[APR-news] November 23, 2006

Thu Nov 23 09:05:54 PST 2006

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org - November 23, 2006

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my
neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them
and took their land. - Jon Stewart

http://www.inter-zone.org/thanks.html
A Thanksgiving Prayer by William Burroughs

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=529
Give Thanks No More
By Robert Jensen

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the 
replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with 
a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective 
fasting. In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 
they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a 
spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, 
Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the 
Americas. Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist 
holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most 
Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical 
hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the 
United States. That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through 
criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same 
societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is 
predictable.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=683
Un-Thanksgiving Day: American Indians and Alcatraz Island
By Mickey Z.

Until the notorious federal penitentiary was closed in 1963, Alcatraz Island
was a place most folks tried to leave. On November 20, 1969, the island's
image underwent a rather drastic makeover. That was the day thousands of
American Indians refused to leave thus beginning an occupation that would
last until June 11, 1971.

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Other articles of interest

http://www.malcomlagauche.com/id1.html
Celebrating Genocide: The Aftermath of the First Thanksgiving
Malcolm Lagauche, malcomlagauche.com

A tribal leader of the Kumeyaay Nation of southern California once told me
that the two most sorrowful days of the year for Native Americans are
Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. He could not understand why U.S. citizens in
this day and age still celebrate the two days of Native American catastrophe
with all the knowledge that has been forthcoming in the past few decades
about the Native American holocaust.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=18444
No Thanksgiving Celebration for America's Turkey-Press
Ben Tanosborn, Middle-East Online

This Thanksgiving, the biggest turkey won't be at anyone's table. The
biggest turkey, dressed as John Q. Reporter, has been pardoned by the
Emperor and given the "Medal of Freedom" for services rendered: keeping
Americans in a state of sublime ignorance.

http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=83&Itemid=2
The Despotism of the Image
Dmitry Orlov, Culture Change

It is possible to erect a virtual mountain of rational, logical,
quantifiable arguments against cars and in favor of bicycles. A most amusing
line of analysis involves computing their relative effective average speeds.
First, compute the total cost of ownership of a car, including purchase
price, financing costs, maintenance costs, registration, tolls, traffic
tickets, and so forth. Now, include all external costs: road construction
and maintenance, damage to health caused by air and water pollution, loss of
productivity due to death and maiming in auto accidents, associated legal
costs, and, of course, military budgets needed to equip the armed forces to
fight for and defend the oil. Now, take the drivers' average income and
hours worked, and find out how many hours of labor it takes to cover all of
these costs. Add to that the actual time spent driving. Now take the number
of vehicle miles traveled, and divide it by the total number of hours spent
both driving and earning enough money to pay for cars. Rather than give you
the answers, I encourage you to do your own homework, but I can tell you
that the end result of this exercise is always the same: the bicycle is
faster than the car, and, depending on one's assumptions, driving is slower
than walking.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112206A.shtml
Power Companies Order Up Texas Toast
Kelpie Wilson, Truthout

Texas is already the number one CO2 polluter in the United States, which is
the number one CO2 polluter in the world. If Texas were a separate country,
it would rank as the world's tenth largest greenhouse gas emitter. But TXU
could care less about that. When the company pitched its plans to municipal
leaders last summer, it was happy to point out that CO2 is not a regulated
pollutant. Expensive measures to control the gas would not be required.
Clearly, TXU is rushing to complete these cheap and dirty plants before any
federal CO2 regulations can be enacted, thereby locking Texas and the planet
into increased CO2 emissions for the 50 year life of the plants.

http://www.energybulletin.net/22852.html
Head for the hills - the new survivalists
Mark Whittaker, Weekend Australian Magazine via Energy Bulletin

Sober and serious, McReady is part of a new wave of survivalists making
plans for big trouble. Whereas once it was nuclear holocaust, big-government
paranoia or religious rapture that motivated such people, now it is more
likely to be climate change, energy shortages and economic collapse. This
story is not about whether what they think is true, but more about the
social phenomena of what they're doing about it. Most never discuss their
beliefs with friends and colleagues because they're frightened of ridicule.
But they are getting ready for a world morphed into "Argentina on a very bad
day" or plunged into a never-ending depression, or famine, or, worst-case
scenario, Mad Max IV and the die-off of billions of people.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15702.htm
No Peace, No Place For Palestine
Sheila Samples, ICH

There's much to stoke the fires of international fury if one were to look at
the listing of massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinian and
Lebanese populations from 1946 through 1999 -- just prior to the barbaric
"man of peace" Ariel Sharon's reign as PM when business really picked up.
Webster defines "massacre" as "The indiscriminate, merciless killing of a
number of human beings." It says nothing about massacre being "immediate,"
therefore, the brutality Israel inflicts on thousands of shell-shocked,
homeless and defenseless refugees day after day after day -- denying them
food, water or medical assistance -- is a never-ending Jenin; a
mass-starvation massacre.

http://www.counterpunch.org/christison11222006.html
The Massacre at Beit Hanoun: How Can We Allow This to Go On?
Kathleen Christison, CounterPunch

Does being an American mean that I must sit back and quietly allow my
government to starve the entire Palestinian people, in the name of some kind
of dedication to a flag and a bill of rights that applies only to white
people? Does it mean that I must approve, or even merely accept, the
subhuman behavior of my government's closest ally, Israel?

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NewsWire

http://www.alternet.org/rights/44606/
Justice Department Quashes Wiretapping Inquiries

http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10050
Bush's only real victory: He vanquished American liberty

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-11-21T005931Z_01_N20289628_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-HEZBOLLAH-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=EntNewsTV_C2_televisionNews-2
Two men brought up on terrorism charges for broadcasting television station

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/22/wusarmy22.xml
It was my duty to refuse to go to Iraq, says first American army officer
facing court martial

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15709.htm
US retreat from Iraq? The secret story

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/US-proposes-doubling-Afghanistan-troops/2006/11/22/1163871464635.html
US proposes doubling Afghanistan troops

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taser21nov21,0,1459046.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Officer in Taser case also shot homeless man, was recommended for dismissal
over alleged assault

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35548
Climate Change: Will forests adapt to a warmer world?

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