Jan

29

Survey My Blog! (Please?)

January 29, 2007 | 4 Comments

In my efforts to provide the best information, analysis, and entertainment for my readers, I’m always looking to hear what the visitors to this blog have to say about it. In the next month or so, I will be making some major changes to my beloved blog, most prominently in terms of the design. I would also like to improve on the content and would appreciate your feedback in that regard.

If you could please take a few minutes to complete this survey, I would be very grateful. If you are a first time visitor to my blog, it would make more sense to visit the blog for a week or so and then fill out the survey (but you can still do it right away if you want).

Thank you all for being such great readers and commentators on my posts. Your interaction is a vital part of this blog. Thanks for taking the time to stop by, and I hope to continue providing quality posts on the topics that interest you and I most.

Warmly,
moi

Click here to take my blog survey

You can also provide feedback via email, myoccupationblog@gmail.com

Jan

26

Senator Rips Gonzalez on Extraordinary Rendition

January 26, 2007 | 1 Comment

What you will see in the video below is the best example for why we need to have a Democratic majority in Congress when we have a Republican in the White House. This is the way our system of checks and balances should ideally work. Knowledgeable representatives questioning those in power and defending the rights of the citizens they represent.

I’ve previously blogged about the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar who was arrested while traveling through the US, unjustifiably suspected of terrorist involvement, and subsequently flown to Syria, his country of birth. There, Syrian officials tortured him for months on end without any proof that he had been even remotely involved in “terrorist activity.” The US sent him to Syria knowing fully well that he would be tortured there. They did so under an American policy known as extraordinary rendition, where suspected terrorists are sent to countries to be questioned using illegal torture methods, some of which are Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and some Eastern European countries. You can read more about the this reprehensible policy in my previous posts. Maher was finally flown back to Canada, where the government opened an investigation into the rendition. The results of the investigation showed that Maher Arar was completely innocent of the claims the US had made, that he should not have been sent to Syria, and that the Canadian intelligence officials had wrongly indicated he may have been involved in terrorist activity. The Canadian government apologized to Arar, and today announced that he would receive $10.5 million for his ordeal. The Canadian government also asked the US to start its own investigation into why he was sent to Syria.

“I wish I could buy my life back,” he [Arar] lamented Friday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the money and formally apologized for his hellish ordeal in a Syrian prison. “That’s my biggest wish.” Arar said no amount of cash can compensate for the 10 months he suffered in a tiny concrete cell, the agonizing torture sessions he endured, or the years he struggled under the damning label of suspected terrorist.

During a Senate Judiciary Hearing this week on Justice Department Oversight, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez on the reasons why the US sent Arar to Syria instead of Canada, indicating that the US knew that he would be tortured there. Gonzalez fumbled a lame answer telling the senator that he would provide him with more information on the case in a week, privately. Senator Leahy did the right thing to question the Attorney General on this policy which he said has put our relations with close allies at risk.

Thank you, Senator, for speaking truth to power, for being the voice of many Americans who are against this dispicable policy, who are against torture in all forms, who are against the Bush administration’s policies that place our lives at risk, and that taint the America that we all would hope is a beacon of freedom and justice instead of a safe haven for repression. You have given us hope that such injustices cannot go on forever without someone speaking out against them.

Below is the full video of the exchange between the senator and the attorney general. There is a shorter CNN clip here. Also, the strong statement Senator Leahy made before the questioning can be found here.

You can write a note thanking the Senator for his strong words and defense of our civil rights by clicking here or sending an email to senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov.

[Technorati tags: , , ,]

Jan

24

Rockin’ Da State of Da Union

January 24, 2007 | 2 Comments

Even though I don’t expect to see anything spectacular in the State of the Union Address, the political junkie in me makes me watch it in full every year. I enjoy looking at the attendees facial expressions and claps in coordination with what the president is saying. It’s also fun to see how many smirks Dick Cheney can manage to pull off before the end of the speech, how many times Ted Kennedy will roll his eyes, and how many times Bush will say “nukelar“. That’s what I call good entertainment.

As I found my self dozing off towards the second half of the speech, I thankfully woke up in time to see the live action scene from the gallery where the NY construction-worker-turned-hero received a much deserved recognition by the president for saving the life of a man who had fallen on the subway tracks. But apparently, Wesley Autrey thought he was receiving a Grammy Award or something. I couldn’t stop laughing as the president pointed to the gallery where Autrey was seated a few seats from Mrs. Bush. The man was beaming, and when the president looked up at him, he jumped up and started blowing kisses to the crowd, mouthing to the president “you da man” and flashing peace signs on his chest and just relishing his five minutes of fame. Even Bush looked like he was desperately holding himself from cracking up on the podium. It was indeed a moment to remember, and I’m sure everyone’s eyes were wide open after that expecting another entertaining scene at the speech. If you missed it, the YouTube clip is below.

More Kodak moments (courtesy of Yahoo News Photos)


“oh my God, you already know what I’m going to say?”


“he’s shaking my hand!!! ahhhhhhh!”


Pelosi: look at Condi, she wishes she was in my place! HAHAHAHA!
Cheney: no, no, look at the idiot Kerry, he still thinks he’s running for president!
Bush: shutup you two, I’m getting scaaaaared!


If that guy can be president, I’m sure I can too!


Wesley Autrey waving to the crowd. You da man! (more below)

Jan

22

The Lean Mean Smearing Machine

January 22, 2007 | 4 Comments

What happens when a Latino, a woman, and an African American decide to run for president of the United States? Well first of all, the neo-conservatives start to crap in their pants. After they take some of the pink stuff, they power up their lean, mean, candidate smearing machine!

Officially or unofficially, the election smearing campaign has begun. Several Democrats have announced the formation of “presidential exploratory committees,” which is basically just a bunch of people getting together trying to guess how many hundred million dollars the candidate will need to win the nomination. The most prominent of these are of course Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, and former vice-presidential candidate Senator John Edwards.

The smearing has already begun most prominently against Senator Barack Obama. Calling him “Barack Osama” was just a lame beginning. Then the “real stuff” appeared.

“He’s really an undercover Muslim!” (Forget the fact that he’s an openly Christian man who has been part of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ for decades)

“His middle name is Hussain! Like Saddam Hussain!!!” (grow up! He is named after his father who was a Kenyan Muslim. Barack lived most of his life with his non-Muslim mother and converted to Christianity as an adult)

“He even studied in a MADRASSA!” (at age SIX, Obama was living in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country, and he attended Muslim and Catholic schools there. They were not religious schools. And I’m sure at age six they would begin making him memorize the whole Quran and apply the Sharia in his daily live, right? He was S-I-X for God’s sake!)

Whether it is Clinton’s peeps who are spreading these rumors or it’s just the lean, mean, neo-conservative smearing machine, the msm is having a field day with it.

Sadly, this is the kind of publicity Barack Obama is getting today. Forget reality TV, these elections are going to be SO entertaining.

And just in case you’re still worried that a “Muslim” (aaaaahhhhh!) will become president, rest assured, the polls already indicate that he’s behind Clinton.

My premature guess? Edwards will win the nomination. And then we’ll all start snoring again.

(Photo from Wikipedia, with my lame attempts at humor scribbled on in red)

Jan

21

Let It Snow!

January 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Finally it feels like winter here in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. It has been an unbelievably warm winter, if you can even call it that, with temperatures fluctuating in the 50’s even up to the warm 70’s! We haven’t had a snow flake since the winter season “officially” started. Usually we would have had a couple of snow days by mid-January, but this is really been a different kind of winter. It was so warm that the cherry blossom tree in front of our house started blooming in December, which is not supposed to happen until March! I’m not an expert on global warming to say that that’s the reason behind this warm up, but it definitely makes you wonder. According to the National Climatic Data Center, 2006 was the warmest year on record in the US and the 6th warmest year globally.

In any case, 2007 has arrived…let it snow let it snow let it snow! (but not too much dear God, I hate shoveling, and we Washingtonians are big babies when it comes to just an inch!)

sunset9 sunset5 sunset4 sunset6
just a few days ago, the sun was setting on a warm afternoon. you can see the cherry blossom tree blooming.

and today…
snow scene snow scene snow scene snow scene snow scene snow scene snow scene
(click to enlarge)

and I just felt like topping it off with this video; too bad you can’t feel the cold :)

Jan

19

Podcasting for Palestine

January 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

No, I’m not that technologically experienced, but fellow blogger Chris Brown has launched a new podcast focused on news and analysis about the occupied Palestinian territories. “A weekly podcast giving a voice to the voiceless” is how he describes it.

I’ve been listening to the news, interviews, and analysis on my way to and from work almost everyday, and have enjoyed it immensely. It is absolutely necessary that we tap into these new alternative media outlets that have the potential to reach a large number of people. Blogging and podcasting are becoming widely popular and it’s great to see such efforts from young activists and those who really want to make a difference.

Chris has done a great job interviewing a variety of individuals who are able to speak about the situation in Palestine, from academics such as Nadia Hijab & Rania Masri, to the poet Suheir Hammad to businessman Sam Bahour.

I encourage you all to subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or download it from the website. Pop into your iPod or other mp3 player and educate yourself about Life in Occupied Palestine.

Great job Chris, keep it up!

Jan

14

Weekend Reading: Gitmo, Iraq, Etc.

January 14, 2007 | 2 Comments

For many of us this will be a long weekend, as Monday is a federal holiday commemorating the birthday of a great American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plenty of time to sleep and be lazy, but for your reading “enjoyment”, here are a couple of articles which I found to be timely and thought-provoking.

A Bahraini father imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay speaks to the world about his agony:

At Guantanamo, soldiers have assaulted me, placed me in solitary confinement, threatened to kill me, threatened to kill my daughter and told me I will stay in Cuba for the rest of my life. They have deprived me of sleep, forced me to listen to extremely loud music and shined intense lights in my face. They have placed me in cold rooms for hours without food, drink or the ability to go to the bathroom or wash for prayers. They have wrapped me in the Israeli flag and told me there is a holy war between the Cross and the Star of David on one hand and the Crescent on the other. They have beaten me unconscious. [LA Times]

Robert Kraiser, a journalist who covered the Vietnam War, speaks of failures in Iraq:

After nearly four years of ineffectual war-fighting, after the collapse of domestic support for President Bush and his policies, after the expenditure of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, it no longer seems possible to avoid the grim conclusion: For the United States, Iraq has become another Vietnam. [Washington Post]

Dahlia Lithwick scrutinizes the Bush administration’s efforts in fighting the war on terrorism:

…It has finally become clear that the goal of these efforts isn’t to win the war against terrorism; indeed, nothing about Padilla, Guantanamo Bay or signing statements moves the country an inch closer to eradicating terrorism. The object is a larger one: expanding executive power, for its own sake. [Washington Post]

Pentagon Official Doesn’t Want Military Detainees to Have Lawyers:

The senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism said in an interview this week that he was dismayed that lawyers at many of the nation’s top firms were representing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that the firms’ corporate clients should consider ending their business ties. [NY Times]

And one more…when you think the world is closing in on you, just count your blessings:

Instead, when the family arrived at Dulles International Airport late Tuesday afternoon, a frail-looking Kabir rode in a wheelchair. A navy knit cap concealed the damage wrought by chemotherapy. His leukemia had kept coming back with more and more vengeance until he unequivocally declared that he was done. [Washington Post]

keep looking »
Candy Shop free xxx buy online pharmacy cialis soft tabs viagra alternative herbal supplement viagra soft tabs uk where to buy cialis online natural substitutes for levitra Niki Dominick bangbros lesbian porn HOT LATINA BABES hidden goods simony lesbian porn flower teen mis fat booty old lady fuck videos femdom art teen sex rx drugs Triarese buy levitra cheap cialis cheap viagra cheapest lorazepam prices order tenuate visit your doctor online order forms for buying klipal buy oxazepam cheap canadian drugs natural xanax substitute vitamins herbs cheapest diazepam in uk cheap diazepam diazepam does valium work for women canada online pharmacy tramadol buy zyban oils for female viagra levitra cheap cheap cialis soft tabs online buy cheap generic cialis ordering viagra online levitra versus viagra soft tabs online levitra mail order levitra herbal levitra for woman buy viagra soft tabs order viagra soft tabs ordering propecia online