We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, March 2, 2012

America's Dangerous Game

Click here to access 25:01m video and brief article from Al Jazeera.

The title refers to a new film made by Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill embedded in this brief article. After viewing the film, I recommend that you listen to the following 12 minute audio interview with Scahill of Nation Magazine which provides a concise summary of his reporting on the Empire's activities in Yemen:









If you wish Scahill's more comprehensive report, read this piece from The Nation entitled, "Washington's War in Yemen Backfires".


Although this journalist has been described as independent, his reporting is a politically liberal type of view which is nowadays barely tolerated by the Empire's media enforcers. It is tolerated because he, as illustrated in the above article, does not challenge the premise of the Empire's propaganda that it is fighting "terrorism" or admits that the real goal is to extend its power and control over as much of the world as possible. Thus,what this journalist sees as a big mistake is only foreign policy as usual for the political operatives of the One Percent's Empire: they will always support the most oppressive and brutal rulers as long as they find them useful.