Saturday, October 08, 2005
21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak
21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak
The cast of administration characters with known connections to the outing of an undercover CIA agent:Karl Rove
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby
Condoleezza Rice
Stephen Hadley
Andrew Card
Alberto Gonzales
Mary Matalin
Ari Fleischer
Susan Ralston
Israel Hernandez John Hannah
Scott McClellan
Dan Bartlett
Claire Buchan
Catherine Martin
Colin Powell
Karen Hughes
Adam Levine
Bob Joseph
Vice President Dick Cheney
President George W. Bush
Something Wicked This Way Comes
I've been doing some thinking. A dangerous thing on a good day; an embarrassing thing on a bad day. But, I've been thinking. Connecting the dots of snippets, sound bites and neo-con love letters. Reading between the lines of malapropism, insinuation and `in plain sight' subterfuge. I've been anxiously analyzing the pressure on my frontal lobe; the tin-foil lobe that lobotomists are always so eager to excise.
And through the thinking; a dangerous liaison of cynicism, paranoia and epiphany; I have reached a conclusion; inescapable, indivisible and intuitively certain.
Something wicked this way comes.
Michael Alton Gottlieb's diary :: ::
Three things have jumped out at me lately:
1. Tularemia at the DC March
2. Bush's Emergency Quarantine Plans
3. Libby's Love Letter to Miller
These are not the only things that course through my veins of suspicion and circuits of Cassandrian synapse. But they are the ones that speak to me in tongues of fire, fury and fear.
And through the thinking; a dangerous liaison of cynicism, paranoia and epiphany; I have reached a conclusion; inescapable, indivisible and intuitively certain.
Something wicked this way comes.
Michael Alton Gottlieb's diary :: ::
Three things have jumped out at me lately:
1. Tularemia at the DC March
2. Bush's Emergency Quarantine Plans
3. Libby's Love Letter to Miller
These are not the only things that course through my veins of suspicion and circuits of Cassandrian synapse. But they are the ones that speak to me in tongues of fire, fury and fear.
US nuclear warplans fly around the internet
Washington, DC, UNITED STATES — "Even in an unclassified world this is not the kind of thing you want flying around the Internet," says Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita. He was talking about a document, yanked from a Pentagon website on September 19th, which outlines US nuclear warfighting plans, including the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons and the use of nukes in conventional war.
Comments to the document by the various military branches reveal squabbling about who gets to run a nuclear war, a disagreement about the legality of pre-emptive warfighting strategies, and a discussion of the etiquette of alerting allied troops that a nuclear attack is coming their way.
This is exactly the kind of information which we believe ought to be flying around the internet; these guys really shouldn't be left alone to talk about this stuff behind closed doors.
So we took our copy and uploaded it here at www.greenpeace.org. You can help ensure it flies around the internet some more by sending this article to a friend.
Nuclear war: it's not just for breakfast anymore
The document is a rare unpolished look at how the Cold War doctrine of nuclear first strike - previously spun as "deterrence" - has taken on a new dimension.
It reveals that the threshold for actually using nuclear weapons has been lowered dramatically.
And it outs the untruth of George Bush claiming that the US is reducing the importance of its nuclear arsenal.
Comments to the document by the various military branches reveal squabbling about who gets to run a nuclear war, a disagreement about the legality of pre-emptive warfighting strategies, and a discussion of the etiquette of alerting allied troops that a nuclear attack is coming their way.
This is exactly the kind of information which we believe ought to be flying around the internet; these guys really shouldn't be left alone to talk about this stuff behind closed doors.
So we took our copy and uploaded it here at www.greenpeace.org. You can help ensure it flies around the internet some more by sending this article to a friend.
Nuclear war: it's not just for breakfast anymore
The document is a rare unpolished look at how the Cold War doctrine of nuclear first strike - previously spun as "deterrence" - has taken on a new dimension.
It reveals that the threshold for actually using nuclear weapons has been lowered dramatically.
And it outs the untruth of George Bush claiming that the US is reducing the importance of its nuclear arsenal.
Bunker-days with Reichsfuehrer George
Bush's speech to the National Endowment for Democracy was a long and tedious journey through the shadowy world of terrorism. It was loaded with the same wearisome phantoms and dreary evil-doers that have appeared in every Bush speech since September 2001. Bush is beginning to sound like the three wheeled ox-cart trundling down the road emitting the same shrill screech with every rotation. The man needs some new material.
His dismal performance on Thursday further demonstrated his inability to grasp reality or to deal with the mess he's created. He dredged up the lackluster imagery of 9-11 to cobble together a 40 minute monologue that excluded every topic of national interest except terrorism. Even his audience, which was chock-full of flag-waving jingoes and "democracy-spreading" zealots, appeared dumbstruck.
"Recently our country observed the fourth anniversary of a great evil, and looked back on a great turning point in our history," Bush said. "We will confront this mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire, or rest, until the war on terror is won."
9-11; 9-11; 9-11, ad infinitum.
Bush's penchant for repetition would leave Joseph Geobbels wincing. It's simply impossible to reiterate the same mantra for 4 years without producing a jaw-dropping silence among one's audience. That's especially true given the latest polls that show that only 7% of Americans think that terrorism is the most important topic on the national docket. For Bush, however, terrorism is the last flimsy bit of straw that holds his presidency together.
Edging Towards Disaster with Iran
"If Israel takes such crazy actions as attacking our nuclear facilities, we will give it an unforgettable lesson." Iranian Parliament-Speaker, Haddad Adel
The prospect of war breaking out between the United States and Iran is more likely by the day. Still, for the most part, the American public seems strangely unaware of the growing danger. In late September Iran began conducting major military exercises in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, where officials claim that US agents have infiltrated and are carrying out destabilizing activities. Tehran has deployed 100,000 soldiers to the oil-rich region to address the growing unrest and to carry out maneuvers which anticipate a preemptive invasion by the US.
These signs of mounting tensions are further amplified by a resolution that was passed by the UN's nuclear watchdog agency (IAEA) two weeks ago. The agency voted by a slim majority to bring Iran before the UN Security Council for "non-compliance" with its treaty requirements under the terms of the NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty).
The US-backed resolution was pushed through the IAEA to make it appear as though Iran is conducting a secret nuclear weapons program. No evidence of such a program has ever been verified and the agency's chief, Mohammad Elbaradei, has repeatedly given Iran a clean bill of health on all matters related to its compliance with treaty obligations.
The "nuclear weapons" issue is a red herring similar to the WMD ruse prior to the war with Iraq. It provides the US and Israel with some cover of legitimacy for future attacks on Iranian weapons-sites. By disarming Iran, the Bush administration will have eliminated a long-term regional competitor to Israel and will be able to proceed with the neocon master-plan to redraw the map of the Middle East to suit US interests.
Che, caballero sin tacha y sin miedo
Reunidos en La Paz, altos jefes militares de la dictadura de Barrientos, en complicidad con la CIA, tomaron fríamente la decisión de asesinarlo. Se habían necesitado 3 702 soldados: 1 904 de la Cuarta División, 1 798 de la Octava, y varias horas de combate para neutralizar la pequeña guerrilla en la confluencia de la Quebrada del Yuro con la de San Antonio. Muy pronto la noticia recorrería el mundo.
Se ha podido precisar que el Che estuvo combatiendo herido hasta que el cañón de su fusil M-2 fue destruido por un disparo, inutilizándolo totalmente. La pistola que portaba estaba sin magazine. Esas increíbles circunstancias explican que lo hubiesen podido capturar vivo, relataría luego Fidel.
Al mediodía del 10 de octubre, en un lugar cercano a La Higuera, seis guerrilleros que consiguieron romper el cerco escucharon por radio la noticia de la muerte del Che.
El dolor los enmudeció. No había posibilidades de que fuera un error. Al sobreponerse, coincidieron en continuar su obra. Inti pronunció el juramento: "Che: tus ideas no han muerto (...). Tus banderas, que son las nuestras, no serán arriadas jamás". En efecto, la eliminación física del hombre, la desaparición de sus restos, no consiguieron aplacar la fuerza del símbolo.
Pocos meses después, en el convulso año 1968, la figura del Guerrillero Heroico inspiraba a la juventud de todo el mundo en su lucha contra el capitalismo. En México, Francia y otras partes de Europa, los estudiantes construyeron barricadas, bloquearon las vías y se lanzaron a la calle sin temor a la policía. Hubo huelgas, manifestaciones, represión.
En todas partes la imagen del Che acompañaba a una generación en pugna contra el sistema. Carteles y graffitis reiteraban su invitación a "ser realistas y soñar lo imposible".
Desde entonces, su figura ha identificado a los revolucionarios. Ni la propaganda imperialista, ni falsos intelectuales a sueldo, ni desertores han conseguido desvirtuar su ejemplo.
Con una realidad distinta al resto del continente, para la juventud cubana el ejemplo del Che es la invitación constante a "mantener un espíritu creador", a "abandonar las iniciativas pequeñas".
"Si no existe la organización —advirtió una vez—, las ideas, después del primer momento de impulso, van perdiendo eficacia, van cayendo en la rutina (...), en el conformismo, y acaban por ser simplemente un recuerdo."
"Una juventud que no crea es una anomalía", dijo, y enfatizó en que la juventud no debe ser nunca demasiado dócil ni aparentar una alegría cosmética.
Consciente de que el ejercicio de las armas solamente no basta para preservar el país, insistía en que "debemos defenderlo construyéndolo con nuestro trabajo".
Jean Paul Sartre dijo una vez que en su despacho no parecía transcurrir el tiempo. Allí lo encontró una madrugada, después de una agotadora jornada, para discutir de filosofía. Cuentan que solía recibir a sus visitantes después de las 12 de la noche, concluido el trabajo, y conversar varias horas sobre política, economía o simplemente compartir una partida de ajedrez.
El Che fue siempre inmenso, desde que puso sus conocimientos de Medicina al servicio de los leprosos de la Amazonia y se estremeció ante la explotación de los mineros y la miseria centenaria al pie de las montañas donde reinaron los incas.
"Muchos me dirán aventurero —escribió en la carta de despedida a sus padres— y lo soy, solo que de un tipo diferente, de los que ponen el pellejo para demostrar sus verdades."
Esa afirmación suya se confirma aún ahora. El Che sigue poniendo en juego su piel, su vida, todos los días en la piel y en las vidas de todos los que luchan en cualquier lugar por ese mundo mejor que urge.
¿Acaso no está presente su modo distinto de ser aventurero en jóvenes como los Cinco cubanos secuestrados hace siete años en cárceles de Estados Unidos? Esos hombres lo arriesgaron todo por sus verdades, que son las mismas del pueblo al que calladamente defendieron del terrorismo de sus enemigos.
¿No es el Che uno de esos médicos de Barrio Adentro, o alguno de aquellos otros todavía en espera de una respuesta que parece ya nunca llegará, dispuesto a partir hacia las calles inundadas de Nueva Orleáns?
Se ha podido precisar que el Che estuvo combatiendo herido hasta que el cañón de su fusil M-2 fue destruido por un disparo, inutilizándolo totalmente. La pistola que portaba estaba sin magazine. Esas increíbles circunstancias explican que lo hubiesen podido capturar vivo, relataría luego Fidel.
Al mediodía del 10 de octubre, en un lugar cercano a La Higuera, seis guerrilleros que consiguieron romper el cerco escucharon por radio la noticia de la muerte del Che.
El dolor los enmudeció. No había posibilidades de que fuera un error. Al sobreponerse, coincidieron en continuar su obra. Inti pronunció el juramento: "Che: tus ideas no han muerto (...). Tus banderas, que son las nuestras, no serán arriadas jamás". En efecto, la eliminación física del hombre, la desaparición de sus restos, no consiguieron aplacar la fuerza del símbolo.
Pocos meses después, en el convulso año 1968, la figura del Guerrillero Heroico inspiraba a la juventud de todo el mundo en su lucha contra el capitalismo. En México, Francia y otras partes de Europa, los estudiantes construyeron barricadas, bloquearon las vías y se lanzaron a la calle sin temor a la policía. Hubo huelgas, manifestaciones, represión.
En todas partes la imagen del Che acompañaba a una generación en pugna contra el sistema. Carteles y graffitis reiteraban su invitación a "ser realistas y soñar lo imposible".
Desde entonces, su figura ha identificado a los revolucionarios. Ni la propaganda imperialista, ni falsos intelectuales a sueldo, ni desertores han conseguido desvirtuar su ejemplo.
Con una realidad distinta al resto del continente, para la juventud cubana el ejemplo del Che es la invitación constante a "mantener un espíritu creador", a "abandonar las iniciativas pequeñas".
"Si no existe la organización —advirtió una vez—, las ideas, después del primer momento de impulso, van perdiendo eficacia, van cayendo en la rutina (...), en el conformismo, y acaban por ser simplemente un recuerdo."
"Una juventud que no crea es una anomalía", dijo, y enfatizó en que la juventud no debe ser nunca demasiado dócil ni aparentar una alegría cosmética.
Consciente de que el ejercicio de las armas solamente no basta para preservar el país, insistía en que "debemos defenderlo construyéndolo con nuestro trabajo".
Jean Paul Sartre dijo una vez que en su despacho no parecía transcurrir el tiempo. Allí lo encontró una madrugada, después de una agotadora jornada, para discutir de filosofía. Cuentan que solía recibir a sus visitantes después de las 12 de la noche, concluido el trabajo, y conversar varias horas sobre política, economía o simplemente compartir una partida de ajedrez.
El Che fue siempre inmenso, desde que puso sus conocimientos de Medicina al servicio de los leprosos de la Amazonia y se estremeció ante la explotación de los mineros y la miseria centenaria al pie de las montañas donde reinaron los incas.
"Muchos me dirán aventurero —escribió en la carta de despedida a sus padres— y lo soy, solo que de un tipo diferente, de los que ponen el pellejo para demostrar sus verdades."
Esa afirmación suya se confirma aún ahora. El Che sigue poniendo en juego su piel, su vida, todos los días en la piel y en las vidas de todos los que luchan en cualquier lugar por ese mundo mejor que urge.
¿Acaso no está presente su modo distinto de ser aventurero en jóvenes como los Cinco cubanos secuestrados hace siete años en cárceles de Estados Unidos? Esos hombres lo arriesgaron todo por sus verdades, que son las mismas del pueblo al que calladamente defendieron del terrorismo de sus enemigos.
¿No es el Che uno de esos médicos de Barrio Adentro, o alguno de aquellos otros todavía en espera de una respuesta que parece ya nunca llegará, dispuesto a partir hacia las calles inundadas de Nueva Orleáns?
The Police State Is Closer Than You Think
Police states are easier to acquire than Americans appreciate.
The hysterical aftermath of September 11 has put into place the main components of a police state.
Habeas corpus is the greatest protection Americans have against a police state. Habeas corpus ensures that Americans can only be detained by law. They must be charged with offenses, given access to attorneys, and brought to trial. Habeas corpus prevents the despotic practice of picking up a person and holding him indefinitely.
President Bush claims the power to set aside habeas corpus and to dispense with warrants for arrest and with procedures that guarantee court appearance and trial without undue delay. Today in the US, the executive branch claims the power to arrest a citizen on its own initiative and hold the citizen indefinitely. Thus, Americans are no longer protected from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention.
The hysterical aftermath of September 11 has put into place the main components of a police state.
Habeas corpus is the greatest protection Americans have against a police state. Habeas corpus ensures that Americans can only be detained by law. They must be charged with offenses, given access to attorneys, and brought to trial. Habeas corpus prevents the despotic practice of picking up a person and holding him indefinitely.
President Bush claims the power to set aside habeas corpus and to dispense with warrants for arrest and with procedures that guarantee court appearance and trial without undue delay. Today in the US, the executive branch claims the power to arrest a citizen on its own initiative and hold the citizen indefinitely. Thus, Americans are no longer protected from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention.
Cubans Pay Homage to Ernesto Guevara
Havana, Oct 7 (Prensa Latina) Activities to commemorate the 38th anniversary of Argentinian-Cuban guerrilla fighter Ernesto Guevara's fall in combat are taking place throughout Cuba on Friday, where more than 135,000 children will become pioneers in the country's schools.
The main ceremony, a rally combining political and cultural activities, will be held on October 8 in the Ernesto Che Guevara Revolution Plaza in Santa Clara, in the central province of Villa Clara.
Cuban Revolution Combatant Association members will lay a wreath at the Memorial where the guerrilla chief's remains, and those of his comrades-in-arms who fell in Bolivia, are kept.
Cuban poet Francis Sanchez' poem entitled "Rezo de Coral a Ernesto" (Coral Prayer to Ernesto) will Saturday be awarded with the Ciudad del Che (Che's city) contest prize.
Commemorative activities have been planned in the factories Commander Guevera opened in Santa Clara, and other national centers and institutions.
The guerrilla fighter was assassinated on October 8, 1967 in the Bolivian town of Higuera, victim of a shooting in which the US intelligence services participated, as well as military units from the Andean country.
Serious turn to Guantanamo protest
A hunger strike by prisoners at the US Guantanamo Bay prison camp has entered a serious stage, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
But ICRC chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari declined to comment on Thursday's statement by a defence lawyer that the hunger strike involved 200 of 500 prisoners and that 21 were being force-fed.
The humanitarian agency, which last visited the US naval base in Cuba in late September, was in contact with the US authorities about the situation, Notari said on Friday.
"There is a hunger strike, the situation is serious, and we are following it with concern," Notari said.
"During our recent 10-day visit we were able to visit the infirmary, see the detainees and speak with them as well as the American authorities," she added.
Tokyo declaration
The ICRC backs a 1975 Tokyo declaration by the World Medical Association stating that doctors should not participate in force-feeding, but keep prisoners informed of the sometimes irreversible consequences of their hunger strike, she added.
Amnesty International and human-rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, representing 40 detainees, said on Thursday that US authorities were keeping 21 alive by forcing food into their stomachs through tubes pushed up their noses.
The prisoners are shackled to their beds 24-hours a day to stop them removing the tubes, he said.
Force-feeding banned
"This is the 56th day of the hunger strike," said Stafford Smith before making a comparison with the Irish republican campaign of 1981, when 10 prisoners starved themselves to death in protest at British policy in Northern Ireland.
The US opened the prison camp in January 2002. Many detainees were seized in Afghanistan. Only four have been charged and many have been held for more than three years. Some former prisoners says they were tortured while in Guantanamo.
Force-feeding is not banned under international law, but the World Medical Association declaration, endorsed by the American Medical Association, sets guidelines for doctors involved in hunger strikes and says they should not participate in force-feeding.
But ICRC chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari declined to comment on Thursday's statement by a defence lawyer that the hunger strike involved 200 of 500 prisoners and that 21 were being force-fed.
The humanitarian agency, which last visited the US naval base in Cuba in late September, was in contact with the US authorities about the situation, Notari said on Friday.
"There is a hunger strike, the situation is serious, and we are following it with concern," Notari said.
"During our recent 10-day visit we were able to visit the infirmary, see the detainees and speak with them as well as the American authorities," she added.
Tokyo declaration
The ICRC backs a 1975 Tokyo declaration by the World Medical Association stating that doctors should not participate in force-feeding, but keep prisoners informed of the sometimes irreversible consequences of their hunger strike, she added.
Amnesty International and human-rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, representing 40 detainees, said on Thursday that US authorities were keeping 21 alive by forcing food into their stomachs through tubes pushed up their noses.
The prisoners are shackled to their beds 24-hours a day to stop them removing the tubes, he said.
Force-feeding banned
"This is the 56th day of the hunger strike," said Stafford Smith before making a comparison with the Irish republican campaign of 1981, when 10 prisoners starved themselves to death in protest at British policy in Northern Ireland.
The US opened the prison camp in January 2002. Many detainees were seized in Afghanistan. Only four have been charged and many have been held for more than three years. Some former prisoners says they were tortured while in Guantanamo.
Force-feeding is not banned under international law, but the World Medical Association declaration, endorsed by the American Medical Association, sets guidelines for doctors involved in hunger strikes and says they should not participate in force-feeding.
“Violence leads only to more violence.”
Ongoing military operations continue unabated in Al-Anbar province. With names like ‘Operation Iron Fist’ and ‘Operation Iron Gate’ which was launched just days after ‘Iron Fist,’ thousands of US troops, backed by warplanes, tanks and helicopters, began attacking small cities and villages primarily in the northwestern area of Al-Anbar.
According to the US military and corporate media, the purpose of these operations is to “root out” fighters from al-Qaida in Iraq, along with so-called insurgents.
An Iraqi journalist writing under the name Sabah Ali (due to concerns of retribution from US/Iraqi governmental authorities) recently returned from the Al-Qa’im area of Iraq. Her report tells quite a different story.
Continue reading "“Violence leads only to more violence.”"
According to the US military and corporate media, the purpose of these operations is to “root out” fighters from al-Qaida in Iraq, along with so-called insurgents.
An Iraqi journalist writing under the name Sabah Ali (due to concerns of retribution from US/Iraqi governmental authorities) recently returned from the Al-Qa’im area of Iraq. Her report tells quite a different story.
Continue reading "“Violence leads only to more violence.”"
Open Letter to Amnesty International on the Iraqi Constitution
The following letter was composed by members of the Brussels Tribunal, one of the groups from the World Tribunal on Iraq. For those interested in international law and the upcoming referendum vote on the Iraqi constitution, this is a must read:
We would like to congratulate Amnesty International on its courageous stand against the massive human rights violations inflicted upon the people of Iraq by the US-led occupation forces, as stated in the Amnesty International annual report of 2005.
"Armed groups committed gross human rights abuses, including targeting civilians, hostage-taking and killing hostages. Women continued to be harassed and threatened amid the mounting daily violence. The death penalty was reinstated in August by the new interim government."
The recommendations made by Amnesty International's chief Mr. Schulz in the aftermath of this report were very clear:
"If the US government continues to shirk its responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior US officials involved in the torture scandal," said Schulz, who added that violations of the torture convention, which has been ratified by the United States and some 138 other countries, can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction."
We would like to congratulate Amnesty International on its courageous stand against the massive human rights violations inflicted upon the people of Iraq by the US-led occupation forces, as stated in the Amnesty International annual report of 2005.
"Armed groups committed gross human rights abuses, including targeting civilians, hostage-taking and killing hostages. Women continued to be harassed and threatened amid the mounting daily violence. The death penalty was reinstated in August by the new interim government."
The recommendations made by Amnesty International's chief Mr. Schulz in the aftermath of this report were very clear:
"If the US government continues to shirk its responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior US officials involved in the torture scandal," said Schulz, who added that violations of the torture convention, which has been ratified by the United States and some 138 other countries, can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction."
More Whispering about Bush & Cocaine
Chalked up: Late last month, we published rumors here about the President’s alleged possible return to his old cocaine habits. Yesterday, we spotted this:
A source in the media, who has the opportunity to see the president in person regularly, has pointed out to me that Bush appears to be uncontrollably grinding his teeth, or having a jaw spasm, when he speaks.
Reader Eric sent me a link to a video on the Huffington Post (the video is here, their post on an unrelated topic is here) that clearly shows this problem at the end of Bush’s sentences, his lower jaw twitches or grinds. Eric and his friends noticed it too.
I’m told by folks who know that this is something that happens when people do too much cocaine. I’ve also heard that alcohol abuse can do the same.
Any experts out there want to weigh in? The man is our commander in chief during war time, we have the right to know that he’s well.
Olbermann: Bush’s 13 Terror Alert Coincidences
What are the odds? On Thursday, we reported on the amazing coincidence that the terror alert covering the New York subway system had grabbed headlines away from bad news about President Bush’s abysmal poll numbers (and the breaking news that Karl Rove had been called to testify, for the fourth time, before the Treasongate grand jury).
Amazingly, the subway bomb threat was no less than the 13th time a terror alert has trumped breaking bad news about the Bush Administration since 2001, according to Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s "Countdown" Thursday night:
OLBERMANN: Remarkably enough, Karl Rove's possible legal problems were bookended by two pieces of terror news. Before, came a presidential speech on the war on terror. After, came a supposed terrorist threat to New York's subway system.
Stop what you're thinking. It is just an amazing coincidence. The terrorists just happened to wait to make these threats until there’s bad news about the administration that it needs to preempt. Just a coincidence.
After running the packages on the terror, Olbermann brings on Craig Crawford for the political take:
OLBERMANN: First, back to the big picture, the president's speech included. Let's call in Craig Crawford, MSNBC analyst and author of "Attack the Messenger."
CRAIG CRAWFORD: You're sounding a bit skeptical tonight.
OLBERMANN: Well, I’m ... yes, and I'm going to raise this question as skeptically and bluntly as I can. It's not a question that doubts the existence of terror, nor the threat of terrorism. But we've cobbled together in the last couple of hours a list of at least 13 occasions that ... on which ... whenever there has been news that significantly impacted the White House negatively, there has been some sudden credible terror threat somewhere in this country. How could the coincidence be so consistent?
CRAWFORD: It's ... it is a pattern.
For years, Team Bush has used its "fear-o-meter" - like the color-coded terror alert system - to manipulate and disinform the public. Finally, the left-most edge of the MSM feels free to say so on the air.
Amazingly, the subway bomb threat was no less than the 13th time a terror alert has trumped breaking bad news about the Bush Administration since 2001, according to Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s "Countdown" Thursday night:
OLBERMANN: Remarkably enough, Karl Rove's possible legal problems were bookended by two pieces of terror news. Before, came a presidential speech on the war on terror. After, came a supposed terrorist threat to New York's subway system.
Stop what you're thinking. It is just an amazing coincidence. The terrorists just happened to wait to make these threats until there’s bad news about the administration that it needs to preempt. Just a coincidence.
After running the packages on the terror, Olbermann brings on Craig Crawford for the political take:
OLBERMANN: First, back to the big picture, the president's speech included. Let's call in Craig Crawford, MSNBC analyst and author of "Attack the Messenger."
CRAIG CRAWFORD: You're sounding a bit skeptical tonight.
OLBERMANN: Well, I’m ... yes, and I'm going to raise this question as skeptically and bluntly as I can. It's not a question that doubts the existence of terror, nor the threat of terrorism. But we've cobbled together in the last couple of hours a list of at least 13 occasions that ... on which ... whenever there has been news that significantly impacted the White House negatively, there has been some sudden credible terror threat somewhere in this country. How could the coincidence be so consistent?
CRAWFORD: It's ... it is a pattern.
For years, Team Bush has used its "fear-o-meter" - like the color-coded terror alert system - to manipulate and disinform the public. Finally, the left-most edge of the MSM feels free to say so on the air.
"Verifying" the news
Consider this story from the Los Angeles Times on the fighting in Western Iraq. The headline, and the lead, are that "Six U.S. Marines were killed by roadside bombs." As we read further, we are told that "The U.S. military said Friday that at least 50 suspected insurgents were killed." No mention of Iraqi civilians, until we get to this: "Sheik Usama Jadaan, a tribal leader in the city of Karabilah...said the fighting in the west was so brutal that residents 'are now seeing members of their families being killed in front of their own eyes by the American bombardment.'" And in response? "The allegations of civilian deaths could not be verified. Lt. Col. Steve Boylan (any relation to the "my god is bigger than your god -Gen. Boylan???), a U.S. military spokesman, said he had no reports of civilian casualties in the offensives." Of course, they could have been verified (or refuted) by a reporter actually going on site, or even calling the local hospitals, what the reporter means is that they weren't verified, and that their definition (as with all the corporate media) of "verification" is "acknowledged by the U.S. military." And the U.S. military didn't even deny it, they just claim (which is probably true) that they "had no reports" of civilian casualties.
And there the matter will rest, never to be mentioned again in the U.S. media, except indirectly, when the relatives of the dead and wounded civilians set the next round of IEDs, killing more U.S. soldiers, who deaths will once again make the headlines and be "verified."
Note also that there is no question that the deaths of "50 suspected insurgents" (nor any evidence that they were insurgents) could be verified; once again, the word of the U.S. military seems to be both the source of the news and the "verification" of the news.
And there the matter will rest, never to be mentioned again in the U.S. media, except indirectly, when the relatives of the dead and wounded civilians set the next round of IEDs, killing more U.S. soldiers, who deaths will once again make the headlines and be "verified."
Note also that there is no question that the deaths of "50 suspected insurgents" (nor any evidence that they were insurgents) could be verified; once again, the word of the U.S. military seems to be both the source of the news and the "verification" of the news.
British and American leaders likened to Nazi war criminals
Tony Blair and George Bush were compared to Nazi war criminals yesterday by Scott Ritter, the former UN chief weapons inspector.
"Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing," he said.
He said the Prime Minister and the US President were "guilty of the crime of planning and committing aggressive warfare". Speaking in London at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Mr Ritter said the two leaders would have been in a much stronger position if they had got a UN resolution explicitly authorising the invasion.
He also said Britain gained very little from the "special relationship". "Britain gets nothing, other than to say they are America's closest ally in Europe," he said.
Mr Ritter, who was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, said intelligence services had been correct to say that Iraq's missile programme had been destroyed soon after the first Gulf conflict of 1991.
He recalled how he delivered a report in 1992 stating that the programme had been eliminated. It was met with "stony silence" and he was told that Iraq still possessed 200 missiles.
The inspectors returned to track down the weapons, which never materialised.
"Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing," he said.
He said the Prime Minister and the US President were "guilty of the crime of planning and committing aggressive warfare". Speaking in London at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Mr Ritter said the two leaders would have been in a much stronger position if they had got a UN resolution explicitly authorising the invasion.
He also said Britain gained very little from the "special relationship". "Britain gets nothing, other than to say they are America's closest ally in Europe," he said.
Mr Ritter, who was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, said intelligence services had been correct to say that Iraq's missile programme had been destroyed soon after the first Gulf conflict of 1991.
He recalled how he delivered a report in 1992 stating that the programme had been eliminated. It was met with "stony silence" and he was told that Iraq still possessed 200 missiles.
The inspectors returned to track down the weapons, which never materialised.
Hugo Chavez - Showing the US Who's Master
'Oh," said an acquaintance in a rather surprised voice, "so you take a reasonably favourable view of Hugo Chavez." "Well, yes," I stammered, "he was elected to office fairly, he's popular and he's trying to reform a once-moribund society."
A few days earlier, I had been in an ante-room at the square, white Miraflores Palace in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. I was chatting with one of President Chavez's secretaries, who was abruptly called away. "Back soon," he said. I knew what that meant and, after an hour or two chatting to the staff, I left. Would I never see the man of mixed race who was so despised by the whites and near-whites of Venezuela, but who was making so many tongues wag all over the western hemisphere?
I needn't have worried: the full Chavez experience was around the corner. He had summoned a meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS), a generator of hot air based in Washington, DC. He wanted this glove puppet of the United States to create a social charter for the hemisphere and start doing something about its startling inequalities. So, the following day we trooped over to the tropical splendour of the Hilton hotel to watch and hear a powerful personality in full flow. The ideas and plans tumbled out like sparks off a grinding wheel - the people of Latin America given the right to eat as well as vote; cheap oil for the poor of the US; free literacy classes and free eyecare for everyone in the western hemisphere; an international referendum on US sanctions against Cuba; the replacement of the OAS by something that would reflect Latin rather than US interests . . .
A few days earlier, I had been in an ante-room at the square, white Miraflores Palace in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. I was chatting with one of President Chavez's secretaries, who was abruptly called away. "Back soon," he said. I knew what that meant and, after an hour or two chatting to the staff, I left. Would I never see the man of mixed race who was so despised by the whites and near-whites of Venezuela, but who was making so many tongues wag all over the western hemisphere?
I needn't have worried: the full Chavez experience was around the corner. He had summoned a meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS), a generator of hot air based in Washington, DC. He wanted this glove puppet of the United States to create a social charter for the hemisphere and start doing something about its startling inequalities. So, the following day we trooped over to the tropical splendour of the Hilton hotel to watch and hear a powerful personality in full flow. The ideas and plans tumbled out like sparks off a grinding wheel - the people of Latin America given the right to eat as well as vote; cheap oil for the poor of the US; free literacy classes and free eyecare for everyone in the western hemisphere; an international referendum on US sanctions against Cuba; the replacement of the OAS by something that would reflect Latin rather than US interests . . .
URGENT NEWS: War Porn webmaster arrested
URGENT NEWS: War Porn webmaster arrested
I couldn't believe this.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the web administrator of nowthatsfuckedup.com has been arrested by Polk County police on obscenity charges.
From an earlier posting:
I first read the War Porn story concerning Chris Wilson's nowthatsfuckedup website on Whatreallyhappened.com. They linked to a story on the East Bay Express.
This then led me to Just World News, a blog run by a war journalist and analyst, which had extensive material on the pornographic website.
Eventually CNN did a piece.
The BBC did a piece, which was short on content.
The Guardian ran an op/ed
Aljazeera's English website did a piece.
The New York Times played along. The NYT says they were not able to reach the website administrator. It may be he has gone underground for a while.
But there are fears that this may get swept under the rug. Some Iraqis I have spoken to no longer have faith in the US justice system as applied to Iraq.
Let's see how this plays out. So far, I applaud the Polk County officials. I hope no one comes around and calls it a violation of his first amendment rights.
I couldn't believe this.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the web administrator of nowthatsfuckedup.com has been arrested by Polk County police on obscenity charges.
From an earlier posting:
I first read the War Porn story concerning Chris Wilson's nowthatsfuckedup website on Whatreallyhappened.com. They linked to a story on the East Bay Express.
This then led me to Just World News, a blog run by a war journalist and analyst, which had extensive material on the pornographic website.
Eventually CNN did a piece.
The BBC did a piece, which was short on content.
The Guardian ran an op/ed
Aljazeera's English website did a piece.
The New York Times played along. The NYT says they were not able to reach the website administrator. It may be he has gone underground for a while.
But there are fears that this may get swept under the rug. Some Iraqis I have spoken to no longer have faith in the US justice system as applied to Iraq.
Let's see how this plays out. So far, I applaud the Polk County officials. I hope no one comes around and calls it a violation of his first amendment rights.
Hugo Chávez: "Tenemos una fuerte carta petrolera para jugar en la integración regional"
El presidente Hugo Chávez Frías suele dejar por donde pasa un resabio polémico. Y esta vez en Brasilia, donde asistió a la cumbre de la Comunidad Sudamericana, no fue la excepción. A sus colegas presidentes les dijo que no quería firmar acuerdos sin un debate político sobre la integración regional, y sobre cómo conducirla. "Se corre el riesgo de matar al niño antes de que nazca", alertó.
La mediación de Lula da Silva y de su ministro Celso Amorim convencieron al venezolano de firmar las declaraciones de la reunión. En una entrevista exclusiva con Clarín, en un hotel de Brasilia, Chávez insistió con esa imagen de una unión sudamericana todavía en pañales. Dijo que quiere jugar la "carta petrolera" como factor de unidad. Para él, los acuerdos energéticos son tan fuertes que pueden resistir huracanes. Ese tipo de pacto es el que firmó el jueves pasado con presidente Néstor Kirchner. Horas antes lo había hecho con Lula.
- Usted suele repetir que los presidentes van de cumbre en cumbre y los pueblos de abismo en abismo. ¿Se aplica a esta reunión?
- No se puede sacar la frase de contexto. Esta cumbre sudamericana registra avances, a pesar de que fue fundada hace 11 meses en Cuzco. Yo le diría que la Comunidad Sudamericana está preñada de la idea de integración, pero la criatura todavía no nació. Igual se aprovechó el tiempo al máximo: firmamos acuerdos interesantísimos con Brasil, entre Petrobrás y PDVSA, y también con el presidente Kirchner y sectores privados de su país.
La mediación de Lula da Silva y de su ministro Celso Amorim convencieron al venezolano de firmar las declaraciones de la reunión. En una entrevista exclusiva con Clarín, en un hotel de Brasilia, Chávez insistió con esa imagen de una unión sudamericana todavía en pañales. Dijo que quiere jugar la "carta petrolera" como factor de unidad. Para él, los acuerdos energéticos son tan fuertes que pueden resistir huracanes. Ese tipo de pacto es el que firmó el jueves pasado con presidente Néstor Kirchner. Horas antes lo había hecho con Lula.
- Usted suele repetir que los presidentes van de cumbre en cumbre y los pueblos de abismo en abismo. ¿Se aplica a esta reunión?
- No se puede sacar la frase de contexto. Esta cumbre sudamericana registra avances, a pesar de que fue fundada hace 11 meses en Cuzco. Yo le diría que la Comunidad Sudamericana está preñada de la idea de integración, pero la criatura todavía no nació. Igual se aprovechó el tiempo al máximo: firmamos acuerdos interesantísimos con Brasil, entre Petrobrás y PDVSA, y también con el presidente Kirchner y sectores privados de su país.
Bush's Tranformation from Obnoxious Drunk to Obnoxious Teetotaler
Bushie's renunciation of booze has gained such mythic status that many people (Republican true believers) conveniently overlook the fact that his renunciation of adult beverages was hardly a redemptive turn of fortune. All that happened was that Bush the obnoxious drunk became Bush the obnoxious teetotaler, proclaiming that his life was now in the hands of Jesus Christ, not Jim Beam...
Bush's prolonged sousitude also explains his verbal miscues, his syntactical insurgencies, his grammatical catastrophes. It's as if the bourbon marinade left deadly lacunae in his already diminutive brain, making it impossible for the most elementary thought to navigate its way through the decimated labyrinth of his frontal lobes.
Then there are the quirky smirks, the bug-eyed glares and goofy grimaces, his words and facial expressions so out of sync that you are reminded of a badly dubbed Japanese monster movie. Finally, what about all those lip gyrations when Bushie is under stress, the tiny mouth working this way and that as if it were engaged in attempting to remove the cap from a bottle? It must be the sauce.
Miers A Plant?
Seems like a no-brainer to us, though the same can't be said for many "liberal" voices: Miers, if she's the Presidential choice, cannot be good for the rest of us. And if it's true that KKKKKKarl Rove has been active in Harriet's ascension, we can be positive that there's a political angle at work here. There is nothing too cynical when it comes to these gangsters.
Of course, there could be a much more sinister reason for sending a true-blue Bush-woman to the court. Cheney, Karl Rove et al could be placing her there because they know that investigations into the CIA Leak and lobbyist Jack Abramoff will soon bring the world crashing down on their heads - and they are going to need a dependable swing vote - or, assuming she recuses herself on Bush matters, a spy - inside the Supreme Court.
[...]
At this moment, only two groups of people truly know the outcome of investigations into the current White House scandals: the investigators - and the guilty parties in the West Wing. While we are all speculating about what special prosecutors may or may not do, Team Bush has a precise forecast of the firestorm that awaits them, and they have been planning for this disaster for months.
The Bushistas dragged this country into a war for no other reason than noblesse oblige. Can there be any doubt that the sort of Banana Republicans who would take a country to war on an aristocratic whim would attempt to plant a crony on the Supreme Court?
So Bush gets a spy on the court. For her part, Miers gets a place in history beyond her wildest dreams. And Senate Democrats get a one-to-one replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The losers in this are the GOP’s wingnut base who elected Bush and, last but not least, the country.
Rule of thumb: if BushCo wants it, it's not good.
Of course, there could be a much more sinister reason for sending a true-blue Bush-woman to the court. Cheney, Karl Rove et al could be placing her there because they know that investigations into the CIA Leak and lobbyist Jack Abramoff will soon bring the world crashing down on their heads - and they are going to need a dependable swing vote - or, assuming she recuses herself on Bush matters, a spy - inside the Supreme Court.
[...]
At this moment, only two groups of people truly know the outcome of investigations into the current White House scandals: the investigators - and the guilty parties in the West Wing. While we are all speculating about what special prosecutors may or may not do, Team Bush has a precise forecast of the firestorm that awaits them, and they have been planning for this disaster for months.
The Bushistas dragged this country into a war for no other reason than noblesse oblige. Can there be any doubt that the sort of Banana Republicans who would take a country to war on an aristocratic whim would attempt to plant a crony on the Supreme Court?
So Bush gets a spy on the court. For her part, Miers gets a place in history beyond her wildest dreams. And Senate Democrats get a one-to-one replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The losers in this are the GOP’s wingnut base who elected Bush and, last but not least, the country.
Rule of thumb: if BushCo wants it, it's not good.
Kurt Nimmo
Avian Flu: Bush Cronyism and Crimes as Usual
“White House officials will meet with representatives from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry Friday to encourage them to get involved in making flu vaccine amid fears of an avian flu pandemic,” CNN reported yesterday. “Most U.S. drugmakers have stopped making flu vaccines for a variety of reasons, but many public health advocates believe having a reliable supply of the vaccine may be the best way to contain a ‘bird flu’ pandemic in humans,” a speculative pandemic that figured prominently in Bush’s press conference the other day.
Read the full post
October 7th, 2005
Osama: Back from the Dead
Like Lazarus in the New Testament, Osama bin Laden, dead and buried these last few years, will soon rise from the dead to wreak havoc on the Great Satan, the United States of America. “Osama bin laden is expected to remain in hiding until he stages another attack on the United States, an ex-CIA expert who had tracked the terror mastermind for two decades warned in an interview,” reports AFP. “Bin Laden last surfaced in a video footage aired on the eve of the US presidential elections in November last year. In the tape, declared authentic by the authorities, the Saudi-born radical directly admitted he ordered the September 11 attacks.” But it would appear these nameless “authorities” left their reading glasses at home because the man in the October 29, 2004, tape does not resemble Osama (see this animation).
Read the full post
“White House officials will meet with representatives from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry Friday to encourage them to get involved in making flu vaccine amid fears of an avian flu pandemic,” CNN reported yesterday. “Most U.S. drugmakers have stopped making flu vaccines for a variety of reasons, but many public health advocates believe having a reliable supply of the vaccine may be the best way to contain a ‘bird flu’ pandemic in humans,” a speculative pandemic that figured prominently in Bush’s press conference the other day.
Read the full post
October 7th, 2005
Osama: Back from the Dead
Like Lazarus in the New Testament, Osama bin Laden, dead and buried these last few years, will soon rise from the dead to wreak havoc on the Great Satan, the United States of America. “Osama bin laden is expected to remain in hiding until he stages another attack on the United States, an ex-CIA expert who had tracked the terror mastermind for two decades warned in an interview,” reports AFP. “Bin Laden last surfaced in a video footage aired on the eve of the US presidential elections in November last year. In the tape, declared authentic by the authorities, the Saudi-born radical directly admitted he ordered the September 11 attacks.” But it would appear these nameless “authorities” left their reading glasses at home because the man in the October 29, 2004, tape does not resemble Osama (see this animation).
Read the full post
Diga Não às armas e Sim à vida
Há organismos multilaterais que, de fato, funcionam como unilaterais. Aparentam muitos lados e possuem uma só face. É o caso do FMI. Nunca fez o gesto generoso de sugerir a um país devedor reduzir o seu superávit primário. Para quem não domina o economês, superávit primário é a porcentagem do PIB que o governo economiza para destinar aos credores. Dinheiro que deixa de ser aplicado no combate à fome, na saúde e na educação, e é canalizado para pagar a dívida e(x)terna.
Dom João VI, ao retornar a Portugal, limpou os cofres. O governo negociou com a Inglaterra empréstimo de 3 milhões de libras. Foi o primeiro mau passo, pois o dinheiro era para pagar dívidas e compensar desequilíbrios do orçamento, e não para incrementar a produção e gerar riquezas. Entre 1824-25, o Brasil tomou lá fora o equivalente a 12 mil contos de réis. Levou quarenta anos para resgatar 5 mil contos, e gastou com juros 60 mil contos, cinco vezes o que recebera. Martim Francisco, primeiro ministro da Fazenda, considerava perniciosos os empréstimos externos.
Quando FHC terminou seu segundo mandato no governo, o superávit era de 3,75%. Entrou Lula e subiu para 4,25%. Queria acalmar o mercado, que o fitava com olhos apreensivos. Os 4,25% constam no papel. Na prática, o governo enxuga mais dinheiro do mercado do que supõe a nossa vã impressão. Em 2003, o governo teve em mãos, para novos investimentos, apenas R$ 8 bilhões. E via superávit canalizou R$ 65 bilhões para amortizar os juros da dívida. A previsão para 2006 é o governo dispor de apenas R$ 12 bilhões, e entregar aos credores R$ 179 bilhões. Por muito menos Tiradentes reagiu.
Dom João VI, ao retornar a Portugal, limpou os cofres. O governo negociou com a Inglaterra empréstimo de 3 milhões de libras. Foi o primeiro mau passo, pois o dinheiro era para pagar dívidas e compensar desequilíbrios do orçamento, e não para incrementar a produção e gerar riquezas. Entre 1824-25, o Brasil tomou lá fora o equivalente a 12 mil contos de réis. Levou quarenta anos para resgatar 5 mil contos, e gastou com juros 60 mil contos, cinco vezes o que recebera. Martim Francisco, primeiro ministro da Fazenda, considerava perniciosos os empréstimos externos.
Quando FHC terminou seu segundo mandato no governo, o superávit era de 3,75%. Entrou Lula e subiu para 4,25%. Queria acalmar o mercado, que o fitava com olhos apreensivos. Os 4,25% constam no papel. Na prática, o governo enxuga mais dinheiro do mercado do que supõe a nossa vã impressão. Em 2003, o governo teve em mãos, para novos investimentos, apenas R$ 8 bilhões. E via superávit canalizou R$ 65 bilhões para amortizar os juros da dívida. A previsão para 2006 é o governo dispor de apenas R$ 12 bilhões, e entregar aos credores R$ 179 bilhões. Por muito menos Tiradentes reagiu.
Para viver os valores petistas é preciso sair do PT
O deputado Chico Alencar, recém-filiado ao Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (Psol), afirma em entrevista exclusiva ao Correio da Cidadania que a decisão de deixar o Partido dos Trabalhadores não foi nada fácil. Ele ressalta o longo e doloroso processo de amadurecimento com os militantes da sua base política e reconhece que a escolha pode implicar em perdas e não ser compreendida por parte da militância petista. Alencar afirma que o Psol é formado em sua maioria por ex-petistas descontentes com o rumo do Partido dos Trabalhadores e que seu estatuto tem uma grande virtude: somente se fecha uma questão com 75% de aprovação da instância
Correio da Cidadania: O que os motivou, diante da crise política, com evidente desmoralização do governo e do PT, a disputar o Processo de Eleição Direta (PED)?
Chico Alencar: Nós entendemos que deveríamos ter um diálogo com os milhares de militantes e filiados do PT e apresentamos uma candidatura à presidência e uma chapa que diziam: ou os militantes restauram radicalmente o partido, para que o PT reencontre sua própria história, ou nós estaríamos perdendo de maneira definitiva um importante instrumento político que pertence à classe trabalhadora brasileira.
Mas os resultados confirmaram aquela velha maioria do Campo Majoritário (CM), que levou o partido para este encalacrado em que ele se enfiou: tornando-se um partido cada vez mais vinculado aos aparatos do Estado, cada vez mais distante da sua própria base, cada vez mais separado do movimento vivo da sociedade, cada vez mais pensando em reproduzir somente os espaços de poderes. Infelizmente, o CM e seus aliados continuarão mandando no PT.
Correio da Cidadania: O que os motivou, diante da crise política, com evidente desmoralização do governo e do PT, a disputar o Processo de Eleição Direta (PED)?
Chico Alencar: Nós entendemos que deveríamos ter um diálogo com os milhares de militantes e filiados do PT e apresentamos uma candidatura à presidência e uma chapa que diziam: ou os militantes restauram radicalmente o partido, para que o PT reencontre sua própria história, ou nós estaríamos perdendo de maneira definitiva um importante instrumento político que pertence à classe trabalhadora brasileira.
Mas os resultados confirmaram aquela velha maioria do Campo Majoritário (CM), que levou o partido para este encalacrado em que ele se enfiou: tornando-se um partido cada vez mais vinculado aos aparatos do Estado, cada vez mais distante da sua própria base, cada vez mais separado do movimento vivo da sociedade, cada vez mais pensando em reproduzir somente os espaços de poderes. Infelizmente, o CM e seus aliados continuarão mandando no PT.
Friday, October 07, 2005
How the US Erase Women's Rights in Iraq
Prior to the arrival of U.S. forces, Iraqi women were free to go wherever they wish and wear whatever they like. The 1970 Iraqi constitution, gave Iraqi women equity and liberty unmatched in the Muslim World. Since the U.S. invasion, Iraqi women's rights have fallen to the lowest level in Iraq's history. Under the new U.S.-crafted constitution, which will be put to referendum on the 15 October while the bloodbath mounts each day, women's rights will be oppressed and the role of women in Iraqi society will be curtailed and relegated to the caring for "children and the elderly".
Immediately after the invasion, the U.S. embarked on cultivating friendships with religious groups and clerics. The aim was the complete destruction of nationalist movements, including women's rights movements, and replacing them with expatriate religious fanatics and criminals piggybacked from Iran, the U.S. and Britain. In the mean time the U.S. moved to liquidate any Iraqi opposition or dissent to the Occupation.
Immediately after the invasion, the U.S. embarked on cultivating friendships with religious groups and clerics. The aim was the complete destruction of nationalist movements, including women's rights movements, and replacing them with expatriate religious fanatics and criminals piggybacked from Iran, the U.S. and Britain. In the mean time the U.S. moved to liquidate any Iraqi opposition or dissent to the Occupation.
Setting Iran up for a preemptive strike, possibly with nukes
It's a scam. Who would ever have thought after the Iraq tragedy that the US and its client states would have had the chutzpah to repeat their dismal performance?
When the rumblings from the White House and the Israeli Knesset first began over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions, I thought their accusations would be laughed out of court. I was wrong.
I was wrong because I hadn't realised the depths to which some powerful nations would sink, even to the point of binning international law along with empirical justice, in furthering their own interests.
I was wrong because I failed to realise just how much other countries fear the wrath of the superpower or wish to continue receiving the monetary scraps that fall off its table.
And I was wrong because I had underestimated the lengths to which elements of Western corporate media would go to spin the story in favour of the belligerents.
And neither did I fathom just how deep the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, would bury facts to appease the political agendas of its more powerful masters when it has been accused of doing the same over Iraq with such terrible consequences.
Let's get specific.
When the rumblings from the White House and the Israeli Knesset first began over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions, I thought their accusations would be laughed out of court. I was wrong.
I was wrong because I hadn't realised the depths to which some powerful nations would sink, even to the point of binning international law along with empirical justice, in furthering their own interests.
I was wrong because I failed to realise just how much other countries fear the wrath of the superpower or wish to continue receiving the monetary scraps that fall off its table.
And I was wrong because I had underestimated the lengths to which elements of Western corporate media would go to spin the story in favour of the belligerents.
And neither did I fathom just how deep the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, would bury facts to appease the political agendas of its more powerful masters when it has been accused of doing the same over Iraq with such terrible consequences.
Let's get specific.
The Nazi Nine
The U.S. Senators who voted for torture:
Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)
Ask not for whom the war crimes tribunal asks, it asks for you.
(Via War and Piece)
Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)
Ask not for whom the war crimes tribunal asks, it asks for you.
(Via War and Piece)
The Axis Enemy Series: Which Rogue Nation?
What do you call a Nation that is defiant of, and routinely violates International Law; one who invokes International Law, only when it serves its own interests, acting unilaterally when it does not?
How is a Nation defined when it demands accountability for other Nations while denying the rest of the world the ability to ensure, and enforce, accountability upon itself; when its military might is used to enforce its ideology and agenda, basing its entire existence on the Rule of Coercion and Force?
What do you call a Nation that maintains and continues to pursue newer and better Weapons of Mass Destruction; when it exports those weapons around the world?
How should a Nation, that plans, supports, funds, and executes aggressions against other sovereign Nations, without regard for their legality, be viewed?
What is the definition of a State that engages in and supports terrorism when it suits its own interests and agenda, acting in the interests of the elite, without regard for its own citizens, or the citizens of other Nations?
The US labels Nations that exhibit these actions as "Rogue States." Ironic; the US defined the "Rogue Nation" concept and is now defined by it.
How is a Nation defined when it demands accountability for other Nations while denying the rest of the world the ability to ensure, and enforce, accountability upon itself; when its military might is used to enforce its ideology and agenda, basing its entire existence on the Rule of Coercion and Force?
What do you call a Nation that maintains and continues to pursue newer and better Weapons of Mass Destruction; when it exports those weapons around the world?
How should a Nation, that plans, supports, funds, and executes aggressions against other sovereign Nations, without regard for their legality, be viewed?
What is the definition of a State that engages in and supports terrorism when it suits its own interests and agenda, acting in the interests of the elite, without regard for its own citizens, or the citizens of other Nations?
The US labels Nations that exhibit these actions as "Rogue States." Ironic; the US defined the "Rogue Nation" concept and is now defined by it.
Ojeda's assassination gives fresh impetus to the independence struggle
CAPITALISM creates its own gravediggers, as Karl Marx and Frederich Engels explained in the Communist Manifesto. And the U.S. government, in its latest attack on the Puerto Rican people's struggle to free themselves from U.S. colonial rule, has not only revealed how alive that struggle is, it has given it new impetus.
After the FBI assassinated long-time independence fighter Filiberto Ojeda Ríos on September 23, rage exploded among Puerto Ricans and others everywhere, whether or not they identify themselves as independentistas (pro-independence). Some 300 agents surrounded the 72-year-old's home in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico - supposedly to arrest him for the 1983 robbery of an armored car –, refused his offer to turn himself in to a well-known journalist, shot him and left him to bleed to death.
Thousands demonstrated against this murder, both on the island and in the United States itself, where more than 1 million Puerto Ricans live. Thousands of people attended Ojeda's wake and funeral, and students and others took down the U.S. flag from various points around the island in protest.
After the FBI assassinated long-time independence fighter Filiberto Ojeda Ríos on September 23, rage exploded among Puerto Ricans and others everywhere, whether or not they identify themselves as independentistas (pro-independence). Some 300 agents surrounded the 72-year-old's home in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico - supposedly to arrest him for the 1983 robbery of an armored car –, refused his offer to turn himself in to a well-known journalist, shot him and left him to bleed to death.
Thousands demonstrated against this murder, both on the island and in the United States itself, where more than 1 million Puerto Ricans live. Thousands of people attended Ojeda's wake and funeral, and students and others took down the U.S. flag from various points around the island in protest.
Un médico diferente para una nueva forma de brindar salud
Se inicia el Programa de Formación en Medicina Integral Comunitaria. El plan de trabajo se divide en dos fases. Se utilizan nuevos escenarios de aprendizaje. Los estudiantes serán becados. Fraguamos el camino hacia un nuevo Sistema Público Nacional de Salud.
Por años, en Venezuela se aplica un modelo de formación en medicina desvinculado de las necesidades de las comunidades, que desestima el saber popular, considera el aula como el escenario de enseñanza por excelencia e impulsa la practica de una medicina individualizada, en la que están fragmentadas las distintas disciplinas en el abordaje de la enfermedad, en consecuencia, favorece una visión mercantilista que resguarda principalmente a grupos privilegiados.
¿Hacia dónde vamos? El país camina hacia un nuevo Sistema Público Nacional de Salud. Es un objetivo estratégico de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela transformar el modo como se viene prestando la atención de salud, tomando en cuenta para ello los principios de equidad, solidaridad, prevención y calidad que constituyen retos para la nueva sociedad que está en construcción en Venezuela.
Por años, en Venezuela se aplica un modelo de formación en medicina desvinculado de las necesidades de las comunidades, que desestima el saber popular, considera el aula como el escenario de enseñanza por excelencia e impulsa la practica de una medicina individualizada, en la que están fragmentadas las distintas disciplinas en el abordaje de la enfermedad, en consecuencia, favorece una visión mercantilista que resguarda principalmente a grupos privilegiados.
¿Hacia dónde vamos? El país camina hacia un nuevo Sistema Público Nacional de Salud. Es un objetivo estratégico de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela transformar el modo como se viene prestando la atención de salud, tomando en cuenta para ello los principios de equidad, solidaridad, prevención y calidad que constituyen retos para la nueva sociedad que está en construcción en Venezuela.
NED (a CIA front) - Imperialists in Democratic Clothing
With his ratings in the tank and desperately in need of a boost, not to mention a distraction from the sudden impotence of his administration, this week President Bush fell back on what worked so successfully for him in the past: fostering fear and promoting war.
Originally scheduled to mark the anniversary of 9/11, but postponed so that Bush and his cronies could ignore Hurricane Katrina, Bush delivered his latest pro-war screed to the ludicrously misnamed National Endowment for Democracy. A government-funded, semi-private organization (which happens to be free of Congressional oversight), the NED is a darling of the neo-conservatives and shares membership with the Project for a New American Century. Created by Reagan in the 1980s, ostensibly to promote "free market democracies" through "the magic of the marketplace," the NED's interests and practices are anything but democratic. As can be gleaned from its stated goals, the NED's notion of "democracies" are countries friendly to U.S. corporate interests. If a country isn't "democratic" enough already, the NED uses U.S. taxpayer money to subversively fund and instigate regime change.
Originally scheduled to mark the anniversary of 9/11, but postponed so that Bush and his cronies could ignore Hurricane Katrina, Bush delivered his latest pro-war screed to the ludicrously misnamed National Endowment for Democracy. A government-funded, semi-private organization (which happens to be free of Congressional oversight), the NED is a darling of the neo-conservatives and shares membership with the Project for a New American Century. Created by Reagan in the 1980s, ostensibly to promote "free market democracies" through "the magic of the marketplace," the NED's interests and practices are anything but democratic. As can be gleaned from its stated goals, the NED's notion of "democracies" are countries friendly to U.S. corporate interests. If a country isn't "democratic" enough already, the NED uses U.S. taxpayer money to subversively fund and instigate regime change.
Kill! Kill! Kill! - Ex-Marine tells his story about US brutality in Iraq
Former staff sergeant Jimmy Massey explains why US faces bloody insurgency in Iraq.
US military training has created troops so desensitised to violence that battleground brutality in Iraq is rampant -- and has helped fuel the bloody insurgency seen there today, a new book released Thursday in France by a former Marine says.
Jimmy Massey, a former staff sergeant, said that the daily attacks now doled out to US-led forces and Iraqi civilians are "because of the brutality that the Iraqi people saw at the start of the invasion."
In his book, " Kill! Kill! Kill!", he says he and other Marines in his unit killed dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians because of an exaggerated sense of threat, and that they often experienced sexual-type thrills doing so.
The book was being released first in France -- and in French -- because, he said, "I didn't find an American publisher."
The French journalist who helped him write the work, Natasha Saulnier, said she believed the US companies were reluctant to touch the book because its "controversial" nature threatened commercial interests and the US public's image of their fighting forces.
US military training has created troops so desensitised to violence that battleground brutality in Iraq is rampant -- and has helped fuel the bloody insurgency seen there today, a new book released Thursday in France by a former Marine says.
Jimmy Massey, a former staff sergeant, said that the daily attacks now doled out to US-led forces and Iraqi civilians are "because of the brutality that the Iraqi people saw at the start of the invasion."
In his book, " Kill! Kill! Kill!", he says he and other Marines in his unit killed dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians because of an exaggerated sense of threat, and that they often experienced sexual-type thrills doing so.
The book was being released first in France -- and in French -- because, he said, "I didn't find an American publisher."
The French journalist who helped him write the work, Natasha Saulnier, said she believed the US companies were reluctant to touch the book because its "controversial" nature threatened commercial interests and the US public's image of their fighting forces.
II Asamblea de Jóvenes involucra a 18 países
Mañana 7 de Octubre inicia la II Asamblea de Jóvenes de la Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC), en la ciudad de Guatemala; en la que participarán aproximadamente 120 jóvenes de 40 organizaciones. El evento que clausurará el día 8 del mes en curso tiene como objetivo contribuir a la consolidación de compromisos y la formación de un movimiento de jóvenes del campo en pos de fortalecimiento de las organizaciones campesinas e indígenas de todo el mundo, además de fortalecer las luchas contra las políticas imperialistas.
Esta segunda Asamblea tiene como lema “Jóvenes de CLOC unidos/as contra el saqueo capitalista cultivando y defendiendo unidas/as, la vida, la tierra, el territorio, la soberanía alimentaria, la autonomía de nuestros pueblos.” Entre los temas de discusión figuran: Militarización, Migración, Reforma Agraria, Racismo y educación.
El encuentro tendrá como base el IV Congreso de la CLOC.
Esta segunda Asamblea tiene como lema “Jóvenes de CLOC unidos/as contra el saqueo capitalista cultivando y defendiendo unidas/as, la vida, la tierra, el territorio, la soberanía alimentaria, la autonomía de nuestros pueblos.” Entre los temas de discusión figuran: Militarización, Migración, Reforma Agraria, Racismo y educación.
El encuentro tendrá como base el IV Congreso de la CLOC.
Cuando los narcos vienen marchando
Información divulgada recientemente en México reveló que los carteles internacionales de la droga ya no adiestran sicarios. Les resulta más barato enviar jóvenes marginales a centros de entrenamiento del ejército, la policía y las fuerzas especiales de combate en distintos países.
Guatemala : capital campesina de Latinoamérica
Guatemala, uno de los países de Centroamérica, que sufre el aumento de la pobreza y la miseria en el campo, y que ha sido duramente golpeada por fuertes lluvias causadas por tormentas tropicales que han agravado esta situación, se ha convertido desde ahora hasta el 12 de octubre, en la Capital del movimiento campesino organizado de América Latina. En efecto, en país de los “chapines”, se desarrollará el IV Congreso Continental de la Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo, CLOC; durante los días 9, 10 y 11 de octubre.
Bill Bennett's Fantasy: Freak in Life, Demon in Imagination
Comedian Richard Pryor posed a question about how and whether America saw black people in its future. He noted that futuristic science fiction films rarely if ever had black characters. Was this absence a creative oversight or were we being given a hint?
Hollywood invariably presents the fantasies and desires of white Americans, particularly those of white men. If we pay attention, we notice that film producers aren't alone in revealing very telling yet frightening thoughts about black people.
William Bennett is the intellectual representative of the right wing. He served as Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration and as "drug czar" in the first Bush administration. After his days of government service he created a cottage industry of conservative tomes to scold and moralize to the rest of us. His best seller, The Book of Virtues, was followed by a plethora of books with the words virtues, values or morals in the titles.
Bill Bennett and Other Runaway Ideologues
Former Education Secretary, William Bennett's comments last week, tying the crime rate dropping to giving every black woman an abortion (his quote exactly; "But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that was your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."), is just the latest of a string of vile excrement coming from a conservative far right movement gone awry. They're outta control, so arrogant, so disconnected from reality, so full of their own twisted ideology that they can't even see how insensitive they seem, how incoherent they sound, and how weak they’re making America look.
How do other nations respect a nation that doesn’t take care of its own? With the confirmation of Chief Justice, John Roberts, under their belt, the Republican Party’s neo-con element are "feelin' themselves," "teeing off" with regularity on how they see the world from their ideological prism, and with a consistency that they couldn't do in Baby Bush's first term.
How do other nations respect a nation that doesn’t take care of its own? With the confirmation of Chief Justice, John Roberts, under their belt, the Republican Party’s neo-con element are "feelin' themselves," "teeing off" with regularity on how they see the world from their ideological prism, and with a consistency that they couldn't do in Baby Bush's first term.
Where the Left Lives: Black America is the Core
"The great political divide in America today is not red vs. blue, north vs. south, coastal vs. interior, or even rich vs. poor - it is now clearly black vs. white." This was the conclusion of the Bay Area Center For Voting Research upon the release of their report listing the 236 US cities with populations of 100,000 or more in order of how "liberal" or how "conservative" they are. Researchers at BACVR reached what is to us at BC an unsurprising conclusion:
"The nation’s remaining liberals are overwhelming African Americans."
"The BACVR study that ranks the political ideology of every major city in the country shows that cities with large black populations dominate the list of liberal communities. The research finds that Detroit is the most liberal city in the United States and has one of the highest concentrations of African American residents of any major city. Over 81% of the population in Detroit is African American, compared to the national average of 12.3%. In fact, the average percentage of African American residents in the 25 most liberal cities in the country is 40.3%, more than three times the national rate."
"The list of America's most liberal cities reads like a who's who of prominent African American communities. Gary, Washington D.C., Newark, Flint, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Birmingham have long had prominent black populations. While most black voters have consistently supported Democrats since the 1960s, it is the white liberals that have slowly withered away over the decades, leaving African Americans as the sole standard bearers for the left…."
"While there are some noteworthy pockets of liberals who are not African American, these places end up being the exceptions. College towns like Berkeley and Cambridge have modest black populations, but remain bastions of upper middle-class, white, intellectual liberalism. These liberal communities, however, are more reminiscent of penguins clustering together around a shrinking iceberg, than of a vibrant growing political movement."
An Evolution of Lies
While I was throwing out old newspapers recently, I stumbled upon a TV Weekly, or whatever it’s called, which had an illustration relevant to PBS’s special on Evolution as its cover, since that program was supposed to be the highlight of that week. When I saw it, it immediately reminded me of a qualm I’ve had since high school – why the funk is the fellow at the end of the evolutionary gamut not black, if the first humans on Earth were darkies? The first man, as depicted on the chart has a ruddy complexion, but he’s still definitely a pale face. Why the discrepancy?
The frickin' "hu" in human is short for "hue," which itself means pigment. Everyone, at least in the scientific community, knows about Eve. Every encyclopedia I’ve read acknowledges the people referred to as Australoid, known familiarly as the Aborigines, are the oldest "race" on the planet. (Yea, those people that too few know founded the Indus River Civilization, migrated all the way from India to Australia millennia before the rest of the world knew what direction was north, and might have been North America’s first colonizers.) Vitamin D synthesis as a description of how pale-skinned people ("Caucasoids," "Mongoloids") arose on our planet has been around at least 25 years.
So why, I emphatically posit again, haven't I ever seen one stinkin' illustration of evolution that got it right?! Why have I never seen a brown personage at the end of the line of more and more erect-standing creatures?
The frickin' "hu" in human is short for "hue," which itself means pigment. Everyone, at least in the scientific community, knows about Eve. Every encyclopedia I’ve read acknowledges the people referred to as Australoid, known familiarly as the Aborigines, are the oldest "race" on the planet. (Yea, those people that too few know founded the Indus River Civilization, migrated all the way from India to Australia millennia before the rest of the world knew what direction was north, and might have been North America’s first colonizers.) Vitamin D synthesis as a description of how pale-skinned people ("Caucasoids," "Mongoloids") arose on our planet has been around at least 25 years.
So why, I emphatically posit again, haven't I ever seen one stinkin' illustration of evolution that got it right?! Why have I never seen a brown personage at the end of the line of more and more erect-standing creatures?
How the World Was Duped: The Race to Invade Iraq
The 5th of February 2003 was a snow-blasted day in New York, the steam whirling out of the road covers, the US secret servicemen - helpfully wearing jackets with "Secret Service" printed on them - hugging themselves outside the fustian, asbestos-packed UN headquarters on the East River. Exhausted though I was after travelling thousands of miles around the United States, the idea of watching Secretary of State Colin Powell - or General Powell, as he was now being reverently redubbed in some American newspapers - make his last pitch for war before the Security Council was an experience not to be missed.
In a few days, I would be in Baghdad to watch the start of this frivolous, demented conflict. Powell's appearance at the Security Council was the essential prologue to the tragedy - or tragicomedy if one could contain one's anger - the appearance of the Attendant Lord who would explain the story of the drama, the Horatio to the increasingly unstable Hamlet in the White House. There was an almost macabre opening to the play when General Powell arrived at the Security Council, cheek-kissing the delegates and winding his great arms around them. CIA director George Tenet stood behind Powell, chunky, aggressive but obedient, just a little bit lip-biting, an Edward G Robinson who must have convinced himself that the more dubious of his information was buried beneath an adequate depth of moral fury and fear to be safely concealed. Just like Bush's appearance at the General Assembly the previous September, you needed to be in the Security Council to see what the television cameras missed. There was a wonderful moment when the little British home secretary Jack Straw entered the chamber through the far right-hand door in a massive power suit, his double-breasted jacket apparently wrapping itself twice around Britain's most famous ex-Trot. He stood for a moment with a kind of semi-benign smile on his uplifted face, his nose in the air as if sniffing for power. Then he saw Powell and his smile opened like an umbrella as his small feet, scuttling beneath him, propelled him across the stage and into the arms of Powell for his big American hug.
In a few days, I would be in Baghdad to watch the start of this frivolous, demented conflict. Powell's appearance at the Security Council was the essential prologue to the tragedy - or tragicomedy if one could contain one's anger - the appearance of the Attendant Lord who would explain the story of the drama, the Horatio to the increasingly unstable Hamlet in the White House. There was an almost macabre opening to the play when General Powell arrived at the Security Council, cheek-kissing the delegates and winding his great arms around them. CIA director George Tenet stood behind Powell, chunky, aggressive but obedient, just a little bit lip-biting, an Edward G Robinson who must have convinced himself that the more dubious of his information was buried beneath an adequate depth of moral fury and fear to be safely concealed. Just like Bush's appearance at the General Assembly the previous September, you needed to be in the Security Council to see what the television cameras missed. There was a wonderful moment when the little British home secretary Jack Straw entered the chamber through the far right-hand door in a massive power suit, his double-breasted jacket apparently wrapping itself twice around Britain's most famous ex-Trot. He stood for a moment with a kind of semi-benign smile on his uplifted face, his nose in the air as if sniffing for power. Then he saw Powell and his smile opened like an umbrella as his small feet, scuttling beneath him, propelled him across the stage and into the arms of Powell for his big American hug.
Diary of a Vietcong doctor: The Anne Frank of Vietnam
"I had to do an appendix operation without enough medicine. Only a few tubes of Novocain, but the wounded young soldier never cried out or yelled. He continued to smile to encourage me. Looking at the forced smile on his dry lips, knowing his fatigue, I felt so sorry for him ... I lightly stroked his hair. I would like to say to him, 'Patients like you who I cannot cure cause me the most sorrow, and their memory will not fade'."
So begins the diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a North Vietnamese army doctor who fought Americans in the Vietnam war and died defending her hospital from US attack. Since the diary's re-emergence this year after 35 years in the hands of a US veteran, it has become a phenomenon, selling more than 300,000 copies, generating numerous translations and a television show and causing a wave of patriotic nostalgia among young Vietnamese.
So begins the diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a North Vietnamese army doctor who fought Americans in the Vietnam war and died defending her hospital from US attack. Since the diary's re-emergence this year after 35 years in the hands of a US veteran, it has become a phenomenon, selling more than 300,000 copies, generating numerous translations and a television show and causing a wave of patriotic nostalgia among young Vietnamese.
Bush's D'oh! Factor
I have a slogan for the Bush administration: "D'oh!"
This President begins every new project, be it foreign or domestic, with the boyish enthusiasm of Homer Simpson. Just let his pals down at Moe's plant the seed of a half-baked notion in his head and George takes it from there.
Enthusiasm is a good thing when exercised by the rational and competent. But when exercised by a dimwit, all that passion and energy can only end with a resounding, "d'oh!"
And so it has come to pass with another of George's economic brainstorms. It all began after a few beers. The fellas at Moe's were discussing how high US corporate tax rates were forcing corporations to hide more and more of their profits overseas. Lenny suggested that maybe we could get that money repatriated if we gave those companies a freebee, let them bring the money back into their own country for practically nothing.
This President begins every new project, be it foreign or domestic, with the boyish enthusiasm of Homer Simpson. Just let his pals down at Moe's plant the seed of a half-baked notion in his head and George takes it from there.
Enthusiasm is a good thing when exercised by the rational and competent. But when exercised by a dimwit, all that passion and energy can only end with a resounding, "d'oh!"
And so it has come to pass with another of George's economic brainstorms. It all began after a few beers. The fellas at Moe's were discussing how high US corporate tax rates were forcing corporations to hide more and more of their profits overseas. Lenny suggested that maybe we could get that money repatriated if we gave those companies a freebee, let them bring the money back into their own country for practically nothing.
Flim-Flam and Hoo-Hah
Everybody and his dog in the political commentating trade now agrees the Bush administration is experiencing hard times -- the going is getting tough, and Bush is getting testy.
It seems to me what we are looking at was put best by noted journalist Billy Don Moyers, formerly of Marshall, Texas, who was home last week and observed that the Republican right came to Washington to start a revolution and stayed to run a racket. It has become a game of ideological flim-flam, a scam in which all manner of distracting hoo-hah - abortion, judicial activism, even "the war on terra" - is used to obscure the fact that the government has been taken over by people who are using it to make money for themselves and their friends.
''Sino-U.S. Energy Competition in Africa''
With oil prices hitting record levels of US$70 per barrel in recent weeks, major energy consuming countries are engaging in an increasingly heated competition for energy resources on the world stage. Nowhere is this more evident than between the United States and China, the world's first and second largest energy consuming countries respectively. In the contest for energy resources, numerous "stages" of competition are emerging, including the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America, and the East and South China Seas. However, Africa is fast emerging as one of the most volatile stages of Sino-U.S. energy competition, given its vast reserves of energy resources and concentration of internal security crises. [See: "Setting the Stage for a New Cold War: China's Quest for Energy Security"]
Africa owns about eight percent of the world's known oil reserves with Nigeria, Libya and Equatorial Guinea as the region's leading oil producers. Seventy percent of Africa's oil production is concentrated in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, which stretches from the Ivory Coast to Angola. The low sulphur content of West African crude makes it of further strategic importance.
However, the region is also vulnerable to instabilities ranging from piracy to terrorism, interstate and tribal conflict, AIDS and political uncertainties. Given the weak governments and significant Muslim populations of the region, the African continent may also emerge as a hub for al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups.
Finally, oil-rich countries in Africa have been unable to escape the "curse of oil," which has fueled corruption, conflict, and environmental degradation across the region. For instance, while Nigeria has earned US$300 billion in oil revenues over the last 25 years, per capita income remains below US$1 per day. Nigeria is also subject to ethnic violence, oil strikes and sporadic attacks on oil infrastructure by the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force. Adding Sino-U.S. energy competition to this volatile mix could further destabilize the region.
Africa owns about eight percent of the world's known oil reserves with Nigeria, Libya and Equatorial Guinea as the region's leading oil producers. Seventy percent of Africa's oil production is concentrated in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, which stretches from the Ivory Coast to Angola. The low sulphur content of West African crude makes it of further strategic importance.
However, the region is also vulnerable to instabilities ranging from piracy to terrorism, interstate and tribal conflict, AIDS and political uncertainties. Given the weak governments and significant Muslim populations of the region, the African continent may also emerge as a hub for al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups.
Finally, oil-rich countries in Africa have been unable to escape the "curse of oil," which has fueled corruption, conflict, and environmental degradation across the region. For instance, while Nigeria has earned US$300 billion in oil revenues over the last 25 years, per capita income remains below US$1 per day. Nigeria is also subject to ethnic violence, oil strikes and sporadic attacks on oil infrastructure by the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force. Adding Sino-U.S. energy competition to this volatile mix could further destabilize the region.
Has the Age of Chaos Begun? The Other Hurricane
Discussions of "tipping points" have, in recent times, largely been relegated to the war in Iraq where such moments, regularly predicted by the Bush administration, never arrive. In the meantime, an actual tipping point may have been creeping up on us on another front entirely, one that is anathema to this administration -- that of climate change.
The latest news from scientists laboring in cold climes has been startling. The expanse of Arctic sea ice has been shrinking in the summer since the late 1970s, though usually rebounding to near normal levels in the winter. Until recently. For the last few years, winter ice cover has been shrinking as well. This will be the fourth consecutive year of record, or near record, shrinkage of September sea ice in the Arctic. Scientists speculate that a threshold has been crossed.
The latest news from scientists laboring in cold climes has been startling. The expanse of Arctic sea ice has been shrinking in the summer since the late 1970s, though usually rebounding to near normal levels in the winter. Until recently. For the last few years, winter ice cover has been shrinking as well. This will be the fourth consecutive year of record, or near record, shrinkage of September sea ice in the Arctic. Scientists speculate that a threshold has been crossed.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Is the Dollar Still Falling?
In his classic work, The General Theory, published in the depths of the 1930s Depression, John Maynard Keynes famously observed that "Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done."
Security fears as flu virus that killed 50 million is recreated
Scientists have recreated the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of the deadliest ever to emerge, to the alarm of many researchers who fear it presents a serious security risk.
Undisclosed quantities of the virus are being held in a high-security government laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, after a nine-year effort to rebuild the agent that swept the globe in record time and claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people.
The genetic sequence is also being made available to scientists online, a move which some fear adds a further risk of the virus being created in other labs.
The recreation was carried out in an attempt to understand what made the 1918 outbreak so devastating. Reporting in the journal Science, a team lead by Dr Jeffery Taubenberger at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland shows that the recreated virus is extremely effective. When injected into mice, it quickly took hold and they started to lose weight rapidly, shedding 13% of their original weight in just two days. Within six days, all mice injected with the virus had died.
Undisclosed quantities of the virus are being held in a high-security government laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, after a nine-year effort to rebuild the agent that swept the globe in record time and claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people.
The genetic sequence is also being made available to scientists online, a move which some fear adds a further risk of the virus being created in other labs.
The recreation was carried out in an attempt to understand what made the 1918 outbreak so devastating. Reporting in the journal Science, a team lead by Dr Jeffery Taubenberger at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland shows that the recreated virus is extremely effective. When injected into mice, it quickly took hold and they started to lose weight rapidly, shedding 13% of their original weight in just two days. Within six days, all mice injected with the virus had died.
Defense Analyst Guilty in Israeli Espionage Case
A Defense Department analyst pleaded guilty yesterday to passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and revealed for the first time that he also gave classified information directly to an Israeli government official in Washington.
Lawrence A. Franklin told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that he met at least eight times with Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy before being recalled last summer.
The guilty plea and Franklin's account appeared to cast doubt on long-standing denials by Israeli officials that they engage in any intelligence activities in the United States. The possibility of continued Israeli spying in Washington has been a sensitive subject between the two governments since Jonathan J. Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, admitted to spying for Israel in 1987 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Lawrence A. Franklin told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that he met at least eight times with Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy before being recalled last summer.
The guilty plea and Franklin's account appeared to cast doubt on long-standing denials by Israeli officials that they engage in any intelligence activities in the United States. The possibility of continued Israeli spying in Washington has been a sensitive subject between the two governments since Jonathan J. Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, admitted to spying for Israel in 1987 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Cheney: Prepare for Decades of Mass Murder
It seems we, the people of the United States, will accept whatever nonsense our rulers dispense, and without asking serious questions. For instance, Bush, speaking before "a pro-democracy group," as the New York Times describes the National Endowment for Democracy, a subversive group that specializes in meddling in the elections of other countries and installing neolib sycophants, "used some of his toughest language… to assert that the war in Iraq was vital to a crucial struggle against terrorists," for instance terrorists created by the CIA and its helpers in Afghanistan and elsewhere. "The influence of Islamic radicalism is also magnified by helpers and enablers," Bush told the oxymoronic "democracy" organization. "They have been sheltered by authoritarian regimes, allies of convenience, like Syria and Iran, that share the goal of hurting America and moderate Muslim governments, and use terrorist propaganda to blame their own failures on the West and America and on the Jews." Of course, there is no evidence Syria and Iran are "sheltering" anything of the sort, and Bush was unable to prove Iraq sheltered Osama bin Laden or possessed weapons of mass destruction capable of inflicting untold terror in fifteen minutes, a smoking gun mushroom cloud, as a dissembling Condi Rice deemed it.
Wayne Madsen Report
October 6, 2005 -- After it was reported that Karl Rove had agreed to give further testimony to the Grand Jury investigating the CIA leak, Rove's attorney Robert Luskin denied his client had received a target letter from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, a formal "heads up" sent to individuals who are about to be indicted. However, it is being reported from well-informed sources throughout Washington that 1) target letters have been sent to Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Ari Fleischer; 2) Rove has agreed to testify and possibly agree to a plea bargain agreement in return for his testimony against other targets of the criminal probe; 3) Cheney and Bush may be named as unindicted co-conspirators; 4) Bush's "war speech" before the National Endowment for Democracy and a late Thursday afternoon report that "19 operatives" have arrived in New York City to place bombs on subway trains are blatant attempts by the White House to divert attention from the impending indictments against the Bush White House. The main stream media is just beginning to take notice that a "Watergate-level event" is about to occur in Washington.
October 6, 2005 -- Espionage and spy scandals mushroom in Washington. Yesterday was a busy day for Federal investigators involved in pursuing espionage cases and the compromise of classified information. First there was the guilty plea entered by Larry Franklin, an Air Force Reserve Colonel and former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst assigned to the now-defunct neo-con policy mill and alternative intelligence and special operations office, the Office of Special Plans. Franklin, who acceded to a plea agreement with U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia Paul McNulty, for the first time admitted that he passed classified information to Naor Gilon, the political officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington who was quickly recalled by Jerusalem after the espionage story surfaced. Gilon is reported to have been the Mossad station chief in Washington.
McNulty has charged two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) with illegally receiving classified information, including information on Iran, from Franklin. The indictment against former AIPAC director Steve Rosen alleges that he passed classified information obtained from Franklin to "a senior fellow at a Washington, D.C., think tank." Informed sources report that McNulty's espionage investigation continues to focus on the "senior fellow," as well as other Israeli government officials. With Franklin's cooperation, it is expected that further indictments may be forthcoming.
Espionage diversions in Washington to take attention away from AIPACgate and the CIA leak case?
Franklin also implicated Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Franklin said he kept 83 classified documents, including Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), at his West Virginia home to be prepared to answer "point blank" questions from senior Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld.
Israel has long maintained that as a "close U.S. ally," it does not spy on the United States. That stance makes the story that ABC News broke late yesterday all the more bizarre. It was revealed that a Philippine spy ring was operating in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The Philippines is also a U.S. ally. The espionage case surrounded Leandro Aragoncillo, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines who was assigned to the Vice President's staff in 1999 while a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. Al Gore was Vice President when Aragoncillo was first assigned to the White House. Aragoncillo was charged with stealing classified information in Cheney's office that dealt with detrimental information on Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Aragoncillo was accused of passing the information to opposition politicians in the Philippines who were trying to oust Arroyo.
Aragoncillo went to work for the FBI at an intelligence office at Fort Monmouth, NJ. It was there the FBI began its espionage investigation of the FBI employee after it was discovered he was downloading and transmitting by e-mail classified documents, including some 36 secret documents, from the FBI computer system. The documents reportedly contained information on the Philippines. It would have been unusual for the FBI to have held so many classified documents on the Philippines, a country that is not considered to be a hostile intelligence nation and is not placed by the FBI in the same category as such nations as China, Israel, Russia, Taiwan, India, North Korea, and South Korea. A former Philippine National Police deputy director, Michael Ray Aquino, was accused of receiving the documents from Aquino. Last March, Aquino was arrested by Federal authorities on unrelated immigration charges.
It is also suspicious that ABC News ran a photo taken of Aragoncillo with Vice President Gore. There was also a suggestion that Aragoncillo worked with then-President Bill Clinton.
On October 4, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents announced they had arrested three foreign nationals, two Indonesians and one Senegalese, at the Joint Special Operations Command Center in Fort Bragg for visa violations. The three were contract language instructors hired by B.I.B. Consultants of Orlando, Florida to provide language instruction in Indonesian and Wolof to U.S. Special Operations personnel. The Special Operations Command stressed the three did not have access to classified information. However, courses offered at Fort Bragg range from unclassified to top secret.
Some informed intelligence specialists have speculated the White House and Fort Bragg cases were announced to divert media attention away from imminent indictments in the CIA leak case, as well as the widening case against Israel for espionage at the Pentagon.
October 6, 2005 -- Espionage and spy scandals mushroom in Washington. Yesterday was a busy day for Federal investigators involved in pursuing espionage cases and the compromise of classified information. First there was the guilty plea entered by Larry Franklin, an Air Force Reserve Colonel and former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst assigned to the now-defunct neo-con policy mill and alternative intelligence and special operations office, the Office of Special Plans. Franklin, who acceded to a plea agreement with U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia Paul McNulty, for the first time admitted that he passed classified information to Naor Gilon, the political officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington who was quickly recalled by Jerusalem after the espionage story surfaced. Gilon is reported to have been the Mossad station chief in Washington.
McNulty has charged two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) with illegally receiving classified information, including information on Iran, from Franklin. The indictment against former AIPAC director Steve Rosen alleges that he passed classified information obtained from Franklin to "a senior fellow at a Washington, D.C., think tank." Informed sources report that McNulty's espionage investigation continues to focus on the "senior fellow," as well as other Israeli government officials. With Franklin's cooperation, it is expected that further indictments may be forthcoming.
Espionage diversions in Washington to take attention away from AIPACgate and the CIA leak case?
Franklin also implicated Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Franklin said he kept 83 classified documents, including Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), at his West Virginia home to be prepared to answer "point blank" questions from senior Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld.
Israel has long maintained that as a "close U.S. ally," it does not spy on the United States. That stance makes the story that ABC News broke late yesterday all the more bizarre. It was revealed that a Philippine spy ring was operating in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The Philippines is also a U.S. ally. The espionage case surrounded Leandro Aragoncillo, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines who was assigned to the Vice President's staff in 1999 while a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. Al Gore was Vice President when Aragoncillo was first assigned to the White House. Aragoncillo was charged with stealing classified information in Cheney's office that dealt with detrimental information on Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Aragoncillo was accused of passing the information to opposition politicians in the Philippines who were trying to oust Arroyo.
Aragoncillo went to work for the FBI at an intelligence office at Fort Monmouth, NJ. It was there the FBI began its espionage investigation of the FBI employee after it was discovered he was downloading and transmitting by e-mail classified documents, including some 36 secret documents, from the FBI computer system. The documents reportedly contained information on the Philippines. It would have been unusual for the FBI to have held so many classified documents on the Philippines, a country that is not considered to be a hostile intelligence nation and is not placed by the FBI in the same category as such nations as China, Israel, Russia, Taiwan, India, North Korea, and South Korea. A former Philippine National Police deputy director, Michael Ray Aquino, was accused of receiving the documents from Aquino. Last March, Aquino was arrested by Federal authorities on unrelated immigration charges.
It is also suspicious that ABC News ran a photo taken of Aragoncillo with Vice President Gore. There was also a suggestion that Aragoncillo worked with then-President Bill Clinton.
On October 4, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents announced they had arrested three foreign nationals, two Indonesians and one Senegalese, at the Joint Special Operations Command Center in Fort Bragg for visa violations. The three were contract language instructors hired by B.I.B. Consultants of Orlando, Florida to provide language instruction in Indonesian and Wolof to U.S. Special Operations personnel. The Special Operations Command stressed the three did not have access to classified information. However, courses offered at Fort Bragg range from unclassified to top secret.
Some informed intelligence specialists have speculated the White House and Fort Bragg cases were announced to divert media attention away from imminent indictments in the CIA leak case, as well as the widening case against Israel for espionage at the Pentagon.
The Venezuelan Series (Part 4): Co-management Reveals Fissures in the Bolivarian Revolution
[This is a series based upon my (the author's) participation in a Global Exchange sponsored tour of Venezuela. Each post is a stand alone commentary, and Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 address related aspects of my experience there. Comments can be e-mailed to me at restes60@earthlink.net.]
What is the proper, most beneficial, relationship between labor, capital and the community? It is a vexing question, especially if one eschews the simplicity of neoliberal orthodoxy: the frenetic, unregulated reverberation of global investment necessarily produces the best possible outcomes under the circumstances.
Is there an alternative Bolivarian answer to it? Chavez habitually expresses his contempt for neoliberalism in just about every public forum. Even so, rhetoric is not be a substitute for a program, no matter how skillfully packaged as rebellion. As noted in Part 3, Chavez intends to industrialize Venezuela through state controlled enterprises. In the two weeks since Part 3 was posted, Chavez has asserted state control over the mineral sector, and announced plans for the formation of a state owned steel company to compete with the privatized SIDOR. With US troops incapable of escaping the Iraqi mousetrap, and preoccupied with the prospect of a nuclear Iran, Chavez hardly lets a day go by without some new initiative.
Even so, the Bolivarian Revolution aspires to inscribe itself into the historical record as somthing more than a flawlessly executed economic development program. One does not find murals of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew adorning the walls of Caracas, even though it is probable that Chavez would, on balance, comment quite favorably upon Yew's achievements if asked, emphasizing his participation in the struggle against colonialism and his insistence upon a prominent governmental role in the allocation of resources. Chavez must further redefine the relationship between labor, capital and community to fulfill the revolutionary expectations created by his rhetoric. At present, he tentatively seeks to do so through an initiative to empower workers in the conduct of their businesses, an initiative described as cogestion, or co-management.
What is the proper, most beneficial, relationship between labor, capital and the community? It is a vexing question, especially if one eschews the simplicity of neoliberal orthodoxy: the frenetic, unregulated reverberation of global investment necessarily produces the best possible outcomes under the circumstances.
Is there an alternative Bolivarian answer to it? Chavez habitually expresses his contempt for neoliberalism in just about every public forum. Even so, rhetoric is not be a substitute for a program, no matter how skillfully packaged as rebellion. As noted in Part 3, Chavez intends to industrialize Venezuela through state controlled enterprises. In the two weeks since Part 3 was posted, Chavez has asserted state control over the mineral sector, and announced plans for the formation of a state owned steel company to compete with the privatized SIDOR. With US troops incapable of escaping the Iraqi mousetrap, and preoccupied with the prospect of a nuclear Iran, Chavez hardly lets a day go by without some new initiative.
Even so, the Bolivarian Revolution aspires to inscribe itself into the historical record as somthing more than a flawlessly executed economic development program. One does not find murals of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew adorning the walls of Caracas, even though it is probable that Chavez would, on balance, comment quite favorably upon Yew's achievements if asked, emphasizing his participation in the struggle against colonialism and his insistence upon a prominent governmental role in the allocation of resources. Chavez must further redefine the relationship between labor, capital and community to fulfill the revolutionary expectations created by his rhetoric. At present, he tentatively seeks to do so through an initiative to empower workers in the conduct of their businesses, an initiative described as cogestion, or co-management.
Bush's "logic", Part II
Not only couldn't (wouldn't) I watch a speech like this, but I can't even bring myself to read it start to finish. So I discuss it bit by bit. Here's another example of Bush logic, in which Bush manages to refute himself, without apparently knowing it. He begins:
Yes, George, al Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11, and the U.S. wasn't in Iraq at that time, and while the U.S. presence in Iraq didn't "cause" or "trigger" the rage of all Islamic radicals, it unquestionably caused or triggered the rage of some of them, thereby "strengthening" extremism. And no, the U.S. wasn't occupying Iraq on 9/11, but it was involved elsewhere in the region, as you yourself recognize:
I love the way he tries to distract the audience by throwing in the Crusades to suggest that these Islamic radicals are just trying to revenge centuries old defeats, and the defeat of the Taliban, which perhaps he'll acknowledge occured after 9/11, in order to detract from the two causes which were the stated reasons for the 9/11 attacks -- the oppression of the Palestinians, and the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia. Of course he tries to minimize the former, by referring only to the West Bank, as if Gaza were not occuped on 9/11, and were not in fact still under the control of the Israelis, being operated in effect as a large open-air prison. He also completely avoids mentioning the United States. It wasn't "the Israeli occupation of the West Bank" which caused the hatred of the United States, it was the United States support -- financial, political, and military -- for that occupation, which was, and remains, the source of Arab hatred of the United States. Something which Bush has no intention of changing, and therefore carefully avoids even mentioning.
As for the rest of Bush's "argument" -- "We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world." -- I've already addressed that piffle. al Qaeda wasn't even in control of Afghanistan, one of the weakest (politically and militarily) countries in the world; it hardly has as its objective to "enslave whole nations." That's your goal, George.
Does anyone think it's mere coincidence that, on the day Bush delivers this speech, New York City is suddenly in a panic over alleged threats to the subway system?
"Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 -- and al Qaeda attacked us anyway. The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."
Yes, George, al Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11, and the U.S. wasn't in Iraq at that time, and while the U.S. presence in Iraq didn't "cause" or "trigger" the rage of all Islamic radicals, it unquestionably caused or triggered the rage of some of them, thereby "strengthening" extremism. And no, the U.S. wasn't occupying Iraq on 9/11, but it was involved elsewhere in the region, as you yourself recognize:
"Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence -- the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago."
I love the way he tries to distract the audience by throwing in the Crusades to suggest that these Islamic radicals are just trying to revenge centuries old defeats, and the defeat of the Taliban, which perhaps he'll acknowledge occured after 9/11, in order to detract from the two causes which were the stated reasons for the 9/11 attacks -- the oppression of the Palestinians, and the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia. Of course he tries to minimize the former, by referring only to the West Bank, as if Gaza were not occuped on 9/11, and were not in fact still under the control of the Israelis, being operated in effect as a large open-air prison. He also completely avoids mentioning the United States. It wasn't "the Israeli occupation of the West Bank" which caused the hatred of the United States, it was the United States support -- financial, political, and military -- for that occupation, which was, and remains, the source of Arab hatred of the United States. Something which Bush has no intention of changing, and therefore carefully avoids even mentioning.
As for the rest of Bush's "argument" -- "We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world." -- I've already addressed that piffle. al Qaeda wasn't even in control of Afghanistan, one of the weakest (politically and militarily) countries in the world; it hardly has as its objective to "enslave whole nations." That's your goal, George.
Does anyone think it's mere coincidence that, on the day Bush delivers this speech, New York City is suddenly in a panic over alleged threats to the subway system?
Clooney Breaks His Own Big Story, A Live 'Network'
CBS and George Clooney are planning a live TV remake of "Network," Paddy Chayefsky's critically acclaimed, scathing satire of the television industry, in which a network's news division encourages an aging anchor to rave madly on-air for the sake of bigger ratings.
I know -- but in 1976 it was considered shocking and outrageous.
Execs at CBS were taken by surprise when Clooney leaked word of the project -- being developed for next fall -- to the Associated Press while promoting his flick "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Ironically, that flick details how, in the '50s, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow defied corporate and advertiser pressure to expose the scaremongering of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's communist witch hunt.
I know -- but in 1976 it was considered shocking and outrageous.
Execs at CBS were taken by surprise when Clooney leaked word of the project -- being developed for next fall -- to the Associated Press while promoting his flick "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Ironically, that flick details how, in the '50s, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow defied corporate and advertiser pressure to expose the scaremongering of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's communist witch hunt.
Clooney Breaks His Own Big Story, A Live 'Network'
CBS and George Clooney are planning a live TV remake of "Network," Paddy Chayefsky's critically acclaimed, scathing satire of the television industry, in which a network's news division encourages an aging anchor to rave madly on-air for the sake of bigger ratings.
I know -- but in 1976 it was considered shocking and outrageous.
Execs at CBS were taken by surprise when Clooney leaked word of the project -- being developed for next fall -- to the Associated Press while promoting his flick "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Ironically, that flick details how, in the '50s, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow defied corporate and advertiser pressure to expose the scaremongering of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's communist witch hunt.
I know -- but in 1976 it was considered shocking and outrageous.
Execs at CBS were taken by surprise when Clooney leaked word of the project -- being developed for next fall -- to the Associated Press while promoting his flick "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Ironically, that flick details how, in the '50s, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow defied corporate and advertiser pressure to expose the scaremongering of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's communist witch hunt.
Spain may judge Guatemala abuses
Thousands of disappearances and killings committed during Guatemala's civil war may be judged in Spanish courts after a change in the law.
The ruling follows a request by a Guatemalan Nobel prize winner for Spain to probe abuses in the 1970s and 1980s.
The decision overruled a rejection of the request by Spain's lower courts.
The Constitutional Court ruled that: "The principle of universal jurisdiction takes precedence over the existence or not of national interests.
"Spain should investigate crimes of genocide, torture, murder and illegal imprisonment committed in Guatemala between 1978 and 1986."
Spain's highest court ruled that cases of genocide committed abroad could be judged in Spain even if no Spanish citizens have been involved.
The ruling follows a request by a Guatemalan Nobel prize winner for Spain to probe abuses in the 1970s and 1980s.
The decision overruled a rejection of the request by Spain's lower courts.
The Constitutional Court ruled that: "The principle of universal jurisdiction takes precedence over the existence or not of national interests.
"Spain should investigate crimes of genocide, torture, murder and illegal imprisonment committed in Guatemala between 1978 and 1986."
Shame on you ... (by an Iraqi blogger)
America ... for voting George Bush into the White House while people like Al Gore, Al Franken, Bill Maher, Robert Redford, Arianna Huffington and Senator Robert Byrd (to name an extremely small few) are left with the indomitable task of educating America.
Say what you will about Gore, criticize the notion of true democracy torn asunder between the Donkey and the Elephant behemoths, dismiss the efficacy of the people to govern themselves.
But read the following Al Gore speech - posted at Smirkingchimp.com - and reflect on what he has to say.
Excerpts:
How many times do people like Gore have to stand up and point to the facts before it sinks in how fascist the great democracy has become?
Shame .. O fie for shame.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer should become mandatory reading for all US high school and college students. Maybe then, they could compare what is going on around them with the silent approval that to this day curses the German people.
That's if they can manage to read it to begin with.
Education, people. There ain't no other magic key behind door number one and Bob Barker ain't gonna give you a kiss.
It's times like this I am reminded of the words of one of my teachers.
"Pursue knowledge even if it is to be found in Sind (China)" - The Prophet Mohammed
I'm going to go out on a limb and say democracy in the hands of the ignorant and arrogant becomes demoncracy. And perhaps, they are not yet mature as a society to accept the great responsibility and accountability that are the pillars of democracy.
Gore even hints at the lack of education in the US when he points to the founding fathers:
America, yes, you with the Playstation joystick, you dumbified by hip hop, you the brainless weed spreading through the US military; you the my-country-right-or-wrong flag-waving-white-hood-wearing warrior. You the conservative radio host, you the so-called patriot.
You, the American Idol wannabe, you the Harry Potter-reading imbecile, you the lynch mob, you the television producer, you the prozac-gobbling guinea pig driving giddy in your SUV.
You all stand charged with betraying the ideals for which your ancestors fought and died. You all stand charged with betraying the noblest cornerstones of freedom.
You all stand charged for making a mockery of the words freedom and liberty and rendering them benign gift-wrapping.
You can wrap dung in the greatest of semantic virtues, at the end, much to your chagrin, it is still dung.
Postscript: I promised myself I wouldn't blog today. Returning readers here will notice I blog on average 1-2 times a day, more than any other Iraqi blogger.
This accursed blog has become an extension of me .... and it will flutter in the wind by my side when the noose is around my neck.
Say what you will about Gore, criticize the notion of true democracy torn asunder between the Donkey and the Elephant behemoths, dismiss the efficacy of the people to govern themselves.
But read the following Al Gore speech - posted at Smirkingchimp.com - and reflect on what he has to say.
Excerpts:
I thought maybe it was an aberration when three-quarters of Americans said they believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11, 2001. But more than four years later, between a third and a half still believe Saddam was personally responsible for planning and supporting the attack.
Are we still routinely torturing helpless prisoners, and if so, does it feel right that we as American citizens are not outraged by the practice? And does it feel right to have no ongoing discussion of whether or not this abhorrent, medieval behavior is being carried out in the name of the American people? If the gap between rich and poor is widening steadily and economic stress is mounting for low-income families, why do we seem increasingly apathetic and lethargic in our role as citizens?
But some extremely important elements of American Democracy have been pushed to the sidelines . And the most prominent casualty has been the "marketplace of ideas" that was so beloved and so carefully protected by our Founders. It effectively no longer exists.
In fact, our first self-expression as a nation - "We the People" - made it clear where the ultimate source of authority lay. It was universally understood that the ultimate check and balance for American government was its accountability to the people. And the public forum was the place where the people held the government accountable. That is why it was so important that the marketplace of ideas operated independent from and beyond the authority of government.
How many times do people like Gore have to stand up and point to the facts before it sinks in how fascist the great democracy has become?
Shame .. O fie for shame.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer should become mandatory reading for all US high school and college students. Maybe then, they could compare what is going on around them with the silent approval that to this day curses the German people.
That's if they can manage to read it to begin with.
Education, people. There ain't no other magic key behind door number one and Bob Barker ain't gonna give you a kiss.
It's times like this I am reminded of the words of one of my teachers.
"Pursue knowledge even if it is to be found in Sind (China)" - The Prophet Mohammed
I'm going to go out on a limb and say democracy in the hands of the ignorant and arrogant becomes demoncracy. And perhaps, they are not yet mature as a society to accept the great responsibility and accountability that are the pillars of democracy.
Gore even hints at the lack of education in the US when he points to the founding fathers:
The liberating force of this new American reality was thrilling to all humankind. Thomas Jefferson declared, "I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
America, yes, you with the Playstation joystick, you dumbified by hip hop, you the brainless weed spreading through the US military; you the my-country-right-or-wrong flag-waving-white-hood-wearing warrior. You the conservative radio host, you the so-called patriot.
You, the American Idol wannabe, you the Harry Potter-reading imbecile, you the lynch mob, you the television producer, you the prozac-gobbling guinea pig driving giddy in your SUV.
You all stand charged with betraying the ideals for which your ancestors fought and died. You all stand charged with betraying the noblest cornerstones of freedom.
You all stand charged for making a mockery of the words freedom and liberty and rendering them benign gift-wrapping.
You can wrap dung in the greatest of semantic virtues, at the end, much to your chagrin, it is still dung.
Postscript: I promised myself I wouldn't blog today. Returning readers here will notice I blog on average 1-2 times a day, more than any other Iraqi blogger.
This accursed blog has become an extension of me .... and it will flutter in the wind by my side when the noose is around my neck.
Slain Puerto Rican Rebel Didn't Have to Die
A former naval intelligence officer says he knows for a fact that Puerto Rican nationalist fugitive Filiberto Ojeda Rios didn't have to die in a shootout with the FBI.
He says he knows this because he told FBI agents a year ago where they could find Ojeda - even telling them where he liked to eat.
"What they did was an injustice," the former Navy officer told me last week. "No matter what Ojeda did, he was still a human being. ... They could easily have taken him alive."
The informant, who asked not to be identified, has given his account to the Justice Department's Inspector General's Office, which opened an independent review of the shooting last week.
FBI Director Robert Mueller requested the review after top officials from the island's various political parties, including pro-commonwealth Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vilá, and several members of New York's congressional delegation publicly criticized the FBI's handling of the incident.
And yesterday the Puerto Rican commonwealth's own Department of Justice subpoenaed weapons and records of the FBI's operation.
By the time of his death, the 72-year-old Ojeda, a onetime musician turned revolutionary, had become a legendary figure on the island.
He says he knows this because he told FBI agents a year ago where they could find Ojeda - even telling them where he liked to eat.
"What they did was an injustice," the former Navy officer told me last week. "No matter what Ojeda did, he was still a human being. ... They could easily have taken him alive."
The informant, who asked not to be identified, has given his account to the Justice Department's Inspector General's Office, which opened an independent review of the shooting last week.
FBI Director Robert Mueller requested the review after top officials from the island's various political parties, including pro-commonwealth Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vilá, and several members of New York's congressional delegation publicly criticized the FBI's handling of the incident.
And yesterday the Puerto Rican commonwealth's own Department of Justice subpoenaed weapons and records of the FBI's operation.
By the time of his death, the 72-year-old Ojeda, a onetime musician turned revolutionary, had become a legendary figure on the island.
Breaking America's grip on the net (U.S. likely to lose control of Internet)
After troubled negotiations in Geneva, the US may be forced to relinquish control of the internet to a coalition of governments
You would expect an announcement that would forever change the face of the internet to be a grand affair - a big stage, spotlights, media scrums and a charismatic frontman working the crowd.
But unless you knew where he was sitting, all you got was David Hendon's slightly apprehensive voice through a beige plastic earbox. The words were calm, measured and unexciting, but their implications will be felt for generations to come.
Venezuela shuts down IBM, Microsoft, Honda
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's tax agency said that it had imposed fines and ordered the temporary closure of several foreign companies, including International Business Machines, due to tax irregularities.
The Seniat agency ordered the 48-hour shutdown of U.S. computer company IBM Corp.'s office in Caracas, as well as auto parts company Bosch Rexroth Corp., for bookkeeping irregularities related to the value added tax, the agency said in a statement.
Others such as Microsoft Corp., Honda Motor Co., Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens and Colombina SA will face closures ranging from 24 to 48 hours, as well as fines, it said.
The reasons for the punitive actions against the latter were unclear.
Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Seniat officials have pursued an aggressive "zero evasion" campaign that has helped the government of President Hugo Chavez reach new tax collection records.
The president has said that all companies must pay their taxes, particularly foreign ones that pay taxes in their home countries but often skip what they owe in Venezuela.
Under Chavez, Seniat has told foreign oil companies they owe more than $3 billion in unpaid taxes going back several years. The government has said oil companies won't be able to continue operating in the country if they refuse to pay those claims.
AP-ES-10-06-05 0024EDT
The Seniat agency ordered the 48-hour shutdown of U.S. computer company IBM Corp.'s office in Caracas, as well as auto parts company Bosch Rexroth Corp., for bookkeeping irregularities related to the value added tax, the agency said in a statement.
Others such as Microsoft Corp., Honda Motor Co., Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens and Colombina SA will face closures ranging from 24 to 48 hours, as well as fines, it said.
The reasons for the punitive actions against the latter were unclear.
Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Seniat officials have pursued an aggressive "zero evasion" campaign that has helped the government of President Hugo Chavez reach new tax collection records.
The president has said that all companies must pay their taxes, particularly foreign ones that pay taxes in their home countries but often skip what they owe in Venezuela.
Under Chavez, Seniat has told foreign oil companies they owe more than $3 billion in unpaid taxes going back several years. The government has said oil companies won't be able to continue operating in the country if they refuse to pay those claims.
AP-ES-10-06-05 0024EDT
Scientists resurrect 1918 flu virus
Scientists have resurrected the influenza virus that killed an estimated 50 million people in 1918, the worst pandemic in history.
They used a process known as "reverse genetics" to reconstruct a living flu virus from dead fragments retrieved from stored hospital tissue samples and a corpse that had been buried in the frozen tundra of Alaska for 80 years. Tests on animals and human lung cells showed that the reconstructed virus retained the highly lethal properties that made the 1918 strain of influenza such a killer.
Scientists working for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, said the virus was being kept in one of its high-security laboratories.
The reconstructed virus quickly killed laboratory mice and chick embryos when they were infected with the agent. It also grew rapidly in cultured human lung cells.
In contrast, most flu viruses that infect humans today show none of these lethal characteristics, said Terrence Tumpey, whose study is published today in the journal Science.
The influenza outbreak of 1918 was the largest of the three flu pandemics of the 20th century. A separate study in the journal Nature reveals that the 1918 virus was in effect an avian flu virus that had jumped the species barrier into humans.
They used a process known as "reverse genetics" to reconstruct a living flu virus from dead fragments retrieved from stored hospital tissue samples and a corpse that had been buried in the frozen tundra of Alaska for 80 years. Tests on animals and human lung cells showed that the reconstructed virus retained the highly lethal properties that made the 1918 strain of influenza such a killer.
Scientists working for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, said the virus was being kept in one of its high-security laboratories.
The reconstructed virus quickly killed laboratory mice and chick embryos when they were infected with the agent. It also grew rapidly in cultured human lung cells.
In contrast, most flu viruses that infect humans today show none of these lethal characteristics, said Terrence Tumpey, whose study is published today in the journal Science.
The influenza outbreak of 1918 was the largest of the three flu pandemics of the 20th century. A separate study in the journal Nature reveals that the 1918 virus was in effect an avian flu virus that had jumped the species barrier into humans.
The United States Guilty of State Terrorism (1776-2005)
This article is contrary to the popular superstition that the United States was founded upon the basis of liberty and freedom. The United States was founded upon, by, and continuing state terrorism.
In the beginnings of the United States, in the 1700's, there were a handful of people, most holding the Unitarian philosophy, that desired and dreamt of a nation that would uphold and be dedicated to personal freedoms and liberty for a new nation. The beautiful rhetoric employed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution can be traced back to the influence of these Unitarians. These men were not 'fundamentalist Christians' nor could they ever be considered conservatives. In fact, in that era, these men were the liberals.
They were not perfect men. In fact, in spite of their desire for personal freedoms they too owned and employed slaves. Documents and writings exist too that even then they were questioning their own right to have and to hold slaves.
The mistake of these liberals was to accept compromise with the conservatives. This allowed fundamentalist doctrines to creep in and poison the dream. These compromises allowed, over time, the newly created government to run rampant over citizens rights, and the rights and sovereignty of other cultures, peoples, and nations.
In the beginnings of the United States, in the 1700's, there were a handful of people, most holding the Unitarian philosophy, that desired and dreamt of a nation that would uphold and be dedicated to personal freedoms and liberty for a new nation. The beautiful rhetoric employed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution can be traced back to the influence of these Unitarians. These men were not 'fundamentalist Christians' nor could they ever be considered conservatives. In fact, in that era, these men were the liberals.
They were not perfect men. In fact, in spite of their desire for personal freedoms they too owned and employed slaves. Documents and writings exist too that even then they were questioning their own right to have and to hold slaves.
The mistake of these liberals was to accept compromise with the conservatives. This allowed fundamentalist doctrines to creep in and poison the dream. These compromises allowed, over time, the newly created government to run rampant over citizens rights, and the rights and sovereignty of other cultures, peoples, and nations.
A Summer of 'Damage Control'
Is the mainstream media taking a more adversarial stance to US foreign policy objectives? At first glance, this might seem to be the case, given all of the discussion in the media, especially this past summer, on events involving US human rights violations in detention facilities -- Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. Commenting on the exposure of outsourcing torture, Columbia Journalism Review's Deputy Executive Editor proclaims that "Thanks to the news media of the world, the American people are finding out, a little more each day." In a narrow sense, this is true; however, it is important to look at how these exposures are being framed in elite commentary.
As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, after atrocious events become too obvious to ignore, the media shifts into "damage control" mode. In this mode, " "public attention is diverted to overzealous patriots or to the personality defects of leaders who have strayed from our noble commitments, but not to the institutional factors that determine the persistent and substantive content of these commitments." This is in keeping with the "societal purpose" of the mainstream media, as Herman and Chomsky argue in Manufacturing Consent, which is to "inculcate and defend the economic, social, and political agenda of privileged groups that dominate the domestic society and the state." Moreover, notes Chomsky,
As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, after atrocious events become too obvious to ignore, the media shifts into "damage control" mode. In this mode, " "public attention is diverted to overzealous patriots or to the personality defects of leaders who have strayed from our noble commitments, but not to the institutional factors that determine the persistent and substantive content of these commitments." This is in keeping with the "societal purpose" of the mainstream media, as Herman and Chomsky argue in Manufacturing Consent, which is to "inculcate and defend the economic, social, and political agenda of privileged groups that dominate the domestic society and the state." Moreover, notes Chomsky,
"A threat to dominant ideology arises only when... [US foreign policy] is analyzed in terms of its specific social and economic components and is related to the actual structure of power and control over institutions in American society. One who raises these further questions must be excluded from polite discourse, as a 'radical' or 'Marxist' or 'economic determinist' or 'conspiracy theorist,' not a sober commentator on serious issues...But the principle that the United States may exercise force to guarantee a certain global order that will be 'open' to the penetration and control of transnational corporations- that is beyond the bounds of polite discourse"(Towards a New Cold War [New York: The New Press, 2003], pp. 146-147).
Venezuela's Central Bank Confirms it Deposited $20 Billion in Swiss Bank
Caracas, Venezuela, October 5, 2005 - Following initial denials about that Venezuela had actually transferred its foreign currency reserves, Venezuela's Central Bank director confirmed that several months ago the Bank transferred $20 billion of its slightly over $30 billion in foreign currency reserves from the U.S. to Basilea, the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland. Initially Central Bank (BCV) director Domingo Maza Zavala denied that the BCV made such a transfer, as President Chavez had claimed while he was in Brazil last week.
Maza Zavala corrected his initial statement, saying that indeed the BCV withdrew up to $20 billion from U.S. treasury certificates of deposit and placed them in the Swiss bank because, "the U.S. Dollar has been depreciating relative to the Euro - it was thus considered convenient..." 60% of Venezuela's foreign reserves are now placed in Euros and 40% in U.S. dollars, according to Maza Zavala.
Maza Zavala corrected his initial statement, saying that indeed the BCV withdrew up to $20 billion from U.S. treasury certificates of deposit and placed them in the Swiss bank because, "the U.S. Dollar has been depreciating relative to the Euro - it was thus considered convenient..." 60% of Venezuela's foreign reserves are now placed in Euros and 40% in U.S. dollars, according to Maza Zavala.
Latin America Living a New Era, Chavez Says
Caracas, Oct 5 (Prensa Latina) President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that Latin America is living in a new era, with new integration mechanisms and more awareness in the wake of the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The peoples of the region are pointing in another direction, with the rightwing doomed to the most resounding failure, Chavez told journalists.
According to a presidential press release, the Venezuelan President considers there is currently a re-emergence of the left and revolutionary projects for change which are growing strong.
"The Washington Consensus is the road to hell," said Chavez and urged again following the dreams of Simon Bolivar, Antonio Jose de Sucre and Bernardo O'Higgins.
These national heroes fought for the liberation and salvation of our peoples, he noted.
Asked about the process of change in Venezuela, the president pointed to the numerous social plans encouraged by the Executive, such as the community health project Barrio Adentro and the Robinson and Sucre education missions.
"There hasn't been a Venezuelan government in 100 years that gained sovereignty of oil that hasn't been overthrown, including mine, he said.
The peoples of the region are pointing in another direction, with the rightwing doomed to the most resounding failure, Chavez told journalists.
According to a presidential press release, the Venezuelan President considers there is currently a re-emergence of the left and revolutionary projects for change which are growing strong.
"The Washington Consensus is the road to hell," said Chavez and urged again following the dreams of Simon Bolivar, Antonio Jose de Sucre and Bernardo O'Higgins.
These national heroes fought for the liberation and salvation of our peoples, he noted.
Asked about the process of change in Venezuela, the president pointed to the numerous social plans encouraged by the Executive, such as the community health project Barrio Adentro and the Robinson and Sucre education missions.
"There hasn't been a Venezuelan government in 100 years that gained sovereignty of oil that hasn't been overthrown, including mine, he said.