It's All Political

Collective Punishment....

2007-10-29T21:16:00.000-05:00

"Israel envisages shutting down one of its power lines to Gaza for 15 minutes after a rocket attack, with the cut-off period gradually increasing to a two-hour limit if barrages continue."

Israel is now cutting power off to the 1.3 million people, living, in the Gaza Strip due to continuous rocket attacks from HAMAS. The idea of collective punishment is idiotic and horrible.

"Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations, said on a visit to Jerusalem she was 'very concerned' about the Israeli move though she understood Israel's 'distress' over rocket attacks.

'I think collective punishment is never a solution,' she said."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7068239.stm

Only if he wasn't running on foreign policy...

2007-10-22T18:47:00.000-05:00

Republican Representative, from Texas, Ron Paul has been the underdog for the Republican presidential candidacy for the last few months. As a liberal, Ron Paul has nearly won my vote only except for the fact that he is running just on foreign policy. Ron Paul's stances on most issues are, really, conservative and most people do not understand that. The issue of foreign policy is to bring our troops home from Iraq, and Ron Paul, sort of, exploits that issue. Ron Paul uses the issue of foreign policy to win the votes of democrats and/or liberals. Here are some clips from the debates (notice how they're repeative and some how tie to Foreign Policy):

Here's Ron Paul's view on media (more specifically fox news):

HAMAS vs. FATAH, The Liberation of Gaza Strip

2007-06-16T00:41:00.000-05:00

From previous posts, you may know that I'm pro-HAMAS resistance. As the news developes, I'm going to say that HAMAS's actions were not the smartest but the most riskiest. HAMAS has got rid of all FATAH secruity forces/towers in the Gaza Strip, which leads to HAMAS controlling the whole Gaza Strip including it's border with Egypt. HAMAS's move was escalated when FATAH, finally, recieved funding from the United States. FATAH recieved 40 million dollars from the United States to fight HAMAS in both political and 'military' grounds. HAMAS took the fight to FATAH as if they were fighting a United States backed force. The real question, after this is all over, is will HAMAS and The People of Gaza survive with no help from the West?

edit: I just (June 22nd, 2007) read this amazing article. I can't even summarize the article because I recommend reading the whole thing.

"How Hamas turned on Palestine's 'traitors'"

this explains what's going on in the region better than I could ever, and I think this, pretty much, answers my question for now.

Political Philosophy and The School System

2007-03-27T23:40:00.000-05:00

Political Philosophy and The School System

My older cousin and I got into an interesting discussion about rap music and how our favorite rappers of all time, Tupac Shakur changed the rap industry and the view of the ghetto. My cousin mentioned a speech that Tupac made in 1992, the speech was shown in the documentary Tupac Resurrection. I had forgotten about it, so I used my trusty source of YouTube and watched it again. Tupac had a similar stance with the Political philosphy of Anarchy, in which I mean, he was for direct action. I believe in the similar views, I think the only way to change the world is through direct action! Fuck donating to the Red Cross, go to the country/location and give the locals money. The idea of direct action brings me to the school system, the school system and the idea of direct action come hand in hand.

The United States School System is useless, I know in many math classes, science classes, and other classes, the students ask the teacher "Why are we learning this?" and the teachers respond with "To help you get better at problem solving". So, I ask, how does "advance" math, "advance" science, and whatever the hell else help the ghetto get rid of crack? How do all those classes help poverty? How do all those classes make the world a safer place?

I believe real RAP music represents the Jacob Riis of the new generation.

just wanted to get this off my chest,

-Peace

"...we'd be fooling our self's if we had an audience...and didn't realize that there were some enemies present..."

2007-03-13T19:25:00.000-05:00

"A United Nations committee has called on Israel to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their property and land in Israel and to ensure that the bodies responsible for distributing property, such as the Jewish National Fund, not discriminate against the Arab population." (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/835430.html)

"Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank have pushed on with their search for militants, trading gunfire with Palestinians in the town of Nablus."

"The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is home to about 2.5 million Palestinians, land occupied by Israel during the 1967 war.

There are also more than 100 Israeli settlements housing about 400,000 Jews."
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6415365.stm AND http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6407295.stm)

Reportered on July 25th, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5212870.stm

"The Israeli army has been accused of using Palestinian civilians as human shields in an operation in northern Gaza."

Reportered on March 8th, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6432133.stm

"An Israeli human rights group has accused Israel's army of using two young Palestinians as human shields during a recent raid in the West Bank."

I was just letting everyone catch up to the news, and I know some of it's couple of weeks old, but the news is still important. Starting off with the UN calling Israel to allow the Palestinians to return to their homes, I think Israel is just going to ignore their request because they've been doing that for about 40 years now, so I see no change. As for Israel's aggressive actions in Nablus, I think they're just trying to add fuel to the fire between HAMAS and Fatah. The situtation is a win-win for the United States and Israel because for one, what's better than the Palestinian government having problems internally and then adding Israel to that equation (not saying that they've haven't been in it) and two, Israel moved it's spotlight from Gaza, in which they've been threatening Gazan Fishermen (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36556), to West Bank in the last week, which is an interesting move because the United States has been funding Fatah, and the West Bank is a well-known Fatah Stronghold.

To get off topic, a bit, I ran into this interesting website a couple of days ago. World Mapper shows a map of the world and depending on the subject, for example weapons exporting, the countries on the map will become more "fat/obese" depending on how much they contribute to it.

That is all for now,

Peace!

"...stronger then the revolution/that you wear on your sleeve..."

2007-01-30T18:37:00.000-06:00

My blog posts are similar to Manifest Destiny except for the fact that we're moving East. The West Bank, as some of you might know, has a barrier that is within the West Bank (also known as the Green Line). The wall, according to the great source wikipedia, is on average 60 meters wide exclusion area (90%) and up to 8 meters high concrete walls (10%). Many Palestinians refer to this wall as the "racist wall", many activists call it the Apartheid Wall, I call it the Apartheid Wall, so sue me! I wanted to bring this topic up because of the latest article on the news site Ha'aretz. Israel's Prime Minister just approved the eastward continuation of the barrier that will leave 20,000 Palestinians enclaved and 1,500 Israelies in a new home. I encourage you to check this news site out, and yes, I know it is Israel/Israeli bias, but I believe more truth comes out of this news source than any American source. As for the title of this post, I believe, the rapper Talib Kweli was dissing me (not directly) in the song "Waitin' for the DJ (feat. Bilal)" because I wear a Palestinian wristband from time-to-time to show my support for the Palestinian Intifada.

I Put my Fist to The East Where My People Seek Peace....

2007-01-28T12:37:00.000-06:00

Yep, the title is quoting Palestinian rapper Ragtop. I decided to write on my blog when I read an article on the BBC website dealing with the continuous, never ending, clashes between HAMAS and Fatah. King Abdullah has invited the two factions to talk about ending the clashes. I believe this is somewhat unprecedented since the Israeli government doesn't want to see this end, which is similar to the United States not stopping the Shia-Sunni civil war in Iraq. Later in the article, the BBC reporter talks about how third, fourth, political organizations got involved in the recent months with abducting Fatah staff in retaliation to a senior HAMAS member being abducted in the city of Nablus. In my preceptive, I don't think this will stop until the United States intervenes for the sake of Palestinians or until the U.N. overrides the veteos imposed by the United States. As Ragtop says towards the end of the song "Free the P", "....death count goin' up/signs of U.S. interventions just ain't showin up..."

RE:Definition, Reoccupying?

2006-11-01T16:28:00.000-06:00

Hey!
I just read this BBC article, and I'm a little pissed off at the world for acting like if nothing is occuring in the middle east. All I'm asking is "What The FUCK?!"

Here's a taste of what's in the article:

"Eight Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in heavy clashes in the northern Gaza Strip."

"Some 60 people were wounded as troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, carried out the raid."

"Sixty tanks were involved in the attack, AFP news agency said."

"Israeli bulldozers razed three houses in Beit Hanoun, and another dozen homes were hit by tank shells, the agency reported."

"Both the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, have described the Israeli military action as a massacre."

Now I ask, is Israel trying to reoccupy the Gaza Strip?

Not recognizing Israel or the legitimacy of the occupation?

2006-10-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting article/interview (link). Al Hayat interviews Mish'al on Hama's position. blah blah this site is bias blah blah! find me a news source that isn't :)

"Marching Bands of Manhattan"

2006-09-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

I'm a daily visitor of the Loose Change blog, and I was reading their post intitled "About Time." which said that they would be debating two staff members from "Popular Mechanics" on "Democracy Now!". Today, I viewed that episode, and my intial reaction is that the fact that the two men were going off topics and critizing conspiracy theorists, in general, was to their loss because I personally stopped caring what they had to say after they ignored some of the facts/conclusions Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas, two of the three staff members involved with Loose Change, had to say. Here's the direct link to the episde (link)

Peace,
Shariq

Sad but True...

2006-09-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

I still can't stop asking myself, "How can the oppessor be the victim?" I don't understand the little justification behind that silly notion :P. In related news, they're going to be 700 new settlements in the occupied land of The West Bank. (link)

Before I started to write this, I came across something that got little media attention, and I think it's pretty significant. I ran into an article that talked about an arrest that was made outside of the MTV VMA's, and the person that was arrested was Mos Def. The article also linked to a video that showed the arrest (which will be at the bottom of this paragraph). I think it's real cool of Mos Def to do what he did, even though he did get arrested, for the unauthorized performace. I wish most rap artists were activist rather than this "Chevy Ridin' High" bullshit that I hear. Come on people, why don't you try to spread some truth and messages? I'm sorry for this semi-rap bashing towards the end, but I think it's important to learn from music than just for pleasure. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear music for pleasure, but I like to hear some sort of message at the same time.

Thanks for listening to my rant,
Shariq :P

"Palestinians strike over lost pay"

2006-09-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

"Tens of thousands of Palestinian civil servants have gone on strike in protest at the failure of the Hamas-led government to pay wages."

I was shocked to read that statement at first, but as I started to read further down it turned out that the West Bank, a Fatah Party stronghold, was behind the strike. I find this stupid even though the Fatah Party is the western puppet political party. They, the Fatah Party, need to figure out that they're hurting the Palestinians. This quote, from the article, was interesting and i'll finish this post with it.

"One student in Gaza City, Fadi al-Asali, 15, said: 'I am going back home, and I hope this strike will be over soon because the losers are the Palestinians.'"

"UN clearance experts had so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites, Jan Egeland said."

2006-08-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5299938.stm

I'd like to start with saying that I'm not suprised that this happened because of the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. I think that there would be peace if Israel didn't exist, but I'm not implying that it should be wiped off the earth. The Israeli seige/blockade of Gaza, leaving many Palestinians without a job/monthly check and leaving many childern without school supplies. Kofi Anan asked Israel to stop the blockade on Lebanon, but he didn't mention anything about Gaza which leads me to think of how the Palestinians get screwed all the fucking time. From the trailer of SlingShot, I would like to quote "We're [the Palestinians] the black people of the Middle East", and I think this saying is true because the blacks get fucked all the time by the U.S. government, but the different with the Palestinians is that the whole world just closes their eyes and lets them suffer like if they were animals or lower forms of beings than humans. Fuck Israel, fuck the occupation, and fuck the world for all of it's wrong doings. That's all I wanted to say, thanks for your time.

Peace,
Shariq

"I'm Cancerous, so when you diss you dont wanna answer this"

2006-08-16T23:49:00.001-05:00

This is me being a political asshole:
(my handle is Qaddafi on the social news networking site digg.com)
http://digg.com/world_news/Iran_Gives_Hezbollah_Unlimited_Budget_to_Rebuild_Lebanon

Qaddafi:
Iran gives Palestine 50million when no one would give it any money, Iran gives Hezbollah/Lebanon money after Israeli destruction. After all that help it gave to the middle east region, you guys still bash Iran. I know i'll get dugg down for this, but I don't give a fuck because I like to listen to non-mainstream news. I'll say that Israeli soldiers were crossed into Lebanon when they were capture, and I'll say that Israeli soldiers stood down, so they could get captured, and I'll say that the US and Israeli governments wanted this, so they could attack Iran (and Syria) and monopolize the oil in the world. Thanks for your time :)

VorpalK:
We bash Iran because it's supporting war when peace was so close. Your name marks you as a Libyan troll.

Qaddafi:
and I'm sure that the United States doesn't want war. I'm sure that all the defense contractors that our country's adminstration has affiliations with will be happy with PEACE :)

slickricks:
@gaddafi:
Do you really think that as a solider, on the ground (this may involve putting on your thinking cap for a second), you would be so swayed by Israel's grand-scale strategic political motivations that you would surrender yourself to Hezbollah or Lebanese troops to get treated in totally inhumane ways?

At least Israel has made _some_ kind of effort to remain humanitarian and stick to the Geneva convention in terms of how they treat prisoners of war and such. The only reason that any Israeli P.O.W.'s are alive today (if there even are any) is because terrorist groups know they can get about 50 of their own P.O.W.'s released in exchange. Israel has sacrificed operational efficiency, to be sure, in order to remain humanitian in aim (if not in practice). On the other side of the border, things aren't too peachy.

You have to realize that Israel views itself as legitimately challenged by the presence of these forces and their military capabilities (by simply firing rockets at a general area, they basically grind Israel's economy to a halt by forcing everyone to hide). Israel has been responding to an attack on its sovereignty and liberty, which are principles that the political pupetteers of Lebanon (who incidentally reside in Iran and Syria) do not recognize and find no need to recognize.

How _could_ Israel respond to such a threat, other than the way it has progressed? Could _you_ naysayers come up with anything better? And don't respond with that long, drawn out process of international conflict resolution, because we all know how well that's gone with pursuading Iran and N. Korea to give up their NUKES (or at least not build them in the first place). While I'm all for multilateralism and the aversion to violence, this conflict is extremely one-sided when it comes to acting rationally or at least in accordance with universal principles: Israel.

Qaddafi: I didnt feel like reading through your comment after you said "Geneva Conventions" because I got one quote for you: "the Fourth Geneva Convention (or GCIV) relates to the protection of civilians during times of war 'in the hands' of an enemy and under any occupation by a foreign power." Now ask the Palestinians whose homes were bulldozed and all the innocent childern and women who died (188 palestinians dead in july 48% of them women and childern) that if that's collective punishment. Thanks for your time :)

Enjoy my dumb political rant!

"I woke up today in london as the plane was touching down"

2006-08-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

I think these videos speak for themselves:

CNN in Europe:

"How to save a life"

2006-07-13T20:09:00.000-05:00

This is the start of the biggest anti-Israel rant ever, so I advise you to stay tuned. It started on June 25 when a Israeli soldier got captured in Gaza by Hamas militants, and now it was has escalated to 3 Israeli soliders captured by 2 "terrorists" organizations. Israeli air force has been striking Gaza for weeks, and Israeli ground soliders/tanks have split Gaza into two halfs. Many, by many I mean millions of, Palestinians are out of water, food, and electricity. As of count, they're approx. 110 Palestinians, 55 Lebanese, and 20 Israelis are dead. This is a huge offensive by the Israeli government, and I believe the Israeli government has taken it too. Now, the United States is asking for Israeli military to invade southern Lebanon to stop the Hezbolal from launching rockets into Israeli. The Israeli government hasn't taken Syria out of this either, for Syria and Iran are supposedly funding these "terror" organizations. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has warned Israel that if they were to attack Syria that, the attack, would be an attack on the Islamic world. I was watching CNN since they were covering this turn of events, and they had the Syrian ambassador from the U.N., and he said that the Syrian government has been under threat of an Israeli attack since 1967 because they have been dodging peace agreements from the Arab nations for years. My personal views are that Israeli thinks they're on top of the world and can use any excuse to do what they want, and I think someone needs to stop them right now. That's all I got to say for now, and I will get back to this story as I read more articles and shit :)

"I'm all for America but fuck the government"

2006-07-02T02:35:00.000-05:00

Two days ago, the Loose Change blog released some footage from the Chicago meeting (that I attended to, and I saw those guys there). It shows Korey Rowe (the marine member of their Loose Change crew) being interviewed by Alex Jones. I didn't like this interview because it seemed like real propaganda, but he did talk about some real issues about war in general. Here's the link to it.

To change subjects, couple of Palestinians holding a 19 year old Israeli soldier. I perfectly support Hamas, and I think they're doing what they need to do, for the palestinian people don't have anyone better to lead them to victory over the Israeli occupation. When I say I support Hamas, I don't mean in a religious way, or that I think it's their duty to Islam. I support Hamas because they fight for the Palestinian people, and they aren't corrupted like the Fatah party. I recently ran into a cool site called "From Occupied Palestine", and I have to say it's pretty cool. "From Occupied Palestine" is a online journal, and my favorite journalist is Jon Elmer. He, Jon Elmer, has some great points as well as the other authors on that site. I heard two different audio segments that interviewed Jon, and I have to say that this guy is the real deal. Although I think he leans towards to the liberal side, I think he knows what he's talking about. Here are the two audio links. 1st audio 2nd audio

On to the Pentagon strike! While visiting Prison Planet, I ran into this, and I believe this disproves that Alex Jones or at least Prison Planet isn't bias because this video says that a plane hit the Pentagon. I think it's pretty cool, and it gives you a good visual of a plane. As I said before, I won't believe a plane hit that building unless they release the gas station or hotel footage, but I bet that's already torn up or burned. Here is the link!

While writing this, I ran into an article on Prison Planet talking about Tom Delonge (lead singer of Blink-182) is questioning the offical 9/11 story. Like Charlie Sheen, Tom is questioning the collapse of the Twin Towers, WTC 7, and if a plane hit the Pentagon. Check out the rest of the article here.

Well that's all I had to say tonight/this morning. I hope to post again soon!

"My Political views are further left than my nuts" or are they?

2006-06-09T22:04:00.000-05:00

I was chatting in an IRC channel when someone posted this link http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/ . This is a good test that determines your politcal stance on different issues. If you're wondering about my score, this is what I got on the political compass. http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/printablegraph.php?ec=-3.13&soc=-5.23

Pentagon Strike

2006-06-09T00:23:00.000-05:00

"New" footage of the Pentagon strike has been released. I still won't believe a plane hit that building until they release a video that is in better quality.

check it out for yourself: