SIGN TO STOP THE TORTURE

Dear friends,

Right now, Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning is being tortured in a US military prison. Manning is subjected to utter isolation that can drive many people insane, with short periods each day where he is stripped naked and abused by jeering inmates. 

Manning is awaiting trial for releasing secret military documents to Wikileaks – including a video of US soldiers massacring Iraqi civilians. And his brutal treatment appears to be part of an intimidation campaign to silence whistleblowers and crack down on Wikileaks. The US government is split on this issue, with diplomats publicly criticizing the military for Manning's treatment, but President Obama has stood aside so far. 

Obama cares about the US' global reputation - we need to show him that it's at stake here. Let's build a massive global call to the US government to stop torturing Manning and uphold the law. Sign the petition below -- our message will be delivered through hard-hitting ads and actions in Washington DC as soon as we reach 250,000 signatures: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bradley_manning/97.php?cl_tta_sign=e715ac7b3dbfead7cf2df440ff78a6e3

On paper the United States opposes torture. The US Constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment". And, along with almost a hundred other countries, the US has signed an international convention promising to treat all prisoners “with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person”. But today Bradley Manning is utterly isolated in a cell without sheets, not allowed to exercise and is being subjected to brutal humiliation that is causing serious mental harm. This violates US and international law. 

Bradley is being held under 'prevention of injury' status despite 16 reports from military mental health professionals that he should be removed from these severe conditions. His lawyers are trying to enforce his basic Constitutional and international human rights in court, but so far the military tribunal responsible for Bradley’s fate has ignored his suffering. 

There has been a crack down on Wikileaks since the explosive revelations of US military crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many speculate that this brutal pressure on Bradley is intended to force him to implicate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But Obama promised Americans and the world that he would protect, not persecute, whistleblowers: 

"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled." 

Bradley's cruel treatment does the opposite and sends a chilling message to others who may want to expose important information. Let's act quickly to put massive international pressure on the United States government to honor its commitment to human rights and the protection of whistleblowers and end the shockingly cruel treatment of their own citizen. Sign the petition below: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bradley_manning/97.php?cl_tta_sign=e715ac7b3dbfead7cf2df440ff78a6e3

The 10 most important WikiLeaks revelations

The AP has concluded that there is nothing "particularly explosive" so far in the archive of State Department cables that has begun to be released by WikiLeaks. That assertion is debatable in itself. But anyone who takes time to browse through the documents will find both fascinating and solidly new and newsworthy information about U.S. foreign policy and international relations.

WikiLeaks says the documents will be released in stages "over the next few months," so much of what we know now comes through the filter of the handful of media organizations who had access to the full archives. Only a few hundred cables have been released. Here are the top 10 revelations so far:

• Diplomats as spies: As part of an intelligence gathering effort, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 ordered diplomats overseas and at the U.N. to collect personal information on foreign officials including credit card and frequent flier numbers and biometric information. While this may not be shocking to foreign policy wonks, it is certainly embarrassing for the United States and calls into question how much -- and how frequently -- the role of diplomat and spy has been blurred.
• Secret war in Yemen: The Obama administration has secretly launched missile attacks on suspected terrorists in Yemen, with the Yemeni government taking responsibility and consistently lying about it. While the attacks have drawn relatively little public attention, dozens of civilians along with some suspected terrorists have reportedly been killed. The January 2010 cable describing a meeting between Yemen's president and Gen. 
• Iran and North Korea: American intelligence believes Iran has received 19 missiles from North Korea with a range up to 2,000 miles, making them the longest-range missiles in the Iranian arsenal. The Times says it did not publish the cable at the request of the Obama administration. It has not been posted by WikiLeaks.
• Gates skeptical on Iran attack: Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, in a meeting with his French counterpart in February of this year, said that "he believed a conventional strike by any nation would only delay Iranian plans by one to three years, while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered against the attacker." 
• Saudis want U.S. to bomb Iran: Several Arab leaders have privately urged the U.S. to launch an attack on Iran to stall or stop its nuclear program. Most memorably, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is reported to have "told you [the U.S.] to cut off the head of the snake," according to a Saudi diplomat . 
• Israel bluffing on Iran threats? The government of Israel, which has been publicly vocal about the possibility of launching airstrikes against Iran's nuclear program, was not considering such an attack, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told his Russian counterpart on a trip to Moscow in June 2009. 
• Fears of uranium in Pakistan: The U.S. has since 2007 tried to get enriched uranium at a Pakistani nuclear reactor out of that country, fearing that the uranium could fall into unfriendly hands and be used to make a bomb. The effort has been unsuccessful. 
• Fatah had warning of Gaza invasion? Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an American congressional delegation that Israel had asked Egypt and Fatah, the Palestian movement that governs the West Bank, "if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas" prior to Israeli's devastating attack on Gaza in late 2008. 
• Afghan corruption: The U.S. government deals regularly with a brother of President Hamid Karzai whom it believes to be corrupt and a drug trafficker. That's the conclusion of a cable from October 2009 about Ahmed Wali Karzai, who has also been reported to be on the CIA payroll. This does not come as a shock, but it amounts to official recognition that a U.S. partner in Afghanistan is implicated in criminal enterprises. 
• Undiplomatic name-calling: This is probably less important than the revelations above, but it is already making waves in the international press: Several of the cables have U.S. diplomats describing foreign leaders in unfriendly terms -- from comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler to calling Russia's Vladimir Putin "alpha-dog" and French President Nicolas Sarkozy "the emperor with no clothes." 

HOME

The movie HOME is an extraordinary insight into our world. It discusses the connection humans have to the world as a whole and displays most things people wouldn't have even known about. Its an amazing movie and is all packed into a short time space for convenience purposes. An Hour out of your life to become aware of your world isn't asking much. You'll love it, the footage is awesome! Its very inspirational.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU


Just click above and sit back and watch,
Leave a comment and tell me what you loved about it. 

Killer Coke Movie

Socialism vs. Capitalism. (Part One)

Marxism made Simple

‘Fundamental principle of the way of life’

As I stand with my rock pick in one hand, the ancient sediments stand before me. Encrusted in the layering, fossils come rarely. As I hold an ammonite around 250 million years old, my head spirals into a time warp. Gazing around I struggle to imagine the earth’s beauty, that this once innocent creature lived upon. All in a matter of seconds it easily crumbles into dust, only to blow away to create some other life force. Delicately as it does, it only represents the embellishment of our life, the life which will slow decay and crumble before ones eyes, when the peak oil displays itself. Fossil hunting gives me that brief but extensive feeling of connection with nature, removing me from the chaos embedded in the world around me.

 Life as we know it today couldn’t have been imagined without the processes which undertook 100’s of million years before the dinosaurs. Us complex humans, live in a complex society, which began from simple single celled organisms, phytoplankton and algae. The beginnings of our modern, technologically advanced civilisation all derived from one daring to drill a whole into the earth 150years ago, to profoundly discover the birth of the future, or was it?

Looking around today I see limitless potential for a sustainable, environmentally friendly world. Yet, we refuse to take charge and demand change. Oil the blood force. The profit making, ‘‘quick buck’’, attitude which we humans are controlled by. I had never known about this new sustainable alternative. I grew to learn about its greatness for the future of our lives and generations to come. They called it ‘Biodiesel’. Vegetable oil it’s known as. Intrigued by the proposed advantages of this alternative, I was to discover its essence could easily fill our technological world, with no adverse effects on the environment. No changes needed. All but one, the mind of the people, to stand up and demand for this clean biodiesel, to reverse the pollutants and wars oil has brought to our world. Biodiesel is capable of running in all diesel engines; the engine created by a German man in 1892, was a revolutionary and highly efficient new design. His idea was to allow farmers to have a readily available source of fuel, grown on their land, removing the power from evil profit making corporations and putting it in the hands of the average man or lady. Easily made from domestically produced crops, for instance, soybean, rapeseed and sunflower, it can be stored in the same environmental conditions as petroleum diesel. Handling and transporting of biodiesel is safe, as any spills would not be hazardous for the environment or people, as its biodegradable. The biodiesel has a high flash point, unlike petroleum diesel; its lower temperature could form an ignitable mixture in the air. 

 On the evening of 29^th September 1913, the engine developed for environmental purposes was all to float ashore, along with Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel’s floating lifeless body. All around me, my senses create havoc inside of me; the world could have been so dramatically different. People assimilate society’s corruption by conceptualizing the hidden propaganda in media. The power lies in the people, but the people have no power. They choose to be brainwashed, mind mashed and crippled. Humans, for over 12,000 years have always chosen to develop complexity to solve complexity. With complexity follows resource consumption. I myself know I once would have rather not increased the cost of daily life without having a clear benefit display itself. Effort, time, money, or just plain annoyance, these are the common factors which prevent change. Identifying the existence of these factors and effectively removing them will cause a dramatic halt in suffering that prevails throughout society. This suffering displayed in the locations of the OPEC countries where oil derives from. Bareness prevails throughout the green lush hills, above the sedimentary rocks and looking over the vastly stretched blue ocean. I can only wonder why no one else has thought of growing crops to produce biodiesel, with no environmental costs as well as benefiting the economy, you could only ask, ‘why not?’ The relationship we have between complexity and resources prevents the development of sustainability, as the complexity transpires throughout society, often in advance of sustainability.  

            At a life-threatening rate we are causing global warming, our sea levels are rising, ice caps are melting, and weather patterns are changing. All this harm presented but for what? I stand frozenly still, looking out to the ocean. If everyone together prevented greenhouse gases from pouring into our environment from burning fossil fuels, then I would not be drowning in water. We can change now, what are we waiting for? A fuel that burns cleaner, that doesn’t pour out cancer causing chemicals into our atmosphere, is nontoxic and biodegradable, costing cheaper than gas? We have it, and we have it now! Our world would be smiling; our future generations would be smiling and we will be smiling.