Unbridled freedom, liberty and the difference

Notes 82

Reminiscent of Westmoreland body counts in Viet Nam--only just the opposite. Saw the movie War, Inc last night with John Cusack, Dan Akroyd and Ben Kingsley. A funny send up of what America, Inc has become and the absurdity of surgical strikes. Imagine our guys standing by and doing the body count after a cruise missile dismembers whoever is in the way.

NATO airstrike accidentally kills 2 civilians

By Solomon Moore, Associated Press –
KABUL, Afghanistan – A NATO helicopter gunship inadvertently killed two civilians while attacking suspected insurgents in the eastern province of Khost, NATO announced Thursday.
The attack targeted a Haqqani network leader in Tere Zayi district on Wednesday, according to NATO.
"At the time of the strike, two civilians were walking near the moving targeted vehicle," NATO said. "They were previously unseen by coalition forces prior to the initiation of the airstrike. Unfortunately both were killed as an unintended result of the strike."

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This is disgusting. The Israelis have been occupying and beating and starving and treating Palestinians and the longstanding promises of an “international” community going back to the U.N. Partition Plan of 194 like dirt. And the U.S. has been the chief enabler with its roadmaps and Camp David meeting. Just like U.S. support for Mubarak and all the other corrupt dictators of the Middle East.

Gaza militants fire rockets deep into Israel

By Aron Heller, Associated Press – 27 mins ago
JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a new wave of rockets that landed deep inside Israel Thursday, defying Israeli retaliatory attacks and threats.
As the violence threatened to escalate the day after a deadly Jerusalem bombing, Israel got a boost from the visiting U.S. defense chief, who said no country could tolerate the "repugnant" attacks on its soil.
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Can you believe it. Government stands against illegal evidence gathered by wire tap and U.S. government harasses it? If only our own legal system would stand up to lawbreaking of the big boys like it does to little guys on crack cocaine. We’re represented by a bunch of strong arm thugs--and not just in Afghanistan.

Jamaica PM says US officials harassed his gov't

By David Mcfadden, Associated Press – Thu Mar 24, 7:04 pm ET
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said Thursday that U.S. Embassy officials displayed a "belligerent attitude" toward his government after Washington sought the extradition of a reputed crime boss with ties to his political party.
Golding said the U.S. Embassy's charge d'affaires pressured his justice minister to quickly hand over alleged drug kingpin Christoper "Dudus" Coke during at least two phone calls within days of his government receiving the August 2009 extradition request.
"I interpret that kind of behavior as harassment," Golding testified to a fact-finding commission examining his government's handling of the extradition request for Coke.
The prime minister resisted the U.S. extradition request for nine months, arguing Coke's indictment on gun and drug trafficking charges relied on illegal wiretap evidence. The stance strained relations with Washington, which questioned Jamaica's reliability as an ally in the fight against drug trafficking.

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There is a sickness abroad and it is destroying the social contract that binds us together as a people proud to declare their Christianity on our coinage and in our public buildings but lacking in the conviction to make the Beatitudes real.

Buried Provision in House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps to Entire Families if One Member Strikes
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers' collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back. Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to 'provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.'"

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The battle for absolute, unlimited freedom never goes away

Isaiah J. Poole | From Memphis to Madison: The April 4 Stand for Economic Justice
Isaiah J. Poole, Campaign For America's Future: "On April 4, we will be called on not to merely remember that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on that day in 1968, but to recall what he was about to do on the day he was shot - and why the mission he was on that day very much matters to the struggle of working people (and those who want to become working people) today. King was in Memphis to support sanitation workers who were caught in a struggle with the city's mayor that was very similar to the battle that public employees in Wisconsin were fighting with Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature."