Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/revolutionary-democracy-opportunity-danger-4300/

Though the list of countries being swept up in a wave of popular uprisings is long and getting longer, pro-democracy activists the world over would be wise to hold off their own celebrations. The wave of ‘people power’ spreading through the Middle East and Africa could just as easily end up hindering international democracy as it could helping it.

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/02/washingtons-internal-security-apparatus-a-long-history/

US citizens of almost all political stripes tend to live their lives ignorant of what the government that operates in their name is really up to. Some of this is due to the government’s obsession with secrecy and some of it is due to the people’s political naivete (or ignorance). Perhaps the only exceptions to this statement are those that exist on what are considered the fringes of US political discourse. Thanks in part to this ignorance, most US residents live their lives unaware of the police state author Andrew Kolin describes in his recently published book State Power and Democracy: Before and During the
Presidency of George W. Bush.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20596

Although it has been overshadowed by events in Libya and Egypt, there is a battle going on in the United States, and it is not hyperbole to suggest that it is a battle for the very soul of the nation. By current estimates, at least sixteen state governments are in the process of declaring war on American workers, and protests have erupted in at least four of them—Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/28/voices_from_the_100_000_strong

More than 100,000 people rallied in Madison on Saturday against Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to remove the collective bargaining rights of most public-sector workers. It was the largest demonstration Madison has seen since the Vietnam War. We broadcast some of the voices from the rally. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/anderson02282011.html

The story of Raymond Allen Davis is one familiar to me and I wish our government would quit doing these things - they cost us credibility. Davis is the American being held as a spy working under diplomatic cover out of our embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. You can understand why foreign countries no longer trust u

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/28-1

The brazen choices of the Republican governor shows the real ideology behind attacks on unions – in the US and beyond. You can tell a great deal about a nation's anxieties and aspirations by the discrepancy between reality and popular perception. Polls last year showed that in the US 61% think the country spends too much on foreign aid. This makes sense once you understand that the average American is under the illusion that 25% of the federal budget goes on foreign aid (the real figure is 1%).

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/28-2

We're chumps unless we force Congress to stop tax haven abuse. Instead of cutting state and federal budgets, the United States should crack down on the corporate tax dodgers thumbing their noses at us. Across the nation, states are making deep cuts that will wreck the quality of life for everyone to close budget gaps that total more than $100 billion.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/28-11

A new report out Monday from Moody’s Analytics economist Mark Zandi estimates that the House-passed seven-month spending bill, which cuts $61 billion in spending, would cost 700,000 jobs by the end of 2012. Zandi’s report echoes one by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which concluded the GOP bill would cost 800,000 jobs. Goldman Sachs has found that it could cause as much as a 2 percent loss in economic growth. (Image: Daily Kos) He predicts that this year the bill could cost 400,000 jobs and run the risk of a new recession.

Link: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/02/28/gordon-duff-the-tea-party-and-americas-return-to-the-good-ole-days/

“OUTLAW GOVERNORS” TAKE ON AMERICA “The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. In Wisconsin, State Police cars are searching for missing legislators. The fist pounding on the door in the middle of the night, reminders of Germany, 1936.

Link: http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/gilad-atzmon-hasbaras-smear-fell-apart-again-1.html

As funny as it may sound, Harry's Place -- the infamous Israeli propaganda website and Neocon outlet that rushed to advocate Blair’s criminal wars -- is now desperately insisting on mounting pressure on venues to stop me from spreading the necessary message about Israel and its lobbies.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/27-4

It began outside the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union. A few dozen members of the Teaching Assistants Association, the oldest graduate employee union in the world, rallied to object to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s plan to strip public employee unions of collective bargaining rights. The message from the TAA was blunt: “All public sector workers are under attack. Faculty and staff are under attack. The UW as a whole is under attack. With these extreme acts, Scott Walker is seeking to undermine the labor peace of 50 years…. You need to get active now!”

Link: http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2011/02/27/nb-03

ZAGREB, Croatia -- About 60 people were arrested during an anti-government rally attended by about 15,000 people in Zagreb on Saturday (February 26th). In all 25 people, -- 12 of them police officers -- were injured in clashes that erupted when dozens of youth tried to reach the central square, where the government is headquartered. Pelted by rocks and sticks, police responded with tear gas. Video

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201122792426740496.html

Libyan leader continues to blame foreigners and al-Qaeda for the unrest that is threatening his 41-year rule. As more cities fall into the hands of the pro-democracy protesters, Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is hanging on to the capital where security forces loyal to him seem to have a firm hold, even amid reports of sporadic gunfire. On Sunday, protesters had taken control of the city of Zawiyah, 50km from Tripoli, further shrinking the control of Gaddafi's government after the opposition took over most of the eastern part of the country.

Link: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/27/horrific-us-medical-experiments-come-to-light/

Shocking as it may seem, U.S. government doctors once thought it was fine to experiment on disabled people and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27575.htm

An interview With John Perkins - By Anthony Wile. Daily Bell: Please treat this interview as if no one knew about you or your bestselling books. Give us some background on where you grew up and how you entered the CIA. John Perkins: I grew up in New Hampshire and went to business school in Boston. At that time, I was approached by the National Security Agency (NSA), not the CIA, for a series of very sensitive tests including lie detector and personality test. They concluded I would make a good economic hit man, which is essentially a con artist with an economic background. They also said they found several weaknesses in my character that maybe they could use as hooks that would bring me into their game. Primarily, money, sex and power. Being that I was a young man, I was seduced by all of them.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27571.htm

Some years ago in New England, a group of environmentalists asked a corporate executive how his company (a paper mill) could justify dumping its raw industrial effluent into a nearby river. The river—which had taken Mother Nature centuries to create–was used for drinking water, fishing, boating, and swimming. In just a few years, the paper mill had turned it into a highly toxic open sewer. It was a familiar argument: the company had no choice. It was compelled to act that way in a competitive market. The mill was not in the business of protecting the environment but in the business of making a profit, the highest possible profit at the highest possible rate of return. Profit is the name of the game, as business leaders make clear when pressed on the point. The overriding purpose of business is capital accumulation.

Link: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/231456/2012-apocalypse-The-Doomsday-bunker

A US firm says thousands of people will book their place in post-Armageddon Britain. HUNDREDS of people have signed up to book a place in Britain’s first underground nuclear bunker, as a growing number fear the world will end as early as next year.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/150067/workers%27_uprising%3A_more_fox_%22news%22_lies_exposed%3B_new_poll_confirms_that_americans_are_on_public_workers%27_side/

Follow the latest developments and analysis on the democratic uprising spreading from Wisconsin to the rest of the country. The protests in Wisconsin continue into their third week, with thousands holding strong in the capitol in Madison, a huge showing of support for the economic rights of union members and the restoration of a strong middle class. The following is a collection of updates and items on what's happening in Wisconsin and the rest of the country.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/02/2011227153626965756.html

Signatories to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) demand "immediate" military action. Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman wants the US to arm Libyan rebels. In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage US intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.

Link: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/02/israeli-students-and-their-vision-of-the-world/

After the detention of Israeli art students by U.S. authorities hit the media in early 2002, Mark Regev, the then-spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington who now serves as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman, denied that any Israelis arrested in the United States were espionage agents. Regev categorically stated, "Israel does not spy on the United States," as if convicted American spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard never existed. Israeli sympathizers and propagandists within the U.S. corporate media all canted the same meme about the Israeli art students being spies: "It is an urban myth," they dutifully repeated ad infinitum. However, in employment advertisements run in Israeli newspapers in 1979, it is quite clear that the hiring of Israeli students after their military service to subsequently be sent to the United States was a Mossad operation tied directly to the Israeli government. Those interested in Mossad spy work in the United States were directed to send their personal details to a post office box in Tel Aviv or the Israeli Consulate General in New York. The consulate is the largest Mossad station in the United States, with Washington, DC and Houston in second and third place.

Link: http://www.nctimes.com/business/article_82f9827f-be43-59c5-a35c-300fade72cd8.html

They blockade highway toll booths to give drivers free passage. They cover subway ticket machines with plastic bags so commuters can't pay. Even doctors are joining in, preventing patients from paying fees at state hospitals. Some call it civil disobedience. Others a freeloading spirit. Either way, Greece's "I Won't Pay" movement has sparked heated debate in a nation reeling from a debt crisis that's forced the government to take drastic austerity measures ---- including higher taxes, wage and pension cuts, and price spikes in public services.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/27/silvio-berlusconi-sex-case-witness

Nadia Macri, who claims to have had sex with Italy's prime minister, says she has received menacing messages. Nadia Macri Nadia Macri, insists she has received money from Silvio Berlusconi in exchange for sex but says: 'I really don’t think that the prime minister has anything to do with my car.'

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/150067/workers%27_uprising%3A_sheriff%3A_my_deputies_aren%27t_%27palace_guard%27%3B_dems_file_formal_ethics_complaint_against_scott_walker/

The protests in Wisconsin continue into their third week, with thousands holding strong in the capitol in Madison, a huge showing of support for the economic rights of union members and the restoration of a strong middle class. The following is a collection of updates and items on what's happening in Wisconsin and the rest of the country.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/2011227161232175401.html#

The leader of Ukraine's opposition says the gains of the 2004 'orange revolution' are under threat. Ukrainian's took to the streets in 2004 during a disputed election, in a push for democratic reforms. From snowy Kyiv, the Ukranian capital, I have watched the successful revolutions in Cairo and Tunis with joy and admiration. Egyptians and Tunisians are right to be proud of their desire to peacefully overthrow despotic governments. But, as someone who led a peaceful revolution, I hope that pride is tempered by pragmatism, because a change of regime is only the first step in establishing a democracy backed by the rule of law. Indeed, as my country, Ukraine, is now demonstrating, after revolutionary euphoria fades and normality returns, democratic revolutions can be betrayed and reversed.

Link: http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=wi_capitol_occupation

Stand with brave protesters for human rights in Wisconsin; and as the police continue locking down the capitol, demand that peaceful protesters and capitol occupiers are not met with violence, arrested and that the public is let into the capitol today. Demand that Scott Walker begin negotiating immediately or resign, and that the Koch brothers stop buying state governments and fracking for natural gas.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54638

As revolutions and popular protests against dictatorships spread across northern Africa and the Middle East, questions are being raised whether they will inspire similar uprisings in Central Asia. Activists say that it is now a question of when, not if, regime change comes in the region.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/27-2

Regional war could spark "unprecedented climate change," experts predict. Even a regional nuclear war could spark "unprecedented" global cooling and reduce rainfall for years, according to U.S. government computer models. Widespread famine and disease would likely follow, experts speculate.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-price-of-food-is-at-the-heart-of-this-wave-of-revolutions-2226896.html

No one saw the uprisings coming, but their deeper cause isn't hard to fathom. Revolution is breaking out all over. As Gaddafi marshals his thugs and mercenaries for a last-ditch fight in Tripoli, several died as protests grew more serious in Iraq. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah tried to bribe his people into docility by splashing out $35bn on housing, social services and education. Across the water in Bahrain the release of political prisoners failed to staunch the uprising. In Iran, President Ahmadinejad crowed about chaos in the Arab world, but said nothing about the seething anger in his own backyard; in Yemen, the opposition gathers strength daily.

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/manipulating_oil_price.html

Can we believe Lindsey Williams? Williams, a Baptist minister and author of the 1980's book The Energy Non-Crisis (on line) has been reporting inside information about oil price-manipulation for many years now, and generally the information has been accurate. According to Pastor Williams, the Globalists are fomenting rebellion as an excuse to raise the oil prices to $150-200 a barrel. Pastor Williams revealed in his book that US has huge untapped oil reserves that the elites have known about for decades... Senator Chance's first question was, "Mr. X, how much crude oil is there under the North Slope of Alaska, in your estimation?" Mr. X answered, "In my estimation, from the seismographic work and the drilling we have already done, I am convinced that there is as much oil under the North Slope of Alaska as there is in all of Saudi Arabia.".."

Link: http://www.infowars.com/government-promises-to-cut-social-security/

The debate has moved from whether or not to cut social security, to how many cuts, how much, and when they’ll start. Threatened with the prospect of a government shutdown, Democrats are pushing for compromise by agreeing to cut social security to avert a manufactured “shutdown” disaster. For years the government has had no problem raiding the surplus in the social security fund to pay for wars, bank bailouts, General Motors, and a slew of other unfunded giveaways. Yet, now, as they claim bankruptcy, they seek to take even more from the program.

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/02/26/silvia-cattori-an-interview-with-gilad-a

Gilad Atzmon is an outstandingly charming man. He is often described by music critics as one of the finest contemporary jazz saxophonists. But Atzmon is more than just a musician: for those who follow events in the Middle East, he is considered to be one of the most credible voices amongst Israeli opponents. In the last decade he has relentlessly exposed and denounced barbarian Israeli policies. Just before his departure on a European Spring Tour, “The Tide Has Changed“, with his band the Orient House Ensemble, he spoke to Silvia Cattori.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/lead-f26.shtml

The Obama administration yesterday announced a series of unilateral sanctions against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, including suspension of US military cooperation and cancellation of military component sales. Washington also closed the US embassy in Tripoli and asked international financial institutions to monitor any money transfers made by senior Libyan officials.

Link: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/02/how-the-us-radicalized-conservatism/

If you have the stomach to listen to the likes of Glenn Beck or track the antics of people like Sarah Palin you might get the idea that today’s American political conservatives are a bunch of radicals and extremists. And, as we will see, you would be correct. But this is not how it always was. There was a time when conservatism was a more low key affair with a certain sense of pragmatism and even fair play. There is not much of this traditional conservatism left here in the U.S. except in certain intellectual circles. And, even there, one has the sense that it is hanging on by its fingernails.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/26-1

Embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has now acknowledged in a press conference and in a nationally television interview -- with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren -- that he engaged in discussions with political allies about hiring "troublemakers" to disrupt peaceful demonstrations against his budget repair bill.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/26-3

by Ralph Nader, The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the spectre of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker. For years the middle class has watched the plutocrats stomp on the poor while listening to the two parties regale the great middle class, but never mentioning the tens of millions of poor Americans. And for years, the middle class was shrinking due significantly to corporate globalization shipping good-paying jobs overseas to repressive dictatorships like China. It took Governor Walker’s legislative proposal to do away with most collective bargaining rights for most public employee unions to jolt people to hit the streets.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/26-4

Tens of thousands of people protested in Wisconsin on Saturday against a state government push to curb the power of public sector unions, sparking solidarity rallies for labor rights around the United States. Protesters see the proposals as an effort to weaken the labor movement. Other states considering similar proposals include Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/150057/the_dems%27_tepid_approach_to_what%27s_at_stake_in_wisc._is_helping_conservatives_destroy_unions%2C_defund_the_democratic_party_and_take_over_the_country/

The Wisconsin protests are about much more than budgets and unions. As I observed in What the Right-wing Assault on Women, Unions, the Environment, Health Care and PBS Is All About, the conservative story about budget deficits is a ruse to turn the country conservative in every area. Karl Rove and Shep Smith have made it clear on Fox: If the Wisconsin plan to kill the public employees’ unions succeeds, then there will be little union money in the future to support democratic candidates.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23354

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Bailout. The bailout measures of late 2008 may have consequences at least as grave for an open society as the response to 9/11 in 2001. Many members of Congress felt coerced at the time into voting against their inclinations, and the normal procedures for orderly consideration of a bill were dispensed with. The excuse for bypassing normal legislative procedures was the existence of an emergency. But one of the most reprehensible features of the legislation, that allowed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to permit bailed-out institutions to use public money for exorbitant salaries and bonuses, was inserted by Paulson after the immediate crisis had passed.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/02/2011226175935996312.html

Judge orders suspension of hydroelectric plant in the Amazon, citing environemental concerns. The dam project has been criticised for its potential impact on Brazil's native Indian tribes. A Brazilian court has ordered the suspension of a massive hydroelectric dam project in the rain forest, citing environmental concerns. Ronaldo Desterro, a federal judge said in a statement posted on a court website Friday night that environmental agency Ibama erred last month when it approved work to begin on the dam. The statement cites 29 environmental conditions that allegedly have not been met, such as the recovery of degraded areas and measures to guarantee the navigability of rivers. The massive Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Amazon jungle state of Para would be the third-largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201122641559301766.html

Demonstrators remain on the streets as leader's power may soon be confined only to the capital, Tripoli. Most of Libya is out of control of the government, and Muammar Gaddafi's grip on power may soon be confined only to the capital, Tripoli, Libya's former interior minister has said. General Abdul Fatteh Younis told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he had called upon Gaddafi to end his resistance to the uprising, although he does not expect him to do so.