Monday, December 5, 2011

LA City Council to Vote on Corporate Personhood Tuesday, The Bombing and killings in Pakestan - Several Brief Articles

From: Marcy Winograd
LA Fights to End Corporate Personhood

By LA Progressive

he Los Angeles City Council will vote on a resolution, which calls on Congress to amend the Constitution to clearly establish that only living persons - not corporations - are endowed with constitutional rights, and that money is not the same as free speech in the electoral process. If the resolution is passed, Los Angeles will be the first major city in the U.S. to call for an end to all Corporate Constitutional rights. The vote will be held at 10 AM on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at Los Angeles City Hall 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012-3224. Citizens are urged to attend the meeting and to contact their City Council Member in support of this initiative. A full draft of the resolution is available on the website.

Our goal is to have a unanimous vote by the City Council," said Mary Beth Fielder, Co-Chair of Move To Amend LA, the grassroots organization spearheading this effort. "We are experiencing overwhelming support for what may be a historic turning point in restoring a voice to the voters and setting an example for the rest of the country."

Move to Amend L.A.'s effort is endorsed by a growing list of organizations including Common Cause, Occupy LA, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Environmental Caucus of the CA Democratic Party, Occupy Venice, Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, MoveOn LA, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains, Multiple Neighborhood Councils, Democracy for America, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, Good Jobs LA, AFSCME 36, LA Green Machine, LA Progressive, and the California Clean Money Campaign.

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 From: Jimmy Walter [mailto:jwalter@walden3.org]
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2011 6:18 AM

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/12/us-highhandedness/

US highhandedness

15 hrs ago
NATO's brutal and unprovoked attack on Pakistani posts at Mohmand on 26 Nov killed and injured many soldiers and has put the whole nation into grief, shock and of course anger. The statement of Gen Dempsey that "the attack wasn't deliberate and what in the world would we gain by attacking a Pakistani border post" can't be used as defence for the cold-blooded murder. A mistake is for a minute and not for hours.

Two hours continuous bombing and killing the soldiers, despite clear knowledge of the posts and hearing Pakistani voices on the wireless, are proof that the Americans are lying. What did Raymond Davis gain by killing two Pakistanis; what did the Americans gain by killing thousands of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan and through drone attacks in Pakistan? It is time they answered "what we would've gained?" It seems that world has been hijacked by the Americans due to its status as the sole superpower and military might.

The other so called superpowers, except China perhaps, also dovetail their agendas with the US' due to economic, social, religious and some other reasons. Now, the big question is, how long the rule of "might is right" will prevail.

Destroying Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya (and now they are hovering over Iran) are but a few examples of American high-handedness. The American leaders have always told lies to their nation and the world for their misadventures. Bush and Collin Powell destroyed Iraq on the pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction; Afghanistan has become the country of widows, orphans, and graveyards and they have given a free hand to Israel to invade and destroy any Muslim country, besides continuous genocide of Palestinians and Kashmiris.

Now, they are killing their own allies, who have suffered the most in the war, who have sheltered more than 6 million Afghan refugees, and who have been plunging deep into poverty due to hefty economic losses. The world needs to take note of American aggression and exert whatever influence they have to ask it to desist.

SHAHID ZAHUR

Rawalpindi

http://rt.com/news/nato-attack-pakistan-us-305/

Pakistan to 'completely review' ties with US

Published: 27 November, 2011, 14:19

Pakistani soldiers carry the coffins of their comrades who were killed in a Saturday strike. Peshawar, November 27, 2011. (AFP Photo / A. Majeed)

TAGS: Conflict, Military, NATO, Asia, USA

Pakistan says it is reviewing its relations with the US and NATO and has taken "urgent action" after a NATO attack on Friday killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. A key Afghan border has been sealed and the US ordered to quit an air-base in the country.

­NATO helicopters allegedly fired on a checkpoint in northwest Pakistan's Mohmand tribal area near the Afghan border.

The decision to review relations was taken at an urgent meeting of Pakistan's government defense committee with the participation of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and top military and government leaders.

In a statement, officials said "the government will revisit and undertake a complete review of all programs, activities and co-operative arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence."

Islamabad condemned what it called an "unprovoked attack" by NATO helicopters. The statement called for "strong and urgent action against those responsible for this aggression."

Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, has told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the incident has negated progress in improving the tattered alliance between the US and her country. AP quoted Khar as saying the attack was unacceptable and showed complete disregard for human life. She added that it had provoked rage among Pakistan's citizens.

For her part, Clinton expressed sympathy over the incident and promised the US would work together with Pakistan as NATO conducts an investigation into the incident. NATO has not officially claimed any responsibility so far.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has expressed his condolences, calling what happened on the border a tragic accident, Interfax reports. He said he had written to the Pakistani prime minister saying the deaths of Pakistan's soldiers are as tragic and unacceptable as losses among the Afghan or international coalition.

Pakistan has cut a key NATO supply route to Afghanistan in the wake of the strike. Islamabad has also demanded that the US Air Force abandon Shamsi military airbase in Belujistan within 15 days in an official memorandum of the defense committee headed by Pakistan's prime minister.

Pakistani truck drivers carrying supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan say they are now worried about militant attacks following the border closure. Nearly 300 trucks were stranded at the country's two Afghan border crossings on Sunday after Islamabad decided to block the coalition's supplies. Drivers say they hardly slept all night, fearing possible attacks. Suspected militants destroyed about 150 trucks a year ago after Pakistan closed the Torkham crossing for about 10 days following a similar incident.

The 24 soldiers killed in the assault were buried on Sunday, with a prayer ceremony for the deceased at the headquarters of the regional command in Peshawar being televised. The coffins were draped in green and white Pakistani flags. Two officers were reported to be among the dead.

About 500 members of Jamaat-e-Islami – Pakistan's most influential religious party – staged a protest, yelling "Down with America" and "Jihad is the only answer to America", Reuters reports. The rally took place in the Mohmand tribal area where the attack occurred.

"They attacked our post and killed soldiers while they were asleep without any reason," a senior Pakistani officer told Reuters.

Around 40 troops were stationed at the outposts at the time of the attack, military sources said.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011

Pakistan buries troops as rage spreads
* Thousands of enraged Pakistanis take to streets across country, burning an effigy of Obama and setting fire to US, NATO flags

* Kayani attends troops' funeral prayer in Peshawar


PESHAWAR: Pakistan on Sunday buried 24 troops killed in a NATO cross-border air attack that has pushed a crisis in relations between the United States...


http://www.sananews.net/english/2011/11/pak-terms-83-percent-people-killed-during-drone-attacks-in-past-seven-years-%E2%80%98innocent%E2%80%99/

Pak terms 83 percent people killed during drone attacks in past seven years 'innocent'

ISLAMABAD, (SANA): Pakistan has termed the 83 percent people killed in US drone attacks in tribal areas of the country during the past seven years as "innocent".

On the other hand the Pakistan army has started adopting public and parliamentary opinion regarding the drone attacks.

According to a private TV channel it is revealed from the intelligence sources that most of the drone attacks are happened during the era of present government which are over 200; meanwhile the US has carried out 285 drone attacks in Pakistan so far from 2004 to till date.

During the current year 72 drone strikes has been carried out and from 2004, nearly 2780 people has been killed; meanwhile the intelligence institutions in their latest research report said that only 17 percent terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda and Taliban has been killed during these attacks.

Most of people killed in the drone attacks are innocent and include women, children and aged people and during the current year 46 drone attacks were carried out in North Waziristan Agency, 22 in South Waziristan Agency and two attacks were carried out in FATA and other areas of KPK.

On the other hand the military leadership would adopt policy which has been devised in the parliamentary resolutions in the light of the all parties conference recommendations; meanwhile the it has also been decided to take up the issue in United Nations and in this regard the data is being collected and the issue would be raised in front of UN Human Rights Council.


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