#5: 04.12.16(4): Secessionism #2: Foundations, EU & Turkey, Media & Nuclear threats, US Economy, US Patriot Act, Linux

1) Secessionism #2: Some foundations: (1) Democracy: http://www.mises.org/journals/scholar/kreptul.pdf 1. Ancient Greece: http://www.twq.com/spring00/232karamanlis.pdf http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml 2. European Switzerland: http://www.iniref.org/swissdemocracy.html http://www.swissworld.org/dvd_rom/eng/direct_democracy_2004/content/history/history.html 3. Iroquois Confederacy: http://democraciaparticipativa.net/documentos/OldestLiving.htm http://www.campton.sau48.k12.nh.us/iroqconf.htm 4. American movement: http://www.sidis.net/TSChap17.htm http://ni4d.us/press/20020224.htm 5. EU evolution: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/AUD/s6.htm http://www.europeanforum.net/index.php 6. Iraq: http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1396 (2) Phylosophy: http://www.southerncaucus.org/sj1.htm 1. "Small is beautiful": http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Small+is+beautiful 2. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia 3. James C. Scott, Max Webber, and Michel Foucault (3) Community: http://www.buildfreedom.com/portal/category.php/216 1. Pacifican States and Provinces 2. Second Virginia Republic 3. Texas: http://www.pinette.net/chris/flags/texas/texflags.html 4. Internet: http://www.hicsocial.org/Social2003Proceedings/Lucia%20Clark.pdf 2) EU & Turkey: (1) From openDemocracy: http://www.opendemocracy.net/home/index.jsp "Turkey and the hypocrisies of Europe", Fred Halliday, 16 - 12 - 2004 http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-123-2271.jsp "Turkey’s European problem", Gilles Kepel, 14 - 12 - 2004 http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-109-2264.jsp "Turkey and Shakespeare", Gönül Bakay, 16 - 12 - 2004 http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-1-111-2273.jsp (2) From International Relations and Security Network, ISN: "Old rivals Russia, Turkey forge new relations": http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10315 3) Media & Nuclear threats: "" Media Beat ( http://www.fair.org/media-beat/ ) is the insightful weekly syndicated column on media and politics written by FAIR associate Norman Solomon. It runs in newspapers across the country. Until 1996, the column was co-written by Jeff Cohen, then FAIR's executive director "" "" Norman Solomon's latest book, co-authored with foreign correspondent Reese Erlich, is Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You. "": http://www.fair.org/media-beat/041129.html "KILLING OUR OWN: Chronicling the Disaster of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation, 1945-1982", by Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon, 1982: http://www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/ 4) US Economy: (1) " Economic 'Armageddon' predicted ", by Brett Arends, On State StreetTuesday, November 23, 2004: http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=55356 "" Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish. But you should hear what he's saying in private. Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity. His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.'' Press were not allowed into the meetings. But the Herald has obtained a copy of Roach's presentation. A stunned source who was at one meeting said, ``it struck me how extreme he was - much more, it seemed to me, than in public.'' Roach sees a 30 percent chance of a slump soon and a 60 percent chance that ``we'll muddle through for a while and delay the eventual armageddon.'' The chance we'll get through OK: one in 10. Maybe. In a nutshell, Roach's argument is that America's record trade deficit means the dollar will keep falling. To keep foreigners buying T-bills and prevent a resulting rise in inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will be forced to raise interest rates further and faster than he wants. The result: U.S. consumers, who are in debt up to their eyeballs, will get pounded. Less a case of ``Armageddon,'' maybe, than of a ``Perfect Storm.'' "" (2) " The Dollar's Decline Does MatterLONDON ", Dec. 6, 2004: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/06/opinion/fenton/main659179.shtml "" (CBS) Tom Fenton, in his fourth decade with CBS News, has been the network's Senior European Correspondent since 1979. He comments on international events from his "Listening Post" in London, and other parts of the world as well. "" "" Since the end of the Clinton administration - or to put it another way, since the beginning of the Bush administration - the dollar has been heading south at an alarming rate. Against the Euro, a relatively new currency backed by a European economy that is bigger than America's, the dollar has lost more than a third of its value. The same thing has happened to its value against the British pound. What's going on here? Economists can give you a lot of arguments and counter arguments, most of them complex and some a little dodgy, but the simple answer is that America is living beyond its means. "" "" in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was the British pound that was the world's reserve currency, and before that, the Dutch guilder, etc., all the way back to the Roman dinarius. Currencies come and go, like empires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when it ran a costly empire that spanned the world, Britain was the world's biggest creditor. Within a generation, both the British Empire and the pound were shattered by two world wars and economic mismanagement. America has not yet reached that point, of course, but we ignore the lessons of history at our peril. Unless we put our economic house in order and stop living beyond our means, we could go the way of the British. And by the way, if the dollar were to lose its status as the world's reserve currency, what could replace it? Possibly the euro, and a combination of the currencies of the Asian giants who make all those toys and gadgets you have been buying for Christmas. "" 5) US Patriot Act: http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com/actpat.htm "" 1) How the Patriot Act Compares to the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) 2) A 21st Century Comparison of The Enabling Act and The Patriot Act 3) Ten Key Dangers of the Patriot Act 4) Bill Moyer's NOW Comments on the Patriot Act 5) The USA Patriot Act, A Legal Analysis by Charles Doyle (link to PDA document) "" "A Brief Analysis of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003 Also Known as USA Patriot Act II": http://www.rickieleejones.com/political/patriotact.htm "Citizens for Legitimate Government, CLG": http://legitgov.org/ "National Lawyers Guild, NLG": http://nlg.org/ "Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFF": http://eff.org/ "portland independant media center": http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/303979.shtml "" News Gathering Illegal Under New Patriot Act ll, Sec. 102, author: Alex Jones SECTION 102 of the new Patriot Act ll states clearly that any information gathering, regardless of whether or not those activities are illegal, can be considered to be clandestine intelligence activities for a foreign power. This makes news gathering illegal. A Brief Analysis of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, Also Known as USA Patriot Act II "" 6) Linux Survey: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3019628054.html