The Filibuster was supposed to be the ‘last sane man’s refuge’ in the process. The problem is there are no more sane folk in Federal politics.

economic justice

How can someone hijack something you created, bought and paid for?

Hands Off! The Political Insiders Accused Of Hijacking The Tea Party Movement

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/hands_off_the_politica...

Putting things in perspective:

During the same week that President Obama announced 100 million dollars in aid for Haiti, and various talking heads trumpeted the largess of Americans who have contributed 1 million here and 10 million there, we learned that Wall Street contributed 145 BILLION to themselves!

Another observation:

Thank God that the people of Haiti don't follow any rigorous religious tenets with strict rules like Muslims and Jews. That way they can be scooped up in end-loaders and dumped into dump trucks before being dumped in mass graves without worrying about collecting names, identification, or accurate numbers much less observing any time consuming rituals of respect or religious laws. Makes things a lot easier to clean things up. We all knew life was cheap for poor people. So apparently is death. I am almost numb.

They are the DEMONcrats. It is okay to demonize them.

@DRichards: The Rapturian-Teabagger alliance with rip the base away from the moneyed Republicans. Something ugly is going to happen if that happens.

I want folks in MA to know that Scott Brown, as a state senator in 2005, filed an amendment to allow workers at 'religious' hospitals or with firmly held 'religious' beliefs to avoid giving emergency contraception to rape victims . . . AND you have a chance in one day and change to let him know how you feel about that.

to me martin luther king was an enlighten person for he understood the interconnection of all life.

Chinese workers strike over pay and toxic chemicals.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/18/content_9332793.htm

Let's hope this leads to a nationwide revolt!

Martin Luther King said that a nation that spends more on their military than on social programs is approaching spiritual death, and I remember a story of Thom's where a Native American chief told him that our society is made up of "spiritual ghosts." I'm beginning to sense a theme here...If we are going to forge a new culture among our people I want it to be one of compassion and peace, not of inequality and conflict.

Anyways, the focus here on Haiti is the political and social back story, which of course I concur is essential in understanding why Haiti is in part where it is at today. Haitians, influenced from their days as slaves, are traditionally distrustful of those in power; before and after French rule, many Haitians literally took to the hills. For decades before the U.S. occupation in 1915, Haiti experienced monthly coups and “revolutions.” But this failure to form a coherent society with an educated populace has been a drag on the country’s development. In India, where English is the language of politics and commerce while the majority speaks other dialects; similarly, but with much more drastic results, in Haiti, French is the language of rule and education, while the language of most Haitians—Creole—is not taught in schools, even in bi-lingual terms. Thus most of the population remains uneducated. The country also lacks basic infrastructure; because of massive erosion, even once paved roads are dirt and mud. Most of the populace has no access to running water, and 80 percent of all illnesses are water-born.

But Haiti is not destined to forever be a backwater because it lacks a stable government, society or infrastructure. These things can all be fixed. What was once referred to as the “Jewel of the Antilles,” was at one time covered with lush forests, and whose richness in resources historians believe accounted directly or indirectly for half of France’s GDP in the mid-18th century. But it is now is now a man-made ecological nightmare that is unlikely ever to be reversed no matter what effort is made, and because of this will never become a viable state without massive foreign aid and complete integration into the “global” economy—that is to say, to become one big sweat shop.

Today, Haiti’s landmass is essentially one big pile of mud, particularly during the rainy season. Three percent of Haiti has tree cover, and what remains is rapidly disappearing. Combined with poor farming techniques, this has caused massive loss of top soil, draining away into the Caribbean Sea. Farmers on hillsides denuded of trees failed to use the terracing technique, and those hills are now the scene of frequent mudslides, compounded by deficient irrigation and drainage everywhere. The massive loss of topsoil and otherwise poor condition of arable land has left by one estimate only 11 percent of what was once farmland that is still capable of sustained cultivation. It is for this reason more than any other that Haitians abandoned their farms for the cities.

What happened to Haiti’s trees? In the beginning, tree loss could be blamed on plantation farming, and on American sugar and other agricultural businesses clearing land during the U.S. occupation in the first-half of the 20th century. But a much bigger problem was the Haitians use of wood for virtually all their heating and cooking needs. There is no oil or natural gas resources, and disturbance of the topography and drainage because of soil erosion has caused the destruction of watersheds, and prevented the exploitation of hydroelectricity. For most Haitians, wood is virtually the only source of fuel or power. Trees were cut and turned into charcoal. When one considers that Haitians at one point were cutting down thirty million trees a year for this purpose, one can understand both how lush the country once was, and how it was possible to turn it into barren waste in short order. Today, there is an on-going conflict between Haiti and its neighbor, the Dominican Republic, over “pirates” who cross the border to illegally cut trees. There are various reasons why Haitians have not properly husbanded their forests; lack of education as to the dangers of massive deforestation, and the lack of incentive because of a question of ownership of either the land or the problem.

In contrast, the Dominican Republic, while poor, is nevertheless much more stable as a society and environmentally. Like Haiti, it had its share of foreign interventions and brutal dictators, but unlike Haiti’s dictators—who were only interested in their own enrichment and colluded with foreign interests to do so—the Dominican Republic’s dictators at least could be said to have some micron of vision. Rafael Trujillo sought to introduce industrialization and economic diversification, and Joaquin Balaguer—an apparent “environmentalist” at heart—banned the cutting of trees for charcoal or other non-essential purposes; people were prompted to use propane for their heating and cooking needs. About thirty percent of the country’s land area is forested (similar to the U.S.), and there has been no significant degradation over the past few decades.

Most Haitians, for many reasons, never see beyond their daily needs. No effort had been made to replant or restore its forests, and conditions may no longer exist to even begin the process. They never learned the lesson of cause and effect, and it seems that it is too late to repair the ecological and environmental damage, which only made the effects of the recent earthquake worse. This should be a lesson to us all. But the international community can be blamed for its assistance of the “band-aid” variety—never of the truly useful kind that would help a small, poor country achieve a semblance of economic stability. Perhaps this is by design, as if western nations wish to keep such countries dependent and not “competitors.”

Big Brother: Obama Calls for the Integration of State and Federal Military Forces
Executive Order Seeks to "Synchronize and Integrate"

By Tom Burghardt

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17006