Friday, November 28, 2003

Neocons Next Step? FEATURED ARTICLES - Betty Crocker, Not Bin Laden (AlterNet) - The Road to Damascus, (Foreign Policy In Focus) QUOTE OF THE DAY "The neocon chorus and Vice President Cheney made it possible--in defiance of the UN, major allies, and much of Congress--to stampede the U.S. into a paroxysm of righteous patriotism against Iraq by manipulating claims of WMDs, terrorism, and similar bogeys. They have made it plain that they would like to do it again for Syria." - - Ian Williams (from today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - NOVEMBER 28th 1929 -- Founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy is born in Detroit, Michigan. The "Motown Sound" will become synonymous with the 1960's; launches the careers of the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Jackson 5, & & &... 1944 -- Founder of the Haight Ashbury, community activist group known as The Diggers, Emmett Grogan is born. Author of the book, "Ringolevio" (current edition by Canongate & introduced by Peter Coyote, a fellow Digger & one of Emmett Grogan's closest friends), to clarify his philosophy, he once attended a Dialectics of Liberation conference where he received an ovation for his speech and then informed the audience, the first man to deliver that speech was AdoIf Hitler. 1968 -- Jimi Hendrix plays Philharmonic Hall in New York. 1997 -- "Buy Nothing Day" hits the front page of The Wall Street Journal http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/toolbox/wsj.html RHINO HERE: Today's BOTTOM LINE, "The Road to Damascus," is an important essay from Foreign Policy In Focus  (FPIF), with a warning of what The Neocon Chorus (the author's name for them) may be up to next. http://www.fpif.org FPIF is a "think tank without walls" that functions as an international network of more than 650 policy analysts and advocates. Unlike traditional think tanks, FPIF is committed to advancing a citizen-based foreign policy agenda--one that is fundamentally rooted in citizen initiatives and movements. FPIF is a collaborative project of the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC)... http://www.irc-online.org ... and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) . http://www.ips-dc.org First off is a stereotype busting piece by an Arab American woman hoping to educate her readers on the realities of life for women in the Arab world which contrary to the stereotype - vary widely. Betty Crocker, Not Bin Laden By Doris Bittar, AlterNet, November 24, 2003 I immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in the mid 1960s. Over the years I have noticed an increase in the media of casual references to "the oppressed women of the Arab world." Many of these well-meaning reports are also infused with free-floating assumptions that do little to educate people about the realities of life for women in the Arab or Islamic world - which vary wildly. In fact, the average American reading these articles may find the negative ideas about women's lives in the Middle East reinforced rather than challenged. The overwhelming majority of Arab or Muslim women would find the stereotypes that the West holds of them to be alien. Women in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria among others would find themselves more at home in Ireland than in Saudi Arabia. Women in the Arab, Islamic or Middle Eastern worlds do have to struggle for more rights, but their reality may be more familiar to us than we think. The picture to hold in your mind is the Betty Crocker kitchen of the1950s. It may even be the transitional environment of the 1970s where I witnessed my own mother's need for more freedom to find her own voice. Like many mothers here and in the Middle East, she chose to first raise her family and then work on her personal growth after we grew up... MORE: Betty Crocker 8:16:23 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The Road to Damascus The Road to Damascus By Ian Williams, Foreign Policy In Focus, November 24, 2003 Editor : John Gershman, Interhemispheric Resource Center ( IRC )    Editor's Note: This piece was commissioned under the auspices of the Project Against the Present Danger . At this time last year, it was difficult to get people to take the threat of war on Iraq seriously. This year, the threat to Syria is much more explicit than that against Saddam Hussein, but too many people dismiss any such thought. But paranoia pays. We should have noted by now that this administration is motivated in mysterious ways, but does clearly signal its intentions no matter how seemingly irrational they appear to others. The neocons and their friends in the administration may, as the current unplanned Iraqi occupation experience indicates, be out of tune with reality in the rest of the world. But the fact that they achieved their first goal--the invasion and occupation of Iraq--indicates that they know all to well how Washington works. Which should make us worry about their second goal; most of them are on the record supporting Ariel Sharon's suggestion that Syria is next. The passage of the Syria Accountability Act in the House of Representatives with only 4 votes against it on October 15 could be dismissed as mere pandering by legislators eager to prove how earnestly pro-Israel they are in the run-up to a costly election campaign. But even if Representatives only voted for it out of callow expediency, the Act threatens to mean much more.... READ IT ALL AT: http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2003/0311damascus.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:27:49 AM    comment

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