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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
On the Republican false accusations about ACORN's voter registration program.
The Iraqi government has demanded a firm requirement for the Bush
forces to
leave Iraq by 2011, and limitations on their immunity in the
meantime.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Israeli colonists in Palestinian territories regularly attack
Palestinians. Some even attack Israeli police and soldiers.
Now Ehud Barak proposes to
arrest the latter, but the former
can apparently continue enjoying impunity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Deborah Purdy, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, may have to kill herself while she still has enough capability to do it on her own, so as to spare her husband from being imprisoned for helping her do so later on.
Forcing people to stay alive when their lives have deteriorated into useless suffering is tantamount to torture.
If Mr Purdy faces prosecution by England for helping his wife go to Switzerland for a later assisted suicide, instead of performing an earlier unassisted one, I wonder if the Swiss government might Mr Purdy politcal asylum.
Humans are using resources much faster than the Earth can replace them. According to these calculations, 30% faster — and that can't go on.
The winter ice in the Arctic is much thinner this year.
In effect this means that the disappearance of Arctic summer ice is proceding rapidly. That will mean positive feedback in global warming.
How the US right wing makes ignorance a virtue and education a smear.
Republican Senator Stevens has been convicted of corruption charges.
Israeli troops kept 100 international doctors from entering Gaza
for a WHO-sponsored conference on the health crisis caused
by Israel's blockade of Gaza.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Activists are planning a second boat trip to Gaza, to bring medicine.
Israel says this time it will stop them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Shi'ites in Karbal are
trying to ban dancing and other forms of parties.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Following the Repblican philosophy that nothing is too low, a woman fabricated accusations that someone attacked her because she had a McCain bumper sticker.
US citizens: How to prevent the Republicans from stopping you from voting.
US citizens:
tell Attorney General Mukasey
not to try to suppress voting in Ohio.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Bush forces crossed into Syria and killed several people. The attack was supposedly aimed at supporters of the Iraqi resistance but seems to have killed construction workers instead.
Lt. Ehren Watada has
escaped some of the charges that he faced
because of criticizing Bush for lying to start the conquest of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Iraqi Islamic Party is
protesting the killing and arrests
of its members.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Delivery workers at Saigon Grill won a lawsuit for fair wages. Now the movement will target other restaurants.
Australia's planned internet censorship will be worse than Iran's.
Many Republicans have endorsed Obama for president. And why not? In the 1970s, Obama's views would have made him a liberal Republican.
13,000 Iraqi Christians have fled the city of Mosul. It is not clear whether their attackers are Kurds or Sunni Arabs.
Ahmed Zaid Zuhair has kept up his hunger strike for three years in Guantanamo, even fighting the guards when they take him away to be force-fed.
Although I oppose the Islamist cause which he is accused of supporting, I admire his resistance to the injustice of perpetual imprisonment without trial.
Israeli Prime Minister designate Tsipi Livni has rejected an alliance with a right-wing hawkish party even though this could force an election.
It sounds to me like she might be serious about the concessions necessary for peace with the Palestinians.
A summary of the case against Cheney for abetting the terrorist
attacks of 9/11/2001.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Deregulation produced the current financial crisis. Now the banks will lobby against the regulations we need to prevent the next financial crisis. This includes regulation of energy trading.
In the UK, the option to pay extra for "green electricity" is just a con game. It does not lead to increased use of renewable power generation, and it enables companies to pretend they have cut their emissions.
The US Government Printing Office outsourced the manufacturing of the passports to companies that make them cheaper. The result is that the GPO makes a profit (which it appears not to be inclined to give back to the treasury), and some of these companies might be less effective at preventing fake passports.
It may be interesting to think personally about a theoretical question: if any John Q. Public can get a false passport, and that is a bad thing, how much government violence and injustice would it take to transform that into to a good thing?
The Guantanamo Bay kangaroo courts have been denounced as unjust even by their own prosecutors and judges. The Bush regime response did little to address the problem.
The Chagos Islanders, forced out of their home 40 years ago so the US could build the military base on Diego Garcia island, have been forbidden to return to the other islands in the group.
The statements of the judges go beyond this case and asserts total power for the state, denying the very ideas of any kind of human rights.
Support the Atheist Bus Campaign, putting ads for atheism on buses in London.
As the FDA prepares to decide what to do about Bisphenol A, a company that makes it has tried subtly to corrupt the FDA head.
Gifts that don't go to an individual, but do go to something that he is attached to, have the potential to corrupt. For instance, Microsoft built a large facility in Gordon Clown's district in Scotland. Legally, this is not considered a payoff to Clown, but practically speaking it functions as one.
We should increase the taxes on companies; then the government can fund university research with that tax money. This will shield research from the corrosive effects of corporate funding.
Some Republicans face charges for voting fraud that is unrelated to computerized voting.
German tobacco companies conspired in the 90s to keep cigarette vending machines in reach of children.
Israeli colonists repeatedly attacked Palestinians harvesting their olive crops, and the Israeli army repeatedly took the side of the colonists
against the Palestinians.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: demand that AIG refund the $534,000 of its bailout fund that it spent on partying.
The UK's Director of Public Prosecutions, on the brink of retiring, denounced the UK's regime of surveillance and control.
Interpol wants to create a massive database for face recognition.
Last I looked, face recognition was not reliable. But we cannot assume that will hold back Big Brother forever.
The Clown regime wants to make all cell phone users register.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Iraqi negotiators made an agreement to let the Bush forces stay in Iraq, but the Iraqi parliament seems likely to reject it.
After the army attacked a protest by indigenes in Colombia, thousands more have joined in protests all around the country.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
President Uribe of Colombia is closely associated with Colombia's worst terrorist group, the paramilitares.
Bush's plan to put 20,000 Bolivians out of work, and how Americans can oppose it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Massive Republican voter-suppression is stealing the election.
Millions of eligible voters may be blocked using dishonest excuses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A former head of MI5 (the UK's counterspy agency) condemned the political overreaction to the 9/11 attacks, and blamed the invasion of Iraq for stimulating terrorism.
China plans to identify and photograph everyone that uses an Internet
cafe.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
This is a couple of steps beyond the unjust laws of France and Italy, which forbid open wireless networks. But any nasty thing that China does to the Internet is likely to show up in "free" countries soon. The excuses are "terrorism" (which often means dissent) and "child" pornography.
Conclusive proof that most airline security is just for show. It would block stupid terrorists, but not smart ones — if the smart ones are still interested in airplanes.
Blocking stupid terrorists is worth something, but it could be done with a lot less hassle without the show.
Wall Street banks, just bailed out with 700 billion, are planning to pay 1/10 of that money to their staff.
A large oil discovery in Cuban waters may help end the US trade embargo.
The trade embargo is supposed to pressure Cuba to respect human rights, but it has achieved zero towards that goal; if anything, it convinces Cubans to rally behind their government. Likewise for the occasional US-supported terrorist attacks against Cuba.
A representative of the UK's probation agents says, give the reckless bankers ASBOs.
The idea is amusing as satire, because if anyone does deserve such treatment, it is these bankers. On the other hand, it is also a serious possibility, because many kinds of police and governments in the UK can issue these orders and there are no clear rules about when they are justified. Almost anything that results in annoying people can be the excuse to threaten someone with jail for repeating it.
But this is precisely the reason why ASBOs are an unjust system and must be abolished. In effect, ASBOs replace rule of law with a system of imprisonment for whatever the authorities do not like. Such a vague law may occasionally be used in a way that implements justice, such as telling bankers they will be jailed if they continue their recklessness. But that is the exception that proves the rule.
Can anyone show me an article which explains why the failure of some banks (private companies) in Iceland causes the state of Iceland to owe money? I have heard that banks in other countries are refusing to convert the Icelandic kronor; why is that?
The EFF has sued to overturn the law that gave retroactive immunity to telephone companies' illegal spying.
Yet again, the Bush regime claims to have struck a devastating blow against Al Qa'ida in Iraq, by killing one leader.
No leader is crucial to an underground group like that. What weakened Al Qa'ida in Iraq was that they pissed off the Sunni resistance groups, which then accepted Bush's dollar — for the moment.
The latest example of terrorism hysteria: banning drinks on trains.
The Election Protection Wiki (EPwiki.org) aims to provide a central resource about efforts to rig the US election.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
See http://www.prwatch.org/node/7840 for a brief list of some of the voter-suppression schemes described there.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A sheriff in Texas has been accused of large-scale drug smuggling.
Whether or not this policeman is guilty, it is clear that many are, because prohibition of drugs leads to systematic corruption. Since marijuana is less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, it ought to be as legal as they are.
I don't believe in legalizing truly dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroin, but addicts ought to be able to get their fix in a doctor's office. That would eliminate most of the harm of prohibition while pulling the plug on the lucrative black market.
Iraq's missing generation — driven into exile.
The US plan to by stock in banks is flawed, because it does little to restrain bank executives from acting in ways that endanger the banks and harm the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Mugabe has scuttled his deal with the opposition.
Clown has temporarily abandoned his demand for 42-day detention of suspects — but plans to bring it out again whenever he sees a more favorable climate.
Britons can protect their freedom from New Labour if they remain vigilant, but they deserve to be governed by a party that does not threaten it.
Human Rights Watch has criticized President Chavez of Venezuela for abuses such as political discrimination, interfering with judicial autonomy, and interference with labor unions.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
I partly disagree with some of the report's conclusions:
However, rather than administratively canceling the station's license, I think the government should have prosecuted the station and/or its management and owners.
Peace activists helped the Palestinians of Ni'ilin to harvest their olives, and were attacked by the Israeli army.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Maryland Police put activists' names on terror lists.
This included opponents of the death penalty and antiwar activists: a strage place to look for violence.
The "temporary" US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, which has now lasted almost 2 years. Kenya has sent many prisoners to Somalia, whence they were taken to Ethiopia and tortured so that US officials could interrogate them.
Contribute funds to avoid a ban on selling hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Netherlands. (They are now sold in a small number of special stores.)
To propose to ban a non-addictive drug because on rare occasions someone dies from using it wrong reflects a double standard based on prejudice. People occasionally die from mountaineering, skydiving, and swimming in the ocean, but we do not see proposals to ban those activities.
Tell ABC TV you protest its refusal to air an ad about the influence of coal and oil companies in blocking clean energy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
If you become a support of the Simultaneous Policy Initiative, you can vote on what policies it should support.
Alaska's ethics panel found that Palin abused her authority to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Perhaps this is an instance of what Republicans call "family values".
The "temporary" US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia continues, which has now lasted almost 2 years. Kenya has sent many prisoners to Somalia, whence they were taken to Ethiopia and tortured so that US officials could interrogate them.
In response to the video game about catching Saddam Hussein, Islamist extremists have released their own game, about catching Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Playing a game of shooting hundreds (or is it thousands?) of people to attack an evil ruler, whether that be Saddam Hussein or Bush, does not strike me as something likely to build good character. However, Americans with a shallow idea of what patriotism consists of, the ones who might have enjoyed demonizing Hussein, might learn some ethical maturity by seeing the shoe on the other foot.
An outbreak of Cholera in Iraq was caused by corruption.
NSA agents habitually listen to phone calls of Americans for fun, in the total absence of grounds to suspect them of terrorism (or anything else).
To prevent such things, formerly police could not listen directly to anyone's phone. When they got court orders to wiretap phones, the phone company listened, made transcripts, and gave them to the police to carry out the order. Changes in the past decade or so have eliminated this protection.
It should be no surprise that the NSA abuses its power. That is the general tendency when "authorities" are given the power to investigate people at will.
The Clown regime openly wants total surveillance of communication and web browsing for the entire population of the UK.
European governments are planning to use the financial crisis as an excuse to cancel CO2 cuts.
The US Army finall admitted to killing lots of civilians with a bomb in Afghanistan, but still refuses to apologize, saying it "did not know" the Taliban were in positions near civilians.
This excuse won't wash. This attack was on a village, a place where civilians live. An army must presume that civilians are present in their homes, unless it knows they have fled, which it certainly did not know in this case.
What happened here is that the US decided to attack the Taliban with weapons that would endanger any nearby civilians, without checking first. NATO has changed its rules to avoid such recklessness, but the US (which operates in Afghanistan separately from NATO) has not.
Excerpts from the US government's manual for crushing insurgencies.
Some of these methods seem to be in use in the US as well — for instance, surveillance of dissidents, detention without trial, surprise raids on meeting places for protestors, as well as psy ops to convince us that these attacks on our freedom are for our own good. In effect, the US government is a government of occupation.
Urgent Note: Support Freedom not Fear Day, a worldwide protest againts surveillance in the name of "antiterrorism".
and, for the US
US citizens: see if your neighbors have tried to register to vote but were rejected on a technicality, and tell them about this web site.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Bush threatened to impose martial law the US unless Congress passed the bailout bill, and has a special army unit trained for "crowd control" with which to attack Americans for protesting.
1/4 of the world's species of mammals face extinction.
Using total surveillance plus data mining to find terrorists doesn't even work, according to the National Research Council.
The most efficient way to find terrorists in the US is to check people with connections to the White House, the CIA, and the State Department. Those state-sponsored terrorists are not the only ones they are likely to kill more people than the ones without ties to the state.
An European Parliament committee has voted for strict limits on CO2 emission, which would prohibit new dirty coal-burning plants.
The European Parliament does not make the final decisions on EU directives, however.
Iraq refugees (mostly Sunni) are being forced to go home where they may be killed by Shi'ites.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Uri Avnery: Olmert's recognition of the need for a fair split with the Palestinians is important even though it comes when he can no longer do anything to implement it.
U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
$100k reward for evidence tying Karl Rove and Michael Connell to computerized election fraud.
Bush made no plan to capture Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan —
because he was already husbanding forces for the war he really wanted, in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Massachusetts DAs claim that tobacco is safer than marijuana, along with other lies, to try and defeat the decriminalization.
Green Party: how congressment's support for the bailout was bought.
Robert Kennedy Jr. explains how Republicans, using the HAVA law, plan to stop millions of Americans from voting.
The Anthrax Case Reopens: Why Did the FBI Let the Fort Detrick Scientists Investigate Themselves.
Bush created panic to get his financial bailout through Congress.
This reminds me of how the anthrax attacks were used to pass the U SAP AT RIOT act.
Some MPs are pressing the UK to set a target of 80% cuts in CO2 emissions by 2050.
But that is 40 years from now. To achieve such cuts, they need to start soon — and they need a specific, practical plan.
US citizens: call on your candates to
support the Simultaneous Policy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Police kept a union delegation prisoner in a train at the Mall of America, blocking it from accompanying a rehired worker back to Starbucks.
Nader:
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
South Africa's new health minister will try to provide real treatment for people infected with HIV. This is a benefit of getting rid of President Mbeki.
Now the only obstacle South Africa faces in dealing with AIDS is the patent system imposed on it by US pressure.
Dean Baker: The bailout round II: Adult Version?
Republicans are using fake polls to spread lies about Obama.
I do not support Obama, because his positions are too close to the Republicans. But if we cannot put an end to this sort of systematic lying, it threatens what little is left of our democracy.
A clear example of why fair use needs to be extended.
Skype software in China is built for censorship and surveillance.
The Skype software used in the rest of the world does not participate in this particular surveillance system. Since it is proprietary software, we can't check whether it does some other kind of surveillance. And if it doesn't do surveillance today, the developers could install it tomorrow.
This illustrates the general principle that proprietary software is a threat to your freedom.
UK citizens: tell your MP you are against 42-day imprisonment on suspicion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Binyam Mohamed, a prisoner in Guantanamo, has no chance of a fair trial in the US kangaroo court.
The government of Queensland, a state in Australia, is funding a campaign to denigrate renewable energy and promote burning coal.
Whether the government of Queensland has been bought, or whether it is thinking in narrow terms of boosting business in Queensland, is hardly important. The world cannot afford politicians who do either of these things.
For two weeks: US citizens: sign this petition to reregulate financial institutions, help people with mortgages, invest in energy convservation, and provide universal health care.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
For two weeks: US citizens: sign this petition for Congress to put a bailout deal online for 72 hours before voting on it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The most important thing about Sarah Palin is what her reception says about Americans.
The RNC8 face "terrorism conspiracy" charges for organizing nonviolent protests against the Republican Convention.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A Republican IT consultant has been subpoenaed in a case about stealing the Ohio election in 2004.
McCain and Obama both voted for Senator Leahy's "PRO-IP" bill, which calls for seizing people's computers for sharing.
Don't vote for them!
(The use of the term "intellectual property" is a sign that someone is either confused or trying to confuse you. In this case, it's the latter.)
How the US funded and arranged the invasion that overthrew President Aristide in Haiti.
Israeli colonies in occupied Palestine dump their sewage into Palestinian water supplies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Right-wing thugs in Israel offered a huge reward for killing any
member of Peace Now.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Mugabe has shredded the agreement with the Zimbabwe opposition by claiming he will appoint all the ministers himself.
The UK's Met Office says that only significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, starting very soon, can save the world from a catastrophe.
We have got this close to the edge as a result of politicians that sell out to business and put economic growth above everything else.
Here's more information about these climate projections.
Sarah Palin doesn't agree with this — she cited several climate change deniers (including those funded by oil companies) for a lawsuit trying to block the designation of polar bears as a threatened species.
Freedom of the press is deeply endangered by pressure not to offend religion.
The bailout for the banks is the culmination of an old, corrupt US tradition of subsidizing the rich and the businesses.
When most of the UK's public housing was sold off to its tenants at a discount, the short-term result was increased investment and public satisfaction. 30 years later, many of these houses have been sold to slumlords, rents are too high, and there's a big shortage of public housing.
The US will appoint a special prosecutor to probe the firing of federal prosecutors that would not launch bogus prosecutions for political reasons.
Olmert, now caretaker PM of Israel, says Israel will have to withdraw from all the conquered territories (or make small swaps) in order to have peace.
The bailout deal that Congress rejected was a bad one; it did not protect homeowners and did too little to limit executive pay. However, many Republicans voted against it because they want a give-away and more of the same deregulation that caused the crisis.
The Tories pulled the rug from under Clown's green pretensions, by promising to build high-speed train line instead of extending Heathrow airport.
Through October 11 - In the UK: take photos of Big Brother surveillance for a photo protest.
A Bush regime contractor, being suid for torture in Iraq, claims that it is immune from all lawsuits in Bush's law-free zone.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
25 criticisms of Bush's bailout plan.
Fascist thugs in Israel are becoming more aggresively violent as the police and courts wink at them. Recently, they planted a bomb for an Israeli professor who studies the growth of fascism.
Ahmed Agiza, seized by CIA agents and taken to Egypt for torture and emprisonment, has been awarded compensation by the Swedish government which illegally allowed him to be taken.
Unfortunately, that won't get him out of the Egyptian prison.
USAID refuses to say which groups it is funding in Bolivia, leading to suspicions that itt is funding right-wing rebels
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A Peace Corps volunteer comments on being ordered by Bush to stop helping people in Bolivia.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Sarbanes-Oxley protection for corporate whistleblowers is ineffective. The whistleblowers lose 98% of the time.
From the film "Condor: The First War on Terror", I learned something new about Pinochet's murderous dictatorship which was established by the 9/11 attacks in Chile. Namely, that the dictatorial governments that ruled most of South America at the time all cooperated to capture, torture, and kill dissidents — and that they justified this as a way to stamp out "terrorists".
One of the organizers of this collaboration appears in the film defending his work by saying they only did the same thing that Bush is doing now in the "war on terror".
A former head of the UK's security service condemned the Blair/Clown plan for 6-wek detention without trial, and also condemned ID cards.
The problem of piracy is getting worse.
Berlusconi and the people that work for him are becoming increasingly open in their support of facism.
An important McCain staffer was paid by the company Freddie Mac until a month ago.
The UK is secretly trying to sabotage EU renewable fuels targets
The Clown regime talks about conservation, but its goal is to do as little as possible.
Michigan Republicans plan to forclose African-American voters.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Danes face jail for 'terrorism' T-shirts.
It makes sense to prohibit giving support to terrorist organizations as long as this is done even-handedly. The most dangerous terrorists in Colombia are the paramilitares, supported by the Colombian government. The most dangerous terrorists in Palestine are the Israeli troops and settlers. When Denmark punishes those that do business with the Colombian government and the Israeli government, this law will be just.
Olmert told diplomats that Bush denied him permssion, last May, to bomb Iran.
An U.S. military interrogation expert saw, and stopped, actos of torture in Iraq in 2003.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The people committing the torture (let's not help Bush with euphemisms like "harsh techniques") claimed that higher-ups authorized it.
Indeed, Bush regime cabinet members participated in the discussions about torturing prisoners as early as 2002.
How Republican laws created the economic crisis.
10 ways to Bail Out Wall Street (and Main Street) without soaking taxpayers in debt.
Kucinich's Main Street Recovery Plan.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Another federal court ruled that file sharing does not violate copyright law.
I am concerned that Leahy's nasty law could change this.
Global warming is making tons of methane bubble up from the arctic sea floor.
It could already be too late to avoid global disaster
Psychiatrists still participate in U.S. interrogations (i.e., assist in torture), despite the ban instituted by their association in 2006.
The U.S. Congress has again shamefully supported the continuing occupation of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Dennis Kucinich: Protecting the public interest in any economic 'bailout'.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A Wall-street bailout must change the incentive structure or it will lead to more of the same speculation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The FBI is investigating fraud charges against several of the failed banks and financial companies.
Iraq Veterans Against the War continues to condemn all of the politicians that vote to continue occupation of Iraq; whether Republican or Democrat.
Palin poses for photographs but refuses to talk to the press.
McCain and Palin persistently repeat lies that already have been refuted.
They are following the example of Bush.
The deal to end North Korea's nuclear program has broken down, or at least North Korea is threatening to cancel it.
If the list of terrorism-supporting states were honest, it would be absurd to remove any country from that list as part of a deal about something else. A country would be de-listed when, and only when, it stopped supporting terrorism.
But the US-maintained list is a joke, since it doesn't include Colombia (whose army and president support the murderous thugs known as the paramilitaries), or Pakistan (whose intelligence service started Al Qa'ida and apparently maintains close ties with the Taliban), or the US itself. This list is merely an excuse to bash countries arbitrarily while hiding the arbitrariness. It should be abolished.
(Pakistan's army)
(Pakistani troops drive off US helicopters)
(US troops secretly ordered)
(Pakistan's officials condemn US attacks on Pakistan's territory)
(US troops raid a village in Pakistan)
Electric generation from ocean waves is now in service. But how much will it be implemented?
It depends on whether governments dare to resist the fossil fuel companies that have corrupted them.It depends on whether governments dare to resist the fossil fuel companies that have corrupted them.
How Congress can make more time to plan the details of financial bailouts.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
An Iraqi official says that 13 billion dollars of reconstruction money was stolen through elaborate fraud schemes. Investigators who tried to probe them were murdered.
The American Psychological Association has voted a resolution that appears to
forbid its members to give the US government advice on torture in prisons such
as Guantanamo.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
But a deliberate loophole in the APA's ethics code
strips that resolution of practical consequences.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Bushmen's bailout plans
defend rich gamblers by crushing homeowners.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Systematic corruption in Wall Street companies leads them to steer the
public to foolish and dangerous investments. Proper government would have to
forbid these corrupt practices.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Companies want to extend Big Brother tracking of all car travel to the U.S.
Report: Voting problems in several swing states.
Greg Palast has been saying for years that the Republicans will try to steal this election by any possible means. Problems like these offer easy opportunities
As the UK hold an inquest into the police shooting of de Menezes, his relatives protest that no policemen were charged with his killing.
McCain and Palin are trying to shut down the investigation into corruption charges against Palin, at least until after the election.
Staff at the European Patent Office went on strike accusing the organization of corruption: specifically, stretching the standards for patents in order to make more money.
One of the ways that the EPO has done this is by issuing software patents in defiance of the treaty that set it up.
The Burmese military rulers released a handful of political prisoners (out of more than 2000), hoping to undermine pressure for international sanctions.
The next ships to break siege of Gaza will carry surgeons as well as food.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Iraqi detainees languish in clogged justice system.
Since Bush launched the "Annapolis peace process" — which was
only for show anyway — Israel has drastically increased construction of its "settlements" in Palestinian territory.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Israeli government systematically aids the settlers by denying Palesinians access to their own land.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Palestinian village of Ni`ilin faces more than the loss of much of
its land: Israel plans to wall it off. So it has persistently opposed the bulldozers with unarmed protest, standing up to violent attacks that go as far as murder.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
For 15 years, Israel has been officially in favor of peace
with a Palestinian state, but has insisted that the Palestinians
make all the concessions, thus ensuring there is no deal.
Now Palestinians are on the verge of giving up on the idea.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Everyone: sign this petition asking PBS to ask McCain and Obama what they propose to do regarding illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, says there is still a chance for peace between Israel and Palestine — if Israel lets Palestinians have a real state in the whole West Bank.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A Chinese milk company concealed its knowledge of melamine poisoning in milk for the sake of having nice, cheerful Olympic games.
That is a perfect illustration of the culture of false front and coverup which pervades the Chinese government and Chinese business.
US citizen: phone your congresscritter and say, "Hold Karl Rove in Contempt of Congress and make him testify."
You can also send a message through this page but a phone call counts a lot more than a message.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The RIAA is using a fraudulent accusation to threaten the main lawyer that defends the RIAA's victims.
The US government and many others are displaying contempt for their citizens by negotiating the so-called "anti-counterfeiting" treaty in secret. 100 opposition groups signed a demand to see the text, which so far only certain favored businesses have been allowed to look at.
US citizens: send your congresscritter this message not to give the auto industry a bailout without tightening fuel economy standards.
The fact that only a big handout to business makes it possible to defend the world from global warming illustrates the weakness of democracy. That weakness was created by right-wing polititians through their Free Exploitation Treaties. And they haven't stopped! ACTA is supposed to be the next one.
So you might also say to your congresscritter that we should not have to wait till companies need a bailout before we refuse to let them run away with the public interest.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Paul Krugman: The current financial crisis results from allowing new forms of unregulated lending to replace the old, regulated banks.
The regulations on bank lending were put in place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after a previous wave of speculation caused the Great Depression.
The Great Depression was caused by overheated speculation which encouraged people to make risky investments. But the right-wing government of the 1920s played a role by refusing to do anything to prevent the problem. Herbert Hoover did nothing to end the depression; instead he proclaimed his faith in the Invisible Hand. The Invisible Hand did not see fit to do anything.
In 1929, the speculation took the form of buying stocks with too much leverage. Suppose you borrow 90% of the money to buy some stocks, contributing only 10% of the purchase price yourself. If the stock goes up 11%, you can sell it, repay the loan, and end up with twice the money you put in. But If the stock goes down 11%, you don't get out enough to repay the loan. You'll have to sell something else.
These extra-risky bets start to look good when the market has been rising so long that people forget it can go down. So any downturn will ruin som people, making them sell assets, making more prices go down, etc. That can be a chain reaction.
This time it the problem arose specifically from subprime mortgages, which were set up to charge low interest as long as the homeowner walks the straight and narrow and the lender doesn't get in a bad mood. One difference is that the lenders preyed on people who were not wealthy enough to invest in stocks. We could tell stock owners, "Tough, you should have known better." But these borrowers were exploited. They deserve to be protected from foreclosure, in a way that stock investors don't.
The worshipers of the Invisible Hand generally claim that their god will do what is good for the public. but, when pressed, they reveal that this is a tautology, because they define "good" as "whatever the Invisible Hand does".
U.S. citizens: call your congresscritter and say, "don't give a bailout to big companies without protecting the taxpayers and the homeowners and making those who have gained from dangerous speculation pay!"
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Also sign this petition
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Although Mbeki resigned for politically arranging to prosecute of
Jacob Zuma, that
doesn't necessarily mean Zuma was innocent. He may be prosecuted
anyway.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A historical
summary of Thabo Mbeki's presidency.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
I think it is partly mistaken, though. The only foreigners he impressed were neoliberals.
Bernie Sanders: If a
company is too big to [be allowed to] fail, it is too big to [be
allowed to] exist.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros, and Merrill Lynch are among 5 companies to which Bush gave special exceptions from SEC regulations in 2004. These exceptions from sensible precautions allowed them to get too greedy and drive themselves bankrupt.
Mike Tabor is suing the city of Portland after policeman stopped him from using his video camera to witness an arrest.
Thabo Mbeki will step down as president of South Africa after a court condemned him for making false charges against Jacob Zuma, his political rival.
Mbeki opposed state-funded medical treatment for poor people with AIDS, because his property is to give the best possible economic treatment to profitable foreign business
What Haitian-Americans are asking of the next U.S. president.
Paying singers to mention products is an organized industry. Ad agencies spam companies that seem to be possible clients.
Chalabi: U.S. wants secret bases in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
JK Rowling gave the UK labor party a million dollars. I fear that one of the things she asked for in return is increased copyright power over citizens that share.
Bush and his creature in Iraq, al-Maliki, still have not agreed on a treaty to authorize the Bush forces to remain past the end of the year. Bush demands immunity for the Bush forces, and Iraq (after they have murdered so many Iraqis) refuses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Colombian army and police threatened striking sugar cane workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The big use of private mercenaries instead of officially recognized soldiers is spreading from Iraq to Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The EFF has sued the NSA and Bush over the illegal surveillance.
Maybe it will argue that the law passed to authorize this surveillance by our cowardly Congress was unconstitutional
The Bush regime promised Pakistan it would not unilaterally attack — then broke the promise a few hours later.
For businesses, labeling their activities as "carbon-neutral"
is a fad; but the claims are often bogus, or impossible to check.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The US and EU have lost a lot of power in the UN. This shows up not only in the response to their power grabs but also in the failure of human rights initiatives.
This is the US' fault. It is hard for the US to exert influence for human rights when it tramples them around the world.
Roanoke VA has just one company to get health care from. When the local newspaper wrote about how it exploits this monopoly, the company got the reporter taken off the issue by cutting its advertising.
This must happen all the time, and mostly go unnoticed.
To prevent further financial disasters, we must reverse the policies of deregulation that set the state for this disaster.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
In a multinational poll, less than half the respondents believed that Al Qa'ida was responsible for the US 9/11 attacks.
There are grounds for skepticism about plenty of the official story. I don't believe the "missiles, not planes" theories, since I understand that many witnesses did see the planes. I have no basis to believe the claims that the planes were flown by remote control (set by the Bush regime) rather than by hijackers, although I won't say it is flat-out impossible.
But I have doubts about who the hijackers really were. It was always suspicious that the Bush regime claimed to be sure, so soon after, who they were. The leaked private message from Osama bin Laden, which denied involvement, creates more reason to doubt. (The published "bin Laden" tapes have been suspect all along.)
10 years of statements by Osama bin Laden, translated by the CIA and then leaked, include a message he sent to the US government saying he had nothing to do with the US 9/11 attacks.
I have no particular reason to assume bin Laden would not lie. On the other hand, I have no reason to assume he did lie, whereas I know the Bush regime can never be trusted. I won't treat this as proof that bin Laden was not involved, but it creates a real doubt. Until there is an honest investigation of those attacks, we do not know who organized them.
If you live in Washington DC, don't use
"Smart bikes"! They are Big Brother's eyes. The system records
where a user gets the bike, and records where she returns it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
It's possible they track the bike RFIDs along the way, too. The system in Paris is repored to do so.
When they say they do not distribute this information, they are being disingenuous. Under the U SAP AT RIOT act, the FBI can get this information without even a search warrant.
McCain and Palin have gone to unprecedented level of brazen lying.
The major media are starting to report McCain's and Palin's lies.
But their respose may not be adequate to the brazenness.
Debunked: Ten Conservative Myths About National Security.
The UK is expanding its network of cameras to record everywhere cars go.
The opposition disappoints me. It is a mistake to quibble about how long the data is kept. This system must be abolished!
Bush put a bioweapons
lab in Galveston, Texas, where it is sure to be destroyed by a
hurricane sooner or later.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
When a garment worker in Los Angeles makes a dress that retails for $100, the worker gets $1.72. This is according to Sweatshop Warriors, by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie.
Next time someone claims that we can have faith in the invisible hand to pay people according to the value of what they produce, we can suggest he investigate why the invisible hand thinks the dress is worth so much to the person who wears it, and so little to the person who makes it.
Aung San Su Kyi rejected food supplies from Burma's military rulers for a month in order to gain the right to receive magazines and letters from her sons.
The Burmese military rulers remain in power due to support by China.
Pakistan's army has been ordered: if US forces enter unauthorized, shoot at them!
An opposition gang shot marching supporters of Bolivian President
Morales with machine guns, leading Morales to declare a state of
emergency in that region. The opposition appears to have the support
of the US ambassador, so Morales expelled him. Perhaps he should
close the US embassy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Both McCain and Obama condemned Morales, effectively supporting the terrorist opposition.
It makes me very sad that Brazil is partly doing the same thing.
When Lula calls for negotiation with separatist gangsters who are escalating step by step to see how far they can get, it is tantamount to encouraging them. Unless Brazil says it will support Bolivia's government against a rebellion engineered by rich people and their hirelings, it will encourage such a rebellion.
A partial explanation for the US housing lending crisis in terms of Chinese wanting to invest.
Pakistani troops fired at, and drove off, US helicopters that were heading to attack Taliban supporters (and civilian bystanders) in Pakistan.
Unilateral US intervention in Pakistan was absurd when Obama suggested it, and it's absurd when Bush does it.
Sarah Palin's career in Alaska politics has been a matter of supporting her cronies and trying to suppress critics.
After outbreaks of cholera in Iraq, the Iraqi government's response
was to block journalists from talking with the victims.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Popov family came to France and asked for asylum, but the French goverment is determined to deport them back to Kazakhstan where they will certainly be killed.
French President Sarcoma won election by promising to be harsh to immigrants, because supposedly there were too many. It is typical of such regimes that they don't limit their cruelty to illegal immigrants or those who seek asylum falsely. They attack whoever they can get their hands on.
Dalits made homeless and destitute after the floods in Bihar face attempts to exclude them from emergency aid too.
A new general surveillance and dossier system in France has provoked
sustained opposition.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Gush Shalom asks for support so that more boats can bring food to Gaza.
London subways and buses use an RFID-based payment card which seems to have been designed for tracking.
If you use Oyster cards, keep them in aluminum foil when you are not using them to pay. That way, no one else can read them. Don't register them, and swap them frequently.
As for broken cards, I suggest giving them up for lost. If you refrain from storing a lot of money into the card, a broken card once every couple of years will be insignificant as a loss.
A house in Texas burned down because the fire hydrants were turned off to "prevent terrorism".
This absurd precaution is merely stupid (and perhaps partly corrupt), but other things done to "prevent terrorism" are much more sinister.
The Republican Party wants to prevent people from voting if they have lost their homes recently.
Do they think these people might be dissatisfied with the Bush regime?
The US is starting to admit substantial numbers of Iraqi refugees.
"Tens of thousands" may amount to 1% of the millions rendered homeless by Bush's invasion.
Some Christian farmers say RFIDs in cattle are "the mark of the beast".
I don't agree with their religion, and I don't believe cattle have a right to privacy. But humans do, and RFIDs are a grave threat to it. If opposition by Christians helps block plans to put RFIDs in products for sale, I will be glad of their support.
The RCMP tightened its policy for using tasers, because the old policy caused unnecessary deaths.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
A Quebec man changed
his name to escape from the US terrorist suspect list.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The US treats everyone as a terrorist suspect, but some people more than others.
The IRS offers tax
loopholes for booming pay for executives, including stock options.
The stock options encourage CEOs to take actions that boost the stock
price temporarily, while undermining the company.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Mugabe has agreed to a deal handing over most of his power to Tsvangirai, who won Zimbabwe's elections.
It sounds to me as if this deal could be sabotaged by Mugabe through later reinterpretation.
Bush secretly ordered US troops to enter Pakistan and attack Taliban supporters there.
Despicable as the Taliban are, unauthorized intervention in Pakistan is the stupidest possible response.
Kucinich has called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate how Bush launched the Iraq War.
Companies use "voluntary codes" to avoid regulation, but this is an inferior substitute.
Sarah Palin was a vocal supporter of the infamous "Bridge
to Nowhere" until the project started to become embarrassing.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Police and FBI staged a violent raid on the office of several community support groups in Berkeley California. The supposed reason could not explain this even if it were true.
Pakistan's president and its chief general have both condemned US attacks on Pakistan's territory.
2500 Iraqis live under the stands in Kirkuk's soccer stadium.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Police in St Paul attacked and arrested protestors before the protests
started, and continued doing so after. Here is the summary of how they shredded the US Constitution.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Greenpeace activists were acquitted of charges of "property damage" after they painted a statement of protest on a coal-burning power plant.
Note the subtle dishonesty in the description of painting of a word on the chimney as "property damage". That makes it sound like sabotage, which it wasn't.
The Church of Scientology has used the DMCA to get criticism deleted. It has a history of strained copyright claims.
Using copyright for censorship is not a new thing. Copyright in England originated as a system of censorship.
US citizens: phone yor congresscritter and senators in support of the
Clean
Water Restoration Act.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Bush and the Iraqi government hold dearly to one of Saddam Hussein's laws:
the one that prohibited unions for most Iraqi workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
US residents: canvas on Sep 20 to pull the Bush forces out of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
"Free trade" keeps poor countries poor, while protectionism can lead to development. No wonder the the European Union is trying to force the poor countries of the world into a "free trade" treaty that will keep them subjugated and poor.
Republicans in Virginia told lies to scare college students out of voting.
This reflects the Republican party ethic that any means of winning is ok. Republicans more frequently try to scare Blacks away from voting, and that gets less coverage.
Maqbool Fida Husain, a prominent Indian artist, lives in exile because of lawsuits from Hindus that consider his work "obscene".
A similar form of persecution in the name of Christianity is occurring in England.
NATO troops in Afghanistan have changed rules for air attacks to try to reduce civilian casualties. But I think this does not include the US troops.
A plane caught carrying drugs thru Mexico had visited Guantanamo Bay, and is being investigated by the EU on suspicion of use in US torture kidnapings.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The US troops in Afghanistan are killing more and more civilians due to increased use of air attacks.
To solve this problem, they would first have to admit it, but the dishonest Bush regime would rather deny a mistake.
The Iraqi government is making oil deals with companies from various countries.
This seems to mean that Bush and Cheney have lost their bid to get control of Iraq's oil. I hope so. But Iraq as a nation has lost also, in that its oil revenue will go to foreigners (regardless of what country they are from).
Extreme surveillance in the UK is part of a general practice of increased government interference in every aspect of life. Citizens must contend with both petty and major tyrants.
The interference is haphazard and unpredictable: one town will threaten people for putting up posters about a lost cat; other towns commit different outrages. But codifying these intrusions would not make them acceptable.
Georgia is the graveyard of America's unipolar world -- and that's a good thing.
The cold war put pressure on the US and the USSR to compete to present the world with a more appealing model, and respect for human rights was one aspect of the competition. Maybe such pressure will help us restore human rights in the US.
McCain and Palin attacked Obama for supporting the US constitution and working as a community organizer. The mainstream media treated this as valid.
I guess the press is being manipulated — either through its business owners or through understanding of its herd instinct.
Obama on Iraq and Iran does not sound very different from Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Since the Iraqi government has developed enough gumption to say no to Bush, it seems clear that most of the Bush forces will be removed by 2010 in any case. That is good, but it also moves Obama effectively further closer to Bush. Still not a hint of ethical criticism of the conquest and destruction of Iraq.
Palin said that the Iraq war is "a task from god".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Supporters of the UK cracker McKinnon protest that he will be extradited to the US and not get a fair trial there.
The US-UK extradition treaty is an obvious injustice: it doesn't even treat
the two countries equally.
This article explains other more subtle injustices in the treaty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Everyone: join the protests against surveillance on Oct 11.
Fighting to publish state laws, as states try to use copyright to impede
access to them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Bush fired US attorneys who would not launch actions for partisan political reasons. Sarah Palin fired commissioner Monegan because he would not act to support Palin's personal grievanes.
Supporters of the Chinese domination of Tibet like to defend it on the grounds that China liberated the Tibetans from a feudal theocracy. That's true; here in brief is what that feudal theocracy was like.
As the article also mentions, ending theocracy and serfdom does not justify China's new forms of oppression and colonization, and respecting Tibetans' autonomy and human rights does not imply restoring theocracy or serfdom there.
While Obama calls Bush's troop increase a success, Bob Woodward says it was a minor secondary reason for the reduction in the level of violence in Iraq.
The US Army is heading for a record suicide rate.
War is hell, always, but it's not always equally bad. If soldiers see that the cause they are fighting for is unjust, and that the rules of ethics that they have been taught are supposed to be ignored, they feel worse.
Pakistan reinstated some of the supreme court judges that Musharraf fired, but omitted the heroic chief justice.
Can anyone tell me why he was left out?
Attiqullah's bride and around 45 of his relatives were killed ago when the US bombed his wedding party. The US says only that it is "investigating". In two months of "investigating" it has not recognized who the bombs killed.
The UK will publish the instructions given by B'liar and his cabinet for changes in the "dodgy dossier" in which intelligence reports were distorted to create an apparent excuse for conquering Iraq.
Obama gave an interview on Faux News and used it to show how right-wing he is.
The "war on terror" is a dishonest and confused concept whose main purpose is convincing Americans and others to cede their freedom without a fight. The US government opposes some terrorism, and supports some terrorism — including, at present, terrorism against Iran. Obama's use of the term should remind us he is not really a defender of human rights in the US.
Did Bush's troop increase in Iraq "work"? That depends on what goal we judge it against.
It may have been partly responsible for the reduction in intercommunal violence. But the main cause of that change is probably that the ethnic cleansing campaigns between the Sunni and Shi'ites were completed, so there was no one left to chase into exile.
Did it make Iraq stable? No, because a more conventional civil war between Shi'ites and Sunnis is now pending. Bush made peace with parts of the Sunni resistance, by pointing out that al Qa'ida's violence against Shi'ites only brought retaliation, and then offering money. The result is that these regions have some peace and some autonomy. The Shi'ites of SCIRI, who dominate the Iraqi Army, plan to fight them next year.
Two other Bush aims, to station troops in Iraq permanently and to control
Iraq's oil,
seem also to have been thwarted.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Perhaps this is the only good thing one can say about Bush's crime in Iraq: that it failed to bring him and his cronies the gains they sought.
The Republican Party
is the hate party.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Anchovies have been overfished, and are now endangered in Europe.
US troops raided a village in Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government, and reportedly killed children.
Some Pakistanis called for responding to this act of war with a warlike response.
Everyone: tell CNN and MSNBC you want them to cover the fact that police arrested journalists at the RNC.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
If you'd like to find out how to phone the offices of the presidents of these networks, please tell me and I will post the phone numbers. Ten phone calls will have far more impact than ten names on a petition.
The World Bank is financing big CO2 emissions.
A sheriff in South Carolina bought a 50-caliber machine gun and threatens to shoot the public with it. This weapon cannot even be aimed carefully.
Israeli soldiers who shot a harmless Palestian and critically wounded him were acquitted by a military investigation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
It is standard practice for most parts of the the Israeli government to wink at any atrocity committed by Israelis against Palestinians. For instance, "settlers" stealing Palestinians' land can be violent with impunity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The Israeli navy shot Palestinian fishing boats.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Bush's "peace process" for Israel and Palestine has made no progress since 2001.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
What this article does not explicitly say is that the talks were doomed because the Bush regime has not dared to demand that Israel make any concessions.
California voters: support proposition 2 for humane treatment of some farm animals.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Police attacking protestors at the Republican Convention arrested Amy
Goodman as well as two other Democracy Now journalists, injuring them
as well. These journalists now face bogus criminal charges.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
Al Maliki has shown surprising firmness in resisting the Bush pressure for permanent stationing of the Bush forces in Iraq. This article proposes an explanation of why.
The fact that the UN mandate Bush obtained had a termination date is also crucial. I doubt that Russia would approve an extension now.
Sarah Palin would be even worse than McCain, if that is possible.
9% of the UK's prison population is made up of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. It seems that war is dangerous even for those that survive it.
The Bush regime won a court victory: it has the right to forbid companies from testing cattle carcasses for mad cow disease.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the old link was broken.]
The housing bubble, and the crisis of its bursting, was visible years in advance. The Federal Reserve didn't look.
Chalabi Aide Arrested on Suspicion of Baghdad Bombings.
Police in the Minneapolis area are breaking into houses without warrants, and arresting potential protestors, their lawyers, and journalists. They hardly bother to try to make it seem lawful.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Here's testimony from one witness. The police sealed the building after raiding it. They claimed to have a warrant, but refused to show it, which suggests they were lying.
The End of America, by Naomi Wolf, warned that the US had gone nearly all the way towards a police state, and that the full-blown tyranny only becomes unmistakably visible at the last stage. That last stage may be now.
It might not be too late to defeat this monster, if the mass media were to make a scandal. Obama could make this happen if he decides to try. But I expect that they won't. The mass media are certainly part of the monster, and Obama probably is too.
Neo-Nazis and white surpremacists are joining the US Army, which understandably has had trouble meeting recruitment quotas in recent years. Investigations against them get mysteriously cancelled.
Once trained in how to carry out overt state-sponsored terrorism, they may subsequently use their training for covert state-sponsored terrorism — or non-state-sponsored terrorism.
A militia of crazed Christian theocrats might welcome them too.
Three years later, New Orleans remains devastated, its population halved.
Rebuilding New Orleans in the same place would be foolish — inviting a repeat disaster. But Bush has been equally unhelpful to rebuilding in a new site.
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network is campaigning for Brazil
to withdraw its troops from the US-organized occupation of Haiti.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Was Facebook built by the CIA? Links of personnel suggest that it was.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
We don't need proof of any specific conspiracy to recognize that peer pressure can lead kids into many sorts of foolish behavior.
It's a mistake to post anything on Facebook unless you want to publish it.
Putin accused Bush and Cheney of having Georgia start a war to manipulate the US election.
I would not put it past them. Saakashvili surely supplied the main enthusiasm for the attack, but it is an interesting question whether he needed to get permission from the US before he could launch it.
Mexico City's policy of offering abortion services at no charge has won a court challenge.
Bush forces soldiers confessed
to murdering handcuffed prisoners. No charges have been filed
against them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Philip Morris knew that cigarette smoke contains radioactive polonium 210, but decided not to tell the public.
It is common for the effect of a radioactive or poisonous substance to depend on how it is ingested. For instance, a given dose of polonium 210 might be much more dangerous when breathed in than when swallowed, or vice versa. The article does not say, but I doubt it causes lung cancer when swallowed. If someone sends me the answer I will post it here.
More proof that Bush corrupted the CIA: its Oct 2002 "intelligence briefing summary" for Congress about Iraq was drafted months before the analysis it supposedly reported on.
Israel let humantarian relief ships dock in Gaza, avoiding confrontation for the moment. The ships brought children's hearing aids as well as food.
Israel can avoid this confrontation forever, if it lets relief ships continue sailing in and out of Gaza. But that seems unlikely.
The Bush regime wants to withhold crucial evidence from Binyam Mohamed's defense on the grounds that it would harm the "US-UK intelligence-sharing relationship".
Exposing these crimes might very well interfere with future collaboration on torture. That, of course, is why they should be published — not merely provided in secret to the defense lawyers.
What the Bush regime says is, in effect, "Don't let anyone know about our crimes, because we deserve not to suffer the consequences of them!" Any other criminal saying this would meet with derision. If the US is to claim to have rule of law, courts must give the Bushmen the same derision.
But that is not likely, given that this is a "military tribunal" which does not meet the usual criteria for a fair trial.
Articles in newspapers that appear to talk about a topic may have been written to promote a product or company.
The National Cancer Institute presents evidence that cigarette ads and smoking in movies are important factors in encouraging children to start smoking.
Perhaps movies should be rated "parental discretion advised" if they depict smoking.
US agents picked up hundreds of immigrants, even legal ones, to deport because of minor crimes. They say this roundup is aimed at gang members, but that appears to be a lie.
The Afghan government demanded that the US stop bombing civilian homes. The US response is to deny that this demand was made, just as it denies killing civilians.
Israeli concientious objectors are going to prison
rather than serve in the army of occupation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Israeli settlers try to drive the Abu Kabaita family off its land by
killing or
stealing their sheep. The Israeli police support this campaign of
harassment by refusing to accept complaints from the family.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
In Hebron, Israeli settlers attack Arabs
and their homes, and also attack the international monitors who
were placed there to discourage such attacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Thousands of children died in the Sichuan earthquake because their schools were not properly built. China has used lies, travel bans, and arrests to prevent them from being seen.
It makes me think of the way the Bush regime treats the 9/11 relatives who want a real investigation of what happened on that day. In the US and in China, the political system is rotten through and through.
The TSA is on guard against the Bra Bomber.
AT&T has effectively
bought the Democratic Party by becoming the main "sponsor" of the
convention.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
I think it is unconscionable for a political party to accept such sponsorship.
US citizens: phone our congesscritter and senators to oppose Bush's plan to negate the Endangered Species Act.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
AT&T has effectively bought the Democratic Party by becoming the main
"sponsor" of the convention.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
I think it is unconscionable for a political party to accept such sponsorship.
Mexicans are injecting themselves with RFIDs in a futile attempt to prevent kidnaping.
This is laughable, but the danger of it is real. If a practice becomes widespread even for stupid reasons, that makes it easier for society to make everyone do it.
Birds are shifting north under pressure from global warming, but
not as fast as temperatures are shifting north.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Earth can flip very fast from one climate regime to another.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Senator Biden proposed a solution to the Iraq problem somewhat like mine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
In today's Iraq, the three ethnic/religious groups no longer live together; the reason the violence has mosty ended is that each ethnically cleansed certain territory. This resembles to a certain extent the solution that I and later Biden proposed.
But my proposal included another element: to give each group a friendly supporting army committed to reinforcing it in defense but not helping it attack others. Currently the Shi'ites have the "Iraqi" army, and the Sunnis have none. Thus they are afraid of a third stage of the war in which they will be crushed.
Bush and Maliki are still unable to reach an agreement to keep the Bush forces in Iraq past the end of this year. Maliki wants a deadline and won't give them total immunity from prosecution.
If Iraqi democracy succeeds in checking Bush, that will mean it is real to some extent after all.
The Secret
Deal For Iraq's Oil.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Here are EPIC's comments on TSA's "Secure Flight" program, which aims to make airlines report all air travel to a central site which will check the list of a million terrorist suspects, rather than checking it themselves.
Bruce Schneier points out that the system will be error-prone and ineffective, as well as nasty and unjust.
Even though identifying all travellers has limited value for preventing non-state-sponsored terrorism, it is really handy for general control of the populace and suppression of dissent.
The Bush forces bought the support of many Sunni resistance groups. Now the Shi'ite Iraqi government wants to arrest them.
Now that these two religious groups have come to hate and kill each other, they will either have separate governments or one will conquer and repress the other. In the past, the Sunnis under Saddam Hussein repressed the Shi'ites, but did not need to kill tremendous numbers of Shi'ites to do this. It won't be so easy now, I think.
How Lucy Fairbrother planned and organized her protest in China.
There is still no certain word on whether her blog was maliciously altered.
The accusation that the text was altered may be mistaken.
Has Ms Fairbrother been released? Has she made any statement?
The Afghan government says that a US bombing killed 76 civilians. The US denies this occurred.
Bush wants to eliminate many limits on FBI investigations, so the FBI could investigate people without evidence of crime.
Diebold admitted its
software was to blame for lost votes.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The work-arounds might avoid accidental loss, but the only reliable way to avoid intentional loss of votes is to count them on paper.
The NIST proposed a bizarre theory to explain the collapse of building 7 in the World Trade Center, after unjustifiably dismissing the straightforward theory that explosives were used.
Binyam Mohamed is in Guantanamo and facing possible execution based on evidence obtained by torture. In the UK, a court has exposed UK participation in this torture.
The nominally Communist government of West Bengal forced thousands of peasants to give up their land for a capitalist car factory, but the dispossessed farmers have not given up protesting.
McCain owns so many houses he couldn't remember how many.
Aging makes it harder to recall facts like these. Perhaps 10 years ago he would have come up with the number right away.
Israel announces it will not allow food boats to reach Gaza.
Russian troops withdrew from the town of Gori, which could be the start of the promised withdrawal back to South Ossetia, but it is not going fast.
Disney bought a US law to extend the copyright on the drawing of Mickey Mouse, but it may have lost that copyright in 1929 through an error.
While that would be the beginning of fitting punishment for Disney, it would not undo the harm done by copyright extension.
Iran blocked actress Golshifteh Farahani from travelling outside Iran.
To stop people from leaving a country is inexcusable injustice. The Soviet Union and its puppet governments used to do this; today Israel does this in Gaza, and Iran has put itself in the same category.
Was Georgia's foolish provocation of with Russia encouraged by US perception that it has a nuclear first strike capability against Russia?
The Russian government is more overtly tyrannical than the Bush regime, but less powerful and not so broadly aggressive. Thus, overall the Bush regime is a bigger threat to freedom around the world.
Both the US and Russia need regime change, but neither one is likely to get it. In the mean time, there is no reason to wish for either one to gain over the other.
McCain's top foreign policy advisor was, until recently, a
lobbyist for the government of Georgia. And previously lobbied
other governments to support the conquest of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Clown regime has misplaced/leaked the personal information of up to four million citizens in one year alone.
Perhaps the reason the UK leaks so much personal data is that it collects such data more aggressively.
US citizens: Bush has possibly withdrawn his attempt to define birth control as "abortion", or perhaps just disguised it. Sign this petition to make sure it really gets withdrawn.
30 years after Franco's death, the tens of thousands of Spaniards that his supporters murdered are being exhumed and identified.
The Popular Party opposes this because it is the party of Franco's supporters.
The deputy director of Arlington National Cemetary is accused of
talking families out of press coverage of their relatives' burial,
then claiming
it was their wishes all along.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Israelis have petitioned for more serious charges against the colonel
who effectively ordered a
soldier to shoot a handcuffed palestinian.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Israel's tight siege of Gaza continues to keep the
inhabitants in poverty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Israel continues killing Gazans by stopping them from travelling
for medical treatment.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
For Hedy Epstein, whose parents were killed by the Nazis, bringing food
to Gaza by ship is carrying out the principles of Judaism.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Bush's October surprise -- a
blockade of Iran?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
In the US, freedom of speech includes general advocacy of illegal actions, as well as publishing information that someone might use to do something illegal.
In accord with this principle, the gag order against the MIT students has been lifted.
The UK, however, unabashedly imprisons people for general opinions that might lead someone to commit a crime at an indefinite future time.
Airline pilot James Robinson has trouble getting to his flights because he's on the terrorist watch list.
Another pilot has sued for being listed, since it cut him off from his livelihood.
A TSA inspector got a clever idea for "inspecting" planes. Nine planes he damaged were grounded for repairs.
Russia's borders are full of potential flash points comparable to South Ossetia.
Russian troops burned, killed and kidnapped in Georgia.
The Bush forces take Iraqis prisoner, torture them, and keep them for years without charges.
Artist James Powderly was arrested in Beijing before he could present a new art work which is also a protest for Tibet.
When the DEA destroys medical marijuana dispensaries, it takes
the houses and the children of the people who run them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Civil forfeiture, the practice of seizing the property of people accused of selling or even buying drugs, is a system of punishment without trial. It causes multiple injustices.
Russia is starting to withdraw a few troops from Georgia, and international truce monitors are coming in.
US citizens: support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Ohio is suing Diebold for making
voting machines that lost votes.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
For US immigration agents at JFK airport, bullying is standard practice. They detain people for hours, forbidding them to urinate, and proudly say they will hold people longer as an act of repression.
Microsoft consummated its corruption of the International Standards Organization, which dismissed an appeal by several countries against the approval of OOXML.
However, I think the EU's criminal investigation of this corruption is still live. (Is it?)
Russia defeated Georgia's attempt to conquer territory with an unwilling population of Ossetians. Now it appears Russia is trying to conquer territory with an unwilling population of Georgians.
The US would be in a better position to oppose this if it had not conquered an unwilling population of Iraqis.
South Ossetia is holding Georgian civilians hostage for the return of supposedly kidnaped Ossetians.
Since Georgia denies holding those Ossetians, they cannot be being held as hostages. But are they prisoners of Georgia? If not, what happened to them (if they were real people)?
Musharraf resigned to avoid impeachment.
No one can predict what will happen to Pakistan in the future; every political event there creates imponderable good and bad possibilities. However, in ethical terms, his attempt to sack the independent judiciary was an attack on democracy; if this means that the court's legimate judges will return, it is a victory for democracy.
Although Georgia started the war and lost it, it is now winning the PR battle to present itself as right.
But I don't think we can credit this solely to a PR agency. Saakashvili is more or less a poodle of Bush, so he gets the US government's PR assistance, and that probably includes secret inside media help as well.
Burma's military rulers imprisoned protestors after a Bush-style fake trial.
Using the names "Myanmar" for Burma and "Yangon" for Rangoon grant legitimacy to the military government; Aung San Suu Kyi asks people not to use those names.
Uri Avnery: for peace between Israel and Palestine, the peoples must read each others' poets.
The FARC has suffered reverses, but the government-sheltered paramilitaries in Colombia are still a big threat.
Hiu Ng was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security due to its own confusion, then denied the chance to see a doctor to diagnose what turned out to be cancer. When he became unable to walk, guards dragged him on the ground. When he could not stand on line to receive painkillers, he was denied them. He was forbidden to see his US-citizen wife and children until a couple of days before he died.
Even if the plan to deport him had not been a mistake, it could not justify this callous cruelty. And the government officials whose job is to parrot claims that this sort of thing never happens are just as guilty for covering this up as the people who did it.
Fully half of the Bush forces are "civilian" contractors, making official
"troop" figures meaningless.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
British protestors for Tibetan independence climbed a building in Beijing to drop a banner. The were arrested, of course.
A UN human rights report criticized the UK government for disrespecting freedom of speech in several ways.
What a shame that the UK falls into the same category as China.
In a rare act of thoughtfulnes, the TSA has decided not to add to its "terrorist suspect" list everyone that forgets to bring ID.
John Gilmore was once kicked off a plane for wearing a sticker saying "terrorist suspect". The morons on the flight crew thought that meant he was dangerous, but it only referred to the fact that everyone who flies in a plane is treated by the TSA as a terrorist suspect.
Polls about coastal oil drilling manipulate the answers through their choice of how to ask the question.
The UK government plans to record all phone calls, all emails, and all web browsing.
This is to "fight crime", but crime is a minor danger compared with that of an all-powerful all-seeing state. When the government declares suspicion grounds to imprison someone, everyone has a valid reason to conceal his activities from the state.
Pakistan's president Musharraf faces imminent impeachment. Of course Bush begs them not to do so.
The Russian army continues moving through Georgia, unimpeded by the completely smashed Georgian army, and is accused of massive atrocities against civilians.
However, those claims are unconfirmed and could be exaggerated. Human Rights Watch says that Russia is exaggerating the casualty figures for Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, and is concealing real data.
The critics of Russia point out that Georgia's attempt to reestablish control over South Ossetia was quite analogous to Russia's two reconquests of Chechnya. That is right: Russia's positions conflict hypocritically.
Russia responds to this by pointing out that the US defense of Georgia's "territorial integrity" conficts hypocritically with its removal of Kosovo from Serbian control. That is right too, but criticism of the US doesn't invalidate the criticism of Russia. Both the US government and the Russian government are hypocrites, and neither one can make itself honest just by criticizing the other.
So what about the substance of the issue? Since the South Ossetians mostly would rather be part of Russia, I see no reason to force them to be part of Georgia.
Bush contractors, often cronies, have
made 85 billion dollars from the conquest and occupation of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Movie companies are not interested in making a movie about
Toussaint-Louverture, who led the Haitian revolution against slavery,
because it has "no
white heroes".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: sign
this petition denouncing Bush's plan to call contraception
abortion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
If you want to trick someone with a photograph... you don't need a computer. All you need to do is change the caption.
Supporters of Tibet, and their web sites, are the targets of persistent malware attacks.
The Iraqi government is making an oil deal with China. Perhaps it will really turn out to be Iraqi rather than Bushi.
Talks in Zimbabwe broke down because Mugabe insisted on keeping the real power.
Foreign journalists visited South Ossetia and reported on the destruction caused by the Georgian attack, which included shelling the capital's main hospital.
Sherri Davidoff reports on flying in the US without her wallet, concluding
that the TSA's attempts to identify people have nothing to do with protecting
passengers and are solely about control.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The truce in Gaza is working fine
for Israel.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
It is not working very well for the inhabitants of Gaza, who remain
under siege. Sick people who want to leave for medical treatment are
forced to
become informers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Activists from many countries plan to bring food and
supplies to Gaza by boat.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
If the Israeli navy blocks them, it will highlight the siege.
US citizens: phone your congresscritters in support of HR 1258 (impeachment of Bush) and HR 33 (impeachment of Cheney).
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Also sign Kucinich's petition.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Bush is trying again to render the Endangered Species Act meaningless by allowing any federal agency to ignore it.
Imprisonment without trial is standard Israeli practice for
Palestinians — even for
journalists.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Palestinian Authority refused an Israeli peace proposal that would
involve giving Israel
all the land behind the annexation wall and getting desert in
return.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia has turned into a major victory for Russia, perhaps giving it permanent control over Georgia.
Bush, dishonest as always, accuses Russia of planning
this invasion for a long time.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
That may be so, but it was Georgia that started this war.
Russian dominion over Georgia would be a bad thing. It may be worse than the partial US domination that has existed for several years, because Russia may have more complete control.
The operators of remote-control bomber drones see the Iraqis they
killed, and even though they mentally label all their victims as "bad
guys", it causes
them remorse.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Was Georgia's attack against Russia a diversion
for attacking Iran?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
I have never before seen these claims about Iranian biological weapons, and this article isn't enough to convince me of them. But the claims about maneuvers and ship movements should be easy to check, so I expect they are true.
After Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian child and a teenage
bystander during nonviolent protests in Ni'ilin, Israelis protested the
commander of the regiment, who has the responsibility to make sure his troops
do not commit atrocities. 23
protestors were arrested and badly beaten.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Tens of thousands of poor Iraqi squatters face eviction.
The UK's Climate Camp goes on despite police
confiscation of everything from soap to buses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
When a government displays this propensity towards dirty tricks, it is clear that surveillance done by that government is a threat to the human rights of its citizens.
The protestors say they may make a permanent protest camp.
A glossary of Iraq Euphemisms.
Some
Chinese activists have disappeared
recently.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Italy's major ISPs have blocked access to the Pirate Bay, a major bittorrent site.
While I appreciate the sassy attitude of calling this activity "Pirate", it is better to reject and denounce the practice of using that smear term to refer to sharing.
China presented a computer simulation of Olympic fireworks as the real thing.
If filming from a helicopter was dangerous, it was right and proper not to do it. There would be nothing wrong with broadcasting a computer simulation instead, if it were labeled as such. The wrong committed here was that of lying, and lying is characteristic of the Chinese government.
After Georgian troops in South Ossetia were totally defeated by Russian forces, Georgia says it withdrew them as a "humanitarian" gesture. Will anyone believe that? But Russia rejected the opportunity to declare victory, and is attacking Georgia elsewhere.
This seems to be part
of a game of rivalry between Russia and the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Russia seems to have won this move, but the important point is that neither Russia nor the US deserves anyone's support. Neither government respects human rights. Both of them rig elections. Both deserve defeat in their ambitions.
Chavez' government has banned
hundreds of opposition candidates from running for office.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Arbitrarily excluding people from running for office is no better in Venezuela than in Iran. If there is evidence to accuse these candidates of corruption, they should be given fair trials and thus a chance to clear their names.
US citizens: support
the ACLU's campaign to end the nasty practices of the "Department
of Homeland Security".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Notice the similarity between "Department of Homeland Security" and "Committee for Public Safety"? The latter, headed by Robespierre, carried out "the terror".
CIA agent Rob Richer told Ron Susskind that he (Richer) circulated a faked letter connecting Saddam Hussein with Al Qa'ida. After Susskind's book appeared, Richer first said it was true, then denied it. So Susskind published the text of Richer's interview where he admitted this. The original text of the letter arrived on White House letterhead.
Obaidullah Rahimi faces deportation to Afghanistan although he does not even speak the language.
It is absurd to punish anyone for having sex with someone of age 15 — it is normal for Americans of age 15 to have sex. But even if he had committed a real crime, such as robbery, for which punishment is appropriate, deporting someone who arrived in the US so young is absurd.
Here's what happens when people are deported to countries which
they hardly know.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The evil aspect of the EU is revealed by a plan to merge surveillance with the US.
This is supposedly to serve the goals as "freedom, security and justice", but it can hardly respect freedom and justice if the US is involved.
The Bush forces keep prisoners in wooden boxes in the heat of Iraqi summer.
More information about the war in Georgia reveals duplicity on both sides.
It seems clear that Russia gave Russian citizenship to most South Ossetians as a prelude to annexation. Citing that now as an excuse for intervention is bogus.
It seems virtually certain that Georgia started the war. The attack it made takes preparation, and the preparations must have started several days before the start of the Olympics, timed for an attack on that day. If Georgia had responded to a surprise attack by the South Ossetians on that day, it might have counterattacked, but the counterattack would not have been so big.
I wonder whether Georgia asked Bush's permission before attacking. A government so dependent on the US that it would send troops to the Bush forces is compelled also to obey.
Bailouts for failing US banks, which reward the abuses permitted by past deregulation, create worse distortions for the future. Proposed "reforms" could make things even worse.
Russia and Georgia are at war over South Ossetia.
South Ossetian is obviously acting as a pawn of Russia, and I think it likely that Georgia is acting as a pawn of the US, but I don't understand the situation enough to have any further opinions about it.
The president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference sees nothing wrong in letting banks write statements for him to sign. But he takes great offense when those statements criticize Wal-Mart.
His various purchasers failed to keep track of what parts of him they had bought.
Bush is negotiating an agreement to remove all troops from Iraq. It will take several years, but not a century.
The Israeli officer who ordered a soldier to shoot a handcuffed prisoner will get off with a slap on the wrist.
The leader of Malaysia's opposition party faces possible imprisonment for "sodomy".
Whether Anwar is "guilty" is unimportant; what matters is that Malaysia is guilty of having an unjust law against homosexuality, and its government is guilty of trying to sabotage the opposition.
Malaysia also denies religious freedom. People of Malay ancestry are legally required to be Muslims.
US citizens: support the campaign for digital publication of Senate campaign contribution reports.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Salim Hamdan was convicted in a phony trial for the crime of being Osama bin Laden's driver — under an ex-post-facto law, which is explicitly unconstitutional. We cannot tell whether some of the "evidence" was obtained by torture.
Here is what makes there trials totally unjust.
The Bush regime is no better than Osama bin Laden.
An arrested pro-Tibet protestor's web site has had pro-Chinese propaganda mysteriously added.
The Chinese spokesman pompously hopes people will "obey the laws of China", but why should anyone do that? The tyrannical laws of China deserve obedience just as much as the tyrannical laws of the US — which is to say, not at all.
Can humanity adapt to a temperature rise of 4 degrees C?
US citizens: call your senators to tell them to end government subsidy for the oil companies (and tax them instead). You can also sign this petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The Bush regime is accused of faking a letter purporting to establish a link between Saddam and al-Qaida.
Pro-Tibet protestors were
arrested in Beijing for displaying banners.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Barack Obama's political background.
Obama, like McCain, gets lots of big campaign contributions.
They reflect the fact he will not challenge the dominion of big business and the organization of society primarily for the rich.
MoveOn is not a
movement for progressive change.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Beijing Olympic games take commercialization to
a new height.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Activists are about to sail boats to Gaza to break the siege, daring
Israel to stop them. One activist explains
why.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Scott Ritter: The US is funding and supporting the Mujahadeen-e Khalk in a campaign of sabotage and terrorism in Iran.
It is a strange reversal for an organization that once patriotically fought the US-imposed Shah to work with the regimes of Saddam Hussein and Bush that are clearly enemies of their country. It could be the result of carrying a grudge too far, or it could be simple corruption.
The governor of Texas is in a hurry to execute a Mexican before his violated right to consult Mexican consular officials can be protected.
US citizens: call your representatives and ask them to cosponsor these two bills:
The Medical
Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2008 (H.R. 5842) would give
states greater authority to determine their own medical marijuana
policies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Personal
Use of Marijuana By Responsible Adults Act of 2008 (H.R. 5843)
would remove federal penalties for possessing up to 3.5 ounces of
marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The Bush forces reduced violence in Iraq by informally supporting tame Sunni as well as Shi'ite militias. However, the Shi'ite militias are called the "army" and "police", while the Sunni militias are not. And the Shi'ite militias are prepared to use that to reignite the massacres.
What Bush did is partially similar to what I called for two years ago, but not entirely similar. My plan was to give both Shi'ites and Sunnis non-Bush foreign military support to defend themselves. With Bush's way, the Shi'ites have foreign military support and the Sunnis do not.
McCain wants literal
armies of occupation in the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
How appropriate this would be in a state that acts, in effect, as a government of occupation by the empire of the megacorporations.
Meanwhile,
Obama made a rather enigmatic vague statement that points in a similar
direction.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
I cannot tell whether it was a real proposal for something new, or a too-witty reference to something prosaic.
Iraq refugees in Jordan need not fear being shot, but they can barely survive
since
they are forbidden to work.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The WTO and China are campaigning against state laws designed to protect
the public from dangerous products.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Over 1% of US adults are in prison, so
the prison business is booming.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The University of Nottingham has given servile support to arresting students in the "international security and terrorism" course for downloading an Al Qa'ida manual from a US government web site.
Note how the police cite the "university authorities" as having decided that Sabir is not allowed to study these materials, while these supposed "authorities" duck their responsibility to defend academic freedom by saying nothing and only citing the police.
Evidently the "university authorities'" decision has nothing to do with truth, justice, or academic freedom, and merely represents obedience to the Sheriff of Nottingham. This law, which prohibits possession of documents that "might be useful" for terrorism, is nothing but a veiled way of imprisoning people on suspicion.
The UK government is a bigger threat to Britons' lives than any non-state-sponsored terrorist group, and what's worse, it attacks their freedom as well.
The Clown regime wants to fingerprint everyone boarding a plane in the UK.
Supposedly for security, of course, but maybe the real motive is commercial.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
So don't board a plane in the UK. Take the train to Paris or Brussels.
The Bush regime has secretly held Aafia Siddiqui prisoner for five years in Afghanistan, lying about her all the while. She was a student in the US and disappeared while visiting Pakisan.
But the regime still won't say what happened to her children, who disappeared with her.
Israel has agreed to shift the annexation wall back in some areas so as to
restore some of the confiscated Palestinian land.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
"Security" is the standard excuse for a broad range of crimes.
As Mohammed Omer returned to Gaza after receiving an international
prize for journalism, Israeli border guards wanted to steal the prize
money. But he didn't have it on him, so they tortured
him instead.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Ex-prosecutor Bugliosi says that any D.A. could prosecute Bush for murder.
False information about anthrax samples, promulgated by the same lab
where the anthrax came from, was used
to put the blame on Saddam Hussein.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The anthrax attacks of 2001 have reputedly been traced to a US government researcher, who reputedly killed himself.
I have no way of judging whether to believe either claim, but what is most interesting is that the anthrax letters were very effective at convincing Congress to pass the U SAP AT RIOT act which attacked human rights in the US. If Ivins carried out the attacks, we will probably never know whether someone such as Cheney planned them.
The designer of Beijing's olympic stadium has condemned the Chinese government for making the Olympic Games an excuse for worse tyranny.
Protestors against coal power in the UK defy police threats to imprison them for nonviolent protests.
Binyam Mohamed's lawyers say the UK government knew that Bush was having him tortured, and lied about it.
Bush's latest Attorney General asked Congress to formally give Bush
the power to
imprison anyone without trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
It's just a tiny step beyond what Congress has already given him.
Here are some congressional elections that can affect abortion rights.
Now if only they let everyone vote and count the votes accurately...
The pentagon's audit agency has actively covered up bad news about cost and performance of weapons.
Bush regime torture practices follow those used by China against UN
troops captured in the Korean war. Over 100
prisoners have died in US custody, many of them killed by their
captors.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The war in Afghanistan involves ever more bombing, killing ever more civilians.
I supported the war against the Taliban in 2001. After the quick victory, I thought there was a chance to make Afghanistan a much better and fairly peaceful place. Was that a delusion, or was it ruined by Bush's invasion of the country he had always wanted to invade?
After a teen fell off a bridge and broke his back, cops shot him 19 times
with a tazer. The effects on his blood forced doctors to delay
the surgery he needed.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The police are obviously lying. The reason their lie is so lame is that it's hard even to fabricate a good excuse for attacking a person lying motionless on the ground with a broken back.
China has imprisoned people for talking about the structural flaws of schools that collapsed in the earthquake. And the International Olympic Committee made a deal agreeing to censorship of foreign reporters' internet access.
The IOC strikes me as disgustingly hypocritical, pretending that it will uplift humanity through an event which is really just entertainment, and then making the event go by conniving at suppression of human rights.
Sami el Haj, an Al Jazeera journalist held captive in Guantanamo for
six years, now campaigns for the release of other prisoners and the
end of torture. Here he describes
how he and others were tortured in Guantanamo.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
EPA tells its staff: don't answer to the EPA's inspector general (or to Congress).
US citizens: call your senators to oppose S.3212, which pretends to address the danger of computerized voting machines but actually protects them.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
More information, plus a petition
you can sign.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Bush forces banned US journalist Zoriah Miller for publishing bad news.
Being embedded in a military unit tends to bias a
journalist, who comes to think of the troops as his buddies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
This article argues that it is unfeasible for journalists to work if not "embedded" in a Bush forces unit. Maybe it is true for most of them, but some, such as Dahr Jamail do this.
A RAND report says that the "war on terror" is self-defeating.
Not to mention that it is the excuse to hurt Americans much worse that Al Qa'ida might have done.
In the latest Ni'ilin protest, Israeli troops killed a 10-year-old boy by shooting him in the head.
The CIA openly accused its Pakistani counterpart, the ISI, of supporting the Taliban.
I've always heard that the ISI set up the Taliban, and Al Qa'ida too. The fact that the CIA talks about this in public suggests that things are pretty strained between Bush and Pakistan.
The "Justice" Department illegally
applied political criteria for hiring.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Bush's new method to oppose birth control is to redefine it as "abortion".
He has already redefined "torture", so why not "abortion"? What will he redefine next?
Richard Perle, one of the not-yet-cons who planned to conquer Iraq, is
trying to cash
in on Iraqi oil.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
McCain got big money from oil company executives after he changed
his position on offshore oil drilling.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
If a person does this even once, it means he has no integrity.
The US and UK, by rejecting
nuclear disarmament and applying a double standard to Israel and
India, encourage Iran to develop nuclear weapons and undermine the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The UK proposed to give battered women a defense if they kill their oppressors.
The same principle should apply to Iraqis that kill some of the Bush forces.
Three questions for Barack Obama.
A Canadian band put up their own CDs as posters to oppose the unjust C-61 copyright law.
Illegal wiretapping in Sweden has created an even bigger scandal after the police tried to arrest the person who exposed it.
The WTO negotiations have broken down because China and India (leading
many of the poor countries) would not accept
some US demands about power for the agribusiness megacorporations.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
We should cheer this failure, because any agreement made now has to be a change for the worse. Whatever the US and EU agreed to on 18 "resolved" issues surely gives more power to megacorporations, else the US and EU would not accept it.
Here's a report about why the deal is bad for the poor.
Amnesty International: China obtained the Olympic Games by promising to respect human rights more, but it has done the opposite.
Republicans have disenfranched hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in several swing states.
I don't hold any enthusiasm for Obama; at best he will be like Clinton but even less liberal. However, systematic destruction of democracy is dangerous even if there is no good candidate is likely to win this year.
And you can be sure that if Obama loses because of this disenfranchement, Democrat activists will blame it on the Green candidate.
The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul is illegally trying to
destroy the Landless Workers Movement.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Kenya's government has been torturing thousands to make them identify rebels.
I wonder if the US military aid included torture training.
Remember the video of the Israeli soldier shooting a handcuffed Palestinian prisoner? The girl who made it feared retaliation, and now Israelis have arrested her father.
For once the
Bush forces admit that the Iraqis they shot in a car were
noncombattants.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
What's crucial here is that it demonstrates the way the Bush forces always claim their victims were enemy fighters, regardless of the truth. The story about a "misunderstanding" caused by the gun in the car (surely a normal thing in Iraq) is not believable: the dead driver's son was at the scene while the car was still burning, so the Bush forces knew who they had killed before they had a chance to look at what was in the car.
I suspect that the Bush forces admitted the "mistake" this one time only because they feared alienating the other people that work at Baghdad airport, and that this does not represent a change in policy.
A Canadian human rights worker faces deportation from Israel for
photographing soldiers brutalizing a nonviolent protest at Ni'ilin.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Poor farmers in South Africa are being pressured
to plant genetically modified crops.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Refugees from Fallujah say people starved in their homes because the Bush forces' curfiew did not let them get food. And the (Shi'ite) Iraqi Bush forces are just as bad in different ways.
Obama glowingly praised the right-wing President Sarkozy, who is Bush's French poodle.
This demonstrates once again that Obama himself is right-wing, but it could be worse. Sarkozy is known for his draconian law which has made even the possession of a copy of DeCSS a crime. I hope this doesn't indicate that Obama will attack the freedom of computer users even further.
After a uranium spill in Tricastin, France, EDF tried to hold back informing the public. The amount of uranium contamination seems to prove there were other spills in the past.
Sarkozy wants to build more nuclear plants, even in other countries. Is this what Obama admires?
People who flee to the UK after being tortured in other countries are subject to torture and permanent injury when they are deported back for more torture.
The EFF and ACLU have sued to declare the new unjust wiretap law as unconstitutional.
The Bush forces systematically
arrest large numbers of Iraqis, just fishing at random.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Obama's lack of concern for how Israel treats Palestinians is second only to McCain's.
Major ISPs are planning to limit their
subscribers' access to all but a few preferred commercial internet
sites.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Charlie Lynch faces 100 years imprisonment because he filled a 17-year-old cancer patient's prescription for marijuana.
Owen Beck is probably suffering horrible pain now. That's the sort of thing that delights a DEA agent's heart.
US citizens: sign
this petition urging Congress to refrain from menacing Iran with
war.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Air travellers now face strip searches in public.
Remember the Shoe Bomber? Wait till they catch the Bra Bomber and start requiring all women passengers to remove their bras.
Israel has flagrantly disregarded promises to stop extending its colonies in the West bank.
Israeli "peace" negotiations consist of demanding that the Palestinians concede everything, while offering them nothing.
A Maryland State Police document shows massive
government surveillance of political actvists — who are
falsely called terrorists or drug traffickers — by all levels of
government.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The press director of Arlington National Cemetery was fired for
letting the families of deceased veterans decide whether they wanted
press at the funeral.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
It's a minor issue in itself, but shows how far the Bush regime goes to control the press.
A reporter for CNN reported on the million-strong "terrorist" watch list. The TSA denies punishing him by putting him on the list, but they refuse to explain why he gets hassled every time he flies.
The major ISPs in the UK have agreed to help the music factories against their own customers. People should move, if at all possible, to other ISPs.
Clown talks very green, but meanwhile he's trying to undermine
EU plans to promote renewable electric generation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Nuclear reactor companies want government subsidies to build more
nuclear power plants, because they are far more expensive than safe
renewable electric generation or more efficient use of electricity.
They make no economic sense except as handout to the rich.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
IMF meddling has been scientifically identified as causing
an increase in tuberculosis. It does this by forcing countries to
cut health care expenditures.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Chavez' activities have freed a number of countries in Latin America from the IMF's power, and now it is weak. Perhaps we can kill it off.
Oil prices will probably
get even higher because demand will exceed supply.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Bush is using oil and food prices as an opportunity to gain more power for his cronies. And Obama supports most of it.
China announced it would open a few locations for protests during the Olympics, but Human Rights Watch says that restrictions and surveillance would make this an insignificant opening.
We have seen similar schemes to limit protests in the US, where the locations are hypocritically called "free speech zones".
The reason Mugabe agreed to a deal is that his supply of paper for printing money was cut off.
That makes sense, but I find it fishy to claim that Mugabe, who does not shrink from murder and torture, would shrink from the wrong of using a proprietary program without a license. He has already committed the more grave wrong of using it with a license. And if he doesn't fear that torture victims might sue him, how could he fear that the developer might sue him?
Cigarette companies adjust levels of menthol to help people start smoking and then cater to hard-core addicts.
This year's Netroots Nation event, formerly the Yearly Kos, has been totally tamed by the center-right Democratic Party.
CORE, which in the 60s campaigned strongly for civil rights, has been corrupted by the coal industry.
A racist UK cop used the "terrorism act" powers to meddle with a mixed-race family. There was absolutely no basis to suspect the family of terrorism.
The crucial issue, which this exemplifies, is that the UK's "anti-terror laws" relate to terrorism only in their name. What they really do is give police too much power over everyone.
The makers of electronic voting machines distort the facts so that states will not protect their elections from being stolen.
Pakistan's government has imprisoned hundreds of Pakistanis in secret prisons, Bush-style, and held them for years. Their families cannot find out what happened to them.
Europe is considering building massive solar power plants in the Sahara desert.
Wetlands contain so much carbon that, if they were destroyed, it would cause disastrous global warming. And many of them are threatened with destruction.
A committee of MPs concluded that the UK
cannot trust the Bush regime's statements that it does not torture
people, because its definition is suspect.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Israeli settlers often shoot at Palestinian homes with rifles. Now
they are also firing home-made
artillery shells.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
In Nil'in, scene of many nonviolent protests, a soldier fired on a handcuffed protestor at close range while an officer stood by.
But the only thing which makes that
incident unusual is that it was caught on video, much as the video
of the Rodney King beating offered proof of what cops habitually get
away with.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Bush forces seem to be planning to
destroy Falluja again.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Last time, they even killed patients in the hospital.
The House Judiciary Committee has finally agreed to examine some of Bush's injustices, but still refuses to consider impeachment.
I think that representatives that do not support impeachment do not deserve support.
Everyone: sign the
petition calling on McCain to oppose all forms of torture.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The government of Pakistan forbade
Dr Khan from saying anything about Pakistan's proliferation of
nuclear weapons information.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
It is the general practice of the Bush regime and its allies to issue orders to silence people who can testify to the evil they have done. Consider for instance the gagging of Mordecai Vanunu in Israel (even though he has no nuclear secrets as such left to tell) and the translator Sibel Edmonds in the US.
The judge in a military trial rejected evidence obtained by blatant
torture, but allowed
confessions obtained by the less brutal forms of torture used in
Guantanamo.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Further information about the deal between Mugabe and Tsvangirai explains that the deal means his giving up real power. Apparently economic desperation is the reason he agreed.
Radavan Karadzic, who led the Bosnian Serbs as they attacked
multi-ethnic Sarajevo, has been
arrested and will probably soon be sent to the Hague for trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Karadzic is estimated to be responsible for 300,000 deaths. Bush is in the same way responsible for probably 4 times as many; when will he be tried?
US citizens: sign the
petition in support of Al Gore's renewable electricity challenge.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Due to global warming, the only way to protect many species from extinction is to move them to new habitats. But this is only possible for a fraction of them.
Al-Maliki endorsed Obama's not-really-timetable for removing some parts of the Bush forces.
However, if large numbers of "non-combat troops" and mercenary "non-troops" remain in Iraq, I'm not convinced that means the end of the occupation.
Prejudice against Gypsies in Italy has led to scandal about bathers who did not react when two Roma girls drowned.
It isn't explicitly clear whether the other bathers knew that the girls were Roma, or even noticed that they were dead. But even if they did, I think the scandal's focus is in the wrong place.
I don't see why it is obligatory to make a fuss about a stranger's corpse. That won't help anyone, least of all the person who died. The time that we have an obligation to pay attention is while the person in danger is still alive. Someone did call for help, but did others neglect that duty out of prejudice? If so, that should be the real scandal.
Tsvangirai and Mugabe have made a deal, under the influence of Mbeki.
It is astounding good news, but it is likely to be fragile. What I wonder is, what led Mugabe to change his tune?
Global warming appears to be making invertebrates more common and fish less common in parts of the ocean.
The long drought that is devastating agriculture in Australia is likely to get worse in coming decades, due to global warming.
DDT being used in Africa is damaging coral reefs in the Caribbean.
A major bird sanctuary in the Gulf or Mexico, off the Louisiana coast, is being washed away. With the rising sea levels, it is probably doomed.
The Palestinian town of Ni'lin has launched a
persistant campaign of nonviolent protest against the Israeli
confiscation of its land, in cooperation with Israeli and
international supporters, and continues it even though Israeli troops
respond with cruelty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Obama calls the
conquest of Iraq "a strategic error". It was one, of course, but
saying only that whitewashes a terrible crime.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Torture and murder at Iraqi juvenile prison.
The article understates the general situation which led to this. The
department of the "Iraqi" government which runs the prisons was (and probably
still is) in the hands of Shi'ites linked to the Badr brigades, and murdering
Sunnis was their aim.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
When the killer cops were aquitted, New Yorkers rioted — against the police, not against their neighborhoods.
Archeologists voted to reject the idea of making a list of Iranian archeological sites for Bush not to attack, saying that making the list would legitimize the attack.
China and Russia blocked an embargo on selling arms to Mugabe.
So it looks like Mugabe wins. The world's powers give lip service to concern about his tyranny, but nothing more, since freedom is not particularly important to them anyway.
There are reports that
Israeli fighters are landing in Iraq near Haditha as practice for attacking
Iran. The "Iraqi" government denies this, but you could hardly expect them to
be more honest than their master.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Iraqi refugees, now in desperate circumstances in Syria and Turkey, are trying to sneak into Europe. The countries that turned Iraq into a disaster do nothing for them.
30% of all reef-building
coral species now face imminent extinction due to the effects of
human CO2 production. 10 years ago it was just 3%.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Tenants in Boston organized to
block the eviction of one of the victims of the mortgage crisis.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Three cheers!
Increased US corn production, aimed at making ethanol for cars, is
making the dead
zone in the Gulf of Mexico the biggest ever.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Burmeses activists talk about an armed uprising — if they can get any arms.
I see nothing wrong in foreign support for resistance against the military rulers, even if its motive is amoral international rivalry. But it looks like just enough to stir the pot, and nothing that could actually help.
Israeli troops demolished Palestinian homes in Hebron.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
They did not say why they did this, but whatever the reason may be, it is collective punishment, and thus a crime.
Meanwhile, in Nablus,
the Israeli army has attacked and destroyed many institutions — a
school, a clinic, and a large shopping mall — and stolen even the school
buses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
For the long term,
Israel is stealing the West Bank's water supplies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
When the Israeli Supreme Court ruled to move the annexation wall away from the
lands of the farmers of Bil'in, that was the main victory for non-violent
Palestinian activism. Now
the government is making a mockery of the court decision, disregarding it
while building new colonies that it will later claim it has to "protect".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
China is arresting, killing and deporting people, using dubious accusations of terrorism as an excuse.
All in all it sounds a lot like the Bush regime.
China also searches people's baggage for entering trains, which makes no sense at all except to boost employment.
A multitude of US agencies regularly
spy on the activities of the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The people quoted in the article hesitate to denounce this as strongly as it deserves. But since the Bush regime is already guilty of torture, imprisonment without trial, and wars of aggression, we need not suppose that things have to get any worse before regarding its power as a threat to liberty. The US government is already Americans' worst enemy.
If Bush attacks Iran, the price of oil will skyrocket. This article argues that ultimately this will discourage any attack.
I am not convinced: Bush's cronies profit from the high price of oil.
Segolene Royal accused Sarkozy's men of being behind a strange burglary of her home in which nothing was stolen.
Such accusations are not at all absurd. Remember Nixon and Watergate? Perhaps Sarko's men were behind this; but the question is why.
There was a clear motive for Nixon to send people to burglarize the Democratic Party headquarters: knowing the opposition's campaign plans. Sarco defeated Royal a year ago, so that motive would not apply. Is there another possible motive?
Karl Rove disobeyed a summons to testify to a congressional committee, and could face imprisonment for contempt of Congress, if Congress has the guts to insist.
Rove's central role in the dirty tricks of a dishonest administration is plenty of reason to insist that he testify under oath.
The US Senate gave final approval to almost unlimited government spying on Americans.
The British Army has formally apologized for torturing Baha Mousa to death, and will pay compensation to his family.
I think that the UK made a serious attempt to convict Mousa's killers of murder, and the failure reflects the fact that the system and the situation make this very difficult to do.
The military occupation of a hostile civilian population will inevitably lead to such events, and it will inevitably be hard to prosecute them. Therefore, anyone considering ordering the military occupation of a hostile civilian population ought to realize in advance that this is part of what will result.
A crusading judge has convicted some of the Italian fascist police that attacked, injured and tortured sleeping protestors in Genoa. Now the fascist government of Italy intends to make sure they never go to prison.
Israeli settlers have taken over part of the al-Kurd family home in
Hebron, and now the government
says it will demolish the home.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Evidence that Diebold stole an election in 2002 by trickery with voting machines.
The Bush regime is pushing a new cold war by installing ABM systems in Europe. One price of this may be the survival of Mugabe's brutality in Zimbabwe.
It is callous and absurd for Russia to strike back at Bush by punishing innocent millions in Zimbabwe that have never helped Bush. However, Bush is also to blame for the provocation. Between these two tyrannical regimes, there is little reason to prefer one or the other.
A US appeals court upheld Bush's power of arbitrary imprisonment. This means there is nothing to protect Americans from their worst enemy, their own government.
The US constitution is a dead letter if it cannot prevent this.
Protestors who destroyed computers in an arms factory, to stop
production, were acquitted in Ireland on the grounds that they were preventing the
commission of war crimes.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Speaker Pelosi called Bush a "total failure".
I wish it were true, but the Bush regime has an almost perfect record of abolishing freedom and democracy in the US, and a very good record of handing out money to his cronies. The 9/11 attacks might also be one of its successes; sabotaging and corrupting the investigation certainly was.
Israeli troops attacking a nonviolent Palestinian protest beat
up a medic so badly that he could not stand, then arrested him.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The general Israeli policy seems to be, no medical care for Palestinians.
Bush may increase diplomatic contact with Iran.
The US "terrorist" watch list now has a million names on it, which means that millions of people are likely to be harassed when they fly. But they can't be absolutely sure of stopping every terrorist unless they put every person in the world on the list.
Despite the cease-fire which has pretty much ended overt violence in
Gaza, Israel
continues to kill harmless residents of Gaza by preventing them
from leaving to get the medical treatment they need.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The EU has cut its biofuels plans after recognizing that they have driven up food prices. Meanwhile, Bush continues to deny the whole thing.
Nuclear waste was spilled at the Tricastin nuclear power plant in France. People have been warned not to drink water from the rivers or eat any fish from them.
A Taliban child soldier, imprisoned in Guantanamo, faces charges with
"war crimes" for fighting against the US. It appears that his
treatment in prison amounts to torture.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Taking enemy soldiers prisoner is not wrong, but torturing them is; and so is putting them on trial merely for fighting against soldiers. While the Bush regime rejects all civilized standards for its own behavior, it imposes ridiculous standards on its enemies. That's "victor's justice", and would bring more shame on the US (as if there weren't enough already).
In Iraq -- A Generation with No Education.
The B'liar regime used Pakistani agencies to torture a series of British citizens.
I wonder if it also used Pakistani agencies to torture other people who are not British citizens, but are entitled to the same human rights.
Massachusetts voters: support Question 2, to eliminate criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Many welders develop neurological damage due to manganese exposure. The problem has been known for around a century. But their employers deny it, and rather than provide them with clean air to breathe, prefer to corrupt scientific studies in order to deny the danger.
The Wedding Crashers: A Short Till-Death-Do-Us-Part.
The expiring UN mandate for occupying Iraq has given the Iraqi
government the chance to stand up to Bush. Bush has had to
abandon the plan to get an agreement to make the occupation permanent.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Bush must be amazed to see his puppet rebel, but the "Iraqi" government depends on the Bush forces, so I doubt it stand up to them for long. However, I would be pleasantly surprised if it succeeds.
Al-Maliki is also talking about taking
control of the Bush forces' "green zone" fortified enclave.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
In Turkey the secular nationalists are fighting the elected Islamist party with coup plots and a court case.
The president of Sudan has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.
But when will they indict Bush?
Ex-prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has had three fiction bestsellers, and his nonfiction book that proposes to try Dubya for murder is a bestseller too. But newspapers and TV refuse to review it.
Here is the biofuels/food price report that the World Bank tried to cover up to pander to Bush.
Despite the cease-fire in Gaza, Israel has not ended the siege.
A Bush forces soldier who rejected Christianity while in Iraq is now suing the Defense Department over religious harassment. He says that Christians have gained dangerous power throughout the army.
I hope he also reconsiders whether his participation in the occupation of Iraq was good or evil.
The US government is making sure that future movies about the conquest of Iraq take a pro-US line.
The International Red Cross says that things are not improving for the millions of Iraqis who were driven to flee their homes by the sectarian violence.
Iran tested ballistic missiles to show Bush that it could counterattack if Bush attacks.
Obama supported the Bush line that this makes Iran a "great threat".
The supposed threat of Iran is certainly a great thing for those who want to distract Americans while picking their pockets of freedom. Iran is no threat to the US. It could attack US forces in the Middle East, but since those forces are engaged in an act of aggression, attacking them is not wrong at all.
A nuclear-armed Iran could theoretically bomb and destroy Israel, but Israel could retaliate and destroy Iran, and I don't think the Iranian generals want that outcome.
The annexation wall
cut off the village of Jayyous from its farmland. Israel allows the
farmers to go to their land, but the restrictions are so onerous that they
prevent real farming.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Cheney's men were directly involved in censoring an EPA report on global warming.
The G8's statement on CO2 is
even more lame than it appears. Meanwhile, these governments, like
colonies of the empire of the corporations, continue trying to strengthen the
empire's grip.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Department of "Homeland Security" is seriously interested in
forcing all airline passengers wear remote control punishment devices for
the whole flight. This may seem like a joke, but it isn't.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The biggest laugh is that this is supposed to be needed to protect passengers from hijackings — but this is a solved problem already (there has been no airplane hijacking in the US in a long time).
US Customs seizes travellers' laptops randomly. Imagine what a disaster that could be for you!
Bush responded to the pressure to ban cluster bombs with a plan to pretend to make them safer.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to support of Title X funding for birth control, and against the cruel abstinence only "sex education".
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Will the U.S. support terrorists to destabilize Iran?
How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
This is an example of why I do not support Obama for president. I don't expect him to make things much better than they are under Bush.
Legal arguments that the invasion of Iraq, and the sanctions that preceded
it, constitute genocide.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Mbeki's latest proposal would give the real power in Zimbabwe to the MDC and Tsvangirai, while allowing Mugabe to remain as a titular head of state.
Japanese are protesting the G8 summit. Independent journalists and activists are facing police harassment.
Let's hope Obama
does not choose Senator Nunn as a running mate.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Patriotic Haitians admire Dred Wilme, who led the resistance to the US invasion in 2004, and was assassinated in 2005.
This assassination, which was expected, follows a historical pattern seen in previous US interventions.
The backlash against feminism has taken over the UK.
When a Bush crony got an oil deal from Iraqi Kurdistan, undermining the control of the "Iraqi" government, Bush said he was surprised and unhappy. It turns out his men knew about it and encouraged it.
Dr. Khan says it was Pakistan's army that gave uranium isotope separation centrifuges to North Korea, and that General Musharraf must have approved it.
Amnesty International is lobbying the US government to respect human
rights and close the Guantanamo prison.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The American Association of Public Health Professionals condemns the sham
tobacco regulation bill.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
At a formal debate in the UK about surveillance and detention, the audience affirmed that these threaten their liberty.
This doesn't change any policies, but it might be the start of effective resistance.
The Iraqi government persists in demanding a withdrawal timetable for the Bush forces.
When Edna Spennato put links to uruknet into her blog on blogspot.com, she started getting told her blog was "spam".
ClearChannel continues to censor criticism of conservatives, on the radio and on billboards.
If we had a government that supported democracy, it would ban companies from owning billboards or radio stations in more than one state.
Iran responded with interest to new nuclear offers from the EU.
It would not surprise me if Iran's leaders really want nuclear weapons. The twin examples of North Korea and Iraq show that nuclear weapons are the only way for a country to be safe from the US. So they might want nuclear weapons only for self defense. I would not put it past them to consider wars of aggression. But they are not likely to attack Israel, which could retaliate with its own nuclear weapons.
Mugabe is arresting and kidnaping the opposition's MPs.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Colombian army freed 14 hostages from the FARC with a ruse, including presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
This is a good achievement, but it would be an ironic shame if it boosts the popularity of President Uribe. He is closely linked to the paramilitaries, who are worse terrorists than the FARC.
A secret World Bank report concludes that the food price crisis is mainly caused by using corn to make fuel.
Obama says he will continue Bush's policy of encouraging government support to religious organizations, with some changes in details.
Obama is not as bad as McCain, but I don't think he will undo the harm that Bush has done.
The US midwest has seen two "500-year floods" in 15 years. But now that it's impossible to deny the fact of global warming, the same business interests continue trying to prevent any solution.
A US court ordered Google to turn over to Viacom all records of who watched what on Youtube. Viacom is one of the companies that uses copyright to attack the public.
Although Google tried to prevent this, it is still Google's fault to have kept such records in the first place. stallman.org does not record your IP address, and this is why.
The African Union made a weak response to Mugabe's tyranny, "power-sharing". Tsvangirai has rejected this.
The Iraqi government invites Iraqi refugees to return from foreign
countries, but cannot take care of those who are already internal refugees.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Some Iraqis do return — usually because the countries they fled to make life so difficult for them that they have to go.
Scientists evaluating the danger of extinction of various species have underestimated the danger level.
The nuclear power industry has conviced the US government to change the rules for building nuclear power plants. Now it wants a big subsidy to make them profitable.
If they were safe and didn't produce waste we don't know a safe way to handle, this might even make sense.
The Dutch "coffee shops" that sell marijuana are now forbidden to mix it with tobacco.
The policy is inconvenient in the short term, but maybe it makes sense. Tobacco is addictive, so it is far more dangerous than marijuana. If the coffee shops find a way to satisfy their marijuana customers without the tobacco, they will remain successful, and this policy will prevent marijuana from being a gateway to hard drugs. But if that doesn't work, I think they should make an exception.
The Bush forces have recruited many Iraqis to betray their country by joining
the "Iraqi" army or "Iraqi" police. Many of them have been wounded. Bush, a
treacherous type,
has betrayed them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
The Bush regime says that things in Iraq are rosy.
CIA agents in Chile asked Chilean police in 2002 to kidnap a legal resident of Chile, and hand him over to be taken to Guantanamo or someplace even worse.
Ultimately the police refused, and carried out their duty to defend human rights in Chile. The article calls for an investigation of how things were able to get this far.
Both McCain and Obama are accepting donations of up to $70,000 through
twisting campaign finance law.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Canada keeps wages down for agricultural workers by bringing them from Mexico, where NAFTA has conveniently ruined the rural economy.
Mohammed Omer, returning to Gaza after receiving a journalistic prize in
Europe, was
stripped, cavity searched, threatened at gunpoint, knocked out, and
dragged across the floor with his head banging.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Israel said that it normally takes special care so that this won't happen to journalists. This treatment is supposed to be limited to ordinary Palestinians, who won't be in such a good position to write about it.
Bush has commenced war against Iran, paying fanatical Sunni underground groups to kill soldiers and officials. In the process he is jerking around Congress and his generals.
Paranoia about terrorism killed 1600 Americans in 2002.
It also enabled Bush to deny human rights to 300,000,000 Americans and call it "patriotic".
France has become Bush's agent to allow the US government broad access to personal information about Europeans.
The EU's data protection rules are one of the best things it has done. At that time, the EU had statesmen who looked at goals beyond increasing their own power and the power of business. What a sad contrast is the EU of today. Any change that it proposes today which affects human rights or democracy will generally be bad.
One Labour MP is tells the truth about the UK's participation in Bush's conquest of Iraq.
Mugabe's thugs forced many Zimbabweans to vote for him, but many others spoiled their ballots in protest.
Civilian casualties have greatly increased in Afghanistan, due to the Taliban's suicide bombings.
When fighting against a guerrilla army, the US government standard practice is to claim that anyone it kills in battle was an enemy fighter. Those claims are meaningless; the US tactics inevitably kill many civilians. However, the Taliban cares even less about them.
The participants in Delhi's Gay Pride march wore masks because they face life imprisonment if they are identified.
The two lesbians who burned themselves to death should have killed their oppressors instead.
'Infrastructure for a Police State' is at stake in the FISA bill vote.
The Bush forces tried to take control of Mosul, and failed.
Congress has kept taxes low for oil companies, but has not extended the
tax incentives for renewable energy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
This is what happens when business holds political power.
The Baltic sea has many large dead zones, caused by pollution runoff, and its entire ecosystem could collapse if they keep growing.
A natural feedback cycle keeps the amount of CO2 in the air stable. Unfortunately, human CO2 emissions are 100 times too much for this cycle to handle.
There may be open water at the North Pole this summer, as the ice continues to shrink.
Greenland ice cores show that the world's climate can change abruptly.
However, thus far global warning is still slow by human time scales.
Our ability to monitor warming in great detail means there will be hundreds of minor milestone moments. So it will be easy for the deniers to respond, about each one, that it isn't important by itself. That's true, but the continuing process they are part of can be fatal.
Trevor Paglen takes photos of things that the government doesn't want you to see.
Florida will buy a large sugar plantation in order to protect the Everglades.
The Everglades are basically a broad shallow river full of grass, descending gradually to the sea. Protecting it from direct contamination is the right thing to do, but I'm worried about another pollution threat: salt water. Global warming is making sea level rise. What's the elevation of the highest point in the Everglades?
The UN's human rights investigator condemned the Bush regime.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Obama, who wasn't very liberal to begin with, is taking more conservative positions to get elected.
What bothers me most is advocating the death penalty. That is a setback I didn't expect.
If Greg Palast is right, these concessions are all futile, since the Republicans have sewn up the election regardless of how people vote.
North Korea has won a deal in which it keeps its limited collection of nuclear weapons and escapes from sanctions.
This deal makes sense, given that North Korea already has nuclear weapons, and that it can threaten South Korea with great destruction even without them. I won't criticize Bush for doing something that is right.
But compare this with Iraq. Bush gave three excuses for attacking Iraq: developing nuclear etc. weapons, support for terrorists, and Hussein's oppression of the Iraqi people. The first one was false for Iraq but true for North Korea. The second was false for both. On the third point, Kim Jong Il is far more cruel than Saddam Hussein ever dreamed of being. So if you're not going to attack North Korea, why attack Iraq? Only oil.
Note also how removing North Korea from the list of "sponsors of terrorism" proves that the list is dishonest. The change that North Korea is now making in its nuclear programs has nothing to do with terrorism. So either there was no reason for Korea to be on the list, or there is no reason to remove it now. Clearly this list is just an "enemies list", an insult that the US government makes against countries it does not like, and has nothing to do with the truth.
Cigarette companies
treat tobacco with ammonia. This enables them to make cigarettes that are
just as addictive although the nicotine content is less.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
Here's an explanation of what the terms in that article really mean, scientifically.
Nelson Mandela criticized Mugabe in a weak way, catering to Mbeki.
It is sad to see a great man deny society his greatness to cater to a lousy man.
Will Bush attack Iran between election day and inauguration day?
Another reason to keep any RFID-infected cards in aluminum foil at all times.
Kucinich: put oil company executives on trial for their role in starting the war of aggression in Iraq.
Exxon delayed 20 years in paying damages for the Alaskan oil spill, and the Supreme Court eliminated 95% of them for invalid reasons.
Think of this when you consider Bush and McCain's proposals for offshore drilling.
Bush is aiming propaganda at Iran and the West in favor of war, and the tempo is speeding up, suggesting that the time for his next attack is getting closer.
Report: Telling the facts abut Obama.
McCain is the head of the International Republican Institute, which uses US funds to overthrow democratically elected governments in other countries.
Bush forces bases in Iraq are being set up for war with Iran.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-12 because the old link was broken.]
A UK journalist won part of his case against a subpoena for his source material, but the court says that the decision was a defeat for him.
Bush's oil company cronies are about to collect the payoff for their conquest of Iraq. And Afghanistan.
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