2/7/12
Conflict
between Israel and Iran leading to war?
Why we
need world federal government
The headlines these days
make it clear that the conflict between Israel and Iran may move
beyond economic sanctions against Iran. Israel has stated it may attack
Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has
warned that any attack would be met with retaliation.
Without federal world
government in place, an attack and invasion may soon be in the making creating a
nightmare for thousands upon thousands of innocent citizens particularly in
Iran, but also possibly in Israel if the conflict spills over to the broader
Middle East.
Ayatollah Khamenei is
quoted as saying that "...any attack would be 10 times worse for the interests
of the United States." The US has provided Israel with money and weapons, and
Congress under the influence of the Israeli Lobby has voiced full support for
Israel's threats against Iran if the Iranian government refuses to bow to
Israeli demands to cease their nuclear program.
Israel has nuclear
weapons. What's wrong with this picture?
A
world federal government would analyze the conflict from the point of view of
the world public interest rather than narrow national
self-interest.
The (World) Federation
would likely note that Israel maintains almost 200 nuclear weapons. Iran has
none. Israel fears that eventually Iran will obtain nukes.
Under a World Federal
Government neither nation would need, or be allowed to possess weapons of mass
destruction since under world union there would be no need for such
horrible weapons.
Much like California does
not need nuclear missiles to protect itself from Texas, as part of a world
federal union Israel would not need these terrible weapons to protect itself
from Iran, or any other nation. Similarly, Iran would have no need to seek
nukes for their defense.
In
a democratic world federation there would be nonviolent alternatives to war.
Both parties would take their dispute to mediators for resolution, and if that
fails they could turn to a World Court (such as the World Court's Bench for
International Conflicts in the Earth Constitution), or as
another avenue, could take the dispute to a democratically elected World
Parliament.
The global
democratic Federal government described here makes going to war unnecessary, and
indeed, illegal.
When war becomes a world
crime
Under a well-written world
constitution, war becomes against the law. Nuclear weapons also becomes
against the law. But under this new global governing structure, laws would be
enforceable, not
mere empty words as is currently the case.
Any national leaders or
generals who went to war, or maintained nuclear weapons would be treated as
common criminals, and would be held individually accountable. World police
would arrest them, and they would be prosecuted for world crimes.
State sponsored terrorism
considered a world crime
War crime prosecutions in
an Israel/Iran war could include leaders of the United States for providing
weapons and money to Israel. Such support could be consider state sponsored
terrorism. If evidence was provided that covert operations were also employed
causing death or destruction such as in false flag operations, the operatives
and those who ordered such actions could be considered world criminals and
be prosecuted accordingly.
United Nations not equipped
to deal with the Iranian/Israeli conflict
Because of the rule of
sovereignty for each nation is written in the UN Charter, the UN has no
authority to prevent either Iran or Israel from going to war, or even for
possessing nuclear weapons.
If
the US is involved, the UN's hands are completely tied because the US has the
power of the veto in the UN -- an ultimate means to avoid prosecution for world
crimes.
In
the present conflict it appears that the US is an ally of Israel, and Iran may
have China or Russia on its side. Because of the undemocratic powers of these
powerful nations, they go unrestrained on the global stage. Their veto power
in the UN Security Council can prevent any action which might prevent war.
Will war soon be the
outcome? Will thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians, families, women
and children become war victims as occurred in the invasion of Iraq? Another
avoidable catastrophe simply because the nations refuse to unite and to
federate?
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1/16/12
A recent book, Vultures' Picnic by investigative reporter Greg Palast, is an important source to understand the deep financial corruption seen worldwide.
From finance, to oil, to nuclear power, Palast digs below the surface to reveal the manipulations and world crimes which benefit a sociopathic few while harming ordinary, decent people who make up the majority.
Mr. Palast, who is unfamiliar with the Earth Federation Movement, would most likely applaud the Earth Constitution's world judiciary structure which includes provisions for enforceable law at the international level. No longer would the powerful be "above the law" and often escape prosecution for fraud, cover-ups, and dirty financial dealings. A Swiss bank account anyone?
The EC provides a potentially powerful tool for honest investigators such as Mr. Palast who are often frustrated when crimes and injustices uncovered on the world stage go unpunished.
-- Editor
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1/9/2012
Can a Democratic World Federation Government Include Dictatorships?
(Discussion from the Internet)
Dear fellow world federalists:
WCPA's Constitution for the Federation of Earth (aka "Earth Constitution") has worked out the details for a World Parliament in a rather simple, yet elegant manner.
The Earth Federation's World Parliament is to include both a House of Peoples, and a House of Nations.
The House of Peoples, similar to the US House of Representatives, is to consist of 1000 Electoral Districts based upon population (to represent the 7 billion people worldwide). The late Dr. Hanna Newcombe devised a brilliant outline of potential electoral districts for the House of Peoples. These proposed electoral districts should prove relatively easy to update to account for subsequent population shifts.
The House of Nations outlined in the Earth Constitution allows up to 3 delegates per nation or group of nations, depending upon a simple formula taking into account population of each nation or group of nations. Large nations like China or India will be allowed 3 delegates maximum in the House of Nations.
Regarding the issue of a nation being democratic or not, the Earth Constitution's Bill of Rights is such that any nation ratifying the Constitution (thereby joining the Earth Federation) will be committed to democratic standards, per the Earth Constitution.
There will undoubtedly be debates about what constitutes fair and authentic democratic processes as each nation has its own notion of "democracy". Political democracy? Economic democracy? The role of money, the role of media, and so on.
Because a world federal government is so necessary if we are to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, prevent wars, end poverty worldwide, and protect individual human rights, it is my faith and belief that the glitches and obstacles can be overcome.
Dr. Roger Kotila - Editor, Earth Federation News & Views
Response from Dr. Glen Martin, President-elect of the World Constitution & Parliament Association (1/6/2012):
As Dr. Roger Kotila correctly points out, the Earth Constitution provides a framework for the inclusion of all nations into an Earth Federation that allows both for “full faith and credit” of their existing documents and legal systems (Article 14) and for the progressive transformation of what is undemocratic in their systems to conformity with the Earth Constitution. For example, it is not until the second operative stage in the actualization process of the Earth Federation (under Article 17) that nations are required to enter into the process of systematically and carefully disarming. Since all military organization is anti-democratic and destructive of universal human rights (because military action by definition dispenses with due process of law), no military can be part of a democratic Earth Federation. However, the Constitution allows for a measured conversion process to take place that does not confront dictatorships or oligarchies (like the US and Britain, for example) with an all or nothing choice.
Indeed, one of the truly extraordinary things about the Constitution is that, while standing on fundamental principles of global democracy and universal human rights (hence, ultimately not allowing dictatorships to be part of the Earth Federation), it provides a variety of mechanisms for moving from the current dysfunctional and undemocratic world to a world guided by these fundamental principles. The key is not an either/or attitude but reasonable mechanisms for conversion. One of these mechanisms is the Provisional World Parliament.
Right now, we are working on legislation to be introduced at the next session of the Parliament (Session 13), that specifies in detail a conversion process for dictatorships wishing to join the Earth Federation. This conversion process provides flexibility (they do not have to immediately throw out their current legal structures or ruling class) but requires that they enter into a process under which they can initially join the federation and begin receiving its immense financial and other benefits through agreeing to a carefully defined series of conversion stages that will ultimately lead to full conformity with the Earth Constitution.
This is the real issue. Not whether or not dictatorships can become part of an emerging Earth Federation, but the concrete and practical issue of a measured process by which nations begin to transform their structures over time into conformity with the requirements of universal democracy and human rights. The process holds out the incentive of the immense benefits of being part of the Earth Federation while not excluding non-democratic nations, but working with not only rulers and dictators, but also with their peoples directly, to undergo a reasonable, nonviolent process of transformation necessary to bring the nations of Earth together under a single Democratic Constitution.
Dr. Glen T. Martin
Secretary-General, World Constitution and Parliament Assoc. (www.wcpa.biz)
President, Institute on World Problems (www.worldproblems.net)
Professor of Philosophy, Radford University (www.radford.edu/gmartin)
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1/8/12
Will an Attack Against Iran be a War Crime?
Do the leaders of Israel and the U.S. risk prosecution by the International Criminal Court for a war crime if they invade Iran? The answer is "no". The leaders of Empire are, in practice, above international law.
This fact is very clear as evidenced by the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The "shock and awe" destruction of Iraq for example, based upon false evidence, did not lead to prosecution by any international court of those responsible such as former President George Bush, Jr., Vice President Cheney, or the Pentagon generals. No prosecution for war crimes, no prosecution for torture.
The leaders of Israel have never been prosecuted for the brutal attacks on Gaza, or for the ongoing illegal expansion of Israeli settlements upon Palestinian lands.
Unfortunately for the world, when justice is unevenly administered, the imbalance creates resentment among peoples and nations. This fundamental unfairness becomes a breeding ground for more conflict and wars.
Iran is being told that they cannot have a nuclear weapon, yet Israel is allowed to possess, by some estimates, as many as one hundred nuclear warheads. The U.S. has refused to give up its nuclear weapons, as have other nuclear states including Russia, China, Great Britain, France, Pakistan, and North Korea.
The Earth Constitution, unlike the United Nations Charter, would establish enforceable world law applied to all. No individual, no matter how powerful his/her nation, would be above the law. Justice would be administered fairly to all.
Rather than war, conflicts would be adjudicated by a World Judiciary system, mediators, and a democratic World Parliament based upon the world public interest, not narrow national interest or superpower status.
Under the Earth Constitution, no nation is allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction. A psychological analysis of the dynamics of disarmament makes it clear that only disarmament by all nations will create acceptable conditions for a permanent and secure peace.
Realistically therefore, to avoid an Armageddon type catastrophe, all nations possessing weapons of mass destruction must give them up. Without full cooperation from all nations, the psychology of paranoia will continue and nations will refuse to disarm.
-- Editor
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12/9/11
A Grand Strategy: From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everything. Will Activists See the Strategic Advantage of Adopting the Earth Constitution?
The Occupy Wall Street nonviolent protest movement has expanded almost everywhere -- from city to city, and to college campuses. We watch similar protests continue and grow in Europe, Egypt, Syria, and beyond.
Something is in the air -- the people want change. What psychologist C.G. Jung called the "collective unconscious" appears to have caused a simultaneous reaction worldwide -- a peaceful protest movement demanding fundamental changes in the governing system. The corruption of governments by Big Money must cease.
Time for a new governing system and world union
Enter the Earth Constitution drafted over a period of thirty years by world citizens from many countries organized by the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA). The Earth Constitution has become the foundation for an emerging Earth Federation Movement (EFM) calling for a democratic world union, and a new governing system.
The real question about this new governing system is not about big government, it is about good or bad government. Good government meets the needs of "we, the people" and is fair and just. The Earth Federation's Constitution is designed to meet these important standards, and much more.
The Earth Constitution, as just one example, replaces the current global war system with a peace system. If offers a realistic paradigm to eliminate all nuclear weapons. This fact alone should cause activists to embrace the EFM.
But it offers more. Think of the goal to "Occupy Everything." Because international private investment banking and multinational corporations literally and figuratively "buy" countries, this world constitution is designed to put a stop to these manipulations by Big Money. Individual nations are no match for Big Money or secret covert operations to overthrow them if they do not cooperate.
WCPA activists will be in India during the sessions of the International Conference of Chief Justices. WCPA will hold meetings to discuss strategies to further the cause of establishing the Earth Federation with its Provisional World Parliament under the Earth Constitution.
New world judiciary system part of Earth Constitution
Earth Federation activists hope to establish a "Collegium of World Judges" to support the Earth Constitution's structure for a World Judiciary system designed equal to the task for honest and fair, and enforceable world law and order.
Thus, for example, no longer would high government officials be able to avoid prosecution for their world crimes. Multinational corporations and international banking interests would no longer be able to be the "shot-callers" as to a nation's economic structure. High executives from business would be held accountable as individuals -- no longer above the law.
Bringing private international banking interests back to earth
Regarding banking, a concern of Occupy Wall Street, the 1% would no longer be able to hide their money in Switzerland -- or in other off shore secret bank accounts.
Private banking would no longer be allowed to control currency and credit. The global financial apparatus would be returned to "we, the people," with ownership and regulation by a democratically elected Earth Federation government.
Establishing universal standards for civilized societies
The Earth Constitution provides a blueprint for a new governing system which returns democratic processes to "we, the people." Its Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth (Articles 12 and 13) sets universal standards for civilized societies.
Articles 12 and 13 as well as other provisions in the Earth Constitution can provide authoritative legitimacy to the demands of the Occupy protesters who call themselves the "99%".
A modern Magna Carta for the people?
For the Occupy Everything protest movement, the Earth Constitution could function like a modern day Magna Carta. (In 1215 the English barons forced King John to agree to the rights and privileges which came to be known as the Magna Carta.)
The 99% are demanding that the 1% not only pay up, but give the government back to "we, the people." This is unlikely to happen despite worldwide protests except on a token level -- unless activists turn to the Earth Constitution.
The EFM has tried to warn activists that simply trying to "fix America" is inadequate. The system as a whole must also be changed.
The belief that if we can only "fix America" then everything will be alright is a mistake we made after stopping the Viet Nam war.
Now however, the peace movement is back. Will it be "flower power" again but failing to look more deeply into what's wrong? (One lesson learned out of the Sixties peace movement is that "love" is not enough.) More fundamental changes are necessary.
We must acknowledge "deep politics" and pursue the ugly truths such as the many "false flag operations" conducted by governments in secret. Covert agencies killing people but blaming it on someone else. Its a method of manipulation unknown to the general public used to create false "enemies." What's the purpose to create false "enemies"? To keep the people in fear and paranoia -- thereby easy to manipulate.
The Earth Federation government will not tolerate secret death squads or other forms of attacks on the innocent. The Earth Federation will stand for openness, authentic democracy, and integrity.
Students join the peaceful rebellion
What started out as a campaign to gain regulation over Big Money (i.e., Occupy Wall Street) has branched out as activists show that the unlimited spending on America's military is creating growing poverty at home.
Students, frustrated over the increasing costs of education, are in rebellion. They have to pay more because the country's money is going to the military/industrial complex rather than to education. America is a military economy. Weapons first, sold worldwide. Taxpayers pay unthinkable sums of money for death and destruction, while student tuition continues to rise.
Money flows easily for bombs, guns, nuclear weapons, covert operations to assassinate and destroy, and for Homeland Insecurity. The country provides expensive toys-for-boys such as fighter jets, ships loaded with technical gear, and drone missiles to kill by simply pushing a button.
Meanwhile, on the home front, people are losing their homes and can barely feed their families. There is massive unemployment. Education has become too expensive except for the 1%.
A political strategy to establish "legitimate authority" for protester's demands
A closer look at Articles 12 and 13 of the Earth Constitution shows how its provisions can give legitimate authority to the Occupy Wall Street protest movement expanded to a worldwide "Occupy Everything."
Article 12.3 Freedom of speech, press, communication
12.4 Freedom of assembly, peaceful demonstration
12.12 Freedom of person from arbitrary or unreasonable arrest,
detention, search or seizure; warrants required.
12.13 Prohibition against...torture
12.14 Right of habeas corpus
12.18 ...prohibition against surveillance as a means of political control
Article 13.1 Equal opportunity for useful employment for everyone
13.4 Free and adequate public education available to everyone.
13.5 Free and adequate public health services and medical care
available to everyone throughout life
13.11 Assurance for everyone of adequate housing,...food,...
13.13 Social Security for everyone to relieve the hazards of
unemployment, sickness, old age, disability,
family circumstances, catastrophe....
The Earth Constitution as the key "game" changer
It remains to be seen if Occupy Wall Street activists will grasp the implications of turning to the Earth Constitution as the key strategy to save America itself, and to deliver the world from its downward spiral.
The Earth Constitution is a system changer -- a basic "game" changer. It could become the foundation for a worldwide, peaceful political and economic revolution. It could provide the means for "we, the people" to regain control over Big Money, multinational corporations, and corrupt governments.
Making the impossible, possible
The Earth Constitution waits to be discovered, a gift to the world which could make what some think is impossible, possible:
A path to eliminating wars and weapons of mass destruction. Prosperity rather than poverty. Fair and equal justice for all. Protection of Mother Earth. Genuine good government with authentic as opposed to fake, democracy.
To be sure, any governing system will have its doubters, and its glitches. But the Earth Constitution is surprisingly wise, and that is why it could have a very good chance to deliver as promised.
-- Editor
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7/31/11
Radioactive Poisoning
Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions have been used by the US military in
Afghanistan and Iraq, with birth defects now showing up in Fallujah and elsewhere according to a report by Kelly Vlahos in "The American Conservative" (April 2011).
American soldiers, along with civilian populations, have also been
exposed to these cancer causing munitions. Like with Agent Orange
during the Viet Nam war, the military authorities are denying that DU
munitions endanger our soldiers or civilians.
Has the Pentagon and NATO also used dirty bombs in Libya?
Will the International Criminal Court be authorized to investigate those
Pentagon and NATO generals who authorize DU use? Will they be held
accountable for crimes against humanity?
EDITORS NOTE:
No, they won't be prosecuted by the ICC as its jurisdiction and enforcement capabilities are severely restricted. Some powerful nations have refused to accept jurisdiction. They reject the Universal Bill of Rights for themselves. They maintain special privilege to be above the laws which others are expected to follow.
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5/20/11
Privatization of Medical Care Could Make Going to the Doctor a Privilege, Not a Right
The recent proposal by the US House of Representatives to privatize Medicare by means of a voucher system could lead to health care being more of a privilege of the rich, rather than a right for all.
Moreover, privatization would add a new level of expense as money which should go for health care is siphoned off to go to CEO's and stockholders of private insurance companies.
It is this writer's understanding that the administrative costs of government run Medicare is less than 10%, while the same costs in a privatized system could run as high as 30%.
People with limited incomes could face the prospect of insurance premiums beyond their budget once their voucher allowance was used up, and be haunted by unknown amounts of co-pays and payment restrictions.
Let's keep it simple: The Earth Constitution states that health care is a right (not a privilege). Most European countries meet this standard of world citizenship, but the USA does not.
The Earth Constitution in Article 13.5 (Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth - Directive Principles): "It shall be the aim of the World Government to secure certain other rights..."Free and adequate public health services and medical care available to everyone throughout life under conditions of free choice."
The USA does not currently meet world citizenship standards although the Medicare system as it is presently structured is popular, and a step in the right direction. Ultimately the USA will most likely develop a mixed system of public and private health care with a sliding fee type of system where no one will ever go bankrupt due to illness, and no one will be denied medical care due to lack of money.
(Editor's note: "Medical care" also means access to both dental care and mental health services. The average American cannot afford dental care.)
-- Editor
4/30/11
Advantages of Using the Earth Constitution as a Model for Nations in Transition Who Seek Authentic Democracy
As nations such as Egypt, Tunisia and others experience the transition to new governments, they will likely seek to modify their existing constitutions to find ways to insure democratic processes and to prevent future tyranny by special interests such as Big Money, corrupt Superpower governments, or religious extremists.
The Earth Constitution, although written with the whole world in mind, might provide a wealth of ideas and principles which would help these changing nations guarantee authentic democracy. Better yet, the Earth Constitution's design might be helpful as a means to give all the different factions in a nation a voice.
Moreover, the Earth Constitution, since it is a parliamentarian system as opposed to a presidential or dictatorship system, offers a design which eliminates dictatorial powers by any single individual. The "Presidium" in the Earth Constitution consists of five members of Parliament who rotate each year as the Chairperson. No person or special interest can seize power.
There are numerous other features or principles in the Earth Constitution which a nation may wish to copy in their national constitution: The Bill of Rights, green principles for ecological sustainability, and decentralization (subsidiarity).
To be sure, the Earth Constitution will not be a perfect fit for any specific nation, but it does provide a design which offers a type of governing structure which can unite, and which provides practical wisdom into the governing process.
-- Editor
4/23/10
(Editor's note: "Dysfunctional" is perhaps a kind word for a world system which is deeply corrupted. Dr. Martin's in-depth analysis is lengthy, but critically important to understand why the United Nations is unable to bring real democracy to "we, the people". The Earth Constitution is designed to correct the fatal flaws found in the UN Charter, and provides the foundation for the emergence worldwide of the Earth Federation Movement.)
Democratic Springtime 2011
Democratizing our Dysfunctional World System
Glen T. Martin
The ?Democratic Spring? of 2011 expresses what people around the world have felt for a
long time. In nation after nation both nonviolent and armed resistance to dictatorship and
tyranny has erupted. This rebellion is significant and indicative of the sentiment of people?s
worldwide. The World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA) has chapters in many
countries around the world from which people are demanding democracy, not only for
themselves, but for the people of Earth.
Much of the uprising in this democratic springtime has taken place in the Arab nations of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and elsewhere. There was even incipient resistance in Saudi Arabia, where massive force was used to prevent its overt appearance.i I was in Bangladesh in December 2010, where people are struggling against fundamentalist religious and military forces to preserve their democracy that was established in 1971. In India as well, as Vandana Shiva has eloquently described in her book Earth Democracy, the struggle for democracy is vibrant and widespread. A similar upsurge has even taken place in the United States and Great Britain where masses of people in both nations have come out in demonstrations, civil disobedience, and other forms of resistance against the ruling class attempt to break the unions, cut fundamental social services, and solidify corporate domination over the political process.ii Many articles have appeared in the alternative press in these countries detailing the facts of the vast accumulation of wealth in the hands of the rich that has continued even after the crash of 2008, as well as the steps taken by politicians representing corporate domination to further that wealth and reduce the opportunities of ordinary people.iii The democratic revolution erupting this spring, however, will not succeed under the current world system, which is heavily stacked against democracy and the welfare of the people of Earth. This world system has two major components that work together to ensure the rule of a tiny fraction of the Earth?s population over the rest of us. It works, in other words, to ensure that democracy does not work and cannot work. These two interrelated components are global corporate capitalism and the global system of ?sovereign? nation?states. In this system, the elites in government and the elites in business work hand in hand to make laws and regulations benefiting corporate wealth?accumulation through laws benefiting corporate interests including privatization programs, security arrangements protecting corporations, interest and rent payments, access to cheap resources, and access to cheap, exploitable labor. iv This global system is protected by the world?s imperial hegemon, the United States, with 730 known military bases in all corners of the world and significant economic and political leverage over nearly every nation on Earth.v This system ensures the accumulation of private T wealth in the hands of the banks and large corporations (including the ruling class within the US) through a balkanization of the world?s peoples into easily manageable nation?state components. Sometimes the Pentagon and US espionage systems are taken by surprise as happened recently in Tunisia, where largely nonviolent massive protests rapidly toppled a US supported dictator early in 2011 and served as a catalyst for the ?Democratic Springtime? throughout much of the Arab?speaking world, giving the people of Tunisia at least some hope of creating for themselves an effective constitutional democracy. A largely nonviolent revolution soon followed in Egypt resulting in the deposition of another US supported dictator, with the Egyptian army refusing the dictator?s orders to fire upon the protestors. However, forward movement toward democracy in Egypt remains stalled since the army has assumed control of the country, an option for ?governing? regularly supported by the US since its ascendency to hegemony after the Second World War.vi The US has now swung into action to help suppress the spread of democracy in the Arab world. It has made an agreement with Saudi Arabia not to interfere with Saudi military invasion of Bahrian to protect the autocratic government there and has remained silent as governments in Yemen and other Arab countries fire upon unarmed protestors to stifle democratic dissent.vii The current nation?state system allows political trouble in one part of the world to be quarantined and eradicated by the global hegemon and its imperial lackies (Britain, France, etc.). If international manipulation of the victim country fails to succeed (bribes, economic threats, etc.), then hegemonic interests will be protected by overt force. Direct invasion and colonial control (as in Iraq and Afghanistan), once accomplished, may result in withdrawal and installation of neo?colonial puppet dictators who use political surveillance and torture to prevent outbreaks of democracy and other such rebellions against the poverty, marginalization, and misery of the masses.viii The principle on non?interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states applies in general to all nations except the imperial superpower, which routinely attempts to influence elections, fund right wing media, bribe officials, and use all means of pressure to keep its global empire in conformity with the needs of corporate investors. When the imperial interests of the former colonial powers dictate military intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, then the principle of non?interference is quickly jettisoned, as in the case of Libya after the democratic springtime spread to that country. The dictator in Libya was not a puppet of the imperial powers but a vocal critic of Western hypocrisy. In addition, he had control of significant oil resources not directly in the hands of the multinational oil cartels. For both these reasons, he had to go. Suddenly, ?humanitarian intervention? was the theme of the day, and a UN agreement to a simple no?fly zone was interpreted by the US, Britain, and France as near unlimited discretion to militarily support the rebels against the forces of the official Libyan government. Again, the balkanization of the world into particulate nation?states allowed the imperial forces to ensure domination of a portion of the world?s people in the service of their ?national interests.? There is no doubt, however, that democracy will not be allowed to triumph in Libya. The balkanization of the people of Earth into nation?state compartments is essential to the maintenance of the world capitalist system and the US Empire. World citizens who wish to free human beings to become self?determining participants in ?one world democracy? often do not realize the extent to which the balkanized system of sovereign nation?states must necessarily be preserved by the global ruling class.ix Many world federalist organizations support the democratization of the UN, for example, and the democratic spring of 2011 has enlivened them to push, in the name of the aspirations of the people of Earth, for a World Parliament to directly represent people within the UN organization to complement the existing General Assembly (that represents only governments).x The present world system, however, is promoted and protected by the UN organization, which largely mirrors the world system as described above. The UN Charter recognizes the ?sovereign integrity of its member states? (Article 2) and places all effective power in the hands of the Security Council, dominated by its five permanent members, all of whom have aspirations to global power and, at the very least, regional hegemony. In addition, the entire UN system has long been colonized by global capitalism so, for example, GATT (the General Agreement on Treaties and Trade) has been transformed into the adamantly ?free trade? World Trade Organization (WTO). The principle of ?national sovereignty? means that nations may or may not sign treaties, that they have no compelling reason to comply with treaties they have signed, and that they may even sign treaties (so called international laws) while exempting themselves from compliance (as the US has repeatedly done). The UN allows the global superpower almost free rein to use UN ?international laws? in its own interest, and, when these do not serve its interests, ignore them, as it did with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Many world federalists correctly perceive that the UN has an extensive worldwide infrastructure that could be very useful to global democracy, but they fail to realize that piecemeal reform of the UN system will not result in global democracy. The imperial dominators hold all the cards that will certainly be used to block effectiveness of reform, including the effectiveness of a global people?s assembly that might be created to complement the nearly powerless General Assembly. The World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA) does not share the apparent naivet? of many world federalist organizations regarding the world system represented in the UN. The WCPA understands that piecemeal reforms of the UN system cannot be successful in the face of the forces ranged against global democracy (at least not in time to prevent planetary ecocide or nuclear omnicide). The WCPA has long supported, however, an Article 109 Review Conference in which the nations in the General Assembly vote to reexamine the UN system. In an Article 109 review conference, the UN would have the option to replace the UN Charter (representing the current undemocratic world system) with the Constitution for the Federation of Earth (representing true global democracy: www.worldproblems.net). The Earth Constitution provides for a truly democratic tri?cameral legislature with the authority, and supporting institutions, to pass enforceable world laws for the people of Earth. A Review Conference that ratified the Earth Constitution would be an optimum result for the people of Earth. The General Assembly could easily become the core of the House of Nations, the global voting mechanisms that are currently set up by organizations like Vote World Parliament and the People?s Congress could elect the representatives to the House of Peoples, and the presently functioning Provisional World Parliament could become the core of the House of Counselors. By the simple act of substituting the UN Charter for the Earth Constitution, moreover, the UN High Commission of Human Rights could become the core of the World Ombudsmus created by the Constitution, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) could become benches of the World Supreme Court system, the WTO could be converted to the democratically run World Financial Administration, and UN Peacekeeping forces could be converted into the civilian World Police. Moreover, the transformation would be decisive. It would not become a mere cosmetic modification of the current world system of domination and exploitation. For the Constitution creates genuine world democracy with enforceable world law, with the power and mandate to require multinational banking and corporations to serve the needs of the people of Earth, and with the power to disarm the nations and bring them into conformity with the democratic rule of law. The Provisional World Parliament has already taken other steps to promote this integration. For example, the Education Act (WLA 26) allocates major funding to a number of U.N. agencies that promote education in the world as soon as these agencies ratify the Earth Constitution. It names the following agencies for allocations: U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), U.N. Children?s Fund (UNICEF), U.N. University (UNU), International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), U.N. Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and U.N. University for Peace (UPAZ). Unlike the U.N., the Earth Federation government will not be dependent on the voluntary donations of sovereign nation?states but will have entirely sufficient funds to serve all human needs, including massive worldwide educational development.xi However, even though the WCPA fully supports a UN General Review Conference that would open up the possibilities outlined here, it is likely that the global hegemon will veto any attempt to make this happen. In our judgment, it is very likely that the people of Earth will have to directly ratify the Earth Constitution independently of the UN system, attracting those nation?states to their cause who realize that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain through joining the Earth Federation under the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. The democratic springtime of 2011 offers a taste of the hopes and dreams entertained by the people of Earth. But these hopes and dreams can only be realized through the founding of a new social contract for the Earth. The UN is not a social contract but a treaty of sovereign nations colonized by the world?s hegemon. It is not likely that it can be modified to become a genuine democracy. There will be subversion and resistance every step of the way. But ratifying a new founding document (that cannot be altered or compromised prior to its ratification) offers a tremendous hope to the people of Earth. There is great strength in placing our hopes in a founded global social contract. Perpetual compromise with the forces of global capital and imperialism is unnecessary here. The people of Earth can rise up and shout ?enough!? They can found at new world system predicated on equality, freedom, peace, prosperity, and justice from the very start. Only such a founded Earth Constitution can really transform the present undemocratic world system. Reforming the UN is ultimately not a significantly viable option. Democratic freedom for the people of Earth demands a global social contract in the form of transparent, completed document: the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. i Noam Chomsky, ?On Libya and the Unfolding Crises,? Interviewed by Stephen Shalom and Michael Albert, March 31, 2011. Z-Net: http://www.zcommunications.org/noam-chomsky-on-libya-and-the-unfolding-crises-bynoam- chomsky iiAndy Kroll, ?Return to Wisconsin: the Beginning or the End?? Tom Dispatch, March 31, 2011. http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175374/tomgram%3A_andy_kroll%2C_union-busting_or_republicanbusting_ in_wisconsin/ iii Zachary Roth, ?Off-The-Charts Income Gains For Super-Rich,? by Zachary Roth. The Lookout - Yahoo News, April 8, 2011. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110408/ts_yblog_thelookout/off-the-charts-incomegains- for-super-rich iv Terry Boswell and Christopher Chase-Dunn, The Spiral of Capitalism and Socialism: Toward Global Democracy. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner Publishers, 2000. v Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the end of the Republic. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2004. vi Michael Parenti, Against Empire. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995. vii Chomsky, op.cit. viii Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008. ix Belitsos and Tetalman, One World Democracy: A Progressive Vision for Enforceable World Law. San Rafael, CA: Origin Press, 2005. x Andreas Bummel, ?Towards a Global Democratic Revolution: A Global Parliament and the Transformation of the World Order,? April 5, 2011. Internet circulated article. xi Glen T. Martin, The Earth Federation Movement: Founding a Global Social Contract. History, Vision, Documents. Pamplin, VA: Institute for Economic Democracy Press, 2011. Glen T. Martin is Professor of Philosophy at Radford University, Virginia, USA, Secretary-
General of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), and President of the
Institute on World Problems (IOWP). His web site is www.radford.edu/gmartin.
|
4/19/11
Excerpts from a letter sent by Earth Fed activist Kevin Edds who
explains what is wrong with the current global system and why it
is dangerous:
The current
mass-destruction of our Planet by "sovereign" nations, that are controlled by
corporations or "special interest" groups, is supposedly "legal". With 192
"sovereign" countries doing whatever they want, including attacking and
devastating other smaller or more peaceful countries, worldwide chaos and
lawlessness is our current "system".
No country is bound by
any "higher" law than their own "self interest", however wicked or evil that
"self interest" might be. Numerous countries feel they have a "right" to do
anything they want, including killing the whole world with a nuclear bomb
attack or a "mistake" in a single day if "necessary" (causing a nuclear reaction
or retaliation by other countries that produces a nuclear winter on our Planet).
The slower method of killing our Planet with accumulated irresponsible
ecological transgressions and needless environmental catastrophes and
"accidents" is also "right" or "legal" according to our current
"system".
Mr. Edds
recently published "Save Earth with Earth Federation" which can be found at www.LuLu.com
2/23/11
-----Original Message----- From: EarthstarRadio@aol.com Date: Wed, 23
Feb 2011 16:03:30 EST Subject: Open Letter to the Egyptian People
To:
editor@thedailynewsegypt.com, weeklymail1@ahram.org.eg,
gazette-editor@hotmail.com, ak@egyptdailynews.com
CC: letters@nytimes.com,
letters@washpost.com, jjohnson@sfchronicle.com23 February 2011AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT:
We, the undersigned, are
proud of the people of Egypt for their successful peaceful protests and
demonstrations against corruption and authoritarian rule, and for justice and
democracy.
We salute your courage, intelligence, and compassion -- and
your perseverance and humanity. You are a model for the entire world and,
hopefully, a bold step toward a world of peace and justice for all.
Some of us in the United States are also working for peace and justice
through organizations and ideas such as Democratic World Federalists, Earth
Federation Movement, World Citizens, World Constitution and Parliament
Association, United for Peace and Justice, and many others.
We are also
working against corporate monarchy, corruption, and authoritarian rule here in
the United States and worldwide. We do honor you for your successful and
peaceful fight for truth, justice, and democracy.
In Peace with
Justice,
Mary Harris, USA
Roger Kotila*, USA
Bob Hanson, USA
Shahriar Sharei, USA
Bob Neumann, USA
Glen Martin, USA
Esther Franklin, USA
Rob Wheeler, USA
*Phone contact: (415) 328-2341
2/14/11
Signs that the Republican Party has become the Dinosaur Party WELCOME TO THE DINOSAUR PARTY! But dinosaurs eventually became extinct. The Republican Party on almost every level supports policies which increase the possibilities of extinction -- both for the Republican Party itself, and literally, for Americans, and for the world.
To be fair, Republicans care about their immediate family, and some of their friends. However, they show little respect for the human family -- the global community. Because of their narrow worldview, Republican ideas are like taking a poison pill wherein one either dies slowly (poverty), or quickly (nuclear war).
The Dinosaur Party has a love affair with nuclear bombs and missiles. Wars are exciting and profitable to the dinosaurs. The 9/11 attack during the Republican administration of George W. Bush was a convenient excuse to go to war and to give the President dictatorial powers.
The Pentagon's "shock and awe" attack on Iraq was an example of state sponsored terrorism, and an indicator of the ruthless recklessness of the oligarchy which has captured America. Likewise the use by the military of depleted uranium ammunition which has exposed both our soldiers and its civilian victims to radioactive poisons.
There is growing suspicion that 9/11 was an "inside job" as claimed by an increasing number of experts. Why else has the government refused to allow a new independent investigation despite overwhelming evidence that the 9/11 Commission Report was a cover-up directed by Republican neocon's? Why did President Bush and Vice President Cheney refuse to testify under oath?
Indifference to the poor is another basic core value for the dinosaurs. Republicans see no real value in poor people except for cheap labor.
Hatred and fear toward those who favor socialism are basic characteristics of the dinosaurs, who claim to be "Christians" yet have policies toward the poor which are the opposite of what Jesus practiced and taught.
But such contempt for the poor has made enemies, not friends. For example, many South American nations, through free and fair elections, have rejected American values of predatory capitalism and the domination of the rich over the poor, and are eager and enthusiastic about a mixed economic model (as in Scandinavian countries) which includes ample socialism and careful regulation of capitalism.
The Republican Party has only contempt for socialism, despite the fact that by all indicators of health, mortality, and security -- it is superior to predatory, monopoly capitalism. The years of propaganda to fool the people about capitalism's supposed "superiority" are ringing on empty as America's middle class discovers it has been betrayed. If elections are not rigged (as they were for President Bush's election), Republican will come to mean "Dinosaur".
Ignoring climate change in favor of profit, a key value of Republicans, is another prescription for extinction. But that does not bother the dinosaurs whose thirst for money trumps
scientific warnings of weather extremes due to man made environmental pollution.
Forever trying to be clever, the Republicans pushed for nuclear power as a means to a "clean"environment, but ignored the warnings of the antinuclear activists. Now we see in Japan that nuclear power is a profound loser and extremely dangerous to the people. So once again, the Republicans accepted bad ideas which could lead to extinction.
Love of money is the dinosaur's basic moral and intellectual flaw, along with a refusal to have empathy for others except for one's privileged friends and family. Put simply, Republicans almost universally have very poor judgment and endanger the rest of us. Fortunately, oligarchy is going out of favor. Look at the uprising in Egypt.
The increasing frustrations that the dinosaurs are placing upon the middle classes will eventually lead to revolts like in Egypt. The dinosaurs refuse to raise taxes on the rich, preferring to starve America's less fortunate, and to spend taxpayer money on bombs, missiles, and war rather than on food, clothing, shelter, and health care.
The Republicans are more than willing to spend unlimited amounts of taxpayer money on the Pentagon for death and destruction rather than on the people for health care and education. This policy enriches the already corporate rich. It also increases the probability for ultimate death and destruction of the human family.
But sadism and greed, as Hitler discovered, eventually leads to downfall.
Revenge acts by wronged groups or nations who are victims of CIA covert operations (assassinations; overthrowing democracies) will continue to be a danger within the USA itself if the dinosaurs are not replaced by advanced progressives.
Unfortunately, Democratic President Obama has continued the authoritarian policies of
George Bush, Jr. while he and Secretary of State Clinton piously talk of "freedom and democracy" for Egypt. And in all fairness, it must be said that many Democrats, too, have become dinosaurs in their thinking and actions -- only different from Republicans in name only.
It must be said that many Democrats joined Republicans to establish Homeland InSecurity and the UnPatriotic Act. Democrats, like Republicans, have voted for ridiculous amounts of money for the military and for the black box budget.
Yet far more Democrats than Republicans genuinely care about "we, the people" and support good and caring government rather than the conservatives very dangerous plan to "starve government" -- a prescription good for the rich, but disastrous for the rest of us.
The Obama adminstration has joined the dinosaurs by increased spending on new, "advanced" weaponry and on nuclear weapons which will increase the chances of a "mistake." Worship of the Pentagon is flirting with catastrophe. Death and destruction (drone attacks, bombing, etc.) on innocents around the world who are described as "collateral damage" are killing America's soul, or what is left of it.
Prediction: Ruthlessness toward the weak and poor, and now the attacks on the middle classes, will backfire. Predatory acts ("privateering") such as attempts to privatize Social Security, eliminate unions, and continue the deep corruption in Wall Street will be met by growing resistance from America's middle classes.
The real question now is if the Dinosaur Party can be prevented from taking the rest of us down with them?
-- Editor
1/3/11
WILL HOLLYWOOD BEGIN TO TAKE NOTICE OF THE EARTH FEDERATION MOVEMENT IN 2011?
The present writer speculates that Hollywood's imagination can be touched by the visionary work of the Earth Federation Movement. For starters, its green world constitution (the Earth Constitution) should appeal to Hollywood progressives who have worked hard for the environmental movement, and who appreciate and respect fresh air, clean water, and green mountains.
A serious strategy to end war and eliminate weapons of mass destruction using the Earth Constitution as its foundation is the stuff that captures the imagination -- a valued commodity in Hollywood.
Who in Hollywood will be the first to get on the Earth Federation Movement bandwagon? Prediction: The music business will be the first on board. Why?
Wars are ugly and are now dragging down the economy. People seek escape and hope. The time is ripe, much as in the sixties, to "rebel" from the dreary and hopeless Establishment's strangulation of American liberties, a secure life, and happiness.
-- editor
11/23/10
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORLD PEACE: ONLY A FEDERATED DEMOCRATIC WORLD UNION IS REALISTIC
Recently a world federalist sent out an impressive list of United Nations treaties and conventions in various stages of consideration or acceptance by nations.
The list includes the New Start Treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and conventions to ban cluster munitions and land mines. Also there are UN conventions against torture (1987), conventions on the rights of children (1990) and the disabled (2008), and other important agreements.
Treaties are a mixed blessing
When nations sign treaties which relate to global issues, it gives us a false sense of security. Nevertheless, by addressing issues such as nuclear weapons and the like, nations are acknowledging problems of universal concern and importance despite differences in culture and tradition.
We can reasonably conclude, then, that there are areas of ethics and conduct which the majority of people worldwide accept as valid -- universal standards to be applied to all.
Unfortunately however, history shows that agreements based upon treaties are eventually broken or ignored. Time and time again, particularly with the more powerful, treaties are discarded when seen as inconvenient -- either with regard to national self-interest, private business interests, or religious dogmas.
Psychology of world peace and institutionalized paranoia
So where does the "Psychology of World Peace" enter this picture, and what does psychology have to do with treaties, conventions, and other agreements between nations?
The key psychological dynamic associated with national sovereignty in a world of nations is one of institutionalized paranoia. Greed is another factor which needs to be taken into account.
To understand the psychological dynamic of paranoia (and greed), one only needs to examine prison gangs. Like nations, they are sovereign, and like nations, gangs fear that the other side is seeking an advantage. Hence, even when prison authorities do a complete, clean sweep of weapons, within weeks the various gangs are rearming themselves.
Why? Paranoia. This is the psychiatric dynamic which the current global system of sovereign nations cannot overcome. It is an inherent response to the system of national sovereignty in a world flooded with a winner take all, survival of the fittest mentality.
Institutionalized paranoia between nations originates primarily from fear that the other will get the upper hand in terms of use of force or military might, and fear that the other will gain economic advantage and control.
In the current global system of treaty-based agreements, usually nations maintain a high degree of sovereignty. This fact means that nations cannot be prevented from violating treaties if they believe it is in their self-interest to do so. The lack of true union between nations causes them, weak or strong, to conduct secret operations which further fuels paranoia.
The European Union has made some progress convincing nations to give up some aspects of absolute sovereignty. But some of these nations continue to be quite reluctant (i.e., paranoid) about moving toward full union and federation.
It can be argued that partial union is better than no union at all. This idea has some merit. However, the ultimate psychological dynamic to achieve a genuine, permanent world peace free of war will require an almost complete world federation and democratic union with only minor exceptions.
This is a hard psychological fact from which there is no shortcut. Institutionalized paranoia will never be cured no matter how many treaties are signed by sovereign nation states. Every nation, whether or not fully in the federation, will have to agree to open inspections at anytime, anywhere.
President Ronald Reagan's famous quote regarding disarmament "trust but verify,"was partially correct, but incomplete. Because of the many sociopathic leaders in governments, there must also be criminal consequences to individual leaders who violate the law.
Otherwise there is no guarantee of open inspection, investigation, and prosecution. In the present global system, individual leaders from nations who violate treaties and commit international crimes usually suffer no consequences, particularly if their nation is powerful. They are protected by their "sovereign" nation.
But in a federal union system world laws by a democratic world parliament would be enforceable on all individuals no matter what their level of authority. This rule of law is necessary because whereas people with a normal, healthy conscience will do the right thing without threat of punishment, those leaders of nations who are sociopaths or psychopaths must be restrained by knowing they will face punishment if they commit crimes.
It is wishful thinking to believe that treaties or agreements alone can result in permanent full disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, prevent wars, or eliminate predatory economic behaviors. The psychiatric dynamic of paranoia (and greed), just like with prison gangs, will eventually sabotage any treaty-based agreements between sovereign nations.
Treaties are not strong enough medicine
Those who argue for a treaty-based global system to obtain world peace, justice and prosperity are stuck in Establishment thinking. There exist powerful psychological factors associated with traditional sovereignty which simply cannot be ignored.
Put bluntly, there is no shortcut except to establish a democratic federation and world union -- just as world federalists have been saying for over sixty years.
The psychology of world peace demands a new global structure which can eliminate the mental illness of paranoia, and the sociopathic condition of greed. The medicine needed to eliminate theses homicidal/suicidal symptoms has been known by world federalists for many, many years.
The nations must federate in a democratic world union.
Good medicine for a mentally ill world and a means to control sociopaths
The Earth Constitution/Earth Federation, not treaties, is the right medicine to end the paranoia, and to create a healthy and positive world -- free of the tyranny of fear, greed, lies, and dogma.
A federated democratic world union under the Earth Constitution has the potential to end paranoia, and the Earth Federation's World Parliament and Judicial/Human Rights system will provide a means to control the handful of sociopaths and psychopaths who destroy and impoverish our world.
By joining the Earth Federation, nations will no longer need to tolerate the second class citizenship imposed upon them by the design of the UN Security Council which makes a mockery of democracy and of equality.
It is time for the United Nations, whose sovereign nations breed a constant dynamic of paranoia, to break free from this psychiatric dysfunction. With the healthy foundation of the Earth Constitution to start anew, the world can free itself from the undemocratic roots which were incorporated into the UN Charter, and begin an era where "we, the people" has real meaning.
The Earth Federation's Constitution can open the door to a world that works for all humanity, not just the few.
-- Roger Kotila, Ph.D.
11/1/10
The United Nations 65th Anniversary celebration in San Francisco (October 22 -24, 2010) offered a generous portion of good feelings toward world unity and understanding to honor the signing of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945 in San Francisco.
Events included a "Symphony for United Nations" conducted by Maestro Joseph Eger well-known for his artistic support of the UN; an inter-generational model UN session; a film festival on international issues; and some cultural performances with participants from other countries.
Although organizers of the events were successful in created a positive and constructive atmosphere, they did not shy away from discussing serious world problems. Speakers discussed worldwide poverty, sickness and diseases such as AIDS, human rights, wars and the urgent need for disarmament of weapons of mass destruction.
The prescriptions offered for solving these problems, however, tended to remain in the same United Nations paradigm emphasizing millennium goals which have been largely unsuccessful. Wars, threats of nuclear annihilation, worldwide poverty, and loss of individual human rights continue to be epidemic.
Lip service was made for the need to "strengthen the UN" and a call was put out to "rejuvenate the nuclear disarmament movement". A Stanford University professor, Dr. Hellman, presented the facts on the risks of nuclear catastrophe --
and left this observer more determined than ever to demand full nuclear disarmament the world over.
Proposed solutions by invited speakers, however, tended to remain "inside the box" regarding changes to the United Nations and the present global system. Proposed solutions relied upon treaties and international law within the present UN structure rather than a new democratic world body able to apply enforceable world laws on individuals and with a democratically elected world parliament.
There was some minor mention of the need for a "UN Peoples Assembly" to go along with the UN General Assembly, but no strong message to eliminate the Security Council with its undemocratic veto power, and no advocacy to replace or change the UN into a genuine democratic world federation which is what is ultimately needed -- the sooner the better.
The event drew together many people of goodwill, and reinforced the importance of a world body in which to discuss world problems and possible solutions. For me, the main importance of this event was that it reinforced goals which have moral and spiritual significance, and continues to maintain faith in the potential for good from our global community.
-- RK
8/31/10
WILL BIG OIL AND OTHER CORPORATIONS CASH IN WHILE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER PAYS FIRST FOR A COMBAT MISSION, NOW FOR AN ONGOING OCCUPATION OF IRAQ?
Today the American president announced an end to the "combat mission" in Iraq. He does not discuss any plan to have an ongoing occupation using a mixture of American soldiers (now doing "training", not "combat"), and private contractors (mercenaries) to be stationed in permanent armed bases in Iraq, ready to strike if the puppet government's security forces flounder as the Iraqi people reject this arrangement.
The plan? It is my belief that the American taxpayer will get to pay for "security" while Big Oil (multinationals)& other corporations make lucrative deals for Iraqi oil and/or infrastructure projects, protected by the might of the American military, new police/military security via the State Dept., and highly paid private contractors replacing the "combat" troops along with those Iraqi's willing to join the security forces for a puppet government.
Otherwise, why an almost 1 billion dollar American embassy in Iraq, bigger than the Vatican according to various reports? It's a fortress, and the Americans along with the puppet government will be behind walls while Iraqi death/torture squads roam the land targeting dissidents. Moreover, although President Obama has stated America would not have a permanent presence in Iraq, the facts on the ground include numerous American military bases costing millions of dollars, and construction has apparently not abated.
War and occupation appears good for Big Business. Prediction: Big Oil and other corporations (e.g., Halliburton) will not pay for this protection, or the costs of maintaining a puppet government in which Iraqi officials will have ample opportunity to get rich right along with their corporate benefactors. (It will be the ordinary Iraqi citizen who will lose out.)
Another prediction: A similar fate awaits Afghanistan as Big Oil seeks a pipeline through that country. It will also require an ongoing occupation of the country coupled with a puppet government to fight off the rebellious people who reject such suppression. The American taxpayer will pay for the mixture of American soldiers and private contractors who will stay in Afghanistan (just like in Iraq) to insure a cooperating puppet government.
The Earth Federation would not accept the stealing of resources by use of military might by any nation and the use of propaganda (false information) to keep the people in fear and paranoia.
The 9/11 attack caused immense trauma and was supposedly an attack by Muslims, a pretext for the current wars. Unfortunately, the actual scientific evidence suggests otherwise -- yet the American government refuses a new investigation. If the Earth Federation were in full existence, it could do an independent investigation particularly when a nation is suspected of a cover-up. (The evidence presented by 9/11 Truth researchers points to an inside job, a highly sophisticated false flag operation which has led the American people into a "war that never ends, i.e., the war on terror.)
Speculation: There are likely to be additional "false flag operations" which falsely blame new attacks (possibly again on American soil), on "patsies" -- who "confess" their crimes after unbearable torture. These terror tactics will justify continued excessive budgets for the military/industrial complex and Homeland Security, as Americans give in to manufactured paranoia and fear.
Although American soldiers and the public are told that these wars are to bring "democracy and freedom" to whatever country is being "liberated," and to "protect" America from terrorists, the facts point in a different direction: The American government, largely dominated by corporate and banking interests, want governments who cooperate with predatory capitalism and its first cousin, privatization.
(Editor's note: KBR is one of the obvious beneficiaries of these financial arrangements having been granted large contracts for oil infrastructure work. The original oil contracts drawn up earlier in the conquest under Bremmer which locked up deals for 30 years, are being challenged by some Iraqi's who believe the deals cheat the Iraqi people. Oil deals I have learned recently, are not just for American and British oil giants, but also are being given to some other countries such as China and India. Is the Iraqi Oil Ministry getting appropriate contracts for their people, or are corrupt deals being created which redirects the profits to a handful of Iraqi officials in power in collusion with the oil companies?)
8/28/10
MEXICAN ACTIVISTS MAY JOIN THE EARTH FEDERATION MOVEMENT
Communications between the Earth Federation and activists in Mexico have started since it was learned that student and political activists in Mexico are planning a "First Model World Parliament" to be held in the actual House of Deputies of the Mexican government.
The original connection originated from a meeting with Democratic World Federalists in San Francisco who, in association with the World Alliance to Transform the United Nations, began planning meetings in San Francisco perhaps in October, 2010.
The political importance of this network of strategy discussions is that we see American, Mexican, and possibly activists from Central and South America joining together -- with a strong student involvement.
Earth Federation activists believe that the Earth Constitution is the ideal instrument which will allow the creation of a true, as opposed to a toothless, world parliament.
There are activists who would like to simply have an elected world parliament which offers resolutions in terms of solutions, rather than create a genuine new world body (new world government) to replace the present shadow world government which analysts have noted are unelected, wealthy and powerful in military might and in political corruption.
-- RK 8/28/10
* * * * * * *
Received 6/21/10 from Gary Shepherd
Gary Shepherd's analysis is a good history lesson for proponents of democratic world government. The public and politicians may resist, and even resent, logical solutions to our world's problems -- even when the old ways have been convincingly shown to be wrong, and in current times, disastrous. -- Editor
PTOLEMY, COPERNICUS AND WORLD GOVERNMENT
By Gary Shepherd
May - June 2010 issue of United World magazine
gshepher@verizon.net
Long before the advent of the current public arguments about
evolution and global warming, the greatest controversy in the history of
science was the debate between the geocentric, or earth-centered model of the
universe described by the second century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and the
heliocentric, or sun-centered model, advocated by the 16th century Polish
astronomer Copernicus.
This battle took most of a century to resolve, and it involved some
of the most powerful political and religious leaders of its time. Today, we
have forgotten just what a mental revolution Copernicus' theory represented.
Although some Greek philosophers had speculated about a heliocentric model, the
Ptolemaic model had been almost universally accepted by astronomers for more
than a thousand years. In fact, Copernicus knew that his idea was so radical
that he didn't even have it published until after he had safely died.
It is easy to see why. The idea that the Earth is at the center of
the universe, and that the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve around it
matches our everyday experience. After all, the Earth appears immobile beneath
our feet -- it doesn't seem to move. When we look up at the sky, the heavenly
bodies seem to be moving around us. Even today, we speak of the sun rising or
setting, as if it were the sun circling around the Earth.
What is more, the geocentric model could be used to explain all the
scientific observations that could be made at that time. Because it had been
noticed that sometimes the planets seemed to stop and go backwards in their
orbits for a while, Ptolemy created smaller circles, called epicycles, within
the larger crystalline spheres in which the planets circled around the Earth,
so that they were sometimes moving in the opposite direction from the larger
circle. Using this model, one could calculate precisely where a planet would be
at any particular time -- an important consideration at the time, since most
astronomers were also astrologers, and knowledge of the locations of the
planets at the time of a person's birth was vital to casting horoscopes.
But as time went on, and observations became more precise, the
ability of the Ptolemaic model to predict planetary locations began to break
down. The model was altered by later scientists, making it more and more
complex, in an effort to make it correspond to observations of the real
universe. In fact, the Ptolemaic model became so complex, that some scientists,
in order calculate planetary movements, used the Copernican model for
mathematical purposes, even though they didn't really believe it described the
actual universe.
Eventually, partly because of the invention of the telescope, the
Copernican model achieved acceptance over its rival, and today one would have
difficulty finding an astronomer anywhere who supported the geocentric
universe.
What, one is tempted to ask, has any of this to do with the idea of
world government? Well, the parallels are quite striking. The current system of
independent nation-states, sometimes called the Westphalian system, has existed
for many centuries as the unquestioned model for the way the political world is
designed. Like the Ptolemaic model, it makes sense to us. The nations appear to
exist, they appear to be eternal, and there doesn't appear to be any logical
alternative to it. They match our everyday experience. We speak of the earth,
and humanity, as if they were both divided up into nation-states.
Like the Ptolemaic model, as time has passed the nation-state model
has had to grow more and more complex to match the real world. Treaties,
conventions, and agreements have piled up, one upon the other, to govern the
complicated relations between the different nations. For instance, the Danube
River runs through numerous different nations on its way to the sea. All of the
national governments have a say in governing the preservation of that river,
making it very difficult to come to agreement about anything. The current
system has become so complex that sometimes, in order to make it function
properly, people act as if the world were united, even though they don't really
believe it is.
Just as it was the advance of technology and science led to more
precise measurements that doomed the Ptolemaic model to extinction, advanced
technology is leading toward measurements that are threatening the viability of
the nation-state system. We have peered down at the earth's surface from our
orbital satellites and have seen that there are no borders drawn on the real
earth. We have peered into the intricacies of the human genome, and we have
found no genes for nationality.
Copernicus offered a model that was truer to the real world, and
thus eventually supplanted the older, more inaccurate model. So too must we
offer a model of society that is truer to the real world, which is more
accurate, more sustainable, and simply works better, so that it can replace the
outdated one. One day, the idea of separate nation-states will come to seem as
quaint and antiquated as the perfect crystalline spheres that were a feature of
the Ptolemaic system.
5/24/10
MODERN MODERATE MUSLIM MAN OPPOSES USE OF THREATS OR VIOLENCE TO CENSOR RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION AND FREE SPEECH
A Portland, Oregon Muslim man in a recent article (in USA Today, May 13, 2010) opposes use of threats and violence by some Muslims who have murdered, or threatened to murder, those who have used the image of Mohammed in ways for which they did not approve.
Mr. Harris Zafar is highly critical of Muslim violence used to censor free speech and states that "...Islam does not support people who violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech..." Mr. Zafar goes on to cite examples from the Quran and from the life of Mohammed himself which support nonviolence.
Importantly, Mr. Zafar also condemns State sponsored blasphemy laws such as used in Saudi Arabia (apostasy potentially punishable by death), Pakistan, and Afghanistan which also may invoke prison or a death sentence.
These majority Muslim states, according to the article, suppress other religious faiths and beliefs using blasphemy laws to silence or imprison religious minorities, journalists, academicians, and dissenters.
[Use of threats or violence to prevent free speech or practice of religion violates the Earth Constitution's Bill of Human Rights.]
Attempts to censor or silence critics is not limited to extremist Muslims. Jewish Zionists in the USA go to great lengths to silence criticism of Israel but use different tactics such as applying pressure to put a newspaper out of business.
Much like Saudi Arabia gives Muslims special rights, Israel does the same for its Jewish population. In both cases, citizens of other religions are second class citizens in terms of legal rights. [Unequal treatment of citizens violates the Human Rights section of the Earth Constitution.]
There is a somewhat different but parallel issue in the United States wherein Jewish Zionists try to silence criticism of Israel's criminal actions against the Palestinians. These Jewish extremists, unlike Muslim zealots, may allow public criticism of their God (Yahweh or Jehova), but they do not allow a full public discussion of Israel's expansionistic aggression against Palestinians and have "unelected" American politicians who dared defy the Israeli Lobby.
Last but not least, we must keep in mind a large group of fundamentalist Christians who (subconsciously) are actually hoping to have Armageddon (the ultimate in violence) to prove that their interpretation of Biblical scripture is "true." These extremist Christians support and encourage Israeli expansionism in the belief that once Israel has conquered all of the so-called "Promised Land" for Jews, then Biblical conditions are fulfilled for Armageddon to occur. Jesus will return while they, the faithful, will "rapture" up to heaven.
Armageddon, with its implication of widespread death and destruction, is not a particularly wholesome or loving value. Jesus, these extremists seem to fail to see, is the Prince of Peace -- not the Prince of Death and Destruction. If Jesus were here now, he would without question condemn any Armageddon scenario -- Jesus, in this writer's opinion, would not approve of the suffering of so many innocent people, such as our children, and would go into action to prevent such a horrible event.
-- Editor
4/30/10
"EQUAL LAND FOR EQUAL PEOPLE" OFFERS A STANDARD BY WHICH TO JUDGE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS BETWEEN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
Alan Barnett, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor (San Jose State University in California, USA), a peace and social justice activist, has proposed that the path to a fair and peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine should use the standard of "Equal Land for Equal People."
This principle of equality is in keeping with the standards and inherent basic rights as stated in the Earth Federation's Constitution. It would provide an objective that treats both the Jews and Palestinians (including Christians and Muslims) with integrity and respect.
Dr. Barnett notes that at the present time Israel has 78% of the Holy Land while Palestine has only 22%, despite the fact that when one counts the actual number of Jews and Palestinians in the region (including the Palestinian refugees driven out of Israel and in refugee camps), both have a population of roughly 6 to 8 million people. Hence his notion of "Equal Land for Equal People".
Barnett points out that, under the (international) rule of "right of return" the Palestinians would need more land than they presently have in order to accommodate the many refugees who want to return to their former homes (before being forced out year after year by the Israeli's).
The advantage of "Equal Land for Equal People" according to Dr. Barnett is that "The security of the Israelis depends on the Palestinians feeling that they are being dealt with fairly."
"Peace is only possible if both Israelis and Palestinians are treated as equals," writes Barnett.
Editor's note - "Equal land for equal people" is a potentially important guideline available for mediators in establishing a lasting and productive peace between Israel and Palestine. It is consistent with the Earth Constitution. Every human being is inherently, by birth, a "citizen of Earth" with all of the rights granted in Articles 12 and 13 (Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth, and Directive Principles).
3/27/10 MOVEMENT OF BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS BY THE US AIR FORCE SUGGESTS POSSIBLE ATTACK PLANS AGAINST IRAN. ANALYST PREDICTS A "STAGED TERRORIST" ATTACK WILL BE USED FOR JUSTIFICATION.
Analyst Paul Craig Roberts reports that a Scottish newspaper, The Herald Scotland, has reported that "bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." It is claimed by the newspaper that "bunker-buster bombs are being moved to an Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. One London analyst, Dan Piesch, is quoted as saying, "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The analysts speculate to what sounds like another "shock and awe" type of devastation as was used against Iraq, with the Western media claiming the attack is for "freedom and democracy" but the real intent will be to establish a puppet government.
A false flag operation followed by a military attack and invasion would be a violation of international law. (Many investigators believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation used as a pretext for war.) Would Israel and the USA act jointly?
If Iran is attacked under false pretense, would high government officials be held accountable by the International Criminal Court for war crimes? Even if Israel alone led the attack, could President Obama or Pentagon generals be tried for an international crime of aiding and abetting?
-- RK
Expect a False Flag Terror Attack To Precede Invasion Of Iran
Paul Craig Roberts -- March 18, 2010
According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping "bunker-buster" bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The next step will be a staged "terrorist attack," a "false flag" operation as per Operation Northwoods, for which Iran will be blamed. As Iran and its leadership have already been demonized, the "false flag" attack will suffice to obtain US and European public support for bombing Iran. The bombing will include more than the nuclear facilities and will continue until the Iranians agree to regime change and the installation of a puppet government. The corrupt American media will present the new puppet as "freedom and democracy."
If the past is a guide, Americans will fall for the deception. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. naval vessel, the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to discredit Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) as "disturbed," and the falsified "intelligence" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are many other examples. I have always regarded the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City as a SCAD. Allegedly, a disturbed Tim McVeigh used a fertilizer bomb in a truck parked outside the building. More likely, McVeigh was a patsy, whose fertilizer bomb was a cover for explosives planted inside the building.
A number of experts dismissed the possibility of McVeigh's bomb producing such structural damage. For example, General Benton K. Partin, who was in charge of U.S. Air Force munitions design and testing, produced a thick report on the Murrah building bombing which concluded that the building blew up from the inside out. Gen. Partin concluded that "the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementary demolition charges at some of the reinforced concrete bases inside the building, a standard demolition technique. For a simplistic blast truck bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A7 is beyond credulity."Gen. Partin dismissed the official report as "a massive cover-up of immense proportions."
Of course, the general's unquestionable expertise had no bearing on the outcome. One reason is that his and other expert voices were drowned out by media pumping the official story. Another reason is that public beliefs in a democracy run counter to suspicion of government as a terrorist agent. Professor Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph says that "false flag" operations have the advantage over truth: "research shows that people are far less willing to examine information that disputes, rather than confirms, their beliefs." Professor Steven Hoffman agrees: "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe. In fact, for the most part people completely ignore contrary information." Even when hard evidence turns up, it can be discredited as a "conspiracy theory."
All that is necessary for success of "false flag" or "black ops" events is for the government to have its story ready and to have a reliable and compliant media. Once an official story is in place, thought and investigation are precluded. Any formal inquiry that is convened serves to buttress the already provided explanation.
An explanation ready-at-hand is almost a give-away that an incident is a "black ops" event. Notice how quickly the U.S. government, allegedly so totally deceived by al Qaida, provided the explanation for 9/11. When President Kennedy was assassinated, the government produced the culprit immediately. The alleged culprit was conveniently shot inside a jail by a civilian before he could be questioned. But the official story was ready, and it held.
Professors Manwell and Hoffman's research resonates with me. I remember reading in my graduate studies that the Czarist secret police set off bombs in order to create excuses to arrest their targets. My inclination was to dismiss the accounts as anti-Czarist propaganda by pro-communist historians. It was only later when Robert Conquest confirmed to me that this was indeed the practice of the Czarist secret police that the scales fell from my eyes.
Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, "The Rogue Nation," makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to "terrorism," and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ "false flag" operations that advance the agenda.
The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands.
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3/11/10
WAR SYSTEM SUCKS TAX MONEY AWAY FROM PUBLIC EDUCATION
On March 14, 2010 Dr. Tad Daley lectured to the public and UC Berkeley students on his new book "Apocalypse Never." But do college students really understand the relationship between their rising college costs and the bloated military/industrial/research war system budget of the United States with over 700 military bases around the world, and a so-called war against terror seemingly everywhere?
Do students really understand who is sucking up the majority of tax money which previously was used to provide an affordable, public college education? The obvious answer is the 700 billion dollars a year (plus or minus 50 billion dollars for black box operations) which buy bombs, bullets, rockets, guided missiles, golf courses for Pentagon generals, early retirement, Stealth bombers, jet airplanes, drones, Navy missile cruisers, and much, much more. Education and health care for Americans?
Many young people are being forced to "join the Army" in order to have a job, get health care, and sometimes, to get a college education.
Untold billions of dollars are being spent outside of America. New billion dollar embassies are being constructed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Billions of dollars to private contractors to rebuild infrastructure in these countries which the USA conveniently destroyed in the first place.
Corporations are (literally) "making a killing" in this war system, as are the smaller businesses that make uniforms, helmets, boots, and other necessities needed by a killing machine. Not to mention the doctors, nurses, consultants, spies, engineers, physicists, and other peripheral personnel used to advance and maintain the high tech war machine system.
Then of course there is the ongoing cost of death and destruction -- rebuilding disabled soldiers, demolished buildings, roads and other infrastructure destroyed by American/NATO bombs, and then having to replace these same bombs and missiles.
Yes, it's a good business -- if you believe in death and destruction.
But it's a bad business for educationand affordable health care at home. The public cannot afford to pay for constant, worldwide wars, both covert and overt, and pay for affordable education. Tough luck, students. Get the education you can't afford thanks to a war system designed to never end.
What could replace the world's war system? A world unity government -- the Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution...designed as a world peace system. Then students could be given affordable, or even free, education -- and universal health care would be a given.
-- Editor
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2/19/10 HOW THE UNPA CAMPAIGN RELATES TO THE EARTH FEDERATION'S WORLD PARLIAMENT
If European parliamentarians seek more democratic representation at the United Nations by adding a "Parliamentary Assembly," but is denied decision-making authority as is the case with the UN General Assembly, then the UNPA (and the UNGA) might consider joining the Earth Federation.
The Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution gives real democratic decision making authority to the Federation's World Parliament. This could become a real possibility since the UN Charter keeps key decision-making power in the hands of the Security Council, and limits the UN General Assembly to making "resolutions." A UN Parliamentary Assembly would most likely suffer the same fate as the General Assembly -- unless the UN Charter was dropped in favor of the Earth Constitution. -- Editor
2/12/10
WHY ESTABLISHMENT PANIC OVER THREAT OF NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION?
An article in the Rock Creek Free Press (Feb., 2010) by Daniel Tencer reports that President Obama's appointee to head the "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs," Cass Sunstein, proposes "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the one surrounding 9/11.
Why such panic from the Establishment?
This type of manipulation would most likely be for the goal of trying to avoid a new 9/11 investigation -- which is what the 9/11 truth movement has been demanding all along. (A demand which seems more than reasonable in view of the new factual evidence that has surfaced since the 9/11 Commission Report was shown to be fatally flawed.)
Such an obvious propaganda maneuver by the authorities is in line with the refusal of the mainstream media to allow credible researchers on the air to explain why they think a new 9/11 investigation is warranted. MSNBC, for example, despite trying to be "progressive", has repeatedly ignored requests to put 9/11 investigators on the air -- despite the fact that these researchers have blue ribbon, impeccable credentials.
In fact, no mainstream media (TV or newspaper) dares let these investigators report their findings to the public -- it would convince the public that they had been hookwinked.
The American propaganda apparatus instead attacks these researchers ad hominen -- an old propaganda trick used to avoid having to address the real issues.
Why? It is this writer's opinion that the Establishment has ordered censorship to avoid a new investigation -- precisely because the 9/11 researchers are getting too close to the type of facts that could bring down a ruling oligarchy.
One might speculate that there is a behind-the-scenes panic. 9/11 researchers are gaining more and more credibility worldwide.
But what about the so-called "mastermind" of 9/11? Won't the upcoming trial of Khalid Shikh Mohammed (KSM) put all questions to rest when he conveniently "confesses" in a public courtroom?
In reality, the fear that KSM might not "confess" the way he was "taught" by torture techniques, may be the reason that some politicians panic at the idea of a public trial, and want a military tribunal instead.
There might be a serious problem with KSM. What if he was tortured, not to get at the truth of "who done it", but to create what is known as a "patsy" in false flag operation lingo?
What if the endless series of waterboarding torture sessions failed to condition him enough to be a reliable patsy? (Hint -- if he appears to waiver from what he is "suppose to say", one might predict the possibility of an "accidental death," taking the full blame for 9/11 with him....case closed.)
-- Editor
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San Francisco Progressive Conference, like the Earth Federation, Proposes New U.S. Amendment to Take Away Corporate Personhood
Sponsored by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org), over 500 progressive activists met in San Francisco on 2/15/10. There was much concern about the direction of the Obama administration. Expanded Pentagon budgets, corporate personhood, the health care debacle, bailing out Big Money, and much more had these progressives confessing to both emotional pain, and indeed, anger.
Similar to the recent discussion in Earth Federation ranks to pass a World Law to Prohibit Corporate Personhood, these progressives want an U.S. Constitutional Amendment to accomplish this same objective, albeit using a rather vague title: "Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment."
Discussion on eliminating "corporate personhood" via an amendment recognized that, even if successful, would apply only here in the United States. Most corporations are multinational. Hence the importance of the Earth Federation's World Law proposal which will be discussed at the Provisonal World Parliament's 12th session which will be held in India in December, 2010.
The present writer was highly impressed with the level of discussion of most participants at this Conference, and the inspired leadership with such individuals as Rabbi Michael Learner, Medea Benjamin, and Marianne Williamson, and others.
There was also a proposal for a worldwide "Marshall Plan" in the belief that being kind and generous to others would be much more effective in global politics than using threats, intimidation, death and destruction. American militarization has only made our world less safe, both for Americans and for others in the world.
(The goals of this progressive group were very much in keeping with Earth Federation goals on almost all fronts -- ending war and poverty, increasing human rights, and protecting the environment. They continue, however, to think more in nationalistic terms rather than in terms of global structure change. Many do not yet grasp the critical need for democratic world federation to replace the current global war system and the inadequate and ineffective United Nations. -- Editor)
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2/6/2010
PROPOSED WORLD BILL FOR 12TH PROVISIONAL WORLD PARLIAMENT
Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Prohibition Act
Whereas, the fourth broad function of the Earth Federation is "to regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, use of world resources, and other global and international processes" (Article 1.4);
Whereas, specific powers of the Earth Federation include the power to "define and regulate procedures for the nomination and election of members of each house of the World Parliament" (Article 4.7);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to protect the civil liberties identified in Article 12, including "freedom to vote without duress, and freedom for political organization and campaigning without censorship or recriminations" (Article 12.5);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "define standards and promote worldwide improvement in working conditions," standards of living, healthcare, sanitation, and other basic necessities for a quality of life for world citizens, including protection of the environment and the ending of war (Article 13);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "regulate and supervise supra-national trade, industry, corporations, businesses, cartels, professional services" (Article 4.14), and international communications (Article 4.13);
Whereas, in some major nations today, corporations have been granted "legal personhood," giving them all the rights and privileges of private human persons, with the exception that these corporations cannot die, that individuals operating within the corporation are protected from liability because the corporation itself is considered a collective "person," that corporations are entities without a conscience mandated solely to make a private profit for their investors, and that corporations, in spite of their vast impact on society, may claim privacy from public scrutiny, and other rights of private persons;
And whereas, within such nations, corporate personhood has given corporations the "free speech" of private persons through which they have used their vast economic resources to colonize and destroy the democratic process, engineering the election of law-makers beholden to the corporations, employing professional lobbyists for their private ends, and using a variety of means to manipulate government in the service of minority private interests;
And whereas, within the world prior to the advent of the Earth Federation, democracy has been compromised nearly everywhere by the wealth and power of the few to colonize governments and communications systems;
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Provisional World Parliament:
Article 1.
Only flesh and blood human beings shall have the rights of legal persons as identified in Articles 12 and 13 of the Earth Constitution.
Article 2.
Private corporations under the regulative jurisdiction of the Earth Federation shall be incorporated . by the World Parliament or its designated agents with legal mandates specifically defining their functions, responsibilities, and modes of operation.
2.1. These legal mandates empowering corporations to perform certain economic operations shall be defined within a framework considering:
2.1.2. protection of democracy,
2.1.3, protection of the environment,
2.1.4 promotion of economic prosperity among people and communities effected by their operations, and, in general,
2.1.5 the common good of the citizens of the Earth Federation.
Article 3.
Private, profit-oriented corporations shall not have the right, as collective entities, to promote any candidate for election or any political cause within the Earth Federation, nor to contribute funds or campaign contributions or other economic support to candidates for office.
3.1. However, individuals working within any corporation, shall have the free and full right to participate in promoting candidates for election or any political cause they may choose,
3.2. Individuals working within any corporation shall have the right to contribute funds to political campaigns within whatever limits may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 4.
Private individuals shall have the right to promote candidates or causes of their choice within the legal criteria legislated by the World Parliament. Such criteria shall be formulated within a framework that limits the ability of wealthy individuals to unduly influence or colonize the political process.
Article 5.
Non-profit political associations of private individuals (as, for example, political parties, advocacy groups, or think tanks) shall be registered with the Earth Federation and operate within whatever legal limits, transparency, and other criteria as may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 6.
Elections conducted under the World Parliament, beginning at the First Operative Stage of the Earth Federation, shall be free, fair, and monitored by independent observers.
6.1. Each candidate shall use a government defined and paid for information booklet (which may also be electronic), of a standard size and overall format that shall be used for campaign purposes (as specified in Article 8.3.1.5 of the Earth Constitution).
6.2. Each candidate shall have equal access to public communications media (electronic or print) under limits and conditions defined by the World Parliament.
6.3. Each candidate shall have the right to use private communications media (electronic or print) as paid for by non-profit advocacy groups or contributions of private citizens under limits and conditions as defined by the World Parliament.
Article 7.
Private, profit-making communications media that are international in scope also fall under the category of corporations and agencies requiring regulation by the Earth Federation (Articles 1.4 and 4.13).
7.1. Profit-making communications corporations shall not be recognized as legal persons within the Earth Federation.
7.2. The Provisional World Parliament recognizes that profit-making communications corporations may play in important role in fostering democratic processes, the diversity of voices necessary to vigorous dialogue and debate, and disseminating information necessary to democratic decision-making.
7.3. With this possibly important role in mind, the World Parliament may wish to define legal incorporation for such entities differently from that from other profit-making corporations.
7.4. Nevertheless, the legal powers of profit-making communications corporations shall be defined within a framework directed toward maximizing the democratic powers of individual persons for participation in political processes and protecting the rights of individual persons to speech and political participation as define in Articles 12 and 13.
7.5. The framework identified in 7.4 may be fostered, for example, through anti-trust or anti-cartel laws that break up media conglomerates into a number of smaller, competing voices, or through legislation requiring the airing of opposing viewpoints.
Article 8.
When considering legislation concerning the items specified under this Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Abolition Act, the World Parliament shall seek input from each of the agencies within the Integrative Complex of the Earth Federation and from any other ministry or agency of the Federation deemed appropriate.
8.1. Since the World Boundaries and Elections Administration (Article 8.3) is responsible to define the procedures for properly democratic elections (8.3.1.5) and defines the rules for world political parties (8.3.1.6), this agency shall submit annual reports to the World Parliament regarding the successes and difficulties of democratic elections with respect to the functioning of concentrations of private wealth (wealthy individuals or profit-making corporations) and with respect to the operations of communications corporations.
8.2. These reports shall include factual assessments of the degrees to which free and fair popular democracy in the service of the majority of people is disrupted by private wealth, profit-making corporations, and/or communications corporations.
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Article 9.
Penalties for violations of this act shall be determined by the World Parliament and enforced by the world police and world courts.
9.1. All penalties shall apply to individuals and none to corporations, since it is individuals who break the law, not abstract legal entities.
9.2. The penalties and courts shall normally assess greater responsibility to those higher up in the corporate hierarchy, keeping in mind that "obeying orders" from one�s boss does not fully exonerate any individual who knowingly breaks the law.
9.3. Whistle blowers and others who report abuses with regard to this act shall be protected by this law from retaliation by their employers. It shall be the responsibility of the World Ombudsmus to monitor such situations and protect the rights of the persons involved.
2/6/10 FROM THE ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT NUMBER 78 by William Blum www.killinghope.org
(Below is an excerpt from Mr. Blum's latest article.)
The US bombing, invasion, occupation and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and the continuing Israeli-US genocide against the Palestinians have created an army of new anti-American terrorists. We'll be hearing from them for a terribly long time. And we'll be hearing American officials twist themselves into intellectual and moral knots as they try to avoid confronting these facts.
In his "State of the Union" address on January 27, President Obama said: "But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know." Well, ending America's many wars would free up enough money to do anything a rational, humane society would want to do. Eliminating the military budget would pay for free medical care for everyone. Free university education for everyone. Creating a government public works project that could provide millions of decently-paid jobs, like repairing the decrepit infrastructure and healing the environment to the best of our ability. You can add your own favorite projects. All covered, just by ending the damn wars. Imagine that.
(Editor's note: A belligerent nation always at war will go so deeply in debt that it will no longer be able to care for its own citizens at home. Worse yet, military and covert operation violence, death and destruction, make citizens less safe because the victims eventually seek revenge. Brutality only pacifies on the surface, underneath the victims seethe with anger and hate.)
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11/11/10
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORLD PEACE: TREATIES ARE NOT THE ROAD TO WORLD PEACE AND JUSTICE -- ONLY A FEDERATED WORLD UNION IS REALISTIC AND PRACTICALRecently a world federalist sent out an impressive list of United Nations or other international treaties and conventions in various stages of consideration or acceptance by various nations.
The list included the NEW START TREATY (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY (CTBT), the NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT), and conventions to ban cluster munitions and land mines. Also there are UN conventions against torture which came into force in 1987, conventions on the rights of children (1990) and the disabled (2008), and other important agreements.
By addressing these issues nations were acknowledging problems of universal concern and importance despite differences in culture and tradition, illustrating clearly that there can be universally agreed upon standards of ethics and conduct.
However, talk is cheap. Actually abiding by these types of agreements is a different story. History shows that agreements based upon treaties are built upon quicksand. Time and time again, particularly with the more powerful, treaties are ignored when seen as inconvenient with regard to national self-interest or business interests.
Smaller or weaker nations also routinely ignore these agreements but do so differently. They sneak and cheat as in the case of Israel regarding nuclear weapons, or get a powerful ally (in this case the USA) to give them protection from enforcement.
So where does the "Psychology of World Peace" enter this picture, and what does psychology have to do with treaties, conventions, and other agreements between nations?
In the current global system of treaty-based agreements, nations maintain "absolute" sovereignty. This fact means that nations are allowed to have secret operations, and choose which agreements they will abide by, or not. There is no guarantee of open inspection and investigation. Moreover, individual leaders are protected from outside criminal prosecution by their own nation.
The key psychological result of national sovereignty is one of institutionalized paranoia.
Prison gangs, like nations, operate under the paranoid dynamic. Because each gang is autonomous (i.e., sovereign), they are automatically paranoid that the other gang is arming to get the advantage. Hence, even when prison authorities do a complete, clean, prison sweep of all weapons everywhere in the prison -- the gangs within weeks rearm themselves.
The psychological effect of this dysfunctional global system is that each nation is paranoid of the other, and rightfully so. Nations, both powerful or weak, may be up to no good to get the advantage over the other.
There is only one method to end the dynamics of national paranoia. The nations must federate in a democratic world union. The Earth Constitution is designed for just that purpose.
The United Nations, consisting of sovereign nations and hence guaranteeing a constant dynamic of paranoia, must freely give way to the Earth Federation/Earth Constitution -- the latter of which has no military or economic power. Its power is in the fact that its design will eliminate once and for all the poison of paranoia which has plagued our world and brought us to the brink of destruction.
-- Editor (RK)
11/1/10
The United Nations 65th Anniversary celebration in San Francisco (October 22 -24, 2010) offered a generous portion of good feelings toward world unity and understanding to honor the signing of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945 in San Francisco.
Events included a "Symphony for United Nations" conducted by Maestro Joseph Eger well-known for his artistic support of the UN; an inter-generational model UN session; a film festival on international issues; and some cultural performances with participants from other countries.
Although organizers of the events were successful in created a positive and constructive atmosphere, they did not shy away from discussing serious world problems. Speakers discussed worldwide poverty, sickness and diseases such as AIDS, human rights, wars and the urgent need for disarmament of weapons of mass destruction.
The prescriptions offered for solving these problems, however, tended to remain in the same United Nations paradigm emphasizing millennium goals which have been largely unsuccessful. Wars, threats of nuclear annihilation, worldwide poverty, and loss of individual human rights continue to be epidemic.
Lip service was made for the need to "strengthen the UN" and a call was put out to "rejuvenate the nuclear disarmament movement". A Stanford University professor, Dr. Hellman, presented the facts on the risks of nuclear catastrophe --
and left this observer more determined than ever to demand full nuclear disarmament the world over.
Proposed solutions by invited speakers, however, tended to remain "inside the box" regarding changes to the United Nations and the present global system. Proposed solutions relied upon treaties and international law within the present UN structure rather than a new democratic world body able to apply enforceable world laws on individuals and with a democratically elected world parliament.
There was some minor mention of the need for a "UN Peoples Assembly" to go along with the UN General Assembly, but no strong message to eliminate the Security Council with its undemocratic veto power, and no advocacy to replace or change the UN into a genuine democratic world federation which is what is ultimately needed -- the sooner the better.
The event drew together many people of goodwill, and reinforced the importance of a world body in which to discuss world problems and possible solutions. For me, the main importance of this event was that it reinforced goals which have moral and spiritual significance, and continues to maintain faith in the potential for good from our global community.
-- RK
8/31/10WILL BIG OIL AND OTHER CORPORATIONS CASH IN WHILE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER PAYS FIRST FOR A COMBAT MISSION, NOW FOR AN ONGOING OCCUPATION OF IRAQ? Today the American president announced an end to the "combat mission" in Iraq. He does not discuss any plan to have an ongoing occupation using a mixture of American soldiers (now doing "training", not "combat"), and private contractors (mercenaries) to be stationed in permanent armed bases in Iraq, ready to strike if the puppet government's security forces flounder as the Iraqi people reject this arrangement.
The plan? It is my belief that the American taxpayer will get to pay for "security" while Big Oil (multinationals)& other corporations make lucrative deals for Iraqi oil and/or infrastructure projects, protected by the might of the American military, new police/military security via the State Dept., and highly paid private contractors replacing the "combat" troops along with those Iraqi's willing to join the security forces for a puppet government.
Otherwise, why an almost 1 billion dollar American embassy in Iraq, bigger than the Vatican according to various reports? It's a fortress, and the Americans along with the puppet government will be behind walls while Iraqi death/torture squads roam the land targeting dissidents. Moreover, although President Obama has stated America would not have a permanent presence in Iraq, the facts on the ground include numerous American military bases costing millions of dollars, and construction has apparently not abated.
War and occupation appears good for Big Business. Prediction: Big Oil and other corporations (e.g., Halliburton) will not pay for this protection, or the costs of maintaining a puppet government in which Iraqi officials will have ample opportunity to get rich right along with their corporate benefactors. (It will be the ordinary Iraqi citizen who will lose out.)
Another prediction: A similar fate awaits Afghanistan as Big Oil seeks a pipeline through that country. It will also require an ongoing occupation of the country coupled with a puppet government to fight off the rebellious people who reject such suppression. The American taxpayer will pay for the mixture of American soldiers and private contractors who will stay in Afghanistan (just like in Iraq) to insure a cooperating puppet government.
The Earth Federation would not accept the stealing of resources by use of military might by any nation and the use of propaganda (false information) to keep the people in fear and paranoia.
The 9/11 attack caused immense trauma and was supposedly an attack by Muslims, a pretext for the current wars. Unfortunately, the actual scientific evidence suggests otherwise -- yet the American government refuses a new investigation. If the Earth Federation were in full existence, it could do an independent investigation particularly when a nation is suspected of a cover-up. (The evidence presented by 9/11 Truth researchers points to an inside job, a highly sophisticated false flag operation which has led the American people into a "war that never ends, i.e., the war on terror.)
Speculation: There are likely to be additional "false flag operations" which falsely blame new attacks (possibly again on American soil), on "patsies" -- who "confess" their crimes after unbearable torture. These terror tactics will justify continued excessive budgets for the military/industrial complex and Homeland Security, as Americans give in to manufactured paranoia and fear.
Although American soldiers and the public are told that these wars are to bring "democracy and freedom" to whatever country is being "liberated," and to "protect" America from terrorists, the facts point in a different direction: The American government, largely dominated by corporate and banking interests, want governments who cooperate with predatory capitalism and its first cousin, privatization.
(Editor's note: KBR is one of the obvious beneficiaries of these financial arrangements having been granted large contracts for oil infrastructure work. The original oil contracts drawn up earlier in the conquest under Bremmer which locked up deals for 30 years, are being challenged by some Iraqi's who believe the deals cheat the Iraqi people. Oil deals I have learned recently, are not just for American and British oil giants, but also are being given to some other countries such as China and India. Is the Iraqi Oil Ministry getting appropriate contracts for their people, or are corrupt deals being created which redirects the profits to a handful of Iraqi officials in power in collusion with the oil companies?)
8/28/10
MEXICAN ACTIVISTS MAY JOIN THE EARTH FEDERATION MOVEMENT
Communications between the Earth Federation and activists in Mexico have started since it was learned that student and political activists in Mexico are planning a "First Model World Parliament" to be held in the actual House of Deputies of the Mexican government.
The original connection originated from a meeting with Democratic World Federalists in San Francisco who, in association with the World Alliance to Transform the United Nations, began planning meetings in San Francisco perhaps in October, 2010.
The political importance of this network of strategy discussions is that we see American, Mexican, and possibly activists from Central and South America joining together -- with a strong student involvement.
Earth Federation activists believe that the Earth Constitution is the ideal instrument which will allow the creation of a true, as opposed to a toothless, world parliament.
There are activists who would like to simply have an elected world parliament which offers resolutions in terms of solutions, rather than create a genuine new world body (new world government) to replace the present shadow world government which analysts have noted are unelected, wealthy and powerful in military might and in political corruption.
-- RK 8/28/10
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Received 6/21/10 from Gary Shepherd
Gary Shepherd's analysis is a good history lesson for proponents of democratic world government. The public and politicians may resist, and even resent, logical solutions to our world's problems -- even when the old ways have been convincingly shown to be wrong, and in current times, disastrous. -- Editor
PTOLEMY, COPERNICUS AND WORLD GOVERNMENT
By Gary Shepherd
May - June 2010 issue of United World magazine
gshepher@verizon.net
Long before the advent of the current public arguments about
evolution and global warming, the greatest controversy in the history of
science was the debate between the geocentric, or earth-centered model of the
universe described by the second century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and the
heliocentric, or sun-centered model, advocated by the 16th century Polish
astronomer Copernicus.
This battle took most of a century to resolve, and it involved some
of the most powerful political and religious leaders of its time. Today, we
have forgotten just what a mental revolution Copernicus' theory represented.
Although some Greek philosophers had speculated about a heliocentric model, the
Ptolemaic model had been almost universally accepted by astronomers for more
than a thousand years. In fact, Copernicus knew that his idea was so radical
that he didn't even have it published until after he had safely died.
It is easy to see why. The idea that the Earth is at the center of
the universe, and that the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve around it
matches our everyday experience. After all, the Earth appears immobile beneath
our feet -- it doesn't seem to move. When we look up at the sky, the heavenly
bodies seem to be moving around us. Even today, we speak of the sun rising or
setting, as if it were the sun circling around the Earth.
What is more, the geocentric model could be used to explain all the
scientific observations that could be made at that time. Because it had been
noticed that sometimes the planets seemed to stop and go backwards in their
orbits for a while, Ptolemy created smaller circles, called epicycles, within
the larger crystalline spheres in which the planets circled around the Earth,
so that they were sometimes moving in the opposite direction from the larger
circle. Using this model, one could calculate precisely where a planet would be
at any particular time -- an important consideration at the time, since most
astronomers were also astrologers, and knowledge of the locations of the
planets at the time of a person's birth was vital to casting horoscopes.
But as time went on, and observations became more precise, the
ability of the Ptolemaic model to predict planetary locations began to break
down. The model was altered by later scientists, making it more and more
complex, in an effort to make it correspond to observations of the real
universe. In fact, the Ptolemaic model became so complex, that some scientists,
in order calculate planetary movements, used the Copernican model for
mathematical purposes, even though they didn't really believe it described the
actual universe.
Eventually, partly because of the invention of the telescope, the
Copernican model achieved acceptance over its rival, and today one would have
difficulty finding an astronomer anywhere who supported the geocentric
universe.
What, one is tempted to ask, has any of this to do with the idea of
world government? Well, the parallels are quite striking. The current system of
independent nation-states, sometimes called the Westphalian system, has existed
for many centuries as the unquestioned model for the way the political world is
designed. Like the Ptolemaic model, it makes sense to us. The nations appear to
exist, they appear to be eternal, and there doesn't appear to be any logical
alternative to it. They match our everyday experience. We speak of the earth,
and humanity, as if they were both divided up into nation-states.
Like the Ptolemaic model, as time has passed the nation-state model
has had to grow more and more complex to match the real world. Treaties,
conventions, and agreements have piled up, one upon the other, to govern the
complicated relations between the different nations. For instance, the Danube
River runs through numerous different nations on its way to the sea. All of the
national governments have a say in governing the preservation of that river,
making it very difficult to come to agreement about anything. The current
system has become so complex that sometimes, in order to make it function
properly, people act as if the world were united, even though they don't really
believe it is.
Just as it was the advance of technology and science led to more
precise measurements that doomed the Ptolemaic model to extinction, advanced
technology is leading toward measurements that are threatening the viability of
the nation-state system. We have peered down at the earth's surface from our
orbital satellites and have seen that there are no borders drawn on the real
earth. We have peered into the intricacies of the human genome, and we have
found no genes for nationality.
Copernicus offered a model that was truer to the real world, and
thus eventually supplanted the older, more inaccurate model. So too must we
offer a model of society that is truer to the real world, which is more
accurate, more sustainable, and simply works better, so that it can replace the
outdated one. One day, the idea of separate nation-states will come to seem as
quaint and antiquated as the perfect crystalline spheres that were a feature of
the Ptolemaic system.
5/24/10
MODERN MODERATE MUSLIM MAN OPPOSES USE OF THREATS OR VIOLENCE TO CENSOR RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION AND FREE SPEECH
A Portland, Oregon Muslim man in a recent article (in USA Today, May 13, 2010) opposes use of threats and violence by some Muslims who have murdered, or threatened to murder, those who have used the image of Mohammed in ways for which they did not approve.
Mr. Harris Zafar is highly critical of Muslim violence used to censor free speech and states that "...Islam does not support people who violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech..." Mr. Zafar goes on to cite examples from the Quran and from the life of Mohammed himself which support nonviolence.
Importantly, Mr. Zafar also condemns State sponsored blasphemy laws such as used in Saudi Arabia (apostasy potentially punishable by death), Pakistan, and Afghanistan which also may invoke prison or a death sentence.
These majority Muslim states, according to the article, suppress other religious faiths and beliefs using blasphemy laws to silence or imprison religious minorities, journalists, academicians, and dissenters.
[Use of threats or violence to prevent free speech or practice of religion violates the Earth Constitution's Bill of Human Rights.]
Attempts to censor or silence critics is not limited to extremist Muslims. Jewish Zionists in the USA go to great lengths to silence criticism of Israel but use different tactics such as applying pressure to put a newspaper out of business.
Much like Saudi Arabia gives Muslims special rights, Israel does the same for its Jewish population. In both cases, citizens of other religions are second class citizens in terms of legal rights. [Unequal treatment of citizens violates the Human Rights section of the Earth Constitution.]
There is a somewhat different but parallel issue in the United States wherein Jewish Zionists try to silence criticism of Israel's criminal actions against the Palestinians. These Jewish extremists, unlike Muslim zealots, may allow public criticism of their God (Yahweh or Jehova), but they do not allow a full public discussion of Israel's expansionistic aggression against Palestinians and have "unelected" American politicians who dared defy the Israeli Lobby.
Last but not least, we must keep in mind a large group of fundamentalist Christians who (subconsciously) are actually hoping to have Armageddon (the ultimate in violence) to prove that their interpretation of Biblical scripture is "true." These extremist Christians support and encourage Israeli expansionism in the belief that once Israel has conquered all of the so-called "Promised Land" for Jews, then Biblical conditions are fulfilled for Armageddon to occur. Jesus will return while they, the faithful, will "rapture" up to heaven.
Armageddon, with its implication of widespread death and destruction, is not a particularly wholesome or loving value. Jesus, these extremists seem to fail to see, is the Prince of Peace -- not the Prince of Death and Destruction. If Jesus were here now, he would without question condemn any Armageddon scenario -- Jesus, in this writer's opinion, would not approve of the suffering of so many innocent people, such as our children, and would go into action to prevent such a horrible event.
-- Editor
4/30/10
"EQUAL LAND FOR EQUAL PEOPLE" OFFERS A STANDARD BY WHICH TO JUDGE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS BETWEEN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
Alan Barnett, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor (San Jose State University in California, USA), a peace and social justice activist, has proposed that the path to a fair and peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine should use the standard of "Equal Land for Equal People."
This principle of equality is in keeping with the standards and inherent basic rights as stated in the Earth Federation's Constitution. It would provide an objective that treats both the Jews and Palestinians (including Christians and Muslims) with integrity and respect.
Dr. Barnett notes that at the present time Israel has 78% of the Holy Land while Palestine has only 22%, despite the fact that when one counts the actual number of Jews and Palestinians in the region (including the Palestinian refugees driven out of Israel and in refugee camps), both have a population of roughly 6 to 8 million people. Hence his notion of "Equal Land for Equal People".
Barnett points out that, under the (international) rule of "right of return" the Palestinians would need more land than they presently have in order to accommodate the many refugees who want to return to their former homes (before being forced out year after year by the Israeli's).
The advantage of "Equal Land for Equal People" according to Dr. Barnett is that "The security of the Israelis depends on the Palestinians feeling that they are being dealt with fairly."
"Peace is only possible if both Israelis and Palestinians are treated as equals," writes Barnett.
Editor's note - "Equal land for equal people" is a potentially important guideline available for mediators in establishing a lasting and productive peace between Israel and Palestine. It is consistent with the Earth Constitution. Every human being is inherently, by birth, a "citizen of Earth" with all of the rights granted in Articles 12 and 13 (Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth, and Directive Principles).
3/27/10 MOVEMENT OF BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS BY THE US AIR FORCE SUGGESTS POSSIBLE ATTACK PLANS AGAINST IRAN. ANALYST PREDICTS A "STAGED TERRORIST" ATTACK WILL BE USED FOR JUSTIFICATION.
Analyst Paul Craig Roberts reports that a Scottish newspaper, The Herald Scotland, has reported that "bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." It is claimed by the newspaper that "bunker-buster bombs are being moved to an Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. One London analyst, Dan Piesch, is quoted as saying, "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The analysts speculate to what sounds like another "shock and awe" type of devastation as was used against Iraq, with the Western media claiming the attack is for "freedom and democracy" but the real intent will be to establish a puppet government.
A false flag operation followed by a military attack and invasion would be a violation of international law. (Many investigators believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation used as a pretext for war.) Would Israel and the USA act jointly?
If Iran is attacked under false pretense, would high government officials be held accountable by the International Criminal Court for war crimes? Even if Israel alone led the attack, could President Obama or Pentagon generals be tried for an international crime of aiding and abetting?
-- RK
Expect a False Flag Terror Attack To Precede Invasion Of Iran
Paul Craig Roberts -- March 18, 2010
According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping "bunker-buster" bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The next step will be a staged "terrorist attack," a "false flag" operation as per Operation Northwoods, for which Iran will be blamed. As Iran and its leadership have already been demonized, the "false flag" attack will suffice to obtain US and European public support for bombing Iran. The bombing will include more than the nuclear facilities and will continue until the Iranians agree to regime change and the installation of a puppet government. The corrupt American media will present the new puppet as "freedom and democracy."
If the past is a guide, Americans will fall for the deception. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. naval vessel, the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to discredit Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) as "disturbed," and the falsified "intelligence" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are many other examples. I have always regarded the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City as a SCAD. Allegedly, a disturbed Tim McVeigh used a fertilizer bomb in a truck parked outside the building. More likely, McVeigh was a patsy, whose fertilizer bomb was a cover for explosives planted inside the building.
A number of experts dismissed the possibility of McVeigh's bomb producing such structural damage. For example, General Benton K. Partin, who was in charge of U.S. Air Force munitions design and testing, produced a thick report on the Murrah building bombing which concluded that the building blew up from the inside out. Gen. Partin concluded that "the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementary demolition charges at some of the reinforced concrete bases inside the building, a standard demolition technique. For a simplistic blast truck bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A7 is beyond credulity."Gen. Partin dismissed the official report as "a massive cover-up of immense proportions."
Of course, the general's unquestionable expertise had no bearing on the outcome. One reason is that his and other expert voices were drowned out by media pumping the official story. Another reason is that public beliefs in a democracy run counter to suspicion of government as a terrorist agent. Professor Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph says that "false flag" operations have the advantage over truth: "research shows that people are far less willing to examine information that disputes, rather than confirms, their beliefs." Professor Steven Hoffman agrees: "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe. In fact, for the most part people completely ignore contrary information." Even when hard evidence turns up, it can be discredited as a "conspiracy theory."
All that is necessary for success of "false flag" or "black ops" events is for the government to have its story ready and to have a reliable and compliant media. Once an official story is in place, thought and investigation are precluded. Any formal inquiry that is convened serves to buttress the already provided explanation.
An explanation ready-at-hand is almost a give-away that an incident is a "black ops" event. Notice how quickly the U.S. government, allegedly so totally deceived by al Qaida, provided the explanation for 9/11. When President Kennedy was assassinated, the government produced the culprit immediately. The alleged culprit was conveniently shot inside a jail by a civilian before he could be questioned. But the official story was ready, and it held.
Professors Manwell and Hoffman's research resonates with me. I remember reading in my graduate studies that the Czarist secret police set off bombs in order to create excuses to arrest their targets. My inclination was to dismiss the accounts as anti-Czarist propaganda by pro-communist historians. It was only later when Robert Conquest confirmed to me that this was indeed the practice of the Czarist secret police that the scales fell from my eyes.
Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, "The Rogue Nation," makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to "terrorism," and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ "false flag" operations that advance the agenda.
The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands.
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3/11/10
WAR SYSTEM SUCKS TAX MONEY AWAY FROM PUBLIC EDUCATION
On March 14, 2010 Dr. Tad Daley lectured to the public and UC Berkeley students on his new book "Apocalypse Never." But do college students really understand the relationship between their rising college costs and the bloated military/industrial/research war system budget of the United States with over 700 military bases around the world, and a so-called war against terror seemingly everywhere?
Do students really understand who is sucking up the majority of tax money which previously was used to provide an affordable, public college education? The obvious answer is the 700 billion dollars a year (plus or minus 50 billion dollars for black box operations) which buy bombs, bullets, rockets, guided missiles, golf courses for Pentagon generals, early retirement, Stealth bombers, jet airplanes, drones, Navy missile cruisers, and much, much more. Education and health care for Americans?
Many young people are being forced to "join the Army" in order to have a job, get health care, and sometimes, to get a college education.
Untold billions of dollars are being spent outside of America. New billion dollar embassies are being constructed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Billions of dollars to private contractors to rebuild infrastructure in these countries which the USA conveniently destroyed in the first place.
Corporations are (literally) "making a killing" in this war system, as are the smaller businesses that make uniforms, helmets, boots, and other necessities needed by a killing machine. Not to mention the doctors, nurses, consultants, spies, engineers, physicists, and other peripheral personnel used to advance and maintain the high tech war machine system.
Then of course there is the ongoing cost of death and destruction -- rebuilding disabled soldiers, demolished buildings, roads and other infrastructure destroyed by American/NATO bombs, and then having to replace these same bombs and missiles.
Yes, it's a good business -- if you believe in death and destruction.
But it's a bad business for educationand affordable health care at home. The public cannot afford to pay for constant, worldwide wars, both covert and overt, and pay for affordable education. Tough luck, students. Get the education you can't afford thanks to a war system designed to never end.
What could replace the world's war system? A world unity government -- the Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution...designed as a world peace system. Then students could be given affordable, or even free, education -- and universal health care would be a given.
-- Editor
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2/19/10 HOW THE UNPA CAMPAIGN RELATES TO THE EARTH FEDERATION'S WORLD PARLIAMENT
If European parliamentarians seek more democratic representation at the United Nations by adding a "Parliamentary Assembly," but is denied decision-making authority as is the case with the UN General Assembly, then the UNPA (and the UNGA) might consider joining the Earth Federation.
The Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution gives real democratic decision making authority to the Federation's World Parliament. This could become a real possibility since the UN Charter keeps key decision-making power in the hands of the Security Council, and limits the UN General Assembly to making "resolutions." A UN Parliamentary Assembly would most likely suffer the same fate as the General Assembly -- unless the UN Charter was dropped in favor of the Earth Constitution. -- Editor
2/12/10
WHY ESTABLISHMENT PANIC OVER THREAT OF NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION?
An article in the Rock Creek Free Press (Feb., 2010) by Daniel Tencer reports that President Obama's appointee to head the "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs," Cass Sunstein, proposes "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the one surrounding 9/11.
Why such panic from the Establishment?
This type of manipulation would most likely be for the goal of trying to avoid a new 9/11 investigation -- which is what the 9/11 truth movement has been demanding all along. (A demand which seems more than reasonable in view of the new factual evidence that has surfaced since the 9/11 Commission Report was shown to be fatally flawed.)
Such an obvious propaganda maneuver by the authorities is in line with the refusal of the mainstream media to allow credible researchers on the air to explain why they think a new 9/11 investigation is warranted. MSNBC, for example, despite trying to be "progressive", has repeatedly ignored requests to put 9/11 investigators on the air -- despite the fact that these researchers have blue ribbon, impeccable credentials.
In fact, no mainstream media (TV or newspaper) dares let these investigators report their findings to the public -- it would convince the public that they had been hookwinked.
The American propaganda apparatus instead attacks these researchers ad hominen -- an old propaganda trick used to avoid having to address the real issues.
Why? It is this writer's opinion that the Establishment has ordered censorship to avoid a new investigation -- precisely because the 9/11 researchers are getting too close to the type of facts that could bring down a ruling oligarchy.
One might speculate that there is a behind-the-scenes panic. 9/11 researchers are gaining more and more credibility worldwide.
But what about the so-called "mastermind" of 9/11? Won't the upcoming trial of Khalid Shikh Mohammed (KSM) put all questions to rest when he conveniently "confesses" in a public courtroom?
In reality, the fear that KSM might not "confess" the way he was "taught" by torture techniques, may be the reason that some politicians panic at the idea of a public trial, and want a military tribunal instead.
There might be a serious problem with KSM. What if he was tortured, not to get at the truth of "who done it", but to create what is known as a "patsy" in false flag operation lingo?
What if the endless series of waterboarding torture sessions failed to condition him enough to be a reliable patsy? (Hint -- if he appears to waiver from what he is "suppose to say", one might predict the possibility of an "accidental death," taking the full blame for 9/11 with him....case closed.)
-- Editor
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San Francisco Progressive Conference, like the Earth Federation, Proposes New U.S. Amendment to Take Away Corporate Personhood
Sponsored by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org), over 500 progressive activists met in San Francisco on 2/15/10. There was much concern about the direction of the Obama administration. Expanded Pentagon budgets, corporate personhood, the health care debacle, bailing out Big Money, and much more had these progressives confessing to both emotional pain, and indeed, anger.
Similar to the recent discussion in Earth Federation ranks to pass a World Law to Prohibit Corporate Personhood, these progressives want an U.S. Constitutional Amendment to accomplish this same objective, albeit using a rather vague title: "Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment."
Discussion on eliminating "corporate personhood" via an amendment recognized that, even if successful, would apply only here in the United States. Most corporations are multinational. Hence the importance of the Earth Federation's World Law proposal which will be discussed at the Provisonal World Parliament's 12th session which will be held in India in December, 2010.
The present writer was highly impressed with the level of discussion of most participants at this Conference, and the inspired leadership with such individuals as Rabbi Michael Learner, Medea Benjamin, and Marianne Williamson, and others.
There was also a proposal for a worldwide "Marshall Plan" in the belief that being kind and generous to others would be much more effective in global politics than using threats, intimidation, death and destruction. American militarization has only made our world less safe, both for Americans and for others in the world.
(The goals of this progressive group were very much in keeping with Earth Federation goals on almost all fronts -- ending war and poverty, increasing human rights, and protecting the environment. They continue, however, to think more in nationalistic terms rather than in terms of global structure change. Many do not yet grasp the critical need for democratic world federation to replace the current global war system and the inadequate and ineffective United Nations. -- Editor)
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2/6/2010
PROPOSED WORLD BILL FOR 12TH PROVISIONAL WORLD PARLIAMENT
Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Prohibition Act
Whereas, the fourth broad function of the Earth Federation is "to regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, use of world resources, and other global and international processes" (Article 1.4);
Whereas, specific powers of the Earth Federation include the power to "define and regulate procedures for the nomination and election of members of each house of the World Parliament" (Article 4.7);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to protect the civil liberties identified in Article 12, including "freedom to vote without duress, and freedom for political organization and campaigning without censorship or recriminations" (Article 12.5);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "define standards and promote worldwide improvement in working conditions," standards of living, healthcare, sanitation, and other basic necessities for a quality of life for world citizens, including protection of the environment and the ending of war (Article 13);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "regulate and supervise supra-national trade, industry, corporations, businesses, cartels, professional services" (Article 4.14), and international communications (Article 4.13);
Whereas, in some major nations today, corporations have been granted "legal personhood," giving them all the rights and privileges of private human persons, with the exception that these corporations cannot die, that individuals operating within the corporation are protected from liability because the corporation itself is considered a collective "person," that corporations are entities without a conscience mandated solely to make a private profit for their investors, and that corporations, in spite of their vast impact on society, may claim privacy from public scrutiny, and other rights of private persons;
And whereas, within such nations, corporate personhood has given corporations the "free speech" of private persons through which they have used their vast economic resources to colonize and destroy the democratic process, engineering the election of law-makers beholden to the corporations, employing professional lobbyists for their private ends, and using a variety of means to manipulate government in the service of minority private interests;
And whereas, within the world prior to the advent of the Earth Federation, democracy has been compromised nearly everywhere by the wealth and power of the few to colonize governments and communications systems;
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Provisional World Parliament:
Article 1.
Only flesh and blood human beings shall have the rights of legal persons as identified in Articles 12 and 13 of the Earth Constitution.
Article 2.
Private corporations under the regulative jurisdiction of the Earth Federation shall be incorporated . by the World Parliament or its designated agents with legal mandates specifically defining their functions, responsibilities, and modes of operation.
2.1. These legal mandates empowering corporations to perform certain economic operations shall be defined within a framework considering:
2.1.2. protection of democracy,
2.1.3, protection of the environment,
2.1.4 promotion of economic prosperity among people and communities effected by their operations, and, in general,
2.1.5 the common good of the citizens of the Earth Federation.
Article 3.
Private, profit-oriented corporations shall not have the right, as collective entities, to promote any candidate for election or any political cause within the Earth Federation, nor to contribute funds or campaign contributions or other economic support to candidates for office.
3.1. However, individuals working within any corporation, shall have the free and full right to participate in promoting candidates for election or any political cause they may choose,
3.2. Individuals working within any corporation shall have the right to contribute funds to political campaigns within whatever limits may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 4.
Private individuals shall have the right to promote candidates or causes of their choice within the legal criteria legislated by the World Parliament. Such criteria shall be formulated within a framework that limits the ability of wealthy individuals to unduly influence or colonize the political process.
Article 5.
Non-profit political associations of private individuals (as, for example, political parties, advocacy groups, or think tanks) shall be registered with the Earth Federation and operate within whatever legal limits, transparency, and other criteria as may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 6.
Elections conducted under the World Parliament, beginning at the First Operative Stage of the Earth Federation, shall be free, fair, and monitored by independent observers.
6.1. Each candidate shall use a government defined and paid for information booklet (which may also be electronic), of a standard size and overall format that shall be used for campaign purposes (as specified in Article 8.3.1.5 of the Earth Constitution).
6.2. Each candidate shall have equal access to public communications media (electronic or print) under limits and conditions defined by the World Parliament.
6.3. Each candidate shall have the right to use private communications media (electronic or print) as paid for by non-profit advocacy groups or contributions of private citizens under limits and conditions as defined by the World Parliament.
Article 7.
Private, profit-making communications media that are international in scope also fall under the category of corporations and agencies requiring regulation by the Earth Federation (Articles 1.4 and 4.13).
7.1. Profit-making communications corporations shall not be recognized as legal persons within the Earth Federation.
7.2. The Provisional World Parliament recognizes that profit-making communications corporations may play in important role in fostering democratic processes, the diversity of voices necessary to vigorous dialogue and debate, and disseminating information necessary to democratic decision-making.
7.3. With this possibly important role in mind, the World Parliament may wish to define legal incorporation for such entities differently from that from other profit-making corporations.
7.4. Nevertheless, the legal powers of profit-making communications corporations shall be defined within a framework directed toward maximizing the democratic powers of individual persons for participation in political processes and protecting the rights of individual persons to speech and political participation as define in Articles 12 and 13.
7.5. The framework identified in 7.4 may be fostered, for example, through anti-trust or anti-cartel laws that break up media conglomerates into a number of smaller, competing voices, or through legislation requiring the airing of opposing viewpoints.
Article 8.
When considering legislation concerning the items specified under this Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Abolition Act, the World Parliament shall seek input from each of the agencies within the Integrative Complex of the Earth Federation and from any other ministry or agency of the Federation deemed appropriate.
8.1. Since the World Boundaries and Elections Administration (Article 8.3) is responsible to define the procedures for properly democratic elections (8.3.1.5) and defines the rules for world political parties (8.3.1.6), this agency shall submit annual reports to the World Parliament regarding the successes and difficulties of democratic elections with respect to the functioning of concentrations of private wealth (wealthy individuals or profit-making corporations) and with respect to the operations of communications corporations.
8.2. These reports shall include factual assessments of the degrees to which free and fair popular democracy in the service of the majority of people is disrupted by private wealth, profit-making corporations, and/or communications corporations.
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Article 9.
Penalties for violations of this act shall be determined by the World Parliament and enforced by the world police and world courts.
9.1. All penalties shall apply to individuals and none to corporations, since it is individuals who break the law, not abstract legal entities.
9.2. The penalties and courts shall normally assess greater responsibility to those higher up in the corporate hierarchy, keeping in mind that "obeying orders" from one�s boss does not fully exonerate any individual who knowingly breaks the law.
9.3. Whistle blowers and others who report abuses with regard to this act shall be protected by this law from retaliation by their employers. It shall be the responsibility of the World Ombudsmus to monitor such situations and protect the rights of the persons involved.
2/6/10 FROM THE ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT NUMBER 78 by William Blum www.killinghope.org
(Below is an excerpt from Mr. Blum's latest article.)
The US bombing, invasion, occupation and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and the continuing Israeli-US genocide against the Palestinians have created an army of new anti-American terrorists. We'll be hearing from them for a terribly long time. And we'll be hearing American officials twist themselves into intellectual and moral knots as they try to avoid confronting these facts.
In his "State of the Union" address on January 27, President Obama said: "But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know." Well, ending America's many wars would free up enough money to do anything a rational, humane society would want to do. Eliminating the military budget would pay for free medical care for everyone. Free university education for everyone. Creating a government public works project that could provide millions of decently-paid jobs, like repairing the decrepit infrastructure and healing the environment to the best of our ability. You can add your own favorite projects. All covered, just by ending the damn wars. Imagine that.
(Editor's note: A belligerent nation always at war will go so deeply in debt that it will no longer be able to care for its own citizens at home. Worse yet, military and covert operation violence, death and destruction, make citizens less safe because the victims eventually seek revenge. Brutality only pacifies on the surface, underneath the victims seethe with anger and hate.)
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11/11/10
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORLD PEACE: TREATIES ARE NOT THE ROAD TO WORLD PEACE AND JUSTICE -- ONLY A FEDERATED WORLD UNION IS REALISTIC AND PRACTICALRecently a world federalist sent out an impressive list of United Nations or other international treaties and conventions in various stages of consideration or acceptance by various nations.
The list included the NEW START TREATY (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY (CTBT), the NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT), and conventions to ban cluster munitions and land mines. Also there are UN conventions against torture which came into force in 1987, conventions on the rights of children (1990) and the disabled (2008), and other important agreements.
By addressing these issues nations were acknowledging problems of universal concern and importance despite differences in culture and tradition, illustrating clearly that there can be universally agreed upon standards of ethics and conduct.
However, talk is cheap. Actually abiding by these types of agreements is a different story. History shows that agreements based upon treaties are built upon quicksand. Time and time again, particularly with the more powerful, treaties are ignored when seen as inconvenient with regard to national self-interest or business interests.
Smaller or weaker nations also routinely ignore these agreements but do so differently. They sneak and cheat as in the case of Israel regarding nuclear weapons, or get a powerful ally (in this case the USA) to give them protection from enforcement.
So where does the "Psychology of World Peace" enter this picture, and what does psychology have to do with treaties, conventions, and other agreements between nations?
In the current global system of treaty-based agreements, nations maintain "absolute" sovereignty. This fact means that nations are allowed to have secret operations, and choose which agreements they will abide by, or not. There is no guarantee of open inspection and investigation. Moreover, individual leaders are protected from outside criminal prosecution by their own nation.
The key psychological result of national sovereignty is one of institutionalized paranoia.
Prison gangs, like nations, operate under the paranoid dynamic. Because each gang is autonomous (i.e., sovereign), they are automatically paranoid that the other gang is arming to get the advantage. Hence, even when prison authorities do a complete, clean, prison sweep of all weapons everywhere in the prison -- the gangs within weeks rearm themselves.
The psychological effect of this dysfunctional global system is that each nation is paranoid of the other, and rightfully so. Nations, both powerful or weak, may be up to no good to get the advantage over the other.
There is only one method to end the dynamics of national paranoia. The nations must federate in a democratic world union. The Earth Constitution is designed for just that purpose.
The United Nations, consisting of sovereign nations and hence guaranteeing a constant dynamic of paranoia, must freely give way to the Earth Federation/Earth Constitution -- the latter of which has no military or economic power. Its power is in the fact that its design will eliminate once and for all the poison of paranoia which has plagued our world and brought us to the brink of destruction.
-- Editor (RK)
11/1/10
The United Nations 65th Anniversary celebration in San Francisco (October 22 -24, 2010) offered a generous portion of good feelings toward world unity and understanding to honor the signing of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945 in San Francisco.
Events included a "Symphony for United Nations" conducted by Maestro Joseph Eger well-known for his artistic support of the UN; an inter-generational model UN session; a film festival on international issues; and some cultural performances with participants from other countries.
Although organizers of the events were successful in created a positive and constructive atmosphere, they did not shy away from discussing serious world problems. Speakers discussed worldwide poverty, sickness and diseases such as AIDS, human rights, wars and the urgent need for disarmament of weapons of mass destruction.
The prescriptions offered for solving these problems, however, tended to remain in the same United Nations paradigm emphasizing millennium goals which have been largely unsuccessful. Wars, threats of nuclear annihilation, worldwide poverty, and loss of individual human rights continue to be epidemic.
Lip service was made for the need to "strengthen the UN" and a call was put out to "rejuvenate the nuclear disarmament movement". A Stanford University professor, Dr. Hellman, presented the facts on the risks of nuclear catastrophe --
and left this observer more determined than ever to demand full nuclear disarmament the world over.
Proposed solutions by invited speakers, however, tended to remain "inside the box" regarding changes to the United Nations and the present global system. Proposed solutions relied upon treaties and international law within the present UN structure rather than a new democratic world body able to apply enforceable world laws on individuals and with a democratically elected world parliament.
There was some minor mention of the need for a "UN Peoples Assembly" to go along with the UN General Assembly, but no strong message to eliminate the Security Council with its undemocratic veto power, and no advocacy to replace or change the UN into a genuine democratic world federation which is what is ultimately needed -- the sooner the better.
The event drew together many people of goodwill, and reinforced the importance of a world body in which to discuss world problems and possible solutions. For me, the main importance of this event was that it reinforced goals which have moral and spiritual significance, and continues to maintain faith in the potential for good from our global community.
-- RK
8/31/10WILL BIG OIL AND OTHER CORPORATIONS CASH IN WHILE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER PAYS FIRST FOR A COMBAT MISSION, NOW FOR AN ONGOING OCCUPATION OF IRAQ? Today the American president announced an end to the "combat mission" in Iraq. He does not discuss any plan to have an ongoing occupation using a mixture of American soldiers (now doing "training", not "combat"), and private contractors (mercenaries) to be stationed in permanent armed bases in Iraq, ready to strike if the puppet government's security forces flounder as the Iraqi people reject this arrangement.
The plan? It is my belief that the American taxpayer will get to pay for "security" while Big Oil (multinationals)& other corporations make lucrative deals for Iraqi oil and/or infrastructure projects, protected by the might of the American military, new police/military security via the State Dept., and highly paid private contractors replacing the "combat" troops along with those Iraqi's willing to join the security forces for a puppet government.
Otherwise, why an almost 1 billion dollar American embassy in Iraq, bigger than the Vatican according to various reports? It's a fortress, and the Americans along with the puppet government will be behind walls while Iraqi death/torture squads roam the land targeting dissidents. Moreover, although President Obama has stated America would not have a permanent presence in Iraq, the facts on the ground include numerous American military bases costing millions of dollars, and construction has apparently not abated.
War and occupation appears good for Big Business. Prediction: Big Oil and other corporations (e.g., Halliburton) will not pay for this protection, or the costs of maintaining a puppet government in which Iraqi officials will have ample opportunity to get rich right along with their corporate benefactors. (It will be the ordinary Iraqi citizen who will lose out.)
Another prediction: A similar fate awaits Afghanistan as Big Oil seeks a pipeline through that country. It will also require an ongoing occupation of the country coupled with a puppet government to fight off the rebellious people who reject such suppression. The American taxpayer will pay for the mixture of American soldiers and private contractors who will stay in Afghanistan (just like in Iraq) to insure a cooperating puppet government.
The Earth Federation would not accept the stealing of resources by use of military might by any nation and the use of propaganda (false information) to keep the people in fear and paranoia.
The 9/11 attack caused immense trauma and was supposedly an attack by Muslims, a pretext for the current wars. Unfortunately, the actual scientific evidence suggests otherwise -- yet the American government refuses a new investigation. If the Earth Federation were in full existence, it could do an independent investigation particularly when a nation is suspected of a cover-up. (The evidence presented by 9/11 Truth researchers points to an inside job, a highly sophisticated false flag operation which has led the American people into a "war that never ends, i.e., the war on terror.)
Speculation: There are likely to be additional "false flag operations" which falsely blame new attacks (possibly again on American soil), on "patsies" -- who "confess" their crimes after unbearable torture. These terror tactics will justify continued excessive budgets for the military/industrial complex and Homeland Security, as Americans give in to manufactured paranoia and fear.
Although American soldiers and the public are told that these wars are to bring "democracy and freedom" to whatever country is being "liberated," and to "protect" America from terrorists, the facts point in a different direction: The American government, largely dominated by corporate and banking interests, want governments who cooperate with predatory capitalism and its first cousin, privatization.
(Editor's note: KBR is one of the obvious beneficiaries of these financial arrangements having been granted large contracts for oil infrastructure work. The original oil contracts drawn up earlier in the conquest under Bremmer which locked up deals for 30 years, are being challenged by some Iraqi's who believe the deals cheat the Iraqi people. Oil deals I have learned recently, are not just for American and British oil giants, but also are being given to some other countries such as China and India. Is the Iraqi Oil Ministry getting appropriate contracts for their people, or are corrupt deals being created which redirects the profits to a handful of Iraqi officials in power in collusion with the oil companies?)
8/28/10
MEXICAN ACTIVISTS MAY JOIN THE EARTH FEDERATION MOVEMENT
Communications between the Earth Federation and activists in Mexico have started since it was learned that student and political activists in Mexico are planning a "First Model World Parliament" to be held in the actual House of Deputies of the Mexican government.
The original connection originated from a meeting with Democratic World Federalists in San Francisco who, in association with the World Alliance to Transform the United Nations, began planning meetings in San Francisco perhaps in October, 2010.
The political importance of this network of strategy discussions is that we see American, Mexican, and possibly activists from Central and South America joining together -- with a strong student involvement.
Earth Federation activists believe that the Earth Constitution is the ideal instrument which will allow the creation of a true, as opposed to a toothless, world parliament.
There are activists who would like to simply have an elected world parliament which offers resolutions in terms of solutions, rather than create a genuine new world body (new world government) to replace the present shadow world government which analysts have noted are unelected, wealthy and powerful in military might and in political corruption.
-- RK 8/28/10
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Received 6/21/10 from Gary Shepherd
Gary Shepherd's analysis is a good history lesson for proponents of democratic world government. The public and politicians may resist, and even resent, logical solutions to our world's problems -- even when the old ways have been convincingly shown to be wrong, and in current times, disastrous. -- Editor
PTOLEMY, COPERNICUS AND WORLD GOVERNMENT
By Gary Shepherd
May - June 2010 issue of United World magazine
gshepher@verizon.net
Long before the advent of the current public arguments about
evolution and global warming, the greatest controversy in the history of
science was the debate between the geocentric, or earth-centered model of the
universe described by the second century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and the
heliocentric, or sun-centered model, advocated by the 16th century Polish
astronomer Copernicus.
This battle took most of a century to resolve, and it involved some
of the most powerful political and religious leaders of its time. Today, we
have forgotten just what a mental revolution Copernicus' theory represented.
Although some Greek philosophers had speculated about a heliocentric model, the
Ptolemaic model had been almost universally accepted by astronomers for more
than a thousand years. In fact, Copernicus knew that his idea was so radical
that he didn't even have it published until after he had safely died.
It is easy to see why. The idea that the Earth is at the center of
the universe, and that the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve around it
matches our everyday experience. After all, the Earth appears immobile beneath
our feet -- it doesn't seem to move. When we look up at the sky, the heavenly
bodies seem to be moving around us. Even today, we speak of the sun rising or
setting, as if it were the sun circling around the Earth.
What is more, the geocentric model could be used to explain all the
scientific observations that could be made at that time. Because it had been
noticed that sometimes the planets seemed to stop and go backwards in their
orbits for a while, Ptolemy created smaller circles, called epicycles, within
the larger crystalline spheres in which the planets circled around the Earth,
so that they were sometimes moving in the opposite direction from the larger
circle. Using this model, one could calculate precisely where a planet would be
at any particular time -- an important consideration at the time, since most
astronomers were also astrologers, and knowledge of the locations of the
planets at the time of a person's birth was vital to casting horoscopes.
But as time went on, and observations became more precise, the
ability of the Ptolemaic model to predict planetary locations began to break
down. The model was altered by later scientists, making it more and more
complex, in an effort to make it correspond to observations of the real
universe. In fact, the Ptolemaic model became so complex, that some scientists,
in order calculate planetary movements, used the Copernican model for
mathematical purposes, even though they didn't really believe it described the
actual universe.
Eventually, partly because of the invention of the telescope, the
Copernican model achieved acceptance over its rival, and today one would have
difficulty finding an astronomer anywhere who supported the geocentric
universe.
What, one is tempted to ask, has any of this to do with the idea of
world government? Well, the parallels are quite striking. The current system of
independent nation-states, sometimes called the Westphalian system, has existed
for many centuries as the unquestioned model for the way the political world is
designed. Like the Ptolemaic model, it makes sense to us. The nations appear to
exist, they appear to be eternal, and there doesn't appear to be any logical
alternative to it. They match our everyday experience. We speak of the earth,
and humanity, as if they were both divided up into nation-states.
Like the Ptolemaic model, as time has passed the nation-state model
has had to grow more and more complex to match the real world. Treaties,
conventions, and agreements have piled up, one upon the other, to govern the
complicated relations between the different nations. For instance, the Danube
River runs through numerous different nations on its way to the sea. All of the
national governments have a say in governing the preservation of that river,
making it very difficult to come to agreement about anything. The current
system has become so complex that sometimes, in order to make it function
properly, people act as if the world were united, even though they don't really
believe it is.
Just as it was the advance of technology and science led to more
precise measurements that doomed the Ptolemaic model to extinction, advanced
technology is leading toward measurements that are threatening the viability of
the nation-state system. We have peered down at the earth's surface from our
orbital satellites and have seen that there are no borders drawn on the real
earth. We have peered into the intricacies of the human genome, and we have
found no genes for nationality.
Copernicus offered a model that was truer to the real world, and
thus eventually supplanted the older, more inaccurate model. So too must we
offer a model of society that is truer to the real world, which is more
accurate, more sustainable, and simply works better, so that it can replace the
outdated one. One day, the idea of separate nation-states will come to seem as
quaint and antiquated as the perfect crystalline spheres that were a feature of
the Ptolemaic system.
5/24/10
MODERN MODERATE MUSLIM MAN OPPOSES USE OF THREATS OR VIOLENCE TO CENSOR RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION AND FREE SPEECH
A Portland, Oregon Muslim man in a recent article (in USA Today, May 13, 2010) opposes use of threats and violence by some Muslims who have murdered, or threatened to murder, those who have used the image of Mohammed in ways for which they did not approve.
Mr. Harris Zafar is highly critical of Muslim violence used to censor free speech and states that "...Islam does not support people who violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech..." Mr. Zafar goes on to cite examples from the Quran and from the life of Mohammed himself which support nonviolence.
Importantly, Mr. Zafar also condemns State sponsored blasphemy laws such as used in Saudi Arabia (apostasy potentially punishable by death), Pakistan, and Afghanistan which also may invoke prison or a death sentence.
These majority Muslim states, according to the article, suppress other religious faiths and beliefs using blasphemy laws to silence or imprison religious minorities, journalists, academicians, and dissenters.
[Use of threats or violence to prevent free speech or practice of religion violates the Earth Constitution's Bill of Human Rights.]
Attempts to censor or silence critics is not limited to extremist Muslims. Jewish Zionists in the USA go to great lengths to silence criticism of Israel but use different tactics such as applying pressure to put a newspaper out of business.
Much like Saudi Arabia gives Muslims special rights, Israel does the same for its Jewish population. In both cases, citizens of other religions are second class citizens in terms of legal rights. [Unequal treatment of citizens violates the Human Rights section of the Earth Constitution.]
There is a somewhat different but parallel issue in the United States wherein Jewish Zionists try to silence criticism of Israel's criminal actions against the Palestinians. These Jewish extremists, unlike Muslim zealots, may allow public criticism of their God (Yahweh or Jehova), but they do not allow a full public discussion of Israel's expansionistic aggression against Palestinians and have "unelected" American politicians who dared defy the Israeli Lobby.
Last but not least, we must keep in mind a large group of fundamentalist Christians who (subconsciously) are actually hoping to have Armageddon (the ultimate in violence) to prove that their interpretation of Biblical scripture is "true." These extremist Christians support and encourage Israeli expansionism in the belief that once Israel has conquered all of the so-called "Promised Land" for Jews, then Biblical conditions are fulfilled for Armageddon to occur. Jesus will return while they, the faithful, will "rapture" up to heaven.
Armageddon, with its implication of widespread death and destruction, is not a particularly wholesome or loving value. Jesus, these extremists seem to fail to see, is the Prince of Peace -- not the Prince of Death and Destruction. If Jesus were here now, he would without question condemn any Armageddon scenario -- Jesus, in this writer's opinion, would not approve of the suffering of so many innocent people, such as our children, and would go into action to prevent such a horrible event.
-- Editor
4/30/10
"EQUAL LAND FOR EQUAL PEOPLE" OFFERS A STANDARD BY WHICH TO JUDGE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS BETWEEN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
Alan Barnett, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor (San Jose State University in California, USA), a peace and social justice activist, has proposed that the path to a fair and peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine should use the standard of "Equal Land for Equal People."
This principle of equality is in keeping with the standards and inherent basic rights as stated in the Earth Federation's Constitution. It would provide an objective that treats both the Jews and Palestinians (including Christians and Muslims) with integrity and respect.
Dr. Barnett notes that at the present time Israel has 78% of the Holy Land while Palestine has only 22%, despite the fact that when one counts the actual number of Jews and Palestinians in the region (including the Palestinian refugees driven out of Israel and in refugee camps), both have a population of roughly 6 to 8 million people. Hence his notion of "Equal Land for Equal People".
Barnett points out that, under the (international) rule of "right of return" the Palestinians would need more land than they presently have in order to accommodate the many refugees who want to return to their former homes (before being forced out year after year by the Israeli's).
The advantage of "Equal Land for Equal People" according to Dr. Barnett is that "The security of the Israelis depends on the Palestinians feeling that they are being dealt with fairly."
"Peace is only possible if both Israelis and Palestinians are treated as equals," writes Barnett.
Editor's note - "Equal land for equal people" is a potentially important guideline available for mediators in establishing a lasting and productive peace between Israel and Palestine. It is consistent with the Earth Constitution. Every human being is inherently, by birth, a "citizen of Earth" with all of the rights granted in Articles 12 and 13 (Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth, and Directive Principles).
3/27/10 MOVEMENT OF BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS BY THE US AIR FORCE SUGGESTS POSSIBLE ATTACK PLANS AGAINST IRAN. ANALYST PREDICTS A "STAGED TERRORIST" ATTACK WILL BE USED FOR JUSTIFICATION.
Analyst Paul Craig Roberts reports that a Scottish newspaper, The Herald Scotland, has reported that "bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." It is claimed by the newspaper that "bunker-buster bombs are being moved to an Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. One London analyst, Dan Piesch, is quoted as saying, "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The analysts speculate to what sounds like another "shock and awe" type of devastation as was used against Iraq, with the Western media claiming the attack is for "freedom and democracy" but the real intent will be to establish a puppet government.
A false flag operation followed by a military attack and invasion would be a violation of international law. (Many investigators believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation used as a pretext for war.) Would Israel and the USA act jointly?
If Iran is attacked under false pretense, would high government officials be held accountable by the International Criminal Court for war crimes? Even if Israel alone led the attack, could President Obama or Pentagon generals be tried for an international crime of aiding and abetting?
-- RK
Expect a False Flag Terror Attack To Precede Invasion Of Iran
Paul Craig Roberts -- March 18, 2010
According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping "bunker-buster" bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The next step will be a staged "terrorist attack," a "false flag" operation as per Operation Northwoods, for which Iran will be blamed. As Iran and its leadership have already been demonized, the "false flag" attack will suffice to obtain US and European public support for bombing Iran. The bombing will include more than the nuclear facilities and will continue until the Iranians agree to regime change and the installation of a puppet government. The corrupt American media will present the new puppet as "freedom and democracy."
If the past is a guide, Americans will fall for the deception. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. naval vessel, the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to discredit Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) as "disturbed," and the falsified "intelligence" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are many other examples. I have always regarded the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City as a SCAD. Allegedly, a disturbed Tim McVeigh used a fertilizer bomb in a truck parked outside the building. More likely, McVeigh was a patsy, whose fertilizer bomb was a cover for explosives planted inside the building.
A number of experts dismissed the possibility of McVeigh's bomb producing such structural damage. For example, General Benton K. Partin, who was in charge of U.S. Air Force munitions design and testing, produced a thick report on the Murrah building bombing which concluded that the building blew up from the inside out. Gen. Partin concluded that "the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementary demolition charges at some of the reinforced concrete bases inside the building, a standard demolition technique. For a simplistic blast truck bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A7 is beyond credulity."Gen. Partin dismissed the official report as "a massive cover-up of immense proportions."
Of course, the general's unquestionable expertise had no bearing on the outcome. One reason is that his and other expert voices were drowned out by media pumping the official story. Another reason is that public beliefs in a democracy run counter to suspicion of government as a terrorist agent. Professor Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph says that "false flag" operations have the advantage over truth: "research shows that people are far less willing to examine information that disputes, rather than confirms, their beliefs." Professor Steven Hoffman agrees: "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe. In fact, for the most part people completely ignore contrary information." Even when hard evidence turns up, it can be discredited as a "conspiracy theory."
All that is necessary for success of "false flag" or "black ops" events is for the government to have its story ready and to have a reliable and compliant media. Once an official story is in place, thought and investigation are precluded. Any formal inquiry that is convened serves to buttress the already provided explanation.
An explanation ready-at-hand is almost a give-away that an incident is a "black ops" event. Notice how quickly the U.S. government, allegedly so totally deceived by al Qaida, provided the explanation for 9/11. When President Kennedy was assassinated, the government produced the culprit immediately. The alleged culprit was conveniently shot inside a jail by a civilian before he could be questioned. But the official story was ready, and it held.
Professors Manwell and Hoffman's research resonates with me. I remember reading in my graduate studies that the Czarist secret police set off bombs in order to create excuses to arrest their targets. My inclination was to dismiss the accounts as anti-Czarist propaganda by pro-communist historians. It was only later when Robert Conquest confirmed to me that this was indeed the practice of the Czarist secret police that the scales fell from my eyes.
Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, "The Rogue Nation," makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to "terrorism," and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ "false flag" operations that advance the agenda.
The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands.
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3/11/10
WAR SYSTEM SUCKS TAX MONEY AWAY FROM PUBLIC EDUCATION
On March 14, 2010 Dr. Tad Daley lectured to the public and UC Berkeley students on his new book "Apocalypse Never." But do college students really understand the relationship between their rising college costs and the bloated military/industrial/research war system budget of the United States with over 700 military bases around the world, and a so-called war against terror seemingly everywhere?
Do students really understand who is sucking up the majority of tax money which previously was used to provide an affordable, public college education? The obvious answer is the 700 billion dollars a year (plus or minus 50 billion dollars for black box operations) which buy bombs, bullets, rockets, guided missiles, golf courses for Pentagon generals, early retirement, Stealth bombers, jet airplanes, drones, Navy missile cruisers, and much, much more. Education and health care for Americans?
Many young people are being forced to "join the Army" in order to have a job, get health care, and sometimes, to get a college education.
Untold billions of dollars are being spent outside of America. New billion dollar embassies are being constructed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Billions of dollars to private contractors to rebuild infrastructure in these countries which the USA conveniently destroyed in the first place.
Corporations are (literally) "making a killing" in this war system, as are the smaller businesses that make uniforms, helmets, boots, and other necessities needed by a killing machine. Not to mention the doctors, nurses, consultants, spies, engineers, physicists, and other peripheral personnel used to advance and maintain the high tech war machine system.
Then of course there is the ongoing cost of death and destruction -- rebuilding disabled soldiers, demolished buildings, roads and other infrastructure destroyed by American/NATO bombs, and then having to replace these same bombs and missiles.
Yes, it's a good business -- if you believe in death and destruction.
But it's a bad business for educationand affordable health care at home. The public cannot afford to pay for constant, worldwide wars, both covert and overt, and pay for affordable education. Tough luck, students. Get the education you can't afford thanks to a war system designed to never end.
What could replace the world's war system? A world unity government -- the Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution...designed as a world peace system. Then students could be given affordable, or even free, education -- and universal health care would be a given.
-- Editor
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2/19/10 HOW THE UNPA CAMPAIGN RELATES TO THE EARTH FEDERATION'S WORLD PARLIAMENT
If European parliamentarians seek more democratic representation at the United Nations by adding a "Parliamentary Assembly," but is denied decision-making authority as is the case with the UN General Assembly, then the UNPA (and the UNGA) might consider joining the Earth Federation.
The Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution gives real democratic decision making authority to the Federation's World Parliament. This could become a real possibility since the UN Charter keeps key decision-making power in the hands of the Security Council, and limits the UN General Assembly to making "resolutions." A UN Parliamentary Assembly would most likely suffer the same fate as the General Assembly -- unless the UN Charter was dropped in favor of the Earth Constitution. -- Editor
2/12/10
WHY ESTABLISHMENT PANIC OVER THREAT OF NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION?
An article in the Rock Creek Free Press (Feb., 2010) by Daniel Tencer reports that President Obama's appointee to head the "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs," Cass Sunstein, proposes "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the one surrounding 9/11.
Why such panic from the Establishment?
This type of manipulation would most likely be for the goal of trying to avoid a new 9/11 investigation -- which is what the 9/11 truth movement has been demanding all along. (A demand which seems more than reasonable in view of the new factual evidence that has surfaced since the 9/11 Commission Report was shown to be fatally flawed.)
Such an obvious propaganda maneuver by the authorities is in line with the refusal of the mainstream media to allow credible researchers on the air to explain why they think a new 9/11 investigation is warranted. MSNBC, for example, despite trying to be "progressive", has repeatedly ignored requests to put 9/11 investigators on the air -- despite the fact that these researchers have blue ribbon, impeccable credentials.
In fact, no mainstream media (TV or newspaper) dares let these investigators report their findings to the public -- it would convince the public that they had been hookwinked.
The American propaganda apparatus instead attacks these researchers ad hominen -- an old propaganda trick used to avoid having to address the real issues.
Why? It is this writer's opinion that the Establishment has ordered censorship to avoid a new investigation -- precisely because the 9/11 researchers are getting too close to the type of facts that could bring down a ruling oligarchy.
One might speculate that there is a behind-the-scenes panic. 9/11 researchers are gaining more and more credibility worldwide.
But what about the so-called "mastermind" of 9/11? Won't the upcoming trial of Khalid Shikh Mohammed (KSM) put all questions to rest when he conveniently "confesses" in a public courtroom?
In reality, the fear that KSM might not "confess" the way he was "taught" by torture techniques, may be the reason that some politicians panic at the idea of a public trial, and want a military tribunal instead.
There might be a serious problem with KSM. What if he was tortured, not to get at the truth of "who done it", but to create what is known as a "patsy" in false flag operation lingo?
What if the endless series of waterboarding torture sessions failed to condition him enough to be a reliable patsy? (Hint -- if he appears to waiver from what he is "suppose to say", one might predict the possibility of an "accidental death," taking the full blame for 9/11 with him....case closed.)
-- Editor
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San Francisco Progressive Conference, like the Earth Federation, Proposes New U.S. Amendment to Take Away Corporate Personhood
Sponsored by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org), over 500 progressive activists met in San Francisco on 2/15/10. There was much concern about the direction of the Obama administration. Expanded Pentagon budgets, corporate personhood, the health care debacle, bailing out Big Money, and much more had these progressives confessing to both emotional pain, and indeed, anger.
Similar to the recent discussion in Earth Federation ranks to pass a World Law to Prohibit Corporate Personhood, these progressives want an U.S. Constitutional Amendment to accomplish this same objective, albeit using a rather vague title: "Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment."
Discussion on eliminating "corporate personhood" via an amendment recognized that, even if successful, would apply only here in the United States. Most corporations are multinational. Hence the importance of the Earth Federation's World Law proposal which will be discussed at the Provisonal World Parliament's 12th session which will be held in India in December, 2010.
The present writer was highly impressed with the level of discussion of most participants at this Conference, and the inspired leadership with such individuals as Rabbi Michael Learner, Medea Benjamin, and Marianne Williamson, and others.
There was also a proposal for a worldwide "Marshall Plan" in the belief that being kind and generous to others would be much more effective in global politics than using threats, intimidation, death and destruction. American militarization has only made our world less safe, both for Americans and for others in the world.
(The goals of this progressive group were very much in keeping with Earth Federation goals on almost all fronts -- ending war and poverty, increasing human rights, and protecting the environment. They continue, however, to think more in nationalistic terms rather than in terms of global structure change. Many do not yet grasp the critical need for democratic world federation to replace the current global war system and the inadequate and ineffective United Nations. -- Editor)
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2/6/2010
PROPOSED WORLD BILL FOR 12TH PROVISIONAL WORLD PARLIAMENT
Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Prohibition Act
Whereas, the fourth broad function of the Earth Federation is "to regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, use of world resources, and other global and international processes" (Article 1.4);
Whereas, specific powers of the Earth Federation include the power to "define and regulate procedures for the nomination and election of members of each house of the World Parliament" (Article 4.7);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to protect the civil liberties identified in Article 12, including "freedom to vote without duress, and freedom for political organization and campaigning without censorship or recriminations" (Article 12.5);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "define standards and promote worldwide improvement in working conditions," standards of living, healthcare, sanitation, and other basic necessities for a quality of life for world citizens, including protection of the environment and the ending of war (Article 13);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "regulate and supervise supra-national trade, industry, corporations, businesses, cartels, professional services" (Article 4.14), and international communications (Article 4.13);
Whereas, in some major nations today, corporations have been granted "legal personhood," giving them all the rights and privileges of private human persons, with the exception that these corporations cannot die, that individuals operating within the corporation are protected from liability because the corporation itself is considered a collective "person," that corporations are entities without a conscience mandated solely to make a private profit for their investors, and that corporations, in spite of their vast impact on society, may claim privacy from public scrutiny, and other rights of private persons;
And whereas, within such nations, corporate personhood has given corporations the "free speech" of private persons through which they have used their vast economic resources to colonize and destroy the democratic process, engineering the election of law-makers beholden to the corporations, employing professional lobbyists for their private ends, and using a variety of means to manipulate government in the service of minority private interests;
And whereas, within the world prior to the advent of the Earth Federation, democracy has been compromised nearly everywhere by the wealth and power of the few to colonize governments and communications systems;
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Provisional World Parliament:
Article 1.
Only flesh and blood human beings shall have the rights of legal persons as identified in Articles 12 and 13 of the Earth Constitution.
Article 2.
Private corporations under the regulative jurisdiction of the Earth Federation shall be incorporated . by the World Parliament or its designated agents with legal mandates specifically defining their functions, responsibilities, and modes of operation.
2.1. These legal mandates empowering corporations to perform certain economic operations shall be defined within a framework considering:
2.1.2. protection of democracy,
2.1.3, protection of the environment,
2.1.4 promotion of economic prosperity among people and communities effected by their operations, and, in general,
2.1.5 the common good of the citizens of the Earth Federation.
Article 3.
Private, profit-oriented corporations shall not have the right, as collective entities, to promote any candidate for election or any political cause within the Earth Federation, nor to contribute funds or campaign contributions or other economic support to candidates for office.
3.1. However, individuals working within any corporation, shall have the free and full right to participate in promoting candidates for election or any political cause they may choose,
3.2. Individuals working within any corporation shall have the right to contribute funds to political campaigns within whatever limits may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 4.
Private individuals shall have the right to promote candidates or causes of their choice within the legal criteria legislated by the World Parliament. Such criteria shall be formulated within a framework that limits the ability of wealthy individuals to unduly influence or colonize the political process.
Article 5.
Non-profit political associations of private individuals (as, for example, political parties, advocacy groups, or think tanks) shall be registered with the Earth Federation and operate within whatever legal limits, transparency, and other criteria as may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 6.
Elections conducted under the World Parliament, beginning at the First Operative Stage of the Earth Federation, shall be free, fair, and monitored by independent observers.
6.1. Each candidate shall use a government defined and paid for information booklet (which may also be electronic), of a standard size and overall format that shall be used for campaign purposes (as specified in Article 8.3.1.5 of the Earth Constitution).
6.2. Each candidate shall have equal access to public communications media (electronic or print) under limits and conditions defined by the World Parliament.
6.3. Each candidate shall have the right to use private communications media (electronic or print) as paid for by non-profit advocacy groups or contributions of private citizens under limits and conditions as defined by the World Parliament.
Article 7.
Private, profit-making communications media that are international in scope also fall under the category of corporations and agencies requiring regulation by the Earth Federation (Articles 1.4 and 4.13).
7.1. Profit-making communications corporations shall not be recognized as legal persons within the Earth Federation.
7.2. The Provisional World Parliament recognizes that profit-making communications corporations may play in important role in fostering democratic processes, the diversity of voices necessary to vigorous dialogue and debate, and disseminating information necessary to democratic decision-making.
7.3. With this possibly important role in mind, the World Parliament may wish to define legal incorporation for such entities differently from that from other profit-making corporations.
7.4. Nevertheless, the legal powers of profit-making communications corporations shall be defined within a framework directed toward maximizing the democratic powers of individual persons for participation in political processes and protecting the rights of individual persons to speech and political participation as define in Articles 12 and 13.
7.5. The framework identified in 7.4 may be fostered, for example, through anti-trust or anti-cartel laws that break up media conglomerates into a number of smaller, competing voices, or through legislation requiring the airing of opposing viewpoints.
Article 8.
When considering legislation concerning the items specified under this Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Abolition Act, the World Parliament shall seek input from each of the agencies within the Integrative Complex of the Earth Federation and from any other ministry or agency of the Federation deemed appropriate.
8.1. Since the World Boundaries and Elections Administration (Article 8.3) is responsible to define the procedures for properly democratic elections (8.3.1.5) and defines the rules for world political parties (8.3.1.6), this agency shall submit annual reports to the World Parliament regarding the successes and difficulties of democratic elections with respect to the functioning of concentrations of private wealth (wealthy individuals or profit-making corporations) and with respect to the operations of communications corporations.
8.2. These reports shall include factual assessments of the degrees to which free and fair popular democracy in the service of the majority of people is disrupted by private wealth, profit-making corporations, and/or communications corporations.
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Article 9.
Penalties for violations of this act shall be determined by the World Parliament and enforced by the world police and world courts.
9.1. All penalties shall apply to individuals and none to corporations, since it is individuals who break the law, not abstract legal entities.
9.2. The penalties and courts shall normally assess greater responsibility to those higher up in the corporate hierarchy, keeping in mind that "obeying orders" from one�s boss does not fully exonerate any individual who knowingly breaks the law.
9.3. Whistle blowers and others who report abuses with regard to this act shall be protected by this law from retaliation by their employers. It shall be the responsibility of the World Ombudsmus to monitor such situations and protect the rights of the persons involved.
2/6/10 FROM THE ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT NUMBER 78 by William Blum www.killinghope.org
(Below is an excerpt from Mr. Blum's latest article.)
The US bombing, invasion, occupation and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and the continuing Israeli-US genocide against the Palestinians have created an army of new anti-American terrorists. We'll be hearing from them for a terribly long time. And we'll be hearing American officials twist themselves into intellectual and moral knots as they try to avoid confronting these facts.
In his "State of the Union" address on January 27, President Obama said: "But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know." Well, ending America's many wars would free up enough money to do anything a rational, humane society would want to do. Eliminating the military budget would pay for free medical care for everyone. Free university education for everyone. Creating a government public works project that could provide millions of decently-paid jobs, like repairing the decrepit infrastructure and healing the environment to the best of our ability. You can add your own favorite projects. All covered, just by ending the damn wars. Imagine that.
(Editor's note: A belligerent nation always at war will go so deeply in debt that it will no longer be able to care for its own citizens at home. Worse yet, military and covert operation violence, death and destruction, make citizens less safe because the victims eventually seek revenge. Brutality only pacifies on the surface, underneath the victims seethe with anger and hate.)
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11/11/10
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORLD PEACE: TREATIES ARE NOT THE ROAD TO WORLD PEACE AND JUSTICE -- ONLY A FEDERATED WORLD UNION IS REALISTIC AND PRACTICALRecently a world federalist sent out an impressive list of United Nations or other international treaties and conventions in various stages of consideration or acceptance by various nations.
The list included the NEW START TREATY (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY (CTBT), the NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT), and conventions to ban cluster munitions and land mines. Also there are UN conventions against torture which came into force in 1987, conventions on the rights of children (1990) and the disabled (2008), and other important agreements.
By addressing these issues nations were acknowledging problems of universal concern and importance despite differences in culture and tradition, illustrating clearly that there can be universally agreed upon standards of ethics and conduct.
However, talk is cheap. Actually abiding by these types of agreements is a different story. History shows that agreements based upon treaties are built upon quicksand. Time and time again, particularly with the more powerful, treaties are ignored when seen as inconvenient with regard to national self-interest or business interests.
Smaller or weaker nations also routinely ignore these agreements but do so differently. They sneak and cheat as in the case of Israel regarding nuclear weapons, or get a powerful ally (in this case the USA) to give them protection from enforcement.
So where does the "Psychology of World Peace" enter this picture, and what does psychology have to do with treaties, conventions, and other agreements between nations?
In the current global system of treaty-based agreements, nations maintain "absolute" sovereignty. This fact means that nations are allowed to have secret operations, and choose which agreements they will abide by, or not. There is no guarantee of open inspection and investigation. Moreover, individual leaders are protected from outside criminal prosecution by their own nation.
The key psychological result of national sovereignty is one of institutionalized paranoia.
Prison gangs, like nations, operate under the paranoid dynamic. Because each gang is autonomous (i.e., sovereign), they are automatically paranoid that the other gang is arming to get the advantage. Hence, even when prison authorities do a complete, clean, prison sweep of all weapons everywhere in the prison -- the gangs within weeks rearm themselves.
The psychological effect of this dysfunctional global system is that each nation is paranoid of the other, and rightfully so. Nations, both powerful or weak, may be up to no good to get the advantage over the other.
There is only one method to end the dynamics of national paranoia. The nations must federate in a democratic world union. The Earth Constitution is designed for just that purpose.
The United Nations, consisting of sovereign nations and hence guaranteeing a constant dynamic of paranoia, must freely give way to the Earth Federation/Earth Constitution -- the latter of which has no military or economic power. Its power is in the fact that its design will eliminate once and for all the poison of paranoia which has plagued our world and brought us to the brink of destruction.
-- Editor (RK)
11/1/10
The United Nations 65th Anniversary celebration in San Francisco (October 22 -24, 2010) offered a generous portion of good feelings toward world unity and understanding to honor the signing of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945 in San Francisco.
Events included a "Symphony for United Nations" conducted by Maestro Joseph Eger well-known for his artistic support of the UN; an inter-generational model UN session; a film festival on international issues; and some cultural performances with participants from other countries.
Although organizers of the events were successful in created a positive and constructive atmosphere, they did not shy away from discussing serious world problems. Speakers discussed worldwide poverty, sickness and diseases such as AIDS, human rights, wars and the urgent need for disarmament of weapons of mass destruction.
The prescriptions offered for solving these problems, however, tended to remain in the same United Nations paradigm emphasizing millennium goals which have been largely unsuccessful. Wars, threats of nuclear annihilation, worldwide poverty, and loss of individual human rights continue to be epidemic.
Lip service was made for the need to "strengthen the UN" and a call was put out to "rejuvenate the nuclear disarmament movement". A Stanford University professor, Dr. Hellman, presented the facts on the risks of nuclear catastrophe --
and left this observer more determined than ever to demand full nuclear disarmament the world over.
Proposed solutions by invited speakers, however, tended to remain "inside the box" regarding changes to the United Nations and the present global system. Proposed solutions relied upon treaties and international law within the present UN structure rather than a new democratic world body able to apply enforceable world laws on individuals and with a democratically elected world parliament.
There was some minor mention of the need for a "UN Peoples Assembly" to go along with the UN General Assembly, but no strong message to eliminate the Security Council with its undemocratic veto power, and no advocacy to replace or change the UN into a genuine democratic world federation which is what is ultimately needed -- the sooner the better.
The event drew together many people of goodwill, and reinforced the importance of a world body in which to discuss world problems and possible solutions. For me, the main importance of this event was that it reinforced goals which have moral and spiritual significance, and continues to maintain faith in the potential for good from our global community.
-- RK
8/31/10WILL BIG OIL AND OTHER CORPORATIONS CASH IN WHILE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER PAYS FIRST FOR A COMBAT MISSION, NOW FOR AN ONGOING OCCUPATION OF IRAQ? Today the American president announced an end to the "combat mission" in Iraq. He does not discuss any plan to have an ongoing occupation using a mixture of American soldiers (now doing "training", not "combat"), and private contractors (mercenaries) to be stationed in permanent armed bases in Iraq, ready to strike if the puppet government's security forces flounder as the Iraqi people reject this arrangement.
The plan? It is my belief that the American taxpayer will get to pay for "security" while Big Oil (multinationals)& other corporations make lucrative deals for Iraqi oil and/or infrastructure projects, protected by the might of the American military, new police/military security via the State Dept., and highly paid private contractors replacing the "combat" troops along with those Iraqi's willing to join the security forces for a puppet government.
Otherwise, why an almost 1 billion dollar American embassy in Iraq, bigger than the Vatican according to various reports? It's a fortress, and the Americans along with the puppet government will be behind walls while Iraqi death/torture squads roam the land targeting dissidents. Moreover, although President Obama has stated America would not have a permanent presence in Iraq, the facts on the ground include numerous American military bases costing millions of dollars, and construction has apparently not abated.
War and occupation appears good for Big Business. Prediction: Big Oil and other corporations (e.g., Halliburton) will not pay for this protection, or the costs of maintaining a puppet government in which Iraqi officials will have ample opportunity to get rich right along with their corporate benefactors. (It will be the ordinary Iraqi citizen who will lose out.)
Another prediction: A similar fate awaits Afghanistan as Big Oil seeks a pipeline through that country. It will also require an ongoing occupation of the country coupled with a puppet government to fight off the rebellious people who reject such suppression. The American taxpayer will pay for the mixture of American soldiers and private contractors who will stay in Afghanistan (just like in Iraq) to insure a cooperating puppet government.
The Earth Federation would not accept the stealing of resources by use of military might by any nation and the use of propaganda (false information) to keep the people in fear and paranoia.
The 9/11 attack caused immense trauma and was supposedly an attack by Muslims, a pretext for the current wars. Unfortunately, the actual scientific evidence suggests otherwise -- yet the American government refuses a new investigation. If the Earth Federation were in full existence, it could do an independent investigation particularly when a nation is suspected of a cover-up. (The evidence presented by 9/11 Truth researchers points to an inside job, a highly sophisticated false flag operation which has led the American people into a "war that never ends, i.e., the war on terror.)
Speculation: There are likely to be additional "false flag operations" which falsely blame new attacks (possibly again on American soil), on "patsies" -- who "confess" their crimes after unbearable torture. These terror tactics will justify continued excessive budgets for the military/industrial complex and Homeland Security, as Americans give in to manufactured paranoia and fear.
Although American soldiers and the public are told that these wars are to bring "democracy and freedom" to whatever country is being "liberated," and to "protect" America from terrorists, the facts point in a different direction: The American government, largely dominated by corporate and banking interests, want governments who cooperate with predatory capitalism and its first cousin, privatization.
(Editor's note: KBR is one of the obvious beneficiaries of these financial arrangements having been granted large contracts for oil infrastructure work. The original oil contracts drawn up earlier in the conquest under Bremmer which locked up deals for 30 years, are being challenged by some Iraqi's who believe the deals cheat the Iraqi people. Oil deals I have learned recently, are not just for American and British oil giants, but also are being given to some other countries such as China and India. Is the Iraqi Oil Ministry getting appropriate contracts for their people, or are corrupt deals being created which redirects the profits to a handful of Iraqi officials in power in collusion with the oil companies?)
8/28/10
MEXICAN ACTIVISTS MAY JOIN THE EARTH FEDERATION MOVEMENT
Communications between the Earth Federation and activists in Mexico have started since it was learned that student and political activists in Mexico are planning a "First Model World Parliament" to be held in the actual House of Deputies of the Mexican government.
The original connection originated from a meeting with Democratic World Federalists in San Francisco who, in association with the World Alliance to Transform the United Nations, began planning meetings in San Francisco perhaps in October, 2010.
The political importance of this network of strategy discussions is that we see American, Mexican, and possibly activists from Central and South America joining together -- with a strong student involvement.
Earth Federation activists believe that the Earth Constitution is the ideal instrument which will allow the creation of a true, as opposed to a toothless, world parliament.
There are activists who would like to simply have an elected world parliament which offers resolutions in terms of solutions, rather than create a genuine new world body (new world government) to replace the present shadow world government which analysts have noted are unelected, wealthy and powerful in military might and in political corruption.
-- RK 8/28/10
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Received 6/21/10 from Gary Shepherd
Gary Shepherd's analysis is a good history lesson for proponents of democratic world government. The public and politicians may resist, and even resent, logical solutions to our world's problems -- even when the old ways have been convincingly shown to be wrong, and in current times, disastrous. -- Editor
PTOLEMY, COPERNICUS AND WORLD GOVERNMENT
By Gary Shepherd
May - June 2010 issue of United World magazine
gshepher@verizon.net
Long before the advent of the current public arguments about
evolution and global warming, the greatest controversy in the history of
science was the debate between the geocentric, or earth-centered model of the
universe described by the second century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and the
heliocentric, or sun-centered model, advocated by the 16th century Polish
astronomer Copernicus.
This battle took most of a century to resolve, and it involved some
of the most powerful political and religious leaders of its time. Today, we
have forgotten just what a mental revolution Copernicus' theory represented.
Although some Greek philosophers had speculated about a heliocentric model, the
Ptolemaic model had been almost universally accepted by astronomers for more
than a thousand years. In fact, Copernicus knew that his idea was so radical
that he didn't even have it published until after he had safely died.
It is easy to see why. The idea that the Earth is at the center of
the universe, and that the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve around it
matches our everyday experience. After all, the Earth appears immobile beneath
our feet -- it doesn't seem to move. When we look up at the sky, the heavenly
bodies seem to be moving around us. Even today, we speak of the sun rising or
setting, as if it were the sun circling around the Earth.
What is more, the geocentric model could be used to explain all the
scientific observations that could be made at that time. Because it had been
noticed that sometimes the planets seemed to stop and go backwards in their
orbits for a while, Ptolemy created smaller circles, called epicycles, within
the larger crystalline spheres in which the planets circled around the Earth,
so that they were sometimes moving in the opposite direction from the larger
circle. Using this model, one could calculate precisely where a planet would be
at any particular time -- an important consideration at the time, since most
astronomers were also astrologers, and knowledge of the locations of the
planets at the time of a person's birth was vital to casting horoscopes.
But as time went on, and observations became more precise, the
ability of the Ptolemaic model to predict planetary locations began to break
down. The model was altered by later scientists, making it more and more
complex, in an effort to make it correspond to observations of the real
universe. In fact, the Ptolemaic model became so complex, that some scientists,
in order calculate planetary movements, used the Copernican model for
mathematical purposes, even though they didn't really believe it described the
actual universe.
Eventually, partly because of the invention of the telescope, the
Copernican model achieved acceptance over its rival, and today one would have
difficulty finding an astronomer anywhere who supported the geocentric
universe.
What, one is tempted to ask, has any of this to do with the idea of
world government? Well, the parallels are quite striking. The current system of
independent nation-states, sometimes called the Westphalian system, has existed
for many centuries as the unquestioned model for the way the political world is
designed. Like the Ptolemaic model, it makes sense to us. The nations appear to
exist, they appear to be eternal, and there doesn't appear to be any logical
alternative to it. They match our everyday experience. We speak of the earth,
and humanity, as if they were both divided up into nation-states.
Like the Ptolemaic model, as time has passed the nation-state model
has had to grow more and more complex to match the real world. Treaties,
conventions, and agreements have piled up, one upon the other, to govern the
complicated relations between the different nations. For instance, the Danube
River runs through numerous different nations on its way to the sea. All of the
national governments have a say in governing the preservation of that river,
making it very difficult to come to agreement about anything. The current
system has become so complex that sometimes, in order to make it function
properly, people act as if the world were united, even though they don't really
believe it is.
Just as it was the advance of technology and science led to more
precise measurements that doomed the Ptolemaic model to extinction, advanced
technology is leading toward measurements that are threatening the viability of
the nation-state system. We have peered down at the earth's surface from our
orbital satellites and have seen that there are no borders drawn on the real
earth. We have peered into the intricacies of the human genome, and we have
found no genes for nationality.
Copernicus offered a model that was truer to the real world, and
thus eventually supplanted the older, more inaccurate model. So too must we
offer a model of society that is truer to the real world, which is more
accurate, more sustainable, and simply works better, so that it can replace the
outdated one. One day, the idea of separate nation-states will come to seem as
quaint and antiquated as the perfect crystalline spheres that were a feature of
the Ptolemaic system.
5/24/10
MODERN MODERATE MUSLIM MAN OPPOSES USE OF THREATS OR VIOLENCE TO CENSOR RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION AND FREE SPEECH
A Portland, Oregon Muslim man in a recent article (in USA Today, May 13, 2010) opposes use of threats and violence by some Muslims who have murdered, or threatened to murder, those who have used the image of Mohammed in ways for which they did not approve.
Mr. Harris Zafar is highly critical of Muslim violence used to censor free speech and states that "...Islam does not support people who violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech..." Mr. Zafar goes on to cite examples from the Quran and from the life of Mohammed himself which support nonviolence.
Importantly, Mr. Zafar also condemns State sponsored blasphemy laws such as used in Saudi Arabia (apostasy potentially punishable by death), Pakistan, and Afghanistan which also may invoke prison or a death sentence.
These majority Muslim states, according to the article, suppress other religious faiths and beliefs using blasphemy laws to silence or imprison religious minorities, journalists, academicians, and dissenters.
[Use of threats or violence to prevent free speech or practice of religion violates the Earth Constitution's Bill of Human Rights.]
Attempts to censor or silence critics is not limited to extremist Muslims. Jewish Zionists in the USA go to great lengths to silence criticism of Israel but use different tactics such as applying pressure to put a newspaper out of business.
Much like Saudi Arabia gives Muslims special rights, Israel does the same for its Jewish population. In both cases, citizens of other religions are second class citizens in terms of legal rights. [Unequal treatment of citizens violates the Human Rights section of the Earth Constitution.]
There is a somewhat different but parallel issue in the United States wherein Jewish Zionists try to silence criticism of Israel's criminal actions against the Palestinians. These Jewish extremists, unlike Muslim zealots, may allow public criticism of their God (Yahweh or Jehova), but they do not allow a full public discussion of Israel's expansionistic aggression against Palestinians and have "unelected" American politicians who dared defy the Israeli Lobby.
Last but not least, we must keep in mind a large group of fundamentalist Christians who (subconsciously) are actually hoping to have Armageddon (the ultimate in violence) to prove that their interpretation of Biblical scripture is "true." These extremist Christians support and encourage Israeli expansionism in the belief that once Israel has conquered all of the so-called "Promised Land" for Jews, then Biblical conditions are fulfilled for Armageddon to occur. Jesus will return while they, the faithful, will "rapture" up to heaven.
Armageddon, with its implication of widespread death and destruction, is not a particularly wholesome or loving value. Jesus, these extremists seem to fail to see, is the Prince of Peace -- not the Prince of Death and Destruction. If Jesus were here now, he would without question condemn any Armageddon scenario -- Jesus, in this writer's opinion, would not approve of the suffering of so many innocent people, such as our children, and would go into action to prevent such a horrible event.
-- Editor
4/30/10
"EQUAL LAND FOR EQUAL PEOPLE" OFFERS A STANDARD BY WHICH TO JUDGE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS BETWEEN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
Alan Barnett, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor (San Jose State University in California, USA), a peace and social justice activist, has proposed that the path to a fair and peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine should use the standard of "Equal Land for Equal People."
This principle of equality is in keeping with the standards and inherent basic rights as stated in the Earth Federation's Constitution. It would provide an objective that treats both the Jews and Palestinians (including Christians and Muslims) with integrity and respect.
Dr. Barnett notes that at the present time Israel has 78% of the Holy Land while Palestine has only 22%, despite the fact that when one counts the actual number of Jews and Palestinians in the region (including the Palestinian refugees driven out of Israel and in refugee camps), both have a population of roughly 6 to 8 million people. Hence his notion of "Equal Land for Equal People".
Barnett points out that, under the (international) rule of "right of return" the Palestinians would need more land than they presently have in order to accommodate the many refugees who want to return to their former homes (before being forced out year after year by the Israeli's).
The advantage of "Equal Land for Equal People" according to Dr. Barnett is that "The security of the Israelis depends on the Palestinians feeling that they are being dealt with fairly."
"Peace is only possible if both Israelis and Palestinians are treated as equals," writes Barnett.
Editor's note - "Equal land for equal people" is a potentially important guideline available for mediators in establishing a lasting and productive peace between Israel and Palestine. It is consistent with the Earth Constitution. Every human being is inherently, by birth, a "citizen of Earth" with all of the rights granted in Articles 12 and 13 (Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth, and Directive Principles).
3/27/10 MOVEMENT OF BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS BY THE US AIR FORCE SUGGESTS POSSIBLE ATTACK PLANS AGAINST IRAN. ANALYST PREDICTS A "STAGED TERRORIST" ATTACK WILL BE USED FOR JUSTIFICATION.
Analyst Paul Craig Roberts reports that a Scottish newspaper, The Herald Scotland, has reported that "bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." It is claimed by the newspaper that "bunker-buster bombs are being moved to an Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. One London analyst, Dan Piesch, is quoted as saying, "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The analysts speculate to what sounds like another "shock and awe" type of devastation as was used against Iraq, with the Western media claiming the attack is for "freedom and democracy" but the real intent will be to establish a puppet government.
A false flag operation followed by a military attack and invasion would be a violation of international law. (Many investigators believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation used as a pretext for war.) Would Israel and the USA act jointly?
If Iran is attacked under false pretense, would high government officials be held accountable by the International Criminal Court for war crimes? Even if Israel alone led the attack, could President Obama or Pentagon generals be tried for an international crime of aiding and abetting?
-- RK
Expect a False Flag Terror Attack To Precede Invasion Of Iran
Paul Craig Roberts -- March 18, 2010
According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping "bunker-buster" bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The next step will be a staged "terrorist attack," a "false flag" operation as per Operation Northwoods, for which Iran will be blamed. As Iran and its leadership have already been demonized, the "false flag" attack will suffice to obtain US and European public support for bombing Iran. The bombing will include more than the nuclear facilities and will continue until the Iranians agree to regime change and the installation of a puppet government. The corrupt American media will present the new puppet as "freedom and democracy."
If the past is a guide, Americans will fall for the deception. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. naval vessel, the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to discredit Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) as "disturbed," and the falsified "intelligence" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are many other examples. I have always regarded the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City as a SCAD. Allegedly, a disturbed Tim McVeigh used a fertilizer bomb in a truck parked outside the building. More likely, McVeigh was a patsy, whose fertilizer bomb was a cover for explosives planted inside the building.
A number of experts dismissed the possibility of McVeigh's bomb producing such structural damage. For example, General Benton K. Partin, who was in charge of U.S. Air Force munitions design and testing, produced a thick report on the Murrah building bombing which concluded that the building blew up from the inside out. Gen. Partin concluded that "the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementary demolition charges at some of the reinforced concrete bases inside the building, a standard demolition technique. For a simplistic blast truck bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A7 is beyond credulity."Gen. Partin dismissed the official report as "a massive cover-up of immense proportions."
Of course, the general's unquestionable expertise had no bearing on the outcome. One reason is that his and other expert voices were drowned out by media pumping the official story. Another reason is that public beliefs in a democracy run counter to suspicion of government as a terrorist agent. Professor Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph says that "false flag" operations have the advantage over truth: "research shows that people are far less willing to examine information that disputes, rather than confirms, their beliefs." Professor Steven Hoffman agrees: "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe. In fact, for the most part people completely ignore contrary information." Even when hard evidence turns up, it can be discredited as a "conspiracy theory."
All that is necessary for success of "false flag" or "black ops" events is for the government to have its story ready and to have a reliable and compliant media. Once an official story is in place, thought and investigation are precluded. Any formal inquiry that is convened serves to buttress the already provided explanation.
An explanation ready-at-hand is almost a give-away that an incident is a "black ops" event. Notice how quickly the U.S. government, allegedly so totally deceived by al Qaida, provided the explanation for 9/11. When President Kennedy was assassinated, the government produced the culprit immediately. The alleged culprit was conveniently shot inside a jail by a civilian before he could be questioned. But the official story was ready, and it held.
Professors Manwell and Hoffman's research resonates with me. I remember reading in my graduate studies that the Czarist secret police set off bombs in order to create excuses to arrest their targets. My inclination was to dismiss the accounts as anti-Czarist propaganda by pro-communist historians. It was only later when Robert Conquest confirmed to me that this was indeed the practice of the Czarist secret police that the scales fell from my eyes.
Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, "The Rogue Nation," makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to "terrorism," and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ "false flag" operations that advance the agenda.
The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands.
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3/11/10
WAR SYSTEM SUCKS TAX MONEY AWAY FROM PUBLIC EDUCATION
On March 14, 2010 Dr. Tad Daley lectured to the public and UC Berkeley students on his new book "Apocalypse Never." But do college students really understand the relationship between their rising college costs and the bloated military/industrial/research war system budget of the United States with over 700 military bases around the world, and a so-called war against terror seemingly everywhere?
Do students really understand who is sucking up the majority of tax money which previously was used to provide an affordable, public college education? The obvious answer is the 700 billion dollars a year (plus or minus 50 billion dollars for black box operations) which buy bombs, bullets, rockets, guided missiles, golf courses for Pentagon generals, early retirement, Stealth bombers, jet airplanes, drones, Navy missile cruisers, and much, much more. Education and health care for Americans?
Many young people are being forced to "join the Army" in order to have a job, get health care, and sometimes, to get a college education.
Untold billions of dollars are being spent outside of America. New billion dollar embassies are being constructed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Billions of dollars to private contractors to rebuild infrastructure in these countries which the USA conveniently destroyed in the first place.
Corporations are (literally) "making a killing" in this war system, as are the smaller businesses that make uniforms, helmets, boots, and other necessities needed by a killing machine. Not to mention the doctors, nurses, consultants, spies, engineers, physicists, and other peripheral personnel used to advance and maintain the high tech war machine system.
Then of course there is the ongoing cost of death and destruction -- rebuilding disabled soldiers, demolished buildings, roads and other infrastructure destroyed by American/NATO bombs, and then having to replace these same bombs and missiles.
Yes, it's a good business -- if you believe in death and destruction.
But it's a bad business for educationand affordable health care at home. The public cannot afford to pay for constant, worldwide wars, both covert and overt, and pay for affordable education. Tough luck, students. Get the education you can't afford thanks to a war system designed to never end.
What could replace the world's war system? A world unity government -- the Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution...designed as a world peace system. Then students could be given affordable, or even free, education -- and universal health care would be a given.
-- Editor
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2/19/10 HOW THE UNPA CAMPAIGN RELATES TO THE EARTH FEDERATION'S WORLD PARLIAMENT
If European parliamentarians seek more democratic representation at the United Nations by adding a "Parliamentary Assembly," but is denied decision-making authority as is the case with the UN General Assembly, then the UNPA (and the UNGA) might consider joining the Earth Federation.
The Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution gives real democratic decision making authority to the Federation's World Parliament. This could become a real possibility since the UN Charter keeps key decision-making power in the hands of the Security Council, and limits the UN General Assembly to making "resolutions." A UN Parliamentary Assembly would most likely suffer the same fate as the General Assembly -- unless the UN Charter was dropped in favor of the Earth Constitution. -- Editor
2/12/10
WHY ESTABLISHMENT PANIC OVER THREAT OF NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION?
An article in the Rock Creek Free Press (Feb., 2010) by Daniel Tencer reports that President Obama's appointee to head the "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs," Cass Sunstein, proposes "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the one surrounding 9/11.
Why such panic from the Establishment?
This type of manipulation would most likely be for the goal of trying to avoid a new 9/11 investigation -- which is what the 9/11 truth movement has been demanding all along. (A demand which seems more than reasonable in view of the new factual evidence that has surfaced since the 9/11 Commission Report was shown to be fatally flawed.)
Such an obvious propaganda maneuver by the authorities is in line with the refusal of the mainstream media to allow credible researchers on the air to explain why they think a new 9/11 investigation is warranted. MSNBC, for example, despite trying to be "progressive", has repeatedly ignored requests to put 9/11 investigators on the air -- despite the fact that these researchers have blue ribbon, impeccable credentials.
In fact, no mainstream media (TV or newspaper) dares let these investigators report their findings to the public -- it would convince the public that they had been hookwinked.
The American propaganda apparatus instead attacks these researchers ad hominen -- an old propaganda trick used to avoid having to address the real issues.
Why? It is this writer's opinion that the Establishment has ordered censorship to avoid a new investigation -- precisely because the 9/11 researchers are getting too close to the type of facts that could bring down a ruling oligarchy.
One might speculate that there is a behind-the-scenes panic. 9/11 researchers are gaining more and more credibility worldwide.
But what about the so-called "mastermind" of 9/11? Won't the upcoming trial of Khalid Shikh Mohammed (KSM) put all questions to rest when he conveniently "confesses" in a public courtroom?
In reality, the fear that KSM might not "confess" the way he was "taught" by torture techniques, may be the reason that some politicians panic at the idea of a public trial, and want a military tribunal instead.
There might be a serious problem with KSM. What if he was tortured, not to get at the truth of "who done it", but to create what is known as a "patsy" in false flag operation lingo?
What if the endless series of waterboarding torture sessions failed to condition him enough to be a reliable patsy? (Hint -- if he appears to waiver from what he is "suppose to say", one might predict the possibility of an "accidental death," taking the full blame for 9/11 with him....case closed.)
-- Editor
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San Francisco Progressive Conference, like the Earth Federation, Proposes New U.S. Amendment to Take Away Corporate Personhood
Sponsored by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org), over 500 progressive activists met in San Francisco on 2/15/10. There was much concern about the direction of the Obama administration. Expanded Pentagon budgets, corporate personhood, the health care debacle, bailing out Big Money, and much more had these progressives confessing to both emotional pain, and indeed, anger.
Similar to the recent discussion in Earth Federation ranks to pass a World Law to Prohibit Corporate Personhood, these progressives want an U.S. Constitutional Amendment to accomplish this same objective, albeit using a rather vague title: "Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment."
Discussion on eliminating "corporate personhood" via an amendment recognized that, even if successful, would apply only here in the United States. Most corporations are multinational. Hence the importance of the Earth Federation's World Law proposal which will be discussed at the Provisonal World Parliament's 12th session which will be held in India in December, 2010.
The present writer was highly impressed with the level of discussion of most participants at this Conference, and the inspired leadership with such individuals as Rabbi Michael Learner, Medea Benjamin, and Marianne Williamson, and others.
There was also a proposal for a worldwide "Marshall Plan" in the belief that being kind and generous to others would be much more effective in global politics than using threats, intimidation, death and destruction. American militarization has only made our world less safe, both for Americans and for others in the world.
(The goals of this progressive group were very much in keeping with Earth Federation goals on almost all fronts -- ending war and poverty, increasing human rights, and protecting the environment. They continue, however, to think more in nationalistic terms rather than in terms of global structure change. Many do not yet grasp the critical need for democratic world federation to replace the current global war system and the inadequate and ineffective United Nations. -- Editor)
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2/6/2010
PROPOSED WORLD BILL FOR 12TH PROVISIONAL WORLD PARLIAMENT
Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Prohibition Act
Whereas, the fourth broad function of the Earth Federation is "to regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, use of world resources, and other global and international processes" (Article 1.4);
Whereas, specific powers of the Earth Federation include the power to "define and regulate procedures for the nomination and election of members of each house of the World Parliament" (Article 4.7);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to protect the civil liberties identified in Article 12, including "freedom to vote without duress, and freedom for political organization and campaigning without censorship or recriminations" (Article 12.5);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "define standards and promote worldwide improvement in working conditions," standards of living, healthcare, sanitation, and other basic necessities for a quality of life for world citizens, including protection of the environment and the ending of war (Article 13);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "regulate and supervise supra-national trade, industry, corporations, businesses, cartels, professional services" (Article 4.14), and international communications (Article 4.13);
Whereas, in some major nations today, corporations have been granted "legal personhood," giving them all the rights and privileges of private human persons, with the exception that these corporations cannot die, that individuals operating within the corporation are protected from liability because the corporation itself is considered a collective "person," that corporations are entities without a conscience mandated solely to make a private profit for their investors, and that corporations, in spite of their vast impact on society, may claim privacy from public scrutiny, and other rights of private persons;
And whereas, within such nations, corporate personhood has given corporations the "free speech" of private persons through which they have used their vast economic resources to colonize and destroy the democratic process, engineering the election of law-makers beholden to the corporations, employing professional lobbyists for their private ends, and using a variety of means to manipulate government in the service of minority private interests;
And whereas, within the world prior to the advent of the Earth Federation, democracy has been compromised nearly everywhere by the wealth and power of the few to colonize governments and communications systems;
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Provisional World Parliament:
Article 1.
Only flesh and blood human beings shall have the rights of legal persons as identified in Articles 12 and 13 of the Earth Constitution.
Article 2.
Private corporations under the regulative jurisdiction of the Earth Federation shall be incorporated . by the World Parliament or its designated agents with legal mandates specifically defining their functions, responsibilities, and modes of operation.
2.1. These legal mandates empowering corporations to perform certain economic operations shall be defined within a framework considering:
2.1.2. protection of democracy,
2.1.3, protection of the environment,
2.1.4 promotion of economic prosperity among people and communities effected by their operations, and, in general,
2.1.5 the common good of the citizens of the Earth Federation.
Article 3.
Private, profit-oriented corporations shall not have the right, as collective entities, to promote any candidate for election or any political cause within the Earth Federation, nor to contribute funds or campaign contributions or other economic support to candidates for office.
3.1. However, individuals working within any corporation, shall have the free and full right to participate in promoting candidates for election or any political cause they may choose,
3.2. Individuals working within any corporation shall have the right to contribute funds to political campaigns within whatever limits may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 4.
Private individuals shall have the right to promote candidates or causes of their choice within the legal criteria legislated by the World Parliament. Such criteria shall be formulated within a framework that limits the ability of wealthy individuals to unduly influence or colonize the political process.
Article 5.
Non-profit political associations of private individuals (as, for example, political parties, advocacy groups, or think tanks) shall be registered with the Earth Federation and operate within whatever legal limits, transparency, and other criteria as may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 6.
Elections conducted under the World Parliament, beginning at the First Operative Stage of the Earth Federation, shall be free, fair, and monitored by independent observers.
6.1. Each candidate shall use a government defined and paid for information booklet (which may also be electronic), of a standard size and overall format that shall be used for campaign purposes (as specified in Article 8.3.1.5 of the Earth Constitution).
6.2. Each candidate shall have equal access to public communications media (electronic or print) under limits and conditions defined by the World Parliament.
6.3. Each candidate shall have the right to use private communications media (electronic or print) as paid for by non-profit advocacy groups or contributions of private citizens under limits and conditions as defined by the World Parliament.
Article 7.
Private, profit-making communications media that are international in scope also fall under the category of corporations and agencies requiring regulation by the Earth Federation (Articles 1.4 and 4.13).
7.1. Profit-making communications corporations shall not be recognized as legal persons within the Earth Federation.
7.2. The Provisional World Parliament recognizes that profit-making communications corporations may play in important role in fostering democratic processes, the diversity of voices necessary to vigorous dialogue and debate, and disseminating information necessary to democratic decision-making.
7.3. With this possibly important role in mind, the World Parliament may wish to define legal incorporation for such entities differently from that from other profit-making corporations.
7.4. Nevertheless, the legal powers of profit-making communications corporations shall be defined within a framework directed toward maximizing the democratic powers of individual persons for participation in political processes and protecting the rights of individual persons to speech and political participation as define in Articles 12 and 13.
7.5. The framework identified in 7.4 may be fostered, for example, through anti-trust or anti-cartel laws that break up media conglomerates into a number of smaller, competing voices, or through legislation requiring the airing of opposing viewpoints.
Article 8.
When considering legislation concerning the items specified under this Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Abolition Act, the World Parliament shall seek input from each of the agencies within the Integrative Complex of the Earth Federation and from any other ministry or agency of the Federation deemed appropriate.
8.1. Since the World Boundaries and Elections Administration (Article 8.3) is responsible to define the procedures for properly democratic elections (8.3.1.5) and defines the rules for world political parties (8.3.1.6), this agency shall submit annual reports to the World Parliament regarding the successes and difficulties of democratic elections with respect to the functioning of concentrations of private wealth (wealthy individuals or profit-making corporations) and with respect to the operations of communications corporations.
8.2. These reports shall include factual assessments of the degrees to which free and fair popular democracy in the service of the majority of people is disrupted by private wealth, profit-making corporations, and/or communications corporations.
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Article 9.
Penalties for violations of this act shall be determined by the World Parliament and enforced by the world police and world courts.
9.1. All penalties shall apply to individuals and none to corporations, since it is individuals who break the law, not abstract legal entities.
9.2. The penalties and courts shall normally assess greater responsibility to those higher up in the corporate hierarchy, keeping in mind that "obeying orders" from one�s boss does not fully exonerate any individual who knowingly breaks the law.
9.3. Whistle blowers and others who report abuses with regard to this act shall be protected by this law from retaliation by their employers. It shall be the responsibility of the World Ombudsmus to monitor such situations and protect the rights of the persons involved.
2/6/10 FROM THE ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT NUMBER 78 by William Blum www.killinghope.org
(Below is an excerpt from Mr. Blum's latest article.)
The US bombing, invasion, occupation and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and the continuing Israeli-US genocide against the Palestinians have created an army of new anti-American terrorists. We'll be hearing from them for a terribly long time. And we'll be hearing American officials twist themselves into intellectual and moral knots as they try to avoid confronting these facts.
In his "State of the Union" address on January 27, President Obama said: "But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know." Well, ending America's many wars would free up enough money to do anything a rational, humane society would want to do. Eliminating the military budget would pay for free medical care for everyone. Free university education for everyone. Creating a government public works project that could provide millions of decently-paid jobs, like repairing the decrepit infrastructure and healing the environment to the best of our ability. You can add your own favorite projects. All covered, just by ending the damn wars. Imagine that.
(Editor's note: A belligerent nation always at war will go so deeply in debt that it will no longer be able to care for its own citizens at home. Worse yet, military and covert operation violence, death and destruction, make citizens less safe because the victims eventually seek revenge. Brutality only pacifies on the surface, underneath the victims seethe with anger and hate.)
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11/11/10
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORLD PEACE: TREATIES ARE NOT THE ROAD TO WORLD PEACE AND JUSTICE -- ONLY A FEDERATED WORLD UNION IS REALISTIC AND PRACTICALRecently a world federalist sent out an impressive list of United Nations or other international treaties and conventions in various stages of consideration or acceptance by various nations.
The list included the NEW START TREATY (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY (CTBT), the NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT), and conventions to ban cluster munitions and land mines. Also there are UN conventions against torture which came into force in 1987, conventions on the rights of children (1990) and the disabled (2008), and other important agreements.
By addressing these issues nations were acknowledging problems of universal concern and importance despite differences in culture and tradition, illustrating clearly that there can be universally agreed upon standards of ethics and conduct.
However, talk is cheap. Actually abiding by these types of agreements is a different story. History shows that agreements based upon treaties are built upon quicksand. Time and time again, particularly with the more powerful, treaties are ignored when seen as inconvenient with regard to national self-interest or business interests.
Smaller or weaker nations also routinely ignore these agreements but do so differently. They sneak and cheat as in the case of Israel regarding nuclear weapons, or get a powerful ally (in this case the USA) to give them protection from enforcement.
So where does the "Psychology of World Peace" enter this picture, and what does psychology have to do with treaties, conventions, and other agreements between nations?
In the current global system of treaty-based agreements, nations maintain "absolute" sovereignty. This fact means that nations are allowed to have secret operations, and choose which agreements they will abide by, or not. There is no guarantee of open inspection and investigation. Moreover, individual leaders are protected from outside criminal prosecution by their own nation.
The key psychological result of national sovereignty is one of institutionalized paranoia.
Prison gangs, like nations, operate under the paranoid dynamic. Because each gang is autonomous (i.e., sovereign), they are automatically paranoid that the other gang is arming to get the advantage. Hence, even when prison authorities do a complete, clean, prison sweep of all weapons everywhere in the prison -- the gangs within weeks rearm themselves.
The psychological effect of this dysfunctional global system is that each nation is paranoid of the other, and rightfully so. Nations, both powerful or weak, may be up to no good to get the advantage over the other.
There is only one method to end the dynamics of national paranoia. The nations must federate in a democratic world union. The Earth Constitution is designed for just that purpose.
The United Nations, consisting of sovereign nations and hence guaranteeing a constant dynamic of paranoia, must freely give way to the Earth Federation/Earth Constitution -- the latter of which has no military or economic power. Its power is in the fact that its design will eliminate once and for all the poison of paranoia which has plagued our world and brought us to the brink of destruction.
-- Editor (RK)
11/1/10
The United Nations 65th Anniversary celebration in San Francisco (October 22 -24, 2010) offered a generous portion of good feelings toward world unity and understanding to honor the signing of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945 in San Francisco.
Events included a "Symphony for United Nations" conducted by Maestro Joseph Eger well-known for his artistic support of the UN; an inter-generational model UN session; a film festival on international issues; and some cultural performances with participants from other countries.
Although organizers of the events were successful in created a positive and constructive atmosphere, they did not shy away from discussing serious world problems. Speakers discussed worldwide poverty, sickness and diseases such as AIDS, human rights, wars and the urgent need for disarmament of weapons of mass destruction.
The prescriptions offered for solving these problems, however, tended to remain in the same United Nations paradigm emphasizing millennium goals which have been largely unsuccessful. Wars, threats of nuclear annihilation, worldwide poverty, and loss of individual human rights continue to be epidemic.
Lip service was made for the need to "strengthen the UN" and a call was put out to "rejuvenate the nuclear disarmament movement". A Stanford University professor, Dr. Hellman, presented the facts on the risks of nuclear catastrophe --
and left this observer more determined than ever to demand full nuclear disarmament the world over.
Proposed solutions by invited speakers, however, tended to remain "inside the box" regarding changes to the United Nations and the present global system. Proposed solutions relied upon treaties and international law within the present UN structure rather than a new democratic world body able to apply enforceable world laws on individuals and with a democratically elected world parliament.
There was some minor mention of the need for a "UN Peoples Assembly" to go along with the UN General Assembly, but no strong message to eliminate the Security Council with its undemocratic veto power, and no advocacy to replace or change the UN into a genuine democratic world federation which is what is ultimately needed -- the sooner the better.
The event drew together many people of goodwill, and reinforced the importance of a world body in which to discuss world problems and possible solutions. For me, the main importance of this event was that it reinforced goals which have moral and spiritual significance, and continues to maintain faith in the potential for good from our global community.
-- RK
8/31/10WILL BIG OIL AND OTHER CORPORATIONS CASH IN WHILE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER PAYS FIRST FOR A COMBAT MISSION, NOW FOR AN ONGOING OCCUPATION OF IRAQ? Today the American president announced an end to the "combat mission" in Iraq. He does not discuss any plan to have an ongoing occupation using a mixture of American soldiers (now doing "training", not "combat"), and private contractors (mercenaries) to be stationed in permanent armed bases in Iraq, ready to strike if the puppet government's security forces flounder as the Iraqi people reject this arrangement.
The plan? It is my belief that the American taxpayer will get to pay for "security" while Big Oil (multinationals)& other corporations make lucrative deals for Iraqi oil and/or infrastructure projects, protected by the might of the American military, new police/military security via the State Dept., and highly paid private contractors replacing the "combat" troops along with those Iraqi's willing to join the security forces for a puppet government.
Otherwise, why an almost 1 billion dollar American embassy in Iraq, bigger than the Vatican according to various reports? It's a fortress, and the Americans along with the puppet government will be behind walls while Iraqi death/torture squads roam the land targeting dissidents. Moreover, although President Obama has stated America would not have a permanent presence in Iraq, the facts on the ground include numerous American military bases costing millions of dollars, and construction has apparently not abated.
War and occupation appears good for Big Business. Prediction: Big Oil and other corporations (e.g., Halliburton) will not pay for this protection, or the costs of maintaining a puppet government in which Iraqi officials will have ample opportunity to get rich right along with their corporate benefactors. (It will be the ordinary Iraqi citizen who will lose out.)
Another prediction: A similar fate awaits Afghanistan as Big Oil seeks a pipeline through that country. It will also require an ongoing occupation of the country coupled with a puppet government to fight off the rebellious people who reject such suppression. The American taxpayer will pay for the mixture of American soldiers and private contractors who will stay in Afghanistan (just like in Iraq) to insure a cooperating puppet government.
The Earth Federation would not accept the stealing of resources by use of military might by any nation and the use of propaganda (false information) to keep the people in fear and paranoia.
The 9/11 attack caused immense trauma and was supposedly an attack by Muslims, a pretext for the current wars. Unfortunately, the actual scientific evidence suggests otherwise -- yet the American government refuses a new investigation. If the Earth Federation were in full existence, it could do an independent investigation particularly when a nation is suspected of a cover-up. (The evidence presented by 9/11 Truth researchers points to an inside job, a highly sophisticated false flag operation which has led the American people into a "war that never ends, i.e., the war on terror.)
Speculation: There are likely to be additional "false flag operations" which falsely blame new attacks (possibly again on American soil), on "patsies" -- who "confess" their crimes after unbearable torture. These terror tactics will justify continued excessive budgets for the military/industrial complex and Homeland Security, as Americans give in to manufactured paranoia and fear.
Although American soldiers and the public are told that these wars are to bring "democracy and freedom" to whatever country is being "liberated," and to "protect" America from terrorists, the facts point in a different direction: The American government, largely dominated by corporate and banking interests, want governments who cooperate with predatory capitalism and its first cousin, privatization.
(Editor's note: KBR is one of the obvious beneficiaries of these financial arrangements having been granted large contracts for oil infrastructure work. The original oil contracts drawn up earlier in the conquest under Bremmer which locked up deals for 30 years, are being challenged by some Iraqi's who believe the deals cheat the Iraqi people. Oil deals I have learned recently, are not just for American and British oil giants, but also are being given to some other countries such as China and India. Is the Iraqi Oil Ministry getting appropriate contracts for their people, or are corrupt deals being created which redirects the profits to a handful of Iraqi officials in power in collusion with the oil companies?)
8/28/10
MEXICAN ACTIVISTS MAY JOIN THE EARTH FEDERATION MOVEMENT
Communications between the Earth Federation and activists in Mexico have started since it was learned that student and political activists in Mexico are planning a "First Model World Parliament" to be held in the actual House of Deputies of the Mexican government.
The original connection originated from a meeting with Democratic World Federalists in San Francisco who, in association with the World Alliance to Transform the United Nations, began planning meetings in San Francisco perhaps in October, 2010.
The political importance of this network of strategy discussions is that we see American, Mexican, and possibly activists from Central and South America joining together -- with a strong student involvement.
Earth Federation activists believe that the Earth Constitution is the ideal instrument which will allow the creation of a true, as opposed to a toothless, world parliament.
There are activists who would like to simply have an elected world parliament which offers resolutions in terms of solutions, rather than create a genuine new world body (new world government) to replace the present shadow world government which analysts have noted are unelected, wealthy and powerful in military might and in political corruption.
-- RK 8/28/10
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Received 6/21/10 from Gary Shepherd
Gary Shepherd's analysis is a good history lesson for proponents of democratic world government. The public and politicians may resist, and even resent, logical solutions to our world's problems -- even when the old ways have been convincingly shown to be wrong, and in current times, disastrous. -- Editor
PTOLEMY, COPERNICUS AND WORLD GOVERNMENT
By Gary Shepherd
May - June 2010 issue of United World magazine
gshepher@verizon.net
Long before the advent of the current public arguments about
evolution and global warming, the greatest controversy in the history of
science was the debate between the geocentric, or earth-centered model of the
universe described by the second century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and the
heliocentric, or sun-centered model, advocated by the 16th century Polish
astronomer Copernicus.
This battle took most of a century to resolve, and it involved some
of the most powerful political and religious leaders of its time. Today, we
have forgotten just what a mental revolution Copernicus' theory represented.
Although some Greek philosophers had speculated about a heliocentric model, the
Ptolemaic model had been almost universally accepted by astronomers for more
than a thousand years. In fact, Copernicus knew that his idea was so radical
that he didn't even have it published until after he had safely died.
It is easy to see why. The idea that the Earth is at the center of
the universe, and that the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve around it
matches our everyday experience. After all, the Earth appears immobile beneath
our feet -- it doesn't seem to move. When we look up at the sky, the heavenly
bodies seem to be moving around us. Even today, we speak of the sun rising or
setting, as if it were the sun circling around the Earth.
What is more, the geocentric model could be used to explain all the
scientific observations that could be made at that time. Because it had been
noticed that sometimes the planets seemed to stop and go backwards in their
orbits for a while, Ptolemy created smaller circles, called epicycles, within
the larger crystalline spheres in which the planets circled around the Earth,
so that they were sometimes moving in the opposite direction from the larger
circle. Using this model, one could calculate precisely where a planet would be
at any particular time -- an important consideration at the time, since most
astronomers were also astrologers, and knowledge of the locations of the
planets at the time of a person's birth was vital to casting horoscopes.
But as time went on, and observations became more precise, the
ability of the Ptolemaic model to predict planetary locations began to break
down. The model was altered by later scientists, making it more and more
complex, in an effort to make it correspond to observations of the real
universe. In fact, the Ptolemaic model became so complex, that some scientists,
in order calculate planetary movements, used the Copernican model for
mathematical purposes, even though they didn't really believe it described the
actual universe.
Eventually, partly because of the invention of the telescope, the
Copernican model achieved acceptance over its rival, and today one would have
difficulty finding an astronomer anywhere who supported the geocentric
universe.
What, one is tempted to ask, has any of this to do with the idea of
world government? Well, the parallels are quite striking. The current system of
independent nation-states, sometimes called the Westphalian system, has existed
for many centuries as the unquestioned model for the way the political world is
designed. Like the Ptolemaic model, it makes sense to us. The nations appear to
exist, they appear to be eternal, and there doesn't appear to be any logical
alternative to it. They match our everyday experience. We speak of the earth,
and humanity, as if they were both divided up into nation-states.
Like the Ptolemaic model, as time has passed the nation-state model
has had to grow more and more complex to match the real world. Treaties,
conventions, and agreements have piled up, one upon the other, to govern the
complicated relations between the different nations. For instance, the Danube
River runs through numerous different nations on its way to the sea. All of the
national governments have a say in governing the preservation of that river,
making it very difficult to come to agreement about anything. The current
system has become so complex that sometimes, in order to make it function
properly, people act as if the world were united, even though they don't really
believe it is.
Just as it was the advance of technology and science led to more
precise measurements that doomed the Ptolemaic model to extinction, advanced
technology is leading toward measurements that are threatening the viability of
the nation-state system. We have peered down at the earth's surface from our
orbital satellites and have seen that there are no borders drawn on the real
earth. We have peered into the intricacies of the human genome, and we have
found no genes for nationality.
Copernicus offered a model that was truer to the real world, and
thus eventually supplanted the older, more inaccurate model. So too must we
offer a model of society that is truer to the real world, which is more
accurate, more sustainable, and simply works better, so that it can replace the
outdated one. One day, the idea of separate nation-states will come to seem as
quaint and antiquated as the perfect crystalline spheres that were a feature of
the Ptolemaic system.
5/24/10
MODERN MODERATE MUSLIM MAN OPPOSES USE OF THREATS OR VIOLENCE TO CENSOR RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION AND FREE SPEECH
A Portland, Oregon Muslim man in a recent article (in USA Today, May 13, 2010) opposes use of threats and violence by some Muslims who have murdered, or threatened to murder, those who have used the image of Mohammed in ways for which they did not approve.
Mr. Harris Zafar is highly critical of Muslim violence used to censor free speech and states that "...Islam does not support people who violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech..." Mr. Zafar goes on to cite examples from the Quran and from the life of Mohammed himself which support nonviolence.
Importantly, Mr. Zafar also condemns State sponsored blasphemy laws such as used in Saudi Arabia (apostasy potentially punishable by death), Pakistan, and Afghanistan which also may invoke prison or a death sentence.
These majority Muslim states, according to the article, suppress other religious faiths and beliefs using blasphemy laws to silence or imprison religious minorities, journalists, academicians, and dissenters.
[Use of threats or violence to prevent free speech or practice of religion violates the Earth Constitution's Bill of Human Rights.]
Attempts to censor or silence critics is not limited to extremist Muslims. Jewish Zionists in the USA go to great lengths to silence criticism of Israel but use different tactics such as applying pressure to put a newspaper out of business.
Much like Saudi Arabia gives Muslims special rights, Israel does the same for its Jewish population. In both cases, citizens of other religions are second class citizens in terms of legal rights. [Unequal treatment of citizens violates the Human Rights section of the Earth Constitution.]
There is a somewhat different but parallel issue in the United States wherein Jewish Zionists try to silence criticism of Israel's criminal actions against the Palestinians. These Jewish extremists, unlike Muslim zealots, may allow public criticism of their God (Yahweh or Jehova), but they do not allow a full public discussion of Israel's expansionistic aggression against Palestinians and have "unelected" American politicians who dared defy the Israeli Lobby.
Last but not least, we must keep in mind a large group of fundamentalist Christians who (subconsciously) are actually hoping to have Armageddon (the ultimate in violence) to prove that their interpretation of Biblical scripture is "true." These extremist Christians support and encourage Israeli expansionism in the belief that once Israel has conquered all of the so-called "Promised Land" for Jews, then Biblical conditions are fulfilled for Armageddon to occur. Jesus will return while they, the faithful, will "rapture" up to heaven.
Armageddon, with its implication of widespread death and destruction, is not a particularly wholesome or loving value. Jesus, these extremists seem to fail to see, is the Prince of Peace -- not the Prince of Death and Destruction. If Jesus were here now, he would without question condemn any Armageddon scenario -- Jesus, in this writer's opinion, would not approve of the suffering of so many innocent people, such as our children, and would go into action to prevent such a horrible event.
-- Editor
4/30/10
"EQUAL LAND FOR EQUAL PEOPLE" OFFERS A STANDARD BY WHICH TO JUDGE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS BETWEEN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
Alan Barnett, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor (San Jose State University in California, USA), a peace and social justice activist, has proposed that the path to a fair and peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine should use the standard of "Equal Land for Equal People."
This principle of equality is in keeping with the standards and inherent basic rights as stated in the Earth Federation's Constitution. It would provide an objective that treats both the Jews and Palestinians (including Christians and Muslims) with integrity and respect.
Dr. Barnett notes that at the present time Israel has 78% of the Holy Land while Palestine has only 22%, despite the fact that when one counts the actual number of Jews and Palestinians in the region (including the Palestinian refugees driven out of Israel and in refugee camps), both have a population of roughly 6 to 8 million people. Hence his notion of "Equal Land for Equal People".
Barnett points out that, under the (international) rule of "right of return" the Palestinians would need more land than they presently have in order to accommodate the many refugees who want to return to their former homes (before being forced out year after year by the Israeli's).
The advantage of "Equal Land for Equal People" according to Dr. Barnett is that "The security of the Israelis depends on the Palestinians feeling that they are being dealt with fairly."
"Peace is only possible if both Israelis and Palestinians are treated as equals," writes Barnett.
Editor's note - "Equal land for equal people" is a potentially important guideline available for mediators in establishing a lasting and productive peace between Israel and Palestine. It is consistent with the Earth Constitution. Every human being is inherently, by birth, a "citizen of Earth" with all of the rights granted in Articles 12 and 13 (Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth, and Directive Principles).
3/27/10 MOVEMENT OF BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS BY THE US AIR FORCE SUGGESTS POSSIBLE ATTACK PLANS AGAINST IRAN. ANALYST PREDICTS A "STAGED TERRORIST" ATTACK WILL BE USED FOR JUSTIFICATION.
Analyst Paul Craig Roberts reports that a Scottish newspaper, The Herald Scotland, has reported that "bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." It is claimed by the newspaper that "bunker-buster bombs are being moved to an Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. One London analyst, Dan Piesch, is quoted as saying, "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The analysts speculate to what sounds like another "shock and awe" type of devastation as was used against Iraq, with the Western media claiming the attack is for "freedom and democracy" but the real intent will be to establish a puppet government.
A false flag operation followed by a military attack and invasion would be a violation of international law. (Many investigators believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation used as a pretext for war.) Would Israel and the USA act jointly?
If Iran is attacked under false pretense, would high government officials be held accountable by the International Criminal Court for war crimes? Even if Israel alone led the attack, could President Obama or Pentagon generals be tried for an international crime of aiding and abetting?
-- RK
Expect a False Flag Terror Attack To Precede Invasion Of Iran
Paul Craig Roberts -- March 18, 2010
According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping "bunker-buster" bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
The next step will be a staged "terrorist attack," a "false flag" operation as per Operation Northwoods, for which Iran will be blamed. As Iran and its leadership have already been demonized, the "false flag" attack will suffice to obtain US and European public support for bombing Iran. The bombing will include more than the nuclear facilities and will continue until the Iranians agree to regime change and the installation of a puppet government. The corrupt American media will present the new puppet as "freedom and democracy."
If the past is a guide, Americans will fall for the deception. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. naval vessel, the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to discredit Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) as "disturbed," and the falsified "intelligence" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
There are many other examples. I have always regarded the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City as a SCAD. Allegedly, a disturbed Tim McVeigh used a fertilizer bomb in a truck parked outside the building. More likely, McVeigh was a patsy, whose fertilizer bomb was a cover for explosives planted inside the building.
A number of experts dismissed the possibility of McVeigh's bomb producing such structural damage. For example, General Benton K. Partin, who was in charge of U.S. Air Force munitions design and testing, produced a thick report on the Murrah building bombing which concluded that the building blew up from the inside out. Gen. Partin concluded that "the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementary demolition charges at some of the reinforced concrete bases inside the building, a standard demolition technique. For a simplistic blast truck bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A7 is beyond credulity."Gen. Partin dismissed the official report as "a massive cover-up of immense proportions."
Of course, the general's unquestionable expertise had no bearing on the outcome. One reason is that his and other expert voices were drowned out by media pumping the official story. Another reason is that public beliefs in a democracy run counter to suspicion of government as a terrorist agent. Professor Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph says that "false flag" operations have the advantage over truth: "research shows that people are far less willing to examine information that disputes, rather than confirms, their beliefs." Professor Steven Hoffman agrees: "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe. In fact, for the most part people completely ignore contrary information." Even when hard evidence turns up, it can be discredited as a "conspiracy theory."
All that is necessary for success of "false flag" or "black ops" events is for the government to have its story ready and to have a reliable and compliant media. Once an official story is in place, thought and investigation are precluded. Any formal inquiry that is convened serves to buttress the already provided explanation.
An explanation ready-at-hand is almost a give-away that an incident is a "black ops" event. Notice how quickly the U.S. government, allegedly so totally deceived by al Qaida, provided the explanation for 9/11. When President Kennedy was assassinated, the government produced the culprit immediately. The alleged culprit was conveniently shot inside a jail by a civilian before he could be questioned. But the official story was ready, and it held.
Professors Manwell and Hoffman's research resonates with me. I remember reading in my graduate studies that the Czarist secret police set off bombs in order to create excuses to arrest their targets. My inclination was to dismiss the accounts as anti-Czarist propaganda by pro-communist historians. It was only later when Robert Conquest confirmed to me that this was indeed the practice of the Czarist secret police that the scales fell from my eyes.
Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, "The Rogue Nation," makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to "terrorism," and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ "false flag" operations that advance the agenda.
The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands.
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3/11/10
WAR SYSTEM SUCKS TAX MONEY AWAY FROM PUBLIC EDUCATION
On March 14, 2010 Dr. Tad Daley lectured to the public and UC Berkeley students on his new book "Apocalypse Never." But do college students really understand the relationship between their rising college costs and the bloated military/industrial/research war system budget of the United States with over 700 military bases around the world, and a so-called war against terror seemingly everywhere?
Do students really understand who is sucking up the majority of tax money which previously was used to provide an affordable, public college education? The obvious answer is the 700 billion dollars a year (plus or minus 50 billion dollars for black box operations) which buy bombs, bullets, rockets, guided missiles, golf courses for Pentagon generals, early retirement, Stealth bombers, jet airplanes, drones, Navy missile cruisers, and much, much more. Education and health care for Americans?
Many young people are being forced to "join the Army" in order to have a job, get health care, and sometimes, to get a college education.
Untold billions of dollars are being spent outside of America. New billion dollar embassies are being constructed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Billions of dollars to private contractors to rebuild infrastructure in these countries which the USA conveniently destroyed in the first place.
Corporations are (literally) "making a killing" in this war system, as are the smaller businesses that make uniforms, helmets, boots, and other necessities needed by a killing machine. Not to mention the doctors, nurses, consultants, spies, engineers, physicists, and other peripheral personnel used to advance and maintain the high tech war machine system.
Then of course there is the ongoing cost of death and destruction -- rebuilding disabled soldiers, demolished buildings, roads and other infrastructure destroyed by American/NATO bombs, and then having to replace these same bombs and missiles.
Yes, it's a good business -- if you believe in death and destruction.
But it's a bad business for educationand affordable health care at home. The public cannot afford to pay for constant, worldwide wars, both covert and overt, and pay for affordable education. Tough luck, students. Get the education you can't afford thanks to a war system designed to never end.
What could replace the world's war system? A world unity government -- the Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution...designed as a world peace system. Then students could be given affordable, or even free, education -- and universal health care would be a given.
-- Editor
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2/19/10 HOW THE UNPA CAMPAIGN RELATES TO THE EARTH FEDERATION'S WORLD PARLIAMENT
If European parliamentarians seek more democratic representation at the United Nations by adding a "Parliamentary Assembly," but is denied decision-making authority as is the case with the UN General Assembly, then the UNPA (and the UNGA) might consider joining the Earth Federation.
The Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution gives real democratic decision making authority to the Federation's World Parliament. This could become a real possibility since the UN Charter keeps key decision-making power in the hands of the Security Council, and limits the UN General Assembly to making "resolutions." A UN Parliamentary Assembly would most likely suffer the same fate as the General Assembly -- unless the UN Charter was dropped in favor of the Earth Constitution. -- Editor
2/12/10
WHY ESTABLISHMENT PANIC OVER THREAT OF NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION?
An article in the Rock Creek Free Press (Feb., 2010) by Daniel Tencer reports that President Obama's appointee to head the "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs," Cass Sunstein, proposes "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the one surrounding 9/11.
Why such panic from the Establishment?
This type of manipulation would most likely be for the goal of trying to avoid a new 9/11 investigation -- which is what the 9/11 truth movement has been demanding all along. (A demand which seems more than reasonable in view of the new factual evidence that has surfaced since the 9/11 Commission Report was shown to be fatally flawed.)
Such an obvious propaganda maneuver by the authorities is in line with the refusal of the mainstream media to allow credible researchers on the air to explain why they think a new 9/11 investigation is warranted. MSNBC, for example, despite trying to be "progressive", has repeatedly ignored requests to put 9/11 investigators on the air -- despite the fact that these researchers have blue ribbon, impeccable credentials.
In fact, no mainstream media (TV or newspaper) dares let these investigators report their findings to the public -- it would convince the public that they had been hookwinked.
The American propaganda apparatus instead attacks these researchers ad hominen -- an old propaganda trick used to avoid having to address the real issues.
Why? It is this writer's opinion that the Establishment has ordered censorship to avoid a new investigation -- precisely because the 9/11 researchers are getting too close to the type of facts that could bring down a ruling oligarchy.
One might speculate that there is a behind-the-scenes panic. 9/11 researchers are gaining more and more credibility worldwide.
But what about the so-called "mastermind" of 9/11? Won't the upcoming trial of Khalid Shikh Mohammed (KSM) put all questions to rest when he conveniently "confesses" in a public courtroom?
In reality, the fear that KSM might not "confess" the way he was "taught" by torture techniques, may be the reason that some politicians panic at the idea of a public trial, and want a military tribunal instead.
There might be a serious problem with KSM. What if he was tortured, not to get at the truth of "who done it", but to create what is known as a "patsy" in false flag operation lingo?
What if the endless series of waterboarding torture sessions failed to condition him enough to be a reliable patsy? (Hint -- if he appears to waiver from what he is "suppose to say", one might predict the possibility of an "accidental death," taking the full blame for 9/11 with him....case closed.)
-- Editor
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San Francisco Progressive Conference, like the Earth Federation, Proposes New U.S. Amendment to Take Away Corporate Personhood
Sponsored by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org), over 500 progressive activists met in San Francisco on 2/15/10. There was much concern about the direction of the Obama administration. Expanded Pentagon budgets, corporate personhood, the health care debacle, bailing out Big Money, and much more had these progressives confessing to both emotional pain, and indeed, anger.
Similar to the recent discussion in Earth Federation ranks to pass a World Law to Prohibit Corporate Personhood, these progressives want an U.S. Constitutional Amendment to accomplish this same objective, albeit using a rather vague title: "Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment."
Discussion on eliminating "corporate personhood" via an amendment recognized that, even if successful, would apply only here in the United States. Most corporations are multinational. Hence the importance of the Earth Federation's World Law proposal which will be discussed at the Provisonal World Parliament's 12th session which will be held in India in December, 2010.
The present writer was highly impressed with the level of discussion of most participants at this Conference, and the inspired leadership with such individuals as Rabbi Michael Learner, Medea Benjamin, and Marianne Williamson, and others.
There was also a proposal for a worldwide "Marshall Plan" in the belief that being kind and generous to others would be much more effective in global politics than using threats, intimidation, death and destruction. American militarization has only made our world less safe, both for Americans and for others in the world.
(The goals of this progressive group were very much in keeping with Earth Federation goals on almost all fronts -- ending war and poverty, increasing human rights, and protecting the environment. They continue, however, to think more in nationalistic terms rather than in terms of global structure change. Many do not yet grasp the critical need for democratic world federation to replace the current global war system and the inadequate and ineffective United Nations. -- Editor)
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2/6/2010
PROPOSED WORLD BILL FOR 12TH PROVISIONAL WORLD PARLIAMENT
Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Prohibition Act
Whereas, the fourth broad function of the Earth Federation is "to regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, use of world resources, and other global and international processes" (Article 1.4);
Whereas, specific powers of the Earth Federation include the power to "define and regulate procedures for the nomination and election of members of each house of the World Parliament" (Article 4.7);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to protect the civil liberties identified in Article 12, including "freedom to vote without duress, and freedom for political organization and campaigning without censorship or recriminations" (Article 12.5);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "define standards and promote worldwide improvement in working conditions," standards of living, healthcare, sanitation, and other basic necessities for a quality of life for world citizens, including protection of the environment and the ending of war (Article 13);
Whereas, the Earth Federation is responsible to "regulate and supervise supra-national trade, industry, corporations, businesses, cartels, professional services" (Article 4.14), and international communications (Article 4.13);
Whereas, in some major nations today, corporations have been granted "legal personhood," giving them all the rights and privileges of private human persons, with the exception that these corporations cannot die, that individuals operating within the corporation are protected from liability because the corporation itself is considered a collective "person," that corporations are entities without a conscience mandated solely to make a private profit for their investors, and that corporations, in spite of their vast impact on society, may claim privacy from public scrutiny, and other rights of private persons;
And whereas, within such nations, corporate personhood has given corporations the "free speech" of private persons through which they have used their vast economic resources to colonize and destroy the democratic process, engineering the election of law-makers beholden to the corporations, employing professional lobbyists for their private ends, and using a variety of means to manipulate government in the service of minority private interests;
And whereas, within the world prior to the advent of the Earth Federation, democracy has been compromised nearly everywhere by the wealth and power of the few to colonize governments and communications systems;
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Provisional World Parliament:
Article 1.
Only flesh and blood human beings shall have the rights of legal persons as identified in Articles 12 and 13 of the Earth Constitution.
Article 2.
Private corporations under the regulative jurisdiction of the Earth Federation shall be incorporated . by the World Parliament or its designated agents with legal mandates specifically defining their functions, responsibilities, and modes of operation.
2.1. These legal mandates empowering corporations to perform certain economic operations shall be defined within a framework considering:
2.1.2. protection of democracy,
2.1.3, protection of the environment,
2.1.4 promotion of economic prosperity among people and communities effected by their operations, and, in general,
2.1.5 the common good of the citizens of the Earth Federation.
Article 3.
Private, profit-oriented corporations shall not have the right, as collective entities, to promote any candidate for election or any political cause within the Earth Federation, nor to contribute funds or campaign contributions or other economic support to candidates for office.
3.1. However, individuals working within any corporation, shall have the free and full right to participate in promoting candidates for election or any political cause they may choose,
3.2. Individuals working within any corporation shall have the right to contribute funds to political campaigns within whatever limits may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 4.
Private individuals shall have the right to promote candidates or causes of their choice within the legal criteria legislated by the World Parliament. Such criteria shall be formulated within a framework that limits the ability of wealthy individuals to unduly influence or colonize the political process.
Article 5.
Non-profit political associations of private individuals (as, for example, political parties, advocacy groups, or think tanks) shall be registered with the Earth Federation and operate within whatever legal limits, transparency, and other criteria as may be defined by subsequent legislation of the World Parliament.
Article 6.
Elections conducted under the World Parliament, beginning at the First Operative Stage of the Earth Federation, shall be free, fair, and monitored by independent observers.
6.1. Each candidate shall use a government defined and paid for information booklet (which may also be electronic), of a standard size and overall format that shall be used for campaign purposes (as specified in Article 8.3.1.5 of the Earth Constitution).
6.2. Each candidate shall have equal access to public communications media (electronic or print) under limits and conditions defined by the World Parliament.
6.3. Each candidate shall have the right to use private communications media (electronic or print) as paid for by non-profit advocacy groups or contributions of private citizens under limits and conditions as defined by the World Parliament.
Article 7.
Private, profit-making communications media that are international in scope also fall under the category of corporations and agencies requiring regulation by the Earth Federation (Articles 1.4 and 4.13).
7.1. Profit-making communications corporations shall not be recognized as legal persons within the Earth Federation.
7.2. The Provisional World Parliament recognizes that profit-making communications corporations may play in important role in fostering democratic processes, the diversity of voices necessary to vigorous dialogue and debate, and disseminating information necessary to democratic decision-making.
7.3. With this possibly important role in mind, the World Parliament may wish to define legal incorporation for such entities differently from that from other profit-making corporations.
7.4. Nevertheless, the legal powers of profit-making communications corporations shall be defined within a framework directed toward maximizing the democratic powers of individual persons for participation in political processes and protecting the rights of individual persons to speech and political participation as define in Articles 12 and 13.
7.5. The framework identified in 7.4 may be fostered, for example, through anti-trust or anti-cartel laws that break up media conglomerates into a number of smaller, competing voices, or through legislation requiring the airing of opposing viewpoints.
Article 8.
When considering legislation concerning the items specified under this Democracy Enhancement and Corporate Personhood Abolition Act, the World Parliament shall seek input from each of the agencies within the Integrative Complex of the Earth Federation and from any other ministry or agency of the Federation deemed appropriate.
8.1. Since the World Boundaries and Elections Administration (Article 8.3) is responsible to define the procedures for properly democratic elections (8.3.1.5) and defines the rules for world political parties (8.3.1.6), this agency shall submit annual reports to the World Parliament regarding the successes and difficulties of democratic elections with respect to the functioning of concentrations of private wealth (wealthy individuals or profit-making corporations) and with respect to the operations of communications corporations.
8.2. These reports shall include factual assessments of the degrees to which free and fair popular democracy in the service of the majority of people is disrupted by private wealth, profit-making corporations, and/or communications corporations.
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Article 9.
Penalties for violations of this act shall be determined by the World Parliament and enforced by the world police and world courts.
9.1. All penalties shall apply to individuals and none to corporations, since it is individuals who break the law, not abstract legal entities.
9.2. The penalties and courts shall normally assess greater responsibility to those higher up in the corporate hierarchy, keeping in mind that "obeying orders" from one�s boss does not fully exonerate any individual who knowingly breaks the law.
9.3. Whistle blowers and others who report abuses with regard to this act shall be protected by this law from retaliation by their employers. It shall be the responsibility of the World Ombudsmus to monitor such situations and protect the rights of the persons involved.
2/6/10 FROM THE ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT NUMBER 78 by William Blum www.killinghope.org
(Below is an excerpt from Mr. Blum's latest article.)
The US bombing, invasion, occupation and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and the continuing Israeli-US genocide against the Palestinians have created an army of new anti-American terrorists. We'll be hearing from them for a terribly long time. And we'll be hearing American officials twist themselves into intellectual and moral knots as they try to avoid confronting these facts.
In his "State of the Union" address on January 27, President Obama said: "But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know." Well, ending America's many wars would free up enough money to do anything a rational, humane society would want to do. Eliminating the military budget would pay for free medical care for everyone. Free university education for everyone. Creating a government public works project that could provide millions of decently-paid jobs, like repairing the decrepit infrastructure and healing the environment to the best of our ability. You can add your own favorite projects. All covered, just by ending the damn wars. Imagine that.
(Editor's note: A belligerent nation always at war will go so deeply in debt that it will no longer be able to care for its own citizens at home. Worse yet, military and covert operation violence, death and destruction, make citizens less safe because the victims eventually seek revenge. Brutality only pacifies on the surface, underneath the victims seethe with anger and hate.)
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1/31/2010
WILL THE PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS JOIN THE EARTH FEDERATION GOAL OF DISARMAGEDDON?
Representatives of the Parliament of the World's Religions will be contacted soon to propose that the Earth Federation's goal of "Disarmageddon" (world peace without the Armageddon death and destruction scenario)be considered as a goal for this world body of religious representatives. Upwards of 170 religions have been reported to participate in this religious world parliament.
The Earth Federation believes that it is imperative that world peace be achieved without the death and destruction scenario predicted by some religious groups, and prodded on by some of these same religious faiths who predict, or require, an "Armageddon" before there can be a successful peaceful world.
The belief that we are in "the End times" may have led some religious extremists to actively support the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, with the belief that there must first be an Armageddon before the Savior can make His appearance.
The question to the Parliament of World's Religions: Is an Armageddon really all that necessary or desirable in terms of sacred scriptures? Can world spiritual leaders find a means to restrain those zealots who would actually cheer for Armageddon???
-- editor
1/24/10
1000 WORLD ELECTORAL DISTRICTS?
Activists such as those in the Peoples Congress have been contacted by the present writer to consider adopting the Earth Constitution's requirement that "1000 World Electoral Districts" be established for the "House of Peoples" in the Provisional World Parliament.
The Earth Constitution's founders believed that 1000 elected representatives would be a workable number to represent the 5 to 6 billion people in the world.
The proposed Earth Federation electoral districts have been drawn up for all parts of the world, but may be modified when a newer population census is available --possibly this year, according to Eugenia Almand, Provisional World Parliament Secretary.
The Earth Constitution calls for the the Earth Federation's World Parliament to also include a "House of Nations" and a "House of Counselors." This structure is a tricameral model, different from the USA which is bicameral (two houses), or some nations with only a single national parliament.
-- RK
1/15/2010SIGN THAT A MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION IS TAKING A PRINCIPLED, MORAL STAND AGAINST A SUPERPOWER
The world public can take hope from the fact that Google Corporation actually took a public stand resisting censorship and snooping by superpower China against human rights advocates. Too good to be true? Multinational corporations are not exactly known for principled, ethical positions when it comes to making money. (Profit seems all too important to many CEO's even if it means violating ethical principles.)
In the present situation, if Google's concerns turn out to be factual, then China is in violation of at least three sections of Article XII (Bill of Rights) in the Earth Constitution. The Bill of Rights for the Citizens of Earth #3 requires "freedom of writing, communication, publication..." and #5 grants "freedom from censorship" and #18 prohibits "surveillance as a means of political control."
Article XIII #3 grants "Full access to information and to the accumulated knowledge of the human race."
Under the Earth Constitution, government authorities (in this case any Chinese official responsible for the alleged action) can be held accountable as an individual if their actions are found to be unlawful after due process proceedings by the judiciary.
Google Corporation is to be congratulated for speaking out on behalf of the world public interest. The Earth Federation would fully support Google in this case because openness to information advances democratic processes -- a top priority for the Federation.
-- Editor 1/15/10
1/9/2010
AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY IS A BETTER DEAL FOR "WE, THE PEOPLE" THAN A WORLD GOVERNED BY SHADOW ELITES
The alarm went out many years ago when some California grassroots activists began to investigate the Bohemian Club which consisted of the rich and/or powerful -- CEO's, former Presidents, Senators, heads of covert agencies, the wealthy, owners of media, etc. It became obvious that there was an "old boys network" which greased the wheels of fortune both in , and out, of government and pretty much controlled outcomes in their own favor.
While many people from other countries have understood who "runs the show" so to speak, Americans have been slow to acknowledge that their own fate was more in the hands of shadowy elites than under their own control. Authentic democracy was more a fantasy than a fact argues Professor Glen Martin, whom I have described as the "most important man in America."
Dr. Martin, from a small university back east and unknown to the public, shows covincingly in "Triumph of Civilization" that we in America as well as elsewhere do not have authentic democracy or full freedoms. People with money have much more "freedom of speech" since they are the ones who can afford to buy media time and who own the main media outlets.
Dr. Martin's importance is that he has gone beyond identifying the key problems, he
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