The State, like the Church, by its very nature is a great sacrificer of living beings. It is an arbitrary being, in whose heart all the positive, living, individual, and local interests of the population meet, clash, destroy each other, become absorbed in that abstraction called the common interest, the public good, the public safety, and where all real wills cancel each other in that other abstraction which hears the name of the will of the people.
truthcafe:
Esther Addley guardian.co.uk, Tue 11 Jan 2011 14.21 GMT
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, could be at “real risk” of the death penalty or detention in Guantánamo Bay if he is extradited to Sweden on accusations of rape and sexual assault, his lawyers claim. In a skeleton summary of their…
The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.
He [Marx] says, ‘Poverty produces political slavery, the State,” but he does not allow this expression to be turned around to say, ‘Political slavery, the State, reproduces in its turn, and maintains poverty as a condition of its own existence; so that, in order to destroy poverty, it is necessary to destroy the State!’
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Mikhail Bakunin, Marxism, Freedom, and the State, p. 16
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My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.
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Barack Obama
rhetoric v. real life
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House GOP Kill Global Warming Committee
House Republicans have killed the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. Meanwhile, Republicans have introduced at least three different bills aimed at blocking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/7/headlin
Obama Taps JPMorgan Exec William Daley for Chief of Staff
President Obama appointed William Daley, a top financial executive and former Clinton administration official, as his new White House chief of staff. Daley is the Midwest chair of JPMorgan Chase, a board member of Merck, and former head of SBC. Obama will also reportedly name former Goldman Sachs consultant Gene Sperling to head the National Economic Council. We speak with Ari Berman of The Nation magazine.
So much for change.
I couldn’t not have this on my tumblr.
julian-assange-fanciers-guild:
After a months-long motorcycle trek through the poorest, forgotten provinces of the frontier, El Assange finally settled in Northern Europe where he established a band of cryptography warriors to redistribute information to the most uninformed citizens. From a basement in coldest Scandinavia, he would prepare for war.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
