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Iraqi Sunnis may have killed
50 Shi'ite hostages--or maybe not.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Many new species are discovered each year in Borneo's rain forest.
Many are in danger of extinction as these forests are cut down.
Probably many will be extinct before they are observed.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israeli occupation forces arrested a Palestinian with meningitis, preventing him from continuing his treatment.
Global warming
threatens world agriculture.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
In 1990, police in Wales decided to
"solve" a murder by framing the usual suspects.
Now some of them are facing prosecution.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This sort of dishonesty happens frequently, but only rarely is there clear proof to expose it. Most of the time the police get away with their testilying.
Bush and the Republicans are
dropping
in popularity,
and many oppose their latest bullying tactics.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, they will have plenty of chance to blur the issues before the next election. And they can always rig the vote count again.
We all knew Blair was lying about Iraq, but due to his obfuscation
we could not pin it down. Now a
leaked document
proves he lied about the advice he got over whether invading Iraq would
violate international law.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is clear that Bliar made a decision to attack and generated excuses for it. Kick this bum out!
A Mexican environmentalist is in jail for
denouncing the
killing of dolphins.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A UN inspector who exposed US war crimes in Afghanistan has
been fired under US pressure, as part of Bush's War on Integrity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Lethal injections used for US executions
could be death by torture.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, even humane killing of prisoners cannot be justified.
Sharon is ready to defy Bush's
feeble attempts to restrain the increase
of settlements in Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Meanwhile, the Israeli army is forcing more Palestinians to leave
their homes.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Republican party has two groups of supporters:
theocratic Christians and business conservatives.
Now they are at odds about the
plan to abolish filibusters on judicial appointments.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Argentine officer who participated in murdering prisoners has been
convicted in Spain of
crimes against humanity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Spanish courts can punish crimes against humanity no matter
where they were committed.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Spain should put Bush on trial next.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Republican Party is now controlled by Christian fanatics who are set on abolishing all opposition and all secular society. It has become the party of theocracy.
For full details, and careful documentation, see this site.
These churches use the methods developed by cults in the 70s and 80s.
Uri Avnery on the continued harrassment of Mordechai Vanunu.
Bush is aiming to get the power to eliminate any Federal agency,
by appointing his own friends to vote on the question.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush's record includes (1) staffing the Texas board of clemency with people who would carry out his wishes while denying him responsibility for them, and (2) dishonestly undermining all the agencies that protect the environment. To suppose he would staff the "sunset board" with people ready to abolish those agencies is not a leap of faith.
Here's a list of Federal agencies that the Texas Republican Party said it wants to abolish.
Ecuador's president, who broke promises in order to cater to the US,
has been removed from office after a wave of popular outrage.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I hope the new president learns the right lesson and stands up to the empire.
The Burmese army appears to have used chemical weapons against Karen rebels.
Groping Arnold has made most of California hate him.
Perhaps he should switch to making movies about what he would do as governor. In those movies, everyone would admire him.
The Israeli soldiers who killed three Arab boys playing football were
intentionally shooting to kill.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Galapagos Islands are in trouble from a
human
population explosion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Eradicating goats was worth a few million dollars, since the result is permanent. If the human fishing population could be moved out permanently for a few million dollars, that would also be worth the expense. However, paying them every year not to fish while their numbers increase would be like trying to protect native vegetation by feeding the goats.
Here's an idea for reaching a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine: democratically elect a joint representative body to negotiate it.
I have some disagreements with specific points in the plan. I disagree with the idea of adding "religious, civil society, community and business leaders" to the elected representatives. This is undemocratic because it would mean that people associated with religious groups, business, or community activities get represented more than once. Such leaders should have to run for election like everyone else.
(Also, the Palestinian Authority is democratically elected now.)
Arundhati Roy:
Public Power in the Age of Empire.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Arab family chased out of its home in Hebron by fanatical settlers has returned, protected by Israeli soldiers.
These settlers should be shot with tranquiliser darts and released in the wild, far from the abode of civilized people. But I've read that Sharon has recently insisted on maintaining them in Hebron where they regularly harrass and attack Palestinians.
Iraq is full of landmines, but clearing them has
become slower
since Bush moved in.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A UN agency has begun
examining
the issue of caste discrimination in India.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Germany's chancellor suggests
boycotting
companies that have fired lots of workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The industry response reflects the basic view of business executives that the public should bend over backwards to help business, but business need not do the converse.
The Bush forces do count Iraqi civilians they kill.
They have repeatedly claimed that they do not,
but this is apparently
yet another
lie.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The new Pope thinks it is ok for Catholics to disagree with the Pope
about killing, if the killing they support is capital punishment or
war. Only
abortion and euthanasia are completely unacceptable to support.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Eels in Europe are
being
driven close to extinction.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Exxon-Mobil funds 40 different groups to create false doubt about global warming.
Some of the same organizations have also been funded by Microsoft to create an image of public dissatisfaction with free software.
Iraqi Sunnis have taken Shi'ites hostage and threaten to kill them.
This moves Iraq closer to civil war.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I believe Bush wants such a civil war, since divide-and-rule is the only way he can make the conquest succeed. He hopes that Shi'ites will be the ones to destroy the resistance of the Sunnis.
Iraqi Shi'ites are talking about
prosecuting everyone involved in wrongdoing during Saddam Hussein's regime.
Bush doesn't like this.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush regime is
eliminating an
annual summary of global terrorism because the results were not going to be
favorable.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I suspect that this report was subject to political bias anyway. I suspect that state-sponsored terrorism carried out by the Bush regime and its allies was generally omitted. If someone wants to check that, I will update this note.
Piercing the peer-to-peer myths: An examination of the Canadian experience.
The European Commission's policy treats the environment with contempt.
The Hundred Days of Abu Mazen
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
How Three Firms Came to Rule the World [of
food]...Food Central.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
People often wonder, "Doesn't Bush know he's running the country into
the ground?" Bush is good at being intentionally blind, but I don't
think Cheney is a fool.
Here's a proposed explanation for why Bush
and his clique would do this intenionally.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A small bipartisan initiative to make the House Ethics Committee
function again.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush claims "the tide is turning" in Iraq.
It would be a tragedy if he gets away with conquering that country, butchering its citizens, and stealing its wealth. But he may not be right:
Iraqi Resistance Stages Another Large-Scale Assault
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
There is also a sign of resistance from the elected "government" of Iraq. Rumsfeld warned the elected "leaders" not to replace the Bush toadies that run some Iraqi ministries.
However, they can't possibly gain the loyalty of Iraqis unless they start to resist the universally-hated occupation.
Meanwhile, more countries are pulling their troops out.
In the UK, "anti-social behavior orders" have become an all-purpose excuse to imprison people without trial for activities that are not punishable with imprisonment--or are not crimes at all.
The article doesn't mention it, but "engaging in political protest" is also a common occasion for ASBOs.
The Gaza pullout is a
smoke screen for step-by-step ethnic cleansing in
the West Bank.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
What sort of world are supermarket subservience cards leading to?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police officers
harrassing a political activist--that's not news.
Police officers
lying, stealing, framing the activist--that's not
news. Activist suing and getting them fired,
that's news!
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Congress is rushing headlong into new censorship for radio
and television.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Two Bush cronies, with a long history of corruption with
Dubya. have
been accused of racketeering. However, Bush himself so far seems to
be getting away with his share of the booty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
An art auction is planned to support US dissidents in the Critical Art
Ensemble, facing
fabricated criminal charges.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Turkish police killed a 12-year-old Kurdish boy from short rage, then left a rifle next to his body and called him a "terrorist". (He was too small to even carry such a rifle.)
DeLay's Position on Tort Reform Was 'For Sale'.
(And other issues too.)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The practice of feeding antibiotics to chickens produced
drug-resistant bacteria
that are now found in a large fraction of the chicken sold in US
markets.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
And even though the practice has been ended, the bacteria continue to get into the chickens.
Perhaps the factories that formerly used antibiotics should be condemned and burned.
The thugs that Bush used to drive Aristide out of Haiti are shooting at each other now.
Haiti under Bush influence is a land of murder. Refugees trying to flee to the US, with valid passports and visa, are denied asylum and imprisoned. One was murdered by denying him his medicine.
It was Bush that arranged to drive Aristide out. He's guilty of murder for each one of these deaths.
A high school principal was arrested, and accused of
bogus crimes, for
supporting a student that a policeman was improperly trying to arrest.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Recently the charges were dropped, and the principal is back at work. (I made no link to that article because it is on a site that is not generally accessible.) The prestige of the social role of school principal surely helped bring this about. If you, rather than a principal, had been falsely accused, you would not find it so easily to overcome the lies.
New Japanese school textbooks are whitewashing Japan's crimes in World
War II. This has sparked protests in Korea and China.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
If the US had an honest self-respecting government, it would join the protests.
Peaceful protestors against military recruitment at the City College of New York were attacked violently by police.
The police are like Dr Jekyll--much of the time, they actually do protect and help citizens, but when their vicious side takes over, they turn into something between a street gang and a mafia.
Christians in North Korea are
sent to prison camps where they
are tortured.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Soot, particles of unburnt carbon, is contributing to melting the Arctic ice cap.
Uri Avnery: the Gaza settlers wagered on their future,
so we need not
pity them for having to leave.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A call to defy
corporate domination.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
As Israel honors Major Plagge, a German officer who saved Jews from
extermination, we should consider carefully
what his lesson
means today.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is easy to recognize evil in the forms it took in the recent past, with the benefit of hindsight. If someone tries to organize a Nazi-style genocide campaign today, many people would recognize it as such and oppose it.
But history does not repeat itself in detail. It is often harder to recognize evil in today's different forms, harder to see what it is that we must do to "resist being sucked into the vortex of evil" as evil appears today. Would today's equivalent of Plagge be someone who helps people escape from torture in Guantanamo?
The World Bank is planning a big dam in Laos. The people living in the area to be flooded are unlikely to have their lives restored, and rare animals living in the area will be threatened.
Charges were dropped against a Bush forces soldier accused of murdering an Iraqi civilian.
It is hard to restrain an occupying army from crimes against civilians; Iraqis can expect to be shot with impunity by soldiers until the occupation is over.
Rio de Janeiro police went on a murder spree, and
shot 30 people.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush regime asked the USPS to
eliminate
anonymous postal mail. The USPS, to its credit, refused.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This attack on your freedom was consistent with the Bush regime's policy of total surveillance on communication and travel. They want to know where everyone goes, and what everyone says.
What stores are really doing with their "discount cards":
discriminating
among their customers. For instance, they can
raise the price for you but not for your neighbor.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UN Security Council called for prosecution in the International
Criminal Court of those who organized mass murder in the Sudan.
Now the challenge is to get the government of Sudan to
hand them over.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Leaders of indigenous people in Brazil are being
frequently murdered.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is done by the henchmen of rich people who want to cut down their forests.
Corporations killed our commons.
The US corporate media, and corporate government, are using the pope's death as a PR opportunity for religion, and for distraction.
Enforcement of US laws about lobbying is
very
lax.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Uri Avnery: Jinn in the ballot box.
Amnesty International report
French police
frequently attack, even kill Arabs or Africans that they arrest. Even
witnesses who threaten to report their violence have been violently attacked,
and charged with fake crimes. Thanks to a range of excuses, the police are
never seriously punished.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Some Labour MPs are planning to use their opposition to the war as the basis for their campaigns for reelection. This highlights the way the public in the UK has lost its trust for Bliar.
Another Labour MEP
joined the Liberal Democrats, denouncing Bliar's attacks on
civil liberties.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
We don't call him Bliar merely for lying about Iraq. He cannot be trusted on anything at all, since his primary domestic policy goal is to abolish civil liberties. If the war, based on lies, enables some Britons that Blair has been lying to them about everything, their country may derive some benefit from it.
The big car companies sued California for trying to make them reduce CO2 emissions. They said they couldn't cope with such requirements. But they backed down when Canada demanded the same thing--which proves they were bluffing all along.
What happened here is that these companies have more power over the US government than over the Canadian government. In the US, they figured that their pet legislators and pet president would accept false excuses as valid, so they could get away with their bluff.
Pope John Paul II:
a political obituary.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Sharon is
thumbing his nose at peace, and even at Bush, with
an announcement of a plan to expand settlements. Uri Avnery predicted
this.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
See also http://www.geocities.com/keller_adam/gazit.htm for commentary.
Meanwhile, Israel
plans to set up
garbage dump in Palestinian territory that could poison an important water
supply. Either it's an attempt to make the land uninhabitable for
Palestinians, or it's simply insane.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A thoughtful analysis of the Venezuelan Constitution and what it means for Venezuela.
New Zealand seems to have a system of imprisonment without trial for non-citziens, similar to what Blair tried to do in the UK.
This has been applied to Algerian refugee, Ahmed Zaoui, an Islamist
who was elected to the legislature by the elections that were canceled
in a coup. After that he
had to flee
for his life.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Zaoui has been hounded from country to country by accusations from the military government. These accusations could be true, or they could be lies, but they can't be taken on faith. As the site says: Free Ahmed Zaoui--or give him a fair trial.
Rap musicians like to present an air of being anti-establishment, but
they shamelessly
sell advertising in their own performances, showing
that they are no better than the executives of the megacorporations.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Speaking of "artistic integrity", I'd say that any musician who turns his work into a commercial has no such thing.
The Iraqi resistance attacked Abu Ghraib prison very effectively. Attacking a strongpoint like this suggests that the resistance is gaining strength.
If political parties still mean anything, Energy Security
could be the opportunity for the Democrats to protect the US' future.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, I think that they won't do it, because the power of business is too great. The Democrats can't win an election covered mainly by the corporate media--even supposing the votes are counted--unless they do what the megacorporations want, and on an issue like this it's primarily the oil companies that exert their influence. What the oil companies want--as we can see from what friend in the White House does for them--is for us to burn up the world's remaining oil as fast as possible.
Galapagos islands wildlife is
threatened by fishing. The fishing interests have a lot of power in the
government of Ecuador, through corruption.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
This "cut it down, wipe it out, make me rich, then I'll move on" attitude is a menace to humanity.
The propsoed EU Constitution was designed to privilege business rights over citizens' rights, it is undemocratic, and it is nearly impossible to amend.
See Quand l'Union Europene tue l'Europe, in www.urfig.org. (Sorry, I don't have it in English.)
"Reforming" the US intelligence services under the control of people
such as Negroponte and Goss
won't
prevent them from "failing" again,
because it won't give them what they need so as to resist
telling Bush whatever he wants to hear. That requires integrity, and integrity
is precisely what the Bush regime will not tolerate.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Parasitic mites, invaders from other continents, are
wiping out the
bees that polinate US fruit crops. Killer bees didn't turn out
to be a disaster, but these might be the end.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
How the US media encouraged atrocities in Falluja.
Spain is selling some transport planes and Coast Guard ships to Venezuela. The Bush regime, which fights Venezuela on behalf of the oil companies, criticized this.
When Zapatero defended this sale by saying that these planes and ships have "no offensive capacity", he conceded too much. There is nothing wrong with selling arms to Venezuela, since Venezuela is not likely to use them to attack anyone. What people should worry about is selling arms to the Bush regime.
What is would mean to crack down on crime (by corporations).
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bobby Fischer, arriving in Iceland,
criticizes the US and Israel in a perfectly lucid way. (A little more
harshly than I would.)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Other stories have given the impression he is crazy, but he doesn't sound crazy here. Perhaps those stories were meant to unjustly discredit him.
Zimbabwe's formerly excellent medical system
is a shambles
as AIDS spreads and life expectancy falls to 33 years.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Settlers in Gaza are
are threatening to resist with violence rather than leave.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
They went to Gaza for the express purpose of imposing their will on the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. I hope they leave peacefully, but if they start violence, I won't be sorry for them if they get hurt in it.
However, I think what is happening is that they think the Israeli Army won't have the stomach to confront them with force. This army, which regularly shoots Palestinian children, will pretend to feel humanitarian considerations when it faces the settlers.
A scientific report shows how widespread ecological degradation imperils the survival of humanity and the rest of life.
In addition to the slow decline of natural resources on which we depend, the strains create opportunities for various kinds of catastrophic collapse. Meanwhile, Bush does his utmost to accelerate the degradation.
US government scientists working on storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain falsified data to make it appear safer than it really is.
Such dishonesty is disgusting but I no longer find it shocking. What does shock me is that a Bush regime official was honest enough to reveal it. The usual Bush pattern is to deny any inconvenient scientific facts, so I wonder why Bush didn't do so here.
Temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctic are rising fast, and the ice is disappearing fast. The danger is not limited to polar bears, and to people who are cut off for months because they can't drive across the ice. We're getting close to a rise in sea level that could swamp coastal cities.
Discovery of new, even more horrible, Enron conversations.
(Gloating as fires threatened California's electric supply
is just the least of it.)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Illegal loggers who threaten murder against whoever opposes them
are
tearing down the Amazon rainforest. But President Lula,
far from trying to resist this, is building roads to help them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
You can help Greenpeace campaign to stop the logging.
Comparing Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and France in regard to
national ID cards.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Iraqi puppet government is arresting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of long-term foreign residents, making demands they cannot possibly meet. Some of them have no other home to go to.
This is reminiscent of how Bush treated Arab foreigners in the US.
Protestors dared to march in Nepal, handing out flyers in favor of democracy. They were arrested.
Perchlorate pollution is poisonous, but unregulated, because
it comes from rocket fuel that the military uses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Here's the executive summary of the NAS report.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Congressman DeLay participates in many forms of corruption.
And he doesn't hesitate to use his own power to prevent his corruption from being punished.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Elected officials would not dare act like this if they expected the voting public to have a chance to respond. DeLay can do it because corporate control of the media is so effective that he know's he's safe from public ire. In other words, because democracy in the US is mostly fiction.
The Bush regime shows a peculiar lack of interest in pursuing
evidence of corruption in spending money in Iraq. In fact, it is
trying to prevent US courts from pursuing corruption cases involving
Bush forces spending there.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This does not surprise me, because I've believed all along that funneling money to cronies is a major part of the motive for war. I'm not surprised either that the Pentagon has dragged its feet on appointing auditors. They would spoil the party.
A military tribunal said Kurnaz, in Guantanamo, was a terrorist. But
the evidence they looked at is now declassified, and it shows they had
no reason for that conclusion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
So why is Kurnaz still a prisoner? Because of reluctance to admit a mistake? Because of a "bureaucratic trap"? Both occurrences are common, and this is why punishment without trial threatens everyone's freedom.
Bush opposes a plan to block the commerce in illegally logged wood.
The Bush forces
tank fired at Giuliana Sgrena's car as it was moving
away (toward the airport), and without warning. Interview with
Naomi Klein,
who spoke with Giuliana in her hospital room.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israel is creating a new crime - of talking to journalists.
The Israeli Border Patrol arrested a 12-year-old Palestinian boy
(illegally), made him terrifying threats, then released him alone
in the middle of Israeli settlers. After he ran away to hide,
it
was hard to find him.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
When I was last in Israel, I was told that the people in the Border Patrol are particularly cruel.
Giuliana Sgrena gives more information about the Bush forces' attack that wounded her severely--exposing further lies.
A letter that Blair tried to hush up provides
more evidence
thast he pressured the UK Attorney General into changing his conclusion that
invading Iraq was against international law.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Coca Cola Company
pays
American Academy of Pediatric Dentists to hush
up talk about how soda damages kids' teeth, and to undermine campaigns
to stop selling soda in schools. It also bullies and silences
dentists who try to talk about the issue.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Many people will agree that what the AAPD has done is corrupt. I will go further and say that schools that try to make money from sweetened beverage sales are corrupt too. Each school administrator that does this is engaging in inexcusable corruption. "We need money" is not an all-purpose excuse. If schools are underfunded, they should take the bull by the horns and start a movement to increase funding through taxes. Collecting the money from sales of Coca Cola costs the children, and their parents, a lot more.
250 Israeli high school students have vowed to
go
to prison rather
than be drafted to support the occupation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The
Arctic Is The Chemical Sink Of The Globe.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Photos show
Israelis building rapidly in settlements in Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Angkor is being destroyed by robbers
that cater
to secret collections.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Studies conclusively show that herbicide-resistant GM crops
hurt wildlife.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The problems are not the direct result of the plants' genetic modifications; they are the result of cultivating the plants with certain herbicides, a method which the genetic modifications were designed to make possible. This means that the problems are independent of the precise way the modification was done. At the same time, these problems do not apply to other kinds of genetic modifications that have entirely different purposes.
Robert Kennedy Jr. reports on Bush's systematic campaign to destroy environmental protection in the US. Every agency is now run by its worst enemy.
Thanks to Bush, coal-burning electric plants are causing lung damage and brain damage in American children. They emit mercury, and 1/6 of American women have so much mercury in their bodies that their children are likely to be born with brain damage. This is because Bush allowed those plants to keep polluting.
The essay degenerates at the end into religious blither, but that doesn't make its information less cogent.
Transparency International's report on
corruption in Bush-ruled Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush regime doesn't get good marks.
The main Palestinian peace negotiator says continued Isreali expansion
of settlements around Jerusalem will
make peace
impossible.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The FBI admitted (secretly) that evidence obtained from Guantanamo
prisoners was "suspect at best" because
it
was obtained by torture.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
New EPA Mercury Rule
Called Illegal.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A court in California ruled that journalists have
no
right to protect their sources
when it comes to trade secrets. In addition, it approved
getting the information from journalists' ISPs. The EFF will appeal the ruling.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
There are many reasons not to trust your email to any ISP in an environment like the US that doesn't respect civil liberties. A previous note describes the experiences of the person whose ISP permanently denied him access to his own email at the simple request of the US government.
Bush showed his contempt for the world by proposing Wolfensohn to head the World Bank.
The World Bank has acted for decades to promote privatization and the empire of the corporations. Perhaps appointing an unqualified bully as its head will help the opposition organize.
Zimbabwe, in economic collapse, prepares for a
rigged election.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Privatizing the London Underground has been a
costly failure.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is what people get for dogmatic worship of the invisible hand.
The BBC bowed to Israeli censorship by apologizing for not allowing censors to view its interview with Mordechai Vanunu. Shame on you, BBC.
Evo Morales and Bolivians demanding a large increase in taxes on exports of natural gas called off their street protests, after the lower house of Congress passed a bill giving more or less what they asked for.
I've read elsewhere that the 32% tax imposed on gas exports by this bill, combined with other existing taxes, would amount to more or less the 50% demanded by the protestors.
The energy minister is mistaken: economic suicide for most of Bolivia is what would result from continuing down the current path. He, like President Mesa, has taken the side of the megacorporations who are Bolivia's principal real enemies.
Uri Avnery: Memory of the Holocaust - from Jewish property into human
possession
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The European Commission is concerned about problems from a fall in Europe's population in coming years. Fortunately it recommends more immigration as the solution.
The world's population increase threatens living standards, the environment, causes extinction of species, etc.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
reports that a Palestinian peace activist has been arrested and is being tortured.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Unemployed workers in Argentina got a loan
to
build a housing project. It seems to be working so far.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A long report by Giuliana Sgrena about her experiences as a hostage
in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
World Bank employees are saying they object to Wolfowitz.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I expect the Bush regime to steamroll their protests. His standard practice is to crush any sort of integrity that an agency may have, so that it becomes totally obedient. I would guess that's what Wolfowitz is meant to do in the World Bank.
If so, maybe the regime is trying to turn up the pressure for privatization. This could work, but it could also backfire by stimulating stronger resistance.
Here's an example of resistance: in Bolivia, the inhabitants
of El Alto (which lies between La Paz and its airport) are once
again taking to the streets, because President Mesa refuses
to cancel the privatization of their water.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is a mistake to even think of compensating the privateers for their "investment" in something fundamentally exploitive. Kicking them out without a cent would teach "investors" a salutary lesson about the risks of "investing" in charging poor people exorbitantly for water.
Palestinian groups voted to maintain a truce. Will Israel stop its
violence against Palestinians?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The West should demand that the Israeli government do more to rein in its extremist groups.
As Bush pretends to have succeeded in promoting democracy in the
Middle East, the fact is that his policies are spreading hatred for
the US, as well as religious fanaticism.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, all the anti-Americans in the Middle East can't mistreat the US as much as Bush does.
An Israeli calls for popular pressure through divestment in
companies that support the occupation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
He reports on the regular torture of Palestinians that he witnessed as a soldier, and the steady advance of Israeli settlements even in times of "peace".
Vietnam's Agent Orange Victims Feel Cheated by U.S. Court
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Remember this when people talk about chemical weapons.
Bush's appointment of Wolfowitz: a declaration of contempt, or a
declaration of war?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It would be a mistake to see the World Bank as an political instrument of the US. Rather, both the World Bank and the US government function mostly as instruments of the megacorporations.
Thanks to murderous paramilitaries,
75% of the land in Colombia is in the hands of the rich.
The result is urban poverty for many. This is
supported by the US and the UK.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This reminds me of Vietnam, where the US also had a policy of driving peasants off the land and into "strategic hamlets".
Coca Cola Company is involved in these murders too. That's one of the reasons for the boycott of Coca Cola Company. See kiillercoke.org.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu faces new imprisonment for speaking to journalists, which violates conditions unjustly imposed on him after the end of his sentence.
Most Palestinians now reject suicide bombings and want to give peace a
chance.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Genetically modified corn in the US, and logging in Mexico,
are
wiping out the Monarch Butterfly.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush has pressured Guatemala into adopting a law restricting generic
drugs.
The result will be thousands of deaths.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is a simple but clear example of what "free trade" treaties mean. I'm not against international trade, but these treaties must be abolished.
Greg Palast reports that oil companies have beaten out the neocons,
and convinced Bush to drop the plan to privatize Iraq's oil.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Meanwhile, he presents evidence that Bush began planning the attack--and the privatization--shortly after taking office. More proof that 9/11 was just an excuse for what he wanted to do anyway.
Il Ducino says that Italian troops will leave Iraq starting in September. Even other fascists find it hard to fully support Bush.
However, this statement falis to say when Italian forces will actually be out Iraq. So it could be just a way to appease Italians for the election while really not planning to change much of anything.
Israel's parliament accepted a report detailing how the government had
secretly funded illegal expansion of settlements, and announced a plan
to eliminate a fraction of them.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
I'm concerned about the plan to "make illegal construction in the West Bank a criminal offense." Palestinians essentially cannot get construction permission from Israel, so all new houses are illegal, and Israel frequently uses that as an excuse to demolish these houses. With this law, Iseael could also imprison the Palestinians who build on their own land.
Hariri Reportedly Assassinated To Make Way For Large US Air Base In Lebanon
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I'm not sure how much credibility to give to this theory, but I wouldn't put assassination beyond the US government, any more than I would put it beyond the Syrian government.
The Earth's fish stocks are overexploited, and the situation is rapidly getting worse. This raises the prospect of wiping out fish stocks, much as the cod of the Grand Banks were wiped out.
Ken Livingstone shatters the Bush-Blair terror campaign,
saying there is "More danger from bird flu than from terrorists".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Unfortunately, despite all the opposition, Blair has achieved his
ends:
to undermine civil liberties in the UK. A minister can now sign
a "control order" to take away anyone's rights.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
The hearings that these suspects can have do not follow the rules of trials, and do less to protect people from fabrications. (Not that real trials do enough, since perjury committed by or arranged by police often suffices to frame people.)
I believe it is just a matter of time before these control orders are applied to crushing political dissent of all kinds.
Bush and Schwarzenegger have both produced fake news stories.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This article asserts that the US media are independent. The mass media are hardly independent, they are controlled by the same corporations that (more or less) control the government. However, that doesn't diminish the wrongness of corrupting the situation further.
36 cases of using software patents for aggression,
many against free software.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
1/3 of the population of Lebanon protested to tell the Syrian army to
pull out, and the President of Lebanon too.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ward Churchill is the focal point for a long-planned
Republican attack on academic freedom in the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Large anti-Syrian and pro-Syrian rallies are being held in Lebanon. Meanwhile, it appears there was a coverup in regard to the assassination of Hariri. That might be evidence for Syrian involvement in the killing.
What Syrians can do, Americans can do. The debris of the World Trade Center was moved and discarded without an investigation, which lends support to the theory that the Bush regime was involved. I wish the UN would conduct a serious investigation of who was responsible, but the UN is unlikely to apply the same standards to a US coverup as to a Syrian coverup.
Accord With Tomato Pickers
Ends Boycott Of Taco Bell.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The plea of a Palestinian who has been punished for building a house for his family on his own land in his town.
Global warming is
increasing the amount of forest fires, which make
carbon dioxide from the trees and from the ground below the fire.
This contributes even more to global warming.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Peculiarities of the Kyoto Treaty are encouraging harmful
investments in poor countries. These peculiarities were
imposed by the US, which due to Bush then turned around and didn't sign.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Pier Scolari, who was with Giuliana Sgrena and Nicola Calipari
when the Bush forces
killed the latter and wounded the former,
says that the attack was
deliberate and without
warning.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
An interview with Giuliana Sgrena.
A response to Ken Livingstone: if Sharon is a war criminal, then so is Blair.
This is basically true, but the crime that Blair is guilty of, for launching a war of aggression, is more accurately described (in Nuremberg terms) as a crime against the peace.
The Israeli government has
collaborated eagerly
in establishment of illegal settlement outposts in Palestinian lands.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Noam Chomsky: US election campaigns work like ad campaigns for toothpase,
based on image and nothing else.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
One of the honest bureaucrats in the US Army tried to do her job and
block Halliburton's corruption. The Army tried to label her as
incompetent and force her retire. But she's determined to
fight corruption, even if that means fighting the White House.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush regime is corrupt from the top on down, and there is no room in the US government for anyone who is honest and incorruptible.
US infrastructure is crumbling under the weight of Bush regime. This
is consistent with the Bush philosophy of
"grab what you can" and his
lack of concern for the future of the country.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It would be better to spend money on maintaining US infrastructure than on conquering Iraq. However, there is no point expanding highways or airports now, since oil prices are likely to shoot up in a few years, and this will reduce traffic.
Some courts in France are refusing to enforce copyright law against
people who make copies for noncommercil distribution. Hooray.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
All across Central America, people are protesting against
plansfor a new "free
trade" treaty with the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The European Union is planning to crush human rights in the name of safety."Evidence" obtained from anonymous "intelligence sources" would be presented in court, making it easy to fabricate a basis to imprison anyone. Even to express certain opinions--such as, to say that an act labeled as "terrorism" was necessary or justified--would be a crime.
People were shocked when the ACLU defended the rights of Nazis to hold a public rally in the US--but there is a good reason for this. France and Germany have long prohibited certain kinds of statements of support for Nazism. Given that precedent, it is hard to argue against extending the prohibition. In effect, it is already functioning as the "edge of the wedge" to attack freedom of speech.
Blair broke the
government's own rules by concealing information from
his ministers, in order to gain their acquiescence for attacking Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A
boycott-Coke protest at Iowa State University.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Why does Bush want RFIDs in passports?
How business delayed the recognition that
diesel fumes
are dangerous.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
One way to reduce these fumes would be to encourage sending freight by train rather than by rail. (Trains use diesel engines too, but use much less fuel for the same amount of cargo.) High taxes on diesel fuel would be one way to do the job.
Opposition to the war is
hampering US military recruitment.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Italian journalist Sgrena accuses the
Bush forces
of intentionally
shooting at her vehicle, and says that they lied about the circumstances.
(She was injured; the Italian agent who had arranged her release from
Iraqi kidnapers was killed.)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I believe Sgrena, because this fits a pattern.
Bush has sent over 100 people abroad
to
be tortured.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Protestors are
blocking a plan to cut down a burned but vital old-growth forest in
Oregon.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Other reports, for which I have no URLs, say that the cops arrested several protestors and dragged them across a gravel road face down. They dislocated one protestor's shoulder. Apparently they did not accuse these people of "assaulting an officer"; there must have been too many witnesses.
War protestor Chris Gaunt
talks about her experiences in prison for nonviolent protest, including
being falsely accused and convicted of attacking a policeman when she went
limp.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Policemen lie to support each other just like members of a gang. On a question like this, I will trust the protestor's unsupported word more than any number of policemen.
Coca Cola Company uses a
series of deceptions and half-truths to evade responsibility for actions
over which it has control. It refuses to cooperate with independent
investigations, but instead funded a phony "independent" investigation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The telecom companies are funding a large network of organizations to pretend to be grass-roots support for their policies.
As a result, the FCC Consumer Advisory Committtee is packed with people that indirectly represent the telecom companies.
Greg Palast wishes Dan Rather, and American journalism, "rest in peace".
Bush's "Clear Skies" bill is actually a
rollback
of environmental regulations. Even some Republican senators oppose it,
and it seems unlikely to pass. So he is now trying to attack the organization
of state officials that oppose it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Half Million
Lebanese March for Syria.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Now I am starting to worry more than violence will break out afresh in Lebanon.
I wondered for a while whether this is what Bush intends. However, given Bush's preference not to hear bad news or projections of problems, to disregard reality for fantasy, I think he simply isn't paying attention to the issue.
Public pressure convinced Tiffany's to
continue
boycotting Burmese gems, which are mined with slave labor by the
military rulers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This shows how even when companies act with ethical scruples, the public needs to keep the pressure on.
Bush policies undermine the global fight against the spread of AIDS,
by opposing needle-exchange and requiring recipients to pledge to
"oppose prostitution". This pledge, aside from being unethical, makes
it hard to help prostitutes stay healthy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The reason this pledge is unethical is that prostitution isn't wrong. I can't imagine wanting to pay someone to have sex with me, since I would not feel loved or wanted in such a situation, but I see no grounds to condemn prostitutes. Being a prostitute isn't doing wrong to anyone.
There are moves in the US to limit protections for journalists to major (corporate) media only.
This makes sense. The corporate media are controlled enough not to be very dangerous. The First Amendment is therefore most important, most dangerous to corrupt officials, when it applies to independent journalists.
Texas Republicans are moving to
block prosecution for election law violations,
to save Tom DeLay.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
These things are possible because the US media are so controlled. If we had a healthy democracy, they would be afraid of public opinion.
Bush resumed military aid to Indonesia, based on a dishonest claim that Indonesia has met the legal requirements for doing so.
Opposition is growing to water privatization in Indonesia and Malaysia.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Muslim women's rights activists say that Bush is
undermining the gains they have made.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Victims of a Stalled Revolution
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush imposed a deathlike quiet on the city of Mainz, and the
inhabitants (and Germans in general) are getting angry.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
If you are living in a place that Bush wants to visit, I suggest you start a public "Bush is not welcome" movement before he gets there. Maybe you can cancel the visit that way. If that doesn't work, pay for a big "Bush go home" sign near the place he wants to go. Bush does not like to see criticism; perhaps that sign will be enough to make him stay away.
Since the Israeli settlers have been threatening violence if they don't get their way, Gush Shalom suggests, "Take away their guns".
Robert Fisk: Is Lebanon walking into another nightmare?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
While Fisk warns that Hezbollah's refusal to disarm opens the threat of renewed violence, the leader of Hezbollah says he doesn't want violence in Lebanon. I hope it is true.
Brazil convinced the WTO to rule the US must end its cotton subsidies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
While it is nice to see a poor country benefit from the WTO for a change, we shouldn't let this blind us to the harm that the WTO does.
Ending the US subsidies could eliminate wasteful use of resources in the US. But if this is to benefit the poor farmers in poor countries, it needs to be accompanied by Fair Trade measures. Otherwise, the rich in those countries will capture most of what US agribusiness loses.
Human Rights Watch says the king of Nepal's army has seized and murdered hundreds of civilians. His enemy, the Maoist rebels, are also murdering civilians, but the style differs.
Things seem to have got worse since the king abolished the civilian government.
The Bush forces
marine that was filmed murdering a prisoner in
Fallujah apparently
won't be prosecuted.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I feel sorry for him for being shot in the face, for seeing his buddies shot, but that is no excuse--neither for killing prisoners, nor for fighting the war, because he was wrong to be there in the first place. It is justified for a conquered people to resist the aggressor with force, and this does not excuse the aggression.
New Zealand developed a weapon to produce tsunamis
during World War II. It appears there has been further
development of the weapon since then.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
The guards in a UK prison had a game: putting prisoners together who
would fight each other. One of these prisoners, who was just about to
be released, was beaten to death.
The guard who reported this has received threats from other guards--including their union leaders.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Fair Trade movement is growing.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I wish I could participate, but I don't buy much of the goods that they cover. Most of the food I eat is either in restaurants, or ready-to-eat in boxes--not raw materials--so it is the restaurant or the food company that decides where to get the ingredients.
I think Fair Trade should be imposed by law by the rich countries, as a way to transfer income from business to poor country producers. The WTO probably prohibits this, because the WTO serves business, not the poor. This is another reason to abolish the WTO.
A militia leader in Sudan says the government arranged the mass murder that his group participated in.
Efforts to defend the US against bioterrorists - by throwing money at
research - are backfiring, says a 750-strong group of top scientists.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush is using a claim of "national security" to wipe out lawsuits from people who he arranged to torture.
Long before Bush, it was well known that most of the information kept secret by the army was kept secret to protect them from public criticism, rather than from enemies. The Reynolds case proves, if proof was needed, that the government cannot be trusted in saying what needs to be secret. What we see now is the application of this principle, "national security" as an excuse to cover up vicious government crimes, at the highest level.
In Ukraine, senior police officers have been arrested for murdering a journalist.
The UK will stop requiring privatization as a condition for foreign aid.
Hear, hear!
The US has
used the tsunami as an excuse to push two kinds of
intervention in Sri Lanka--military and economic.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, dared to criticize Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, and to call Ariel Sharon a "war criminal".
I agree wholehearedly with the sentiments in this speech. I wish it were not so rare that I get a chance to say that about a political leader.
The global warming denial industry, funded by oil companies, works to create just enough skepticism about the danger so that nothing will get done to prevent it.
The most important part of this article is, "CBI...warned that companies could decamp to less heavily-regulated jurisdictions." That's what business-dominated globalization means: any government that tries to rein in the dangerous or cruel practices of business receives this threat.
I see only two solutions: either a world-wide democratic government that the companies can't threaten to escape from, or put an end to business-dominated globalization. The effective way for governments to regulate business is to regulate the sale of products: "If you want to sell it here, you must follow these rules." This is what the WTO prohibits. The WTO must go!
The fashion show that
was really a protest.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
U.S. Must Charge Padilla With Crime or Release Him
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Blair's attacks on civil liberties in the UK: a sorry pattern.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
When Bush visited Mainz (Germany), the whole city was effectively shut down to present a pretty and fake backdrop. A visit with citizens was canceled when the German government refused to select only those who are friendly to Bush.
European leaders are politely ignoring what Bush has to say.
Uri Avnery thinks the situation in Lebanon is indeed a new expression
of the old struggles between religious groups.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This disagrees with the report I linked to recently which says that the opposition is general. I have no way to check either one, but I have more confidence in Avnery than in an American newspaper. And it seemed too good to be true.
Liat Weingart, of Jewish Voice for Peace, thanks the Presbyterian
Church for deciding to put pressure on companies that support
the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US is developing a weapon designed to attack crowds by causing
extreme pain.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Jonathan Schell argues that the apparent power of the US is a mirage,
because the US is unable to use that power to attain its objectives.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I don't entirely agree. Keep in mind that it is not really the US government that rules this empire; it aids the megacorporations in maintaining their empire. So the way to measure the effectiveness of the megacorporations' power is to see how often the megacorporations get what they want.
Recently in India, person who ought to know told me that the pressure for India to change its patent laws (well beyond what the WTO requires--not that WTO requirements are legitimate) comes mainly from the US government. India is the main supplier of cheap medicine to keep HIV in check. The drug companies stand to make lots of money from cutting off the flow, while millions of the not-quite-poorest-of-the-poor will die as a result.
In Iraq, it looks like Bush may get away with the privatization and plunder of the country's assets, even though it may cost thousands of Bush forces casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties per year.
It seems that Bush often gets the megacorporations what they want, even though this may not correspond to announced "national interests".
A member of the House of Lords speaks eloquently about
the need to preserve the right to a real trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Turkish prime minister has sued a cartoonist for a cartoon that criticized the prime minister. This despite the fact that he was himself imprisoned for speaking against a previous government.
Blair is making some concessions in his attempt to impose a policy of punishment without trial on UK citizens. But he is very determined to get it through, and rejected a proposal to require reconsideration of the law next November.
The amendments being considered would make the law less bad, but there is still no justification for it. If they think someone is using telephones to plot something, they can listen to his phone calls.
Uruguay's new president, a leftist,
forges bonds with various other leftists--including
Castro.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The question is, will they go beyond occasional defiance of Washington, and confront Washington's masters: the megacorporations, and their low-wage treaties.
Bush said that the US needs "reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy", but that was just meant to sound good. Less then 2 months later, his budget plan cuts funds for clean energy research.
Invading other countries is expensive, so something or other has to be cut. But why this? I think Bush has a specific reason for these cuts: he wants to make the US as dependent as possible on the products sold by his friends in the oil business.
The pro-Syrian prime minister of Lebanon
resigned after massive protests.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I am heartened to read that the opposition is spread across all the religious groups in Lebanon. My concern at first was that this was a manifestation of an underlying power-struggle between the groups. If opposition to the Syrian troop presence is uniting Lebanon, that is a good thing for Lebanon. It also suggests that the reason for the Syrian troops to be there is no longer applicable.
Bhutan has banned all public smoking, and sale of tobacco. I support efforts to reduce tobacco addiction, but prohibition goes too far.
An Iranian journalist has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in a secret trial where his lawyer was not present.
This journalist was not allowed to meet with his lawyer, and he wasn't given a real trial. Sounds like the mullahs are learning from Bush.
Blair wants to imprison people who are mentally ill and violence-prone.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I sympathize with the motivation, but the danger from such people is quite small; meanwhile, such imprisonment was abused in the past. So I think this proposal will cause more danger than it prevents. If Blair and co. want to protect the public from dangerous psychopaths, how about starting with the megacorporations?
Bush is negotiating with the Iraqi resistance.
Bush will not agree to a solution that doesn't let his cronies plunder Iraq. I think Bush is trying to play on divisions within Iraq, and the result could also be a civil war. It would be awfully sad if the Iraqis accept this, rather than pushing the Bush forces out.
South Africa is failing to address the AIDS problem, hiding the extent of it rather than taking effective action.
The total deaths due to President Mbeki's refusal to recognize the situation will number in the millions.
Israel is trying to blame Syria for a recent suicide bombing.
I think it is partly a matter of "blame the usual suspects", partly a matter of helping Bush (who wants to cause trouble for Syria), and perhaps partly a matter of its relations with the Palestinian Authority.
Israel isn't blaming the Palestinian Authority for the bombing, rather for not preventing the bombing. Of course, it has no practical ability to do so. This demand is like the labors of Hercules--it is unjustified and designed to be impossible, so it realy serves as an excuse to block peace and put the blame on the Palestinians.
Israeli terrorism is carried out by soldiers and police, and by settlers. The first two could be stopped by a simple government decision. The terrorism committed by settlers, like that committed by underground Palestinian groups, is harder to stop. But if Israel stops the terrorism that is directly government supported, that might be enough to change the climate so that the Palestinian underground groups will have to stop too.
How to save a criminal corporation from prosecution.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A new Republican report claims scientists have overestimated the danger of
mercury poisoning. But since this report was written by politically-appointed
congressional staff, I'd believe the scientists.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush's plans for forestry involve eliminating environmental
impact statements--which means that he can give his cronies
whatever they want, without format review.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The new rules also authorize the agency to ignore scientific evidence. As a recent note pointed out, another Bush agency frequently pressures scientists to lie. Just ignoring them must be easier.
I predict that next Bush will fire the scientists in federal agencies. With the major media ready to support his lies, he has no interest in facts.
Turkey has become quite hostile to the US, and
with
good reason.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Without supporting the Turkish position on all the issues, I urge the Turkish government should stop pretending to be best of friends with Bush, and start proudly opposing him.
Novartis wants to buy major makers of generic drugs. I worry about the possibility for corruption that this would open up.
I suspect that Novartis will try to use its position to prevent generic drugs from being available, and I think this merger should be blocked.
The Bush forces took Iraqi civilians prisoner,
and when their
relatives came to ask about them, the soldiers attacked the relatives.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
And this was the British Bush forces, the ones that are supposed to know how to be less cruel.
Novartis wants to buy major makers of generic drugs. I worry about the possibility for corruption that this would open up.
I suspect that Novartis will try to use its position to prevent generic drugs from being available, and I think this merger should be blocked.
How biased and controlled are mass media in the US? Comparing the coverage of two scandals, one right-wing and one left-wing, gives a clear picture.
By the way, I don't see anything the slightest bit wrong in a reporter's helping a citizen formulate a question to ask an official.
Seductive bad advice for environmentalists: "work more with business".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-28 because the
old
link was broken.]
A study that I linked to from here previously reported that environmental organizations have achieved more by activism than by trying to work as insiders. The advice to work more as insiders will mean achieving less.
I suspect two reasons why more Americans oppose environmentalism now than before. Both are consequences of right-wing gains in other areas of politics. One is that many Americans' views are shaped by the corporate media, which is more solidly controlled and more right-wing now than in the 70s. The other is Americans in general are poorer.
Concern for the environment grew as many Americans became comfortable enough that they were not worried about immediate survival. As the right-wing makes life harder in the US, more Americans fall back to the level where they can't afford to care--about the environment, or about anything.
There is no essential reason for there to be a trade-off between more jobs and substantially more pollution. All sorts of work can be done in cleaner ways or dirtier ways. When businesses face strong democratic governments, as they did in the US in the 70s, they have to do the work the clean way. But when businesses are stronger than the governments, which is true today as a result of "free trade" treaties, they can force countries to compete to permit the highest pollution levels. That's why more jobs means more pollution.
Bush placated Europe by calling for a contiguous Palestine, but he's not really stopping Sharon from carving it up.
UK plans for "internment at home" are running into trouble and are
being scaled back--but the essence, which is to
deny
the principle that people are innocent until proven guilty, remains.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-28 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush gave Putin a good lecture about what democracy means. Now if
only
he would follow his own advice.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-28 because the
old
link was broken.]
How credit card companies play tricks to gouge the public.
They can do this because the president and Congress represent the banks more than they represent the public.
Dubya's uncle's company is profiting from the war, often through no-bid contracts.
The Colombian Army
arrested and then murdered peace activists and their families.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
(I read in another announcement that one of the arrested people escaped, which is how it is known that the others were arrested by the army just before they were killed.)
The French oil company TOTAL is a big financial backer
of the Burmese regime--and its
practices of slave
labor.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Chavez is moving forward with the breakup of large land holdings so as
to give
land to the peasants.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US encouraged this policy in the 1960s, but Venezuela did not implement it in a permanent way. Now Chavez is completing what Kennedy started.
Human activities that damage the environment have the ironic indirect
effect of
creating new diseases for humans.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Even the Bush-appointed head of the CIA now admits that the
occupation of Iraq strengthens Islamic terrorist groups.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Of, by and
for Big Business.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I disagree with one point in that article: business interests do not deserve any clout, not in a democracy. If a business executive has more influence than you or I, that means democracy has been subverted to some extent.
The Athenian democracy was carefully designed to resist this danger.
The influence of corporate executives on elections
also protects them from prosecution for their crimes.
Here are examples.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Venezuelan president Chavez accused Bush of plotting to assassinate him. It would not surprise me, since the US has already tried several ways to remove him from office.
The story is full of cheap shots against Chavez. For instance, Chavez objected when Colombia kidnaped a FARC leader from Venezuela; wouldn't you object if foreigners kidnaped someone in your country and carried him off? He said Colombia should have applied for that man's extradition, and presented evidence in court. Isn't that the right way to handle accusations of criminal activity?
The article trivializes both issues by calling them "noisy diplomatic spats". The article also says it's the second such on two months, as if to show that Chavez is foolishly quarrelsome. However, it's the US that decides how many disputes to create with Venezuena. Attack someone, then blame him for responding--it's standard tactics for bullies that expect to control the spin of what they do.
Bush is using the same tactics to put across lies about
social security that he used to put across lies about Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ocean temperature data show conclusively that global warming is caused by mad-made greenhouse gases.
Federal prisoners in Brooklyn
were tortured by "a significant
percentage of those who had regular contact with the detainees."
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
John Negroponte, Bush's new Director of Intelligence, has a history of
supporting campaigns of murder--by lying.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush's men at the CIA are trying to break it to total obedience
to support Bush's political agenda. Several people have quit.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
If you think of this in terms of obtaining intelligence for the sake of some sort of national interest, the departure of those people would be a problem. But Bush doesn't care--he just wants obedience.
Bush and Saudi Arabia are suspected of trying to muzzle Al Jazeera.
The inhabitants of Kufr Kadum have started a nonviolent protest
campaign against the Israeli settlement that blocks the only road into
their village.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
More cases of murder by British
Bush forces troops are coming to light.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The cases that are documented enough to be investigated are surely but a fraction of all the cases. And the Americans in the invading forces have surely murdered far more.
Bush pretends to be trying to reduce US greenhouse gas
emissions, but it is phony.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush Tort Reform: Executive Clemency For Executive Killers
There has been substantial climatic change in
deep ocean water
in the past 10 years. The reason is not known.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Human Rights Watch reports that Russia is carrying out a campaign of
repression in Chechnya, including torture and murder.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Too bad the US government is no longer in a position to criticize this.
The Human Rights Watch report is said to be a part of the large file found at this address.
The king of Nepal is arresting human rights workers as well as politicians.
A plan to drill for oil near Sakhalin
could wipe out an endangered species of whales.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Virginia House Panel Cites 'Liberty' In Yanking Red-Light Cameras
Beware
of the Dog! (Uri Avnery)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The 35-hour work week is under attack in France. This is part of the global business strategy to make each country's workers work more hours to compete with the rest of the world.
The result of this pressure is, workers everywhere lose, and only the bosses gain.
The CIA is
complaining about being left in charge of people imprisoned for life
without trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Somehow I can't feel very sorry for them, because the injustice of keeping prisoners for life without trial eclipses the practical consequences for the warders. Nobody gets into the CIA against his will, and if you don't like being in the CIA, you can get out.
This article's focus on the embarrassment of the warders reflects a prior decision to downplay the injustice of what they are doing. It reminds me of the movie Pulp Fiction, specifically of the discussion between murderous thugs about the ethics of foot massages.
An American nun who defended Brazilian farmers from illegal loggers
has been murdered, highlighting Lula's failure to stop illegal logging.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Italian journalist, held hostage in Iraq, pleads for removal of Italian troops.
It would be cowardly and absurd to withdraw troops from a justified and necessary war merely to save a few hostages. On the other hand, a few hostages don't excuse continued participation in an unjust war.
Bush ordered scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service to
misrepresent scientific data--not just once, but many times. The goal
was to avoid protecting endangered species.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Soviet Union was famous for imposing a distorted idea of science: Lysenko's theory of evolution, which said that striving to change oneself leads to changes in one's offspring. This theory, adopted in the face of the facts because it fit Communist ideology, was devastating for biology in the Soviet Union.
Capitalists also distort science and suppress facts, but they do it to prevent interference with their business plan. We have seen this in regard to global warming, in regard to endangered species, in regard to genetically modified crops, and in regard to the danger of medicines, tobacco, and other products. This means that much of the criticism of Soviet-style Commmunism applies to Capitalism as well.
Bush is trying
to deny tortured US pilots compensation they are due from Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush doesn't think torture is a bad thing, and now that the Iraqi government is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bush and his cronies, they doesn't want any of their money going to unimportant US Air Force pilots.
The king of Nepal
continues arresting political leaders, human rights workers, and
journalists. Newspapers and radio are heavily censored.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
UN food aid in Central America contains lots of genetically modified
plants, including some that
isn't approved
for human consumption.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Global Supremacy Pushing in Variant Forms.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
US troops in Afghanistan practiced torture.
We know that the impetus for torture came from the White House, so I am not surprised that it was practiced in many places (and through various organizations and intermediaries).
More evidence is emerging that intelligence agencies
were pressured to
falsify information to support Bush/Bliar claims about Iraqi weapons.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
After a prominent Lebanese politician was assassinated,
Bush is
blaming Syria. There is no evidence that Syria
was responsible, but that never stopped Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon was initially a way of ending the civil war and terrorism. But Lebanon is pretty stable now, and unless this assassination leads to a general deterioration, I think Syria should end its occupation of Lebanon. However, we shouldn't let this side issue distract us from the much crueler occupations of Iraq and Palestine.
Extreme and unreasonable interpretation of copyright law is
strangling
the making of documentaries--especially about recent history and
culture. The problem with Eyes on the Prize is just one example.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The West Antartic Ice Sheet has
started flowing
into the sea. If it breaks up, which could happen in a few years or a
couple of decades, sea level will rise by 16 feet.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Iraqi Kurds take a stand in favor of
democracy and
pluralism, while the Shi'ites call for Islamic law and are asking
whether
the Bush vote counters cheated them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The AP reported on videotapes of
assaults
on prisoners by Guantamo's riot squad. They show things such as
punching prisoners, kneeing one in the head, making them strip and taking
them to a place where (former prisoners report) they are kept naked for
days, and spraying them with pepper spray repeatedly while they are locked
in their cells.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Storing CO2 underground is proposed as a way to reduce global warming.
I have nothing against this solution in principle, but I have to wonder: how far could it really be scaled up, and how much energy does it need?
Young Americans show
decreased support for freedom of speech. This means the future of
freedom in the US is in permanent danger.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Microsoft blackmailed the Danish government into supporting software patents by threatening to move recently-acquired subsidiary out of Denmark.
The Danish government should protect itself from blackmail by forcing Microsoft to sell off this company. And it should adopt much tighter limits on acquisition of any local company by a multinational.
We can't be sure who Iraqis really voted for, but the announced outcome gives Shi'ites a near-majority, since the Sunnis considered the election tainted. Other news stories said that the election procedures result in an actual majority of seats for the Shi'ites. Either way, that's not enough to let them unilaterally draw up the constitution.
Real democracy in Iraq would mean that Iraqis can decide who gets their oil, whether they want to privatize their economy, whether they want seed patents, and whether they want the Bush forces there. I don't think Bush will offer them real democracy. The question is whether they will get distracted by other issues and other disagreements, and give Bush what he wants.
Neo-nazis are gaining strength in Germany.
Germans have plenty of reason to be angry--megacorporations and their power, for instance--but when people are angry it is easy to distract them with scapegoats.
Police attacked a concert in a French trade union headquarters, and arrested a woman, who they proceeded to beat up in their van.
Ahmed Ali is a prisoner in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia says the US
asked for him to be imprisoned. The US government claims to have
nothing to do with the matter, but meanwhile, it is asking a judge to
secretly dismiss Ali's lawsuit. This, in effect,
is a confession
of lying.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Whatever danger Ahmed Ali might perhaps be, it is nothing compared to the danger of a government that has no respect for truth.
Bush
suppressed parts of the official 9/11 investigation report that
showed the FAA was aware of the danger of terrorist hijackings.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is just the tip of the iceberg, because Bush prevented the investigation from even addressing many of the issues.
Sharon and Abu Mazen have declared a truce. It is a good thing if the violence ends, but if the Israeli land grab continues, it can't last.
Three members of the Brooklyn Copwatch program were arrested for
filming the police beating someone up.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Our streets will never be safe as long as the police attack with impunity.
A former Guantanamo prisoner now says the UK government had him sent
there to be tortured because
he refused to act as a spy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US and UK governments are imitating the behavior of the villains of spy novels.
The UN now has a "zero-tolerance" policy for sex between peacekeeping forces in the Congo and the inhabitants of the country.
Something has to be done to prevent rape and the spreading of diseases, but it is absurd to think soldiers will go entirely without sex. This policy could just force them further underground, which might even backfire.
Megacillin: A Parable for Our Times.
Neo-nazis in the US are
making themselves more visible.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I wonder how much the Bush regime's climate of fear, xenophobia, and contempt for human rights is contributing to their support.
The Bush forces
are publishing misleading information to conceal
their failure to
train an Iraqi puppet army and police.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
NATO security forces extend to more of Afghanistan.
The Bliar regime is
participating closely in US torture-by-proxy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
News about Iraq goes through filters.
When someone says in public that the Bush forces intentionally kill journalists, then resigns his job and denies he said it, we have to decide which statement to believe. The only explanation that seems plausible to me is: he said it, he meant it, and then was threatened with some sort of punishment if he didn't lie to deny it.
Young Americans show decreased support for freedom of speech. This
means the future of freedom in the US is in permanent danger.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The AP reported on videotapes of assaults on prisoners by Guantamo's
riot squad. They show things such as punching prisoners, kneeing one
in the head, making them strip and taking them to a place where
(former prisoners report) they are kept naked for days, and spraying them
with pepper spray repeatedly while they are locked in their cells.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Storing CO2 underground is proposed as a way to reduce global warming.
I have nothing against this solution in principle, but I have to wonder: how far could it really be scaled up, and how much energy does it need?
News about Iraq goes through filters
When someone says in public that the Bush forces intentionally kill journalists, then resigns his job and denies he said it, we have to decide which statement to believe. The only explanation that seems plausible to me is: he said it, he meant it, and then was threatened with some sort of punishment if he didn't lie to deny it.
The Bush forces
are publishing misleading information to conceal
their failure to train an Iraqi puppet army and police.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
NATO security forces extend to more of Afghanistan.
The Bliar regime is participating closely in US
torture-by-proxy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Neo-nazis in the US are
making themselves more visible.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I wonder how much the Bush regime's climate of fear, xenophobia, and contempt for human rights is contributing to their support.
Megacillin: A Parable for Our Times
The UN now has a "zero-tolerance" policy for sex between peacekeeping forces in the Congo and the inhabitants of the country.
Something has to be done to prevent rape and the spreading of diseases, but it is absurd to think soldiers will go entirely without sex. This policy could just force them further underground, which might even backfire.
A former Guantanamo prisoner now says the UK government had him sent
there to be tortured because he
refused to act as a spy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US and UK governments are imitating the behavior of the villains of spy novels.
Three members of the Brooklyn Copwatch program were
arrested for filming the police beating someone up.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Our streets will never be safe as long as the police attack with impunity.
Sharon and Abu Mazen have declared a truce. It is a good thing if the violence ends, but if the Israeli land grab continues, it can't last.
Bush suppressed parts of the official 9/11 investigation report that
showed the FAA was aware of the danger of terrorist hijackings.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is just the tip of the iceberg, because Bush prevented the investigation from even addressing many of the issues.
Ahmed Ali is a prisoner in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia says the US asked for him to be imprisoned.
The US government claims to have
nothing to do with the matter, but meanwhile, it is asking a judge to
secretly dismiss Ali's lawsuit. This, in effect, is a confession
of lying.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Whatever danger Ahmed Ali might perhaps be, it is nothing compared to the danger of a government that has no respect for truth.
Police attacked a concert in a French trade union headquarters, and arrested a woman, who they proceeded to beat up in their van.
We can't be sure who Iraqis really voted for, but the announced outcome gives Shi'ites a near-majority, since the Sunnis considered the election tainted. Other news stories said that the election procedures result in an actual majority of seats for the Shi'ites. Either way, that's not enough to let them unilaterally draw up the constitution.
Real democracy in Iraq would mean that Iraqis can decide who gets their oil, whether they want to privatize their economy, whether they want seed patents, and whether they want the Bush forces there. I don't think Bush will offer them real democracy. The question is whether they will get distracted by other issues and other disagreements, and give Bush what he wants.
Neo-nazis are gaining strength in Germany.
Germans have plenty of reason to be angry--megacorporations and their power, for instance--but when people are angry it is easy to distract them with scapegoats.
Microsoft blackmailed the Danish government into supporting software patents by threatening to move recently-acquired subsidiary out of Denmark.
The Danish government should protect itself from blackmail by forcing Microsoft to sell off this company. And it should adopt much tighter limits on acquisition of any local company by a multinational.
Private companies are helping the US government collect personal
information,
beyond what it is legally entitled to access.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
You don't have to give these companies as much personal information as most Americans do. You don't have to use a cell phone; you don't have to use credit cards instead of cash; you don't have to get store discount cards; you don't have to use automatic toll collection systems. I avoid all of these things almost completely, and I do so specifically to resist the surveillance society.
Blair attempted to reimprison one of the imprisoned terrorist suspects
using secret evidence. This was blocked by a judge, but Blair can try
again at any time, and the evidence could be as phony as the evidence
for nuclear weapons in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The University of Colorado is preparing to fire Professor Ward Churchill because of his views. He said that cruel and unjust US policies in the Arab world created the motivations for the 9/11 attacks.
Here's what Ward Churchill has to say:
A number of sites present bizarre theories about the 9/11 attacks, sometimes based on fake evidence. It is possible that this is partly sponsored by Bush.
Bush canceled a plan to add 10,000 border patrol agents. This is further demonstration that Bush has no real interest in protecting the US from foreign terrorists, except as an excuse for measures that serve other goals.
There's one way that this decision could actually be the right one. If Bush knows that he has exaggerated the threat of foreign terrorists all along--because he knows that 9/11 needed inside help--then perhaps he knows there is no real need for more border security.
According to a court in the US, a retarded man on death row, who got
his execution blocked because he is retarded, has so improved his
brain by working on his defense that it is now ok to execute him.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Parents are objecting to a California school that uses RFIDs to track
their kids.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is good to see people fighting back against the surveillance society. I refuse to carry the MIT ID card that has an RFID--I don't have one.
A Blair minister complains that the public, after seeing they were
lied to about Iraq's weapons, is now skeptical of what he says about
supposed possible terrorists.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The danger of terrorism is not zero; but governments and the media often exaggerate it, and people tend to overreact to it. A certain amount of skepticism will help the public estimate the danger more realistically. Then they can compare it more accurately with the other real danger that governments don't try to exaggerate: the danger of too much government power.
CO2 is not just warming the Earth,
it is making the ocean acid, which
is already wipimg out many species of marine life. Including the fish
that people eat.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The flowers you buy in the US are
grown mostly in Colombia and Ecuador,
and with the anti-union policies of those governments,
the workers are treated terribly.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
UK plans to impose permanent punishment (such as house arrest) without trial are running into broad opposition.
It looks like Shi'ites and Kurds won the Iraqi election.
No surprise there. But if they don't use this to tell
Bush to stop oppression of their country, they will
have made a deal with the devil.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
One example of what they are surrendering to is US-style patents on seeds.
Democracy is alive in Brazil in a way that shows what the US is missing.
There are reports that more Sunnis than expected tried to vote in Iraq. Some were unable to vote because of shortages of polling places and ballots--like Ohio all over again. I wonder if Bush was trying to manipulate this election's outcome.
Any Iraqi who believed this election will be honest, or that it will lead to democracy, has been gulled. As Kucinich pointed out, neither we nor they will ever know who the votes were really cast for. And the election's association with foreign conquerors will taint anyone that takes office through it, unless he quickly disassociates himself from Bush and tells Bush to get out.
A public campaign in France defies the laws against peer-to-peer
music sharing, demanding an end to prosecutions of those who share.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UK's freedom of information act is a joke:
nearly all requests for information are refused,
often without real consideration.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Exxon-Mobil is funding a campaign of warming-denial, involving
lobbyists, and think tanks that will publish anything as a
"scientific" conclusion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Professor Shahid Alam is the target of an organized
Fox News smear campaign:
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Here's the essay that made him a target:
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Here's his initial response to the death threats he received in the responses
to that essay.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
These violent critics are not reading the essay very rationally. They remind me Iranian mullahs who condemned Salman Rushdie to death for The Satanic Verses. They didn't read it very rationally either.
I don't fully agree with that essay either. It assumes that the 9/11 attacks were organized and carried out solely by a group of Muslim terrorists--but there is plenty of reason to doubt that theory. It finishes on a note of support for Islam, as if Professor Alam would be glad to see various dictatorships overthrown, but even more glad if Islam does the work. Just because Islam is now connected with the opposition to empire, that doesn't make religion a good thing. Religion deserves tolerance, but no more.
Thus, my support for Mr Alam's freedom to publish this essay is not because I agree with him. It is because I believe in freedom of the press. It is because I believe in what America is supposed to stand for, even if Fox News does not.
The UN
convicted a Serbian general of war crimes because he
did not do enough to prevent the shelling of civilians in Dubrovnik.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
If we imagine applying that standard to Bush, it is no wonder he is scared of the International Criminal Court. After Humanity vs Bush, Bush will spend his whole life in prison.
Russian officers--generals?--helped the attack on the Beslan
school.
There are reports of evidence of involvement of officials in
Moscow.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
These generals and officials may have been bribed by Chechens--ten years ago, Russians told me that there was a big Chechen mafia; it was one of those things that "everybody knew". But it is also possible that someone higher up in the Russian government arranged this attack.
With the little freedom of the press that Putin allows, it is hard to place faith in any sort of news reports. In determining the responsibility for a crime such as the attack on the Beslan school, one can either believe the authorities, or ask who profited from it. Neither one is a reliable basis to determine who was responsibie.
The European Union plans to require fingerprints and digital photos
for passports--and
store them in RFIDs. This means people could
read this information out of your passport while it is in your pocket.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The first part of this plan starts in 2006. If you live in the European Union, get yourself a new passport before it starts.
Israel is talking about letting the Palestinian Authority take
oversecurity in some towns.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Maybe this is a real move towards peace. If so, I won't criticize it. However, we have to watch what Sharon does, not what he says.
The king of Nepal has formally abolished all human rights. It's a Nepalling situation.
Cheney is smarter. When Bush attacks human rights, he pretends to be their champion.
Interview with a former US "Economic Hit Man".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The State of Virginia has stood firm against red-light cameras.
As for the person who keeps talking about safety, surveillance is not the only way to achieve that. Flyovers could do it too. They would cost somewhat more, but not much compared with the state budget. Freedom from Big Brother is worth the price.
"Free Trade" Leaves World Food Supply In Grip Of Global Giants.
Bush forces troops shot and killed protesting prisoners in Iraq
(who have been held without trial, of course). Other troops report that
the troops have sometimes shot prisoners in cages.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A non-violent protestor in Palestine reports on how he was arrested, then punched and clubbed with a rifle. Then he escaped.
New statistical studies provide further evidence for vote-counting
fraud in the US presidential election.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
There is more evidence that the US is planning to attack Iran.
I would be glad to see the theocracy in Iran replaced by a regime that would respect human rights and democracy. However, when the plan comes from the world's principal sponsor of state-supported terrorism, the US government, it really stands for imposing US domination, IMF-style privatization, and so on. The result, if it isn't permanent war as in Iraq, would be subjugation of Iran to a new master--not freedom.
If Iraq keeps the Bush forces busy, they won't be able to invade anyplace else.
An Israeli sniper shot at a school playground and killed a girl. There
was no shred of an excuse; it was simple
murder. This imperils the
tentative cease-fire.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
One controversial Guantanamo interrogation technique uses fake
menstrual blood, which strict Muslim men superstitiously interpret as
making them "unclean".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This fits the official definition of torture.
However, I think that keeping people shackled for long periods, or forcing them to stand in painful positions, is much worse. And Bush shows no sign of renouncing those forms of torture (which can cause lasting injury).
France has presented new international tax proposals as a way to boost aid and end poverty.
Blair plans to replace the system of prison-without-trial for
foreigners with a
system of house-arrest-without-trial that applies
to citizens too.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Blair defends this plan by saying that it would only apply "to a handful of people". In other words, his assumption is that nobody has rights, and the state can do anything to anyone, but you shouldn't be concerned because it probably won't happen to you this year.
Women tortured in Iraq by the Bush forces--with rape and other
methods--
are suing in US court.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Once again, a US court has ruled that the prisoners in Guantanamo have
a right to contest their imprisonment.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Violence between Palestine and Israel has reached stalemate.
A review of the effects and results of the Iraq war.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bliar continues to support Bush as Bush
refuses to take action on global warming.
He continues to pretend that he will have some
influence on Bush this way, even though he has never got anything
on this before.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The last 4 Britons in Guantanamo are now free, but suffering from the effects of torture. The UK police decided not to charge them with anything.
Freeing seven prisoners, after Bush delayed for years just to show how tough he is, is the sum total of what Blair has been able to achieve through years of "special relationship" with the US. But what about the hundreds more torture victims, mostly also innocent, whose governments will not defend their rights?
Is Bush using
hazing to assure he gets a yes-man to lead the Federal Reserve?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Dr
Ambedkar's revision of Buddhism
eliminated the aspect that contradicts
science, and directed efforts outwards towards justice instead of
inward towards nonattachment.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
One could say that practicioners of traditional Buddhism are trying to make themselves, in a sense, untouchable. Ambedkar, who was born an untouchable, rejected that aim.
Darfur will be a test for the future of the International Criminal
Court. Will the US be able to
make
it inoperative?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Torture: It's Not Only Illegal, It's Wrong
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A soldier who was at Abu Ghraib and refused to condone torture was harrassed by his superiors. Why did they do this? Was it because they personally support torture, or were they supporting recognized official policy?
Republican congressmen foiled effors to protect chemical plants
against terrorism, because they would have been
inconvenient for the companies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This shows that their talk about security is not sincere. It's just an excuse for doing what they really want--such as reducing human rights, and transferring wealth to the rich. When security means hassling people, or paying a lot to some corporations, then they are for it. When security gets in businesses' way, then it is not necessary.
Perhaps the Republicans have good reason to know there won't be more terrorist attacks--if they know something about the 9/11 attacks that we don't know.
Kucinich:
Iraq Elections Will Be A Farce.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Coronation in the
Garrison State.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A new computer model predicts
global warming will be twice as bad a previously thought.
In just a few decades, average temperatures could
rising 20 degrees fahrenheit, and sea levels could rise 20 feet. The
danger level of carbon dioxide has already been reached.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mount Everest is losing height ice due to global warming, and the region is changing at habitable altitudes too.
Three
stages of colonization: of territory, of finance, and
of the human body.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I should point out that the "medicine costing one dollar in Tanzania" example is not typical of what drug companies really do. Their prices in poor countries are chosen to maximize the income from sales to the wealthy in those countries. Of course, even if drug companies did lose money to such smuggling, that would not justify stopping these countries from making drugs for the people who need them.
The article would have been clearer if it had avoided the confusing term "intellectal property". The issues concern patents, but "intellectual property" includes various other laws that raise different issues and are not relevant here. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml.
US Democrats:
You can't win the game if you don't get in it
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Monsanto has
sued almost 150 farms in the US over use of patented
seeds. Some of these farms did not intentionally plant the seed, but
the odds are against them anyway.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
If your neighbor plants Monsanto seed, the pollen might get into your field and get you sued. So make it clear you will sue him for exposing you to the danger, and maybe he won't plant it.
For the full report:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/CFSMOnsantovsFarmerReport1.13.05.pdf
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
23 prisoners in Guantanamo tried to commit suicide together.
An Iraqi minister in Bush's puppet government estimates
only 1/4 of Iraqis will vote, and hardly anyone in Baghdad.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Russian political leaders are
turning to antisemitism. (It wasn't
just Hitler that was antisemitic; Stalin was, too.)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The cruelty of the Israeli occupation of Palestine can hardly justify mistreating Jews elsewhere; at the same time, Israel ought to recognize that showing contempt for another ethnic group costs it moral authority that it badly needs on this front.
Microsoft is now requiring users prove they have licenses before issuing Windows upgrades.
The unethical aspect of Microsoft's conduct is not located in this policy, but rather in the basic policy of Windows distribution. Windows is non-free (i.e., user-subjugating) software, and that's unethical in itself.
I predict this will result in an increase in the number of people running old versions of Windows without security patches, and thus an increase in zombie machines that are used for sending spam, etc.
Pentagon documents obtained by the ACLU reveal a pattern of
torture at various prisons in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Jew reports on visiting Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
What does "ethics" mean in the US? The Republicans have reduced it to "no sex outside marriage", disregarding all other aspects of conduct.
The author could have cited the way the House Republicans recently neutralized the Ethics Committee as further support for his point.
However, I must disagree with the claim that Clinton "took advantage" of Monica Lewinsky. This embodies the conventional prejudice which imagines that a woman, simply by having sex, has lost something. But what could that thing be? Only the good opinion of prudes or possessive men. While that may be of some practical use, ethically speaking it is meaningless. I don't blame either of them for having fun together; I do blame Lewinsky for talking about something she should have kept to herself.
Seymour Hersh: a cult has taken over the US government, and
nobody in the army dares tell Bush the truth.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Torture Gonzales has served Bush in many ways, aside from pretending torture is not torture. He also helped Bush avoid confronting the petitions for clemency from convicted murderers that Bush wanted to execute. Gonzales wrote biased summaries for Bush, omitting everything that argued in favor of clemency.
Bush, in confirming these executions, also denied the legal and moral authority of his office, so as to duck responsibility for his decisions.
I agree with Bush on one thing: prisoners do not deserve better treatment for being religious. Religion does not make people treat other people better; US prisons are full of religious people (and not many Atheists). On the contrary, it often leads people to crimes as severe as murder: Bush, who describes himself as a fervent Christian, has murdered some hundred thousand Iraqi civilians, and won't allow the bodies to be counted.
Prisoners sentenced to death should not be spared because they are Christians, they should be spared because they are people. Even a mass murderer like Bush should not be executed, once he is in custody and cannot kill or torture again. We should not sink to his level.
Women on Waves sends ships to various countries
to militate for
abortion rights.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Comparing the European Dream with an America stuck on a detour to the past.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I disagree with one point in this article. The European Union is not very democratic, and unless the new constitution makes it more so, it should be rejected.
Palestinian militants declared a unilateral truce,
to give Abu Mazen a chance to negotiate a permanent cease fire.
Abu Mazen says Israel
must also halt his attacks, in order to make this happen.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
We will see if the Palestinians have a partner for peace.
In advance of Bush's election,
people are fleeing Baghdad if they can.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A "global Somalia" in 50 years?
Thousands of wounded veterans of the Bush forces
know they were
used--and they will hate the men who sent them to fight.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I do not hate the soldiers in the Bush forces, aside from the ones who torture. Even as I hope I hope that the Iraqi resistance defeats them and kicks them out the sooner the better, I feel sorry for them, when I think about the situation they are in. But feeling sorry for those soldiers must not influence our judgment about the war. I can feel sorry the for the Iraqi soldiers sent to invade Kuwait, and the German soldiers in World War I and II, when I think about their situation. That is no reason to give those armies' any sympathy.
Nobody in the world deserves hatred more than Bush and his administration. I hope these veterans turn their hate into effective action, and sweep my country clean of those tyrants.
Spanish bishops have defied the Pope by
supporting programs to promote condom use.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police attacked protestors at York University in Toronto.
The protest consisted of speeches and handing out leaflets.
One organizer is in
the hospital due to injuries inflicted by the police.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Even when arresting people who have committed serious crimes, it is entirely wrong for the police to hit them and injure them gratuitously.
The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that
the Earth has already
reached the danger point for disastrous effects
of global warming, and humanity has maybe 10 years to take drastic
measures if it is to prevent disaster.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
In public, Bliar says reducing global warming is important.
Where it counts, in EU decisionmaking,
he's against trying very hard.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Sri Lanka, under World Bank pressure, is using the tsunami as
an excuse to privatize water supply
and also to promote foreign investments "to reduce poverty" that will
benefit foreign investors rather than the local people.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Putin seems to be killing and imprisoning those who reported--or
investigated--the claims that he organized bombings in Moscow and
blamed them on Chechens as an
excuse for war.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
History is full of "terrorist attacks" that were actually plotted by the political actors that gained power in the aftermath. Therefore, it behooves every government to act with the utmost transparency in investigating such attacks.
A Moscow-based magazine in English says why it supports the Iraq war.
The police in Raleigh, NC, are throwing the book at some local
activists for a crime there is
no evidence they committed.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Deliberately injuring people is a more serious crime than destroying property, but the police overlooked the former crime, since its victims were the dissidents they wanted to try for the latter crime. This alone is reason to conclude that the police have done wrong.
Around a million salmon escaped when storms damaged cages in Scottish
salmon farms, and the escapees could overwhelm and destroy the few wild
salmon that remain.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
People have used similar methods to wipe out some insect pests: specifically by releasing large numbers of sterilized males, far outnumbering the unsterilized wild males in the area. The result is that most females breed with the sterilized males and have no offspring.
Another article (for which we could not find a suitable URL) says that wild salmon are in pretty bad shape already in Scotland, with rather small populations in many rivers. This makes them even more vulnerable to acute problems like this one, but it's also a sign things are not well generally.
Protestors in Germany stick little US flags on piles of dog doody in the park. The police are looking for them, even though they are not breaking any law.
Rumsfeld canceled a trip to Germany because
he faces an investigation there for war crimes in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I expect that Rumsfeld would be visiting with diplomatic immunity, and could not actually face prosecution during this visit. If that is correct, his cancelation of the trip is actually an attempt to put pressure on Germany to give him some sort of permanent immunity. Rumsfeld wants to commit war crimes with impunity.
I hope that Germany stands firm against this pressure. They should put him on trial in Nuremberg!
500 species in the US may be extinct in 2 decades due to urban sprawl.
(Maybe expensive oil will save them.)
A thourough history of the 2000 Camp David talks shows that
Arafat wasn't particularly responsible for their failure.
The deal he was offered was one no Palestinian leader could accept. Neither
side was solely responsible for the failure--the talks just didn't work out.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Afterwards, Arafat tried to prevent Sharon's visit to the mosques of Jerusalem--which shows that he sought to avoid the violence which he correctly anticipated this visit would spark.
This disproves the frequent claim that Arafat was the obstacle to peace in recent years. The question is whether the Israeli government is willing to allow peace.
The
10 worst corporations of 2004.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
RAWA teaches Afghan girls to read in secret schools. Soldiers threatened stores that distributed their magazine.
Bush:
simple, violent and extreme - a dangerous combination.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Scott Ritter reports that Bush is considering trying to use death squads
to assassinate members of the Iraqi resistance--after having used them
already to assassinate former supporters of the Baath party.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I think Ritter is right on the mark: this won't work, but its failure won't excuse Bush for having tried it.
Abuse of prisoners by British Bush forces was widespread.
Triumphalism in Washington,
Despair Elsewhere
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
How the invasion of Iraq stacks up against international law.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who denounces both Republicans and Democrats
for taking corporate money and denounces Bush as fascist,
may run for Attorney General of New York State.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
If he does, I will support him.
Simplifying the case against Dick Cheney (for participation
in the 9/11 attacks).
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Details of torture committed by
British troops in the Bush forces.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
There is evidence that the shooting of Robert Kennedy was a conspiracy, though there are divergent ideas of who was behind it.
If the continue-the-war theory is correct, it would fit a pattern of deaths in the US that might have been political assassinations, including the suspicious death of Senator Wellstone.
Researchers are studying ways to assign a value in monetary terms to environment changes, which can be compared with the value (in monetary terms) of other effects.
This is interesting, but it doesn't go far enough. I see two weaknesses in it:
1. Much of this work still assumes that the only value is that which can be measured in economic terms. To measure the value of a cleaner lake by how much money people spend to fish there is to assign a value of zero to fishing there done by those who didn't need to spend.
2. The harm done by environmental damage can't be measured this way until we have actually seen it occur. We also need to take precautions to avoid various sorts of catastrophes which are improbable but large.
Tsunamis occur in the Indian ocean a few times a century, so the expected cost of removing mangroves at the coast could have been calculated last year. But the side effects of chemical pollution or extinction of species are generally not known until after they happen. To treat the danger as zero because we don't know its magnitude is clearly a mistake.
Protests in Russia, and how of poor pensioners makes the change a
disaster for them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Colombia paid agents in Venezuela to kidnap someone alleged to be a
member of the FARC guerrilla group.
This led to a rupture of diplomatic relations.
Now Colombia accuses Venezuela of supporting
the FARC.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Since Uribe is pretty much a puppet of the US, this looks like a planned excuse for a US-supported invasion of Venezuela. Want to invade some country? Just say it supports "terrorists".
The FARC does sometimes use terrorist tactics, but not as much as the Colombian Army and the paramilitary groups it cooperates with.
A UN proposal for
substantial foreign aid to reduce world poverty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
All charges against Starbucks union organizer Daniel Gross
were dropped.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The policeman who arrested him was ordered to lie and did so. Why aren't these cops on trial for perjury?
The government of Sri Lanka is trying to use tsunami reconstruction as
an opportunity to impose a World Bank plan that the people oppose.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Thai government's response to the tsunami is to deport thousands of
Burmese refugees to a vicious tyranny that will enslave them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Thai employers like being able to pay so little to Burmese refugees. But what enables them to do that? Probably because the Thai government makes their status precarious, so they cannot complain.
Bush wants to fill the Supreme Court with extremists.
Americans may be able to block this by organizing.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush is freeing some prisoners in Afghanistan. Some had been tortured. Some were imprisoned because a personal enemy lied about them.
Shrimp farms devastate the local ecology and can leave thousands with no water and no place to grow food. They also make the coast more vulnerable to natural disasters, such as tsunamis. And after a few years, they are exhausted and the land can't be used for anything.
Election Will Divide Iraq More Than Saddam Ever Did.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Iraqi resistance is shutting down the distribution of gas and electricity.
The
music factories lost a battle in France, where a court refused
to let them disconnect certain music-sharers from the Internet.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The record companies like to call themselves the "music industry". The term "industry" implies making something in factories, so it is legitimate to call them the "music factories".
What if the next tsunami sweeps away an Indian nuclear power plant?
What damage did this tsunami do to it? The authorities won't say.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Most journalists in Iraq don't dare leave their hotel rooms, and report as
"news" whatever the Bush forces tell them.
(The editors, who know this, usually don't tell the public.)
This is convenient for the Bush forces since it enables them
to get away with lies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
British soldiers in the Bush forces are on trial for torturing prisoners.
It seems that British and American torturers used more or less similar practices. How similar were they? Perhaps this could be evidence that the torture was coordinated from higher up.
Protestors in Guatemala were
blocking construction of a potentially dangerous mine in their area. The
government attacked them, killing
some of them. Now it has sealed off the area so that the public
cannot see what it did.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The same company is trying to use NAFTA in order to be able to mine more profitably and dangerously in California. NAFTA's provisions transfer sovereignty from the people to corporations; NAFTA must be abolished.
Israeli
peace activist Tali Fahima is on trial
after having been held incommunicado for most of a year.
She is accused of aiding terrorists, but the accusations
don't make sense.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UN is starting to
record damage claims from Palestinians whose
property was seized or destroyed by Israel's annexation wall.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Rabbis and imams met in Europe to
denounce religious extremism.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Some Christian clergy were there also, but the Christian extremists that back Bush were not represented.
An article about the role of the Council on Foreign Relations in planning to impose the new world order--and its links to many other powerful institutions.
I am not in a position to evaluate the statements about the CFR in particular, but they seem at least plausible. In any case, it is clear that the globalization of business power is imposed, not natural or inevitable. Whatever the role of the CFR in planning these measures, it is clear they are planned, and clear they are wrong.
Here's what Lord Hoffman said about the UK's Guantanamo Lite:
The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these.
However, it is not clear that their decision will stick, any more than the US Supreme Court decision that prisoners in Guantanamo have the right to a lawyer and a hearing will stick.
The "Eyes on the Prize" documentary on the Civil Rights Movement has been effectively censored by the combination of copyright and media consolidation. Civil disobedience is being suggested.
Moazzam Beg has spent 3 years in solitary confinement Guantanamo, and has occasionally been tortured. Now he and 3 other UK citizens are being released, but not the hundreds of others who were treated similarly. Pakistan handed him off to the US without a hearing, which in itself was a violation of his human rights.
Bush rewards subordinates who lie, and
fires those who tell the truth.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UK offers to take over 10% of many poor countries' debt for the sake of education and health care.
I think this program is a good thing, and I wish I could believe that Bush would follow it. However, it would be even better to cancel the debt entirely. This debt was amassed through corrupt schemes in which the creditors actively participated, and it would be good to teach people the lesson that such debts will be canceled. World Bank projects have often been very harmful to the "benificiaries".
Tsunami Must Not Sweep Away Restrictions on Indonesian Military - ETAN
US commandos are operating in Iran exploring
possible targets for an invasion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
President of Fabricated Crises
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Monsanto-funded PR machine tries to destroy the careers of
scientists
who publish info about problems caused by genetically
modified organisms.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which participates in this
campaign, was also paid by Microsoft to attack Free Software.
This link
gives information about this (though it hides free software behind the
term "open source" and refers to the GNU system as
"Linux".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
How Africa can end hunger better without GMOs.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Iraqi general tells how he was arrested and tortured by the Bush
forces,
who considered the Geneva Conventions as worthless.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Now that Abu-Mazen is recognized as a democratically elected leader of Palestine, what can he actually do?
Hanan Ashrawi writes about nonviolence in Palestine, and her background that inspired her ideas.
Some American victims of Bush's war are
helping Iraqi victims.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Kofi Annan is
replacing staff at the UN to deal with accusations of corruption.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
The corruption may be real--but compare the pressure against Annan, who is not personally involved in the corruption, with the way Representative DeLay is being treated. He IS personally involved in corruption. The real reason Bush doesn't like Annan is that Annan stood up for international law and said Bush's invasion of Iraq was against it. Bush ethics: those who criticize him should be punished if possible, while those who support him should never be.
It used to be a joke that governments would rather bury all traces of a mistake than admit they made one. Now the US is applying this to human beings: kidnap them and keep them in prison forever rather than admit it was a mistake.
US officials are now citing, as the reason to keep people in prison without any charges, the fact that they might be angry at having been unjustly imprisoned and tortured. So angry that they might fight the US afterwards.
Aside from being immoral, this is also entirely absurd. Bush has made millions of Arabs hate the US enough to possibly fight. The 500 or so men in Guantanamo are a drop in the bucket in comparison. Keeping them out of the fight will make no difference.
If Bush doesn't want the unjustly imprisoned to hate him, he ought to beg their forgiveness.
The Israeli soldier charged with shooting Tom Hurndall admits he lied about it--but says he was ordered to shoot unarmed people.
He's only charged with manslaughter, which seems like too little for a soldier that shot a protestor.
Gonzales claimed, and claims, that Bush can disregard laws that protect human rights.
In Baghdad, everyone on all sides constantly
lives in fear.
The Bush forces,
afraid that any Iraqi is their enemy, threaten to kill anyone
that has the misfortune to be near their path. The police wear masks.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The planned elections are not going well. The four provinces where--the Bush forces admit--the election may not operate include half the country's population.
We won't go home and we won't vote, say refugees of Fallujah
The American Gulags Become Permanent
The Bolivian government said it would cancel the privatized water
contract in El Alto, but did so in a vague way, failing to say when.
The people are
refusing to accept this.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Gush Shalom: There is no "window for peace" without serious
steps towards
ending the occupation of Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Is al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?
How CBS executives
used a minor issue to discredit the story about how Bush used family
connections to evade the draft, and end the careers of the people who involved.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
I won't criticize Bush for trying to get out of the draft, since few wanted to fight in a war widely perceived as unjust. I do criticize him for failing to speak out against the unjust war.
The US made an airliner return to London because it objected to one of the passengers.
At least this is better than letting the plane land and shipping the passenger to Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Syria to be tortured.
Bush has quietly ended the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The lie campaign served its purpose well--first in 2003 as an excuse to invade the country, and in 2004 to convince many Americans to support Bush.
An American held a
brief public protest in Burma--a place where protests are hardly seen.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Burmese government could learn from Bush, and permit ineffective protests in designated "free speech zones" where nobody will see them.
Most of the resistance fighters escaped from Falluja, but the city
itself was ruined, as few buildings remain usable. People who return
are still in danger--
from Bush forces snipers and from disease.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Indonesia and Sri Lanka are
paying more each
year for debt service than the amount of the aid they have been promised.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Indonesian government is trying to suggest that Acehnese separatists
would attack international aid workers. However, aid workers
don't think the separatists would do that.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
This looks like an artificial excuse to continue excluding aid workers from parts of Aceh.
On the third anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, with
increasing evidence of pervasive torture practices, it stands as a
symbol of Dubya's contempt for law and justice.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Arguing for medical and insurance reform rather than malpractice law reform.
Human decisions didn't make the tsunami, but they make various places
more or less vulnerable to damage from this and other disasters.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Republicans have changed the rules and the leadership of the House Ethics Committee, to inactivate it.
In 1994, the mass media were somewhat more independent and had a little more integrity than they do now. Today's corporate media will probably choose not to bother the Republicans by making this a scandal.
Bush only wants to hear "good news". If things are getting worse,
he doesn't want to know.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The picture of the world that Bush presents in his speeches is thoroughly false, and when you confront one falsehood, he supports it with another falsehood. But these might not be lies--perhaps Bush really believes them all. Perhaps his rejection of bad news is a means to disconnect himself from reality, to enable himself to truly believe a picture that is increasingly false.
However, I'd expect that Cheney knows the truth.
India is joining the US in
bypassing the UN for
tsunami aid.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a scholar of how Hitler came to power, says Bush and the Christian fanatics in the US are using similar methods.
US electronic voting is
not just vulnerable to fraud by the companies. There are signs of such
fraud in the last election.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush regime is trying to
legitimize torture
by diverting attention to the question of precisely how much torture to allow.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
When Gonzales says he never supported torture, it really means he
intends to
persistenly support torture by persistently pretending it isn't torture.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The evidence used to imprison 7 people without trial in the UK has been leaked--and it is crap.
This shows why the right to a trial is so important: so that you can't be imprisoned based on vague suspicions and manufactured evidence. If we could see the evidence (if any) that's the basis for holding prisoners in Guantanamo, I think it would also prove to be junk.
New Pentagon Vision Transforms War Agenda
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
I have not seen Barnett's book myself, and I am very curious to see it, because this book review gives conflicting impressions of whether the book proposes these changes or projects and criticizes them.
I recommend another book: Forever Peace, by Haldeman.
Sumate, the Venezuelan opposition group funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy, is linked to participation in the attempt to kidnap and overthrow President Chavez, and to the falsified exit poll that is being used to claim the election was rigged.
The Iraqi resistance is continuing to
increase its activity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush is now asking Congress to officially
legalize imprisonment
without trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Here's what this implies: locked up for life based on evidence that might be fabricated.
Here's the House Democratic staff's report
recommending a challenge
to the Ohio election.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The challenge did occur, this time, but it did not achieve anything, because the Republicans' do not mind accepting a victory based on fraud. "Running an honest election" is not one of their virtues.
How the drug companies have made medicine in the US ill.
Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote
does
not compute.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The article says that Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College. Of course, that's not what happened. Today's Republicans define "free and fair election" as one where they win.
After the tsunami, hatred of Dalits (untouchables) in India extends into the refugee camps.
The Iraqi resistance
killed the Bush governor of Bahgdad, and broadcast video on the internet.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
People who say that real elections cannot be held now are right, but people who say it will only get harder to hold elections are also right. I think Bush will either hold an election in which many Iraqis can't really vote (it's a habit for him) or postpone them forever.
Bush is moving to stamp out honesty in the CIA. He would rather get
pleasing advice from yes-men than useful advice from independent
thinkers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
While the article finds this disappointing, I am actually glad that the Bush regime is shooting itself in the foot in this way. While in theory the CIA could protect Americans from terrorism, in the Bush regime such activities are overshadowed by evil plans, which (as a side effect) do more to stimulate hatred against the US than the CIA's protection could ever compensate for.
If this reduces the ability of Bush and his successors to profitably subjugate other countries, the world could be better off in the long run.
Republicans are donating millions towards the propaganda campaign
to privatize the social security system.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
"We never learned why we lost the Vietnam War,
and now we're losing another Asian War."
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The points made in this article are a part of the analysis. However, the injustice of the army's goal played a substantial role in the outcome in Vietnam, and apparently is doing so in Iraq also. Soldiers fighting a just fight against an army that deserves to be defeated, as in World War II and Korea, suffer less psychological harm because they don't have to lie to themselves and each other about what they are doing. Soldiers who are really liberating a country get the psychological and military support of the populace.
If Bush and the Bushmen had not lied to themselves, they would have known what the resistance would be like, and they might have done a better job fighting against it. But they would not deserve to win.
Bush forces soldiers are on trial for forcing two unarmed Iraqis to jump into the Tigris river. One of them drowned.
I can understand why these soldiers (and most of the Bush forces) hate all Iraqis. They know nearly all Iraqis hate them.
But the situation is not symmetrical. The Bush forces did something to deserve to be hated: they invaded Iraq, they killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, and they have made life in Iraq into hell. And they are still doing it.
What global warming will mean to
wildlife in North America.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US Army Reserve is becoming a "broken" force,
according to its commander.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
Given the propensities of the clique that have seized power in the US, I have to say with regret that this change is for the best. It will be hard for Bush to consider attacking any other countries any time soon.
Despite the disaster of the tsunami, the Indonesian Army in Aceh
is is continuing to
fight against separatists--and to keep foreigner aid workers out.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
All the public transportation in Bolivia
went on strike because the government raised gasoline prices.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Actually I think it is entirely right to charge high gas prices. That will encourage conservation and promote alternative energy. But the government must also help the poor at the same time.
700 dead were found in destroyed homes in Falluja. 550 were women and children, so they are probably all civilians. Returning refugees say most of their houses have been destroyed, but resistance continues. And journalists are still being kept out--apparently so the world won't know the truth.
That 700 is for just 1/3 of the city, and does not include all the corpses. So we could estimate around 2500 civilians killed in this one battle. That's against an estimate of 100,000 civilians killed by the Bush forces so far.
The statement that the continuing attacks are near Bush forces bases suggests that the resistance is attacking the Bush forces, rather than vice versa. So I don't believe the predictions that Falluja will be under Bush forces control in another month. More likely, it will be like the other Iraqi Sunni cities.
When the house ethics committee criticized majority leader DeLay's violations of ethics rules, the Republican leadership's took action... to replace the leader of the ethics committee.
King Downing, National Coordinator of the ACLUs Campaign Against
Racial Profiling, was arrested in Boston's airport. The police
refused to give a valid reason for stopping him--they had no
reasonable cause to suspect him of anything--so it appears to be a
case of racial profiling. The ACLU is suing them for racial
profiling.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ahmed abu Ali, a US citizen, has been imprisoned without trial and tortured in Saudi Arabia for 18 months--at the request of the Bush regime. Recently a US court gave his family a preliminary success.
The intelligence chief of the Iraqi government
(who works for Bush, in other words) says that the
resistance has
200,000 active participants, more than
the whole Bush forces.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
They also have millions more ready to be recruited.
Instead of Christmas, we could celebrate Gravmas.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Deconstructing Sharon's speech (Uri Avnery)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Nepalese government and the rebels are both
attacking human rights activists.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
It's an nepalling situation.
The US civilian leadership is supposed to restrain the military, but today's civilian rulers are so cruel that it's up to the military to restrain them.
There is a campaign of civil disobedience against the Mickey Mouse
Copyright Act of 1998. (That's the law Disney paid for so that the
copyright on Steamboat Willie would not expire.)
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The International Republican Institute, which is funded
by the
US National Endowment for Democracy, was directly
involved in the plans to overthrow the government of Aristide.
[References updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
links
were broken.]
More information on the IRI.
Israelis joined the Palestinians of Jayyous to replant the olive trees
that settlers had destroyed as a preparation for stealing the land
under them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The record companies' agents are trying to sabotage the computers of people who share music.
Sharing music is every music lover's right. Trying to prevent sharing, whether through laws or through sabotage, is what's wrong. Meanwhile, the sabotage scheme only works against Windows machines; free software is built better and is not vulnerable to such sabotage.
Space junk created by human activities makes it doubtful that a space station can survive for a long time in low Earth orbit.
The Indonesian government must grant foreign aid-workers access to all disaster-affected areas.
In a Baltimore suburb, hatred against Muslims joins hatred against
Blacks and hatred against Jews.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Head-scarves are now a
mandatory protective accessory for women in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Everything has to be judged against the possible alternatives. The religious fanatics that have imposed this requirement in Iraq are nasty by usual standards, but they are nowhere near as vicious and murderous to Iraqis as the religious fanatics that invaded Iraq.
Millions of prisoners in the US are effectively slaves,
working for as little as a dollar a day. The use of prisoners
in slave labor is what makes it easy to imprison ever-increasing
numbers of Americans.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Is Bush preparing an intervention against Venezuela through Colombia?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The "Spanish Inquisition" Made in America
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
One comment: even if Bush and Rumsfeld secretly ordered soldiers or agents to commit torture, that is no excuse. The convictions of those soldiers caught committing torture should not be reversed, but Bush and Rumsfeld should be put on trial as well.
Ohio's Republicans followed a fraudulent vote count with a fraudulent recount.
Republican officials are ducking subpoenas in the election case. Meanwhile, more specific frauds: some voters received ballots that were pre-punched for Bush.
Canada's government has followed the US lead, abolishing civil liberties. The restrictions are up for review, and the government told told MPs studying whether to renew them that they should take the government's word on the matter--without access to the facts.
MPs on this committee should not be discouraged by this. They should simply say, "The burden of proof to justify such restrictions is on you. You can show me your arguments for these restrictions, or not show me. But if you don't show me convincing arguments, I will vote to eliminate them."
Thailand's government hushed up the tsunami warning "for the tourist industry".
It's wrong for government to put hotel owners above public safety. But there's more. They said, "Our department would not be able to endure a lawsuit." Can hotel owners really sue the Thai government for a tsunami false alarm? If so, who authorized such lawsuits? The government, of course. One way or another, the responsibility comes back to the Thai government--together with the hotel owners on whose behalf they acted.
Germany has called for
suspension of debt repayment for Indonesia
and Somalia.
[Reference updated on 2018-08-21 because the
old
link was broken.]
The idea makes sense. How do you think Bush will respond?
US border police demanded to take fingerprints of Muslim US citizens
who were returning from a religious conference in Canada. They held
the people for 6 hours telling them "You have no rights".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Islam has led people to great crimes--as have Christianity and Judaism, and occasionally Hinduism as well. But people should not be treated as criminals just for practising a religion.
12/26 and 9/11
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
Empire of the Misers
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
How corporate media covers the deaths 100,000 civilians
depends on whether they were killed by a tsunami or by
bombing.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Virginia legislature rejected red-light cameras, because they
object to surveillance.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-29 because the
old
link was broken.]
US TV networks refused to release exit poll data that could shed light on whether the last election was stolen.
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