Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Nato accused of war crimes in Libya

New report criticises Western forces for bombing civilian targets in Sirte during conflict

January 18, 2012


An independent report published by Middle Eastern human rights groups says there is evidence that war crimes and human rights violations were committed by all the participants – Nato, rebel forces and those loyal to Colonel Gaddafi – in last year's Libyan uprising.

The report, published today by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights together and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights with the International Legal Assistance Consortium, follows extensive fact-finding work carried out by law and war crimes experts. While the document stresses that findings are not conclusive, it adds weight to growing concerns about violations committed by all sides in the conflict.

After interviews with eye-witnesses and victims of attacks, and after visiting areas targeted by Nato, the Independent Civil Society Mission to Libya report highlights the issue of Nato classifying some civilian sites as military targets during its operations.

Nato was authorised by the UN Security Council to protect civilians in Libya from attacks by the Gaddafi regime during the uprising of last year, but drew criticism for what many described as going further than the terms of the mandate.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=84946

Rick Santorum Defends SOPA

One Mexican State Bordering The US Was Deadlier Than All of Afghanistan Last Year

Mexico Drug War

(CNSNews.com) – Organized crime-related deaths in one Mexican border state during the first nine months of 2011 exceed the number of Afghan civilians killed in roughly the same period in all of war-torn Afghanistan.
According to the Mexican government, from January through September 2011 2,276 deaths were recorded in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico.

Cop Protecting People From Freedom of The Press

MARIANNE GINGRICH HAS SOMETHING TO SAY


August 10, 2010
MARIANNE GINGRICH HAS SOMETHING TO SAY.... Disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has a special kind of appreciation for marriage. Gingrich, for example, haggled over the terms of his divorce from his first wife while she was in the hospital, recovering from uterine cancer surgery. He had already proposed to his second wife before he was divorced from his first.
In the '90s, this happened again. Gingrich had an affair with a 33-year-old congressional aide -- while spearheading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton -- and asked his third wife to marry him before he was divorced from his second.
All of this, of course, would be easier to overlook if (a) Gingrich didn't seem entirely serious about running for president in 2012; and (b) Gingrich weren't running around saying things like, "The Democratic Party has been the active instrument of breaking down traditional marriage."
The middle wife -- the one between Newt's first and third marriages -- is Marianne, who once boasted she could end Gingrich's career with a single interview. Marianne has shown remarkable restraint for over a decade, but appears to have given that interview to Esquire.
It's a very lengthy piece, but the anecdote that's likely to generate the most attention comes in her telling of the point in May 1999, soon after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, when Gingrich confessed to one of his affairs -- with a woman who was in Marianne's "apartment, eating off her plates, sleeping in her bed."
[Marianne] called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. " 'I can't handle a Jaguar right now.' He said that many times. 'All I want is a Chevrolet.' "
He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.
He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.
The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"
"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."


Speaking to how the former Speaker sees the world, Marianne said Gingrich "believes that what he says in public and how he lives don't have to be connected." As for his presidential aspirations, she added, "There's no way."

Ron Paul Isolationist?

Speech Against Raising the Debt Ceiling Jan 18 2012

Ron Paul Votes against Debt Ceiling Increase

It’s Over – Only Two Republican Candidates On Virginia Ballot


Ron Paul 2012Wednesday, January 18, 2012
In the Commonwealth, real change candidate and Champion of the Constitution Ron Paul will face down establishment flip-flopper Mitt Romney
LAKE JACKSON, Texas – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, the constitutionally-observant candidate of real change, will face down establishment candidate and notorious flip-flopper Mitt Romney in a head-to-head matchup in the Virginia primary.
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied four candidates’ appeals to appear on the ballot after their glaring failure to comply with the Commonwealth’s stringent, but widely-known, ballot access requirements.
Former candidate Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum did not file signatures with the Virginia State Board of Elections at all.  Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich did file signatures, but fell short of qualifying.  Rick Perry then brought a suit against the state challenging the ballot-access requirements to which all candidates were held, and others failing to qualify joined the suit.  When the suit was struck down, an injunction was filed in part to reconcile whether and when paper ballots would be printed, and today the final decision was handed down.
Virginia is the nation’s 12th-largest state and its primary election takes place on March 6th – Super Tuesday.  The absence of any other candidates on the ballot aside from Paul and Romney, including serial hypocrite Gingrich and counterfeit conservative Santorum, is sending ripple effects throughout key early voting states including South Carolina where Palmetto State voters now are concerned about how their vote will affect the nominating process going forward.
For example, some voters might vote for a candidate with an organization too weak to comply with ballot access requirements.  Voting for that candidate would result in a vote wasted, as were the votes of many for candidates who exited the race like Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman.  Others ponder that only one veteran of the armed forces – Ron Paul – will be on the ballot in Virginia, a state so steeped in military tradition.  Still others have observed that only one Evangelical Christian will appear on the ballot there.  Indeed, there are many questions.
One thing is certain.  And that is, the decision has upended what plaintiffs against the Commonwealth and voters nationwide had expected just hours ago when plaintiffs held onto thin hopes of a reversal, or a convenient exception to the rule of law.
“It’s over,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton.  “Ron Paul, the candidate of real change, will face off against establishment flip-flopper Mitt Romney in the Virginia primary, making that that Tuesday less ‘super’ for serial hypocrite Newt Gingrich, counterfeit conservative Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry, who I should mention is marginally attached to the presidential race.”

Ron Paul Bewildered By Boos Over Golden Rule At Debate


Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said he’s bewildered by the boos he got during a televised debate in Myrtle Beach after saying the United States ought to follow the golden rule in its foreign relations.
Paul told Greenvilleonline.com during a campaign stop in Spartanburg Tuesday that he found the booing strange.
“That bewilders me, to tell you the truth,” the libertarian congressman from Texas said. “I thought the Golden Rule was pretty good.”

Unelected World Future Council? Who Elects Them?

http://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/


The World Future Council
Here at the World Future Council we endeavor to bring the interests of future generations to the centre of policy making. We inform policy makers about future just policies and advise them on how to implement these. Political solutions for the challenges of our time exist.

New Councillors
Seven new Councillors were elected at our last Annual General Meeting in November 2011: American actress and environmental activist Daryl Hannah; Minister of Natural and Cultural Heritage from the Republic of Ecuador, María Fernanda Espinosa; Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, President of GLOBE International; Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of International Union for Conservation of Nature; Thais Corral, co- founder of the Women, Environment and Development Organization; Ana María Cetto, co-founder of Third World Organization for Women in Science; and Anuradha Mittal, founder of progressive policy think tank Oakland Institute. >>

Once a year
Our Annual General Meeting
From the 4th to 6th of November, our global community of Councillors assembled in Hamburg for the World Future Council’s fifth Annual General Meeting. In themed workshops, Councillors, consulting experts and staff discussed the priorities for the coming year. The constructive weekend-long meeting concluded with the Council’s adoption of the work programme for 2012. It is the diversity of unique personalities that makes our Council so special. This year’s Councillors include Hans-Peter Dürr, nuclear physicist and philosopher; Pauline Tangiora, Maori Elder, and Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Somalia to the United Nations. >>

Future Policy Award 2011
And the winners are...
Congratulations to Rwanda’s National Forest Policy, initiated in 2004, for winning the 2011 Future Policy Award. The Gambia’s Community Forest Policy and the USA’s Lacey Act with its amendment of 2008 took home the Silver Awards. The three policies in the world which most effectively contribute to the conservation and sustainable development of forests for the benefit of current and future generations were announced at the UN headquarters in New York. >>

Wangari Maathai passes away
Our Honorary Councillor Wangari Maathai has passed away in Nairobi, Kenya, surrounded by her family. We are deeply shocked and saddened. Her commitment to environmental and human rights will remain an inspiration for us here at the World Future Council to continue fighting for the rights of future generations. >>

We Demand the Global Nuclear Phase Out
In a joint statement 50 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council demand a global nuclear phase out. “Nuclear power is neither the answer to modern energy problems nor a panacea for climate change challenges. There is no solution of problems by creating more problems,” state the experts, activists, politicians, clergy, entrepreneurs and scientists from 26 countries. Support us on Facebook.




World Future Council
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News from our Working Groups
We develop and spread solutions for: Climate, Energy and Regenerative Cities, Future Justice, Sustainable Ecosystems, Sustainable Economies and Future Finance, Peace and Disarmament.
Welcome to the "International Year of Access to Sustainable Energy For All"
It’s the year 2012 and still more than 1.6 billion people around the world have no access to electricity. Reason enough for the United Nations to declare 2012 the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”. Especially Africa faces big challenges but also great opportunities. 650 million people live without access to energy on the African continent. Find all information about our work in Africa here.
UN Biodiversity Chief Signs Memorandum of Understanding with WFC
Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Future Council in Hamburg, Germany, in order to establish a framework of cooperation in promoting the implementation of the Convention and its Strategic Plan 2011 to 2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Read the press releasehere.
Launch of Nuclear Abolition Forum
The WFC has partnered with seven organisations to launch a Nuclear Abolition Forum. The Forum consists of a dedicated website for articles and discussions (www.abolitionforum.org) and a periodicalfocusing on specific issues for achieving and sustaining a world free of nuclear weapons. Read more on the launch here.
Events
International Conference on Good Policies for Disabled People 22-23.01
Vienna: The WFC will highlight visionary policies for disabled people in partnership with the Essl Foundation and Bank Austria. Eight Good Policies have been selected by the Scientific Advisory Board to be presented and discussed with 200 international decision-makers in the field of disability policy.  >>

Climate Finance & Carbon Markets Africa 24-25.01
Johannesburg: Ansgar Kiene, Director WFC Africa Liaison Office, will speak about African climate finance at "Climate Finance & Carbon Markets Africa". The international conference will break down the key outcomes of COP 17 and what they mean for Africa.  >>

Alex Jones: Ron Paul, The Man In The Arena