Israel ready to annihilate 70 million Iranians

By Roland Michel Tremblay

Could what the Jewish historian Professor Benny Morris says in the New York Times be true? That if Israel fails in the next four to seven months to destroy anything that remotely smells like radiation in Iran, Israel will simply annihilate all 70 million Iranians through a full blown nuclear war, all within the next seven months?

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Source: Democracy Now!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Defends Her Opposition to Impeachment: “If Somebody Had a Crime that the President Had Committed, That Would Be a Different Story.”

On Monday, Rep. Pelosi appeared on ABC’s The View and suggested impeachment is off the table because there is no evidence President Bush has committed any criminal acts. We ask Rep. Dennis Kucinich for a response. Kucinich recently introduced a single article of impeachment against President Bush. The article accuses Bush of deceiving Congress to authorize the invasion of Iraq.

JOY BEHAR: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney, and now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you insist on not impeaching these people, so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?

REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I think that it—I think it was important, when I became Speaker—and it’s, by the way, a very important position—President, Vice President, Speaker of the House—I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country together to the extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country.

In terms of what we wanted—set out to do, we wanted to raise the minimum wage, give the biggest increase in veterans benefits to veterans in the seventy-seven-year history, then pass research for stem cell research, all of that. This week, we’re going to pass equal pay for equal work. It has been a long time in coming—pay equity. We’re going to pass legislations for product safety, for toys that children put in their—there’s an agenda that you have to get done. You have to try to do it in a bipartisan way. The President has to sign it.

If somebody had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story.

It appears aggression, the "supreme international crime" in the words of the Nuremberg Tribunal, isn't considered a crime by Rep. Pelosi...-Andy

More...

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Linux kernel version 2.6.26 has been released.

The Linux kernel is a free and Open Source operating system core.

Announcement on the Linux Kernel Mailing List

Changelog at KernelNewbies.org

Downloads and more at kernel.org

On a related note, I've written a guide to utilizing multiple processors for compiling, and also for creating Debian kernel packages:
Linux SMP Tips

I've posted a blog on some of the parallels between free software and anarchism.

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Source: Slashdot

Posted by kdawson on Monday May 26, @09:29PM
from the terrism-is-the-root-password-to-the-academy dept.

D Afifi writes "Two political researchers at the University of Nottingham, in the UK, have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for downloading Al-Qaida material from a US government website. The material was to be used for research in terrorist tactics. There has been a huge public outcry, with university staff planning a march to demonstrate against the attack on academic freedom. Yet, one of the students, an Algerian, is still held in custody under immigration charges and is being fast-tracked for deportation."

Excerpted from the above links:

"If he is taken to Algeria, he may be subjected to severe human rights violations after his involvement in this case. He has been in the UK for 13 years. His work is here, his friends are here, his life is here."

Of his detention, Sabir said: "I was absolutely broken. I didn't sleep. I'd close my eyes then hear the keys clanking and I would be up again. As I realised the severity I thought I'd end up in Belmarsh with the nutcases. It was psychological torture.

"On Tuesday they read me a statement confirming it was an illegal document which shouldn't be used for research purposes. To this day no one has ever clarified that point. They released me. I was shaking violently, I fell against the wall, then on the floor and I just cried."

Bettina Rentz, a lecturer in international security and Sabir's personal tutor, said: "He's a serious student, who works very hard and wants a career in academia. This is a great concern for our academic freedom but also for the climate on campus."

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01:00 20 May 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Bob Holmes

...Science teaching experts say they are not surprised to find such a large number of science teachers advocating creationism.

"It seems a bit high, but I am not shocked by it," says Linda Froschauer, past president of the National Science Teachers Association based in Arlington, Virginia. "We do know there's a problem out there, and this gives more credibility to the issue."

...The survey also showed that teachers who had taken more science courses themselves – and especially those who had taken a course in evolutionary biology – devoted more class time to evolution than teachers with weaker science backgrounds.

This may be because better-prepared teachers are more confident in dealing with students' questions about a sensitive subject, says Berkman, who notes that requiring all science teachers to take a course in evolutionary biology could have a big impact on the teaching of evolution in the schools.

Read more...

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Source: Democracy Now!

"The New York Times has revealed new details on how the Pentagon recruited more than seventy-five retired military officers to appear on TV outlets as so-called military analysts ahead of the Iraq war to portray Iraq as an urgent threat. The Times reported the Pentagon continues to use the analysts in a propaganda campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. We speak with Col. Sam Gardiner (Ret.) and Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting."





AMY GOODMAN: Right now we turn to the ‘Pentagon’s Pundits.” The corporate media’s reliance on retired military officers for on-air commentary is well known. From the lead-up to the Iraq war to the present day, dozens of pro-war former military officials have appeared on the major news networks billed as impartial experts.

This is a brief excerpt of the documentary Independent Media in a Time of War by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center.

MICHAEL MOORE: I would like tonight to call for a removal, an immediate removal, of all US troops from CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, NBC, all of them.

CNN ANCHOR: Via phone by General Franks.

COL. MIKE TURNER: The embed program, I think, is just superb.

MSNBC EMBED: We have three aircraft carrier battle groups.

MSNBC EMBED: Still a great deal of activity.

NBC EMBED: Just like out of an action movie.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: We’ve hit, we’ve struck, You can hear the sort of adrenaline pumping.

VICE ADM. DENNIS McGINN: We are coming, and you can’t do anything about it.


AMY GOODMAN: Media critics have long pointed out the discrepancy between the overwhelming number of pro-war military voices versus the almost complete absence of antiwar voices.

It turns out the pro-war slant of military analysts was in fact part of a carefully orchestrated propaganda effort from the Pentagon. The New York Times has revealed the Pentagon recruited more than seventy-five retired military officers to appear on TV outlets as so-called military analysts ahead of the Iraq war. Newly disclosed Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” who could be counted on to deliver administration themes and messages to millions of Americans in the form of their own opinions.

The so-called analysts were given classified Pentagon briefings, provided with Pentagon-approved talking points and given free trips to Iraq and other sites paid for by the Pentagon. Their involvement was ultimately approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Retired Green Beret Robert Bevelacqua, a former Fox News analyst, said, “It was [the Pentagon] saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.’”

The Pentagon even hired a private contractor to monitor the analysts’ broadcast interviews. Brent Krueger, a senior official who helped oversee the propaganda effort, said, “We were able to click on every single station, and every one of our folks were up there delivering our message. You’d look at them and say, ‘This is working.’”

The propaganda campaign also extended into the nation’s newspapers. Nine of the Pentagon-connected analysts wrote op-ed articles for the New York Times, and the Pentagon helped two retired military officers write a piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Many of the same retired military officers also have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they were asked to assess on air. In interviews, at least two so-called analysts admitted to deliberately tempering their on-air comments out of fear of losing military contracts for their firms. Officials from NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN all admitted to being unaware of their analysts business interests in the war. Fox News declined to comment for the New York Times.

The Times reports the Pentagon continues to use the analysts in a propaganda campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.

Click "Read more" for more media formats and a transcript.

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It was called “The Freedom Bug.” In the early 1990’s church bells rang while the Iron Curtain came down across Europe. In less than a decade the number of democratic countries went from 69 to 118. As democracy spread, so did slavery. Within two decades, politics lost control, and economics has become a dark force in the hands of ruthless new entrepreneurs. From the European sex trade to the Chinese counterfeit industries, from internet fraud to the fish pirates of the Baltic Sea, Rogue Economics is turning the global market into our worst nightmare.

Trapped inside the ‘Market Matrix’, a web of economic and commercial illusions, consumers are at the mercy of this new force. Shockingly, they are at the same time victims and unwilling partners of the rogue forces unleashed by globalization. The global subprime crisis, the swift rise of the super-rich, as well as the illegal businesses ranging on the Internet are all part of this phenomenon, but so is our daily shopping. The shelves of supermarkets are full of rogue products; some are produced by today’s slaves.

As in the film The Matrix, the world we live in is an illusion. If we break through the Market Matrix we discover that our planet is being reshaped by dark economic forces creating victims out of millions of ordinary people whose lives have become trapped inside a fantasy world of consumerism. The world has been overrun by organizations, both private and public, that have accumulated vast fortunes and enormous political influence by regulating, containing, and manipulating the market to their own advantage. From Eastern Europe’s booming sex trade industry to China’s “online sweatshops,” from al-Qaeda’s underwriters to America’s bankruptcy and lending scandals, Rogue Economics exposes the paradoxical economic connections of the new global marketplace.

But all of this has happened before. Rogue Economics is part of society’s DNA, it lurks in the background wherever there is economic development, resurfacing during times of great transformation when politics loses control of economics. Rogue Economics flourished during the Gold Rush and the Industrial Revolution and it reigns again today. Rogue Economics is the engine of progress and today it exposes the paradoxical economic connections of the global market and the reveals the making of a new economic and political system.

To view further work by Loretta Napoleoni please visit: www.lorettanapoleoni.org
Is that not the coolest flash banner you've ever seen? -personman

Loretta Napoleoni recently appeared on Democracy Now!:




Download MP3

Click Read more for a transcript.

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Source: Democracy Now! & IVAW

Like the 1971 gathering organized by VVAW, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the Iraq Veterans Against the War, or IVAW, held a Winter Soldier gathering where veterans of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan told of atrocities and horrors of war they witnessed or participated in themselves...

Transcripts, mp3 downloads, and other media options are available at the links.

3/14/08 Winter Soldier: Hundreds of Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Gather to Testify in Echo of 1971 Vietnam Hearings





3/17/08
Winter Soldier: US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War

[flash width=400 height=300 bgcolor=000000]http://www.archive.org/download/dn2008-0317_vid/dn2008-0317.flv[/flash]

[flash width=432 height=344 lightcolor=CC9900 backcolor=000000 frontcolor=CCCCCC image=http://anarchismtoday.org/images/dntv.jpg]http://www.archive.org/download/dn2008-0317_vid/dn2008-0317.flv[/flash]



3/18/08 Winter Soldier CONT’D: US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War





3/19/08 Half a Decade of War: Five Years After Iraq Invasion, Soldiers Testify at Winter Soldier Hearings

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Source: www.socialistworld.net/ via google video.

SACCO AND VANZETTI is an 80-minute-long documentary that tells the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists who were accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. It is the first major documentary film about this landmark story.

The ordeal of Sacco and Vanzetti came to symbolize the bigotry and intolerance directed at immigrants and dissenters in America, and millions of people in the U.S. and around the world protested on their behalf. Nearly eighty years later, the story continues to have great resonance, as America once again grapples with issues of civil liberties and the rights of immigrants.

SACCO AND VANZETTI brings to life the personal, political, and legal aspects of this heartbreaking story. The powerful prison writings of Sacco and Vanzetti are read by actors John Turturro and Tony Shalhoub. A chorus of passionate commentators propels the narrative, including a number of older people with personal connections to the story. Artwork, music, poetry, and feature film clips about the case are interwoven into the storytelling.

Through the tragic story of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the inspiring images of those who keep their memories alive, audiences will experience a universal, and very timely, tale of official injustice and human resilience.



BUY THE FILM

firstrunfeatures.com/s...tidvd.html

www.willowpondfilms.co...zetti.html

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From Democracy Now!

William F. Buckley Dies at 82; A Look Back at his 1969 Debate with Noam Chomsky on Vietnam

William F. Buckley, Jr. died yesterday at the age of eighty-two. He was the founder of the conservative magazine National Review and the television show Firing Line. In 1969, he invited Noam Chomsky on his show to discuss the Vietnam War. We play an excerpt...Click "Read more" for a transcript.

Source: Infoshop, Dennis Perrin

William F. Buckley, Jr.: Socked in the God Damned Face
by Dennis Perrin

Excerpt:

"But above all else, WFB was a dedicated warmonger, advocating imperial violence throughout much of his career. He was especially keen on slaughtering Vietnamese, calling the U.S. carpet-bombing and napalming of those people a form of tough "love." Yet despite his support of killing millions in Southeast Asia, he wasn't as eloquent a defender of mass murder as advertised. In 1969, on his talk show "Firing Line," Buckley tried to make his genocidal case to Noam Chomsky, who promptly and efficiently took Buckley apart, piece by rancid piece. It was one of the rare instances in which Buckley allowed a superior debater and intellect to appear on the same stage. He didn't make that mistake again, not with Chomsky, anyway. Watch and see what a man looks like when he's drowning on dry land."





Dennis Perrin's Blog

Story at Infoshop

There are some comments and debate regarding his legacy on DemocracticUnderground.com

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The Infoshop Forums site has been upgraded to new software. We've upgraded to phpBB3, which is a popular open source discussion software program. The Infoshop Forums have been online since 2001. The new software will allow us to eliminate spam and provide new features for users. New features are detailed below.

New Features for Users

Friendlier interface and design.
Ability to change default font size.
Ability to quote multiple posts.
Quick link on top pages to latest posts.
Custom profile fields.
Memberlist Searching.
Bookmark Topics.
Topic and post sorting.
Friends/Foe List.
Multiple Group Leaders.
Group Ranks.
Group Avatars.
Captcha screening.
Less spam!

New Features for Administrators and Moderators

Password Protected Forums.
Subforums creation.
Global Moderators.
Topics/Posts Moderation Queue.
Post locking.
Merging Topics and Posts.

And lots of other cool stuff we haven't figured out yet.

The Infoshop Forums

Infoshop: Infoshop Forums Upgraded

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Source: Democracy Now!

In a major address, Noam Chomsky says there has been little change in the conventional debate over a U.S. invasion abroad: from Vietnam to Iraq, the two main political parties and political pundits differ only on the tactics of U.S. goals, which are assumed to be legitimate. On the other hand, public opposition to war has also remained consistent, Chomsky says, but whether Iraqi or American, ignored.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will face off tonight in their final debate before the crucial primaries in Ohio and Texas next week. Over the past few days, the two Democratic candidates have traded barbs over trade, foreign and domestic policies as the rhetoric from both campaigns heats up. Since the presidential race began well over a year ago, Iraq has been one of many topics of debate. However, the war has not been the central issue of the campaign as it was in the midterm elections in 2006 and there are still more than 160,000 US troops deployed in Iraq.

Why is this the case? That was the subject of a recent talk by Noam Chomsky. A professor of linguistics at MIT for over half a century, Chomsky is the author of dozens of books on US foreign policy. His most recent is called "Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy" We spend the rest of the hour with Noam Chomsky. He recently spoke before a packed audience in Arlington, Massachussetts at an event sponsored by Bikes Not Bombs.

Noam Chomsky, Professor of linguistics at MIT for over half a century, Chomsky is the author of dozens of books on US foreign policy. His most recent is called "Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy."

Video:



Audio: (segement begins around 20:05)


From Democracy Now!

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Source: Znet, The Progressive

There's a man in Florida who has been writing to me for years (ten pages, handwritten) though I've never met him. He tells me the kinds of jobs he has held: security guard, repairman, etc. He has worked all kinds of shifts, night and day, to barely keep his family going. His letters to me have always been angry, railing against our capitalist system for its failure to assure "life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness" for working people.

Just today, a letter came. To my relief it was not handwritten because he is now using e-mail: "Well, I'm writing to you today because there is a wretched situation in this country that I cannot abide and must say something about. I am so enraged about this mortgage crisis. That the majority of Americans must live their lives in perpetual debt, and so many are sinking beneath the load, has me so steamed. Damn, that makes me so mad, I can't tell you. . . . I did a security guard job today that involved watching over a house that had been foreclosed on and was up for auction. They held an open house, and I was there to watch over the place during this event. There were three of the guards doing the same thing in three other homes in this same community. I was sitting there during the quiet moments and wondering about who those people were who had been evicted and where they were now."

On the same day I received this letter, there was a front-page story in the Boston Globe, with the headline "Thousands in Mass. Foreclosed on in '07."

The subhead was "7,563 homes were seized, nearly 3 times the '06 rate."

A few nights before, CBS television reported that 750,000 people with disabilities have been waiting for years for their Social Security benefits because the system is underfunded and there are not enough personnel to handle all the requests, even desperate ones.

Stories like these may be reported in the media, but they are gone in a flash. What's not gone, what occupies the press day after day, impossible to ignore, is the election frenzy.

This seizes the country every four years because we have all been brought up to believe that voting is crucial in determining our destiny, that the most important act a citizen can engage in is to go to the polls and choose one of the two mediocrities who have already been chosen for us. It is a multiple choice test so narrow, so specious, that no self-respecting teacher would give it to students.

And sad to say, the Presidential contest has mesmerized liberals and radicals alike. We are all vulnerable.

Click "Read more" for the rest.

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"Paul is a white nationalist of the Stormfront type who has always kept his racial views and his views about world Judaism quiet because of his political position."
-American Nazi Party Commander, Bill White

The Ron Paul "Revolution:", an Extreme Rightwing Threat

By STEVEN ARGUE

For the most part the Iowa caucuses were business as usual for the Democrat and Republican Parties. Among the Democrats, "Anti-war" and "pro-single payer health care" Democrat Dennis Kucinich put his support behind pro-war anti--single payer health care, Barrack Obama. Yet on the far right, anti-war Libertarian and Republican Ron Paul gained a stunning 10% of the vote.

Seeing the failure of the Democrats to deliver a candidate worth supporting; some left leaning individuals have been suggesting support to Ron Paul. One is anti-war Vietnam veteran Stan Goff, who suggested in his January 4, 2008 article "Monkey Wrenching the System, Ron Paul's Revolution" that people vote in the primaries for Ron Paul, switching party registration right away if they live in a state where such a move is necessary to vote in the Republican primaries.

At the root of the Ron Paul "revolution" is the dismantling of Social Security and the Department of Education as well as other basic social programs, and the elimination of worker and environmental protections. Advances like single payer health care? No way. Ron Paul's message is that you need to take care of yourself, and that there shouldn't be such government programs, nor such interference with private profit. While he puts forward reasons for not supporting going to war abroad, his domestic policies would ignite civil war at home.

In addition to pretending he's against all government, he's for outlawing abortion and supports the continued ban on same-sex marriage. He was one of the original co-sponsors of the "Marriage Protection Act".

He's also a religious extremist who thinks that creationism should be taught in the schools...

Read more at Indybay

Related:

Noam Chomsky on Ron Paul

Chomsky comments *CONFIRMED*

Blog: The Ron Paul-blem, by Andy Rink, aka personman

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Source: Infoshop.org

NYC ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
http://anarchistbookfair.net

February 19, 2008

Contact: Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“New York Is Anarchist Country”: 2008 NYC Anarchist Bookfair Scheduled for Sat., April 12

NEW YORK – Following up its very successful debut last year, the 2nd Annual NYC Anarchist Bookfair is scheduled to be held on Sat., April 12, again at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Last year's Bookfair attracted over 1,500 visitors and featured 60 independent publishers, booksellers, infoshops, zines, record labels, media creators, and labor and other activist groups, plus an art show, live performance, and 12 panels, presentations, and workshops over two days.

This year's Bookfair will be an even bigger event, with more panels, workshops, and skillshares extending over both Saturday and Sunday at Judson Memorial Church and a second venue to be announced shortly. Topics will include the ABCs of anarchist theory and practice, anarcha-feminism, anarchist publishing, anarchist education, urban and indigenous social movements, and anarchist/queer activism.

Alongside Saturday's exhibitors will be an expanded show of Anarchist Art. An Anarchist Film Festival and an Anarchist Cabaret are planned for the afternoon and evening of Fri., April 11.

“Anarchism is at the core of so much of today's activism, from opposition to the 'war on terror' to support for communities under siege like the people of New Orleans post-Katrina,” says Pat Trinidad, a Bookfair organizer. “It's also part of the fabric of New York, going back to the time when Emma Goldman made Greenwich Village her home. Last year we introduced this revolutionary and creative movement to hundreds of people who had never heard of anarchism before except as an insult or an accusation. This year's Bookfair will provide a way for the anarcho-curious to find out more about us, and for anarchists from across the Northeast area to organize, learn, and share their skills.”

The 2008 Anarchist Bookfair is organized by The Bookfair Collective. Food and free childcare will be available. To arrange interviews and for more information on the Bookfair and related events as they develop, please email mediarequests@anarchistbookfair.net or visit our Website at anarchistbookfair.net.

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NEW TITLES FROM AK PRESS AND AK PRESS DISTRIBUTION

It's been a while since we've sent out one of these monthly communiques, but we're still hard at work in the Oakland warehouse. Below you'll find some of the exciting material we've published in the last few months as well as titles from comrades in the book trade that we distribute. February is the perfect time to embark on new reading ventures to see you to the very end of winter. We hope you find what you've always been looking for or something you didn't know you needed.

****NEW FROM AK PRESS ****

THE CONQUEST OF BREAD
By Peter Kropotkin (introduction by our own Charles Weigl)
The fourth in AK Press' Working Classics series, "The Conquest of Bread" is Peter Kropotkin's most extensive study of human needs and his outline of the most rational and equitable means of satisfying them. The most important and widely read exposition of anarchist economic theory, its combination of detailed historical analysis and far-reaching utopian vision is a step-by-step guide to social revolution: the concrete means of achieving it, and the new world that humanity is capable of creating. Writing in a style that he describes as "moderate in tone, but revolutionary in substance," Kropotkin adeptly translates complex ideas into common language, while rendering the often amorphous aspirations of social movements into coherent form.
www.akpress.org/2008/i...icsedition

POSSIBILITIES: ESSAYS ON HIERARCHY, REBELLION, AND DESIRE
By David Graeber
In this collection, David Graeber revisits questions raised in his popular book, "Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology". Employing an unpretentious style to convey complex ideas, these twelve essays cover a lot of ground: the origins of capitalism, the history of European table manners, love potions and gender in rural Madagascar, the phenomenology of giant puppets at street protests, and much more. But they're linked by a clear purpose: to explore the nature of social power and the forms that resistance to it have taken — or might take in the future. In the best anthropological tradition, Graeber uses rich ethnographic and historical detail to support and illuminate broad insights into human nature and society. In the process, he shows how scholarly concerns can be of use to radical social movements, and how the perspectives of such movements shed new light on debates within the academy.
www.akpress.org/2007/i...iesakpress

MY MOTHER WEARS COMBAT BOOTS: A PARENTING GUIDE FOR THE REST OF US
By Jessica Mills
Jessica Mills is a touring musician, artist, activist, writer, teacher, and mother of two. Disappointed by run-of-the-mill parenting books that didn't speak to her experience, she set out to write a book tackling the issues faced by a new generation of moms and dads. The result is a parenting guide like no other. Written with humor, extensive research, and much trial and error, "My Mother Wears Combat Boots" delivers sound advice for parents of all stripes. Amid stories of bringing kids (and grandparents) to women's rights demonstrations, taking baby on tour with her band, and organizing cooperative childcare, Jessica gives detailed nuts-and-bolts information about weaning, cloth vs. disposable diapers, the psychological effects of co-sleeping, and even how to get free infant gear. This book provides a clever, hip, and entertaining mix of advice, anecdotes, political analysis, and factual sidebars that will help parents as they navigate the first years of their child's life.
www.akpress.org/2007/i...ombatboots

MAKING A KILLING: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ANIMAL RIGHTS
By Bob Torres
Suggest to the average leftist that animals should be part of broader liberation struggles and — once they stop laughing — you'll find yourself casually dismissed. With a focus on labor, property, and the life of commodities, "Making a Killing" contains key insights into the broad nature of domination, power, and hierarchy. It explores the intersections between human and animal oppressions in relation to the exploitative dynamics of capitalism. Combining nuts-and-bolts Marxist political economy, a pluralistic anarchist critique, as well as a searing assessment of the animal rights movement, Bob Torres challenges conventional anti-capitalist thinking and convincingly advocates for the abolition of animals in industry — and on the dinner plate. "Making a Killing" is sure to spark wide debate in the animal rights and anarchist movements for years to come.
www.akpress.org/2007/i...ingakpress

****BE OUR FRIEND****

One of the ways we keep putting out books and other media is through the help of the "Friends of AK." To become a Friend, you agree to pay a minimum of $25 per month or $30 for International customers. In return, you receive a copy of every book, CD and DVD we put out during the course of your membership, plus a 10% discount on every other title we distribute. All the money we receive goes directly into our publishing projects. The more people who become Friends of AK, the more anarchist classics, community organizing tools and work from new authors we can put out into the world--and, believe us, we have a HUGE list of great things we want to publish, but can't afford at the moment. If you join the Friends of AK program today you can look forward to receiving books like "Free Comrades: Anarchism and Homosexuality in the United States" by Terence Kissack, "Partisansas" by Ingrid Strobl and "Born Under A Bad Sky: Notes from the Dark Side of the Earth" by Jeffrey St. Clair sometime in the near future. To become a Friend of AK Press today or read more about the program, please go to:
www.akpress.org/progra...riendsofak


****NEW FROM AK PRESS DISTRIBUTION ****

AK Press has been a distributor of left, radical and anarchist books and other media since its inception. We are committed to promoting and supporting small, independent presses who not only elide the mainstream publishing world but who, like AK Press, seek to print those voices of dissent speaking out against and providing a useful analysis of oppression, colonization and environmental destruction. You can find selections from these various publishers in the "New From AK Press Distribution" section in our monthly e-mail update. Enjoy!

FROM MICROCOSM PUBLISHING:

CHAINBREAKER
By Ethan Clark and Shelley Lynn Jackson
A bicycle repair manual that is hand illustrated and conversationally toned — with an understanding that we don't all come out of the womb with an innate understanding of mechanics and bicycles. Meant to be a friendly gateway into the world of fixing your not-so-brand-new commuter bike, from Ethan and Shelley of the Plan B Bike Project and French Quarter Bicycles in New Orleans. This book also reprints the original four issues of "Chainbreaker" zine, whose masters were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina flooding. A great book for introduction or just someone who wants to geek out about bikes.
www.akpress.org/2007/i...ainbreaker

MY BRAIN HURTS
By Liz Baillie
A group of teenage queer punks get in perpetual trouble with the police when they aren't flirting over loud music or postering their high school with flyers to allow same sex couples at prom. It's like they were your actual high school peers — pissing off the administration and taking care of each other when they get beat up by skinheads. Liz Baillie has a real talent for dialogue, characters, storytelling, and capturing New York — especially those moments that we all live, awkwardly making out, pulling pranks, and drinking beer. This graphic novel collects the first five (out of 10) issues of the comic "My Brain Hurts".
www.akpress.org/2007/i...brainhurts

FROM AUTONOMEDIA

THE HOTEL OF IRREVOCABLE ACTS
By Carl Watson
In the warped underworld of Uptown Chicago, two petty thieves, Jack and Vince — Dostoevskyan in their criminal use of philosophy, exalting in the stealing of art as the highest human act — meet their target, their nemesis and their double: Madame Little-Ease, a Satanic Grandma Moses, who paints on refuse with polluted blood. Fiction and intrigue at its greatest!
www.akpress.org/2008/i...calbleacts

PROVO: AMSTERDAM'S ANARCHIST REVOLT
By Richard Kempton
Provo: Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt is the first book-length English-language study of Holland's legendary insurrectional movement. In an introduction and eight chapters, Richard Kempton narrates the rise and fall of Provo from early Dutch "Happenings" staged in 1962 through to the so-called "Death of Provo" in 1967, including Robert Jasper Grootveld's anarchist anti-cancer campaigns, the riots against Princess Beatrix's marriage to an ex-Nazi, and the famous White Bicycle program. Then, in seven appendices, he comments on parallel contemporary and near-contemporary movements, including Dada and Situationism; studies Amsterdam's previous anarchist traditions; chronicles the spread of Provo through the Netherlands and the development of the Kabouter (Gnome) party; and offers an existentialist critique of Provo and other anarchist movements of the 60s. This unique book is based on extensive primary research and includes a selective bibliography of the Dutch-language sources. Richard Kempton is a retired librarian living in Los Angeles. He lived in Amsterdam in the early 60s, and came to Provo in 1965 when his Dutch wife wrote a paper on Provo Speech for a class at. Her interest inspired him to write this book because he couldn't find one to read.
www.akpress.org/2006/i...histrevolt

FROM PM PRESS

In a new collaboration with Big Noise Films, PM Press has recently released 4 documentary films on DVD. The absolute cutting edge of current events and available only from AK Press.

DESERTER
Chronicles the journey of Ryan and Jen Johnson - a deserting soldier and his young wife - as they flee across the country to seek refugee status over the Canadian border.
www.akpress.org/2008/items/deserter

THE WAR OF 33
An intimate, personal and powerful telling of the story of the 2006 war in Lebanon.
www.akpress.org/2008/items/warof33

THE JENA 6
A short film about recent events in Jena, Louisiana detailing the community and state responses following an act of white supremacy at a high school.
www.akpress.org/2008/items/jena6

BLACK AND GOLD: THE STORY OF THE ALMIGHTY LATIN KING AND QUEEN NATION
Documents the rise of the Latin King and Queen Nation in New York City in the mid-1990s as well as the police repression of this important political voice.
www.akpress.org/2008/i...andgolddvd

FROM FREEDOM ARCHIVES

PAUL ROBESON: WORDS LIKE FREEDOM CD
Produced by Sele Nadel-Hayes and Patricia Hemphill With these audio recordings, Freedom Archives introduces you to rare spoken words of the great Paul Robeson, illuminating a side of this amazing man's personality and politics that has too often been suppressed. Robeson saw it as his responsibility to speak the truth about conditions both domestic and abroad knowing that his fame would allow these messages to be more widely heard. He was also deeply aware of the consequences and faced the official repression against him with dignity and courage.
www.akpress.org/2008/i...lrobesoncd

FROM PAPERBOAT PRESS

BEYOND RESISTANCE EVERYTHING: AN INTERVIEW WITH SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS
By Subcomandante Marcos with El Kilombo Intergalactico
In this unique interview, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos talks about people of color in the US, migrant communities, identity, globalization, US "intelligence" and resistance struggles within the US. Marcos also speaks to the the process of building the Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities in Rebellion and the organizational efforts of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle as well as The Other Campaign. He shares with us the pain and joy of building another world.
www.akpress.org/2008/i...everything


****MORE NEW STUFF ****

Don't forget to check out the "New Releases" section on our website where you can see some of the great new titles that have just come into our warehouse!
www.akpress.org/latest

******

Visit our website www.akpress.org often!

See you in the streets,
The AK PRESS Collective

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If you haven't checked it out yet, we have a growing Multimedia Archive with some really interesting dicussions, interviews, etc:

Features video and audio from radicals, intellectuals, musicians, anarchists and activists, including: Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Ward Churchill, David Graeber, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, and more...

* If IE users have problems, try the "Play in Popup" links.

AnarchismToday.org Multimedia Archive

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A Personal Message From Noam Chomsky
February 13, 2008

www.zcommunications.org

We live in an era of media concentration, vast efforts on many fronts (political, economic, military, ideological) to insulate state and private power from critical discussion or even popular awareness, and to reduce citizens to isolated atomized creatures restricted to satisfying personal 'created wants.' This massive and coordinated campaign has been partially successful, but only in a limited way.

The range and scope and dedication of popular activism has also increased, all over the world, reaching a level of international solidarity and mutual support that has never been seen before. The basic conflicts are very old, but they have taken quite dramatic and significant new forms, and the stakes are far higher than ever before. It is, regrettably, no exaggeration to say that the survival of the species is at risk -- and many others with it. We all know why.

The popular movements are the hope for a decent future. They of course have to have access to information and modes of interaction. In addition to alternative print and video, to a very large extent they have relied on the internet, which allows people to escape from the constraints of the doctrinal systems, to explore and investigate and discuss crucial issues with one another, to plan and organize.

Z Magazine and ZNet have played a crucial role in serving all of these functions. I see that every day. I travel and speak constantly, in the U.S. and abroad, and spend many hours a day just responding to inquiries and comments. I constantly discover that the people and organizations I come in contact with are relying very substantially on Z projects for information, discussion, and opportunities for interaction and organizing, to an extent that is quite remarkable.

Z is also an invaluable resource for me personally, in all of these respects, and also in my case for providing a forum for intense and very constructive discussion, the only one I regularly participate in. And for posting articles, interviews, commentaries, etc., of mine. I know that many others have very much the same experience.

It is of inestimable importance, in my judgment, that Z and ZNet, now composing the new ZCom with their various other projects such as their growing video efforts and incomparable summer school, arguably the most exciting and instructive I have ever encountered.

Again, I do not think it is possible to exaggerate the stakes. I hope that all of us who are committed to resisting and reversing the powerful currents of reaction and oppression and violence, and showing that another world is indeed possible, will contribute as best we can to ensure that the remarkable achievements of Z and ZNet will be carried forward.

Noam Chomsky
U.S.

From the What's New? section at Chomsky.info

www.zcommunications.org

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Tuesday, February 12 2008 @ 01:29 AM EST
Edited by: Michael Hess

Free Thought Takes on Organized Religion in National Billboard Campaign

BBSNews 2008-02-12 -- In early February, the freethinkers group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) debuted its 14 X 48-foot stained glass style billboard with the message "Imagine No Religion" in Columbus, Ohio.

The national campaign is an effort to let Americans know that there is room for reason and clarity of thought, free from the dogma that organized religion uses to keep its flock in line; as well as donating.

Dan Barker, Foundation co-president and author of 'Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist' said "Many of our members, including generous sponsors in Ohio, want to balance all that religion on the roadside with some reason on the roadside."

According to the FFRF, one of the local Ohio donors to the new nationwide sign campaign said, "Gov. Ted Strickland apparently needs to be reminded that many wonderful, patriotic, hard-working Ohioans do not 'support churches.' In fact, they believe that too much religious influence over state government is harming the state. In recent years, state officials have caved to the religious right on issues such as gay rights, the right of other consenting adults to live as they wish, and the display of Christian symbols on state property. These divisive actions have driven people from Ohio and distracted the state from the serious economic problems it faces."

Ohio faced pressure from FFRF last year over nativity scenes on state public property, and Governor Strickland was accused by the group of giving an unlawful order to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, putting back the contentious nativity scenes on public property after DNS had ordered them removed.

Read more at BBSNews.net

Freedom From Religion Foundation

"Billboard War" Provokes Nervous Outcry From America's Right-Wing

Tuesday, February 12 2008 @ 08:53 PM EST

It is hard to credit how one little freethought billboard could create such insecurity by religionists! The Freedom From Religion Foundation's pretty billboard, with its wistful, John Lennon-inspired message, "Imagine No Religion," has been attacked by not just one, but two billboards in Chambersburg, Penn. The Foundation image was placed in December for six months in three rotating spots in Chambersburg, Penn., thanks to the generosity of a Chambersburg-area Foundation member seeking to make a freethought statement in a religion-drenched area.

The first salvo came from the billboard company itself. After moving the Foundation's billboard to its second contracted site, the company put up its own billboard message repudiating our "Imagine No Religion" billboard. Kegerreis Outdoor Advertising's own billboard, in capital letters, states: "In God We Trust." The company then had the bad banners to add this disclaimer:

"The previous sign posted at this location does not reflect the values or morals of our company"!

The saleswoman, apparently feeling local heat for accepting the billboard, told the area newspaper, Public Opinion, that she had been "deceived" into believing the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is a local church! Given our upfront name and our upfront message (and our Wisconsin address), the Foundation could hardly "deceive" anyone that it is actually a stealth Pennyslvania church, even if we had tried (which, needless to say, we didn't). The newspaper has said it will run a story quoting the Foundation's response to this absurd allegation.

Read more at BBSNews.net

Freedom From Religion Foundation

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From Democracy Now! 2/12/08

Days after its Academy Award nomination, the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side was dropped by the Discovery Channel over concerns it was "controversial." The film investigates some of the most egregious abuses associated with the so-called "war on terror," including the US torture of prisoners. We get reaction from filmmaker Alex Gibney.

* Starts at 21:36

Video:

RealPlayer (Should automatically skip to the story)

Audio:



More streaming and download options

Related Links:

Previous Democracy Now! Story: Taxi to the Dark Side: Oscar-Nominated Documentary Film Explores U.S. Abuses in "War on Terror" (2/1/08)

Click "Read more" for transcripts

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