Encore Plus Democracy in America (SHT)

Category: Shoutrage
Subject: US Crimes/Democracy/
Source: BBC, Council of Europe

The Stage: the Council of Europe
The Theme: Report on Allegations regarding secret detention centres in Europe
The Rapporteur: Dick Marty, Swiss Senator

From the Council of Europe page:

“Information gathered to date has “reinforced the credibility of allegations concerning the transfer and temporary detention of individuals, without any judicial involvement, in European countries”, according to Dick Marty, the Swiss parliamentarian looking into allegations of secret detention centres. In a statement today to PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Marty said legal proceedings in certain countries “seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for legal standards”, although he said it was too early to assert there had been complicity of member states in illegal actions. He noted that the allegations had never formally been denied by the US.”

From the BBC:

“In his statement, Mr Marty said it was “still too early to assert that there had been any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions.” But, he warned, if the allegations proved correct any European states involved “would stand accused of having seriously breached their human rights obligations to the Council of Europe”.”

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The EU has not initiated any investigation of its own though it has warned that any of its states found with secret detention centres on its territory will have its voting rights suspended. Funny isn’t it. The main instigator of all this damage is that great democracy across the ocean. It seems that the only one whose hands will not be slapped will remain the great law abiding US of Duh.

Remember the playground chaos as a child? Remember all the mothers rushing to the action and your mum getting “medieval on your ass” for having joined the general fun in torturing Johnny? Remember your anger when you noticed that Alex got away with it because his mum was “too relaxed” to do anything about it. And remember how your anger doubled when you pointed out this failure to punish to your mum and she answered “Yes, but Alex is not my son.”

Seems like US of Duh will be getting away with this too.

Whose sons are they?

Harold Pinter’s Nobel Lecture: "Art, Truth & Politics"

Category: Shoutrage/Action/Design
Subject: US & UK War Crimes/Democracy/Corporate Media (Propaganda)
Source: Nobelprize.org

“What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”
~Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Laureate, Literature

Please gather family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens to watch, together, this extraordinary Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

What Mr. Pinter says in this 46-minute videotaped lecture should be shouted from rooftops worldwide (particularly within the US and UK, where the message is most urgent), considered in the privacy of our own minds, researched to our heart’s content, and discussed everywhere we gather: in our homes, at our workplaces, in the marketplace, in public and private gardens, in places of worship and spirituality, in cafés, bars, pubs and restaurants, on the streets, in town meetings and city halls, in university classrooms and lecture halls, in schoolrooms, on the editorial and op-ed pages of our local and national newspapers, in the blogosphere and other internet meeting places, and on community radio and television programs, until such time as the complicit corporate media is forced to speak truth to the citizenry rather than boldfaced lies on behalf of an anti-democratic corporate-political elite.

Let us carry within us, and communicate to the world, words of truth such that no dark, dank place is left for our war-criminal, corporate politicians and their propagandists to hide. Let us, then, begin to usher in true democracy, in which—for the first time in history—the citizenry, we, are self-respecting and respected, critically educated, and empowered to mature as whole human beings, unshackled, finally, from the corrupting effects of political paternalism.

Due to his presently undergoing cancer treatment, Harold Pinter’s Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded, and shown on video December 7, 2005, in Börssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

His videotaped lecture is available for both high- and low- bandwidth internet connections. The lecture is also available in text format in the following languages: English, Swedish, French and German.

Click here to access the lecture in these various formats via the official Nobel Prize website.

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This post was originally published by Sean M. Madden on iNoodle.com.

Farewell Punch (and Judy)

CATEGORY: OPINION
SUBJECT: POLITICS/JOURNALISM
SOURCE: THE TIMES, TIMES OF MALTA

David Cameron is the new leader of the Conservative Party in the UK. Our own, Maltese, Times dedicated its editorial to this new appointment – which only goes to show that somebody at Strickland House still labours (or conserves) under the illusion that The Times of Malta is an independent conservative establishment of its own right.

But back to young David (I am ready to wager that it will become Dave soon). At 39 he is young indeed and has already (like Blair in his time) begun to draw comparisons to that myth called William Pitt the Younger. What I like about Dave is his intention to break with the past… which does take some guts when you are head of a party called Conservative. Reading today’s Times (the original) we could hear about the person without experience who was elected to head the party. As always we hear the idealistic story, the one the person sets out with before facing the realities of politics. It is pleasant to hear but one cannot help but ask “How long will this idyllic wishing last?”.

I loved the Punch and Judy politics quip. It is an ideal that I share with a passion. Here is what Cameron said:

“And, in a swift illustration of his determination to reclaim the centre ground for the Conservatives, he broke with the legacy of Thatcherism, declaring that there was such a thing as society, and promised a new style of politics that would mean the Tories backing the Government if they thought it was right for the country. He told his party to stop grumbling and to accept modern Britain as it was. With the authority of his massive victory behind him, Mr Cameron prepared to lay down the law to MPs, saying that he wanted an end to “Punch and Judy politics — the name-calling, backbiting, point scoring and finger pointing.”

Apart from the beautiful middle-finger to grammatical convention by the Times contributor who starts a sentence, nay, a paragraph, with the word “And”, this Grand Plan of Cameron cannot but be appreciated. Stop the bickering and become real, mature, responsible politicians. The joke (and irony) is on us. On the electors of democratic governments worldwide. Because (yes I start sentences with Because too) you see, we are now come to a point where electoral promises and promising politicians are simply what they were meant to be in the first place.

There is such a thing as society indeed…. good luck David!

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This post was originally posted on J’Accuse