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Taiwan: Defending Rights to Protest

taiwanBy I-fan Lin

Following David’s article on “The Phantom of Police State” coming back with Chen Yun-lin (陳雲林)’s visit to Taiwan on 3 of Nov, I have collected some visual materials showing the conflict between the protesters and police with brief translation.

Since Nov 3rd, many protesters wearing pro-Taiwan T-shirt or banners or waving the ROC national flag have been harassed by the police, and some of them were wounded. To the extent that people playing Taiwanese songs (Sunrise records, 上揚唱片) were disrupted with force, and a cup of coffee became all too dangerous.

Source: Global Voices Online

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The Day After the Election – USA

POST-ELECTION BLISS

Today we’ve elected a new President of the United States of America and the tides of change are upon us. After listening to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night I was touched and inspired by new possibilities. I couldn’t remember ever having such a good feeling after an election in my entire lifetime. I was elated at this victory and hopeful.

I witnessed plentiful tears in the eyes of the people in the crowd cheering him on in Chicago last night. I caught a glimpse of Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey in the crowd with a look of astonishment in their eyes. To have finally elected a black man to the White House was an achievement few of us thought possible in our lifetime. Tonight I was proud to stand here as an American and sing with them, “Yes, we can.”

Obama gave thanks to his supporters and friends. He acknowledged McCain as a great leader who’d sacrificed much for his country. He pledged to “renew this nations promise” and open doors of opportunity. He recognized the youth for their enormous activism and for rejecting the myth of apathy. He told the story of a 106 year old woman from Atlanta who’d cast her ballot and lived through so much change in her lifetime. He said our “destiny is shared with the world”.

VOTING

This is the first time I’ve voted in a Presidential election since 1972. I didn’t pay much attention to 21 months of campaign rhetoric and media commentary. I knew intuitively though this was an important turning event for the country and the world.

I was confident Mr. Obama would get elected if indeed we could have a fair and honest election. Of course I don’t really know if my vote was counted or shredded given the evidence of vote manipulation and fraud. Apparently on this occasion the will of the people prevailed. In my opinion the better of two men got elected.

TRANSFORMATION AND SHIFT

In the long distant past I got disillusioned by the electoral process when McGovern was defeated by Nixon in 1972. Of all the Presidents I liked Jimmy Carter the best. At least he saw the necessity of funding renewable energy projects during his term. I’d seen Clinton speak on the campaign trail in Oregon, but got disillusioned later on after his mishandling of Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing and signing off on the anti-terrorist laws which have been disastrous for our civil liberties (particularly rewriting the habeas corpus laws).

The Bush years were disastrous for the country. No further attention will be given them except to unravel and correct the damage done.

Now this is an opportunity for a shift in consciousness, to move beyond the despair, cynicism and jadedness many of us have felt for decades. Having been a political prisoner incarcerated for advocating accountability in government and sovereignty for all the people, this election was a healing for me – an opportunity to step away from the past and move into the future with a fresh viewpoint while “reality asserts inself.”

ORGANIZING COMMUNITY

As of today I’m willing to turn over a new leaf and re-pledge my efforts, not to the political process or what government can do for us, but what I and this local community can do for yourselves so we are no longer reliant and dependent upon others to run our lives (food, water, energy, shelter, etc.).

In my opinion, regardless of what the federal government does over the next four years from the top-down, it’s still essential each of us takes complete responsibility for building our own self-reliant, local community infrastructure in all areas of our lives. So let’s dig in, get to know each other and work together. That’s what the Ashland Resource Center was designed for!

Edtor’s Note: For continued live and archived news coverage from an independent perspective we’ve embedded “The Real News Network“. This is a international organization worthy of your support.

Source: Ashland Resource Center

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Beyond Win-Lose Political Drama | Transpartisan Alliance

Dear Fellow Concerned American:

Out of the pain and frustrating dysfunction of the current win-lose political drama, a serious constituency is growing for a political system based in well tested win-win principles and practices (similiar to those adopted by large businesses over the past couple decades to reconcile the divergent interests of management, labor, and other “stakeholders.”)  This constituency isn’t waiting for the political professionals to agree — its unlikely they ever will — it’s being driven by citizen leadership.

My faith and commitment to such a difficult to imagine transformation from win-lose to win-win politics is rooted in personal experience.  In 2001 after spending the first half of my life as a strident hater of liberals, I left Republican politics exhausted and disillusioned to reflect in a cabin in the mountains of rural Virginia. At the age of 39 I was in personal crisis.  I had recently lost a risky bid for Congress.  My marriage, business and political reputation had disintegrated.  After struggling with and for political power for almost a decade, fueled by an undercurrent of anger and righteousness, I had hit a wall.

No longer feeling so sure of myself or my worldview, and having been humbled to the point of living well below the poverty line, life delivered an unlikely set of teachers (for someone whose nickname in the military had been “starch”)…a community of hippies.  The small town I had chosen for retreat was a haven for 1960’s and 70’s back-to-the-landers.  Over time, I began to discern and respect the underlying values that motivated their behavior — sharing, interdependence, equality, compassion for the weak, a strong sense justice, freedom, creative self-expression, and a reverence for nature.  I realized these complemented rather than contradicted my conservative values of accountability, order, hard work, security, protection, respect for the individual, and respect for authority.

This simple insight – that liberal and conservative values systems have a natural, complementary relationship – was a breakthrough in my life and has become the basis of my work since.  One set of values is softer, more nurturing, more emotional, and the other set is harder, more responsible, more rational.  When integrated, they mutually support each other in a similar way to the parents of a healthy family.  To be a whole, balanced, well functioning person I need to integrate the values of my mother and father. To be a whole balanced well functioning nation, it seems to me, we need to honor and integrate these values as well.

Based on this premise, the support of a foundation willing to fund “forgiveness,” and the contribution of a diverse group of mediators and systems thinkers from the little known field of “integral politics,” the work of Reuniting America emerged in 2004. Over three years we convened 144 leaders of groups like MoveOn.org, Christian Coalition, Common Cause, Americans for Tax Reform, Code Pink and Heritage Foundation. These “transpartisan leadership retreats” tested the premise that with a safe welcoming environment, clear ground rules, and a transparent process that allowed rather than denied conflict, trust, respect and communication emerge.  We have seen unexpected cooperation among people who thought they were enemies on issues ranging from open government, election integrity, civil liberties, protecting the U.S. Constitution, net neutrality, national service, climate change and dialogue with Iran.

Inspired by this beginning and in an effort to extend this work to the grassroots, in October of this year the Transpartisan Alliance was organized — an informal network of networks that will serve as the convener of the American Citizens’ Summit, the first ever Transpartisan National Convention.  This is an ambitious undertaking that is requiring vision, careful citizen diplomacy, and immense cooperation. It is intended to reduce tensions, build trust and facilitate cooperation on our most pressing national concerns…and its not just for political insiders, activists or organizers.  It’s for average people whose voices are rarely heard.  It’s for formal and informal leaders looking for new allies.  It’s for innovators with ideas that our country needs.  It’s for facilitators, mediators and bridge builders. It’s for businesspeople, artists, religious and non-religious.  It’s for insiders and outsiders.  It’s a “We the People” convention to restore integrity to the phrase government of, by and for people.

Consider joining us February 11-15, 2009 in Denver…what more effective service can you render right now?  Register now, learn more or join the Alliance!

Sincerely,

Joseph McCormick
Co-founder
Reuniting America

Resources:
Transpartisan Alliance
Network

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I.O.U.S.A. Film Review and Resources

The critically-acclaimed documentary film I.O.U.S.A. was conceived of, co-written and executive produced by Agora Financial’s Addison Wiggin. In July 2008, the film was acquired by The Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

It was featured in a Live Premier with Warren Buffet, Pete Peterson and David Walker in 400 theatres around the nation on August 21st, 2008. If you missed the event, you can read a transcript of the national town hall meeting here.

“From September 30, 2007 to the end of this past fiscal year on September 30, 2008, total federal debt grew by $1.0 trillion, from 9,007,653,372,262.48 to $10,024,724,896,912.49, which is an 11.3% annual rate of growth. The federal debt as of October 16, 2008 is now $10,331,139,000,845.92. So in just 16 days since the end of the last fiscal year, the federal debt has grown by an astounding $331.1 billion, which is a 75.5% annual rate of growth. It has taken just 16 days to borrow one-third of what the government borrowed in all of last year.”– Daily Pfennig

Ron Paul: “We can’t afford to pay all these bills, and if we just pay for these bills by printing money, it will destroy the currency – and that will be a much, much more painful reaction than us just tightening our belts and living within our means.”

Warren Buffett: “I do think that piling up more and more and more external debt and having the rest of the world own more and more of the United States may create real political instability down the line and increase the possibility that demagogues come along and do some very foolish things.”

Resources:
56 Trillion Dollar Deficit
Agora Financial
Bureau of the Public Debt
Debt Numbers Overwhelming
I.O.U.S.A. (Film)
Life and Debt (Film)
Money as Debt (Film)
On Passage of Bailout Bill
Review at NH Film Festival
U.S. National Debt Clock

Source: Ashland Resource Center

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Hal Turner Shows New AMERO Currency

New currency being secretly minted at Denver Mint, to replace US Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Mexican Peso in the new NORTH AMERICAN UNION to be established after a phase of martial law after the coming massive Dollar collapse!

Video Source: Disclose.tv

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“Unafraid” by Jeff Golden | Review

Unafraid

I went last night to the final performance of an oratory of Jeff Golden’s new novel “Unafraid” at the Oregon Stage Works. ‘Twas an engaging dialogue between prominent political characters of the late twentieth century, engaging the imagination of what’s possible with great leadership, particular that of John and Robert Kennedy, had they survived the bullets.

“Unafraid will be pivotal for readers who care deeply about our country. Kudoes for this compelling blend of face and fiction.” – John Steiner, Board Chair, Reuniting America

The novel is factual up to the point when John F. Kennedy was shot on November 23rd, 1963, and fictional afterward as JFK survives the bullet in this dramatic story. JFK goes on to win another term as President confronting many of the great issues of his day with great leadership, and altering the course of history. Imagine that! Imagine the possible!

In this fictional novel JFK diffuses the Cuban missile crisis with his brother Bobby, invites Fidel Castro to the great capitalist Joseph Kennedy’s home for a fireside chat in which the resolving of the idealogical argument of socialism versus capitalism takes place.

“…A daringly original, strikingly ‘perfect for our times’ story. This is the great read you’ve been looking for.” – Neale Donald Walsch, Author, Conversations with God

JFK takes a stand against apartheid in South Africa, agrees to cease the arms race with Leonard Bresnov and stop playing “superpowers.” He refuses to take sides with Israel against the Arab world after the 1967 war in the Middle East and commits to a renewable energy future after oil companies threatened to cut off supplies if he doesn’t resume the previous foreign policies of the United States favoring big corporations.

All in all a well-crafted play and I imagine the novel is much the same. I purchased mine and had the author autograph my copy after the showing.

Source: Ashland Resource Center

Resources:
Unafraid by Jeff Golden

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You Know The Banking System Is Unsound When…

goldBy Mike “Mish” Shedlock

1. Paulson appears on Face The Nation and says “Our banking system is a safe and a sound one.” If the banking system was safe and sound, everyone would know it (or at least think it). There would be no need to say it.

2. Paulson says the list of troubled banks “is a very manageable situation”. The reality is there are 90 banks on the list of problem banks. Indymac was not one of them until a month before it collapsed. How many other banks will magically appear on the list a month before they collapse?

3. In a Northern Rock moment, depositors at Indymac pull out their cash. Police had to be called in to ensure order.

4. Washington Mutual (WM), another troubled bank, refused to honor Indymac cashier’s checks. The irony is it makes no sense for customers to pull insured deposits out of Indymac after it went into receivership. The second irony is the last place one would want to put those funds would be Washington Mutual. Eventually Washington Mutual decided it would take those checks but with an 8 week hold. Will Washington Mutual even be around 8 weeks from now?

5. Paulson asked for “Congressional authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE)” just days after he said “Financial Institutions Must Be Allowed To Fail”. Obviously Paulson is reporting from the 5th dimension. In some alternate universe, his statements just might make sense.

6. Former Fed Governor William Poole says “Fannie Mae, Freddie Losses Makes Them Insolvent”.

7. Paulson says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are “essential” because they represent the only “functioning” part of the home loan market. The firms own or guarantee about half of the $12 trillion in U.S. mortgages. Is it possible to have a sound banking system when the only “functioning” part of the mortgage market is insolvent?

8. Bernanke testified before Congress on monetary policy but did not comment on either money supply or interest rates. The word “money” did not appear at all in his testimony. The only time “interest rate” appeared in his testimony was in relation to consumer credit card rates. How can you have any reasonable economic policy when the Fed chairman is scared half to death to discuss interest rates and money supply?

9. The SEC issued a protective order to protect those most responsible for naked short selling. As long as the investment banks and brokers were making money engaging in naked shorting of stocks, there was no problem. However, when the bears began using the tactic against the big financials, it became time to selectively enforce the existing regulation.

eorder1934-28810. The Fed takes emergency actions twice during options expirations week in regards to the discount window and rate cuts.

11. The SEC takes emergency action during options expirations week regarding short sales.

12. The Fed has implemented an alphabet soup of pawn shop lending facilities whereby the Fed accepts garbage as collateral in exchange for treasuries. Those new Fed lending facilities are called the Term Auction Facility (TAF), the Term Security Lending Facility (TSLF), and the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF).

13. Citigroup (C), Lehman (LEH), Morgan Stanley(MS), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Merrill Lynch (MER) all have a huge percentage of level 3 assets. Level 3 assets are commonly known as “marked to fantasy” assets. In other words, the value of those assets is significantly if not ridiculously overvalued in comparison to what those assets would fetch on the open market. It is debatable if any of the above firms survive in their present form. Some may not survive in any form.

14. Bernanke openly solicits private equity firms to invest in banks. Is this even close to a remotely normal action for Fed chairman to take?

15. Bear Stearns was taken over by JPMorgan (JPM) days after insuring investors it had plenty of capital. Fears are high that Lehman will suffer the same fate. Worse yet, the Fed had to guarantee the shotgun marriage between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan by providing as much as $30 billion in capital. JPMorgan is responsible for only the first 1/2 billion. Taxpayers are on the hook for all the rest. Was this a legal action for the Fed to take? Does the Fed care?

16. Citigroup needed a cash injection from Abu Dhabi and a second one elsewhere. Then after announcing it would not need more capital is raising still more. The latest news is Citigroup will sell $500 billion in assets. To who? At what price?

17. Merrill Lynch raised $6.6 billion in capital from Kuwait Mizuho, announced it did not need to raise more capital, then raised more capital a few week later.

18. Morgan Stanley sold a 9.9% equity stake to China International Corp. CEO John Mack compensated by not taking his bonus. How generous. Morgan Stanley fell from $72 to $37. Did CEO John Mack deserve a paycheck at all?

19. Bank of America (BAC) agreed to take over Countywide Financial (CFC) and twice announced Countrywide will add profits to B of A. Inquiring minds were asking “How the hell can Countrywide add to Bank of America earnings?” Here’s how. Bank of America just announced it will not guarantee $38.1 billion in Countrywide debt. Questions over “Fraudulent Conveyance” are now surfacing.

20. Washington Mutual agreed to a death spiral cash infusion of $7 billion accepting an offer at $7.85 when the stock was over $13 at the time. Washington Mutual has since fallen in waterfall fashion from $40 and is now trading near $5.00 after a huge rally.

21. Shares of Ambac (ABK) fell from $90 to $2.50. Shared of MBIA (MBI) fell from $70 to $5. Sadly, the top three rating agencies kept their rating on the pair at AAA nearly all the way down. No one can believe anything the government sponsored rating agencies say.

22. In a panic set of moves, the Fed slashed interest rates from 5.25% to 2%. This was the fastest, steepest drop on record. Ironically, the Fed chairman spoke of inflation concerns the entire drop down. Bernanke clearly cannot tell the truth. He does not have to. Actions speak louder than words.

23. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the FDIC is looking for ways to shore up its depleted deposit fund, including charging higher premiums on riskier brokered deposits.

24. There is roughly $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. $2.60 Trillion of that is uninsured. There is only $53 billion in FDIC insurance to cover $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. Indymac will eat up roughly $8 billion of that.

25. Of the $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits, the total cash on hand at banks is a mere $273.7 Billion. Where is the rest of the loot? The answer is in off balance sheet SIVs, imploding commercial real estate deals, Alt-A liar loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds, toggle bonds where debt is amazingly paid back with more debt, and all sorts of other silly (and arguably fraudulent) financial wizardry schemes that have bank and brokerage firms leveraged at 30-1 or more. Those loans cannot be paid back.

What cannot be paid back will be defaulted on. If you did not know it before, you do now. The entire US banking system is insolvent.

Source: Global Economic Analyis

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Liberty and Taboos

TabooScreen

Sirius Media produced and packaged a film of one of my seminars in Vancouver, BC entitled “The Taboo of Sovereignty, Money, Love and Power” several years ago at the Vancouver Public Library. The film is about the conversations we’re afraid to engage in as a society. The film has not been released.

In the meantime if you want a taste of some of my favorite videos visit the VodPod ICResource channel or YouTube ICResource channel and subscribe. There’s even a short clip somebody posted of the infamous Johnny Liberty speaking on freedom and sovereignty way back in 1995 at the Granada Forum.

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Remembering the fallen: To those who paid the ultimate price for their journalism

Frontline Club logo

By Robert Fox, 22 Jun 2008

The dedication of Jaume Plensa’s giant glass vase ‘Breathing’ on the roof of the BBC at Portland Place as a memorial to all who have fallen in the cause of news and reporting  was moving, fitting and strangely remote.

It is fitting and timely because reporting is an increasingly dangerous business. The grim numbers of the killed and wounded and disappeared among reporters and news people of all kinds in conflicts from Iraq, Afghanistan, to Darfur, Zimbabwe and the Caucasus are testimony enough to this.

The sense of remoteness of the BBC memorial ceremony was encouraged by the fact that the giant sculpture is way up on a roof. The public can’t see it close-up to read the names and James Fenton’s verses on the fallen of  the ranks of journalism.

In some ways this is a metaphor. We all see the fruits of journalism in increasing volume and intensity, through TV and radio, print, the blogosphere, telephone text and video, Youtube and MySpace. But the essence of what is going on in, say, remoter Zabul, Bulawayo, the water wars of the Fergama valley and Darfur is perennially baffling. As Gordon Burn writes in his wonderful fable ‘Born Yesterday’ (last year’s news a novel) of “the feeling we all increasingly have of seeing everything but of being able to do nothing.”

Remembering the fallen and the wounded in body and spirit of the craft and calling of news reporting touches the core of  Frontline. Prominent in our memory are our fallen friends and comrades, Rory Peck, intrepid cameraman and Kurt Schork, king of the agency correspondents, Nick della Casa, who with his wife Rosanna and Charles Maxwell were murdered by their guide in northern Iraq in 1991, Carlos Mavroleon died in his Peshawar hotel in 1998, Roddy  Scott, ambushed and killed by Russians in  Chechnya (2002), James Miller cut down by the IDF in Gaza in 2003, and Richard Wild, murdered in Baghdad in 2003.

Most of these were not salaried, insured and protected correspondents of a large news organisation, but worked by the piece and day, freelance or on short contract. They did what they did because they believed in what they were doing, and telling a story that was vital.

They were prepared to go to the dark and dangerous places, on the map of the world, and into the darker inner map of human minds. So much of the news coverage in the most difficult but crucial zones of conflict depend on the freelance going the extra mile, or in most cases extra hundreds of miles, to get to the story.

In this motley crew of the non-staffers the vital links, the turn-keys of the whole enterprise, are the fixers, drivers, interpreters and helpers. They have no insurance policies, or regular income to support them when one of theirs is killed or wounded – and of course there is no safety in hazardous environments procedure, or health and safety regulation to protect them. Nearly all of us owe our lives, and our stories, to this strangely uplifting band – who do not seem  to know the meaning of the word ‘whinge’.

Some 21 years ago I was wandering the shores of the Mediterranean for a book when I went down to Tyre, to look, among other things, at the remains of the Roman circus (which was used in the Charlton Heston movie of Ben Hur). Under one of the arches of the auditorium I interviewed a bunch of ‘soeurs Islamiques’ supporters of Amal, when my companion and driver Abed spotted some Hezbollah gunmen going down for a spot of target practice. Realising they hadn’t seen me, he neatly diverted them with a torrent of  aimless conversation. Abed and his family worked for the BBC for decades, particularly for Jeremy Bowen. He was killed when Israeli gunners deliberately targeted his car in southern Lebanon a couple of years ago.

The Frontline Club’s Fixers Fund is a vital line to the families, often pretty extended, of those stringers and fixers  who are killed and injured – or simply never come back.  I would hope something can be done for educational facilities, just things as simple as books and DVDs are welcome, both for the young interpreters and their families.

As the news world becomes an ever expanding and fragmenting universe, we should remember the pioneers and bold spirits who did, and said something new – though their bosses didn’t want it. Ernie Pyle lived the life of a soldier on the frontline in Normandy, Belgium and the Pacific, telling the story through the words of his archetypal hero, GI Joe. He was killed in Okinawa in the last weeks of the Pacific war in 1945 – when the Japanese took back the island recently, his was one of only three American memorials they allowed to stay.

We should remember other bold spirits who showed courage in a different way in bringing us the news deemed unfit by the bosses  to print or broadcast, yet they believed it should – people like I. F. Stone and Ed Murrow.

From the roof opposite Jaume Plensa’s memorial sculpture Murrow made live broadcasts in the Blitz to a reluctant audience in America.

Source: Frontline Club

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Bilderberg Meeting

benThe Bilderberg Meeting is taking place at the Westfields Marriott Hotel, Chantilly, VA, June 6-8, 2008.

Photo: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, leaving the Bilderberg Conference.

Source: Cryptome