the body politek

We are a grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) driven by the sense of rational community. The term implies the creation of a movement and supporting it is natural and spontaneous growth.

By Michael Sheridan, Far East Correspondent
September 7, 2008
Is Kim Jong-il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years but now a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead – and his role is played by a double. The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China have been negotiating with an impostor.

....Full story here...UK Sunday Times

By David Swanson
Next weekend in Andover, Mass., a group of attorneys, academics, and activists will gather to plan the prosecution of Dick Cheney, George Bush, and the lawyers and advisors who, together with them, are responsible for war crimes. The conference is open to the public and expected to be well attended: http://war-crimes.info

....Full story here...After Downing Street

Justice Robert H. Jackson Conference
Andover, Massachusetts
Since the impeachable installation of George W. Bush as President in January of 2001 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gang of Five, the peoples of the world have witnessed a government in the United States that has demonstrated little if any respect for fundamental considerations of international law, human rights, and the United States Constitution.

What the world has watched instead is a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the integrity of the international and domestic legal orders by a group of men and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian and Straussian in their perception of international relations and in their conduct of both foreign policy and domestic affairs.

....Full story here...Global Research

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet
September 5, 2008
Only in America could a man who has called the mainstream media his "base" run against that very same media.

Only in America could a man who has been in office for decades run as an "outsider" against the entrenched interests in Washington.

Only in America could a man who is a longtime Republican stalwart run against his own party, which has governed while controlling most of the institutional levers of power -- the presidency, the Supreme Court and the Congress -- for much of the past eight years.

And only in America could a man who has called the corporatized, in-the-tank, mainstream media his "base" -- the media that made him its darling and hailed him for his supposed "straight talk" -- run against that very same media, bashing it figuratively while "peace officers" were doing so quite literally to journalists in the streets of St. Paul, in a manner unseen since the '60s and the Chicago days of Richard Daley and the subsequent Nixonian "nattering nabobs of negativity" era.

....Full story here...AlterNet

September 6, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.

....Full story here...Raw Story

By Jane Perlez and Salman Masood
September 6, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a controversial politician with little experience in governing, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday.
...
Mr. Zardari, 53, who spent 11 years in jail on corruption charges that were not proven, succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as president last month under the threat of impeachment.

....Full story here...New York Times

By Michael Abramowitz and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
September 5, 2008
ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 4 -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is among several national security experts helping brief Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on foreign policy issues as she prepares to hit the campaign trail while cramming for a debate with her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), in less than a month, according to officials from Sen. John McCain's campaign.

....Full story here...Washington Post

Presidential nominating conventions are little more than political theater these days. Nonetheless, two very different modes of drama were on display in St. Paul and Denver. The Democrats used their meeting to tell a richer, more expansive national story, one more or less in tune with the party's platform and aspirations. In contrast, as we go to press, the Republicans are staging an elaborate fraud, the purpose of which is to divert the public's attention from their disastrous mismanagement of government and to deceive voters about their agenda. Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, admitted as much when he said, "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

....Full story here...The Nation