by Stephen Lendman

It landed, but it's too soon to know where it's going or how committed workers are to stay the course and spread it to other US states.

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By Rady Ananda

The recent public release of a video capturing police brutality that resulted in seven Houston police officers being fired while only four have been charged with misdemeanors has prompted fresh outrage. (Image: Top row: Officers Drew Ryser and Phillip Bryan. Bottom row: Officers Andrew T. Blomberg and Raad M. Hassan.)

In the video below, we see 15-year-old Chad Holley running from the cops after a robbery on March 23 of last year. After being knocked to the ground by a police car, he immediately rolls onto his stomach and puts his hands behind his head. Before cuffing him, Houston police begin kicking him in the head and punching him several times in a clear felonious assault.

Note that one cop, standing between the boy's legs, kicks him in the groin four times, and smashes his knees in an apparent attempt to break them. Another cop slugs him several times while others hold the boy down.

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Comments for CX36 Radio Centenario of American sociologist, Prof. James Pears from New York

"One of Obama's cuts is to reduce or eliminate the subsidy of poor people who will live not only in poverty but cold as a freezer due to separate authority of President Obama. A pittance for president who seeks at all costs to satisfy the ultra right and prove capable of punishing the people as much as Bush and other reactionaries. "

Chury: Petras, how are you?

Petras: Well, here we are waiting for the call to start our interview.

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Interview by Kourosh Ziabari

Prof. Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh is a prominent Iranologist, geopolitics researcher, historian and political scientist. He teaches geopolitics at the Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran. He has been the advisor of the United Nations University and the founder and manager of the London-based Urosevic foundation. Mojtahedzadeh has published more than 20 books in Persian, English and Arabic on the geopolitics of Persian Gulf region and modern discourses in international relations. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature. Moreover, he has been a member of the British Institute of Iranian Studies since 1993. Prof. Mojtahedzadeh earned a Ph.D. in Political Geography from the University of London in 1993 and also obtained a Ph.D. in Political Geography from the University of Oxford in 1979.

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by Stephen Lendman

Whatever set them off, the genie is out of the bottle and spreading from Tunisia to Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Libya, Iraq, and perhaps America, in Wisconsin over proposed wage, benefits, and union bargaining rights cuts. A forthcoming article covers outrage in the US heartland, inspiring others Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and perhaps wherever aggrieved workers reside, awaken, and react against intolerable outrageous policies.

On February 17, New York Times writers Michael Slackman and Nadim Audi headlined, "Bahrain's Military Takes Control of Key Areas in Capital," saying: Its military, "backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, took control of most of this capital (Manama) on Thursday, hours after hundreds of heavily armed riot police officers fired shotguns, tear gas and concussion grenades to break up a pro-democracy camp inspired by the tumult swirling across the Middle East."

Hundreds were injured. At least six died, some killed while they slept with scores of shotgun pellets to the head and chest, according to witnesses and attending doctors. Others were attacked when they ran to avoid violence. Foreign minister, Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-l-Khalifa, defended street violence as a last resort to save Bahrain from the "brink of a sectarian abyss."

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Franklin Lamb

Shatila Refugee Camp, Beirut

Lebanese opponents of civil rights for Palestinian Refugees often use less objective and more crude wording to define "tawtin" ("settlement") than is normally employed in civil society discussions. During last summer's debate in parliament, which failed to enact laws that would allow the world's oldest and largest refugee community the basic civil right to work and to own a home, the "tawtin or return" discussion took on strident and dark meanings, which were largely effective in frightening much of the Lebanese public from supporting even these modest humanitarian measures. Right-wing opponents of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon often define tawtin during public discussions as "implantation" (as in inserting a foreign malignant object or virus into Lebanon's body politic), or "grafting," "insertion," "impalement," "forced integration," "embedding" "impregnation", or "patriation".

The concept's varied meanings among a largely uninformed Lebanese public have by and large prevented a balanced consideration of the provision in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative that includes "a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UNGAR 194."

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Ziad Shaker elJishi

I was asked today how America was going to be under Sarah Palin and what i thought a good alternative to her would be?

America under Palin (or Newt Gingrich for that matter) will be a very ugly place especially for the 80% of the population of Americans who are removed from wealth with a large group of which are of poverty line status or below the poverty line. These constitute the majority of Americans who lie outside the 20% who control wealth and political power in the USA today and who in turn will pay the heaviest and dearest of price for Palin's election. Domestically we would anticipate under Palin that these marginalized groups would suffer tremendously. Groups of the new immigrants, poor White, Black, Latino and others, the poor elderly, the sick, the disabled, the far-removed from wealth and political power would be pushed further into debt, a life-style of consumerism which leads to obesity, more poverty,family breakups, a break-down in moral values, drug-abuse, crime, a life-style seeking instant gratification and constant entertainment, and sickness that leads to death will proliferate.

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By Timothy Gatto

Americans are walking around with blinders. The current government is no different than the government that preceded it. The country is involved in a myriad of ground actions in countries across the globe. One must wonder if World War II ever ended. We spend an inordinate amount of our nation’s budget on weapons of war, at the expense of a crumbling infrastructure and rampant unemployment. What I want to know is if this is the proper way to spend the budget money we have? I think not.

Where are the citizen’s that realize that we spend far too much on our military? Have they bought into the myth that there are clandestine enemy’s seeking our demise? We can’t even find these so called jihadists that threaten our way of life. This is all a scam to broaden our military capabilities to gain world hegemony. For those that don’t know what that word means:

“Hedgemony is the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups. It requires the consent of the majority to keep the dominant group in power. While initially referring to the political dominance of certain ancient Greek city-states over their neighbors, the term has come to be used in a variety of other contexts, in particular Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony. The term is often mistakenly used to suggest brute power or dominance, when it is better defined as emphasizing how control is achieved through consensus not force.[2] Wikipedia’”

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By Kevin Zeese

On Tuesday, February 15th Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech on the importance of Freedom of Speech in the Internet age. She focused her attention on foreign countries and chided them for curtailing the speech of their citizens.

During that speech Ray McGovern, a veteran who also served for 27 years as a CIA analyst, exercised his freedom of speech by standing and silently turning his back on Secretary Clinton. He was protesting the ongoing wars, the treatment of Bradley Manning and the militarism of U.S. foreign policy. He did not shout at the Secretary of State or interrupt her speech. He merely stood in silence.

McGovern’s action was a powerful one and it threatened the Secretary of State. Two police officers roughed him up, pulled him from the audience and arrested him. As you can see from the pictures, the 71 year old McGovern, was battered and bruised, indeed his attorney reports he was left in jail bleeding.

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Ellen Brown

"It is time to declare economic sovereignty from the multinational banks that are responsible for much of our current economic crisis.  Every year we ship over a billion dollars in Oregon taxpayer dollars to out-of-state and multinational banks in the form of deposits, only to see that money invested elsewhere. It's time to put our money to work for Oregonians."

-- Bill Bradbury, former Oregon Senate President and Secretary of State, quoted  in The Nation

Responding to an unfilled need for credit for local government, local businesses and consumers, three states in the last month have introduced bills for state-owned banks -- Oregon, Washington and Maryland – joining Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts and Hawaii to bring the total number to seven.

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