LOVE LOVE LOVE ~ and ~ The Kindness of Strangers

This is an update from A.P.R., interrupting the current "Australian Progressive Review ?" series, which will resume next week. Sometimes we come across information or ideas which we feel are too important/urgent to let go, and immediate commentary becomes necessary.

"Love, love, love.
Love, love, love.
love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.
Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.
All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
It's easy.All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need."

Ah...the immortal words of the Beatles. I was reminded of this song the other day whilst running through Centennial Park, my main running route in the city of Sydney. Because I had read this article earlier that day, and it really got to me: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/27-0

I have to quote herein part of this article, since it really affected me, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"The secret to capitalism's success is its ability to take one of mankind's most powerful emotions - greed - and harness that emotion to drive economic progress. By greedily pursuing our own individual self-interests, the theory goes, each of us contributes almost accidentally to greater prosperity for everybody.

And for the most part, that's how it has worked. The innovation and risk-taking encouraged by capitalism have given billions of people a quality of life and security that would otherwise be unimaginable. If there is a better, more productive system for meeting the physical needs of human life, we haven't found it yet.
But then comes a year like 2008, a year in which capitalism has faltered and the security of millions of Americans is threatened. Trillions of dollars of wealth has disappeared in a remarkably short time, along with millions of jobs. Fear rather than optimism dominates the landscape, and everyone from economists to hairdressers to members of Congress is wondering just what went wrong and how to fix it.
There are technical explanations, political explanations and folk-wisdom explanations. There are explanations that attempt to get down into the nitty-gritty details and those that offer a big-picture analysis.
My own one-sentence assessment? Capitalism works by getting the best out of greed; it fails when we let greed get the best of us.
And that is a constant, never-ending problem. We have always known that greed is dangerous. Going back into time as far as the written word can take us, every major religion, every major culture has warned against the dangers of greed.
In a capitalist system, the knowledge of greed's dual nature - its power when harnessed, its danger when it is not - sets up a permanent, enduring tension. The trick is to give greed enough play to reap its benefits while minimizing greed's danger. In that sense, a greed-powered economy is like a nuclear-powered submarine. Both are driven by a potentially boundless but destructive source of energy that must be kept within bounds to operate safely.
But greed by its nature is seductive. Greed always seeks more, a little more, just a bit more, please. And greed can cause us to rationalize things that cannot and should not be rationalized."

GREED (grēd) n. An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth: "Many . . . attach to competition the stigma of selfish greed" (Henry Fawcett).
[Back-formation from greedy.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Now, the above article I just quoted comes from one of my favorite progressively-oriented web-sites, http://www.commondreams.org/. I had to highlight a few sentences from this article which left me dazed, and angry, I have to admit, as I felt they were stunning in their arrogance and deception. Let it not be said that I agree with everything I read on my news sources. Anyway, let's look at these, and see what you think.

Do you think greed is "one of mankind's most powerful emotions"? We sure don't, here at A.P.R. Love is the most powerful emotion. None of us would be here were it not for the unconditional love our parents gave us. Or, the love that couples have for each other when they have children. Love is what drove the victorious struggles for freedom and civil rights across the World over the past several centuries. To say that greed is one of our most powerful emotions is to give it more power and emphasis than it deserves. And to help perpetuate it's pre-emenance in our society.

The other sentence, "the innovation and risk-taking encouraged by capitalism have given billions of people a quality of life and security that would otherwise be unimaginable. If there is a better, more productive system for meeting the needs of physical life, we haven't found it yet!"

That writer needs to study history and environmental issues more. None of the benefits we associate with our modern capitalist system, fair labour practices, benefits, 40 hour work-weeks, etc.. were given, but had to be won through decades and even centuries of struggle by working people, at great cost in lives and livelihoods. Capitalism evolved over the past 400 years on the backs of slaves, then through brutal colonial policies extracting resources from countries and cultures not able to defend themselves. And now, left unfettered and unregulated, it seeks a global "race to the bottom" of continually moving production and support facilities to countries with the cheapest labour and most lax environmental regulations. Tell me what you think about this. Wild salmon, caught in the cold, clean waters off Alaska and Canada, is shipped to China for processing, then back to Alaska and Canada, to be sold frozen or canned. Now, is that the measure of a healthy economic system, one that is sustainable and rational? We rest our case. And, as Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, so eloquently put it, the Earth has a fever, caused by the capitalist development model.

What do we call unrestrained cellular growth in a body, and what does it do? Cancer of course, and it ends up killing the host. Modern capitalism is still predicated on unlimited growth and expansion of production and consumption, which is obviously impossible, since the resources of our planet are finite. Our entire scientific/technological/economic structure of the modern "western world", if left unchecked and unchanged, will bring catastrophic changes to the Earth's atmosphere and climate, leading to mass extinctions. At least 1.5 billion people on the planet do not have access to clean, safe, drinking water, and at least one billion are undernourished, while it's also "fouling the nest" and leading to global environmental collapse? Is that a system that is working?

All of us have at some time in our lives been engaged in meaningful work, where we committed all our physical and mental resources to the tasks at hand, because we believe(d) the results would be well worth the struggle. That drive to produce things or materials we believe in is very strong, and if harnessed by supportive governmental polices and institutions, would lead to great changes and results.

What alternatives are there to capitalism? Has anything "better" been tried? Well, certainly, any society that could have love, instead of greed, as a basis and motivating theme would be worth trying. The closest societies we have to that would be the social democracies of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and yes, even Cuba. Cuba has it's share of problems, yet somehow they have been able to maintain their socialist state for 50 years, in spite of great pressure from the spiteful empire to the north. We encourage people to visit all manner of countries, social democracies and others, to see for yourselves. What do social democracies offer? Universal health care, unlimited unemployment benefits, so people will not be thrown out on the street and starve if unable to find jobs, minimum vacation times of one month for all professions, and many other benefits. And why are these benefits offered? Because people in these countries care about each other. What is that? Love. Not that these countries don't have problems, by any means, but they all have:

- the highest life expectancies on the planet
- greatest percentage of literacy
- lowest violent crime rates - lowest incarceration rates
- lowest infant mortality rates

Needless to say, the U.S. isn't one of those countries, but it could be. That choice is up to us.

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

While greatly enjoying my time working and visiting in the vibrant city of Sydney, Australia, I still have to seek tranquility from the rigours of city life on my days off. Yesterday I decided to visit Royal National Park, 25 miles south of the city, on the coast. A large preserve of virgin coastline and expanses of the native gum/eucalyptus woodlands of the region. Just a 45 minute train ride from downtown led me to Sutherland Station, from which I had to bike another 8 miles in to the park. I got lost on the way down, so ended up doing 15 miles on that leg, in the hot 32C sun.

The woodland there is very pretty, with the smooth-barked trees and ferns all about. I brought my mask/fins/snorkel with me, so I could explore in the water, and try out my new underwater camera housing, in preparation for my Great Barrier Reef diving, three weeks hence.


After two hours pedaling in the hot sun, I decided to head for the nearest water, which was called Warumbul bay.

After setting up my beach gear, I headed in to the water quick, it was hot! I swam and snorkeled around for several minutes, enjoying the cool water, and views through my dive mask. I noticed and felt the bottom to be quite rough and rocky when I first stepped in, but was not sure why.











After being in the water about 15 minutes or so, I began to notice small jellies (jellyfish) all about in the water. Not sure if they were hazardous or not, and since I was not in a wetsuit, just swim trunks, I decided to beat a hasty retreat to shore. Unfortunately, when I reached the shallows, I stumbled on the rocks in my swim fins, and razor sharp oyster shells raked the back of my right calf, leaving a nasty gash. I also reached out to steady myself with my left hand, as we always reflexively do, but fortunately, just got scratches on it. I knew I did some damage to my leg though, so I managed to lift myself up onto some rocks.





Fortunately, a couple I had seen fishing earlier were picnicking right above, and saw a bloody American stumbling ashore. My leg was bleeding quite profusely at this point. We started talking, and when they saw my leg, immediately asked if I needed help. I did in fact, as all I had for bandaging material, was my own shirt, which I needed for protection from the blazing sun.


They cut up an old rag they had in their tackle box and we used that, along with some kleenex, to make a tight and effective pressure bandage, which did the trick. The deepest part of the gash was about an inch long, and needed direct pressure, to stop the bleeding.

With this tight and durable bandage, I was able to relax, and then hang out with Michael and Thea, as they introduced themselves. They live in Sydney and were in the park to fish and relax on New Year's Eve. They have visited America twice, and enjoyed it, and have a son living in Ohio. We had a great time hanging out for about an hour, before they went back to their fishing, and me to relax in the shade and have some lunch, before riding back in the hot sun to Sutherland Station to catch the train.

Had they not been there, I would have lost quite a bit more blood, and had to sacrifice my only protection from the blazing sun, in order to stop the bleeding. I would have had a very uncomfortable trip back, and probably would have attracted considerable, but unwanted attention. Isn't it nice when we chance upon kind and caring people? They are all around us, wherever we are, though it often takes something like this, to remind me of that. Cheers.

AUSTRALIA PROGRESSIVE REVIEW? - PART 1, a train for every city

No folks, you're editor is not going to flee to the southern hemisphere and take up residence in the friendly and interesting country of Australia. Besides, if the Alaska Progressive Review wasn't providing you with the most avant-garde, incisive, hard-hitting progressive environmental and socio-political commentary, someone else might be! But I have taken a great liking to this country and all the people I've met, and I want to describe some of the things I like here, in a multi-part series. To stimulate thought and action, so we can work to achieve similar things in our country.

So this first part will be about public transportation, specifically, light rail.








Sydney is a large city, almost 5 million people live in it's environ's. Nestled between a beautiful rocky blue-water coastline, and the gently rising Eucalyptus-clad Blue Mountains to the east. Looking much like Southern California, with similar

temperatures, but more rainfall throughout the year, it is a little greener, and instead of the Spanish influence in architecture and ambience, it retains the English character of it's first founders. With it's mild climate, relatively low crime rate, and scenic setting, it usually is in the middle of the World's top ten list of most liveable cities, when various organizations publish these.








Nevertheless, I am a country man at heart, since the headquarters of the A.P.R. is nestled in the birch and aspen forest atop Chena ridge on two acres, west of Fairbanks. I am not used to the rigours of city life, the traffic noise and fumes, bicycle riding amidst the higher densities of cars and pedestrians, etc..

So, I felt a strong need to get out of the city this past week and into the hills. But without a car, I thought my options would be limited, unless I was willing to ride my hybrid mountain bike 40-50 miles on crowded noisy highways and motorways, before I could get into quieter surroundings outside the suburbs. With great pleasure, I discovered the Sydney City Rail system.

Begun in the 1950s, it has gradually been built up and expanded out from the center of Sydney in all directions. Clean, quiet electric trains run frequently, every day of the week, and on holidays. The network extends well out into the country to the North, East, and South, and you can access several national parks.

http://www.cityrail.info/networkmaps/index.jsp

I decided to visit Blue Mountains National Park, on Boxing Day, the 26th of December, which is a holiday here almost equal in significance to Christmas (all of the former English colonies, save the U.S., celebrate it). I was told you can even bring bicycles with you on the train, perfect for me! So, on Boxing Day morning at 0630, I pedaled the four blocks from my hotel down to Sydney Central Station, the main station for the whole network, and bought my round-trip ticket to Katoomba, the gateway to Blue Mountains N.P., 65 miles northwest of downtown here. The fare was 16.50 Australian, round-trip (about 12.00 USD). Since it was a holiday, and more people were coming in to Sydney, to shop and watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, the train west was uncrowded, and I had plenty of room to bring my bike aboard. It was a two hour trip, with many stops, but I enjoyed the clean, quiet, comfortable ride, and the views of the new territory I was seeing.

The train arrived to the Katoomba station at 0930, after leaving Central Station at 0715.

I then had to pedal about a mile through the quaint mountain-resort town of Katoomba, to reach the trails in Blue Mountains National Park. Katoomba lies at about 3500 feet altitude, so it is cooler in general than Sydney, and just high enough to get a little snow in winter. It has the look and feel of a more mountain town, somewhat similar, but larger than those in Southern California, like Idyllwild, or Julian. The Blue Mountains are not very high, only 3000-4500 feet, but their claim to fame is that there are sheer 2000-2500 foot cliffs dropping down to a wide valley, all clad in thick Eucalyptus/Gum rain forest. This thick forest cover emits turpenes, a chemical which causes the signature blue haze (hence the name of the park), and which I noticed quite easily.

I spent about four hours hiking around on trails on the canyon rim, then down into the rain forest. The trails descend the cliff faces down a network of stairs and steps cut into them. Almost like rock-climbing! Very fun, for me, since I love being perched in high places. The humidity was too much for this Northern man though, I quickly became completely drenched, and decided to head up and out of the jungle, and back to Katoomba, to do some biking in the cooler, drier, breezy air there for the rest of the day.

Here though are a few pictures from the trails in this interesting park. Looking up here to the canyon rim, from about mid-way down, note the blue haze. The jungle vegetation is very thick, without a trail, bushwhacking would be incredibly difficult here. I didn't see any Joeys (baby kangas) or Emu, but I think they tend to favor the drier, more open areas. The sound and sight of many of Australia's colourful birds were present, Cockatoos, Lorikeets, Kookaburra, and many others. I am not too knowledgeable about the local birds here, but would like to learn more. Even better, would be to bring a Cockatoo home, I think one would be a happy addition to the A.P.R. staff, and would probably quickly pick up a diverse and colourful vocabulary.

There are numerous waterfalls and rivulets cascading down the cliff faces in the park, a great way to cool off in the subtropical heat/humidity underneath the jungle canopy.

After a few hours of biking in the fresh, breezy air around Katoomba, it was time to head back into the city. I just hopped on the most convenient train (they run hourly on holidays, every 30 min. during the week), and headed back with the bike, to Central Station, arriving at 630 pm.

I was quite happy, here I am, a visitor with no car, and yet I can get on this clean, quiet train, and in two hours get to enjoy myself in a wilderness/country setting, with my bicycle. Shouldn't every larger city in the U.S. have something like this? Fairbanks is probably too small, but even Anchorage would benefit greatly, and would have a large ridership, if lines were built from Girdwood/Alyeska, and Palmer/Wasilla, into the city. Some larger cities have limited light rail networks, like Portland, OR (a wonderful system, the Max line), Washington D.C., and a real nice link in Florida that connects Miami, all the way north to near Palm Beach. All cities should have one of these though, everyone would benefit, as would the environment.

How much will these cost, you say? Well, if our government can offer 700 billion dollars to prop up financial institutions crippled because of greedy, short-sighted policies/decisions, and therefore socialize their debts/losses, IT CAN NEVER SAY IT CAN NOT AFFORD TO DEVELOP/PRODUCE THINGS THAT WILL ACTUALLY BENEFIT ALL PEOPLE, IN A CONTINUING MANNER. We at A.P.R. urge you to think on this whenever any politicians express concern about social, environmental, or infrastructural spending projects. Remember, 700 billion dollars is going to go to criminally greedy financial institutions and the men that were responsible for bankrupting them, and what are you going to get for it? How about working for things like this instead, light-rail networks? Instead of bailing out the American automakers, our government should nationalize them and use their engineers and workers to develop and manufacture less polluting transport methods, like electric rail systems. Food for thought. Cheers.

SOLSTICE GREETINGS

Winter solstice in Fairbanks, a time of dim light, frequent sub-zero cold, and celebration. Each day will now get slightly longer, and the sun just a little higher. By the end of January, while still cold, there is much more light with which to enjoy our frozen landscape, and the promise of even more as we head into A.P.R.'s favorite months in the far North, February and March.

This year, of course, your lead editor is missing the winter solstice at home, and getting two summer solstices, the second one here in the southern hemisphere at latitude 34 South. The longest day of the year here begins around 0530, and ends around 2030. So far, during my time in Sydney, it has been unseasonably cool, only 20 to 28C for daytime highs (68-84F). But I have been assured by my mates in the B.O.M. office, that it can reach 45C (113F!), at any time. Certainly not something I hope happens during my time here!

Today, walking around the beautiful rocky blue-water coast around Sydney, it was cool and windy, with even a few showers, and temperatures only around 20C. Very comfortable for an Alaskan.
Surroundings like this always bring out my contemplative side, Being around bodies of water, whether it is the ocean, a lake, rivers, or fast-flowing streams, tend to have that effect on me. Today was no exception.

hol⋅i⋅day 
–noun
1.
a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
2.
any day of exemption from work (distinguished from working day ).
3.
a time or period of exemption from any requirement, duty, assessment, etc.: New businesses may be granted a one-year tax holiday.
4.
a religious feast day; holy day, esp. any of several usually commemorative holy days observed in Judaism.
5.
Sometimes, holidays. Chiefly British. a period of cessation from work or one of recreation; vacation.
6.
an unintentional gap left on a plated, coated, or painted surface.–adjective
7.
of or pertaining to a festival; festive; joyous: a holiday mood.
8.
suitable for a holiday: holiday attire. –verb (used without object)
9.
Chiefly British. to vacation: to holiday at the seaside.
Origin: bef. 950; ME; OE hāligdæg. See holy, day

Winter solstice for me has always been my favorite holiday, after reaching adulthood and developing my own world-view.

at⋅a⋅vis⋅tic 

 /ˌætəˈvɪstɪk/
–adjective
of, pertaining to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.
Origin: 1870–75; atav(ism) + -istic

at·a·vism

(āt'ə-vĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key n.
The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes.
An individual or a part that exhibits atavism. Also called throwback.
The return of a trait or recurrence of previous behavior after a period of absence. [French atavisme, from Latin atavus, ancestor : atta, father + avus, grandfather; see awo- in Indo-European roots.]

What better descriptions for the meaning of Solstice, to me and many other green-oriented/progressive type people in the European/Caucasian industrialized countries, than this? Our ancestors, before Christianity, lived lives totally in the rhythm of the seasons, and in the cool or cold European winters, the arrival and passage of the shortest day of the year had great meaning.

This is a great article, once again, not from a U.S. source:

How Astronauts Went to the Moon and Ended Up Discovering Planet Earth

Photos of Earthrise from Apollo 8 changed the way we look at the world
by Juliette Jowit

Forty years ago this Christmas the first human beings reached the moon. But their historic feat is better remembered for an image of what they left behind - planet Earth.

Earthrise from Apollo 8. (NASA)Looking back from more than 200,000 miles away, the crew of Apollo 8 saw Earth floating "like a Christmas tree ornament lit up in space, fragile-looking". They pointed their cameras through smeared porthole windows and began snapping. It seems almost incredible now, but nobody thought to take a photo of Earth until they saw it, because nobody had seen it before.

One of those photos, an Earthrise over the grey and inhospitable lunar horizon, has become one of the most reproduced and recognized pictures of our planet. LIFE magazine selected it as one of 100 photographs that changed the world; more recently it featured in an Oscar-winning film about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.

"That one picture exploded in the consciousness of humans," said Al Gore, the film's Nobel prize-winning narrator and campaigner. "It led to dramatic changes. Within 18 months of this picture the environment movement had begun."

There is still some dispute over which of Apollo 8's crew took the first Earthrise photo, but the official version selected by the American space agency, NASA, was by Bill Anders, who spoke to the Guardian from his home in San Diego, California. "After all the training and studying we'd done as pilots and engineers to get to the moon safely and get back, [and] as human beings to explore moon orbit," he said, "what we really discovered was the planet Earth."

Anders and fellow crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell left on December 21 and began orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve. For the first and second loops, Apollo 8's crew faced backwards, but on the third revolution Borman, the commander, turned their capsule around. "Suddenly Borman said something like 'look at that' and here was the Earth coming up," recalled Anders. "There was a mad scramble for cameras: I just happened to have one with color film in it and a long lens. All I did was to keep snapping.

"It's not a very good photo as photos go, but it's a special one. It was the first statement of our planet Earth and it was particularly impressive because it's contrasted against this startling horizon."

In the following weeks it is estimated that 2 billion people - more than half the humans alive at the time - watched the blurred black and grey TV film of the moon and listened to crackling voices speaking to them across space as Apollo 8's crew read the first 10 verses of the Bible.

In what now seems symbolic of the impact of seeing the whole planet for the first time with human eyes, Borman appeared to cast off the nationalistic cold war fervor surrounding the mission and ended the broadcast saying: "A merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

The impact of the photo in 1968 was immediate in a world already shaken by Rachel Carson's explosive book on pesticide pollution, Silent Spring. Four decades later, climate change is the great environmental threat and Earthrise is still used by campaigners trying to draw attention to the problem.

Landscape photographer Joe Cornish said he had been haunted by the image: "It's a new perspective from space, but it's a totally new perspective when you see it in relation to another body in space."

For Anders, the fragility of life on Earth is shown even more powerfully by three photos of the Earth alone in space: "Earthrise has a reference - there's the moon and the Earth, you don't get a vastness - whereas the other ones, particularly the smaller one, it's Earth and black to the frame ... it goes on and on."

He added: "I think it's important for people to understand they are just going around on one of the smaller grains of sand on one of the spiral arms of this kind of puny galaxy ... it [Earth] is insignificant, but it's the only one we've got."
© 2008 Guardian News and Media Limited

Interesting, isn't it? The most advanced technology in the World at the time, manned space flight, a technology which if fully exploited would have serious deleterious effects on the environment, gave humanity a way of visualising the one-ness of all people and beings. Enabling us to develop a global consciousness necessary to start tackling global problems that technology is creating.

We here at A.P.R. do tend toward atavism in our spiritual outlooks. Mattie especially, with her animist beliefs, sees the sacredness in all beings and things, living always in the present moment. A constant inspiration for me, since I tend to focus on the future over-much at times. We view with dismay the major religions of the Earth, which cling to exclusivity, (Christianity, Islam, Judaism to some extent), i.e., that their spiritual concepts are the "truth" to the exclusion of the others, and that their adherents are either specially chosen and/or will only be granted true peace and serenity in an afterlife, whilst non-believers will be destroyed. It is not our place here to tell people how or what to believe, evangelism has always been something we detest, especially when the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses show up at our door. But, with the looming inter-related global crises of climate change, and overpopulation/resource-depletion, global solutions will be required. Exclusivity-based belief systems stand in the way of this, and make it easier for wars to occur. One look at Middle Eastern history and current affairs is illustrative, as well as the troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1960s-1970s, and the history of relations between indigenous peoples and Europeans in the Americas and Australia.

Our rule of thumb, here at A.P.R. in our spiritual questing, is very basic. We don't eat things that we know will make us feel bad. Similarly, we don't believe things that we come across, that will make us feel bad. When we are seeking, and come upon information or beliefs that resonate with us, we look at three prime qualifiers. Does the material openly and without hesitation accept all races, cultures, and beings? Does it or will it promote understanding and rapproachment between all other religions, cultures, and belief systems? Does it provide a framework in which our lives have true meaning and purpose? If any of these three questions are not met, we reject the material as not healthy for us.

A quick example: Pure science, in it's most orthodox sense, would say that we are essentially just a mix of chemicals in a random universe. That life developed and evolved it's extraordinary complexity by chance, and that the life we have now, is all that we will have. And further, that life necessarily then, is essentially meaningless. We rejected this long ago, as it did not make us feel good, and it violates the third prime qualifier.

So that's how we have chosen to act in our spiritual seeking, and for us, here at A.P.R., we find meaning in our lives, and see things in a larger framework. It goes without saying, that we believe many, if not all, of our problems on Earth, stem from a lack of spiritual consideration and awareness. The greed and short-sightedness of our Capitalist system is a prime example. Do you think people who had a true appreciation and understanding of the one-ness of all life would launch, or allow to be launched, a war based on lies, knowing that there would be large numbers of deaths and injuries, and suffering of those not injured? Or, would shift factories and jobs to poor countries, throwing people out of work, in order to seek higher profits from near-slave labor, and lax environmental regulations/enforcement?

What have we here at A.P.R. found in our years of seeking? Well, we have settled upon a "New-Age" belief system encompassing elements of Native American and other Indigenous peoples systems, as well as insights from modern day teachers and guides. One of our favorite sources is the Seth material, laid out in several books by Jane Roberts, two of the best being "Seth Speaks", and "The Nature of Personal Reality".

A very interesting psychic named Edgar Cayce lived in the southern U.S. from 1877-1945. He gave thousands of readings to people while in trance, about all manner of subjects, health/medicine, current affairs, spiritual matters, missing persons, etc.. He was investigated and tested by many prominent researchers in his day. He was able, while in trance, to pinpoint locations of hidden materials, and other things that would be impossible to know in our ordinary lives. He left a rich legacy of material that many people still study, including those of us here at A.P.R. Any bookstore in their philosophy/religion section will have a number of books about him, as dozens have been written.

In closing, I'd like to describe an interesting incident that happened to your lead editor last week, while at work. I was tired from lack of sleep, due to a bad head cold. After riding my bike to the office, and locking it up, I just left the keys on a wall by the bike, because of my grogginess. Upon leaving for the day, with dismay I realized I had lost my keys. After extensive fruitless searching, I borrowed a hacksaw, and began cutting the cable. As I was about a third of the way through, I noticed a wadded paper note stuffed in the seat. Opening it up, there were my keys, along with this message:

1153 am 17/12/2008

2 Whom it May Concern

1.) I just sat down in the shade 4 a smoke

2.) Keys lying there

3.) Hmmm.... - interesting!!!

4.) Keys fit mongoose bike lock

5.) I give u a Christmas present

God Bless U

(Jesus is born)

Now, there is a real Christian! Needless to say, I was speechless and had to show all my mates in the office the note, and it gave us all good cheer. Isn't it great when things like this happen, to show us that there are kind and concerned people in the World? Cheers.

Happy Solstice!

IF THE SHOE FITS

Hey folks. Greetings from Sydney, Australia, where A.P.R. is operating remotely, but still keenly aware of goings on in the homeland, both in Alaska and the USA.

In fact, after I got in here sunday, I did a quick browse of my usual news-sources, and came across this interesting article.

Published on Sunday, December 14, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Bush Sneaks Through Host of Laws to Undermine Obama

The lame-duck Republican team is rushing through radical measures, from coal waste dumping to power stations in national parks, that will take months to overturn

by Paul Harris

After spending eight years at the helm of one of the most ideologically driven administrations in American history, George W. Bush is ending his presidency in characteristically aggressive fashion, with a swath of controversial measures designed to reward supporters and enrage opponents.

By the time he vacates the White House, he will have issued a record number of so-called 'midnight regulations' - so called because of the stealthy way they appear on the rule books - to undermine the administration of Barack Obama, many of which could take years to undo.
Dozens of new rules have already been introduced which critics say will diminish worker safety, pollute the environment, promote gun use and curtail abortion rights. Many rules promote the interests of large industries, such as coal mining or energy, which have energetically supported Bush during his two terms as president. More are expected this week.

America's attention is focused on the fate of the beleaguered car industry, still seeking backing in Washington for a multi-billion-dollar bail-out. But behind the scenes, the 'midnight' rules are being rushed through with little fanfare and minimal media attention. None of them would be likely to appeal to the incoming Obama team.

The regulations cover a vast policy area, ranging from healthcare to car safety to civil liberties. Many are focused on the environment and seek to ease regulations that limit pollution or restrict harmful industrial practices, such as dumping strip-mining waste.

The Bush moves have outraged many watchdog groups. 'The regulations we have seen so far have been pretty bad,' said Matt Madia, a regulatory policy analyst at OMB Watch. 'The effects of all this are going to be severe.'

Bush can pass the rules because of a loophole in US law allowing him to put last-minute regulations into the Code of Federal Regulations, rules that have the same force as law. He can carry out many of his political aims without needing to force new laws through Congress. Outgoing presidents often use the loophole in their last weeks in office, but Bush has done this far more than Bill Clinton or his father, George Bush sr. He is on track to issue more 'midnight regulations' than any other previous president.

Many of these are radical and appear to pay off big business allies of the Republican party. One rule will make it easier for coal companies to dump debris from strip mining into valleys and streams. The process is part of an environmentally damaging technique known as 'mountain-top removal mining'. It involves literally removing the top of a mountain to excavate a coal seam and pouring the debris into a valley, which is then filled up with rock. The new rule will make that dumping easier.

Another midnight regulation will allow power companies to build coal-fired power stations nearer to national parks. Yet another regulation will allow coal-fired stations to increase their emissions without installing new anti-pollution equipment.

The Environmental Defence Fund has called the moves a 'fire sale of epic size for coal'. Other environmental groups agree. 'The only motivation for some of these rules is to benefit the business interests that the Bush administration has served,' said Ed Hopkins, a director of environmental quality at the Sierra Club. A case in point would seem to be a rule that opens up millions of acres of land to oil shale extraction, which environmental groups say is highly pollutant.

There is a long list of other new regulations that have gone onto the books. One lengthens the number of hours that truck drivers can drive without rest. Another surrenders government control of rerouting the rail transport of hazardous materials around densely populated areas and gives it to the rail companies.

One more chips away at the protection of endangered species. Gun control is also weakened by allowing loaded and concealed guns to be carried in national parks. Abortion rights are hit by allowing healthcare workers to cite religious or moral grounds for opting out of carrying out certain medical procedures.

A common theme is shifting regulation of industry from government to the industries themselves, essentially promoting self-regulation. One rule transfers assessment of the impact of ocean-fishing away from federal inspectors to advisory groups linked to the fishing industry. Another allows factory farms to self-regulate disposal of pollutant run-off.

The White House denies it is sabotaging the new administration. It says many of the moves have been openly flagged for months. The spate of rules is going to be hard for Obama to quickly overcome. By issuing them early in the 'lame duck' period of office, the Bush administration has mostly dodged 30- or 60-day time limits that would have made undoing them relatively straightforward.

Obama's team will have to go through a more lengthy process of reversing them, as it is forced to open them to a period of public consulting. That means that undoing the damage could take months or even years, especially if corporations go to the courts to prevent changes.
At the same time, the Obama team will have a huge agenda on its plate as it inherits the economic crisis. Nevertheless, anti-midnight regulation groups are lobbying Obama's transition team to make sure Bush's new rules are changed as soon as possible. 'They are aware of this. The transition team has a list of things they want to undo,' said Madia.

Final reckoning
Bush's midnight regulations will:
Make it easier for coal companies to dump waste from strip-mining into valleys and streams.
Ease the building of coal-fired power stations nearer to national parks.
Allow people to carry loaded and concealed weapons in national parks.
Open up millions of acres to mining for oil shale.
Allow healthcare workers to opt out of giving treatment for religious or moral reasons, thus weakening abortion rights.
Hurt road safety by allowing truck drivers to stay at the wheel for 11 consecutive hours.
© 2008 Guardian News and Media Limited

Whilst pedaling back to my apartment downtown yesterday, after a day of sun, running, swimming, and gawking at the powerful 10-12 foot waves slamming into the rocks at the north point of beautiful Bondi Beach, it came to me. Does anything sum up better the overall methods and mendacity of the Bush Regime, over the past eight years than what is described in this article? The actual regulations that are being altered, and the method used to do so, secretive, without oversight or vote. The message this sends is stunning; complete and utter contempt for the environment, future generations, and the health and welfare of people in the U.S. and abroad. All sacrificed at the holy altar of greed. How has this come to pass, and why? Will things ever change in the U.S?

I'm sure all of you are aware now of the shoe-throwing incident Bush endured in a press conference in Baghdad http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/14-1 . The A.P.R. certainly understands and sympathizes with the viewpoints of that Iraqi Journalist, and he has caught global attention and concern http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/15-3 .

This may actually be one of the first incidents where Bush has gotten even a glimpse of the anger and rage engendered by his and his regime's actions that have caused such suffering in Iraq and throughout the World. It is serving as a lightning-rod for conversation about this, which is even better. In fact, earlier today, when I dropped in to my new office for a visit, it was a hot topic for a few minutes, after people asked me about Sarah Palin (naturally I felt free to offer my complete no-holds-barred viewpoint concerning her and her party's platform). All my mates there in the office were in good cheer talking about it, and felt it was deserved!

This is sure a breath of fresh air for your lead editor, to be in a place where nearly everyone he runs into is in agreement, in at least a general sense, about the current U.S. and global socio-political situation. Three cheers for the good people of Australia! Not that things are perfect here by any means, they have their share of problems and I want to examine some of them while I'm here, to see if anything useful can be learned for those of us in the North.

Next week, A.P.R. will offer up a Solstice/Christmas article that will examine things in a more spiritual sense, it being thought an appropriate time for that. Cheers!

CAPITALISM WITH A HUMAN FACE ~ and ~ A SUMMER JOB

This week's review will hopefully be a little more uplifting than last week's. A.P.R. just felt that not enough attention has been paid recently to the Iraq War/Tragedy, and a review of that situation was necessary. We did not intend to upset anyone with graphic imagery, but at the same time, felt a reminder was necessary of what war really entails. And since this one was totally un-necessary, illegal, and immoral, that those responsible need to be held to accounts. OK, enough said.

1968 was an interesting year in modern history, and arguably, if you could pick one year in the past 200 where the pace of technical, social/cultural, scientific, and political change was the greatest (at least in the "Western" developed countries), it would be hard to beat it. The tragic episodes of the escalating Vietnam War, assasinations of MLK and RFK, were also accompanied by other more uplifting events. One of these was known as the "Prague Spring", which occurred in Czechoslovakia, beginning in January, 1968, although it did not survive the year. The following is an encyclopedia description of what happened there during that year.

"Socialism with a human face (in Czech: socialismus s lidskou tváří, in Slovak: socializmus s luďskou tvárou) was a political programme announced by Alexander Dubček and his colleagues when he became the chairman of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in January 1968. It was a process of mild democratization and political liberalization that would still enable the communist party to maintain real power. Alexander Dubcek (November 27, 1921 to November 7, 1992) was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia (1968-1969). ... The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa (KSČ) was a political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. The programme was an attempt to overcome the disillusionment of the people in Czechoslovakia with the current political and economic situation. As the name suggests, the plan was to breathe new life into the ideals of socialism, which had lost popular support due to the government policies of the previous two decades. It never intended to bring back market capitalism. The subsequent developments became known as the Prague Spring. This was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968, and running until August 20 of that year when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies (except for Romania) invaded the country. ...

Programme
The programme initially called for greater participation of people in local and country politics under umbrella of communist party, for greater freedom of press and in culture and emphasised need for personal initiative in economics. The most loathed representants of previous style of ruling were left to go.

The programme didn't suppose existence of independent political parties or private ownership of companies. Participation on structures of Eastern Bloc was not questioned. Events of Prague Spring, especially their speed and escalation left the original programme behind current development, often to suprise and dismay of its authors. During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ...

Supression
The Soviet Union feared losing control over the country and invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968, with 200,000 troops and 5,000 tanks. The liberalizing reforms were eliminated step by step, and the country eventually returned to the centralized model with the communist party organizing every aspect of political and economical life. Most of the influential persons involved in the programme lost their political power and became target of persecutions."


Resistance to Soviet invasion, Prague,
August, 1968

The following article came from today's Counterpunch.org web-site:

A Classic Battle for Workers' Rights
Raising the Stakes at Republic

By LEE SUSTAR and NICOLE COLSON

Day four of the Republic Windows & Doors factory occupation in Chicago saw another surge in labor solidarity--plus a rare boost from the media and politicians trying to outdo one other in showing support for the struggle. Just hours after the Chicago Tribune published a December 8 report apparently verifying workers' suspicions that production had been moved from their now-closed factory to a nonunion facility in Iowa, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich arrived at the plant just north and west of downtown Chicago. The governor announced that state agencies would suspend their business with Bank of America (BoA), which triggered the closure of Republic's plant by cutting off its line of credit.
"During these times of economic turmoil, we must ensure that workers' rights are protected," Blagojevich said, adding that the Illinois Department of Labor would file a complaint in federal court if negotiations between the factory's owners, the workers' union and BoA officials didn't provide the approximately $1.5 million that workers are owned under federal and state law as well as their union contract. The 250 workers, members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110, are demanding that BoA either resume making loans to Republic to reopen the plant or help the company make good on its obligations to workers. The workers are angry that BoA received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout, but won't lend to viable companies.
Blagojevich vowed to help. "We're going to do everything possible here in Illinois to side with these workers," he said. Also on hand was Sen. Dick Durbin. "Over the last several weeks, we have been debating in Washington how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars," he told reporters afterward. "We have been sending billions of dollars to banks like Bank of America. The reason we sent them the money was to tell them they have to loan this money to companies just like Republic."
Soon after the politicians' limos left the plant, a scene more familiar to labor activists took shape. Amid the forest of mobile TV satellite feed dishes, some 20 burly members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 installed giant inflatable rats on either side of the plant entrance and took up positions near the door. Local 150 Business Manager/President Jim Sweeney explained the motivation for this delegation in one word: "Solidarity." Why the large delegation? "We heard they [management] were going to try to move them out," he explained, adding that his locals' members would be on hand for the duration of the occupation. For Sweeney, the struggle "summarizes where we are as a movement," he said. "We've come full circle. Seven percent of the workforce is unionized [in the private sector], and we're back to sit-down strikes like in Flint, Michigan," he said, referring to the famous factory occupation of 1936-37 that forced General Motors to recognize the United Auto Workers. "We need a catalyst," Sweeney said. "And this may be what starts it for the American worker again."
Alongside the operating engineers, a delegation of more than a dozen nurses from Cook County Stroger Hospital stood behind their banner, carrying signs in support of the Republic workers and chanting, "The workers united will never be divided."
"This is important, because this is a form of union-busting," said Diane Ellis, the chief steward for the National Nurses Organizing Committee at Stroger. "Their contract was violated. Workers' rights were violated, when the company just shut them out. It's happening to them today, and it could happen to us tomorrow. You've got the fat cats walking away with the money and leaving all the workers here with nothing." As the chanting resumed, union members, community activists and students threaded their way through the reporters crowding the building foyer, making now-routine deliveries of food and beverages. Cameras crowded the inner door to the plant, as journalists strained to capture images of workers seated near stacks of recently manufactured windows as a handful of children played nearby.
* * *
MEANWHILE, ANOTHER group of politicians assembled to turn up the heat on BoA.
At a press conference at City Hall, Alderman Ricardo Muñoz announced a proposed ordinance that would shift city funds from Bank of America to other banks, require City Council approval for any BoA underwriting or marketing of city bonds, and force the bank to bring any proposed zoning changes on property directly to City Council. "Under the law, the City Council has the authority and responsibility to take into account the interests of Chicago and its residents when deciding which banks to do business with," Muñoz said. "Bank of America profits handsomely from the business it gets from the City and other governments. We have a right to demand that workers are treated fairly." Following a three-hour meeting on Monday afternoon between union, company and bank representatives, it was announced that no settlement had been reached and the sit-in would continue. A new round of talks was slated for the next day--and if the workers don't get satisfaction, a big protest is planed for 12 noon the following day at BoA's Chicago-area headquarters. Will BoA buckle under the pressure? "Obviously, there's tremendous public support for the workers here, and for the sense that workers need to have jobs, said Carl Rosen, western region president for UE. "I think there is a lot of pressure on the bank with regard to this, but banks have their own agendas, and they're not the peoples' agenda." He added, "Anyone who has the ability to let Bank of America know they want something done should go ahead and do that."
Activists did do that in the largely Mexican-American community of Little Village. After a picket at BoA's large 26th Street branch organized by the March 10 immigrant rights coalition and other groups, participants made their case against BoA in a press conference.
According to labor organizer and journalist Jorge Mújica, immigrants rights activists supported the Republic workers not only because they are mostly Latino immigrants, but because they are literally fighting the same institutions. "There are dozens of shops that have closed down in the last month and a half," Mújica said. "Why? Because of the same reason--lack of money, lack of credit, lack of resources....So we are going to demand from Bank of America to keep open the line of credit from Republic, but also to open up the credit for 26th Street, so we don't keep losing more jobs." Ricardo Caceres, a 15-year worker at the plant and a union shop steward, used the press conference to remind the media that the boss shut the plant on two day's notice as the holidays loomed--and to express gratitude to the solidarity movement that's sprung up. "I want to say to your organizations, unions and communities, thank you so much for everything--for the food, and your support," he said. One of the speakers at the press conference was Rev. José Landaverde of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, a church centrally involved in the local movement against immigration raids and deportations. "People are losing their jobs because businesses are closing, and the banks won't support the needs of small business and the workers," he said as he walked the picket line. "They just want to support themselves. And this we see also with the government, with the Bush administration and the Obama administration. It's about saving Wall Street and the banks, but it's not saving the peoples' economy."
* * *
FOR REPUBLIC'S managers, the objective seems to be saving themselves at workers' expense. Confirmation came on Monday that--as workers suspected--Republic is not, in fact, shutting down operations, but planning to move production to Iowa under a new name, "Echo Windows & Doors."
Reports indicate that Echo would be nonunion, pay only $9 an hour, and offer workers limited benefits and no vacation pay for the first three years--a drastic cut compared to the average $14-an-hour wage and health and retirement benefits that Chicago Republic workers had been getting.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
People who apparently have ties to the financially strapped Republic Windows formed a limited liability corporation in Illinois last month, Echo Windows & Doors, that has bought a similar plant in western Iowa.
Sharon Gillman, who shares an address with Republic President and CEO Rich Gillman, is listed as an officer of Echo Windows & Doors LLC, which was incorporated in Illinois on November 18, according to secretary of state records.
Neither she nor Rich Gillman could be reached for comment on Sunday. A secretary who answered the phone at the Iowa plant purchased by Echo said Rich Gillman was not in on Sunday, and that she did not know when he would be in.
An "echowindows.com" Internet domain has been registered, but no content has been placed on the site. The administrative contact on the domain registration is Amy Zimmerman--the same name as the vice president of sales and marketing at Republic...
Echo Windows officials told employees at the former TRACO manufacturing plant in Red Oak, Iowa, on Thursday that the workforce would be doubled from the current 50 employees because they have production orders lined up.
None of this surprises Melvin Maclin, vice president of UE Local 1110, and Ron Bender, a union shop steward.
"I don't think they want to stay here, period," Bender said. Maclin added, "It was never the owner's plan to save the plant. And the bank was aware of it. I don't know that for a fact, but it seemed like the bank was aware of what's going on. They were just running a game."
Whatever Republics' owners and BoA had planned last week, it's a different world now. By trying to add to the misery of laid-off workers by stealing their severance pay, they've managed to demonstrate to the world the inequity and double standards of the Wall Street bailout.
And now they've discovered that workers are capable of demonstrating something else--resolve, struggle and solidarity in what has become a classic battle for workers' rights.

These are hopeful developments. President-elect Obama even came out in support of the workers occupying the factory, and pledged to support the process of getting them their severance pay and benefits. And now, as the above article mentions, this company, Republic Window and Door, closed the factory to move to a non-union facility, where they could pay lower wages and benefits. This, and the fact that the Bank of America, which received 25 billion dollars in bailout money from the federal government recently, but would not release monies to Republic, so that these workers could receive what is owed them, shines a glaring spotlight on the current socio-economic system we have in this country. With many more such factory closings likely in the coming months and years, due to the depression we seem to be entering, it's likely more such events as this will occur as well. It helps to recall, that none of the benefits we associate with the modern workplace, the 40 hour week, workers compensation/accident coverage, health and vacation benefits, etc., came about easily. They were won only after decades of protracted struggles like these, with many fatalities, and even some massacres (http://members.tripod.com/~RedRobin2/index-29.html).

It will be more important than ever for workers of all stripes, in the face of the coming depression, to become cognizant of the history of the labor movement in this and other countries, and to be prepared to engage in actions similar to those that won us what we currently enjoy, when attempts are made to rescind/repeal these. Which is happening, and will continue to, unless resistance is given. One particular piece of legislation that the new Congress will vote on early next year is the "The Employee Free Choice Act (also known as "card check") which would end secret ballots in union elections. It may be the most important piece of legislation in a decade. Its passage would ease union organizing and help to grow union membership which has dwindled to about 10 percent of the work force. Forget about the fake differences between the two political parties. There aren't any. The only hope for deep structural change is to strengthen the unions and give workers a place at the policy table. That's the only peaceful way to dismantle this parasitic financial regime and bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth." (Mike Whitney, Counterpunch.org, 12/09/08). It is very important that members of the House of Representatives and Senate receive pressure to pass this. With the new larger Democratic majorities in both bodies, it may just have a chance. After all, if Capitalism doesn't transform and develop a human face in this country, where consideration is given to human factors, it will not and should not survive. The transition to a new system could be chaotic and violent, which is not certainly not something we would want to experience. That's why we presented the Prague Spring as a lead-in, to show that unforeseen events can be the catalyst for positive changes, and we certainly hope the Republic factory occupation will be one like that, shining a spotlight, as it does, on the injustice and greed inherent in our current socio-economic system.

A SUMMER JOB

Your lead editor of the Alaska Progressive Review has to occasionally travel for his day (and sometimes night) job, as that of a meteorologist, specialising in the prediction of wildfire danger and weather for fire suppression activities. The government of the country covering the entirety of the far southern continent, the former British penal colony, has been contracting for the past several years to send specialists like us, to aid in their fire weather forecasting efforts. I was called this year, and will be working with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, in their New South Wales/Sydney office, from 12/16 until 1/18, during the peak of their summer.

I will be returning to the frozen winter landscape of Alaska on 1/25, after taking some days off to do some scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and other touring of that interesting continent.

Whilst we here at A.P.R. envision the day when we become nationally and globally syndicated, with print, radio, and television operations, enabling us to give up our other jobs and devote ourselves fully to working for a more sane and just World, current reality dictates that other means of financial support are necessary. This trip will be an excellent opportunity though to learn about a country that in many ways is like the U.S. A former British colony, though one that peacefully separated, and is still in the British Commonwealth (and as such, Queen Elizabeth remains the official head of state), Australia is of a similar size to our lower 48, and has a fairly similar history of relations with it's indigenous peoples. We hope to learn more about this history and see what the current state of these relations are. And, to look at what is different there, Australia does have a Parliamentary from of government, greater social spending/benefits, including universal-access health care, all with only 20 million people! I hope to learn about and share information from Australia that I think will be helpful for A.P.R.'s efforts to work for a more sane and just way of life on this continent.

Mattie of course will have to stay in Fairbanks and hold down the fort at our main research centre. But she is happy to do so, and will protect our facilities well until my return. I hope to provide you with at least a couple of articles during my stay in the Southern Hemisphere. Happy Holidays!

WHO ARE WE?

The Alaska Progressive Review strives to present information that we feel will aid in developing more sane, just, and sustainable political, economic, social, and environmental policies at all scales. Effective changes in this light by this country can not be undertaken without acknowledging and dealing with one of the greatest criminal and tragic events of the past 30 years. One in which we are all involved, and must work to put an end to, and heal the victims of.

There is no doubt now, that the invasion and occupation of the sovereign country of Iraq, begun in March, 2003 by our country, was illegal according to domestic and international law. The reasons given initially, that Saddam Hussein and his government proposed an imminent threat to this and other countries because of their possession of "weapons of mass destruction", was a smoke-screen for the real reasons.

** Investigative Reporter Greg Palast, in his book, Armed Madhouse, after interviewing numerous U.S. governmental officials (posing as an oil industry researcher), and oil industry figures, states that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was undertaken, with Saudi Arabia's blessing.http://www.amazon.com/Armed-Madhouse-Baghdad-Orleans-Sordid-Secrets/dp/0452288312/ref=

Not so much to gain direct control and ownership of Iraq's oil, but to eliminate Sadam Hussein's control of it, as he was causing too much instability in the pricing of oil by his manipulation of Iraq's production/export. In addition, for all the usual other benefits, raised oil prices for oil industry profit expansion, other military-industrial corporate profits, and rallying of the masses around the administration as they scapegoated Iraq for the 9/11 attacks.

While most progressive-oriented people knew from the start that the Iraq war/occupation was based on lies, some hard evidence of that was needed to help convince others. The Downing Street Memo serves that purpose very well. What is it? There is a web-site devoted to spreading the word about it.
http://downingstreetmemo.com/

In their words,

"The Downing Street "Memo" is actually the minutes of a meeting, transcribed during a gathering of many of the British Prime Minister's senior ministers on July 23, 2002. Published by The Sunday Times on May 1, 2005 this document was the first hard evidence from within the UK or US governments that exposed the truth about how the Iraq war began.

Since that time, much more information has come to light through leaks of secret government documents and the accounts of an increasing number of people who have witnessed the administration’s wrongdoing firsthand.

There is now in the public record a large body of evidence that vividly illustrates:

Bush’s long-standing intent to invade Iraq
Bush’s willingness to provoke Saddam (in a variety of ways) into providing a pretext for war
The fact that the war effectively began with an air campaign nearly a year before the March 2003 invasion and months before Congressional approval for the use of force
The administration’s widespread effort to crush dissent and manipulate information that would counter its justification for war
The lack of planning for the war’s aftermath and a fundamental lack of understanding of the Iraqi society

Even as the Bush presidency winds down, a recent Senate investigation final report shows how the administration manipulated information to overstate the WMD threat and conjure up a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Quaida that did not exist.
A majority of the American people now believes that the president intentionally misled our nation into war, and many more believe the sacrifice made in Iraq has not been worthwhile. This web site is intended as a resource to document the truth about how we were misled into war, so that we might avoid such a mistake in the future."

Knowing that this war/occupation is illegal, and that hundreds of thousands, possibly even as many as 1.2 million Iraqi citizens have been killed (and 3-4 million driven from their homes) because of it, and over 4500 American and British soldiers, we need to ask ourselves, what is going to be done about it? If nothing is done (which at this point seems likely), what does that say about us, as citizens of the country responsible for it?

The Alaska Progressive Review does not want to engage in sensationalism or needless displays of human suffering. Yet, because of the tight control the corporate media in this country has of the flow of information from Iraq, pictures like this are essential to remind us of what modern warfare really means. Since World War I, and the advent of aerial bombardment and other enlightened technological advances, 80-90 percent of wartime casualties have been innocent civilians. Regardless of who is in the right or wrong, this is what happens. It is thought that one of the reasons for widespread opposition to the Vietnam War, besides the draft, was images of dead and dying civilians, children even, in circumstances like that of the poor Iraqi child shown here. A lesson which the powers that be keep in mind.

Here's a little something to ponder. Your editor used to serve as a medic in our nearby volunteer fire department several years ago, while considering a career change. During those duties I got to know how our emergency medical services work here in Fairbanks, Alaska. We have around 20 emergency room beds in our main hospital, Fairbanks Memorial. The Fort Wainwright Army Base hospital probably has a similar amount. 40 beds for a population center of about 90,000 people. When 750 cruise missiles rained down on Baghdad in March of 2003, a city of 6.5 million, how many emergency room beds and doctors do you think they had? In a city decimated by sanctions and failing infrastructure, without as advanced of a medical/emergency services system, as in this country.

Fairbanks has 1/70th the population of Baghdad, suppose 11 cruise missiles rained down on it. Places like the federal courthouse downtown, the power-plant along the Chena River, and buildings on the Air Force and Army bases, which have military housing nearby. Don't forget, cruise missiles do not necessarily hit their targets directly, and can be off by hundreds or thousands of feet, for many reasons. That would guarantee hundreds, possibly even a thousand or more immediate casualties in Fairbanks. Do you think any city this size could handle that? What do you think happened in Baghdad that night and the following several days, in March, 2003. Reports and images of truckloads of casualties were never seen in this country, but they were in much of the Middle East. DO NOT CLICK ON THIS LINK if you don't want to see real images of what the Iraq War/Occupation has brought to innocent civilians. http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqwarpix.html

Every society raises its children with basic ethics, that it is wrong to lie, hurt others, and certainly to kill. And that killing of others, when not in self-defense, is murder. Why shouldn't these standards also apply to governments and nations as well? Well, at one time they did. After World War II, when the main architects of the Nazi Party and power structure were tried during the Nuremburg Trials. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials. One of the main things to come out of this process, were the Nuremburg Principles, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Principles, one of which Principle VI, is given below.

Principle VI
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
(b) War Crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.

The Democratic Party of this country has already stated many times, that impeachment of President Bush and/or Vice President Cheney, who, along with their colleagues and advisors, are the architects of the Iraq tragedy, is "off the table". Why? Is it because they are equally implicit, since most of them voted for the initial authorization of use of force, in 2002, knowing, deep at heart, that the justifications were false? But most of them voted for it anyway to maintain political office and all that entails. President-elect Obama has never said in any way that this tragedy is wrong, and must be ended at once.

But there is at least some discussion and effort to begin the process to indict and prosecute those responsible for these incredible crimes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-bugliosi/the-prosecution-of-george_b_102427.html.

The above link describes a book written recently by Vincent Bugliosi, the retired District Attorney for Los Angeles County. He is most well-known for being the prosecutor in the notorious Charles Manson murder trial in the 1970s. He lays out the case that President Bush should be tried for murder in a court of law. Who better to make that informed kind of decision?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/19-2. This link describes an article, whereby Vincent Bugliosi and Charlotte Dennette, a candidate for the Vermont Attorney General, propose to begin the indictment process.

"George Bush and his people have gotten away with thousands and thousands of murders," Bugliosi said, citing both American and Iraqi deaths in the five-year-old war. "We, the American people, cannot let him get away with this."
Bugliosi said any state attorney general or local district attorney can bring criminal charges against Bush once he leaves office early next year. He said Vermont could take on the soon-to-be ex-president by bringing conspiracy to murder charges against him, using his own public statements during the build-up to the Iraq war as evidence.

Unfortunately, Charlotte Dennette didn't win the Vermont Attorney General position. But, the important thing is, other people in similar positions, can start the indictment process. And officials must be pressured to do this. Because if not, the rest of the World will think that the American people accept what was done in Iraq by the Bush/Cheney regime.