. You administer the test to a million people, and it will be positive for around 10,000 of them – because for every hundred people, it will be wrong once (that's what 99% accurate means). Yet, statistically, we know that there's only one infected person in the entire sample. That means that your "99% accurate" test is wrong 9,999 times out of 10,000!" "If we were good at understanding statistics, then here's what would happen when you flew to Las Vegas. You'd step out of McCarran airport, stare down the Strip at all those glittering, palatial casinos and say to yourself, "Holy crap – think of all the suckers who must have lost everything to finance this place!" Instead, our foolish minds are filled with thoughts like, "Man, look at all the money in this town – I'm going to win big!" And another casino is built."
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POPSAnti-Terrorism Cartoons in the Arab Press "The Arab press recently published more cartoons condemning terrorism. These cartoons presented terrorism as an indiscriminately destructive force striking everything in its path, and mocked the terrorists for blindly pursuing the promise of the virgins of Paradise. "The cartoons also expressed criticism of extremists who entice the youth, indoctrinating them to embrace extremist ideas."
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POPSA Tragic Legacy And the president who vowed to lead the war for freedom and democracy has made torture, rendition, abductions, lawless detentions of even our own citizens, secret "black site" prisons, Abu Ghraib dog leashes, and orange Guantánamo jumpsuits the strange, new symbols of America around the world. New essay by Glenn Greenwald on the future legacy of America's reaction to 9/11.
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POPSJudges With Guts Rule! :) "The concept of preemptive imprisonment, like that of preemptive war, should have no place in an open society."
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POPSNORTHCOM Plans 5 Day Martial Law Exercise There is no question that Vigilant Shield 08 is either government preparation for the implementation of martial law or a way for criminal elements within the government to distract emergency responders in order to conduct a false flag terror attack as a pretext to actually implement martial law and engage in foreign war. Hmm... I don't like the sound of this, but as my S.O. always says: "Hope for the best, but expect the worst".
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POPSAm I a terrorist now?!? Be careful what you read online?!? Damn, I protest this! Sheesh, according to the Patriot Act § 802 and the definitions of domestic terrorism, legitimate protest could be prosecuted as terrorism! I kid you not! Hey, maybe this very clip could put me i Guantanamo! Folks, you'd better not pop this clip or they'll probably accuse you of giving me "material support" and end up in the cage next to mine! Oops, too late, if you've already read this far... Sheesh! Where will it end?!? Oh, well...orange suits me :o( (please send care packages)
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POPSSubcontracting Torture to the Terrorists You know, something occurs to me when looking at these three lovely destinations: it really does look like we are hiring the terrorists to interrogate potential terrorists. This is like Milo Minderbinder bombing his own base for the Germans!
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POPSOne Million Ways to Die Driving off the road... as in being IED'ed? Falling... as in falling in battle in an illegal war? Accidental poisoning... as in D.U. munitions? Dying from work... as in US Military? (Or more like David Kelly?) Walking down the street... as in being "disappeared"? Accidental drowning... as in waterboarding? Hmm... well thank heavens at least the billions of $$$ spent have made us safe from "terrorists".:)
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POPSCheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran
MORE; The issuance of orders for Neo-Con mass media arms to push for an assault on Iran also puts the U.S. on red alert for a terror attack, whether real or manufactured, which Dick Cheney has already promised will immediately be blamed on Iran no matter who the real culprits are. On August 1st, 2005 the American Conservative reported that Cheney had tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan involved a massive air strike on Iran which included the use of nuclear weapons. The publication reported that, "The response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States," meaning that any such attack will immediately be blamed on Iran and any evidence to the contrary will be buried. The London Times reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had finalized plans for a 3 day blitz designed t
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POPSDissenting at Your Own Risk Many times I have been around people who stomped out any discussion of Palestine's plight. Essentially, if you brought it up, people call you Anti-Semitic or they look at you like you just endorsed child abuse.
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POPSWar with Iran will happen Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for "pinprick strikes" against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They're about taking out the entire Iranian military," he said. Are we having fun yet? Here's Debat's (Debat-sh*t?) perfectly rational reasoning: "Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same." It was, he added, a "very legitimate strategic calculus". Will someone please take him away and put him in a rubber room? According to one well placed source, Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid, overwhelming force, should military action become necessary