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.
Friday, October 07, 2005
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)