Matisyahu, Youth

SHARPs
--Wiki--

SHARPs recognize the biracial origins of the skinhead subculture, and resent what they see as the hijacking of the skinhead name by white power skinheads. The SHARP logo is based on the logo of Trojan Records, which originally mainly released black Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae artists. Beyond the issue of anti-racism, there is no official political ideology of SHARP.

SHARPs.uk

FightDemBack.org (SHARPs in Austrailia and New Zealand)

SHARPAustrailia.blogspot.com

BigShotZine.net (SHARPs in Germany)

SkinsandSHARPs.com (Austrailia)

TorontoSHARPs.blogspot (Canada)

SHARPciudadreal.blogspot.com (Brazil)

SHARPoniente.blogspot.com (Brazil)

Kidsofthe80.blogspot.com (Brazil)

Juventudeantifascista.blogspot.com (Brazil)

All the Rage
April 02, 2010
--NPR.com--

The arrest of members of a so-called Christian right-wing militia last weekend capped a week of anger and violence that ricocheted around U.S. politics. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which recently published a census of such groups, discusses the alarming rise of U.S. hate groups and the rhetoric that feeds them.


BROOKE GLADSTONE: The news that a militia group called Hutaree had been foiled in its plot to foment a violent uprising capped a week of verbal and physical rage that ricocheted around U.S. politics. The intensity of the Hutarees’ anger and the looniness of their plot seemed to have taken the media by surprise, but it didn't particularly shock Mark Potok. The information director for the Southern Poverty Law Center and former journalist who covered the rise of the militia movement in the 1990s, Potok leads the Center’s annual census of hate groups and extremism.

The most recent study, just published, found that in the last 18 months, since shortly before President Obama’s election, the number of right wing hate groups had grown to 512, an increase of 244 percent, and anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80 percent.

Potok’s job is to ferret out these groups and their plans, but he says that much of their anger and alienation is hiding in plain sight, as the Hutarees’ website, complete with paramilitary videos, showed all too well.

MARK POTOK: A great many of them are quite easy to find. I mean, we had found the Hutaree militia long before these indictments, about a year earlier, they had whole MySpace section, and then, of course, we found their website and so on.

The way we collect our information ranges from the very simple – collecting media accounts, broadcast news accounts and so on – to getting into sometimes secret email groups. We have a lot of interaction with law enforcement. Someone comes out of a group, they've broken up with their boyfriend or their girlfriend and they're ready to talk so, of course, you snatch up those people and talk to them. And in addition, I have a staff of investigative reporters who do on-the-ground investigative work. So it’s certainly a - not merely a desk job.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: How do you make sure your research has the maximum impact?

MARK POTOK: It has been a very good thing for us in terms of communicating with the public to count, to actually show what these groups are, what their names are, where they are located, what type of group they are. I think probably the most important single educational tool we've ever devised is the hate group map that we have on our website. And I think huge numbers of people are absolutely shocked. In fact, the Ku Klux Klan still exists; in fact, there really are uniformed neo-Nazi groups, and sometimes right there in the town next door, that they had no idea about.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: How significant a factor do you think the Internet plays in fostering the anti-government movements that you've been looking at? You've talked about social media like MySpace. Are there other mechanisms that are providing fuel for this fire?

MARK POTOK: Well, let me answer in this way: In the mid-'90s, when the Internet came into existence, at least on a broad basis, most of these groups felt that this was the answer to their dreams because once they were able to get their message to the people, without sort of mediation of the elites then, of course, the people would rise up and join them and all would be well, ultimately. That, naturally, hasn't happened. The websites of these groups have been much less effective at recruiting people than the groups had hoped.

That said, if you think about say a white supremacist 30 years ago, that individual tended to be a very isolated person. They couldn't really go down to the corner bar and start confiding their, their ideology to the person on the next barstool because they might get their nose broken. That same person today gets up in the morning, turns on the computer; there are all kinds of discussions going on in the various forums about strategy and ideology. People are announcing or organizing events, so that person now feels like he is part of a movement.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, we've heard a lot of hot rhetoric since the campaign and an increasingly paranoid and confrontational political landscape since Obama’s election, how do you separate the overheated speech of pundits and politicians from the hate speech of groups that pose a viable threat?

MARK POTOK: Really, I would say that the problem is, is that much of the hate speech and especially the kind of defamatory propaganda and conspiracy theories that come out of these radical right wing groups, hate groups and patriot groups, so called, is making its way into the mainstream. And that kind of conveyor belt movement from the margins to the mainstream is being very much aided, at least in the last year or two, by a number of mainstream politicians, or ostensibly mainstream politicians, and media commentators.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: I assume you’re talking about politicians like Michelle Bachmann and cable TV and talk radio pundits like Glenn Beck. Am I correct?

MARK POTOK: Yes, I'm talking about when Michelle Bachmann says President Obama is setting up political reeducation camps all around the country, presumably to turn our children into Marxist robots. I'm talking about when Steve King, a Congressman out of Iowa, says that 25 Americans every single day are either murdered or run over and killed by drunken, as he would say, “criminal illegal aliens,” or when Glenn Beck on FOX News talks about the possibility that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running a set of secret concentration camps to intern good patriotic Americans, all of that and much more. And that is becoming quite common today.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And do you see a direct connection or merely a circumstantial one between those bigmouths and the violence from these groups, not just threats but actual attempts?

MARK POTOK: Well, it’s very difficult to say, you know, Glenn Beck is responsible for this or that killing. On the other hand, perhaps there is some fairly direct association, for instance, between the many years of defamatory talk about Latino immigrants from Lou Dobbs and certain others and the fact that anti-Latino hate crimes went up by 40 percent between 2003 and 2007. There’s no way to draw a direct link. It’s certainly not legal responsibility, but moral responsibility, I think, there probably is quite a bit.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: How about civilians, non-journalists, how can they use the media to battle this?

MARK POTOK: I do think that a very important role of normal everyday Americans with regard to the media is to call the media to account, when that is required. Last year there was a real campaign against Lou Dobbs. It more or less began after Dobbs seemed to cross the line into birther territory to suggest that Obama should show his birth certificate, and so on. We had never called for Dobbs’ firing up to that moment but that seemed to us to really cross the Rubicon. And we did call. And a large number of other civil rights and immigrant rights organizations repeated the call. But that was joined by thousands and thousands and thousands of everyday Americans, some of whom even did things like demonstrate in front of CNN headquarters in Atlanta. And Dobbs left, apparently at a cost of eight million dollars to CNN.

So I don't think that that is something that could have been accomplished only by civil rights groups or immigrant rights groups. I do think the public played a really important role.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Mark, thank you very much.

MARK POTOK: And thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Mark Potok is the director of Publications and Information for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Obama- March Madness and Opening Day 2010

Weezer, I Want You To

Music, Washed Out, "Feel it All Around" Tori y Moi (RemiX)

Riots in the Streets of Kyrgyzstan

--wiki--

Long-term frustration in Kyrgyzstan, the perceived corruption and cronyism in the Bakiyev administration, in addition to a weak economy experiencing a recent rise in utility rates. In the days leading up to the riots a number of news outlets were shut down, following reports that were considered "damaging" to the president and his son, Maxim Bakiyev, who heads the new national Central Agency for Development, Investment, and Innovation. An arrest warrant was issued in early March by an Italian court for Eugene Gourevitch, an American who was accused of defrauding Telecom Italia. Gourevitch was at the time the managing director of a consulting agency that advised Kyrgyzstan's Development Fund, which in turn is managed by the Central Agency run by Maxim. The government soon began closing independent news outlets that reported on Gourevitch affair. Two newspapers were shut down on March 18. Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz-language service of RFE/RL, went off the air shortly afterward. The opposition newspaper Forum was shut on March 31, and the independent website Stan.tv had its equipment removed on April 1. (cont.)

U.S. Statement on Terrorist Attack in Moscow
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Chairman
Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Co-Chairman
For Immediate Release www.csce.gov
March 29, 2010


"The architects of Russia’s North Caucasus policy don’t ride the metro, especially not at eight in the morning. These attacks targeted innocent working class people on their way to jobs and schools. If you improve security on these trains, the killers will simply find a softer target. While this attack hit Moscow, it serves as a cry for help to end the violence and poverty in Chechnya and neighboring regions that engender the desperation that makes these sorts of incidents more likely.”

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the Federal Government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 56 countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce. (cont.)

Thoughts from a Practicing Catholic on the Roman Catholic Sex Scandal

by Sander Hicks April 6, 2010 04:23 PM
--HuffingtonPost--

The Church is "under attack" and the Pope needs our unqualified support and prayers. Jesus was a warrior, and Easter was a "battle victory." At the Vatican that same day, Cardinal Sardano turned the Easter Mass into a pep rally for Pope Benedict. Sardano claimed that pedophilia cover-up claims were nothing but "petty gossip."

This is insane, it is not strategic, and it is not in keeping with Catholic teaching. We Catholics do not believe that the Pope is perfect, or "infallible," most of the time. Our Pope is a man and a sinner, not a king. He messed up. He needs to show empathy with the victims.

While he was still Cardinal in Germany, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict-to-be) signed off on an "untreatable" pedophile, Father Peter Hullerman, and let him return to work with kids from 1979 to 2010. That's 31 years of child sexual abuse from one guy. How many more Hullermans were there?

The more I learn about Pope Benedict, the more I realize that the Church needs a revolutionary period of deep renewal. Amidst the darkness of this damaging scandal, the light of the "Vatican III" Conference had better be around the corner.

I've been reading Betty Clermont's new book, The Neo Catholics a devastating history of the rise of the NeoCon Right. Turns out that rise paralleled that of a swing to the right inside the Vatican, as Reagan built up US-Vatican ties.

From age 14 to 16, Ratzinger was a Nazi in the Hitler Youth. So the Vatican's claim last week that their plight was akin to that of the Jews in the Holocaust was just ... weird. What a tasteless lack of empathy with the Jews. As reported by an Italian newspaper, "certain Catholic circles" in Rome blame the entire outcry on "a New York Jewish lobby" out to get the Pope.

In five short years, Pope Benedict reversed much of the interfaith work of Pope John Paul II. He brought back ornate, gilded ceremonial robes with 20-foot trains and decorated with the coat of arms of the House of Medici -- the wealthy Italian banking family that got four of its own elected pope over the course of four centuries. They presided over the peak in the Church's power, from the Dark Ages to the Counter-Reformation to Church's resistance to the Enlightenment. (cont.)

Rebuilding in Haiti: View from the ground
11:57 GMT, Sunday, 4 April 2010 12:57 UK
--bbc.co.uk--


A UN donor conference on Wednesday received pledges of $9.9bn (£6.5bn) in immediate and long-term aid for Haiti. The money is badly needed to help the country after the devastation of January's earthquake. But what is happening on the ground now as Haitians and aid groups try to rebuild lives and buidlings?

- Rebuilding Houses
- Pumping Clean Water
- Rehabilitating Spinal Injuries
- Cash Distribution
- Creation of Small Businesses
- Field Trauma Hospitals

(cont.)

Rehabilitation Work in Dantewada and Bijapur - A Brief Report (2009)
--courtesy of the Association for India's Development--

Bijapur and Dantewada district are situated in southern part of Bastar. This area is inhabitated by many tribes and OBC’s , the major tribe here is Koya.

In 2005 state government initiated an anti insurgency operation named Salwa Judum. In which state tried to cut the supply line of naxalites by shifting villagers to the road side Salwa Judum camps. During this population shifting excercise thousands of tribes opted not to shift to the government camps and remained in their village. State forces blamed such tribals as naxal supporters and attacked on such villages. Thousands of tribes had to hide in jungle to save their lives or to migrate in neighbouring states. More than fifty thousand people migrated to Andhra Pradesh itself.

Tribals of Chhattisgarh who migrated to Andhra Pradesh have been living in sub human conditions. They had lost all their livelihood means including land, live stock, forest produce etc. on the other hand people hiding in forests of Chhattisgarh were also living under threat of Salwa Judum and state forces attack. These situations worsen the conflict situation. AID INDIA and A.S.D.S decided to intervene in this situation to minimize the measure of the people and explore the possibilities of a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

A.S.D.S. Rekhapalli Andhra Pradesh and AID INDIA decided to help people to resettle in their native villages and to reclaime their land. A.S.D.S conducted a survey of internally displaced people living in Andhra Pradesh and contacted certain social activist and social groups working in Chhattisgarh and explored possibilities of rehabilitation of these I.D.P. Administration of both the states, Andhra pradesh and Chhattisgarh were informed about proposed rehabilitation schedule. Tribes from Andhra Pradesh seen off by activist’s, local media and representatives of local administration. These tribes were escorted/accompanied by activist of Chhattisgarh. After a heavy struggle with local police officers and Salwa Judum, these tribes could go to their village. We had to show supreme court instructions and N.H.R.C.S recommendations about rehabilitation of these tribes.

So far following villages will be rehabilitated partially

Basaguda
Lingagiri
Dharmapur
Kumharpara
Sarkeguda
Kattaguda
Rajpeta
Basaguda
Peesepara
Pakela
Heerapur
Regadgatta
Etegatta
Gorka
Kurtipara
Pata Nendra
Kotta Nendra
Kotta Cheru
Darbhaguda

(cont.)

Scores of Indian soldiers killed in Maoist ambushes
17:27 GMT, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 18:27 UK
--bbc.co.uk--

Maoist rebels have killed at least 75 Indian soldiers (Salwa Judum) in a series of attacks on security convoys in the central state of Chhattisgarh, officials say. A large patrol of federal paramilitary troops (Salwa Judum) was ambushed at dawn by hundreds of heavily armed insurgents in a remote part of Dantewada district. (cont.)


What is Salwa Judum?
--theOtherIndia.org--

Salwa Judum (literally "purification hunt") is a state sponsored counterinsurgency campaign started in Dantewada district of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh in 2005, which involved vigilante gangs accompanied by state security forces burning villages, killing people and forcing them into camps, as part of an effort to counter Naxalites (Maoist guerrillas). Over 644 villages have been affected and some 300,000 people displaced. Various reports critiquing the Salwa Judum are

The PUCL report
ACHR report
IAPL report
Human Rights Features report
Planning Commission report
Independent Citizens' Initiative

(cont.)

Matisyahu, Close My Eyes

Media Banned from Reproducing ‘Statements by Terrorists’
April 5th, 2010
--theOtherRussia--

A new law adopted on Monday by the Russian State Duma will ban the media from reproducing any statements whatsoever issued by anyone deemed to be a terrorist, ITAR-TASS reports.

The bill was written by Robert Shlegel, a member of the leading United Russia party and former press secretary for the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi. It will amend current legislation governing the media to include a ban on “the distribution of any material from persons wanted for or convicted of participating in terrorist activities.” (cont.)

Dagestani man identifies Moscow Metro bomber as his daughter
--theVoiceofRussia--
Apr 5, 2010 09:35 Moscow Time

A resident of Dagestan has identified the bomber that set off an explosive device at the Lubyanka Moscow Metro station a week ago as his daughter. The Moscow-based Kommersant daily reports that a secondary school teacher Rasul Magomedov has pointed out the fact in a written statement for the Dagestan Prosecutor’s Office. Magomedov says that his daughter Maryam Sharipova and her mother went to a Makhachkala marketplace a day before the March 28th terrorist attacks, and then she went to visit her friend and has since failed to return home. Magomedov’s relatives and other residents of their village identified the girl in the photos that were made public on the Internet. On Sunday blood specimens were taken from the teacher and his wife for DNA-testing. Rasul Magomedov described his daughter as a pious, although not a radically-minded person. She taught information science in the very same school where her parents have worked all their life. Maryam Sharipova’s brother Ilyas was earlier arrested on charges of illegal keeping of a hand grenade, abducting a person and involvement with illegal armed groups, but was acquitted on all points, save for the first one. Now that a week has passed since the Metro blasts, 81 victims of the acts of terror are still at Russian capital hospitals. According to the Emergencies Ministry, over 120 people were injured in the attacks on the Lubyanka and Park Kultury Moscow Metro stations, while the death toll has reached 40.

The Uribe doctrine of journalism
Overview of press freedom and the practice of journalism in times of "democratic security"
Camilo Rueda Navarro
Monday April 5, 2010
--PrensaRural.org--

Since the arrival of Alvaro Uribe as President of the Republic, and the issuance of Decree 2002 of 2002 on the "rehabilitation zones" which have been raised restrictions on the press. Article 22 prohibited the transit and presence of foreign journalists in these areas, violating the constitutional articles 20 and 73 which protect the journalistic activity to ensure their freedom and professional independence.

In 2005, Vice President Francisco Santos, after the press report on guerrilla attacks on military targets, accused the media of creating a "sounding board" of terrorism. This shows in itself alarming, it is of concern coming from a "journalist."

This stigmatization is evidence that the policy of "democratic security" reporters were categorized into two: the "Patriots", ie those who make government choir, while critics and independent journalists are branded as subservient of "terrorism." (cont.)

The Blam, Various Disgraces

FBI Tricked Hutaree Christian Militia Into Showing Up Unarmed
04- 2-10 03:12 AM
--HuffingtonPost/AP--

The ruse in Ann Arbor was part of a series of weekend raids in several states that resulted in the indictment of nine people in the alleged plot, officials said.

"We basically set up a scenario where we were able to draw them all to one location," Andrew Arena, the FBI's special agent in charge in Detroit, told The Associated Press. "And the reason we did that was to obviously get them away from their weapons."

Washed Out, Feel it all around

The Sochi Winter Olympics and the Caucasian Islamist cause
By Benjamin Shapiro,--Prague Watchdog--
April 1st 2010


Circassian nationalists are currently demanding from Moscow their own Circassian republic, which would combine the current republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, Adgye and Karachai-Cherkessia into what in Soviet times was called "Greater Circassia". Many Circassian groups are also calling for the cancellation of the Winter Olympics. "Circassians argue the Sochi Games are as insensitive as hosting a sporting competition on the grounds of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz", according to Reuters. The Circassians are attempting to push Moscow into officially recognizing Tsarist Russia's mass deportations of Circassian people as genocide. 2014 will mark the 150th anniversary of the military operation in which Tsarist Russia forced 300,000 Circassians out of the land in and around Sochi, the city that is to host the winter games. It seems that in this respect the Caucasus Emirate shares the same priorities with many Circassians, though with a different agenda. (con.)