SOTU 2012: Behind Obama’s Clean Energy Shout Out to the DoD

Jen Soriano

During the state of the Union Address on Tuesday, Obama shouted out the DoD as a clean energy partner.

“I’m proud to announce that the Department of Defense, working with us, the world’s largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history -– with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.”

Change Is in the Air

 

Washington's Wars and Occupations:
Month in Review #80 
 
It's traditional on New Year's Eve to talk about sweeping away the old and ringing in the new. But this year the call for casting off old habits and trying new paths is more relevant than ever.
 
From Tahrir Square to Liberty Park, from villages in China to the Eurozone, change is in the air. But which way will the scales tip in 2012?
 
Will state violence and elite-imposed social austerity prevail and trap even more of the global 99% in poverty and despair? Or will the grassroots uprisings that shook everything up in 2011 gain further momentum and score victories against inequality and repressive regimes? Nothing will come easy. The Great Recession still grips the U.S. and Europe and the squeeze on poor and working people has not let up. Carbon emissions went up in 2011 and the climate crisis has deepened. Washington is recalibrating – not ending - its military deployments, now targeting the Asia-Pacific region as the new spot for escalation.

New Clashes in Tahrir Square

By Shadi Rahimi

For three weeks protestors had been conducting a peaceful sit-in on Magles El Shaab Street in downtown Cairo to protest the military regime's appointment of Kamal Ganzouri as prime minister, among other grievances. Their tents were set up alongside heavily guarded government buildings including the Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister's Office, where they remained from Nov. 24 to Dec. 16.

Click here for a slide show.

Ganzouri, who had served under former president Hosni Mubarak, had said there would be no violence used to break up the sit-in. But protestors had been alleging that military police were kidnapping and beating them. The latest rounds of fighting sparked Dec. 16 began when the boy in this video, who was part of the sit-in, said he was beaten and electrocuted by security officials. When clearing out the sit-in and those remaining inside Tahrir, tents were ripped apart and burned by soldiers. People were brutally attacked. 

Among those beaten was a young woman whose image has circulated around the world and reignited the fury beneath the movement for women's rights in Egypt.

The fights this month were different than November. This time, plainclothes police or soldiers, and apparent civilian allies threw rocks, furniture and later molotov cocktails down from tall buildings at protestors, who responded with rocks and molotovs, which only reached the bottom levels of the building. The clashes soon moved down to street level, where soldiers and police threw rocks, fired ammunition including live bullets, and chased and clubbed protestors over the period of about four days. A truce this time was forced by security forces placing blocks of cement on two streets. Entryways to Tahrir are now blocked three ways.

Egyptians Held Indefinitely

War Times Egypt correspondent Shadi Rahimi sends this video about bystanders swept up in a September Cairo demonstration still imprisoned months later. The brother of one of the prisoners speaks:

 

Faster Than the Speed of Light, Occupy Wall Street Defies the Natural Laws of Politics

Month in Review • November 2011

Occupy has changed the country.  People are fighting back.  And the developments are happening faster than anyone could have guessed even a few months ago. The Occupy movement has gone from a few dozen in Zuccotti park in New York to thousands of participants in hundreds of cities.  Across the country occupations have become pitched battles between the people’s movement and municipal police forces. 

The speed with which this unfolded, the degree of brutality leveled against the occupiers, and the resilience of the Occupy movement are all remarkable.  In times like this the movement outstrips the best expectations of organizers and organizations.  And while these developments defy simple explanation, their impact is undeniable.  People are no longer talking about deficits and budget cuts, but about Wall Street and the one percent.  Americans have fully joined people the world over fighting against austerity and empire, making 2011 a year of global resistance for the history books.    

Computer model of a neutrino

Occupy has a parallel in the world of physics.  This month researchers working at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland and France have run two experiments in which neutrinos have been recorded apparently traveling faster than the speed light. Neutrinos, the subatomic misfits of the universe, known to pass through matter and inexplicably change form in travel, now also seem to move faster than light, something previously thought impossible. 

So it is with Occupy.  It has bypassed traditional forms of political mobilization, leaving more established organizations trying to play catch up. And the movement has changed form, from public occupations, to marches and rallies, civil disobedience and city-wide strikes – all faster than anyone would have expected.  Occupy, the misfit of the political world, is defying the laws of political possibility. 

New Photos from Tahrir Square

Our Cairo correspondent sends photos from the demonstrations sweeping Tahrir Square. Click for slideshows:

November 22, 2011

November 21, 2011

Shadi writes:

Tear gas canister made in the USA
A tear gas canister made in the USA

It has been 10 months since the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, but those in Tahrir Square this week are experiencing an eerie repeat of the January uprisings. Bloody and sometimes deadly clashes with riot police, clouds of tear gas, thousands of injuries, and speeches from a ruler who appears at least days behind the pulse of the street. As Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's interim military ruler, gave a highly anticipated address touching on the political turmoil, riot police continued to rapid fire tear gas canisters at protestors. In response to demands that the military council (Security Council of Armed Forces) cease running the country, Tantawi suggested the matter be decided in a public referendum - which drew widespread criticism from politicians and activists. Soon after news of Tantawi's speech spread through Tahrir, people chanted, "Leave, leave."

One of protesters’ main demands is to allow a civilian council to step in until presidential elections. More than 12,000 civilians have been tried in military tribunals under the rule of the military council, a remanent of the Mubarak regime, and Egyptians fear the military regime will not relinquish its power. In his speech, Tantawi said he would order the formation of a new cabinet to replace the one that resigned Monday, which would continue to work in conjunction with SCAF. Those in Tahrir were galvanized by his speech, which some described as threatening. On one street, a crowd of young futbol fans called Ultras marched and lit fireworks. Soon after, a riot police truck moved toward the crowd, firing repeated rounds of tear gas. Soon after, in the second largest city of Alexandria, police swept the crowds, making arrests. The chants of January echo, but this time with a different target.

People are now chanting, "Tantawi, you coward, the people are waiting for you in the Square."

Dorli Rainey, 84-Year-Old Activist Pepper-Sprayed in Seattle, Speaks Out!

The Feed • 11-19-2011

Dorli Rainey has been thinking about -- and acting on -- her politics since her childhood in occupied Austria. "I remember Goebbels," she tells Keith Olbermann. Rainey doesn't let a little pepper spray in the face stop her. A true organizer, she used her bus ride home to introduce the passengers to the #Occupy movement and what it stands for. 

Occupying 26.2 Miles: Marathon for Peace 2011

Our spirits buoyed by #Occupy and the rising of the 99%, War Times is redoubling our efforts against wars and militarism. (For the latest on #Occupy including the Nov. 17 International Day of Action, look here and here.) Among other things War Times has expanded our presence on social media - you can now find War Times on Facebook here or follow us on twitter here.

Once a year we appeal to our readers for the funds needed to sustain this all-volunteer effort. To anchor our campaign, one of our staffers runs an annual Marathon for Peace as a fundraiser for War Times. Below is Max Elbaum's message about Occupying 26.2 Miles on November 26, please take a look and consider lending a hand.    

Thanks,

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras

Family and Friends,

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune… On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures." --William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Occupy Wall Street is today's full sea (but without the gender one-sidedness of Shakespeare's otherwise eloquent words). This wave of creative protest has inspired and engaged large portions of the beleaguered 99%. It has shifted the national conversation from deficits and budget cutting to inequality stemming from a broken system. The Occupy surge led by a new generation has opened up space for all kinds of changes that seemed off the table just a few weeks ago. It has given every one of us a chance to take the current, both by supporting the Occupy encampments in our localities (I Hella Love Oakland!) and by pushing forward the tide of social change on every issue and battlefront. 

The Occupy movement, and the big protests that followed the recent police assault on Occupy Oakland, reminded me how much I loved marching, sitting and running in the streets back in the 1960s. But at age 64 I'm not as adept at direct confrontation as I was back then. So the way I run to build the movement has changed. I run Marathons to help raise funds for peace and justice projects - and once again it's time for my annual Marathon for Peace (and my 30thMarathon overall). I'll be occupied running 26.2 miles in the Northern Central Trail Marathon outside of Baltimore November 26 and I'm writing to ask for your support.

As in previous years, this run will benefit War Times/Tiempo de Guerras- the antiwar project I've worked with for the last decade. In today's changed climate, there are big opportunities to persuade millions that there are close links between the economic afflictions faced by the 99% and war, empire, militarism and racism. That's both an urgent and a long-haul task. The two dozen volunteers who staff War Times are determined to contribute all we can.  

As many of you know, last year a dozen talented younger activists took over the tasks of writing  War Times' monthly columns and other articles. They've done a great job. Their voices can be amplified further if War Times can obtain the resources for an expanded presence on social media (you can find War Times on Facebook here) and in other areas.  

Can you pitch in to support this work, perhaps with a dollar for each of my upcoming Marathon’s 26.2 miles? All donations are tax-deductible, you can donate on-line at http://www.war-times.org or send a check to War Times, P.O. Box 22748, Oakland CA 94609. 

It is a source of both hope and endurance to be connected to so many dedicated and generous partisans of peace and justice. And especially so when the tide is starting to flow our way.

Thanks, Peace, and Stay Occupied!

Max

Egypt Marches for Oakland

Our correspondent in Cairo sends us this video of Egyptian activists marching from Tahrir Square to the U.S. embassy to support Occupiers in Oakland:

Syndicate content