Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
My intention is to make links only to publicly accessible, stable URLs. If you find a link to a page that requires subscription, please report that as you would report any other broken link.
Transcript of the interview in which Michael Shrimpton, a lawyer with close relations with the UK and US governments and intelligence agencies, says he believes Dr Kelly was murdered--and why.
If Clinton was required to testify under oath about whether he had sex, why should Bush not be required to testify under oath about 9/11?
Bush is now starting to talk about reducing social security benefits.
In the long run, we will need to either reduce benefits or else put additional funds into the system. I might prefer the latter option. In any case, it is dishonest for politicians to get themselves elected by promising to maintain these benefits if they are not going to keep the promise.
Bush plans to classify
fast-food jobs as "manufacturing jobs"
to misrepresent the results of his economic policy.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
This seems to be a Republican tradition. Remember when Reagan decided that ketchup is a vegetable? That was so he could pretend that school lunches included enough vegetables.
Jewish Voices for Peace found
no
antisemitism at the World Social Forum,
and says that accusations of this are smears.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
40,000 French lawyers, and some judges, went on strike earlier this
month to protest
a law that increases police powers.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Chomsky comments on the
wall
that divides Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Although the Total Information Awareness program was canceled,
much
of its research work is still going on.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
The World Health Organization
suppressed
a report on the danger of depleted uranium ammunition,
says the scientist who wrote the
report.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Halliburton, which continues to pay Vice President Cheney a regular
extra income, now
faces a criminal investigation for defrauding the US government.
In a previous case, the company paid a fine instead of
admitting guilt. The company also admits paying large bribes in other
countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Five
Questions About Haiti and the Coup Attempt
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
New evidence that David Kelly was murdered.
The Palestinian town of Budrus faces being turned into a prison by the Israeli wall, which has been sited so as to destroy their lives rather than for security. They are opposing the construction with nonviolent resistance.
Israeli forces have crushed nonviolent resistance before, as described
in this
article by Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the ISM.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Shortly after writing that article, Huwaida Arraf was beaten and arrested in a nonviolent protest against wall construction at Beit Surik.
There are indications that Israel will try to keep nuclear weapons
whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu
under
some sort of permanent arrest
after the end of his prison sentence.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Vanunu was imprisoned for telling the press about Israel's nuclear weapons program.
A group of doctors have said that the medical report on Dr. Kelly's
death looks like
murder,
not suicide.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Here is further discussion between them and a government pathologist.
The Haitian uprising is being used by former military gangsters to restore old-style Haitian dictatorship.
5 Britons held prisoner in Guantanamo are being released. After more than two years, Bush finally recognized that there was no reason to imprison them. However, 4 others will remain in prison.
Many in the UK are not satisfied with ending only part of the injustice.
I was amazed to note that many of these people were arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the US for imprisonment without trial. Pakistan should have refused to extradite them to any other country unless it was assured they would get a fair trial there.
An American soldier has sought asylum in Canada
because he refuses
to fight with the Bush forces in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush administration is adopting part of Kucinich's platform, by turning to the UN as a path out of the Iraqi quagmire.
Unlike Kucinich, Bush is unlikely to be willing to approach this honestly. That would require taking his hands off Iraqi oil and Iraqi domestic policies. So he will not create the conditions where the UN would have even a chance of success.
While Bush and his oil-company friends pretend there is no global
warming, the Pentagon is
making
plans to deal with the political and military consequences.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
How governments engineer investigations that will whitewash their actions--and why independent investigations are essential.
Also, how David Kay has helped Bush make the CIA a scapegoat.
Why have former
death-squad leaders joined the uprising against Aristide?
One explanation is that this is a US destabilization
campaign, meant to force Haiti into the US-promoted system of
corporate domination.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
At the same time, this article reports that many
progressive
organizations in Haiti are calling for Aristide to step down.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
One of the opposition organizations, the Group of 184,
makes a point
about "stimulating investments" in its platform. That is the same
platform that is used in many countries to justify surrender to
corporate domination, so I get a bad feeling about it.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Although Sharon spoke of withdrawing from settlements in Gaza, it
looks like this
was just a trial balloon, since he won't discuss the
details of how to actually do it.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UK police acted
illegally when they forcibly drove protesters back to London,
said a court, which rebuked the police for labeling harmless
items as weapons.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, the decision was only a partial victory for democratic freedoms, since the court ruled that the police were allowed to block people from going to the demonstrations. The right to protest is meaningless if people do not have the right to travel to the protest.
The UK government, following its standard policy of corporations uber
alles, is trying to
prevent
US lawsuits against UK companies that supported murder and racism around the world.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israel says it may
change
the route of the separation wall
to cut off less of the occupied territories.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is a step in the right direction, but it does not mean everything is OK. So let's keep the pressure up. This wall should run along the border between Israel and Palestine.
The South Dakota legislature passed a law
making
abortion a crime.
Their statements reveal the dogmatic insistence on treating an embryo
with no brain just like a person.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
UK residents are mounting a direct action
campaign
against genetically modified crops.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
There is nothing wrong on principle about genetic engineering of crops. Farmers have reshaped many food plants drastically over a period of ten millennia, and if genetic engineering done that way is acceptable, some other method cannot be inherently wrong. But genetic engineering under corporate control, without sufficient testing of its effects on human eaters, wildlife, and on other farms, is not acceptable.
The Governor of Rhode Island proposed a
bill
to make the teaching of anarchism a crime.
Involvement in an anarchist organization would
also be a crime. In other words, expressing certain political views
would be illegal.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
One would hope that this law would be overturned due to the First Amendment, but it is hard to be confident of that.
Bush forces casualties are increasing, but nowadays many of them are Iraqis, not Americans. Bush uses this to pretend that the strength of the resistance is decreasing.
There are specific reports that Bush, as governor of Texas, had
state
officials remove information from the records about what Bush did while "serving"
in the Texas National Guard.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
President Chavez of Venezuela says that
US
is funding the opposition.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Should it be legal for a foreign government to meddle in politics by supporting such organizations? The US does not allow foreigners to contribute to election campaigns.
The National Farmers Union of Canada has taken a position
strongly
criticizing the way genetically modified crops are handled legally.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Increasing the threat
to freedom of publication on the Internet,
a court in Canada has tried to apply its laws to web sites
outside Canada.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
A statement against
the overthrow of President Aristide of Haiti.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Union of Concerned Scientists accused Bush of
distorting science
to support his political agenda.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Iraqi resistance fighters who attacked the Bush puppet police were Iraqi, not foreign as was originally claimed.
Conservatives want to put opponents of the war, including perhaps candidate Kucinich, on trial for treason. They do not believe in the right to publicly oppose government policy.
The resemblance to Orwell's 1984 constantly increases. We have a state of "war" that is guaranteed to never end, used as the excuse to abolish human rights, and — if they get their way — opposition will be a crime.
UK police have apologized for arresting protesters with no legal grounds.
This seems to be the text of the apology.
Blair's approach to solving the problem of unjustified arrests is to give the police increased power--that way, no arrest will ever be unjustified.
9/11 victims' families have a list of questions that they want Bush to answer under oath.
Bush has a record of assaults on the US reputation, people, and freedom, which no other president can match.
Bush's own evidence, far from exonerating him,
proves
he was AWOL.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
I would not blame a person for deserting from the US armed forces during the Vietnam War, as long as he did it honestly and agreed that the war was morally unjustified. But Bush hypocritically pretended to serve in the armed forces while not criticizing the war.
In the event of a real or apparent crisis, FEMA has contingency plans
to suspend
the Constitution and imprison millions of Americans.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
A British covert operation wrecked UN negotiations to avert the attack on Iraq.
The National Lawyers Guild, which provides legal advice and help to
protesters, was
attacked by the Bush administration with subpoenas,
issued by the FBI's terrorism task force.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israeli troops carry out
frequent
killings in the Gaza strip; they
even have free-fire zones. And they knock down houses by the dozens.
They can get away with this because there are few foreign witnesses.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The "intelligence failures" about Iraqi weapons
were a matter of
ceding
to pressure from political leaders.
How does this work?
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Israeli soldier who shot British activist Tom Hearndall
has been
accused of manslaughter and false testimony.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Manslaughter isn't enough for intentionally shooting someone, but at least it is a serious charge. There is no plan to prosecute the soldier who killed another activist later in the year.
The FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force
subpoenaed students in an anti-war protest,
based on no grounds.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The corporation is legally treated like a person,
but it is actually a machine whose design assures
it will behave like a
psychopathic person.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Kerry is getting money from Sony and the MPAA. If he is elected, we can expect further attacks on our freedom to use computers.
Israel refused to attend the world court hearings on the separation fence. However, there is talk of changing the route of the fence, so as to reduce the amount of Palestinian territory that would be effectively annexed.
This pull-back from annexation is a sign that pressure is working. That means we must keep it up! If the fence is built along the Green Line then it will protect Israel without directly oppressing Palestinians. That won't necessarily end to other forms of oppression, but it would facilitate the possibility of peace and an end to the occupation.
A yoga company in the US claims to have copyrighted a way of practicing Yoga and is trying to force smaller yoga schools out of business.
Based on my understanding of copyright law, I think they have not got a leg to stand on. Copyright law explicitly excludes any idea, principle, method of operation, or system. Thus, a book on yoga can be copyrighted, but that copyright only covers the text of the book, not actual practice of the yoga positions described in the book.
However, the managers of small yoga schools do not understand copyright very well; they may not realize that this case is so absurd. And they may not be able to afford to resist.
The article makes the mistake of using the propaganda term "intellectual property". Using that term instead of the more specific "copyright" promotes a vague view of the situation, and that vague thinking hampers the ability to distinguish legally valid accusations from invalid ones. So it contributes to the vulnerability to campaigns of distortion.
An Uzbek woman has been
sentenced to prison
for telling the public how
the police tortured and killed her son.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Pentagon has backed off from an electronic absentee voting system for soldiers, recognizing concerns that it is vulnerable to fraud.
The bloody price of occupation.
It is nothing unusual that people who collaborate with the occupying forces are treated as traitors, both during and after an occupation.
How the Bush "intelligence failures" investigation is designed to be a whitewash.
Senator Schumer says that the White House is blocking the probe
into who leaked the information about Valerie Plame.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush regime claimed, in court, that there is
no such thing
as doctor-patient confidentiality.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush is intervening to prevent the FDA from following its medical
advice, which was to make emergency contraception available without
restriction. This is part of the religious extremists' agenda.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Toronto police arrested
and brutalized Jama Jama after he obeyed their
instructions, and then tried to frame him.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Jama Jama may defeat the accusations against him with the help of a
video that proves the police are lying. That doesn't mean everything
is ok, because police who are willing to lie to punish people will
probably lie more than once. Their next victim may not have a video
to prove that the police lied; the
Canadian
and Ontario governments
must be replaced with ones that will make civil liberties and justice
a priority.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
In the northern province of Santiago de Estero, Argentina, the
local government has
banned
all types of public meetings that don't have prior consent. Anyone not complying is subject to
imprisonment between 1- 30 days or a fine of between 10-20 days
pay.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The new law comes in response to demonstrations (all of which have been peaceful) and a memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the brutal torturing and murder of two young girls by an ex-policeman. Witnesses in the case have received death threats from the governor of the province.
Kevin Cooper, convicted of murder and sentenced to death, has had to struggle to get state officials to perform DNA testing on evidence that he says will clear him. It appears that police are tampering with the evidence.
This is something to keep in mind when Bush asks you to accept inadequate standards for trials: even with high standards, justice must struggle to overcome lying police.
180 million years ago the Earth had a bout of global warming, due to release of trapped methane from the sea bed. Earth recovered in 140,000 years by natural process that have been identified.
This result should hardly be comforting. 140,000 is a long time by human standards.
Rebels against Haiti's president Aristide are advancing.
Aristide came to power as the people's leader against corrupt dictators. Since he has been tested by years of adversity, I am surprised that he has turned into a corrupt ruler and effectively spiked the election. Can anyone explain to me what's behind this news?
Still persecuted by upper-caste Hindus, Indian untouchables are converting to Buddhism by the thousands. But Hindu nationalist politicians amazingly tried to prevent the ceremony, and kept 50,000 participants away.
Canada's anti-terrorism laws amount to the
abolition
of legal rights whenever the government wishes. It can imprison you without trial for
repeated 72-hour periods that can be extended without limit; it can
order you not to engage in protests and punish you if you later do;
evidence used against you can be kept secret from you, meaning that if
you do get a trial it may be a show trial. Soldiers can disperse
protests by giving secret orders that people are required to obey but
are forbidden to discuss with others. Even boycotts fall within
the definition of terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Canadian government can now use a wide range of Gestapo tactics against political opposition, and it will be entirely "legal". But when it becomes legal to trample human rights, this does not make it legitimate. Rather, this makes the law and the regime that exercises it illegitimate.
But is the Canadian government already doing so? Due to the secrecy required in many of these provisions, it may be hard to tell. Canadians must assume their government is behaving tyrannically until it provides them with enough transparency to be sure it is not.
The proposed Bush budget
doesn't
include money for the costs of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Does this mean he is planning to pull the
troops out?
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
David Kay says there is no point continuing to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in "every possible place" because there is already conclusive evidence there were none.
UK officials are systematically
refusing
justified requests for asylum, by stubbornly closing their eyes to the danger that refugees
face.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Judge Silberman,
nominated
by Bush for the new whitewash Iraq intelligence inquiry,
participated in letting Oliver North off the
hook for lying to Congress, and may have helped Reagan negotiate
for Iranian support in defeating Carter's bid for re-election.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
But let's not forget that the biggest problem with this investigation is that it is only supposed to put the blame on the intelligence agencies, and is by definition not allowed to consider whether Bush is to blame. Whatever the details, we should reject the committee as a whitewash by design.
Canadian anti-terrorist legislation
violates
Canada's constitution,
because the need for this attack on citizens' freedom was never
justified.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Oxfam reports on how globalization of the power of business
is leading to cruel
working conditions all around the world.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
A committee of UK MPs reported that Palestinians face extreme starvation, and recommended trade sanctions against Israel.
Here is the report
itself. Points 38 and 39 refer to malnutrition.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
In a Democratic Party debate, I heard Howard Dean say that the capture of Saddam Hussein would not make the US any safer. I heard another candidate (I don't remember who--perhaps it was Lieberman) attack him for saying this, using arguments that completely missed the point (he argued that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy). Yes, Saddam was a bad guy, but he no longer held power in Iraq, so capturing him made no difference to the situation in Iraq. We have since seen that the resistance to Bush occupation continues there.
NPR replayed that exchange frequently without ever commenting on how illogical the response was. The Independent recently cited it to criticize Dean, taking the attitude that it makes no difference whether he was right but only what political effect it had. Both organizations were wrong to do this.
(I support Kucinich, not Dean.)
Kerry seems to be the sort of candidate who carefully calibrates his position so as to win. Maybe he will win. If he does, it may blunt Bush's religious extremist plans. But I don't see that it is likely to have much effect on the economic policies of business-dominated globalization that are relentlessly impoverishing working people all around the world, or on the War on Freedom embodied by the USA PAT RIOT act.
I will vote for Kucinich in the Massachusetts primary. If Kerry wins the nomination, I am not sure whether I will vote for him.
The Australian Labor Party's new leader, Mark Latham, obtained the leadership position in his party by criticizing Bush policies. But then he met with the US ambassador and turned into a loyal pet.
Now Australia is looking at signing a "free trade" treaty with the US. These treaties make it easy for companies to move production from one country to another, so they can force various countries to compete for who can offer the worst working conditions and the least environmental protections. Any new free trade treaty is a step in the wrong direction.
Following its usual practice, the US government is pandering to Microsoft and Hollywood by trying to impose software patents and the DMCA on Australia. This would mean imposing restrictions on all computer users there.
Since the Bush regime doesn't give clear figures for deaths or other casualties among the Bush forces, a private effort is being made to sum up the best available information.
The US DEA attempted to ban all foods made from hemp
on the grounds that they contain trace amounts of THC.
However, an appeals
court rejected this.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Tony Blair has bowed to the facts--an absence of real weapons of mass destruction in Iraq--and will launch an inquiry into "intelligence failures".
In other words, this inquiry, like the one Bush wants in the US, is designed to distract public attention from the real scandal: the way Bliar and Dubya distorted and misused the intelligence that was available to justify a war they had already decided on.
A new internet-based political party in Australia has positions I would support if I were Australian.
As India produces a surplus of food,
millions
in India can't have any of it to eat.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Afghan President Karzai warns
Afghanistan
is "becoming a narco-state".
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Do you want to make the deal of a lifetime?
Go to Gaza!
[Reference updated on 2018-05-05 because the
old
link was broken.]
Activists protesting Bush at the World Trade Center site
were arrested
for carrying signs.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush's budget
is bogus--meant to distract the public,
not meant to be passed.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush forces
like the Ba'ath party so much that they are
forcibly
keeping Ba'athists in power in Iraqi oilfields even though the workers
want them out. They are also against unionization of Iraqi workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Colonel Rokke, who was in charge of depleted uranium cleanup after the
1991 gulf war, describes
depleted
uranium use as a war crime.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
The mad cow found in the US
was
not a "down cow".
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Remember the anthrax letters of 2001? A timeline of related events
suggests they may have been used to
clear
away objections to passage of the USA PAT RIOT act.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
What secret is Cheney's energy task force keeping? This article suggests it's a big one.
Fraudulent
terror alerts, such as we saw in December, could be
preparing the US for martial law. High officials are already talking
about the possibility.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
I've decided to spend next October outside the US.
When people recognize that they are part of an oppressive system, they often argue against refusing to participate, saying that "By staying on the inside, I will be able to make it better."
This is not totally absurd. On occasion it really is possible to do this. However, the idea that you are protecting the victims this way can easily be a pleasant self-delusion rather than the truth. To retain your position, you must participate in the harm. So you can excuse active wrongdoing on the grounds that "It's the only way to stay in a position to make a difference." It is easy to overestimate the harm you think you have prevented, while overlooking the harm that you are doing.
Here
are some good examples.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Comparing
Iraq with Vietnam, and the lessons we can draw from what
Robert McNamara learned and what he did not learn.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
I disagree with one point in this article, however: while the South Vietnamese government that the US supported was a corrupt dictatorship, that doesn't mean its North Vietnamese enemies were good. That was a dictatorship too, systematic rather than corrupt in its cruelty. Many South Vietnamese fought to kick out the Americans because they wanted independence for their country, not realizing that victory would mean tyranny.
The record companies are starting a
series
of raids in Australia.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
These record companies that pay just 4% of their gross sales to musicians--and nearly all of that goes to a few superstars who don't need it. Then, in the name of the same musicians that they exploit, they put people in prison for sharing.
The Kazaa program is unethical because it is non-free software, but sharing music is not wrong, and the laws against it should be repealed. In the mean time, they have no moral validity. The record company goons are the ones who ought to go to prison.
There's nothing wrong with selling records, in and of itself, but these record companies do not deserve to continue to exist.
Are you on the secret US list of
people
not allowed to fly?
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Texas high school student was
arrested
for lending his asthma inhaler
to his girlfriend, who had left hers at home that day.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
His mother says the school expelled him. The school's principal, Dr Poole, says that never happened--but I don't believe him, because he makes arguments that are obviously absurd. I don't think he would say them if he were honest.
For instance, Poole says the inhaler "is a dangerous drug" and asks "What if she had used it and died?" She had been prescribed the very same drug and was already using it. It is bogus to raise this objection when she gets the drug from her boyfriend's inhaler, but not raise it when she gets it from her own inhaler. And Dr Poole says, "If we get rid of this mindlessly rigid policy, what could we possibly replace it with?" He is claiming that it is hard to imagine any alternative to cruel rigidity.
Maybe the school should replace Dr Poole with someone whose imagination is less limited.
The 9-11 investigation has treated the Bush administration with kid
gloves, and as a result it
can't
tell us the answers to the questions
that must be answered.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Recently at MIT there was a talk about the development of software to identify individuals by their appearance and motion patterns. The use of such software on images collected from public spaces should be prohibited without specific court orders, or else it leads to dangers of totalitarian surveillance.
Sharon says he will
remove
all Jewish settlements from Gaza. This is
the right thing to do in Gaza, but this should not distract us from
Sharon's apparent intention to annex large Arab-inhabited areas of the
West Bank.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-02 because the
old
link was broken.]
After all the Palestinian olive trees that Israelis have cut down, giving the Israeli agricultural facilities of Gaza to some of the Palestinians who were thus victimized would be appropriate compensation.
The world's expert on smallpox says it would be a mistake to vaccinate millions of Americans, because that would mean dozens of people would get serious side effects, including death. He proposes a more thoughtful plan for dealing with smallpox outbreaks.
This article also explains why smallpox would not be an effective
weapon. Despite this, the US government is forcing soldiers
to undergo vaccinations which are occasionally dangerous,
and have
killed at least one soldier.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
I was vaccinated for smallpox when I was young. When smallpox was common, the dangers of vaccination were much less than the danger from smallpox itself, a danger that everyone faced. However, if the modern public health system can easily find and isolate anyone who may get smallpox, so that it can't spread, that could be better than vaccination.
Intelligence analysts in UK fear Blair will
use
them as scapegoats to distract attention from his lies.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Whatever the intelligence agencies may have known or believed, the claim that hypothetical Iraqi weapons were the reason for the war is absurd. One year ago the UN weapons inspectors were getting full cooperation in their investigation, and finding nothing dangerous. If weapons had been Bush's real reason for proposing a war, he could have let the inspectors solve the problem, without spending 100 billion dollars or killing thousands. But (as we know) Bush was looking for an excuse to start this war since 2001 if not before. He did not want the UN inspectors to peacefully eliminate his excuse.
The Bush forces
are disguising
combat deaths, as well as numbers
of wounded.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
Blunkett has been condemned strongly for his proposal to establish Guantanamo-style kangaroo courts for terrorist suspects in the UK.
Blair is launching an inquiry into the "intelligence failure" about Iraq, but the inquiry does not cover how Blair distorted the intelligence, so it is designed as a whitewash.
Note that the Hutton committee did do what some in the US are claiming; it did not vindicate Blair from charges of distorting the intelligence reports. Its report did not cover that question.
Australian ruler John Howard is
in
trouble now over Iraq,
and seems headed to lose the election to the Labor Party,
whose new leader has condemned Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, the Australian Labor Party has in general not been very firm in defending civil liberties.
When Clinton "weaseled" about whether he had sex, Republicans
impeached him. Now Bush is weaseling in the same way about whether
there was a
reason to invade Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, the writer should be more careful about suggesting new wars. Bush appears to be in the market for one, sometime around October.
The 10
worst corporations of 2003 (counting only the US)
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
At year's end, signs
of movement towards tyranny abound in Washington.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
A film shows what Pol Pot's murderous government was like, but
says
nothing about the murders that paved the way for it.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
There is pressure to censor pornography that includes violence, because it might inspire people to commit violence.
By this reasoning, all writing about crime--whether fact or fiction--should be prohibited. Any of it could inspire someone's imagination. And commercials for sumptuous luxury goods really need to be prohibited, because they could excite the avarice of management in companies like Enron and Nike.
We do not know whether violent porn makes violent acts more likely or less likely. There is no way to determine who might have been violent in an alternate universe where he did not have access to this material. What we do know is that violence against women was not rare in the past, even when porn whether violent or not was strongly suppressed.
Critical mass bike riders support supermarket strike in LA.
Katharine Gun, who worked for UK's electronic snooping agency, told the public about a
campaign
of spying on UN delegations from various countries--not because
those countries were planning to attack the UK, but in order to pressure
them into giving UN backing to the invasion of Iraq. Ms Gun has been
threatened with prison for informing the public of Blair's dirty trick.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-03 because the
old
link was broken.]
A UK court just ruled that she is not allowed to tell her lawyers anything about her work. That would make the trial evidently absurd.
The Bush forces refuse to give clear figures about casualties in Iraq, and have mis-classified injuries in order to reduce casualty figures.
US Vice President Cheney faces indictment in a bribery scandal involving Halliburton.
Other Halliburton employees are in trouble for taking bribes in connection with its business in Iraq.
An anti-Nazi protester was sentenced to prison in Pennsylvania.
Were the September 11 attacks aided by the US government?
These arguments are strong enough to convince me that there's something fishy that must be thoroughly investigated. However, I can't reach a firm conclusion that the US government was involved, because I know that arguments such as these can have flaws that I would not recognize, even when they seem correct. So even if I don't see a specific flaw, I know that there might be one. I can find such arguments convincing enough to indict the government, but not convincing enough to convict it. That would require an investigation to determine for certain what happened.
A full investigation of 9/11 must address the questions that these arguments raise.
Kerry Leads in Lobby Money.
Bush, looking for an excuse for war, carefully selected from intelligence reports those aspects that would serve his purpose, disregarding the doubts. Now his plan is to distract attention from his own role with a Warren-style investigation under his own control. Its real purpose will be to put the blame on someone else.
Enron, along with GE and Bechtel, set up a sleazy deal in India as well as in the US. They went as far as attacking protesters. Indian governments are trying to cancel the deal, but the US government is trying to force them to continue.
The US demands for personal information about air travelers violate the EU's privacy law, but European countries quietly caved in.
Citizens of Louisville, Kentucky, are protesting a series of shootings by police.
The UK government announced a plan to try terrorist suspects in secret, without a jury, and use lower standards for conviction. Their lawyers would require special security clearance.
In effect, Blair is proposing to institute Guantanamo-style military tribunals in the UK.
Another article reveals that the defendants would not be allowed to see the evidence against them.
This means the government could pay a stool pigeon to testify to whatever is demanded (the pay would be getting out of prison early), and the defendant could not even deny this testimony, which he would not have heard. In effect, it means the government could imprison anyone at any time.
A government that tries to do this is the enemy of human rights.
Peru under Fujimori held such phony trials for suspected participants in the Shining Path. After Fujimori was ousted, Peru gave them new trials, and many were acquitted.
The UK should oust Tony Blair and his crew of would-be Stalin's before they can finish imposing their flavor of dictatorship on the UK.
If Polar Bears Were Sousaphones
I think the figure of 50% extinction refers to 25% due to habitat destruction and 25% due to the effects of global warming. I have not read specifically about reasons to expect extinction of songbirds or butterflies.
Justice Scalia is being accused of favoritism towards Cheney, in a case about disclosing the identity of Cheney's energy task force.
It is amazing that Cheney won't even admit to the public who it was he made plans with. If the list is made up of owners of oil companies, it could be embarrassing, but no more--it would not prove any specific serious wrongdoing. The proof of wrongdoing is already available: we just have to look at the administration policy decisions.
Mainstream journalists don't like to cover Bush's hypocritical evasion of the Vietnam War, but Michael Moore dares to talk about it.
I wouldn't criticize anyone for trying to escape from being sent to Vietnam to fight for one dictator against another, if he condemned the war. However, there can be no excuse for supporting the war but making someone else do the fighting.
Bush administration officials are starting to criticize the lack of real democracy in Russia, where President Putin's control of the mass media has made serious opposition impossible.
The situation in the US is heading in the same direction, but has not yet become total.
The US government has a history of breaking treaties with indigenous peoples. Leonard Peltier warns Americans that the US government is now doing the same thing to the citizens of the US.
The City of Tacoma is trying to prevent a march in support of Leonard Peltier, by imposing unusual and impossible conditions on the participants.
To make freedom of assembly infeasible to exercise is equivalent to abolishing it.
The history of past scientific wisdom about human sexuality helps spotlight skepticism on overblown claims of sociobiology.
It is surely possible to study how human biology constrains human societies. But the conclusions must not be oversimplified if they are to be scientifically valid. The book Vaulting Ambition, published by MIT Press, shows precisely where the oversimplifications are made in certain cases, and how far away pop sociobiology is from scientific validity.
The EPA has been sued for letting pesticide companies determine the regulation of pesticides.
Meanwhile, pesticide and biotech companies have repeatedly tried to attack the careers and stifle the research of scientists who publish results that cast doubt on the safety of those products.
72 union organizers were murdered in Colombia in 2003, and
the
assassination continues.
[Reference updated on 2022-01-20 because the
old
link was broken.]
Airline surveillance policies compared to laws restricting slaves from traveling.
Anti-war activist Kathy Kelly has been sentenced to three months in prison for a peaceful protest.
Will Bush's next war (perhaps scheduled for October) be against Cuba? Or perhaps Venezuela?
Three of the "enemy combatants" held in Guantanamo, who had been imprisoned for hardly any reason in the first place, have been released after almost two years. They were under 16 years old.
(I think it is an exaggeration to call 15-year-olds "children", but it makes no sense to keep them in a prisoner-of-war camp.)
Bush claims about Iraqi weapons are now being criticized by some politicians in the US.
The government of France offered a "strategic alliance" to the Chinese government--including support for its demands to extend its dictatorship over democratic Taiwan.
I can well understand the desire to put a check on the power of the US, but the Chinese government is trying hard to do the same sort of bad things as the US government, only more so. The only way China is less harmful than the US is that its power is smaller, so it cannot bully other nations globally, only its neighbors. But as China gets more powerful, this will change.
The way Chirac says that he "raised the issue of China's human rights record" reminds me of the way US officials used to do so--before they stopped pretending to care. I can imagine Chirac saying, "I have to mention the issue of China's human rights record, so I can tell people I did so." And the response? "Ok, you mentioned it."
Daniel Ellsberg calls on civil servants to release the papers that will show how Bush and Blair's lies were calculated.
Chomsky explained how the news media "engineer consent", but define the range of possible disagreement that most people get to look at. Now the New York Times is going one further--by trying to specify which presidential candidates ought to be heard in debates.
The US deportation of Maher Arer, Canadian citizen, to Syria, where he was tortured, violated US law. But what is most frightening is the possibility that he was sent to Syria to be tortured on behalf of the US.
What life is like for the people who make parts for our computers.
The WTO has led countries to race to eliminate or undermine the laws that used to prevent such exploitation.
BBC reporter Gilligan has resigned, as have the BBC's directors. The danger is now that Blair will impose controls on the BBC's independence.
The National Union of Journalists says Gilligan was unfairly criticized by Hutton's report.
Hutton has a history of previous whitewashes.
I've seen other articles saying that the public have mostly dismissed the report as a whitewash. However, Blair has learned to evade public opinion by simply pretending it isn't there.
There is much to be said for the UK's tradition that anyone in charge of a major mistake should resign. But this tradition used to apply to government ministers as Blair has made nonsense of it by adopting a policy of never admitting a mistake.
Here is the Human Rights Watch report that demolishes the case that the invasion of Iraq is justified on humanitarian grounds.
The Afghan asylum seekers in Nauru ended their hunger strike when the Australian government promised to allow them an independent medical assessment. But no sooner did they accept this promise than the Australian government began trying to cheat on the deal and block the independent visit.
Search for "With the hunger strike suspended" to find this particular part of the article.
A former US intelligence analyst tries to explain how the US intelligence agencies overestimated Iraqi weapons capability, and how Bush selectively picked parts of these estimates to present a false picture of them.
On certain points the author is too forgiving to Bush. We know that Bush had been planning this war since 2001, and that all the reasons he offered were just excuses. And Human Rights Watch has demolished the claim that the war was justified for the sake of Iraqis. Iraq under Saddam was a source of instability, yes, but there is no reason to think Iraq today is less so.
Utah has refused to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security's "MATRIX" surveillance system. So have many other states.
An interview with Dennis Kucinich
The Groping Governor broke campaign finance laws, and may have to pay a fine. He also broke his campaign pledge to make the system more honest. [Reference updated on 2022-08-06 because the old link was broken.]
I think this punishment is too weak to discourage similar crimes in the future. He will not worry about a few million.
The 9/11 investigation wants more time, till July, to issue its report. Bush opposes this. That's natural, because one reason the investigation wants more time is that Bush has been refusing to hand over the documents it wants.
We can only speculate about what Bush is hiding, but we have reason enough to conclude it is bad.
The Hutton Report whitewashed Blair and blamed the BBC, and Blair is trying to use this to impose control over BBC news reporting. But the whitewash is so obvious that people will not believe the report.
Bush calls for Preemptive Attack on Mars & Moon; Cites Evidence of WMD
Seriously, I support manned exploration and then settlement of whichever locations off the Earth are most feasible. This may be the only way humanity and many other species can survive. But I won't excuse Dubya's crimes merely because of this.
Global warming may paradoxically throw Britain and Scandinavia into frozen conditions, making them nearly uninhabitable. This may happen within decades, because the effects have already been observed.
Ami Isserof writes that the Palestinian territories have fallen into a chaotic gang warfare that nobody can straightforwardly end. When the Palestinian Authority lost the possibility of offering Palestinians anything meaningful through peace with Israel, it also lost the ability to enforce decisions or order.
Reading carefully, it sounds like these gangs are not as narrowly greedy as gangs in most places. They have goals beyond self-enrichment, such as resistance to the occupation.
Los Angeles has taken a stand against the PAT RIOT act.
Greeks are protesting the security powers and restrictions that are being set up for the Olympic Games in Athens. They fear these powers may continue long after the games are over.
Bush seems to be trying to deny his claims about Iraqi weapons--the claims that provided the main excuse for the war.
Starting a war based on lies--isn't that enough reason to impeach both Bush and Cheney?
Bush is now trying to justify the war as a plan to liberate the Iraqi people from a dictator. That can be a legitimate reason for a war, in some cases, but not in this case. Human Rights Watch has carefully studied this question and its report shows conclusively why that justification is not available to Bush now.
It was always absurd to think that Bush would support democracy or human rights in Iraq after trampling them in his own country.
There are also some who are saying this was "an honest mistake." But we know it was no mistake, because we know Bush has been planning this war since 2000.
The boycott of Coca Cola is spreading in the US and Canada.
A western journalist in Iraq was arrested for "looking like an Israeli", which meant having a beard. When they found out he was not an Israeli, they decided to hold him anyway, saying "We'll figure out some charges later."
In other words, Bush government shows the same disregard for the rights of the accused in Iraq as in the US.
Agent Orange, used as a defoliant in Vietnam, has been shown to cause cancer in US soldiers who were in Vietnam at the time.
It might be much more dangerous for Vietnamese.
100,000 Iraqis protest in Baghdad, demanding elections and denouncing the occupation.
I'd like to see such a strong demand for democracy in the US.
The Knife — stupid airport security tricks.
A Briton who exposed crimes of Guatemalan adoption rings faces the threat of imprisonment in Guatemala for doing so.
It seems that lawsuits for defamation are a standard tool for bullying there. If the government of Guatemala wants to change its image while respecting the independence of the judiciary, it should pass a law affirming that freedom of speech is not limited to journalists, making defamation a matter of civil rather than criminal law, and making proof of the truth of the statement a defense in such cases.
For more information, click here.
In Iraq, Bush and his troops are called "Ali Babas"--which means, thieves. But Dubya's career of thievery began in the US, and he has stolen more than just our money.
Perhaps we too should call him "Ali Baba".
The revolution in Georgia was not entirely spontaneous--George Soros funded organizations that were central in the activity.
While some people are criticizing this, I do not necessarily agree. Shevardnadze's election really was crooked, and funding people to expose and reject such crookedness is not a bad thing. If only Soros had helped the US reject its crooked 2000 presidential election.
But there are also charges that the US government was involved in Georgia--and that the motive, as usual for Dubya, was the interests of his oil buddies.
The Bush forces supposedly compensate Iraqis that they injure, but in practice the procedures make it impossible to get compensation.
A formerly secret 1962 US government document contains proposals to create false pretexts for a US attack on Cuba. Proposals include destroying a US ship and blaming it on Cuba, a fake terror campaign in Miami, and the fake destruction of a US airliner. These details start on page 10 in the file.
This was not far away in time from the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident, in which a false report of a Vietnamese attack on a US vessel provided the excuse for expanding US forces in Vietnam.
A recent Israeli terrorist attack in Nablus killed 19 Palestinians and wounded 200.
Should we believe the conspiracy theory explanation of the 9/11 attacks, which says that they were carried out by hijackers working for Al Qa'ida? Is there really evidence to substantiate this theory?
CIA officers in Iraq are warning that it is on the verge of exploding in a civil war.
As some have pointed out, the fact that they are saying this to the press suggests that the president is not listening to them.
In Sweden, when Nazis throw bombs, the police don't care. But they attack anti-fascist protests.
US military bases around the world support the rule of the capricious and corrupt.
Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben explains why he canceled his visit to the US: "bio-political tattooing" of visitors.
An Israeli pilot who refused to carry out attacks that would kill civilian bystanders identifies the organization whose principles inspired his courageous stand.
David Kay, who recently resigned as head of Bush's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, says he believes Iraq did not have them.
Here's a review of statements made about Iraqi weapons by various US and UK officials.
A Texas woman faces the threat of prison sentence for selling sex toys to guests in her home.
A WTC manager says on TV that he and the fire department decided to deliberately demolish WTC building 7, then burning, as a measure to prevent spread of the fire.
Such a decision may have been a wise one. But why did previous reports say that the building collapsed on its own?
Congressional Republicans were spying on Congressional Democrats' computers.
The real state of the union (to compare with Dubya's fantasy land).
Dubya's state of the union address describes a completely fantastic world--a collection of lies justifying other lies.
Thousands of people in India have been put in prison without trial or charges, using a Bush-style "anti-terrorism" law.
The Canadian Supreme Court will consider the case of Percy Schmeiser, who was sued by Monsanto for patent infringement after his corn field was polluted by patented genes in pollen blowing in from another field.
After a murder in 1997 by Northern Ireland loyalists, the police investigation was so incompetent that it must have been an intentional whitewash.
The FBI kept a man prisoner for over two years after concluding that he had no connection with terrorism. He is still in prison. He has asked for political asylum in the US.
Perhaps he thinks the US is still the land of liberty.
Just before September 11, US officials and legislators met with Mahmoud Ahmad who two weeks later was accused of sending funds to the hijackers. This, together with CIA ties to Osama bin Laden, raises the question: was it a coincidence?
I hope the 9/11 investigation covers this area thoroughly.
Coca Cola in India has been selling soda with dangerous levels of toxic chemicals.
This is in addition to its practice of using thugs to kill union organizers and attack protesters, which is the reason for the world-wide boycott of Coca Cola company.
Israeli soldiers bulldozed 30 houses in Rafah, disregarding the inhabitants who were frantically trying to save their belongings.
They are not dead, merely homeless and destitute, but the callous cruelty of this is no different from that of a suicide bomber.
Senator Kerry, who won in the Iowa caucuses for the democratic candidacy, voted for the PAT RIOT act and still defends it. Our freedom, in his hands, would be little or no safer than in the hands of Bush. In the debate which I heard, he evaded the issues.
20,000 Shiites protest in Iraq, demanding elections and the exit of the Bush forces.
Bush ignored hundreds of thousands who protested in the US, so I expect he will ignore these protesters too. The result may be deadly.
Wal-mart locks employees in the store overnight. Unless there is a fire, they are threatened with being fired if they leave through the emergency door.
Israeli police tried to unofficially deport activist Radhika Sainath to prevent her from testifying in court.
CBS agreed to run an ad from the White House, but rejected an opposition ad as "advocacy". It is not the first time.
Human Rights Watch has accused the Bush forces of violating the Geneva Convention by using collective punishment: specifically, by arresting the families of people who were suspected of participating in the resistance, and demolishing their houses.
Amnesty International accuses German police of repeated brutality to foreign prisoners. 20 detained foreigners were badly hurt in the past 2 years. One died from the beating he got.
A Bangladeshi journalist was killed by bomb attack; other journalists protest.
There is a lot of danger for journalists and writers in Bangladesh. Another Bangladeshi journalist who was promoting friendship between Jews and Muslims is in prison in Bangladesh, accused of spying for Israel.
In the 90s, writer Taslima Nasrin was driven into exile for her book "Shame" that describes persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh. She is now facing threats in Calcutta, India, as she continues to publish books that criticize the conduct of some Muslims. (Her last book was banned there.)
Freedom of the press means there is no idea so sacred that one is not allowed to criticize it.
Letter bombs have been sent to various EU officials, and an "anarchist group" took responsibility. It seems the bombs were designed not to cause much damage, and nobody has ever heard of this supposed anarchist group before. Is this a fake, intended to discredit real anarchists?
Dubya's own top advisors have built the case that he started a war based on lies.
Now we have to be prepared for him to do it again in October.
The Italian supreme court invalidated the law that Berlusconi passed to shield himself from bribery charges.
Maybe Il Ducino will end up in prison for this.
In Wormwood Scrubs prison, in the UK, the guards have attacked prisoners repeatedly and even threatened to kill them.
A conference on new diseases predicted 30 new diseases will emerge in the next 30 years, just as in the past 30 years. The main expected cause is human overpopulation, which leads humans to invade wild habitats and come in close contact with different animals. This gives pathogens a chance to jump from those animals to humans.
An article suggests that the World Social Forum faces challenges as corporocratic governments ignore opposition.
I see the point, but at the same time I wonder if having a series of World Social Forums in Brazil helped Lula get elected there.
More about the incursion into Tulkarem.
Thousands of Boston city employees protested the mayor's principal annual speech, because the mayor has refused to negotiate contracts with them.
In Tulkarem, unarmed Palestinian women were arrested and kept prisoner outside in the rain all day. 200 men were taken away blindfolded.
Is Bush planning to launch another war in October? Reported Pentagon plans involve sending large numbers of reservists to Iraq and bringing the active duty units home in time to get them ready in October.
Perhaps they will be sent back to Iraq to replace the reservists, who may need replacement then. But that would not help Bush's campaign. Another war would, or so he might think.
A leaked UK medical report says that gulf war syndrome was a response to compulsory vaccines administered to the troops.
All vaccines causes adverse reactions in some people. The idea is that these should be rare, and amount to a much smaller problem than the disease which the vaccine prevents. The vaccines are supposed to be safety-tested to assure that their adverse reactions are rare enough that this is true. I wonder if the military have failed to test their vaccines according to the usual medical standards.
Other people have suspected that gulf war syndrome is due to depleted uranium, but this report provides evidence it isn't. However, it's clear that depleted uranium is killing Iraqis, and may do so for thousands of years to come.
US officials like to warn Americans about the danger of a "dirty bomb". The depleted uranium used by the Bush forces in Iraq is, in effect, like thousands of dirty bombs.
There is a general strike against Haitian President Aristide. The US government accused some Haitian police of attacking protesters.
The last I heard, Aristide was tremendously popular among the poor and was kicked out by the military, then the US helped him get back in power. Can anyone tell me how the opposition to him developed? Did he go bad, or has the opposition been stirred up by the US?
How corporations allow executives to escape and shift responsibility, even for crimes such as fraud.
There is a new scandal that a number of UK officials falsely claimed that they had provided the necessary equipment for the troops sent to Iraq.
I enjoy having new reasons to criticize Blair and his co-poodles, but we should keep in mind that the really bad thing was not that they sent troops to war with inadequate equipment, but that they launched an unnecessary and unjustified war based on lies.
Israel is now restricting all visitors to the Palestinian territories.
It looks like a plan to prevent people from witnessing or protesting the many acts of brutality and cruelty.
Another former Bush official confirms O'Neill's charges that Bush was planning to attack Iraq before 9/11.
However, O'Neill is trying to retract the charges he made in the book, claiming the statements don't mean what they say.
I wonder if he is reacting to the threat to prosecute him for revealing secrets if he doesn't retract his words.
Tom Hurndall, shot in the head by Israeli troops while opposing house demolitions in Rafah last year, is now officially dead. I'd say he was dead ever since the shooting, since it destroyed his brain. The soldier who shot him will be prosecuted.
This prosecution could send a message to Israeli soldiers not to kill protesters. However, the decision not to prosecute another soldier, who more recently shot someone protesting against the separation wall, will erase that message.
More than half of life in the ocean depends on nutrients brought up from the depths by a peculiar water circulation phenomenon.
Scientists now fear that global warming could change it and cut ocean life by 75%. When you consider that humans are overfishing the ocean already, this is not safe. It could cause a mass extinction in the sea, along with the one on the land.
A specific Bush lie: while secretly planning war against Iraq, he was telling the public that he was planning "smart sanctions".
Over 4 million CCTV cameras in the UK--one for every 14 inhabitants--make the UK the world leader in surveillance.
It is supposedly justified for prevention of crime, but it is doubtful that it really works.
The UK increases police "emergency" power, not quite as much as was first proposed.
Since it has been established that the UK police use "anti-terrorist" laws against legitimate protesters, police power ought to be reduced, not increased.
Iran's religious leader advises allowing the reformist candidates to run for parliament. However, the sit-in by MPs continues.
US unemployment figures dropped in December--not because the unemployed found work, but because they gave up looking.
An Israeli court sentenced several young men who refused to serve in the occupation to a year in prison in addition to 14 months they have already been in prison.
The judge said that their refusal was a more severe crime because it was based on principles.
What are these principles? One is not to shoot protesters. The Israeli army recently ordered troops to shoot protesters who attack the separation wall.
Those who shoot protesters are not punished.
Those who refuse to do such things are punished.
Bush has officially pulled out the team that was supposed to find Saddam's supposed weapons. Of course, they say "We will keep looking".
Meanwhile, Blair finally admits he no longer counts on finding any of these fictitious weapons.
A recent book reports that Winston Churchill proposed using anthrax against Germany, and was also a champion of massive bombing raids against cities. Interestingly, some US generals opposed them on principle. He is also quoted saying things that are extremely racist.
I reject the racist views that are quoted, but I don't condemn Churchill for them the way I would condemn someone who expressed such views today. He was a man of his time, and at that time civilization had not yet learned that racism was wrong. We today have the benefit of having learned that.
Hundreds demonstrate in Israel to support the refuseniks, near the prison where they are being held.
A research team that modeled the effect of global warming on the survival of species reports that it could wipe out 1/4 of all species, if the temperature increase reaches the higher estimates.
This would be on top of the extinction due to habitat destruction.
Journalist John Buchanan, who exposed the wartime Nazi business dealings of Prescott Bush (grandfather of Dubya), is running against Bush in the New Hampshire primary as a way of focusing attention and opposition on Dubya's assault on US freedom and security.
The Bush administration is trying to punish former treasury secretary O'Neill for leaking secrets.
Since the secrets just show us how Bush has been lying, this is only an attempt to distract attention from real threats to national security.
In Iran, the mullahs have rejected over 2000 candidates for parliamentary elections, because they are reformist (like most of the voters). This includes many current members of parliament. Some of them are holding a sit-in strike in parliament, and the officials in charge of running the election are threatening to resign.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Yaser Hamdi, who has been imprisoned without charges for 2 years by Bush.
US investigators have foiled a terrorist bombing plot by right-wing fanatics. You'd expect the government to boast of this success, so why doesn't Bush mention it?
One possible reason is that he wants Americans' fear to be directed at foreigners, not at people whose political views are just a little more extreme than those professed by Bush and his men.
The CIA produced the film versions of both Animal Farm and 1984, and distorted both of them for propaganda purposes. For instance, the book Animal Farm ended saying that the oppressive communist pigs were just like the oppressive capitalist farmers--but the movie's ending criticized only the communists.
The UK chief scientific advisor warns that global warming is more dangerous than terrorism.
Bush has abandoned the cleanup of polluted ground sites in the US and abandoned the idea of making polluters pay to clean them up.
The Pentagon's auditors doctored papers to cover up irregularities in accounting.
Former Bush cabinet member confirms that the planning for an invasion of Iraq began before 11 September 2001.
This provides clear proof for what we already had plenty of reason to suspect: that both weapons of mass destruction and claims that Saddam as connected with Al Qa'ida were just excuses.
Colin Powell recently admitted that there was no real evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qa'ida.
This is no surprise. Saddam was a secular Arab leader, installed originally with US help. Al Qa'ida considered him part of the enemy.
The IMF says that Bush economic policies are "endangering the world's economy."
The colleagues and family of cameraman Jose Couso, killed in Baghdad by a Bush forces tank that fired at a hotel full of foreign journalists, refuse to accept the pretense that the attack was accidental--they call it a deliberate war crime.
Although the Aznar government in Spain stubbornly insists on believing the Bush "accident" story, a Spanish court recently agreed to investigate the case.
Afghanistan's assembly has accepted a Constitution. However, the contrast between the strong presidential powers in the constitution, and the actual lack of power of the central government in most of Afghanistan, mean there is such a gulf between the constitution and reality that it may not become more than empty words.
Human Rights Watch says that the constitution includes provisions for civil liberties, but is weak in terms of institutions to uphold them.
The Russian government is prosecuting a museum director and artists for art that criticized Christianity. It is part of a general trend towards giving the orthodox church special power.
This might give us a picture of what Bush would like to do in the US. I wonder if I would be prosecuted for wearing my "impeach god" button.
Bush proposed a system for "guest workers" in the US. Under the proposal, a worker would lose his visa if he were fired; thus, workers would be afraid to complain about bad working conditions and could be exploited even in illegal ways.
It would be great for business, but not for immigrants or other workers in the US who have to compete with them.
The Republican National Committee has launched a dishonest campaign against MoveOn, accusing it of sponsoring ads comparing Bush with Hitler.
It turns out that the ads were submissions from the public as part of a contest. MoveOn members considered them and voted on which ones to use. They mostly voted against these ads. However, I've seen a few articles that argue it is legitimate to compare Bush to Hitler, pointing at similarities in their careers and methods.
Is it legitimate to compare Bush with Hitler? The complication is that Hitler did several things we generally condemn:
Bush has done something like #1, using the September 11 attacks as an excuse to curtail civil liberties in America. However, there is an important difference. Hitler arranged the Reichstag fire, which he then blamed on the opposition. In the case of Bush, there is plenty of evidence that he was at least negligent in preventing the September 11 attacks, but I am skeptical of the accusations that he helped plot them.
The Bush administration has done #2, by claiming the power to imprison people for years on his mere say-so, by exposing anti-terrorist CIA agent Valerie Plame to punish her husband, by blatantly killing journalists in Baghdad, by putting activists on "no fly" lists, and much more.
Bush has done #3 to some extent. Internet dissent is still permitted, but does not appear in the mainstream media.
But this is not enough to make Bush as bad as Hitler. Bush has not really done #4; I don't think that the attack on Iraq is comparable to Hitler's attempt to conquer all of Europe.
Worst of all Hitler's deeds was #5, his persistent campaign to exterminate Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and others he hated. This has no equivalent in Bush. Though Bush pursues policies that make life precarious for poor people, and promotes global warming that will endanger both civilization and nature after a few more decades, he has never shown any sign of wanting or trying specifically to exterminate large numbers of people. So I conclude that comparing Bush with Hitler is an unjustified exaggeration.
There is room in the scale of evil to be quite a monster without being as bad as Hitler. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to compare Bush with Mussolini.
The current "economic recovery" in the US reaches a historic low in terms of the percentage of increased business income that goes to wages.
John Pilger: What They Don't Want You To Know.
A satirist in Morocco, who had been imprisoned for criticizing the government, has been pardoned.
But freedom of speech as a principle has not been adopted there.
Bush is offering reenlistment bonuses--even while he tries to cut the pay for the troops.
A Nigerian man has been sentenced to death by stoning for illicit sex, and the woman has been sentenced to 100 lashes.
It is not clear whether the sex was voluntary or not.
If it was voluntary, punishing it at all is an outrage.
If it was rape, then punishing the victim is an outrage.
In either case, the death sentence is an outrage.
Nigeria has to confront the savagery of Islamic law, and put a definitive end to the practice.
George Will devoted a column to presenting the views of newspaper mogul Conrad Black...who was paying Will lots of money a couple of years ago.
A consumer group, representing music listeners, is suing the record companies in Europe for making fake CDs that don't follow the CD standards and cannot be read into a computer as a WAV file.
Some European countries have already ruled that these Corrupt Disks cannot carry the "CD" logo.
I think it is legitimate to restrict the commercial use of music recordings to those who pay the artists. But any attempt to stop individuals from sharing the music is an outrage, and the companies that do it deserve to go out of business.
Ambassador Wilson is determined to pursue the Bush administration for having sabotaged his wife's CIA work against terrorism.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has accused the Bush administration of deliberately misleading the public about Iraq's weapons capabilities.
We already know Bush was lying; it is good to see more recognition of this. Perhaps eventually a Democratic candidate will dare to make the accusation out loud.
The Bush forces have discharged some soldiers for cruelly attacking helpless prisoners.
Soldiers in any war tend to express their anger at the enemy by brutalizing people associated with the enemy. So it is incumbent on the army's leaders to show clearly that this is not to be tolerated. These punishments show that the Bush forces' leaders are doing this part of their job, at least to some extent. But is dismissal from the army a strong enough punishment to deter this crime?
The increased demand for herbal remedies is threatening the survival of many of the herbs that are used.
Ultimately this problem, like so many others, is the consequence of human overpopulation. It may be possible with care and effort to prevent this problem, and many of the others, but overpopulation makes such care and effort necessary in more and more areas of life.
British writer faces deportation from Zambia for satirizing leaders.
Groping Arnold's fiscal plan for California resembles Bush's plan for the US: cut taxes and borrow lots of money.
Refugees in Nauru have suspended their hunger strike temporarily after the Australian government agreed to reconsider their requests for asylum, which had previously been rejected out of hand.
Kofi Annan warns that violence in Afghanistan will interfere with the elections planned for next June.
The religious fanatic rulers of Iran have censored a web site that advocates reform.
Bush was served a lawsuit last Friday by Ellen Mariani, who accuses Bush of negligently failing to carry out normal security procedures and thus allowing the 9/11 attacks that killed her husband.
Many other victim families see the government's 9/11 compensation fund as an attempt to buy their cooperation with the coverup.
Just what is being covered up, I will not try to say. We know that a cover-up is occurring because important evidence that ought to be available has been concealed. The cover-up has been sufficiently successful, thus far, that we cannot tell what's being hidden.
The US "economy" is "recovering", but only in terms that measure the fortunes of the wealthiest. For most Americans, there is no improvement, because the jobs they lost are permanently gone.
These lost jobs, and the consequent surplus of labor, are holding down wages, so that Americans who are still employed are also gaining nothing.
These "structural changes" are not a natural phenomenon. They result from government policies designed to give corporations more power, which they use to make countries compete for allowing bad treatment for workers and low pay.
Thomas Kean, head of the 9/11 investigation committee, says the committee will consider some of the skeptics' theories about what happened.
Blair continues to say Saddam had biological and chemical weapons while even Paul Bremer admits there were none.
A war is a dire undertaking, and can only be justified by the strongest of reasons. A politician who leads a country into war, even honestly, for a reason that proves to be false has committed the most grave error imaginable. In the British system, that politician should resign from office.
Evidence suggests that Bush may be smuggling Iraqi oil via Kuwait.
Shipping oil is not necessarily smuggling. This could be some legitimate kind of oil export. But it is up to Bush to account for the pipeline and for the export.
Israeli police shut down Indymedia Israel on the basis of a cartoon, posted by some unknown member of the public, relating Prime Minister Sharon with Nazism.
See the article here; it is now redirected to another site, which has an article about this, first in Hebrew then in English.
The "Visit USA" system is described officially as a plan to collect photos and fingerprints from foreign criminals. Today Asa Hutchinson, a US official, revealed in an interview that the real aim is to collect a fingerprint data base of most US citizens.
When the US government wants to do something unpalatable to Americans, it often does this indirectly: first bullying other countries into doing it, then re-importing it as an international requirement. That's what's happening here. By demanding that other countries encode fingerprints in passports, the US government hopes to create an excuse to do likewise, thus treating US citizens who travel like criminals.
Bush's negligence (if it wasn't worse) in preventing the 9/11 attacks is becoming an unmentionable in the presidential campaign.
The Israeli blockade of refugee camps near Nablus is causing starvation.
Israeli journalism has ceased using the words "our forces" in describing actions of the Israeli army, as a way of dissociating itself from what the army is doing in Palestine. This article argues that this change helps Israelis evade responsibility for those actions.
I decided when Bush invaded Iraq to refer to the army that did the invading as the "Bush forces", rather than the "US army", specifically to avoid contributing to an attempt to manipulate us through our patriotism. In effect, I decided to do exactly what this article criticizes. Nonetheless, I think the article has a valid point, for Israel, because I see a difference between the situations in the US and Israel. In Israel, the atrocities of the army are well reported; people could take responsibility for them. In the US, they are so thoroughly hidden or disguised in the mainstream media that calling the Bush forces "ours" would only help Bush manipulate us.
Why Bush Must Be Captured And Tried With Saddam.
I don't agree 100% with that viewpoint, because I don't think that laws (national or international) entirely define right and wrong.
The UK frequently applies "anti-terrorist" powers to nonviolent protesters.
I am sure Blair said "trust me, I wouldn't do that" when asked, before passage of the law, whether this would happen.
Bush used the arrest of Saddam as a distraction from a law that implements part of the planned "son of pat-riot" act, greatly expanding FBI search powers without search warrants.
According to a former presidential science advisor, the threat to democracy is at "code red" level.
9/11: What don't we know, and why don't we know it?
The US government was given the right to censor evidence given in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.
Seattle protesters won a victory against the police, as a judge rules their arrest was illegal.
But a class-action suit against the police may still lose.
What the US could do to promote democracy in Iraq and the Middle East, if Bush really wanted to do that.
The FBI labels possession of an almanac as grounds to suspect someone of terrorism.
This suggests to me that they don't generally know what they're doing.
Comcast Cable has refused to show paid ads for medical marijuana.
The Israeli government shut down the Indymedia Israel web site, because of a cartoon posted by some unknown member of the public.
I have to correct a statement I made a few weeks ago: whoever set off a bomb next to a restaurant in Baghdad on New Years Eve does qualify as a terrorist. If the Iraqi insurgents fall into a practice that is likely to make Iraqis hate them, it could hand Bush a victory he could never win on his own.
We don't actually know that the bomb was set by insurgents. It could also have been set by someone working to discredit them. I would not dismiss either possibility as absurd; I would not put such an act past either side.
Predictions for 2004.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mining industry
awards
spark protests.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A participant in the joint Israeli-Palestinian protest at Mas'ha reports on what happened there, before and after the troops shot the protestors.
To illuminate the meaning of the capture of Saddam Hussein,
here is
A Saddam Chronology.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush used the capture of Saddam Hussein as a smokescreen
for signing a bill that
expands
US government surveillance power.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mad
cow testing and prevention
in the US is inadequate.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush administration, following its usual priorities
(secrecy first), is
refusing
to release information
about the tests it did conduct.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Republicans torpedoed measures for stronger protection against mad cow disease.
This is part of a pattern where business risks large losses--for us, and for them--in search of short-term gains. It also shows how little Republicans really care about public safety.
Rumsfeld
personally supported Saddam
after he used chemical weapons.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
As Israelis, Palestinians and internationals jointly protested the
construction of a wall between a Palestinian village and its lands,
Israeli
troops shot and wounded a protestor. The protestor
happened to be Israeli, and thus the shooting brought criticism
even from right-wing Israeli parliamentarians.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israelis and Palestinians together are
protesting against
persistent destruction of Palestinians' homes.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The homes were "built illegally", because it has been impossible for decades to get legal permission to build a house in Palestine.
Baker will benefit
personally from Iraqi debt forgiveness
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Retired General Zinni, who endorsed Bush in 2001, now says Iraq reminds him of Vietnam.
Don't expect the "economic recovery" in the US to translate into good jobs. Replacement of well-paid US jobs with low-paid foreign jobs is accelerating, as the low-wage treaties (usually called "free trade treaties") do what they were designed to do.
Tobacco companies encouraged candy cigarettes as a way of
convincing
kids to smoke.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush is turning many parts of the federal government into
a coordinated surveillance
and suppression system.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Is the "orange alert" a response to real danger, or is it just a way to manipulate US public opinion?
Bush likes to visit wounded troops and promise them good care, then cut the funds for doing so.
Sharon's
road, and where it leads.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The real reason Saddam was found.
A federal appeals court ruled that federal law
cannot prohibit
medical patients from growing and using marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
Refugees barred from Australia and diverted to Nauru are on a hunger strike, and close to death.
When convicts are released from prison in the US, they face a wide
range of secondary
punishments which tend to close off the possibility of making a
legitimate living.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Why does the US want Iraqi debts to be forgiven, but not Argentina's?
Bush is taking advantage of the distracting effect of capturing Saddam
Hussein to quietly
abandon
the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
As the EPA
retreats
from regulating mercury and other toxins,
researchers are finding a link between them and mental disorders in
children.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israeli prime minister Sharon is proposing what sounds
superficially like an end to the occupation, but the details
make it very different.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Interview
with Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and founder of Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
More information on the
death
threats that made Canadian lawyer Galati draw back from representing Abdurahman Khadr.
Galati's previous
client told the Canadian police about the 9/11 attacks in August 2001.
He later disappeared mysteriously.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
Five Israeli refuseniks are convicted, then speak to the press about
why they would rather
go to prison than serve in occupying forces.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush says he will
give
Iraq "democracy". His idea of "democracy" is,
"all protestors will be shot."
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Australian journalist gets a taste of Department of Homeland Security hospitality.
It is absurd to have stricter visa rules for foreign journalists visiting the US to interview Americans than for tourists. They are being paid from outside the US, and they are not taking jobs that might instead have been available to Americans. It can only make sense for controlling journalism about the US--and that is not legitimate.
A Norwegian appeals court ruled that the DeCSS program, a free program
that can play the video on an encrypted DVD,
is
not illegal in Norway,
and upheld the acquittal of Jon Johansen, its coauthor.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US government is trying to erase the records
of an official's statement that
reconstructing Iraq would
cost under 2 billion dollars.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Attacks
on the Bush forces continue, including suicide bombings, which
shows that the arrest of Saddam Hussein has not made Iraqis lose their
will to resist.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush calls the resistance "terrorists", but that is unfair. They are fighting a guerrilla war against the occupying forces, not trying to terrorize civilians. Apparently Bush uses that word as meaningless name-calling; if you fight him, you are a "terrorist".
Putin is accused of using state power to
bias
the Russian election.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The OSCE report can be found here.
The "defense lawyers" initially appointed by Bush to "represent" Guantanamo bay defendants in unfair military trials were all fired, after they refused to accept the unfair trial conditions.
The replacements are asking their state bar associations whether they can legitimately participate.
Diebold, a maker of electronic voting machines, has employed
convicted
felons in developing them.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
I think this concern is somewhat of a side issue. The real danger comes not from employees who are felons but rather from executives who are partisan.
Spanish president Aznar tried (but failed) to win support for sending troops to Iraq by arresting 16 North Africans and accusing them of a terrorist plot. However, there was no evidence against them, and they were later released. Now they are threatening to sue Aznar.
Abbott drug company has
quadrupled
the price of a last-ditch anti-HIV
drug in the US, leading doctors to boycott its products.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Some of the officers in the Bush forces
are aware
of who in Iraq is fighting for freedom and who's fighting against.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
US courts have ruled that Bush
does
not have the power to throw you in the dungeon
without a trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The FCC is planning policies that would allow internet providers
to censor
what you can access.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Will the counter-insurgency plan in Iraq repeat the
mistakes
of Vietnam?
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Opium production in Afghanistan doubled in 2003.
I suppose the US will eventually start using bombs or biological warfare to stop this. I don't recommend that anyone use opium or heroin, but the typical US suppression measures are a cure that's worse than the disease.
Amnesty International has criticized the UK government for its laws
that permit
indefinite imprisonment of foreigners without a trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This system is not as bad as what Bush does in the US, in that these prisoners are officially permitted to leave the UK at any time. The problem is, some don't dare return to their home countries, since they face being killed there. They have committed no crime, but they have no place to go except the UK's prison.
The Bush forces
say they are "reconstructing Iraq",
but Baghdad is not
getting reconstructed in any significant way.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US House of Representatives approved a bill that would prohibit
transit systems from running paid ads calling for legalization of
marijuana--while paying them to run ads against.
Censorship
cannot be more blatant.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The chairman of the hitherto-ineffective 9/11 investigation said that the attacks could have been prevented, had the Bush administration done its job.
Robert Fisk says he knows of 12 resistance groups in Iraq, and only one of them is connected with the Baath party.
The capture of Saddam Hussein has little significance except insofar as it may help Bush distract some Americans from more important issues. By presenting what ought to have been easy, but was difficult, as a triumph, Bush draws attention away from the lies and failures.
Illegal ivory trade is so prevalent, in some African countries, that it endangers the survival of elephants in parts of Africa.
An Arab Liberal's Anguish, by Alia Fattouh.
Bush is applying
the same policies in Iraq that he applies or wants to apply in
the US: privatization, flat tax, crushing unions.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Global warming is
killing
150,000 people per year, according to the UN. (The article comes from The Independent.)
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush advertises Home Depot in return for all the campaign funds it gave him.
Greg Palast reflects
on the capture of Saddam Hussein.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ellen Mariani, who is suing Bush for failing to take obvious measures
to prevent the death of her husband in the World Trade Center,
has asked
to depose Saddam Hussein.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The allegation that Bush the First and Cheney supplied biological weapons to Hussein is plausible, since the US government supported Hussein for a long time. How this relates to the 9/11 attacks is not clear to me, though, since no one has established any connection between him and them.
A joint Israeli-Palestinian rally against the separation wall united many different parties and factions of both peoples.
In the US today, the capture of Saddam Hussein is being presented as the magic solution to the problems of Iraq.
I am glad this dictator has been captured, but that doesn't give Iraq a clear path to democracy and freedom. When Hussein was in power, he was arguably the biggest obstacle to democracy and freedom in Iraq, but since the Bush occupation, the biggest obstacle is Bush. Depending on Bush for democracy and freedom, in Iraq or the US, is asking the fox to guard the hen house.
Remember how Bush became president: he asked the Supreme Court not to count the votes of the citizens of Florida. But why was there a close result in Florida? Because Dubya's men disenfranchised tens of thousands of Florida voters by falsely labeling them as felons. This is not democracy. Bush also believes in putting people in prison on his mere say-so, without a trial. This is not freedom--it is conduct worthy of Saddam Hussein.
There are many vicious dictators in the world, and most often the US helps them stay in power. In general, I support the use of military force to kick them out--provided these two conditions exist:
Neither condition was true before Bush's invasion of Iraq, and neither one is true today. I don't think Iraqis will forgive the brutality of the occupation merely on account of Saddam.
Dubya's
policy of imposing secrecy on government activities was not
a response to 9/11. It began on his
inauguration day.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
I speculate that the reason for his policy of secrecy is because he wants to hide the way he is rewarding the companies that paid his campaign funds.
Human Rights Watch says that cluster bombs used in Iraq by the Bush
forces have caused
more
than 1000 civilian casualties. They were often fired directly
on urban areas. The bomblets that didn't immediately explode remain
dangerous to civilians; even soldiers in the
Bush forces get killed by them.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Halliburton, which is still paying Vice President Cheney, is getting
absurdly
high payments for fuel in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush forces arrested Iraqi union leaders and held them incommunicado for at least a week. I don't have word on whether they were later released.
These people were no friends of Saddam, but Bush probably thinks that unions are as bad as terrorists.
After Congressman Kucinich began criticizing the
way the mass media
fail to cover real political issues, ABC news withdrew the reporter
who was covering his campaign.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Considered as the exercise of power, it's entirely logical, but it doesn't deserve the name of journalism.
In Dubya's
Thanksgiving publicity stunt,
even
the turkey was fake.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UN General Assembly has asked the World Court to
consider the
legality of the Israeli "security" fence, which effectively annexes and
divides parts of the Palestinian territories.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A group of Americans, including parents of Bush forces soldiers (some living, some dead), visit Iraq to see the situation for themselves.
The Bush forces are trying to say that Iraq is too dangerous for civilians to visit. However, they have brought in thousands of civilian contractors. Why isn't it too dangerous for them?
Bush arbitrarily
barred
several countries from Iraqi reconstruction contracts
because they did not send troops.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ironically, the European Union is going to make a complaint about this to the World Trade Organization. The US won't even play by the unfair rules that it has imposed on most of the world.
2003 will be the hottest year ever recorded in Britain, in over 300 years of temperature records.
The two previous record years were in the 1990s.
A grocery workers' strike in LA is getting
support from
other unions, and from the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
These workers are paid so little they can barely live on it.
UK police persistently
harassed
the protestors in a nonviolent monthly
demonstration outside a detention center for immigrants. Police
arbitrarily limited the number of protestors. The harassment
continued as they returned to Oxford after the protest.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This was clearly a deliberate campaign of intimidation, hostile to the very idea that citizens have the right to protest. The UK government, while "democratic" in form and name, does not much like democracy when it shows up in the flesh.
Citizens of Sri Lanka are protesting against plans to privatize the water supply. They know these plans could result in increases in water fees which would cut off many citizens from water supply.
Two major Afghan warlords are giving up heavy weapons to the Afghan central government. With all the problems of violence in Afghanistan, this is at least a step forward.
Penn, of Penn and Teller,
called
the cops after an airport security guard committed assault by grabbing his crotch
without asking him first.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Dubya wants to reinterpret the Endangered Species Act to redefine the "protection" of endangered species to include hunting them and destroying their habitat. In effect, anything could be allowed as long as they say it is done to protect the species. This resembles the way Bush "protects" freedom and democracy.
US citizens have until Dec 10 to
state their objections.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Israeli pilots who have refused to attack civilian targets (since such attacks typically kill many bystanders) speak about their reasons. "The terrorists are bastards, but we must fight to not become terrorists ourselves."
A comparison
of the positions of Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The principal Shia cleric
demands
a partially Islamic constitution for
Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Meanwhile, the Bush forces have arrested the family members of a suspected resistance leader. Saying "We've got your wife and daughter"--isn't that the thing the bad guys always do?
Bangladesh arrested
a newspaper editor as he was leaving to
visit Israel to speak to a journalists' group, and charged
him with spying.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is not unusual that governments that want to keep everything secret, and have not developed the US government's tradition of secrecy, view ordinary journalism as spying.
This article presents evidence that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) published a falsified photo of the 9/11 attacks.
The US Army Reserve is having trouble retaining experienced personnel. They feel they are being used too much, for insufficient reason.
A liberal
talk radio network is being planned.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Conservatives were once a minority; tactics like this boosted their numbers. So I don't think the smaller number of Liberals today makes it not worth trying. This could be a way to reverse the decline.
Inspector General in Iraq has limits that make him unable to fully investigate corruption there.
The US government has canceled the requirement for registration of visitors from several predominantly Muslim countries, but is replacing it with a new surveillance system that will operate in airports.
Someone, perhaps a Republican Congressman,
offered
a bribe to another Republican Congressman to support the recent Medicare reform bill.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Foreign contract workers in Iraq are being killed at an estimated
rate of one
per day. This is an estimate because there are no
official figures.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The CIA knew, and told Bush straight out, that it
"lacked specific
information" about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This means that Bush cannot evade direct personal responsibility for exaggerating suspicion into certainty.
An article attributed to an officer in the
Bush forces that was
in the battle in Samarra explains
what
really happened there and what it implies.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
I have no way of knowing if the message was actually written by an officer in the Bush forces. However, they would be punished if they put their names to such views.
The Canadian lawyer defending a former prisoner in Guantanamo
quit after receiving
a death threat that he believes came from
some government's intelligence service.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Privatizing the US army makes it easier to
hide combat from
Congress and hide casualties from the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US media have given
zero
coverage to Ellen Mariani's lawsuit
accusing Bush of covering up a failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A number of articles investigating holes in the official
story about what happened on 9/11 can be found
here.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
When the Soviet Union collapsed, agriculture in Cuba collapsed too, because
it was based on imported oil. Cuba tackled with the problem by shifting to
organic farming on a massive scale, and by moving away from Communism
through replacing collective farms with small cooperatives. It now
produces
enough food for its needs in a sustainable way.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This doesn't excuse Cuba's persecution of dissidents or censoring the media. Those policies are equally inexcusable in the US, too--and the US doesn't have sustainable agriculture either.
Photos give clear proof that
Simon
Chapman was framed by Greek police.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
I've read that there is a craze in the US of naming babies after corporations. If you know anyone who did this, you could try asking, "How much did XYZ company pay you to name your baby XYZ?" If they say "nothing", you can suggest they try shopping around for the next baby. It might open their eyes to the reality of what they just did.
Why did the FBI arrive so quickly when Senator Wellstone's plane crashed?
And if the explanation is innocent,
why
are relevant records missing?
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush has 200 initiatives to
undermine
US environmental laws. Often they redefine terminology to make
laws apply to a small range of cases, make them vacuous, or make them
unenforceable.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This
story turned out to be inaccurate, a conclusion drawn from a
mistaken calculation. For the sake of honesty I have kept the note here.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The FBI is often using the new powers of the PATRIOT act for crimes that have
nothing
to do with terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
International aid agencies say Israeli forces obstruct their operations and shoot at their workers.
The Bush forces' story of a "victory" in Samarra on Sunday turns out to be fabrication. Bystanders say that the Bush forces shot indiscriminately and killed civilians. Civilians then got their guns and shot back.
Poverty and hunger in the US are growing as many Americans
don't get a
living wage.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US government has cut its aid to the poor in various ways, while helping business to reduce wages. Poverty and hunger are the natural result of "trickle-down economics".
The BBC guide to West Bank checkpoints.
The UN has withdrawn
aid workers from parts of Afghanistan because they are
being killed. The Taliban says it plans to kidnap aid workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
If we want to establish freedom in Afghanistan, or even defeat the Taliban, we have to do more there. But Dubya decided to attack Iraq instead.
The party in power in Spain, which prefers to forget Franco's
murderous dictatorship,
stayed
away from an event in Parliament to remember Franco's victims.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
General Franco came to power through a coup, which failed to seize power immediately, and thus degenerated into a three-year civil war to overthrow the Spanish Republic. Franco won with the help of military aid from the Nazis, while the Spanish government found no country would sell it modern weapons.
Some of the British prisoners in Guantanamo Bay may be released--but most of them will be required to confess to some crime first. Then they will have to serve a sentence without ever having a real trial. Two of them, who have been imprisoned for two years despite a lack of any reason to think they were Taliban, may actually be released. Others may face imprisonment without trial in Britain.
While this reduction in the numbers of people facing indefinite imprisonment without trial by the US is a step in the right direction, any number is too many.
Even as many of the Democratic presidential candidates embarrassingly
praised
Dubya's visit to Iraq, the foreign press
identified
it as a publicity stunt.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A 9/11 widow has sued Bush, accusing him of knowingly failing to carry out his duty to try to prevent the attacks.
Almost 10,000 soldiers in the Bush forces
have been killed
or seriously hurt or injured in Iraq. That includes many who
were not hurt in combat, but they are just as dead or just as wounded.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
As the Bush forces
claim a triumph over the resistance, local people
say the 46 dead Iraqis
include
bystanders.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Given that randomly chosen Iraqi bystanders probably oppose the occupation, the Bush forces might consider all Iraqi civilians as enemies. In two recent incidents, a crowd of Iraqis mutilated the corpses of Bush forces soldiers who had just been attacked and killed. One occurred in Mosul, where the Bush forces formerly had public support.
It's possible that the attacks were carried out by Saddam loyalists, but the crowd's subsequent actions show that hatred of Bush is widespread in the populace. Under such circumstances, the occupation will not be sustainable.
Paramilitaries, embedded journalists and illegal protests.
Not in Iraq--in the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A soldier in the Bush forces has been punished for joining in a peaceful anti-war protest while home on leave. The US media don't talk about this--instead, they talk about how to prepare to convince the US public to accept the atrocities that the Bush forces may commit in their name.
The official verdict is that Dr. Kelly committed suicide, and the
pathologist supported this; but this examination of the details of the
medical report argues it shows
he
was more likely murdered.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
AARP membership protests increase.
While the AARP claims to exist to represent the interests of retired people, it seems that the executives of the AARP had a different idea of the organization's true purpose: to increase its membership as much as possible. In my book, that in itself is corrupt.
Save the Children UK was gagged on criticizing the Bush forces; also, it fears to criticize a corporation that gave it money.
In effect, by accepting their money, the organization put itself under their control.
The "separation wall" is effective for separating Arabs from their land.
However, because it is placed in the middle of the Palestinian territories,
leaving many Palestinians on the Israeli side of the wall,
it makes no
sense as a method for separating suicide bombers from their victims.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is the translation of an article first published in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
Sham security measures are the rage all around the world, since 9/11 provided the excuse.
30 press agencies, newspapers and TV networks have
protested to
the Pentagon that the Bush forces
in Iraq have threatened journalists
and destroyed their photos and equipment.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A British Law Lord (the equivalent of a Supreme Court Justice in US) condemns the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and the military courts planned for the prisoners there.
Of the two members of the 9-11 investigation commission who will be allowed to look at parts of secret Bush documents, one has close ties to Bush.
OCAP members brought their kids to the protest against the police attempt to kidnap a child from its parents at a previous OCAP protest.
Even as
police were stealing one protester's child, they threatened another protestor,
saying "you're next".
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A company is seriously proposing to
insert
your credit card under your skin, using an RFID.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
If you accept this "convenience", companies and governments will be able to follow your movements just by reading the RFID. They can do this anywhere; it's not limited to places that you use your credit card. (They can do this with other RFIDs too, including the ones on your keychain and the toll payment RFID on your car.)
Since I object to general surveillance, I use cash for ordinary retail purchases. I use a credit card only in the situations where I am forced to disclose my identity anyway: car rental, airplane tickets, and hotels.
On Friday I noticed that the two Boston newspapers, in their vending boxes both devoted their biggest headlines to a Bush publicity stunt--his visit to Iraq. This non-event won't have much direct effect on anything, least of all the outcome of the war in Iraq, so it is not really important news. However, publicizing it as if it were important could perhaps help Bush get elected president.
We could perhaps evaluate a newspaper or radio station based on how it treated this pseudo-event. The more attention it pays, the more we see it has the wrong priorities.
John Kokal, an intelligence analyst at the US state department whose job was studying evidence about Iraqi weapons, died by falling out of a government building. The building's windows don't open, and its roof is normally locked.
Relatives of people killed on 9/11 are
rebuking the
official investigation, saying that in several ways it is
failing to probe into the areas of suspicion.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
Reporter Rebecca Solnit
describes
the police attacks on protestors in Miami.
An introductory note discusses the pervasive militarization of the
US and military plans to replace the US Constitution with a military
government.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A poll finds that a majority of Israelis, and a majority of Palestinians, support the unofficial peace plan drawn up recently in Geneva.
If the two peoples continue to support the plan, the next Israeli election may bring peace.
Militarization in Miami shows the latest in Bush policy
towards political dissent, with
tactics
that we used to expect from third-world countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Hundreds of thousands of Jews have moved out of Israel recently, some because of fear, some for economic reasons, and some to avoid the atmosphere of hatred towards Palestinians that they now see around them.
Earlier this year, Ashcroft gave the FBI carte blanche to investigate
protest groups and dissidents. Now the FBI is in fact
investigating
protestors and treating them as terrorist suspects.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
What
you have to believe to be a Republican in the US today.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
As Democrats vie to run against Bush, we must remember that
Democrats don't necessarily have good policies. Clinton,
a Democrat, was
responsible
for the sweatshop treaties
that are lowering wages all around the world.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Amnesty International reports that
Egyptian
police continue to torture suspects,
and that the government has ignored most
of the recommendations for how to stop torture.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The
Senate defeated the Bush energy bill.
(A later article says the Republicans have given up on it,
for this year.)
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush forces
just strengthened opposition to the occupation of Iraq
by dismissing
28,000 Iraqi teachers with Baath party backgrounds.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the
old
link was broken.]
California's Secretary of State has decided on a policy of
requiring
electronic voting machines to save a voter-verified paper record.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
I can't tell from this page when the policy will go into practical effect.
The invasion of Iraq is providing a
boost
to Al-Qaida.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Indonesian general is on trial for commanding a Suharto-era massacre of civilians.
That is a step forward, but Indonesia must continue by taking action against those who ordered the massacres in East Timor.
The US House of Representatives approved a bill
in which an extension
of FBI surveillance powers had been buried.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Amnesty International
bows
to threats of violence against its personnel, by
deciding not to show a film about the coup attempt against President Chavez
in Venezuela.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police in Miami attacked nonviolent protestors
as
they were dispersing.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
New York City Police systematically
harass
and even assault prostitutes,
and even threaten the activists who hand out condoms to them.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Their spokesman has the gall to suggest that occasional noise at night is such a great evil that it justifies persecuting people. Why don't they arrest the elevated trains, then?
During Bill Clinton's presidency, Paula Jones accused him of past sexual impropriety. The unproved accusations were widely covered in the media.
During George W. Bush's presidency, Margie Schoedinger accused him of past sexual impropriety. The unproved accusations were generally ignored by the media. Schoedinger was recently found dead, shot in the head.
Based on that article, I would not say I am convinced about those sexual accusations against Bush. (Not that it matters much compared with what he has done.) But the contrast in treatment of accusations against Clinton and accusations against Bush seems to prove that there is an effective right-wing propaganda machine at work.
Anarchists, and how the police misrepresent them.
Protestors in London went to the Greek Embassy to demand release of the Thessaloniki 7.
A number of civil liberties and privacy advocates have made a statement on the danger of RFIDs as a system for surveillance.
In one particular point, I think this position is not strong enough. The use of RFIDs only for identifying types of products (for instance, identifying which ones contain some toxic materials) can still present a means for surveillance. The combination of different types of objects that you have on your person could be used to identify you, since on any given day each person will usually have a different combination. Once that combination is connected with you, it could be used to track you as you move around.
I'd like to be able to buy a cheap RFID locator, so I can tell if anything I own has an RFID, and then a cheap RFID zapper, to render the RFID entirely nonfunctional.
A
review of 9/11 skepticism: investigation into alternate hypotheses of
what happened on September 11. Many of these theories suppose either
negligence and/or collusion on the part of the Bush administration.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
I don't believe the theories that say Bush ordered the attacks. I have seen no evidence to prove that, and the very idea that the AWOL president could find 20 men to carry out suicide missions for him seems implausible. But there is factual evidence that the Bush administration prevented the FBI and the US Air Force from stopping the attacks. The FBI refused to investigate the hijackers-to-be, even after agents reported them as terrorist threats. We Americans have a right to know who ordered that decision and why. There must be some specific reason why fighter planes did not follow standard procedure to intercept the hijacked planes. We Americans have a right to know what it was.
The American Association of Retired People faces membership protest
for going
against its own stated positions to support the Republicans'
Medicare bill.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Policing in Europe and the US is increasingly becoming politicized, a system for controlling public opinion rather than protecting public safety.
Richard Perle concedes that the Bush attack on Iraq violated international law.
I'll be the first to admit that laws don't necessarily define what is right or wrong. Laws, national or international, can be unjust. However, the system of international law has been fairly effective at restraining aggression (though not always successful), and is worth preserving.
It is interesting that Perle contradicts Bush and Blair, who are still trying to claim the attack was in accord with international law. It is also interesting to see his attitude that the US should be above the law, which has force only for others.
The opposition in Georgia is responding to election fraud by saying they will protest until the president resigns.
Maybe the US could learn a lesson from them.
A new record company encourages listeners to share the music.
100,000 or 200,000 protested Bush's visit to London.
Brett Bursey's trial is bringing out evidence of a
pattern of police
misconduct towards protestors, where people are arrested and beaten by
police for being in certain places with protest signs, while others in
similar places without such signs are let alone.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
As the big drug companies lobby for
extended
patent monopolies to prohibit generic drugs,
claiming this is necessary to fund their
medical research, the medical research they do usually doesn't make a
big difference to people's health.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
People have been arrested in Zimbabwe for sending email calling for protests.
In nearby Rwanda, newspaper editors have been arrested for criticizing the government.
Climate modeling shows that observed warming temperatures in North America for the past 50 years are due to human activity, not natural events.
2,000 more species have been classified as endangered, bringing the world total to 12,000.
Dubya's "sterile zone" in London isn't as big and nasty as it is in the US.
The Bush forces sealed off an Iraqi town, Palestine-style. Is this what Bush means when he speaks of "freedom" for Iraq?
Experience in Palestine says that this isn't going to put an end to resistance. On the contrary, it will tend to stimulate resistance.
I was going to predict that the
Bush forces would move to a policy of
active reprisals against civilians, but before I got the chance to say
that, I got the information that
they
already have done so. They have
imitated the Israeli policy of demolishing homes of people they
suspect of involvement in the resistance.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
These reprisals will probably have the same effect in Iraq as they do in Palestine: to make everyone hate Bush, and make many of them hate Bush enough to kill themselves to get revenge.
The similarity between Bush occupation policies in Iraq and Israeli occupation policies in Palestine is just the thing to help Al Qa'ida recruit more terrorists. So is the Bush administration too stupid to recognize this, or is it deliberately helping Al Qa'ida to remain strong, so that the "war on terrorism" will never have to end?
The FBI spied
on Martin Luther King, Jr., in an attempt to discredit him.
When this became known to the public, guidelines were imposed to prevent
the FBI from doing this to other dissidents.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Ashcroft got
rid of these guidelines, pretending of course that this
is "to protect us." (It was commands from above, not these guidelines,
that kept the FBI from catching the 9/11 terrorists before they acted.)
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The question is, who will protect us from Ashcroft and the FBI?
Meanwhile, various cities are trying to
remove
the limitations that prohibit the police departments from investigating
people merely because the government doesn't like them.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
One British war widow plans to tell Bush, to his face, that her husband
died for a lie.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
This letter was sent to the New York Times but not published by them.
10/26/03
To the Editor,
"Radical Islam Gains a Seductive New Voice," (Oct. 26 Week in Review) does a disservice to readers trying to understand why people around the world think of the U.S. as an ignorant, prejudiced, hegemonic bully. The caption under the photo in The Times refers to "Muslims warming to the militant ideology known as political Islam," but the signs of the Indonesian protesters in the photo read, "Islam Loves Peace," "Islam is Anti-Terrorist," "Islam Rejects Terrorism," and loosely translated, "A Terrorist is an Isolated Individual, Not a Follower of Islam." The great majority of Muslim people in Indonesia are moderate in their notions of the relationship between Islam and politics. But when George Bush condemns Mahathir Mohamad's comments about powerful Jews without condemning Pentagon official Lt. Gen. Boyken's comments about America's enemy being Satan, and Islam's inferior God, we should not be surprised that Muslims are cynical about American motives.Edward Herbst
- 17 November 2003 (energy bill)
The Republicans' energy bill rewards the corporations that paid them for it.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 17 November 2003 (Gaza occupation)
Four former heads of Israel's security service have called for ending the occupation of Gaza, and eliminating the Israeli settlements there.
- 17 November 2003 (salt crackdown)
The UK government plans to crack down on excess salt in ready-made foods, which kills tens of thousands of people there every year.
- 17 November 2003 (Bush protestor)
Antiwar activist Brent Bursey is facing federal prosecution for protesting with a sign at the airport where Bush was landing. He was denied the right to a jury trial.
- 17 November 2003 (adbusters)
Adbusting protestors repainted ads in the Paris Metro.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 17 November 2003 (cruise missile)
I heard on the BBC last night that the Bush forces had launched a new counteroffensive against Iraqi resistance forces, which included firing a cruise missile from Baghdad to near Mosul to attack a place supposedly being used by the resistance.
If it was indeed being used by the resistance, that missile was an expensive alternative to an artillery bombardment or even an air strike. The only possible motive I can imagine for using the missile is to remind someone that the Bush forces have cruise missiles. But if they do not make much military difference, the resistance is likely to be thinking "so what?" I therefore conclude tentatively that the whole thing was meant to impress Americans that Bush is "doing something".
Other aspects of this recent offensive likewise have the air of public relations. For instance, bombarding an empty building and destroying it, after warning people in the neighborhood to stay away, probably won't have much military effect of any kind. At least the warning probably prevented civilian casualties, but why do it at all? Hasn't Bush learned that "shock and awe" doesn't keep them in awe for very long?
- 17 November 2003 (melting glaciers)
Researchers are hurrying to take ice cores from glaciers in Peru as the glaciers melt due to global warming.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 17 November 2003 (white house coverup)
The September 11 investigation commission accepted a compromise about access to White House documents that will enable Bush to continue covering up the answers to the questions Americans have been asking for two years.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]Bush and his friends have lied to us about September 11 in the past.
- 17 November 2003 (stripped aid)
The UK is stripping aid for poor countries and protecting rainforests in order to pay for the war in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 17 November 2003 (Japanese troops)
The Japanese government has postponed sending troops to Iraq, and indeed may never send them since the governing coalition includes a pacifist party.
Various other countries have refused, despite pressure from Bush. Governments that have agreed to send troops often face large opposition. This article gives a list of nations with troops in Iraq, many with a public mostly opposed to the war.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 17 November 2003 (ozone layer)
The US is sabotaging an agreement to protect the ozone layer by insisting on continued use of methyl bromide, a chemical that destroys ozone.
- 17 November 2003 (zero tolerance)
Schools with "zero tolerance" policies are punishing students for writing fiction and pictures about violence.
- 17 November 2003 (UK ID)
There is resistance in Parliament to Blair's plan to record the fingerprints and retinal prints of everyone in the UK.
Look at the idiotic way they defend the scheme:
"I know some people believe there is a sinister motive behind the cards; = that they will be part of a Big Brother state. This is wrong - only basic information will be held on the ID card database - such as your name, address, birthday and sex.If those details are not in the ID card data base itself, they will go in other data bases which can be linked to the ID card data base. So if the police use "anti-terrorist" laws to stop you at a protest and use your retinal print to identify you, they can then mark you as "dissident, to be harassed" in some other data base."It will not have details of religion, political beliefs, marital status or your health records."
- 17 November 2003 (helicopters destroyed)
The Iraqi resistance destroyed two more Bush forces helicopters, with many casualties.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]Sitting here with a broken elbow, I feel bad for the thousands that have been wounded in the Bush forces, as well as for the hundreds that were killed. I put the blame for their suffering on Bush -- not on the Iraqis, who naturally resist the occupation of their country. (I feel bad for all the killed and wounded Iraqis, too.)
Bush now says he will transfer the government to Iraqis by June 2004. That means, in time for the election campaign. It looks like he is trying to adopt the Kucinich program, and it is a good thing to do, if he does it for real.
But I think Bush won't do it honestly. I predict he will hand-pick Iraqi puppet rulers that will carry forward Bush's plans to privatize Iraq and hand its wealth over to Bush's business cronies. The Iraqis will recognize this, and continue fighting. A phony transfer of power to Iraqis won't end the fighting.
- 15 November 2003 (bush lied)
A national guard soldier home on leave from serving in the Bush forces in Iraq said, on the radio, "Bush lied to us".
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 15 November 2003 (Iraqi resistance)
The CIA reported to Bush that the Iraqi resistance, after starting perhaps from a nucleus of Baathists, has gained tens of thousands of voluntary supporters among Iraqis incensed at the Bush occupation of their country.
The resistance has good sources of intelligence about the Bush forces, but the Bush forces know little about the resistance.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the old link was broken.]That's what tends to happen when an occupying force confronts a guerrilla force that has popular support. If the resistance were just some secret Saddam supporters, if ordinary Iraqis were opposed to them, they would eventually be caught.
- 15 November 2003 (Miami protests)
Miami has imposed vague and restrictive permanent rules against protests in advance of the protests against the FTAA.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]Protestors are being harassed by police already before the protest starts.
- 15 November 2003 (Dubya and Ali)
Robert Fisk analyzes how Dubya matches up against Comical Ali.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 15 November 2003 (Dubya in Britain)
On the eve of Dubya's visit, many in the UK are rather hostile towards him.
Bush seems to have an unhealthy fascination for British royalty. Unhealthy, that is, in the leader of a country that was created by fighting a war to break away from the power of the British throne.
- 15 November 2003 (nominees blocked)
US Senate Democrats stood up to Republican pressure and blocked 4 extremist Bush judicial nominees.
The story also reports that Senate Republicans blocked 63 Clinton appointees, but they didn't need a filibuster to do it. So now they pretend it's an outrage.
- 15 November 2003 (Guinea democracy)
In Guinea, an opposition leader faces charges of "insulting the president", which suggests that democracy in Guinea is a sham.
- 15 November 2003 (Dean and corporations)
Howard Dean talks a lot about protecting the environment, but when he was Governor of Vermont, he gave the corporations what they wanted.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 15 November 2003 (UK protestors)
Before Bush even goes to Britain, there is an uproar in Britain about plans to keep protestors away from him.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 15 November 2003 (OCAP kidnapping)
At the OCAP protest, Toronto police kidnapped a 2-year-old child from his mother's shoulders, then made threats to get his father to come along with them. They beat him up while he was holding the child in his arms, and threatened to charge him with a crime for calling for help.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 15 November 2003 (more lies)
Americans are catching on to the fact that Bush lied about Iraqi WMDs, but are slow to recognize that the story about connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qa'ida were lies as well.
- 15 November 2003 (Bush family history)
US government documents confirm that Dubya's grandfather, Prescott Bush, held millions of dollars in the US for Nazis, for almost a year after Germany declared war on the US, and that he tried to conceal the activities once they began to be exposed. Prescott Bush was later elected US senator.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the old link was broken.]
- 14 November 2003 (porn censorship)
Bush is prosecuting porn movie makers who don't follow certain censorship guidelines.
Bush is attacking our democracy and freedom in so many ways that this might not make the top 20. But it is part of the theocratic agenda, and we shouldn't forget about it.
- 14 November 2003 (phony group)
A phony grass-roots group plans to lobby for unlimited mining in the western US.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 14 November 2003 (separation wall)
The Israeli separation wall will make life very difficult for some 700,000 Palestinians.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 14 November 2003 (mouse patent)
Scientists say cancer research is hurt by the restrictions imposed on research done with mice genetically engineered to be cancer-prone using the Harvard mouse patent. DuPont and Harvard demand royalties for anything discovered with research done using such mice.
Since the purpose of the patent system is to promote progress, using patents this way defeats the purpose of the system. Patent law should be changed to prohibit this.
What the article did not say is that the patent itself is absurd. Harvard scientists used an already known technique to implant an already identified oncogene into an existing strain of mouse. If they invented anything, it was some detail, some refinement of the process necessary for the specific case. But they got a patent covering the very idea of inserting any oncogene into any species of mammal. (One wonders, why only mammals? Why exclude birds and mollusks?) Even if the patent holders were not using the patent in an outrageous way, its mere existence is an outrage, an example of the absurd practices of the US Patent Office.
- 14 November 2003 (lost ground)
The Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (not Liberal in the US sense) lost ground in the recent elections, largely because it had promised to send troops to Iraq. Its majority now depends on a coalition partner which is pacifist and objects to the deployment. The deployment may be delayed or even canceled.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]It is good to see the people in Japan and other countries putting pressure on politicians who cave in to pressure to support Bush. The more you resist, the easier it becomes for others to resist.
- 14 November 2003 (TV children)
Children who grow up with TV on most of the time may have more trouble learning to read.
- 14 November 2003 (drug give-aways)
How drug companies use give-aways and other trickery to influence what doctors prescribe, and how medical institutions are starting to fight back.
- 13 November 2003 (media prosecuted)
The Hindu, one of India's major newspapers (I've been interviewed for that paper a few times), has been prosecuted by the Indian state of Tamil Nadu for "violating legislative privilege".
- 13 November 2003 (army documents)
US Army documents show that atrocities like those of Tiger Force(see recent note) were widespread, and that on the rare occasions when a court martial convicted a US soldier, the punishment was often small or nothing at all.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 13 November 2003 (Al Gore)
Al Gore has begun saying things about Dubya that two years ago only the staunchest defenders of liberty used to say.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 13 November 2003 (election protests)
The opposition in Georgia is holding large protests after international observers report lots of skulduggery in the election.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the old link was broken.]
- 13 November 2003 (Guantanamo Bay prisoners)
The US Supreme Court has decided to hear the case of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 11 November 2003 (massacre)
The Bosnian Serb government has admitted to the massacre of Srebrenica.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 11 November 2003 (OCAP)
OCAP in Toronto occupied an abandoned building and got the government to promise to turn it into housing. However, several protesters were arrested, and one protester's child was temporarily kidnapped by police.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 11 November 2003 (Machsom Watch)
The Israeli organization Machsom Watch has kept a log of incidents in which Palestinians were harmed, harassed, or just held up for hours at checkpoints. The list gives a picture of what the occupation means.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 11 November 2003 (British American Tobacco)
British American Tobacco withdrew from Burma, giving way to a public pressure campaign.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]The company had been giving the typical excuse that its activity in Burma, where workers can be treated like slaves, was "giving jobs to poor people". But giving someone a Burma-style job is not much of a favor, and hardly makes up for helping the military government of Burma to continue suppressing democracy there. If British American really wants to help some poor people, it should set up a factory in another country where workers earn more.
- 10 November 2003 (Russian police)
Lawyers for Mr Khodorkovsky, the arrested Russian magnate and opposition-funder, say that Russian police are using torture and drugs on suspects connected with the case.
They are also having secret hearings--much as Bush does, when he wants to.
- 10 November 2003 (hunger strike)
Seven protesters who were arrested protesting the EU summit in Thessaloniki, and facing heavy prison sentences, are on hunger strike.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]One of them has actual video evidence showing the police planting weapons on him. Readers of this site will not be surprised that police would do such a thing.
- 10 November 2003 (assassinations)
The Central Trade Union Federation of Colombia says that assassinations of union organizers in Colombia are increasing. This is part of the campaign of repression that the US government supports.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]Note that some of them were working for Coca Cola Company, which is being sued in the US for working with paramilitary thugs to prevent unionization.
- 10 November 2003 (wells destroyed)
The Israeli army destroyed wells in Gaza that the US government had just built. Part of the US government was peeved.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]They gave the usual excuse, that Palestinian fighters were hiding in them, but you know that fighters can hide anywhere. So after the Israelis destroy one house or well, they will destroy another, until all the houses in Gaza are destroyed and all the inhabitants are homeless.
- 9 November 2003 (fraud charge)
A Russian magnate, who is also the leader of an important opposition party, has been arrested on fraud charges.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]I wouldn't be surprised if he and every other Russian businessman is guilty of fraud, and an opposition party that is run by the funds of a rich businessman rather than from grass roots support is not very good democracy.
But it is better than none at all--and that looks like where Putin is taking Russia.
- 9 November 2003 (Caterpillar v. Disney)
Caterpillar is suing Disney for trademark infringement because of a film that depicts Caterpillar bulldozers in use destroying the jungle.
[Reference updated on 2018-09-04 because the old link was broken.](A later report said that the judge refused to grant an injunction against the film. Disney has enough clout that it can expect to get a fair shake in court.)
- 9 November 2003 (Caterpillar)
Ironically, while Caterpillar doesn't like the idea that children might see its products used in fiction for evil purposes, it is not very concerned about the real use of its real products for evil purposes.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]To boycott Caterpillar for selling bulldozers to Israel seems rather indirect to me. I suppose there are many places Israel could buy nonmilitary destruction equipment, and I would guess that most of the bulldozers in Israel are being used for legitimate purposes. Still, this makes an instructive contrast with what Caterpillar says in court.
- 9 November 2003 (CBS bowed)
CBS bowed to pressure from conservatives and canceled the showing of a series about President Reagan. I wouldn't watch TV anyway, but I think it is scary that they have this much power to censor.
Conservatives were angry that the series did not show Reagan's achievements, which include
- Selling missiles to terrorists who were kidnapping Americans and holding them hostage for ransom.
- Sending terrorists into Nicaragua in defiance of US law.
- Crushing unions and nearly abolishing anti-trust regulation.
- Using the false promise of "trickle down" to create a phony prosperity, which gave no benefit to middle class Americans and made poor Americans poorer.
- 9 November 2003 (overfishing)
A scientific census of the ocean reports that all large species of fish are being wiped out by overfishing. Their numbers have been cut by 90% in the last 50 years.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]The survey has other interesting findings as well.
- 8 November 2003 (Bush admin. criticized)
Amnesty International criticized the Bush administration for not publishing counts of Iraqi civilians killed by the Bush forces.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 8 November 2003 (silicone breasts)
A\ company is asking the FDA to allow silicone breast implants again, although it has not provided the data to show they are safe, and the scanty data it has collected show considerable risk.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]What I find most alarming is the way the decision was voted on by a panel made up primarily of plastic surgeons, who would probably profit directly from approval.
- 7 November 2003 (law misuse)
Bush prosecutes Greenpeace by twisting an obscure and absurd old law.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to consider the cases of the people imprisoned without trial by the Bush regime.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 7 November 2003 (careless talk)
Careless talk costs lives -- especially when Bush is talking.
- 7 November 2003 (more pollution)
US cities and states are suing the EPA to prevent a rule change designed to allow more pollution.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
- 7 November 2003 (attacks-2)
Multiple attacks on the Bush forces go with increasing Iraqi condemnation of the occupation
Attacks against the Bush forces are up 50% since two months ago.
Sometimes Bush says this is the work of foreign terrorists. If true, it shows how effective the invasion of Iraq has been at fomenting terrorism against the US. Sometimes Bush says this is the work of Saddam Hussein and his supporters. But neither they nor foreigners could sustain such a campaign without the support and sympathy of millions of Iraqis.
Here is the text of the
unofficial
agreement reached between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli supporters of peace.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Perhaps some day the Israeli government will agree to it and make it a true peace accord.
A UN mission is
trying
to prevent collapse of the government in Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Afghan government, set up by the US to keep the Taliban out and perhaps introduce human rights into Afghanistan, has been given low priority by the US for over a year, because what Bush really wanted to do was attack Iraq. As a result, the Bush forces in Iraq are stuck in a quagmire, while the success achieved in Afghanistan unravels.
Recently the Iraqi
resistance shot down a Bush forces helicopter.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush forces responded by confiscating journalists' film. When Bush talks about building democracy in Iraq, freedom of the press is not part of it. A previous note describes the closure of newspapers in Iraq by the Bush forces.
Americans are finally starting to see through Dubya's system of lies. His popularity continues to decline.
So his only hope in 2004 is to fiddle the vote count through electronic voting machines.
Israeli army chief of
staff
criticizes the occupation.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
That article discusses the reaction to his criticism but doesn't say exactly what he did. Here is how an Israeli friend described it for me:
What happened was that during a routine briefing to a bunch of defense journalists, the chief of staff told that he disagreed with the current IMOD policy of making the lives of Palestinians en masse harder and harder. He advocated more liberal policy, saying that the hardship might eventually bring about an explosion that will destroy the Palestinian Authority, and with it any hope of stopping the violence.
Diebold, maker of suspect electronic voting machines and strong supporter
of the Republican party, is using copyright law to suppress leaked
copies of the internal memos that demonstrate
the
lack of security in Diebold voting machines.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
No electronic voting machine can be trusted for honest elections unless it generates a voter verified paper record.
Instead of terrorism,
Palestinians
have been trying a radical new/old tactic:
directly attacking the troops of the occupying army.
As Uri Avnery explains, the Israeli government tries to portray
this classic act of resistance as if it were simply more terrorism,
but Israelis are starting to see through the propaganda.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The article also explains how an "illegal" outpost in Palestine sucks in army protection, then causes the demolition of all Palestinian houses and orchards in the neighborhood, and eventually turns into a shoot-on-sight zone.
A major Israeli newspaper now
calls
for the removal of all the settlements in Gaza.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
A number of recent obituaries have asked for memorial gifts to be sent to organizations working for the removal of Bush from office.
The EU plans to
test
household chemicals for safety for users and the environment.
Thousands of chemicals used in consumer products have
never been tested.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush demands that Syria and Iran prevent foreigners from entering Iraq to help fight against the Bush occupation.
The move is a logical one, but Syria and Iran will not be able to bar the way to sneaky foreign resistance fighters as effectively as Bush can bar the way to above-board foreign medical experts. They will continue to get in anyway.
The move is a logical one, but Syria and Iran will not be able to bar the way to sneaky foreign resistance fighters as effectively as Bush can bar the way to above-board foreign medical experts. They will continue to get in anyway.
Right-wing Christians in the US are trying to
crush scientific
research about sex practices, research which has consequences for
public health strategy. Apparently these bigots think we shouldn't
even know about the practices that their prejudices condemn.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US general in charge of intelligence in the Muslim world is a
fanatical
Christian extremist. It is frightening to see religious
nuts who are blinded by the light in any position of power; in this
particular position, his blindness can keep the US in the dark about
the dangerous plans of other religious nuts.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Cancer
and birth defects are increasing in Iraq due to the use of Depleted Uranium weapons by the
Bush forces, which have covered Iraq
with radioactive poison that cannot be cleaned up.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Foreign medical experts invited to observe the diseases and compare notes have been excluded from Iraq by the Bush forces.
Israelis in the peace movement
helped
Palestinians harvest their olive trees.
The Palestinians could not reach their own trees in sufficient
numbers to do the work, because the separation wall blocks their
access.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Note that the Israeli policy of demanding residents of encircled towns get permits to stay in their homes is the crucial legal step in forcibly expelling them (ethnic cleansing).
The US copyright office decided to
interpret
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a very strict fashion,
allowing only a very limited
set of exceptions to the anti-circumvention provisions that
effectively give publishers the power to write their own copyright
law.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israeli government plans to extend the "illegal" settlements that the road map said it was supposed to demolish.
FIPR warns that "electronic life records" in the UK could endanger human rights if not implemented properly.
Given the way the UK government has trampled human rights in recent years, we can't be confident they would pass up another opportunity.
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