Freedom from Alaska!

Month: September 2008

Ron Paul | Michael Franti Freedom Videos!

Very touching oldies but goodies that I just now discovered and will never grow old.

Freedom!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clhO-qPTZ1g]Ron Paul Speaks for Me
Music: Michael Franti & Spearhead, “I Know I’m Not Alone”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbV_K-augxs]Ron Paul Shares My Values
Music: Michael Franti & Spearhead, “It’s Never Too Late”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1brJ8tuN8w]The rEVOLution Has Begun
Music: Michael Franti & Spearhead, “Yell Fire!”

“We should be a role model for the world,
not its policemen.”

Canon teasing those of us who’ve waited so long for the 5D’s successor

A shadow of the 5D’s soon-to-come replacement? Finally?

Click for 5D2 rumor updates.

Mike Huckabee on the War on TERROR, Translated

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb936kOvUg4]

“We cannot have the naive idea
that if we leave them alone [over there]
they will leave us alone.
That will get us killed.” [loud applause]

– Mike Huckabee

From: YouTube

From the Family Research Council’s: Value Voter’s Debate.

Mike Huckabee in front of a very warm and favorable crowd shares his views on the War in Iraq and future battle against “radical islam” and “Islamo-Facists”

Translations were added for those who can not understand Gov. Huckabee’s euphemisms regarding what we must do to remain free and even alive.

Source

Michael Franti & Ron Paul on Iraq: “Do Unto Others”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzIPSGhooP4]

From: YouTube, October, 2007

The first time I really thought Ron Paul could change the world was when [I saw] the first clip of the video. When he challenged us all to take a moment to consider the war from the perspective of Iraqis I thought back to what changed my opinion on the war.

It was the moment I watched these scenes and others from Michael Franti’s movie “I Know I’m Not Alone.” Franti is the anti-Michael Moore. As the story unwinds you find a people grateful for the liberation but growing resentful of the occupation. 75,000 dead Iraqi civilians [the number is much higher now] that all had friends and family. How many people close to you would you have to lose to a foreign military on your streets before you decided to fight back? When you did, would you consider yourself an “insurgent” or a “patriot”? A “terrorist” or a “human”? We will never stop “terrorism” as long as our occupation is the primary cause of it.

Politicians make it confusing to keep you convinced it can’t be so simple. We all understand the golden rule. If we applied it to politics more often, we would be much better off.

I voted Democrat in 2006 so they would bring the troops home, and we got a surge and a continuation of the Patriot Act. Obama, Hillary, and Edwards refused to promise in the last debate to withdraw the troops in the next 5 years! Kucinich only raised $300,000 last quarter. At this point Ron Paul is the only candidate who will promise to bring our troops home now that has a shot. We need to unite behind him because he is our best shot to get the troops home and save the live or Iraqi citizens.

www.ronpaul2008.com
www.dailypaul.com
www.ronpaulforpresident2008.com

Disclaimer:

I am in no way implying with this video that Michael Franti endorses Ron Paul. (although I think he should)

This movie as exceptional. If every American watched it tonight, we would have the troops home next week. Franti traveled to Iraq, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank to understand the human cost of war. Truly phenomenal I highly recommend it.

www.iknowimnotalone.com

Franti and his band Spearhead also make incredible music.

www.spearheadvibrations.com

Source

Ron Paul Supporters Mistreated During RNC Convention

From: News with Views

While millions of Americans watched the 2008 Republican Convention on television, the well-staged event wasn’t all peaceful and enthusiastic, according to several delegates attending the St. Paul, Minnesota event.

Several delegates — who are avowed Ron Paul supporters — claim they were treated shabbily at best, harshly at worst.

“While almost every other GOP contender for president was permitted to speak at the convention, Ron Paul was not. The word was that Paul was invited, with the natural caveat that he (like the other speakers) endorse McCain for president, which Paul was reportedly unwilling to do,” said a McCain delegate from West Virginia.

“Instead, Paul held a separate ‘convention’ for one afternoon at the Minneapolis Convention Center,” said the WV delegate.

The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee were unnecessarily nervous about the presence of Ron Paul delegates at the XCel Energy Center, and sometimes that fact was reflected in unwarranted actions, such as someone yanking away a banner proclaiming the word “Liberty” being held by a handful of Paul delegates outside the building, according to several delegates.

In fact, several told NewsWithViews.com that while the Rep. Paul delegates demonstrated little, if any, support for McCain throughout the convention — mostly sitting quietly on their hands while the rest of the crowd erupted around them — they caused no problems and were respectful and polite, including the Paul delegates from West Virginia.

“The Ron Paul movement has brought thousands of young people into the political process — shouldn’t the GOP find ways to welcome them rather than alienate them?” said “Patrick,” a delegate and Ron Paul supporter from Maine.

Read Entire Ariticle

Jesse Ventura at The Rally for the Republic, 9/02/08: “Why has the United States Department of Justice not charged Osama Bin Laden for 9/11?”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79eCo6ocBEc]

“Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience. And when you do that, don’t ever, ever let a Democrat or Republican tell you you’ve wasted your voted. The fact is that if you don’t vote your heart and conscience then you have wasted your vote.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eytv1j0ZwII]

“Jerry always said if you’re made to pick the lesser of two evils, it means you’re still picking evil.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WvIJCM-LXo]

From: InfoWars

“I’m going to move on to another subject that a lot of people don’t want to discuss today,” he said, “I know when I discuss it, it’s amazing, I get attacked! And that’s something called 9/11!”

The crowd cheered and applauded as Ventura made numerous salient points about the FBI’s failure to list 9/11 on Bin Laden’s rap sheet and the DOJ’s failure to charge him.

They charged him when he blew up our embassy in ‘98, why the biggest terrorist attack in history have they failed to officially charge him for? Why have they not convened a grand jury, presented their evidence and got an indictment?” asked Ventura. “When the FBI was pressed as to why 9/11 wasn’t included, their response was – we don’t have enough evidence.”

“Why did we have a President who stonewalled any investigation into 9/11 for two years?,” added the former Governor, as portions of the crowd chanted, “9/11 was an inside job.”

Ventura slammed the media for slavishly devoting a whole month of coverage to the death of Anna Nicole Smith, labeling it a sign of “the dumbing down of America.”

Read Entire Article

Ron Paul at The Rally for the Republic — Minneapolis, 9/02/08 (86 Min.)

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2285743412179388725]

Ron Paul: RNC slot would have cost ‘everything I believe in’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXbkEpgAGEE]

From: Raw Story

Former Republican president candidate Ron Paul appeared on The Colbert Report Thursday to discuss his absence from the Republican National Convention at a time when other unsuccessful candidates — Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee — were all making appearances to praise John McCain.

“You say you did not speak at the Republican National Convention because you do not feel welcome there,” Stephen Colbert suggested.

“No, I did not. I don’t like to be pushy,” Paul replied modestly, before flashing a wide grin.

“But just because you weren’t welcome, that’s no reason not to speak,” Colbert objected. “I mean, certainly Bush spoke, and he was not welcome.”

“Could you have gotten a slot if you’d played ball with those guys?” Colbert continued.

“Yes,” Paul replied

“What would it have meant to you?” Colbert asked. “What would you have to have given up?”

“Everything I believed in,” Paul stated.

“So, just like everybody else,” Colbert commented, adding, “Listen, you want to play with the big boys, you got to play along.”

“I would have had to do this,” said Paul, raising his hands as if to kowtow and intoning, “‘I accept everything in your platform and I love John McCain.'”

Read Entire Article

Skousen: Sarah Palin — Naive Christian in the Lion’s Den

Posted with permission.

World Affairs Brief, September 5, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief.

SARAH PALIN: NAIVE CHRISTIAN IN THE LION’S DEN

The selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin by the McCain team was a stunning move that caught all the professional pundits by surprise. In one single move, the Republican operatives stole the media spotlight away from Barack Obama and toppled conservative resistance to McCain’s liberal/maverick record. Even James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who swore he would never support McCain, succumbed and decided he could now do so. None of this drama could have been accomplished without a correct analysis and understanding of Palin’s particular weaknesses. This week I’ll explain what unprincipled Republican king-makers saw in her that could simultaneously boost McCain phony conservative credentials and yet never threaten the hidden globalist agenda that drives the insiders who control the Republican Party at the national level.

Some of Palin’s remarks stretch the truth

From: Anchorage Daily News

Gov. Sarah Palin’s remarks to the Republican National Convention about her record in state government stretched the truth.

GAS PIPELINE

PALIN: “I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.

THE FACTS: Palin implies that construction has begun on a major natural gas pipeline from the top of Alaska into Canada. That is not correct.

In fact, no building has begun and actual construction is years away, if it ever happens. This summer the Alaska Legislature, at Palin’s request, passed a bill under which the state will issue a “license” to a Canadian energy company, TransCanada Corp., and pay it up to $500 million as an incentive to someday build this enormous project, which Alaska politicians have long sought with little success. The license is not a construction contract, and federal energy regulators have not yet approved the project.

Read Entire Article

Sarah Palin: U.S. Troops in Iraq Doing God’s Will — “A Task that is From God”

To me, the most troubling aspect of Sarah’s political leadership is her naivety about the U.S. military’s role in foreign policy.

Careful study shows that our military has been co-opted by the neocons to help bring about the prophesied globalist, one-world government goals (not God’s goals—Satan’s)—to the sad disgrace of America. And it’s amazing to see the evangelicals united with many of the country music ‘rednecks’ pushing militarism that is the antithesis of peacemaking. It’s selfishness and even murder in God’s name, and in that it’s reverse-Christianity, it will destroy America if continued.

Jesus’ teachings, like “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” and “love your neighbor as yourself” are no longer popular among evangelicals, especially when the neighbors are Muslim. But Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, given to explain who our neighbors are, demonstrates that our love is not supposed to stop at our border. In fact, All body bags are equally tragic.

Wow! How far from Jesus’ teachings has America drifted? Imagine if Sarah had been taught real Christianity in Alaska…. It still can happen.

Not-even-close-to-Biblical teaching in seminaries, churches, and on radio and TV is absolutely the #1 source of America’s decline—while true Christianity is the solution.

Jeff Fenske : )
Anchorage, Alaska

From: Anchorage Daily News, Sept. 4

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it “God’s will.”

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God,” she said. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”

A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God‘s Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet. …

Palin attended the evangelical church from the time she was a teenager until 2002, the church said in a statement posted on its Web site. She has continued to attend special conferences and meetings there.

Read Entire Article

Related:

Palin: “THIS WAR against extreme Islamic terrorists is the RIGHT THING”

Dr. Stanley Monteith: IRAQ Road to World Government

Chuck Baldwin on McCain/Palin: Can Two Walk Together Without Agreement?

Fenske on Chuck Norris’ “Would Jesus Support War?” – A God of War & *a* Prince of Peace

Ron Paul’s Biggest Eye-Opener: ‘Christian’ Evangelicals Pushing Preemptive War in the Name of Spreading Christian ‘Love’

Rockefeller Predicted “Event” To Trigger War Eleven Months Before 9/11

Ron Paul Discusses the RNC, Sarah Palin… (CNN American Morning 9/02/08)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_O_fYgjTdQ]

Chuck Baldwin on McCain/Palin: Can Two Walk Together Without Agreement?

You never ever ever make a deal with the Devil!

– Michael Franti

______________________

I was going to write an article, entitled: Are the Neocons Using Sarah or Will Sarah Rise Above the Neocons? Maybe I won’t have to write it now. Constitutional party Presidential candidate and pastor, Chuck Baldwin hits this one out of the park!

[Sadly, however, it seems that Chuck is overly optimistic about Sarah’s disbelief in the correctness of the Iraq war: Sarah Palin: U.S. Troops in Iraq Doing God’s Will — “A Task that is From God”. As our governor, this didn’t seem to be a big problem, but if she becomes VP, and maybe even stepping up as President, this could be huge!]

If the Republican ticket were Palin/McCain, I’d consider voting for her, but in this reverse-conservative order, no thank you. I’ll vote for the Constitutional Party candidate for the third straight time, because Ron Paul is no longer in the race, and because I won’t vote for evil anymore.

John McCain’s policies evil? Paragraph four, below, shows what he’s is really up to, and much of what is on this site gives the big picture of how the neocons are dismantling sovereign nations, worldwide—especially the United States of America.

When it’s all said and done, it’s very possible that history may show that the Republican administration of the conservative “Christian,” George W. Bush has done more harm to this country and gut the Constitution more than has any preceding administration—in the name of God—which is the worst part.

Or maybe the worst part is the large ‘Christian’ following that is supporting these governments’ demises to bring about the one-world government prophesied in the Bible.

Wake up before it’s too late.

– Jeff Fenske

_____________________

From: News with Views

John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate was exactly what he needed to do to make himself competitive against Barack Obama in the November elections. (For the record, I predicted three weeks ago that Palin would be his choice.) As a result (and right on cue), conservatives throughout the country–especially Christian conservatives–are now fully supporting McCain’s candidacy for President. Even James “I-will-never-vote-for-John-McCain” Dobson has endorsed McCain.

By all appearances, Governor Palin is a true conservative. She is pro-life. She is pro-Second Amendment. Alaska is one of only two states (Vermont is the other) that recognize the right of their citizens to carry handguns without a Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) permit. She was rightly critical of the invasion of Iraq, once calling it a “war for oil.” Speaking of oil, she believes we should drill for oil in Alaska and throughout the U.S., and is critical of the federal government for allowing America to become dependent upon foreign oil for our energy needs. She even heaped praises upon the Republican that Republicans love to hate: Ron Paul. Beyond that, Lynette Clark, the chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party (the party under which yours truly is on the Presidential ballot this year) reports that Sarah Palin was a member of the party back in the early 90s. This is very encouraging in that the AIP is a patriotic, states’ rights party that holds strong sentiments opposing the New World Order propensities of the two major parties. In essence, Sarah Palin is everything that John McCain isn’t. Which leads to the question that was asked long ago by the Hebrew prophet: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

When the no-compromise constitutionalist, Ron Paul, was asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if he would consider being John McCain’s running mate, he said no. His reason for that was that should McCain do something fundamentally counter to his constitutional convictions–such as bombing Iran without a Declaration of War (or other possible unconstitutional actions that Paul knows McCain is predisposed to)–he would have to resign. Knowing this, he (Paul) could not in good conscience accept a McCain invitation to join his ticket (not that McCain would ever ask him to be his running mate; Ron was not even invited to participate in the Republican convention, for Pete’s sake).

Herein lies the problem for Sarah Palin. How can a principled conservative support the policies and actions of an unprincipled globalist such as John McCain? As Vice President, Palin will be required to promote and defend McCain’s big-government, liberal, and globalist plans. For example, what will she do when John McCain proposes amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, which he is certain to do? What will she do when McCain proposes to close gun shows, or at least the private sale of firearms at gun shows? What will she do when he proposes to increase federal spending for abortion providers (which he has done numerous times as senator)? What will she do when he promotes federal spending for embryonic stem cell research? What will she do when John McCain proliferates Bush’s police state machinations by expanding the Patriot Act and similar legislation? What will Palin do when McCain decides to nuke Iran (and who knows what else), not only without a Declaration of War by Congress, but also without provocation or justification? What will she do as John McCain expands the Security and Prosperity Partnership with Canada and Mexico? What will she do as McCain opens the door of the NAFTA superhighway and the North American Union? What will she do as John McCain allows the United Nations to dictate and manipulate America’s foreign policy? Again, can two walk together except they be agreed?

Let’s face it: John McCain is using Sarah Palin as inducement to trick conservatives into accepting his liberal, big-government, globalist candidacy. And, sadly, it is working.

As I have said before, today’s national Christian leaders are among the most gullible people on the planet.

Read Entire Article

Related: Chuck Baldwin: Sarah Palin’s Answers—Very Troubling

Mythbusters Gagged: Credit Card Companies Kill Episode Exposing RFID Security Flaws

From: The Consumerist

Credit card companies successfully nixed a Mythbusters segment exposing RFID’s security flaws, according to Arbiter of Truth and Mythbusters co-host, Adam Savage.

Despite increasingly widespread use in passports and credit cards, radio-frequency identification is notoriously insecure. Hackers have successfully hijacked RFID-enabled credit cards from almost 70-feet away. Mythbusters had arranged a conference call with Texas Instruments to explore a similarly depressing demonstration.

Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else… They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it’s on Discovery’s radar and they won’t let us go near it.

See Article/Video

Paul Craig Roberts: War With Russia Is On The Agenda

From: Information Clearing House

Thinking about the massive failure of the US media to report truthfully is sobering. The United States, bristling with nuclear weapons and pursuing a policy of world hegemony, has a population that is kept in the dark–indeed brainwashed–about the most important and most dangerous events of our time.
The power of the Israel Lobby is an important component of keeping Americans in the dark. Recently I watched a documentary that demonstrates the control that the Israel Lobby exercises over Americans’ view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary is available here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14055.htm

As a result of the US media’s one-sided coverage, few Americans are aware that for decades Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homes and lands under protection of America’s veto in the United Nations. Instead, the dispossessed Palestinians are portrayed as mindless terrorists who attack innocent Israel.

If one reads Israeli newspapers, such as Haaretz, or publications from Israeli organizations, such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, one gets a radically different view of the situation than the propagandistic version delivered by US media and evangelical pulpits.

Most Americans know of the 2000 attack by Muslim terrorists on the USS Cole in Aden harbor that resulted in 17 dead and 39 wounded American sailors. But few have heard of Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty that left 34 American sailors dead and 174 wounded. Pressured by the Israel Lobby, President Johnson ordered Admiral McCain, father of the Republican presidential nominee, to cover up the attack. To this day there never has been a congressional investigation.

The failure of the American media is again evident in the coverage of the Georgian-Russian conflict. The US media presented the conflict as a Russian invasion of Georgia, whereas in actual fact the American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian military launched a sneak attack to kill and to drive the Russian population out of South Ossetia, a separatist province.

Russian peacekeepers, together with Georgian ones, had been stationed in South Ossetia since the early 1990s. On orders from Mikheil Saakashvili, the American puppet “president” of Georgia, the Georgian peacekeepers turned their weapons on the unsuspecting Russian peacekeepers and murdered them.

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Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ]

From: Democracy Now!

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC

Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar

ST. PAUL–Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.

All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Salazar’s violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, “I’m Press! Press!,” resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman’s arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.

On Tuesday, Democracy Now! will broadcast video of these arrests, as well as the broader police action. These will also be available on: www.democracynow.org

Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

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Sarah Palin: The Misperception About ANWR

From: IBD Editorials

There are great misconceptions about the developments up here. Take ANWR. The misperception is that this is a huge swath of pristine land, full of mountains and rivers and wildlife. Those are the pictures seen on TV. But what we’re talking about with ANWR is a 2,000-acre plot of land that is a smaller footprint than LAX or big airports outside Alaska.

It’s not mountainous, and there aren’t rivers flowing through it. So even the perception of what ANWR would entail is wrong, and we need to correct that.

Read Entire Interview

More and More People Are Catching on to Mainstream Media Lies

From: Natural News

It seems that most people are finally awakening to the fact that it is not a good idea to blindly accept the manipulating lies with which we are daily brainwashed, particularly by the communications media. It is totally acceptable and sensible nowadays to be cynical and critical of any source of information, particularly when associated with politics, big business and the media.

The ‘information’ age has literally turned upon itself.

George Orwell in his prophetic book ‘1984’ said, “Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful… and give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind.”

Hitler’s propaganda henchman Dr. Goebells said, “If you tell people a big enough lie, often enough, they will believe it.”

There are many definitions of lies and the Thesaurus has a great source of words to describe the distorting and twisting of any facts. Among the word variations that cover the outrageous manipulations we experience daily are fabrication, inference misstatement, falsification, evasion, deceit and deception. A lie is the deliberate withholding of any part of the truth from someone who has a right to know.

People are becoming accustomed to receiving deceit and deception. We are being constantly lied to by governments, government officials, drug companies, the medical profession, multinational industry, food companies and politicians. Lied to by media, by ‘reality’ programs, doctored photographs in magazines, by employers and by unions.

Lied to in financial transactions, stockholders reports and false corporate statements. Lied to by advertising, salesmen and anyone trying to make money to our disadvantage. Falsification has been piled onto fabrication, until lying — through omission, distortion, bias or clever wording — has become a way of life! The list is truly endless.

Life has become like a jigsaw puzzle, but without the picture on the front of the box so that you don’t know what it’s really supposed to be like. Governments, multinationals and media are clever enough to make sure you don’t always have all the pieces!

Try to look at the motives behind everything you hear and see, there is always a motive. What are they ‘selling’? Keep an open mind and treat all information with a reasonable amount of suspicion. Look for seemingly reliable sources, as I do. We need to be constantly be alert and aware! Even question me.

We all know there is plenty of truth in our universe; it’s just a bit hard to find. Try a little old fashioned commonsense.

Excerpt from Michael’s [Cambrey] book ‘Solutions With Pearls of Wisdom’ utilizing thirty years of Naturopathic experience. More at email mdecambray@jaywey.com.

Source

Almost Half of Iraqi Adults Are Unemployed

From: AlterNet

“If you don’t have money to pay bribes, you can’t get a job,” says one mechanical engineer. “I’d drive a garbage truck; I’d do anything,”

BAGHDAD — Every morning for a year and a half, Tariq Razzaq has been coming to the decrepit entrance of a neighborhood maintenance office in southern Baghdad with a single goal in mind: to get a job. Every morning, the office employees turn him down.

It’s not that Razzaq, a 29-year-old former soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army, isn’t willing to do the lowest-paid manual labor: On a rare good day, the maintenance office asks Razzaq to perform one-time jobs cleaning trash and war debris out of gutters. It’s that he doesn’t have the money to bribe his way into a job.

“It’s simple: To find a steady job you need to have connections, or pay cash,” explains Razzaq, who spends most days with a group of other unemployed men who loitering in the shadow of the maintenance office parking lot, hoping that someone would ask him to pump up his tires or wash his car. The other unemployed Iraqis nod emphatically in agreement.

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Ron Paul on Fox News 8/31/08

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gehe-I9WPeE]

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