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.
Israel's attack on Gaza has been planned for months.
The planning must have begun before Israel broke the truce. Perhaps breaking the truce was part of the same plan. Attack Gaza, provoke retaliation with missiles, get public demand to "do something about the missiles", then attack even worse. Is all this violence designed to manipulate the Israeli election?
Israel rejected a renewed truce with Hamas just last week.
Israel broke the last truce in November.
Dan Rather has sued Bush for pressuring CBS to fire him.
Rather points out that Bush never denied Rather's story about Bush's draft-evasion. Instead Bush distracted the attention from himself by quibbling about the origin of the evidence that Rather presented.
If a similar scandal had surfaced for Clinton, the Conservative media would have pressed it unremittingly. Bush got away with changing the subject because there was no major Liberal media to do likewise. The mainstream media, back in 2004, reflected the corporate world's contentment with Bush.
Thus, this is not merely an instance of corporate-controlled right-wing media bias. It is an instance that occurred because this bias was pervasive.
While the hospitals in Gaza are turning away some wounded for lack of capacity and medicine, Israel bombed a medicine storehouse as well as a university and some government buildings.
Israel has killed at least 57 civilians in addition to many policemen. Meanwhile, Palestinian retaliation has killed 3 Israelis, which is comparable with the entire past year.
Rational Israelis who want safety recognize that the way to get it is peace. The Israeli government responds to lulls in violence with escalation because peace is not its goal.
The attack on Gaza has
moved
many Palestinians to protest. Some want
the Palestinian Authority to cooperate with Hamas. Some call the
Palestinian Authority quislings and support Hamas.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Eyewitness account of Gaza bombing.
The UK government says that many ex-cons become homeless
and commit crimes to get back in prison. To solve this
tiny fraction of the homelessness problem, the Conservatives
propose
to withhold some of the meager pay prisoners get for
their jobs.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Using prisoners as workers to make products for sale to the public is a threat to the public. They are paid a pittance, and undermine the wages of free workers; meanwhile, their cheap labor is so profitable that it encourages the government-industrial complex to imprison more people. This is part of why the UK and the US have such a high fraction of the population in prison.
When the UN sent Richard Falk to Gaza to report on human rights,
Israel
held him prisoner
for 20 hours incommunicado and did not let him into Gaza.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The clear conclusion is that Israel wants to exclude from Gaza any witnesses to its attacks that it cannot slander as biased.
Perhaps the UN should ask Egypt to let their observers enter Gaza from there.
Israeli air attacks and shelling have killed almost 300 people in Gaza.
A substantial fraction of the attacks were aimed at police stations.
Police stations are usually found in the middle of the urban areas where police mostly work. Other buildings are right next to them. And citizens go to police stations for many reasons. So bombing them will generally harm lots of civilian bystanders.
Given the tremendous disparity between Israeli attacks and Palestinian attacks, asking both sides to "show restraint" misrepresents the situation by pretending that the blame falls equally on both sides. Israel has killed almost a thousand people in Gaza this year. Palestinian retaliatory attacks have killed a handful of Israelis. Both are wrong when they attack civilians, but Israel's violence is the cause of the problem.
The Clown regime wants world-wide Internet censorship.
It also wants to increase the danger of the UK's dangerous libel laws, which already chill free speech by making it so easy to win a judgment against criticism.
Data-mining schemes such as Total Information Awareness and its successors, which are used to justify massive violation of Americans' privacy by the state, are useless as well as unjust.
A run of three wet years is threatening many wildlife species in England.
Three wet years in a row will happen randomly once in a rare while. But it doesn't last, and better weather allows the species which were hit to bounce back. The danger of global warming is that it can cause these formerly rare events to become common.
Police in Zimbabwe admitted having arrested activists who previously they said were "kidnapped". They had tortured the activists trying to frame them for an assassination plot.
Not to forget: how Bush paid Republicans to go to Florida and sabotage the attempt to properly count the votes.
Mike Connell, formerly Karl Rove's chief IT consultant, died in an airplane "accident". He was going to testify about illegally deleted emails and vote-stealing in 2004.
Ahmadinejad's Christmas message called Western "Christian" governments hypocrites, saying that Jesus would fight against their empires. In response, some Westerners called him a hypocrite on account of his own bigotry.
They are both right.
Others condemned the Iranian government for refusing to recognize religious freedom. For instance, converts to Christianity there face execution. In general, all Muslim countries treat non-Muslims as second-class citizens, or worse.
Rockers to Press Obama on Music Torture.
Bishop Tutu rebuked the government of South Africa for supporting Mugabe's tyranny.
European colonization imposed foreign rule on African nations and subjugated the individuals of them. What we see is that the government of South Africa is more concerned about defending independence for African states than human rights for African people.
The Bush regime, having just got the "Iraqi" government to agree to keep Bush forces troops, is already planning to violate the agreement by falsely labeling combat troops as "support troops".
A small change in the language of the bank bailout enabled the executives to maintain their excessive pay, now at public expense.
Several animal rights activists were convicted in the UK for various acts against Huntingdon Life Sciences.
The article says they were convicted of "blackmail", but that seems to be an abuse of language, since blackmail means threatening to expose someone else's dirty secret. Although these activists did many things, it does not appear that blackmail was one of them, and the activity which they condemn was never a secret anyway. I wonder if this is an example of a legal lie, similar to "child pornography" and "animal rights terrorism".
I disagree with the animal rights movement; I support experimenting on animals in medical and biological research when that is the best way to do it. The issue here is not animal rights, it is how far people can go in protests against the activities of a company.
Some of these activities seem to be indeed wrong; others are legitimate forms of protest. They are unpleasant for the target, naturally, but nobody has a right to silence criticism just because of that. When companies demand this power, they become a threat to democracy. That has clearly happened here. It is noteworthy that this group moved beyond ordinary protest only after ordinary protest was unjustly prohibited to them.
All in all, I think the principal wrong here was committed by Huntingdon and the British government — not in experimenting using animals, but in denying the public the right to criticize.
A Pentagon program to make soldiers feel appreciated was transformed into a corporate branding program.
In an age when cities display their lack of pride by putting the names of corporations on stadiums, perhaps we should not be surprised that other government officials consider it normal behavior.
An 8-year-old Saudi girl was married off by her father without telling her. A judge ruled that her mother cannot ask for a divorce for her, and that she is too young to do it herself.
UK police secretly made an audio recording when they arrested shadow minister Damian Green.
I think police should be required to make and keep recordings of all their interactions with members of the public. Police are given special power, both explicitly and implicitly (through the tendency of jurors to believe whatever police say on the witness stand). This power leads to systematic abuse. It is fitting to accompany this special power with special requirements, such as not having the same right to privacy that other citizens deserve.
Seeing Bush and Cheney out of office is not enough. For our future's sake, we must hold them responsible for their crimes.
They have committed mass murder — certainly in Iraq, and perhaps in the World Trade Center — and they have tried to cover it up, at least by not counting the people killed in Iraq. If convicted in a fair trial, they must be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Obama's team claims nobody discussed buying the senate seat that Blagojevich can offer — and that nobody even was aware he wanted to sell it.
I am ready to believe that they never offered to buy it. But this claim strains my credulity.
The Green Party explains Obama' lukewarm support for gay rights.
The Green Party's
proposals
for avoiding environmental disaster.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
How Facebook isolates people by substituting the tag of "friend" for real friendship — while collecting personal data for CIA and marketing use.
The dean of Iranian bloggers was arrested because he had visited Israel.
This is as unjust as arresting Americans for visiting Cuba.
The UK state and media increasingly to support the established church, even though public support for it is almost vanishing.
Clown's eminent advisor resigned in disgust in response to the government's deep lack of respect for human rights.
Tasers have killed 400 people in North America since 2001.
Calling them "nonlethal" makes users trigger-happy.
Newfoundland cod are heading for extinction even if fishing is banned — perhaps because the population is too low to overcome the effects of predation by seals. In other words, we knocked it down so far that it can't ever rise again.
So many people want to buy "the same shoes that were thrown at Bush" that Baydan Shoes has hired 100 more workers.
Perhaps they should make a model that has a picture of Dubya on the bottom of the sole.
Israel is tightening the siege of Gaza, and the main Israeli election candidates said they would try to attack and defeat Hamas militarily. It cannot succeed in this except by killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, or maybe more. I fear that that is what it will now do.
Israel says the purpose of the siege is to end Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. Even if it worked, it would not be justified, since the siege is a bigger war crime than the rockets. But the only thing which has ever succeeded in ending them was the truce. Israel did not obey its commitment to end the siege of Gaza, but the Palestinians kept the truce anyway — until Israel started the fighting again.
There are proposals to "bail out" the big ISPs, which have already
failed
to keep their commitment to build out broadband in the US,
while trying to eliminate competition and regulation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
250 activists that oppose logging and deforestation in Brazil face threats of assassination.
It seems to me that the only way to end deforestation in Brazil is to totally prohibit export of timber from affected regions, and monitor major roads and rivers so that no one can smuggle out substantial amounts.
Arguing that Obama's plan to win the war in Afghanistan is futile.
I supported the US invasion of Afghanistan, as did most people in Afghanistan at first. I supported it, not because of the 9/11 attacks, but to end the Taliban's totalitarian regime. So I wonder now if it might have been a success, supposing the US had given more funds for reconstruction and had not boosted the fundamentalist cause by attacking Iraq.
In any case, it seems to have gone badly wrong now, and the public in Afghanistan no longer support the US. It seems there are also moderate Taliban now (moderate by Afghan standards). Rather than fighting them, it would be better to make peace with them.
Students in Maryland are using fake license plates to trick speed cameras into issuing fines against other drivers.
I wonder what license plates belong to the officials that would vote on whether to abolish speed cameras in Maryland.
The banks that tried to force Cleveland Mayor Kucinich to sell the municipal electric company have folded, but Cleveland still owns its power company and Kucinich is still in Congress.
We need him in the White House.
The Colombian army assassinated an indigenous political leader's husband by shooting him while he was driving.
The army made
Bushesque excuses, which would be no justification
even if the facts were true. But they are lies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Colombian army under President Horrible acts as an army of occupation for the US.
International rejection is
pushing
manufacturers out of the Israeli "settlements"
in Palestinian territory.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush and his men
must
be held accountable for their crimes in Haiti.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
One point in the article requires correction: it assumes that Dubya was elected president. There is plenty of evidence that he stole both elections.
Although the agreement between the
Bush forces and the "Iraqi"
government lasts only till 2011, some in the "Iraqi" government are
already talking
about extending the occupation of their country.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
In the coming Israeli election, none of the major parties offers to make peace.
The small differences between Israeli political parties resemble the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties in the US.
Zaidi's brother denies that Zaidi apologized for throwing shoes at Bush.
The beating that Zaidi received is typical of the treatment of prisoners in Iraq. For Shi'ites and Sunnis to agree is unusual, which means that Zaidi has helped his country in another way.
A Briton falsely accused of murder, and based on hardly any evidence, received an apology from the police. His case was dismissed by a judge because the police never had any evidence.
The same thing is supposed to happen in the US, but it often doesn't.
The truce in Gaza is officially over.
De facto it ended in November when Israel attacked and Palestinians responded.
It only half worked, since Israel never ended the deadly siege of Gaza.
Obama continues to support making ethanol for cars from corn, a practice which feeds cars at the expense of feeding people.
Zaidi apologized for throwing shoes at Bush after being beaten and wounded in prison.
Rivalries inside the "Iraqi" government have resulted in arrests of officials. It's not clear why.
The rich countries
approved
60 million dollars for CO2 reduction projects in poor countries. That's good,
but it will take billions to make enough reductions to avert
catastrophe.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Rescue auto companies for long term contribution to society,
not
for short-term profitability.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
150,000 Haitians
protested
to demand the return of their elected President Aristide,
who was kidnapped by US agents and taken to exile.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
US hospitals and insurance companies are very profitable, and they are
using
deceptive arguments to block health care reform.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Republicans are terrified of single-payer health care reform. They think that if Democrats succeed in implementing this, they could permanently gain political support.
The Democratic Party needs to do more than this before I will support it, but I do support single-payer health care reform.
Nixon sabotaged Vietnam peace talks in 1968 to get himself elected.
US mainstream media pay no attention.
In France, a noncommercial ISP sticks its finger in Big Brother's eye.
160 countries voted to block tobacco companies from "helping" plan activities to reduce tobacco use.
The NATO command in Afghanistan wants to merge its news and propaganda offices.
Most progressive Americans have not woken up to the fact that Obama's advisors and appointees are all right-wing.
Reportedly some Somali pirates now demand compensation for pollution dumped by rich countries on Somali shores.
If the facts are as charged, the demand is a valid one. However, since the pirates were in it for the money before, I doubt the sincerity of their altruism now.
Protestors shut down Stanstead Airport, near London, opposing airport expansion which would lead to more flights and more CO2.
Note the irrelevance of the response by the aircraft industry. It sounds impressive, but it does not alter the fact that more flying means more CO2 emission.
Note also the woman who took advantage of cheap flights to have a second home in France — and now resents being inconvenienced in traveling there. If they extend Stanstead airport, more people will buy second homes in France, and they will expect to travel there more often.
Chinese officials make a practice of committing people to mental hospitals if they complain.
We can trace this to the general Chinese penchant for covering up problems rather than correcting them.
Australia censored a Simpsons knock-off cartoon, convicting a person for possessing a copy.
Arundhati Roy tells about the oppression carried out by the Indian government in many parts of India: military occupation, torture, and systematic labeling of dissidents as "terrorists". She says she could be arrested as a "terrorist" just for the books she owns.
(Arresting people for having copies of publications has already happened in the UK.)
When a Greek policeman shot and killed a youth for no reason, it set off massive riots based on other long-building resentment.
The Clown regime is trying to corrupt and delay the parliamentary investigation into the recent arrest of an opposition "shadow" minister. So the opposition parties have refused to participate in the investigation.
Five Blackwater guards will finally face charges for the Iraqis they shot.
Five Guantanamo prisoners say they want to make confessions about involvement in the 9/11 attacks.
At least one of them was tortured, and maybe the others were too. Since torture extracts false confessions, it is hard to tell whether these people were really guilty. Maybe some would relish a martyr's death and are willing to make a false plea to get it. Maybe some would prefer death to life in prison.
If they really are guilty, can they implicate co-conspirators in the Bush regime?
Coal-power protestors in the UK were acquitted after a peaceful protest. The jury agreed that the coal plant would do more harm than the protest did. Now the Clown regime wants to change the law so as to imprison more protestors.
New Labour has carried out an unremitting attack on human rights in Britain for ten years, and they will not stop.
Cheney continues to lie to justify his invasion and conquest of Iraq and to lie about torture and formerly-illegal wiretapping.
Cheney, along with Bush, ought to be sent to the Hague for trial for crimes against humanity. But I don't expect Obama to do this, any more than he will restore the human rights that Bush and Cheney took away from Americans. We must continue to denounce the US government as the enemy of our freedom.
The bank bailout was a ripoff, and the need for it seems to have been exaggerated. Meanwhile, Congress does nothing to help ordinary Americans.
Making Light: Free Muntadar Zaidi now!
When Gary Webb broke the story that the CIA protected drug smuggling
for the Nicaraguan Contras, his newspaper
was pressured into
disavowing the story. In 1998 an official investigation effectively
admitted the charges were true.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Despite this vindication, Gary Webb never could get a job as a reported again, and ultimately killed himself.
Using music as a torture sounds like a joke, but loud music 24 hours a
day can
drive people crazy and make them give false confessions. Some
musicians condemn this; others still joke and do not understand.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
CIA officials that support torture are campaigning for their own to be considered for the job of heading the CIA.
The US has a duty to punish those that practiced torture and those that authorized it. If the US does not punish them, other countries must punish them.
NBC continues presenting one of the Pentagon's paid pundits as an objective and independent expert, neglecting to mention that he has a financial interest in the war. NBC also does not mention that it is owned by GE, which also has a financial interest in the war.
It is worth making a substantial effort to avoid watching the US mainstream media, since they are designed to mislead people, and it takes work to overcome their effects.
When scientist Nancy Olivieri reported liver damage from a drug made by Apotex pharmaceuticals, the company sued her and forced her to promise not to say any more about it. She didn't, but the company has sued her again, claiming that merely by attending conventions about how companies influence research, she is "defaming" them.
It is clear that the company is only using its greater resources to procure injustice in the courts. Such lawsuits against researchers should be explicitly banned. Imposition of nondisclosure agreements on scientists studying the health effects of anything whatsoever must likewise be banned.
Furthermore, university medical research should not be funded directly by companies. Instead, governments should tax the companies and use the money to fund the research.
Repeated US bombing of civilians in Afghanistan, and the arrogance of US troops, are building support for the Taliban.
When the UK (and US and India) criticize Pakistan's intelligence agency for supporting terrorist groups, they must not overlook their own acts which created the anger that fuels the terrorism.
Bush is trying to pretend he was an innocent victim of mistaken intelligence when he decided to invade and conquer Iraq.
There is sufficient proof that Bush pressured the CIA and other agencies to make this "mistake."
Congressional democrats dropped public-interest conditions from the proposed auto-company bailout.
Beggars can't be choosers: the auto companies are not acting like beggars. If they think they can afford to make demands, then they must not believe they are in such desperate circumstances as to need government help.
The UN declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa to be a terrorist organization, and
Pakistan
shut it down.
If Jamaat-ud-Dawa is indeed a terrorist organization, it should be
shut down, but first it should get a fair trial. To administratively
declare an organization illegal is a violation of freedom of association.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The author of Liar's Poker explains how Wall Street executives fooled even themselves into valuing worthless assets.
The Australian protest against censorship.
The MPAA has asked Obama for a disastrous attack on the freedom of the Internet.
Democrats have a tendency to kowtow to movie companies, so the danger may actually be worse than it was.
Mexico will demand
fingerprints from all cell phone users. Mexicans should refuse to comply with this law.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The rest of the provisions of this law seem reasonable, but nothing can justify demanding fingerprints without reasonable grounds to suspect them of a crime.
How the Bush campaign paid people to riot and stop a recount in Miami in 2000.
I read recently that one of the organizers of this act of political fraud said that Bush's conduct made him regret it.
Some Indian politicians are trying to use the Mumbai attacks as an excuse to start a war which they desire for other reasons.
Are they following Bush's example?
Remembering the twisted logic that the Supreme Court employed to make Bush president by refusing to count Florida's votes.
Keep in mind that the only reason Bush was able to come close enough to do this is that Katherine Harris intentionally disenfranchised 50,000 eligible Florida voters.
Even a small regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan would produce a devastating nuclear winter. It wouldn't wipe out humanity, but it would cause suffering around the world.
Chiquita Banana was found guilty in US court of hiring the paramilitaries to kill people in Colombia. Then relatives of the victims began to sue. Eric Holden, Obama's choice for Attorney General, defended Chiquita Banana in these lawsuits.
In Cameroun, police attacked anti-corruption protestors preemptively, confiscating their protest signs, and injured some so badly that one is in a coma.
Arundhati Roy compares India's anti-terrorist hysteria with that of the US. India's frenzy about Islamic terrorists draws attention away from the much larger right-wing Hindu terror attacks against Indian Muslims and Christians, whose leaders go unpunished or get re-elected.
The EU has agreed on a policy of substantial CO2 cuts, though not sufficient. It could have done more, but heavy industry demanded to make no concessions.
The inquest into the police killing of de Menezes was spoiled by the coroner, who forbade the jury to give a verdict of "unlawful killing."
We cannot tell whether the jury would have wished to return that verdict. I think they should make a public statement about the question.
The jurors were not allowed to learn that the Menezes family had decided to boycott the trial because they found it biased already.
A student protestor in Patras
says
that fascist gangs supported by the police are responsible for the violence.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Since the epidemic of cholera in Zimbabwe could be a motive for intervention, Mugabe claims it does not exist.
Israeli refusenik Tamar Katz refuses to wear a military uniform. The prison
punishes
her by not letting her change her clothing.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Obama's preferred choice for Secretary of Education is totally unqualified. Appointed to run school systems like businesses, he caused only trouble.
This may relate to his conservative ideas of economics.
Greenland has voted for independence from Denmark, motivated by the temptation of valuable minerals that could be mined if the ice melts.
If the Greenland ice melts enough to give access to these minerals, the worldwide disaster will be so great that Greenland will have trouble selling them.
Pakistan raided a Lashkar-e-Taiba camp and arrested one of the men accused of planning the Mumbai terrorist attack.
Michael Moore: nationalize the car companies and turn them toward building green transportation.
How globalization makes this depression different from the depression of 1929.
Everyone: tell
Bank of America and Congress that the bailout funds should be
used to provide loans to keep the economy going.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
You can contact Congress through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Computer experts who can be in DC on Dec 15: We need you to offer expert testimony for protest defendants accused by lying police.
Uri Avery spells out for Obama precisely how to achieve peace between Israel and the Arabs, and what the deal must look like.
The details are already clear. For success, just add courage. Does Obama have such courage? We will soon see. If he continues the policies of previous presidents, accepting Israeli demands the Palestinians concede everything before negotiations start, there will be no peace.
The Iraqi government is
inviting
foreign companies under all flags to invest in Iraqi oil production.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
This could mean that Bush and his cronies have not won all they hoped for. They sought total control of Iraqi oil for themselves alone. But if it is a partial defeat for Bush, that does not make it much of a victory for Iraqis, who will nonetheless lose control to foreign companies.
During Argentina's economic crisis in 2001, workers occupied many bankrupt, closed factories and put them back into production. Many of these factories continue to operate under worker control.
Several UK ISPs are blocking access to Wikipedia in an act of absurd prudery.
Yegor Gaidar analyzes
the collapse of the Soviet Union in economic terms: failure to produce
enough grain for the urban population, and dependence on oil to get
money to buy grain. When the price of oil went down, and subject
populations tried to break away, the state had no way to maintain
its power.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The forced collectivization of the Soviet Union was directly responsible for the low grain production. According to Gaidar, its invasion of Afghanistan led Saudi Arabia to reduce the price of oil.The cost of matching President Reagan's arms buildup may have played some role, but Gaidar does not give it a major role.
Americans should stop giving Reagan credit for making the Soviet Union collapse, and recall Reagan as the president who betrayed America's honor by selling weapons to terrorists to ransom hostages.
The occupation of Gaza as an issue of human rights.
The Bush forces' agreement to hand over prisoners to the Iraqi government conflicts with legal requirements that prisoners cannot be handed over to states which don't provide justice.
2008 will be the coolest year of the decade, by random fluctuation. But it would have been considered a very hot year in the 1980s.
Why defend the freedom to say things that some people find disgusting. I think that the first few paragraphs, ending in the line that says "Jess", are a quotation from someone else. It would be clearer to make that explicit.
Many Americans were misled into signing mortgages which they now cannot pay.
This isn't the first time. The wave of farm foreclosures under Reagan, which wiped out the US institution of the family farm, victimized farmers who had followed government and institutional advice to take out loans. When institutions lead people into danger and harm, it is unjust to place all the responsibility on the victims.
The European human rights court ordered the UK to discard the DNA samples and fingerprints kept from people who were arrested but not convicted of a crime.
An Atheist outdoor sign that presents a general criticism of religion was stolen.
Many US Christians don't think Atheists should be allowed to express disagreement with them.
Rioting Israeli settlers near Hebron shot and injured two Palestinian men before other Palestinians subdued them. Then the insecurity forces of the nearby settlement (or should we say "colony") arrived, and took the side of the shooters.
The committee to protect journalists reports that online journalists are now almost half of all the journalists imprisoned for political reasons in the world. Imprisonment of journalists increased greatly after the world-wide wave of repression unleashed by Bush as a response to the 9/11 attacks.
Bush forces
personnel have sued Halliburton and KBR for making
them sick by
knowingly supplying contaminated food and water.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
It looks like Bush will not launch a war against Iran, but the neocons may get Obama to do it.
Australians:
sign this petition against internet censorship in Australia.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The leaders of a US charity for poor Palestinians have been convicted
of "supporting terrorism" after a
trial that was obviously unfair.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Anyone seriously trying to help poor families in Palestine will inevitably help many families whose fathers were killed by Israeli troops. The Israeli troops will always say they were killed because they were terrorists, whether it is true or not. Thus, the bogus arguments used here will always be available to punish any charity that helps Palestinians.
A former Bush forces interrogator says, as an expert, that torture is an ineffective way to get intelligence.
Torture is very effective for the goal of getting confessions, if you don't care whether they are true or false. And very effective for venting hatred.
Should the US nationalize the big three auto companies?
It would cost less than the bailout they want.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Iraq's parliament
voted to approve the continuing occupation by the
Bush forces, subject to a referendum to be held next June.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Sad to say, this means that Bush's cronies have more or less won their war to privatize and loot Iraq, oil and all. They are likely to control the economy as long as the government in Baghdad is a puppet that "needs" the Bush forces to stay in power.
I've read elsewhere that the pact allows mercenaries working for the Bush forces to continue to enjoy immunity from all law. It is only the contractors working for other agencies that will be subject to Iraqi law. Thus, mercenaries raped by other mercenaries will continue to get no justice.
Clown has taken belated steps to protect homeowners from losing their homes.
So when will the US do this?
Journalist Amira Hass entered Gaza illegally by boat because Israel
does not allow Israeli or foreign journalists to go there.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
There are few legitimate reasons for a government to keep journalists out of a region, and none can apply to Gaza. The reason is clearly that Israel wants people not to know what its siege is doing.
Nixon's tapes, recently published, show he was just the vindictive and paranoid creep that his reputation portrays.
Australians protested in the streets against government plans to censor the Internet.
If Australia censored the Internet, they won't be able to rely on holding protests that will be seen anywhere but in the streets.
Brazil has a new plan to cut deforestation in the Amazon.
The old plan has been effective enough to generate an uprising. Normally I would sympathize with the people rather than the government; but this is an uprising of fools who seek in their short-term thinking to destroy something precious.
Lieutenant Colonel Vandeveld, who resigned as a prosecutor in Guantanamo, is giving interviews: "We had abandoned our American values and defiled our constitution."
The defilement is not the Guantanamo prison camp as such, it is the unjust practices carried out there. Closing the Guantanamo prison will make no difference if the US does not cease and reject these practices. Will Obama do this?
Clown's latest attack on human rights: 10 years in prison for publishing information about policemen "likely to be useful to terrorists". This is unjust, not only because it is censorship, but also because it is vague. It seems to be intended to stop dissident groups from resisting the policemen who harass them, as well as the police provocateurs that infiltrate dissident groups hoping to lead them to do something they could be prosecuted for.
FITwatch, which reports on some of those police, has called for a campaign of systematic defiance.
The UK government, for its persistent disregard of human rights, has lost its claim on anyone's support or loyalty, much like the US government and many others.
Obama's official "transition site", change.gov, lists
many
intended policy changes. None of
them has to do with recovering the freedoms that Bush took away from us.
Contrast the large section on "Homeland Security" with the completely absent
section on "Civil Liberties".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
I looked in other possible categories and saw not a word about ending imprisonment without trial and "enemy combatants". Not a word about stopping the government from spying on citizens without a search warrant. Not a word about the right to travel anonymously. Not a word about RFIDs, Real-ID, or other proposed or actual policies that subject Americans to surveillance.
Obama is just the man to continue the harm that Bush has done to our freedom. Bush, through his obvious dishonesty and greed, aroused strong opposition. It was unable to protect our freedom, but it tried. If Obama refrains from evident lies and from wars of conquest that kill thousands of Americans, he may find it easy to continue Bush's campaign to establish a society of total surveillance.
Americans who love civil liberties and hate Big Brother: get used to thinking of Obama as another Bush.
Israel has blocked a humanitarian aid ship from docking in Gaza.
Israel slightly relaxed the siege of Gaza during the months of the cease fire but did not end it. Then Israel broke the cease fire, and cites subsequent Palestinian retaliation as the reason for making the siege worse.
Obama is not likely to do anything to protect us from NSA spying unless we push him hard.
Clown's proposals to reduce CO2 emission in the UK are too weak. Worse, they focus on long-term targets instead of action starting soon.
Muslim condemnations of terror attacks on civilians in Mumbai, India.
India says it has proof that the Mumbai attackers were from Pakistan and connected with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist group that has in the past been supported by ISI, Pakistan's intelligence service.
Given that fanatical Muslim terrorists have carried out many bombings in Pakistan this year, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, wouldn't it make sense for the two governments to work together against this threat?
Amnesty International reports that thousands of Iraqi prisoners of the Bush forces face the threat of torture or execution if they are handed over to the Iraqi government.
This is a paradoxical issue because whenever the Bush forces leave Iraq, they will have to do something or other with their prisoners, such as hand them over to the Iraqi government, or free them. The problems of handing them over are no argument for keeping the Bush forces in Iraq.
Those who have been held without charge should generally be freed.
It
appears that Obama will not prosecute US torturers for war crimes.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Any US pressure to prosecute war criminals of other countries will be hypocritical and useless unless we clean our own house first.
Some of Obama's advisors are
trying to make imprisonment without trial a permanent
and normal part of US law.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Obama Should
Oppose Preventive Detention.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
I visited change.org and supported the proposal for a new investigation of the 9/11 attacks and who was responsible for them, and I posted a note urging others to support it too. The next day I received a message saying that change.org had deleted this proposal, saying that it did not propose a policy change.
While an investigation is not, in and of itself, a policy change, this investigation is essential for moving forward to change many unjust and dangerous policies that were established to "protect" us from the supposed danger according to the US government's suspect claims about the attack. Bush's whitewash investigation reinforced this basis for maintaining and exacerbating those policies. An honest investigation of those claims is therefore vital for future policy decisions.
After the Yes Men's spoof New York Times issue criticized the diamond monopolist De Beers, that company tried to get it shut down by attacking the registrar of its domain name, www.nytimes-se.com.
US citizens: The site change.org allows people to propose and support political ideas. One that I supported is a new investigation of how the 9/11 attacks were carried out, and who was responsible.
As individual suspects, Bush and Cheney must not be punished without being convicted in a fair trial. As the level of politics, however, given that they blocked and corrupted the investigation into their possible guilt, we must consider them guilty until a real investigation is allowed.
Update! Shortly after I voted for that proposal and wrote this note, change.org deleted the proposal, saying that it does not fit the site because it is not a policy change.
While that investigation is not, in and of itself, a policy change, it is essential for moving forward to change many unjust and dangerous policies that were established to "protect" us from the supposed danger according to the US government's suspect claims about the attack. Bush's whitewash investigation reinforced this basis for maintaining and exacerbating those policies. An honest investigation of those claims is therefore vital for future policy decisions.
Voters say that
voting machines are flipping Democratic votes to Republican.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush got the Iraqi government to
agree in private on a treaty
to continue the presence of the
Bush forces,
but the Iraqi cabinet refuses to approve it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The concessions of immunity from prosecution went too far.
EU citizens: The European Parliament is working hard to help record companies mistreat music listeners and musicians even worse. Call or write your MEP to oppose this directive.
Warning: this article makes the grave mistake of using the term "intellectual property". This propaganda term spreads bias and confusion; for instance, it lumps copyright law together with other unrelated laws. Every use of the term "intellectual property" spreads bias and confusion.
For the sake of clear thinking, we should avoid using the term ourselves, and when we cite a name which uses the term, we should without fail explain that the name embodies confusion.
UK police arrested an opposition shadow minister for publishing government secrets to criticize the government — normal practice for opposition MPs in the UK political system.
The Marijuana Policy Project sued the "drug czar" for distributing false information to oppose the medical marijuana initiative in Michigan.
The
End of Bailout Transparency Already?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
It has become quite common for popular musicians to
license their music for use in commercials.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
That Ms Klein poses the question of whether iTunes could "save" something suggests she is not aware of the issue of Digital Restrictions Management as a threat to people's freedom.
Urging Obama to apologize to those whom Bush imprisoned without trial.
Muslim fanatics shot over 100 people in various sites around Mumbai in what appears to have been coordinated terrorist attacks.
It seems that some of the terrorists have been captured; if the police do not torture them into making statements that might be false, we may learn something from them about who planned these attacks.
The long list of Iraqi academics who were killed during the violence unleashed by Bush's conquest of Iraq.
Support the courageous Israelis who have gone to prison rather than serve in the army of occupation.
No matter how nasty a practice is, it will occasionally benefit someone deserving. For instance, the Big Brother surveillance in NYC subway metro-cards provided evidence to support Jason Jones' claim that he was elsewhere at the time of a shooting he was accused of.
Even though the MTA surveillance records have apparently "proved" Jones' innocence, the prosecutor has not dropped the charges. Is he planning to argue that Jones arranged for someone else to use his metro-card?
That accusation might be far-fetched in this case, since it appears that the shooting was not premeditated. But in another case, one that involves a planned killing, don't expect a DA to be impressed if your metro-card "proves" you are innocent. On the other hand, if your metro-card suggests you were in a position to commit a crime, you can count on the prosecutor to cite that as evidence.
In a just world, surveillance evidence would generally promote the cause of justice. But in a prejudiced world, it will generally harm those who are weak.
Obama — Bush in blackface?
South African President Mbeki killed an estimated 300,000 people through his policy towards medicine for HIV.
Everyone:
support Israeli conscientious objectors
who are refusing to serve the occupation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Pakistan's army is fighting the Taliban in Bajur. The Taliban shoot civilians that don't support them, and the army kills them with aerial bombing.
Alan Greenspan admits he was wrong to support deregulation of financial derivatives.
Support the Appel de Blois, which calls for an end to laws that censor
views on historical events.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
There is substantial opposition even within the UK government
to the
plans to record who speaks to whom in the UK.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
One crucial point here is the ability to locate a cell phone "within yards" even without help from its GPS. If you want to use a cell phone without being tracked, you will need to use a tightly focused antenna to talk to a cell tower that is not near by.
I have never had a cell phone, but since OpenMoko cell phones became available I have been considering whether to get one. Now I am leaning towards refusing, because I do not want to carry a cell phone that Big Brother will be able to identify as mine. Instead I will use pay phones or ask people around me to make calls for me on their cell phones.
In one respect, Bush has won the war in Iraq: the Iraqi government is giving foreign oil companies a big stake in Iraqi oil and natural gas exports.
Americans are so bombarded with news that they become overloaded and shun seeing any more of it.
This makes the display of right-wing TV news in public places even more sinister. It not only misinforms people, it also makes them avoid any further information that might correct the distortions and twisted assumptions.
The Iraqi government has arrested and imprisoned so many people, and keeps them in so little space, that some prisoners must stand so others can sleep.
There's no need to torture prisoners one by one when the prison conditions amount to torture.
Auto company executives went to Washington to ask for handouts, but they have not set aside their expensive private planes.
Israeli settlers stole Ibrahim Suleiman Muhammad Salah's horse,
so he went to the (Israeli) police. They fined him for complaining.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
A series of Israeli eviction orders has
driven the al Kurd family out of one home after another,
but the father of the family is no longer
affected. The stress exacerbated his medical problems and he died.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
By contrast, when settlers are supposed to leave an illegal "outpost",
they can delay for years by insisting on being handed new homes first.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
These illegal outposts were built with Israeli government funds.
Bush is trying to sabotage the Clean Air Act.
A cholera epidemic is spreading in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe in effect holds the population hostage.
This is sort of the situation where an honest policeman of the world would invade and rescue the hostages. The US is not interested because Zimbabwe has no oil.
The Brazilian government is making a real effort for the first time to protect the Amazon rainforest. The people who make a living from cutting it down fought back massively.
The pain they will suffer from ceasing to destroy the rainforest is inevitable, just as in the case of fishermen that are destroying fish stocks. Either they reduce their activities now and suffer, or they will stop entirely in 10 or 20 years when they have destroyed it all; that way, more of them will suffer, and worse, after having destroyed something irreplaceable. I am in favor of making them stop now, even by force.
The Afghan government claims to have arrested some of the Taliban who threw acid on girls on their way to school.
I hope it is true, but it seems suspiciously successful for a government so weak. I hope they did not arrest whoever they could get and torture them into confession.
Obama's message of "change" is making some undemocratic regimes tremble.
It would be ironic if that message were more show than substance in the US, and has real effects elsewhere.
When universities stand up to the RIAA, they can block the record companies' harassment suits.
Students should organize to demand that their universities not keep records that could make it possible to connect an IP address with anyone in particular.
The UK Labour Party once again dares to talk of taxing the rich, but its actual measures are not yet focused on helping the poor.
If people support Labour for this, they will also endorse its policy of total surveillance, imprisonment on suspicion, punishment for non-crimes, and so on.
Police in Australia have systematically infiltrated political
opposition groups, inserting provocateurs to
try to lead them into violence.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Iraq's defense minister is threatening "martial law" if the parliament does not accept keeping the Bush forces in Iraq.
One in October, a US congressman said that the Bushmen threatened him with martial law in the US if he did not vote for the bank bailout. In the US, that is a real threat. By contrast, if martial law were declared in Iraq, it would hardly be any different from the situation now.
Reports that Sarah Palin was not sure where Africa was were not a hoax, even though a hoaxer claimed to have made them up.
New Report: CIA Lied About Missionary Plane Shot Down Over Peru.
Obama is talking about
eliminating daylight savings time to reduce energy use.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
It might not be a big saving, but it could set an example.
When an Australian
policeman killed aboriginal prisoner Mulrinji Doomadgee in jail,
the police tried to deny responsibility. So the
local people burned down the courthouse, police station, and the
policemen's homes. These crimes were punished, but the killing was
not.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Al Sadr's people held a large protest in Baghdad against the proposed Bush occupation treaty.
This treaty does at least make a step forward, in that it subjects Bush forces mercenaries to Iraqi law. I wonder what kind of justice female contractors that get raped by male contractors will get under Iraqi law.
Atrazine in fertilizer boosts the population of snails
and parasitic worms they harbor,
and the worms can wipe out frogs.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
When plastic trash in the ocean breaks up into small bits, lots of marine organisms can eat them and get toxic chemicals from them.
The Bush forces generals say that withdrawing the Bush from Iraq is impossible because it would take too much time to pull out all the expensive equipment they have put in place.
Obama's appointments for foreign policy are Clinton's people, active supporters of sweatshop treaties.
Biden as a senator actively suppressed opposition to the invasion of Iraq. As VP he may not be in a position to do much harm. But Hillary Clinton as senator turned off her bullshit detector. As a cabinet secretary she can do a lot of harm.
If Janet Napolitano becomes Secretary of "Homeland Security", she might kill the REAL ID plan. Or she might give it federal funds and wipe out that part of the opposition which is based on costs rather than freedom.
A new "Al Qa'ida" tape tells Obama, in rather unfriendly terms, to make peace.
Some of what was said in this tape is true. It may be too late for more troops in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban. And bowing to the Israeli Hawks Lobby is not conducive to rational hope of peace between Israel and Palestine. We don't need Al Qa'ida to tell us this, however, and neither does any US president.
So what could anyone from Al Qa'ida hope to gain my aiming warnings or threats at Obama? He's most unlikely to take their advice.
I wonder if this is meant to pressure Obama to follow Bush policies. Previous "Al Qa'ida" tapes appeared to be designed to boost Bush politically. Now that they can't boost Bush, they may seek to pressure Obama to follow Bush's policies. These policies were great for Al Qa'ida recruiting. If Obama were to do something sensible, millions of Muslims might stop being angry at the US, and where would that leave Al Qa'ida?
This tape will enable neocons to claim that wiser US policies would be "giving in to Al Qa'ida."
It's also possible that "Al Qa'ida" tapes are fakes made by neocons. Since the neocons and Al Qa'ida want the same US policies, either group might have chosen to make such a tape.
Even within the "music industry" some businessmen are calling for
the end of the War on Sharing, and say that
voluntary payments support musicians better.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
President Uribe (Horrible) of Colombia has been
forced to admit that
soldiers have been killing innocent people to collect bounties on dead
"terrorists". However, he has not placed charges against anyone.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
(That article was published this month.)
A former UK Law Lord says that the UK and the US acted as "vigilantes" by invading Iraq.
One might wish he had not waited so long to say this.
The US-backed Ethiopian intervention in Somalia is responsible for the resurgence of piracy. The Union of Islamic Courts suppressed piracy, but the US-supported "Interim government" has no popular support and little power.
If phone company employees were not punished for checking who Obama called, can you trust them not to check (and tell) who you call?
A US judge ordered the release of several Guantanamo prisoners on grounds of Habeas corpus: the government failed to show any grounds to charge them with anything.
If someone forwards you the viral email claiming celebrities that condemn Bush are anti-American cowards, here's a good response.
TSA "behavior detection" selects innocent people more than 99 percent of the time, and psychologists say it is has no psychological basis.
The #1 story on Project Censored's list is that the Bush invasion of Iraq killed over a million Iraqis.
The UK plans to prosecute clients of prostitutes for rape if the prostitute is not working voluntarily, but has no intention to help them find out whether a prostitute is working voluntarily.
This law follows a common pattern of legal dishonesty: taking a term which we apply to a heinous act, and arbitrarily declaring that it applies to something else entirely. How many prostitutes did client X rape, if you call being a prostitute's client "rape"? None, because calling it a rape doesn't make it one. This law would be a lie, and the minister who proposed it is a liar.
The law is also designed to ensure that no prospective client of a prostitute can tell whether he would be committing a "rape" or not. Laws which do not allow a person to tell what is or is not a crime are no better than the caprices of an autocrat. The legislators that vote for them, and the prosecutors that try to enforce them, are the one who ought to be imprisoned.
It's obvious that aim of this law is to terrify all men that deal with any prostitutes. But rather than stating the intention to do so, it pretends to be doing something else. That too is dishonest.
If the UK government wants to prosecute dealing with trafficked prostitutes in a way that is just, it must give men a way to tell who is not trafficked. Perhaps voluntary prostitutes could get identification that the clients could ask to see, so they can reliably avoid committing the crime.
Rumor has it that Obama will
support
the Saudi plan for peace between Israel and all Arabs.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
On the other hand, his appointment of Rahm Emmanual as chief of staff suggested that Obama is going to bow to the powerful Israeli Hawks' Lobby.
I hope the former will be true and the latter false.
In a man-bites-dog case, the British Bush forces arrested some Iraqi soldiers for murdering British soldiers who were their prisoners. Now the question is whether the Iraqi government would give them a fair trial, or torture them and kill them.
The UK is auctioning off some permissions to keep emitting CO2, rather than just giving away permissions. Making those companies pay is a good thing, but the money should be used to fund energy savings.
The job to be done to end global warming is so big that a few good steps are not enough.
Many food companies are shrinking containers or wasting space in them, to disguise price increases.
The European Union has addressed this problem with a system of standard product weights. I don't know how well the solution works.
Israel is increasing its attacks against Palestinians,
arresting
30 people in the West Bank
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
and destroying
crops in Gaza
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
and arresting
fishermen from Gaza so close on shore that they can't catch much fish.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israel arrested
several Palestinian children who got in the way of
plans to demolish almost 100 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem to build
gardens.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israel has also
ordered
the eviction of settler squatters in a house
in Hebron. But the settler movement is threatening to fight back a
lot more than those Palestinian kids do.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Many local governments in the UK use anti-terror laws to watch people putting rubbish out on the wrong day.
Prof. Nesson will
challenge
the constitutionality of the record companies' lawsuits
against people who share music.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Cory Doctorow: Why I Copyfight.
The Iraqi cabinet agreed to Bush's plan for keeping the Bush forces in Iraq for another few years, and without clearly solving dangers such as immunity and attacking other countries.
Bombings in Baghdad are increasing, and many Iraqis think the Bush forces are responsible.
Freedom of communication on the net is threatened in many ways at once.
None of the policemen who attacked sleeping protestors in Genoa has ever been identified. And none of the top policemen who ordered the attack will be punished.
Berlusconi adopted this 5-year law so he could escape prosecution for corruption.
Although California voted to prohibit same-sex marriage, Connecticut
voters rejected a similar measure, and
same-sex
marriage has now begun there.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
US citizens: sign
the pledge to overturn California's proposition 8 and reinstate same-sex marriage.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Although this applies specifically to California, they have asked non-Californians to sign too.
The Bush regime is going beyond the authorized bailout, making illegal handouts to business. Is Obama serious about changing course or will he let the stock market dictate one more plunder of the treasury?
US citizens: phone your senators and say they should not let Lieberman continue as the chair of the Committee on "Homeland Security". Lieberman persistently supports the war in Iraq and has bent over backwards to leave us unprotected from abuses of government spy power.
It's a mistake to put issues of civil liberties in charge of a committee whose remit is described in terms of "security."
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641, and 888-355-3588
A court ruled against a Bush plan to
illegally
hide government e-mails from the national archives.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
A paper mill that has polluted Lake Baikal with mutagenic dioxin has closed after decades of pressure from environmentalists.
A spoof edition of the New York Times announced peace in Iraq and the correction of many other social problems.
The Yes Men have done other wonderful pranks.
Israel has blocked food delivery into Gaza. The cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza lasted 5 months until Israel broke it. The threat of starvation is Israel's retaliation for the Palestinian retaliation.
The idea that Palestinians could use a tunnel to capture Israeli soldiers seems rather far fetched, especially if Israeli soldiers know where the tunnel is located and stay away from it.
A tunnel might serve such captors to hide in or flee through, but there are lots of other places to do those things. For the actual capture they would surely use arms. To break the cease fire because of a tunnel is as absurd as breaking it because some Palestinians have arms.
But even during the cease fire Israel did not end the siege, which kills helpless civilians in Gaza by denying them medical care.
I wonder if the real reason why Israel broke the cease fire was to
distract attention from an increasing focus on Israel's taking of
Palestinian land.
UK is taking a strict stand against
The
passing off exports from Israeli settlements
as coming from Israel.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The annexation wall is supposedly meant to protect Israelis from Palestinians,
but when it protects Palestinians from violent Israeli settlers,
they
knock it down.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
It's a step forward that the Israeli government has started to take down the "illegal outposts" instead of build them up. But all the settlements are really illegal. For the sake of peace, they have to be eliminated.
Diyala province in Iraq is the scene for many female suicide bombers.
Attacking pro-US soldiers is legitimate for a resistance movement, but these tactics are despicable. The guilt for this falls both on the fanatics that organize the suicide bombings and on the fanatics that organized the conquest of Iraq, since the earlier crime paved the way for the later one.
The Bush bank bailout is a
feeding
trough just like the "reconstruction" of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police in London are censoring music performances and make false/confusing statements when asked about it.
Previously Nkunda's troops were murdering civilians for no reason. Now Congo government troops are accused of raping civilians.
The UK and Russia have taken effective measures against piracy.
The election of an African-American as president may help the US move towards racial equality,
but
it has a long way to go.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Israel confiscated the al Kurd family's home in East Jerusalem because
it was owned by Jews before 1948. However,
Israel
will not let the family reclaim the house that it owned in West Jerusalem before 1948.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The occupation of Palestine by Israel is "the bone in America's
throat". As long as it is stuck there, the US
will continue
provoking conflict and putting its citizens and others in danger.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Urgent Note - U.S. citizens: phone your congresscritter to support Henry Waxman for chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The other choice, Dingell, is in the pocket of the energy companies and his wife is an executive at GM.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-8181-6641, and 888-355-3588
37% of Americans still believe Bush's discredited lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Bush continued to spread this lie throughout his term of office.
Why is there more interest in preventing heart attacks through expensive drugs than through efficient programs to reduce tobacco use?
These two methods apply to different groups of people, so non-smokers may need these drugs. Notwithstanding that, the comparison is still pertinent.
Australian internet censorship plans are running into powerful opposition from citizenry that know perfectly well what the internet does (and what it doesn't do).
Hannah Jones went to court to stop a hospital from taking her by force for a heart transplant.
I feel so sorry for her. I suppose she would want a treatment for her heart problem, if the treatment weren't so unbearable.
One thing police all over the world have in common is that they attack people who witness their crimes. China has sentenced some auxiliary policemen to a few years in prison for killing a man who filmed them attacking citizens.
The victim's family protests that this sentence is unusually light for a killing.
The police in St Paul did not kill Amy Goodman, they just arrested her for making a video of their attacks on protestors at the RNC.
Burmese protestors have been sentenced to 65 years in prison for crimes such as "making speeches" and "participating in protests".
The Burmese government is honest about what it is doing. In the US, protest leaders are charged with planning "terrorism" and face the possibility of many years in prison for this.
In Spain, meanwhile, "praising terrorism" is a crime.
I do not support the cause of Basque independence — rather, I think all of Spain should be independent of a government that punishes people for expressing an opinion.
Ralph Nader's open letter to Obama (published November 3) summarizes some of the things that led me to endorse and vote for Nader.
Obama is already planning to reverse some harmful Bush policies such as the ban on funding stem cell research. Bush is hurrying to make some acts of sabotage irreversible.
However, Obama's economic advisors include those responsible for the economic problems of the past.
Israel has excited an old Palestinian couple from their home of 52 years.
Israel is trying to have it both ways: taking back land seized from Jews in 1948 but refusing to return land seized from Arabs in 1948; enforcing eviction orders against Arabs but not against Jews.
1/4 of the shark species in the Atlantic are in danger of extinction due to overfishing.
Bill Ayers on how the 60s should inspire us today.
The 60s are relevant today for many reasons, including that the Vietnam war, like the conquest of Iraq, was justified by lies. The U.S. has admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was fabricated.
"Recycled" computer components are illegally sent to China for poor people to pick apart the toxic components.
This is what globalization of commerce really means.
Witnesses say that the police who shot De Menezies gave no warning, and did not say they were police. They seemed confused and panicky
Obama's choice of Chief of Staff is a strong support of sweatshop treaties and of the Israel right wing.
This confirms my expectation that Obama will prove to be a small change.
Mr. President, We Too Have A Dream:
an
open letter to Obama about peace in the Middle East.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Republicans made a big effort to steal the election by stopping 6 million people from voting. They may have succeeded in stealing the Georgia senate election.
The rebel Congo army is apparently killing unarmed civilians summarily in towns it has conquered.
This article refers to the conflict as an ethnic one, but that could be ignoring the real issue: control of the valuable trade in minerals.
Many Iraqis think
they
were better off under Saddam.
[Reference updated on 2022-07-11 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush continues missile attacks in Pakistan that kill civilians.
A court released Malaysian dissident Raja Petra from imprisonment without trial for his writings, but he still faces criminal charges for "sedition" after accusing a minister of crimes.
Bush's parting attack on the US is targeting civil liberties as well as environmental protection. Here are the details.
Republicans are now condemning Sarah Palin's ignorance and cupidity.
But who is a Republican to talk? Ignorance (real or pretended) and cupidity are the maxims of the Republican party.
I have reported several times on fears that Bush would start a war with Iran to manipulate the election. I have to acknowledge that he has not done so. With luck he won't start a war before he leaves office.
Massachusetts voted
to eliminate criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Hooray!
Bush is planning a parting attack on the U.S. by eliminating regulations designed to protect consumers and the environment.
The war in the Congo has killed over 5 million people. Gangs that sell minerals to major western companies are fighting over the supplies.
Tony Lagouranis was
taught by the US Army to torture,
but he had the strength to decide to refuse.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UK has begun supporting British residents imprisoned in Guantanamo, and calling on the US to release them.
Iraqi refugees are being offered $850 to return to Iraq, but only a few return, because others are still fleeing.
The way to teach children to protect their privacy is for their parents to start resisting government and private electronic snooping and record-keeping.
Naomi Klein: the bank bailout will encourage risky bank practices that will get the bankers bailouts over and over. It should be canceled.
Trees produce chemicals that stimulate cloud formation, which reduces the heat Earth receives from the Sun.
What this implies for global warming is not clear, because global warming threatens to destroy many forests (in Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, for instance), and that could lead to a positive feedback effect.
Al Maliki: don't call it a "security pact", rather an agreement for withdrawal of the Bush forces.
I have often called the Iraqi government a puppet; I am impressed that it is showing such ability to stand up to Bush's pressure.
Medical examinations by Physicians for Human Rights confirm the Bush regime has tortured prisoners and committed war crimes.
Will Obama prosecute these crimes? So far he has not suggested that he will.
The Taliban are
taking
over Afghanistan and closing in on Kabul.
At the same time, they are splitting into uncontrollable factions,
and some of them are moderating and becoming simply nationalist.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The article suggests the possibility of making peace with them. I hope it is possible.
Israel bulldozed the homes of 100 Palestinians in East Jerusalem
before the court got around to ordering it. The victims say
that they have lived on that land for generations and will not leave.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
However, Israel has made a small beginning of
demolishing the "settlement outposts" which are non-government
approved expansions of the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
For many years the Israeli government has criticized them but has done little to stop them.
However, the radical settlers
take
reprisals on Palestinians
when they are thwarted.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Evidence from Saudi Arabia confirms that
hardly
any of the prisoners in Guantanamo were ever terrorists to begin with.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is the natural result of imprisonment without trial: innocent victims in prison.
Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld resigned as a US Army prosecutor in
Guantanamo, then
testified
for the defense about how he had been
ordered to conceal vital information from the defense.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Vandevald deserves a medal for this heroism, but what he got was the
opposite. Although Vandeveld had received great praise for his work
previously, the Bush regime
tried
to smear him for resigning —
including sending him for psychiatric evaluation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
Meanwhile, the Bush regime is trying strange legal maneuvers to cancel and restart the trial of Binyam Mohommed, so as to block Vandeveld from testifying a second time about the violation of his rights.
There is no room for an honest person in the parts of the US government that Bush has corrupted.
40% of Iraqis drink water that isn't safe, and it is not getting better.
A court rejected B'liar's rigged "consultation" on building nuclear power plants, so Clown held another "consultation". Now it has been exposed how the second one was rigged, but the Clown regime says that doesn't matter.
Greenpeace protestors are holding a sleep-in protest on the site of a planned coal power plant in the UK.
All US government agencies have been told to work on a spin campaign to present Bush's dishonest and destructive policies as success.
Dalits were
attacked by upper-caste Hindus for entering temples,
which is not allowed for them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
James Chasse died of massive injuries shortly after his arrest in Portland Oregon. The police are clearly guilty, but which ones and how?
The ACLU has intervened on behalf of protestors, potential protestors, and journalists arrested in St Paul.
However, courts cannot plausibly do anything that would undo the effect of these crimes or make the police regret them. For instance, it does little good to require the police to return the handouts they confiscated, now that the chance to hand them out has passed. Our streets and our country will never be safe while these gangsters are on the loose.
Amnesty International has criticized the arrests too.
Uribe has admitted that the Colombian army kills innocent civilians in order to present their corpses as "dead guerrilleros" to collect a bounty.
Margo MacDonald, member of the Scottish Parliament, proposes the legalization of assisted suicide in Scotland.
Freedom to communicate electronically is under attack in the US as elsewhere. Here's an explanation of many threats.
A
report on the statistics of Marijuana arrests in Massachusetts
shows their human and monetary cost. Vote yes on prop 2!
[Reference updated on 2018-04-14 because the
old
link was broken.]
The UK will investigate whether MI5 and CIA officers tortured Binyam Mohamed.
Indonesia has adopted a law that gives Muslim fanatics license to physically attack anything or anyone they consider to be sexually suggestive.
On the Republican false accusations about ACORN's voter registration program.
The Iraqi government has demanded a firm requirement for the Bush
forces to
leave Iraq by 2011, and limitations on their immunity in the
meantime.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Israeli colonists in Palestinian territories regularly attack
Palestinians. Some even attack Israeli police and soldiers.
Now Ehud Barak proposes to
arrest the latter, but the former
can apparently continue enjoying impunity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Deborah Purdy, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, may have to kill herself while she still has enough capability to do it on her own, so as to spare her husband from being imprisoned for helping her do so later on.
Forcing people to stay alive when their lives have deteriorated into useless suffering is tantamount to torture.
If Mr Purdy faces prosecution by England for helping his wife go to Switzerland for a later assisted suicide, instead of performing an earlier unassisted one, I wonder if the Swiss government might Mr Purdy political asylum.
Humans are using resources much faster than the Earth can replace them. According to these calculations, 30% faster — and that can't go on.
The winter ice in the Arctic is much thinner this year.
In effect this means that the disappearance of Arctic summer ice is proceeding rapidly. That will mean positive feedback in global warming.
How the US right wing makes ignorance a virtue and education a smear.
Republican Senator Stevens has been convicted of corruption charges.
Israeli troops kept 100 international doctors from entering Gaza
for a WHO-sponsored conference on the health crisis caused
by Israel's blockade of Gaza.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Activists are planning a second boat trip to Gaza, to bring medicine.
Israel says this time it will stop them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Shi'ites in Karbal are
trying to ban dancing and other forms of parties.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Following the Republican philosophy that nothing is too low, a woman fabricated accusations that someone attacked her because she had a McCain bumper sticker.
US citizens: How to prevent the Republicans from stopping you from voting.
US citizens:
tell Attorney General Mukasey
not to try to suppress voting in Ohio.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bush forces crossed into Syria and killed several people. The attack was supposedly aimed at supporters of the Iraqi resistance but seems to have killed construction workers instead.
Lt. Ehren Watada has
escaped some of the charges that he faced
because of criticizing Bush for lying to start the conquest of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Iraqi Islamic Party is
protesting the killing and arrests
of its members.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Delivery workers at Saigon Grill won a lawsuit for fair wages. Now the movement will target other restaurants.
Australia's planned internet censorship will be worse than Iran's.
Many Republicans have endorsed Obama for president. And why not? In the 1970s, Obama's views would have made him a liberal Republican.
13,000 Iraqi Christians have fled the city of Mosul. It is not clear whether their attackers are Kurds or Sunni Arabs.
Ahmed Zaid Zuhair has kept up his hunger strike for three years in Guantanamo, even fighting the guards when they take him away to be force-fed.
Although I oppose the Islamist cause which he is accused of supporting, I admire his resistance to the injustice of perpetual imprisonment without trial.
Israeli Prime Minister designate Tsipi Livni has rejected an alliance with a right-wing hawkish party even though this could force an election.
It sounds to me like she might be serious about the concessions necessary for peace with the Palestinians.
A
summary of the case against Cheney for abetting the terrorist
attacks of 9/11/2001.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Deregulation produced the current financial crisis. Now the banks will lobby against the regulations we need to prevent the next financial crisis. This includes regulation of energy trading.
In the UK, the option to pay extra for "green electricity" is just a con game. It does not lead to increased use of renewable power generation, and it enables companies to pretend they have cut their emissions.
The US Government Printing Office outsourced the manufacturing of the passports to companies that make them cheaper. The result is that the GPO makes a profit (which it appears not to be inclined to give back to the treasury), and some of these companies might be less effective at preventing fake passports.
It may be interesting to think personally about a theoretical question: if any John Q. Public can get a false passport, and that is a bad thing, how much government violence and injustice would it take to transform that into to a good thing?
The Guantanamo Bay kangaroo courts have been denounced as unjust even by their own prosecutors and judges. The Bush regime response did little to address the problem.
The Chagos Islanders, forced out of their home 40 years ago so the US could build the military base on Diego Garcia island, have been forbidden to return to the other islands in the group.
The statements of the judges go beyond this case and asserts total power for the state, denying the very ideas of any kind of human rights.
Support the Atheist Bus Campaign, putting ads for atheism on buses in London.
As the FDA prepares to decide what to do about Bisphenol A, a company that makes it has tried subtly to corrupt the FDA head.
Gifts that don't go to an individual, but do go to something that he is attached to, have the potential to corrupt. For instance, Microsoft built a large facility in Gordon Clown's district in Scotland. Legally, this is not considered a payoff to Clown, but practically speaking it functions as one.
We should increase the taxes on companies; then the government can fund university research with that tax money. This will shield research from the corrosive effects of corporate funding.
Some Republicans face charges for voting fraud that is unrelated to computerized voting.
German tobacco companies conspired in the 90s to keep cigarette vending machines in reach of children.
Israeli colonists
repeatedly
attacked Palestinians harvesting their olive crops, and the Israeli
army repeatedly took the side of the colonists
against the Palestinians.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
US citizens: demand that AIG refund the $534,000 of its bailout fund that it spent on partying.
The UK's Director of Public Prosecutions, on the brink of retiring, denounced the UK's regime of surveillance and control.
Interpol wants to create a massive database for face recognition.
Last I looked, face recognition was not reliable. But we cannot assume that will hold back Big Brother forever.
The Clown regime wants to
make
all cell phone users register.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Iraqi negotiators made an agreement to let the Bush forces stay in Iraq, but the Iraqi parliament seems likely to reject it.
After the army attacked
a protest by indigenous in Colombia, thousands more have joined
in protests all around the country.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
President Uribe of Colombia is closely associated with Colombia's worst terrorist group, the paramilitaries.
Bush's plan to put
20,000 Bolivians out of work, and how Americans can oppose it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Massive Republican voter-suppression is stealing the election.
Millions of eligible voters
may
be blocked using dishonest excuses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A former head of MI5 (the UK's counterspy agency) condemned the political overreaction to the 9/11 attacks, and blamed the invasion of Iraq for stimulating terrorism.
China plans to identify
and photograph everyone that uses an Internet cafe.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
This is a couple of steps beyond the unjust laws of France and Italy, which forbid open wireless networks. But any nasty thing that China does to the Internet is likely to show up in "free" countries soon. The excuses are "terrorism" (which often means dissent) and "child" pornography.
Conclusive proof that most airline security is just for show. It would block stupid terrorists, but not smart ones — if the smart ones are still interested in airplanes.
Blocking stupid terrorists is worth something, but it could be done with a lot less hassle without the show.
Wall Street banks, just bailed out with 700 billion, are planning to pay 1/10 of that money to their staff.
A large oil discovery in Cuban waters may help end the US trade embargo.
The trade embargo is supposed to pressure Cuba to respect human rights, but it has achieved zero towards that goal; if anything, it convinces Cubans to rally behind their government. Likewise for the occasional US-supported terrorist attacks against Cuba.
A representative of the UK's probation agents says, give the reckless bankers ASBOs.
The idea is amusing as satire, because if anyone does deserve such treatment, it is these bankers. On the other hand, it is also a serious possibility, because many kinds of police and governments in the UK can issue these orders and there are no clear rules about when they are justified. Almost anything that results in annoying people can be the excuse to threaten someone with jail for repeating it.
But this is precisely the reason why ASBOs are an unjust system and must be abolished. In effect, ASBOs replace rule of law with a system of imprisonment for whatever the authorities do not like. Such a vague law may occasionally be used in a way that implements justice, such as telling bankers they will be jailed if they continue their recklessness. But that is the exception that proves the rule.
Can anyone show me an article which explains why the failure of some banks (private companies) in Iceland causes the state of Iceland to owe money? I have heard that banks in other countries are refusing to convert the Icelandic kronor; why is that?
The EFF has sued to overturn the law that gave retroactive immunity to telephone companies' illegal spying.
Yet again, the Bush regime claims to have struck a devastating blow against Al Qa'ida in Iraq, by killing one leader.
No leader is crucial to an underground group like that. What weakened Al Qa'ida in Iraq was that they pissed off the Sunni resistance groups, which then accepted Bush's dollar — for the moment.
The latest example of terrorism hysteria: banning drinks on trains.
The Election Protection Wiki
(EPwiki.org)
aims to provide a central resource about efforts to rig the US election.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
See http://www.prwatch.org/node/7840
for a brief list of some of the voter-suppression schemes described there.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A sheriff in Texas has been accused of large-scale drug smuggling.
Whether or not this policeman is guilty, it is clear that many are, because prohibition of drugs leads to systematic corruption. Since marijuana is less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, it ought to be as legal as they are.
I don't believe in legalizing truly dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroin, but addicts ought to be able to get their fix in a doctor's office. That would eliminate most of the harm of prohibition while pulling the plug on the lucrative black market.
Iraq's missing generation — driven into exile.
The US
plan to by stock in banks is flawed, because it does little to
restrain bank executives from acting in ways that endanger the banks
and harm the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mugabe has scuttled his deal with the opposition.
Clown has temporarily abandoned his demand for 42-day detention of suspects — but plans to bring it out again whenever he sees a more favorable climate.
Britons can protect their freedom from New Labour if they remain vigilant, but they deserve to be governed by a party that does not threaten it.
Human Rights Watch has criticized President Chavez of Venezuela for
abuses
such as political discrimination, interfering with judicial autonomy, and interference with labor unions.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
I partly disagree with some of the report's conclusions:
However, rather than administratively canceling the station's license, I think the government should have prosecuted the station and/or its management and owners.
Peace activists helped the Palestinians of Ni'ilin to harvest their olives, and
were
attacked by the Israeli army.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Maryland Police put activists' names on terror lists.
This included opponents of the death penalty and antiwar activists: a strange place to look for violence.
The "temporary" US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, which has now lasted almost 2 years. Kenya has sent many prisoners to Somalia, whence they were taken to Ethiopia and tortured so that US officials could interrogate them.
Contribute funds to avoid a ban on selling hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Netherlands. (They are now sold in a small number of special stores.)
To propose to ban a non-addictive drug because on rare occasions someone dies from using it wrong reflects a double standard based on prejudice. People occasionally die from mountaineering, skydiving, and swimming in the ocean, but we do not see proposals to ban those activities.
Tell ABC TV you
protest its refusal to air an ad about the influence of coal and
oil companies in blocking clean energy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
If you become a support of the Simultaneous Policy Initiative, you can vote on what policies it should support.
Alaska's ethics panel found that
Palin
abused her authority to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Perhaps this is an instance of what Republicans call "family values".
The "temporary" US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia continues, which has now lasted almost 2 years. Kenya has sent many prisoners to Somalia, whence they were taken to Ethiopia and tortured so that US officials could interrogate them.
In response to the video game about catching Saddam Hussein,
Islamist
extremists have released their own game, about catching Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Playing a game of shooting hundreds (or is it thousands?) of people to attack an evil ruler, whether that be Saddam Hussein or Bush, does not strike me as something likely to build good character. However, Americans with a shallow idea of what patriotism consists of, the ones who might have enjoyed demonizing Hussein, might learn some ethical maturity by seeing the shoe on the other foot.
An outbreak of Cholera in Iraq was caused by corruption.
NSA agents habitually listen to phone calls of Americans for fun, in the total absence of grounds to suspect them of terrorism (or anything else).
To prevent such things, formerly police could not listen directly to anyone's phone. When they got court orders to wiretap phones, the phone company listened, made transcripts, and gave them to the police to carry out the order. Changes in the past decade or so have eliminated this protection.
It should be no surprise that the NSA abuses its power. That is the general tendency when "authorities" are given the power to investigate people at will.
The Clown regime openly wants total surveillance of communication and web browsing for the entire population of the UK.
European governments are planning to use the financial crisis as an excuse to cancel CO2 cuts.
The US Army finally admitted to killing lots of civilians with a bomb in Afghanistan, but still refuses to apologize, saying it "did not know" the Taliban were in positions near civilians.
This excuse won't wash. This attack was on a village, a place where civilians live. An army must presume that civilians are present in their homes, unless it knows they have fled, which it certainly did not know in this case.
What happened here is that the US decided to attack the Taliban with weapons that would endanger any nearby civilians, without checking first. NATO has changed its rules to avoid such recklessness, but the US (which operates in Afghanistan separately from NATO) has not.
Excerpts from the US government's manual for crushing insurgencies.
Some of these methods seem to be in use in the US as well — for instance, surveillance of dissidents, detention without trial, surprise raids on meeting places for protestors, as well as psy ops to convince us that these attacks on our freedom are for our own good. In effect, the US government is a government of occupation.
Urgent Note: Support Freedom not Fear Day, a worldwide protest against surveillance in the name of "anti-terrorism".
and, for the US
US citizens: see if your neighbors have tried to register to vote
but were rejected on a technicality,
and
tell them about this web site.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush threatened to impose martial law the US unless Congress passed the bailout bill, and has a special army unit trained for "crowd control" with which to attack Americans for protesting.
1/4 of the world's species of mammals face extinction.
Using total surveillance plus data mining to find terrorists doesn't even work, according to the National Research Council.
The most efficient way to find terrorists in the US is to check people with connections to the White House, the CIA, and the State Department. Those state-sponsored terrorists are not the only ones they are likely to kill more people than the ones without ties to the state.
An European Parliament committee has voted for strict limits on CO2 emission, which would prohibit new dirty coal-burning plants.
The European Parliament does not make the final decisions on EU directives, however.
Iraq refugees (mostly Sunni) are being forced to go home
where
they may be killed by Shi'ites.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Uri Avnery: Olmert's recognition of the need for a fair split with the Palestinians is important even though it comes when he can no longer do anything to implement it.
U.S. to Fund Pro-American
Publicity in Iraqi Media.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
$100k reward for evidence tying Karl Rove and Michael Connell to computerized election fraud.
Bush made no plan to capture Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan —
because he was already
husbanding
forces for the war he really wanted, in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Massachusetts DAs claim that tobacco is safer than marijuana, along with other lies, to try and defeat the decriminalization.
Green Party: how engrossment's support for the bailout was bought.
Robert Kennedy Jr. explains how Republicans, using the HAVA law, plan to stop millions of Americans from voting.
The Anthrax Case Reopens: Why Did the FBI Let the Fort Detrick Scientists Investigate Themselves.
Bush created panic to get his financial bailout through Congress.
This reminds me of how the anthrax attacks were used to pass the U SAP AT RIOT act.
Some MPs are pressing the UK to set a target of 80% cuts in CO2 emissions by 2050.
But that is 40 years from now. To achieve such cuts, they need to start soon — and they need a specific, practical plan.
US citizens: call on your candidates to
support the Simultaneous Policy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police kept a union delegation prisoner in a train at the Mall of America, blocking it from accompanying a rehired worker back to Starbucks.
Nader:
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
South Africa's new health minister will try to provide real treatment for people infected with HIV. This is a benefit of getting rid of President Mbeki.
Now the only obstacle South Africa faces in dealing with AIDS is the patent system imposed on it by US pressure.
Dean Baker: The bailout round II: Adult Version?
Republicans are using fake polls to spread lies about Obama.
I do not support Obama, because his positions are too close to the Republicans. But if we cannot put an end to this sort of systematic lying, it threatens what little is left of our democracy.
A clear example of why fair use needs to be extended.
Skype software in China is built for censorship and surveillance.
The Skype software used in the rest of the world does not participate in this particular surveillance system. Since it is proprietary software, we can't check whether it does some other kind of surveillance. And if it doesn't do surveillance today, the developers could install it tomorrow.
This illustrates the general principle that proprietary software is a threat to your freedom.
UK citizens: tell your MP
you
are against 42-day imprisonment on suspicion.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Binyam Mohamed, a prisoner in Guantanamo, has no chance of a fair trial in the US kangaroo court.
The government of Queensland, a state in Australia, is funding a campaign to denigrate renewable energy and promote burning coal.
Whether the government of Queensland has been bought, or whether it is thinking in narrow terms of boosting business in Queensland, is hardly important. The world cannot afford politicians who do either of these things.
For two weeks: US citizens:
sign
this petition to re-regulate financial institutions, help people
with mortgages, invest in energy conservation, and provide universal
health care.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
For two weeks: US citizens: sign
this
petition for Congress to put a bailout deal online for 72 hours before voting on it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The most important thing about Sarah Palin is what her reception says about Americans.
The RNC8 face "terrorism conspiracy" charges for
organizing
nonviolent protests against the Republican Convention.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Republican IT consultant has been subpoenaed in a case about stealing the Ohio election in 2004.
McCain and Obama both voted for Senator Leahy's "PRO-IP" bill, which calls for seizing people's computers for sharing.
Don't vote for them!
(The use of the term "intellectual property" is a sign that someone is either confused or trying to confuse you. In this case, it's the latter.)
How the US funded and arranged the invasion that overthrew President Aristide in Haiti.
Israeli colonies in occupied Palestine
dump
their sewage into Palestinian water supplies.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Right-wing thugs in Israel
offered
a huge reward for killing any member of Peace Now.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mugabe has shredded the agreement with the Zimbabwe opposition by claiming he will appoint all the ministers himself.
The UK's Met Office says that only significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, starting very soon, can save the world from a catastrophe.
We have got this close to the edge as a result of politicians that sell out to business and put economic growth above everything else.
Here's more information about these climate projections.
Sarah Palin doesn't agree with this — she cited several climate change deniers (including those funded by oil companies) for a lawsuit trying to block the designation of polar bears as a threatened species.
Freedom of the press is deeply endangered by pressure not to offend religion.
The bailout for the banks is the culmination of an old, corrupt US tradition of subsidizing the rich and the businesses.
When most of the UK's public housing was sold off to its tenants at a discount, the short-term result was increased investment and public satisfaction. 30 years later, many of these houses have been sold to slumlords, rents are too high, and there's a big shortage of public housing.
The US will appoint a special prosecutor to probe the firing of federal prosecutors that would not launch bogus prosecutions for political reasons.
Olmert, now caretaker PM of Israel, says Israel will have to withdraw from all the conquered territories (or make small swaps) in order to have peace.
The bailout deal that Congress rejected was a bad one; it did not protect homeowners and did too little to limit executive pay. However, many Republicans voted against it because they want a give-away and more of the same deregulation that caused the crisis.
The Tories pulled the rug from under Clown's green pretensions, by promising to build high-speed train line instead of extending Heathrow airport.
Through October 11 - In the UK: take photos of Big Brother surveillance for a photo protest.
A Bush regime contractor, being sued for torture in Iraq,
claims
that it is immune from all lawsuits in Bush's law-free zone.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
25 criticisms of Bush's bailout plan.
Fascist thugs in Israel are becoming more aggressively violent as the police and courts wink at them. Recently, they planted a bomb for an Israeli professor who studies the growth of fascism.
Ahmed Agiza, seized by CIA agents and taken to Egypt for torture and imprisonment, has been awarded compensation by the Swedish government which illegally allowed him to be taken.
Unfortunately, that won't get him out of the Egyptian prison.
USAID refuses to say which groups it is funding in Bolivia,
leading
to suspicions that it is funding right-wing rebels
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Peace Corps volunteer comments on being
ordered
by Bush to stop helping people in Bolivia.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Sarbanes-Oxley protection for corporate whistleblowers is ineffective. The whistleblowers lose 98% of the time.
From the film "Condor: The First War on Terror", I learned something new about Pinochet's murderous dictatorship which was established by the 9/11 attacks in Chile. Namely, that the dictatorial governments that ruled most of South America at the time all cooperated to capture, torture, and kill dissidents — and that they justified this as a way to stamp out "terrorists".
One of the organizers of this collaboration appears in the film defending his work by saying they only did the same thing that Bush is doing now in the "war on terror".
A former head of the UK's security service condemned the Blair/Clown plan for 6-week detention without trial, and also condemned ID cards.
The problem of piracy is getting worse.
Berlusconi and the people that work for him are becoming increasingly open in their support of fascism.
An important McCain staffer was paid by the company Freddie Mac until a month ago.
The UK is secretly trying to sabotage EU renewable fuels targets
The Clown regime talks about conservation, but its goal is to do as little as possible.
Michigan Republicans
plan
to foreclose African-American voters.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Danes face jail for 'terrorism' T-shirts.
It makes sense to prohibit giving support to terrorist organizations as long as this is done even-handedly. The most dangerous terrorists in Colombia are the paramilitaries, supported by the Colombian government. The most dangerous terrorists in Palestine are the Israeli troops and settlers. When Denmark punishes those that do business with the Colombian government and the Israeli government, this law will be just.
Olmert told diplomats that Bush denied him permission, last May, to bomb Iran.
An U.S.
military interrogation expert saw, and stopped, acts of torture in Iraq in 2003.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The people committing the torture (let's not help Bush with euphemisms like "harsh techniques") claimed that higher-ups authorized it.
Indeed, Bush regime cabinet members participated in the discussions about torturing prisoners as early as 2002.
How Republican laws created the economic crisis.
10 ways to Bail Out Wall Street (and Main Street) without soaking taxpayers in debt.
Kucinich's Main
Street Recovery Plan.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Another federal court ruled that file sharing does not violate copyright law.
I am concerned that Leahy's nasty law could change this.
Global warming is making tons of methane bubble up from the arctic sea floor.
It could already be too late to avoid global disaster
Psychiatrists still participate in U.S. interrogations (i.e., assist in torture), despite the ban instituted by their association in 2006.
The U.S. Congress has
again
shamefully supported the continuing occupation of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Dennis Kucinich:
Protecting
the public interest in any economic 'bailout'.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Wall-street
bailout must change the incentive structure or it will lead to more of the same speculation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The FBI is investigating fraud charges against several of the failed banks and financial companies.
Iraq Veterans Against the War continues to condemn all of the politicians that vote to continue occupation of Iraq; whether Republican or Democrat.
Palin poses for photographs but refuses to talk to the press.
McCain and Palin persistently repeat lies that already have been refuted.
They are following the example of Bush.
The deal to end North Korea's nuclear program has broken down, or at least North Korea is threatening to cancel it.
If the list of terrorism-supporting states were honest, it would be absurd to remove any country from that list as part of a deal about something else. A country would be de-listed when, and only when, it stopped supporting terrorism.
But the US-maintained list is a joke, since it doesn't include Colombia (whose army and president support the murderous thugs known as the paramilitaries), or Pakistan (whose intelligence service started Al Qa'ida and apparently maintains close ties with the Taliban), or the US itself. This list is merely an excuse to bash countries arbitrarily while hiding the arbitrariness. It should be abolished.
Electric generation from ocean waves is now in service. But how much will it be implemented?
It depends on whether governments dare to resist the fossil fuel companies that have corrupted them.It depends on whether governments dare to resist the fossil fuel companies that have corrupted them.
How Congress
can make more time to plan the details of financial bailouts.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
An Iraqi official says that 13 billion dollars of reconstruction money was stolen through elaborate fraud schemes. Investigators who tried to probe them were murdered.
The American Psychological Association has voted a resolution that appears to
forbid its members to give the US government advice on torture in prisons such
as Guantanamo.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
But a deliberate loophole in the APA's ethics code
strips that resolution of practical consequences.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Bushmen's bailout plans
defend rich gamblers by crushing homeowners.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Systematic corruption in Wall Street companies leads them to steer the
public to foolish and dangerous investments. Proper government would have to
forbid these corrupt practices.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Companies want to extend Big Brother tracking of all car travel to the U.S.
Report: Voting problems in several swing states.
Greg Palast has been saying for years that the Republicans will try to steal this election by any possible means. Problems like these offer easy opportunities
As the UK hold an inquest into the police shooting of de Menezes, his relatives protest that no policemen were charged with his killing.
McCain and Palin are trying to shut down the investigation into corruption charges against Palin, at least until after the election.
Staff at the European Patent Office went on strike accusing the organization of corruption: specifically, stretching the standards for patents in order to make more money.
One of the ways that the EPO has done this is by issuing software patents in defiance of the treaty that set it up.
The Burmese military rulers released a handful of political prisoners (out of more than 2000), hoping to undermine pressure for international sanctions.
The next ships to break siege of Gaza
will
carry surgeons as well as food.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Iraqi detainees languish in clogged justice system.
Since Bush launched the "Annapolis peace process" — which was
only for show anyway — Israel has
drastically
increased construction of its "settlements" in Palestinian territory.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Israeli government systematically aids the settlers by
denying
Palestinians access to their own land.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Palestinian village of Ni`ilin faces more than the loss of much of
its land: Israel plans to wall it off. So it has
persistently
opposed the bulldozers with unarmed protest, standing up to violent
attacks that go as far as murder.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
For 15 years, Israel has been officially in favor of peace
with a Palestinian state, but has insisted that the Palestinians
make all the concessions, thus ensuring there is no deal.
Now Palestinians
are
on the verge of giving up on the idea.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Everyone: sign
this petition asking PBS to ask McCain and Obama what they propose
to do regarding illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, says
there
is still a chance for peace between Israel and Palestine —
if Israel lets Palestinians have a real state in the whole West Bank.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Chinese milk company concealed its knowledge of melamine poisoning in milk for the sake of having nice, cheerful Olympic games.
That is a perfect illustration of the culture of false front and coverup which pervades the Chinese government and Chinese business.
US citizen: phone your congresscritter and say, "Hold Karl Rove in Contempt of Congress and make him testify."
You can also send a message through
this
page but a phone call counts a lot more than a message.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The RIAA is using a fraudulent accusation to threaten the main lawyer that defends the RIAA's victims.
The US government and many others are displaying contempt for their citizens by negotiating the so-called "anti-counterfeiting" treaty in secret. 100 opposition groups signed a demand to see the text, which so far only certain favored businesses have been allowed to look at.
US citizens: send your congresscritter this message not to give the auto industry a bailout without tightening fuel economy standards.
The fact that only a big handout to business makes it possible to defend the world from global warming illustrates the weakness of democracy. That weakness was created by right-wing politicians through their Free Exploitation Treaties. And they haven't stopped! ACTA is supposed to be the next one.
So you might also say to your congresscritter that we should not have to wait till companies need a bailout before we refuse to let them run away with the public interest.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Paul Krugman: The current financial crisis results from allowing new forms of unregulated lending to replace the old, regulated banks.
The regulations on bank lending were put in place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after a previous wave of speculation caused the Great Depression.
The Great Depression was caused by overheated speculation which encouraged people to make risky investments. But the right-wing government of the 1920s played a role by refusing to do anything to prevent the problem. Herbert Hoover did nothing to end the depression; instead he proclaimed his faith in the Invisible Hand. The Invisible Hand did not see fit to do anything.
In 1929, the speculation took the form of buying stocks with too much leverage. Suppose you borrow 90% of the money to buy some stocks, contributing only 10% of the purchase price yourself. If the stock goes up 11%, you can sell it, repay the loan, and end up with twice the money you put in. But If the stock goes down 11%, you don't get out enough to repay the loan. You'll have to sell something else.
These extra-risky bets start to look good when the market has been rising so long that people forget it can go down. So any downturn will ruin some people, making them sell assets, making more prices go down, etc. That can be a chain reaction.
This time it the problem arose specifically from subprime mortgages, which were set up to charge low interest as long as the homeowner walks the straight and narrow and the lender doesn't get in a bad mood. One difference is that the lenders preyed on people who were not wealthy enough to invest in stocks. We could tell stock owners, "Tough, you should have known better." But these borrowers were exploited. They deserve to be protected from foreclosure, in a way that stock investors don't.
The worshipers of the Invisible Hand generally claim that their god will do what is good for the public. but, when pressed, they reveal that this is a tautology, because they define "good" as "whatever the Invisible Hand does".
U.S. citizens: call your congresscritter and say, "don't give a bailout to big companies without protecting the taxpayers and the homeowners and making those who have gained from dangerous speculation pay!"
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Also sign
this petition
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Although Mbeki resigned for politically arranging to prosecute of
Jacob Zuma, that
doesn't necessarily mean Zuma was innocent. He may be prosecuted
anyway.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A historical
summary of Thabo Mbeki's presidency.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
I think it is partly mistaken, though. The only foreigners he impressed were neo-liberals.
Bernie Sanders:
If a
company is too big to [be allowed to] fail, it is too big to [be
allowed to] exist.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros, and Merrill Lynch are among 5 companies to which Bush gave special exceptions from SEC regulations in 2004. These exceptions from sensible precautions allowed them to get too greedy and drive themselves bankrupt.
Mike Tabor is suing the city of Portland after policeman stopped him from using his video camera to witness an arrest.
Thabo Mbeki will step down as president of South Africa after a court condemned him for making false charges against Jacob Zuma, his political rival.
Mbeki opposed state-funded medical treatment for poor people with AIDS, because his property is to give the best possible economic treatment to profitable foreign business
What Haitian-Americans are asking of the next U.S. president.
Paying singers to mention products is an organized industry. Ad agencies spam companies that seem to be possible clients.
Chalabi: U.S.
wants secret bases in Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
JK Rowling gave the UK labor party a million dollars. I fear that one of the things she asked for in return is increased copyright power over citizens that share.
Bush and his creature in Iraq, al-Maliki, still have not agreed on
a treaty to authorize the Bush forces to remain past the end of the
year.
Bush
demands immunity for the Bush forces, and Iraq (after they have
murdered so many Iraqis) refuses.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Colombian army
and police threatened striking sugar cane workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The big use of private
mercenaries instead of officially recognized soldiers is spreading from Iraq to Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The EFF has sued the NSA and Bush over the illegal surveillance.
Maybe it will argue that the law passed to authorize this surveillance by our cowardly Congress was unconstitutional
The Bush regime promised Pakistan it would not unilaterally attack — then broke the promise a few hours later.
For businesses, labeling their activities as "carbon-neutral"
is a fad; but
the claims are often bogus, or impossible to check.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US and EU have lost a lot of power in the UN. This shows up not only in the response to their power grabs but also in the failure of human rights initiatives.
This is the US' fault. It is hard for the US to exert influence for human rights when it tramples them around the world.
Roanoke VA has just one company to get health care from. When the local newspaper wrote about how it exploits this monopoly, the company got the reporter taken off the issue by cutting its advertising.
This must happen all the time, and mostly go unnoticed.
To prevent further financial disasters, we must
reverse
the policies of deregulation that set the state for this disaster.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
In a multinational poll, less than half the respondents believed that Al Qa'ida was responsible for the US 9/11 attacks.
There are grounds for skepticism about plenty of the official story. I don't believe the "missiles, not planes" theories, since I understand that many witnesses did see the planes. I have no basis to believe the claims that the planes were flown by remote control (set by the Bush regime) rather than by hijackers, although I won't say it is flat-out impossible.
But I have doubts about who the hijackers really were. It was always suspicious that the Bush regime claimed to be sure, so soon after, who they were. The leaked private message from Osama bin Laden, which denied involvement, creates more reason to doubt. (The published "bin Laden" tapes have been suspect all along.)
10 years of statements by Osama bin Laden, translated by the CIA and then leaked, include a message he sent to the US government saying he had nothing to do with the US 9/11 attacks.
I have no particular reason to assume bin Laden would not lie. On the other hand, I have no reason to assume he did lie, whereas I know the Bush regime can never be trusted. I won't treat this as proof that bin Laden was not involved, but it creates a real doubt. Until there is an honest investigation of those attacks, we do not know who organized them.
If you live in Washington DC,
don't use
"Smart bikes"! They are Big Brother's eyes. The system records
where a user gets the bike, and records where she returns it.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
It's possible they track the bike RFIDs along the way, too. The system in Paris is reported to do so.
When they say they do not distribute this information, they are being disingenuous. Under the U SAP AT RIOT act, the FBI can get this information without even a search warrant.
McCain and Palin have gone to unprecedented level of brazen lying.
The major media are starting to report McCain's and Palin's lies.
But their response may not be adequate to the brazenness.
Debunked: Ten Conservative Myths About National Security.
The UK is expanding its network of cameras to record everywhere cars go.
The opposition disappoints me. It is a mistake to quibble about how long the data is kept. This system must be abolished!
Bush put a bio-weapons
lab in Galveston, Texas, where it is sure to be destroyed by a
hurricane sooner or later.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
When a garment worker in Los Angeles makes a dress that retails for $100, the worker gets $1.72. This is according to Sweatshop Warriors, by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie.
Next time someone claims that we can have faith in the invisible hand to pay people according to the value of what they produce, we can suggest he investigate why the invisible hand thinks the dress is worth so much to the person who wears it, and so little to the person who makes it.
Aung San Su Kyi rejected food supplies from Burma's military rulers for a month in order to gain the right to receive magazines and letters from her sons.
The Burmese military rulers remain in power due to support by China.
Pakistan's army has been ordered: if US forces enter unauthorized, shoot at them!
An opposition gang
shot
marching supporters of Bolivian President Morales
with machine guns, leading Morales to declare a state of
emergency in that region. The opposition appears to have the support
of the US ambassador, so Morales expelled him. Perhaps he should
close the US embassy.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Both McCain and Obama condemned Morales, effectively supporting the terrorist opposition.
It makes me very sad that Brazil is partly doing the same thing.
When Lula calls for negotiation with separatist gangsters who are escalating step by step to see how far they can get, it is tantamount to encouraging them. Unless Brazil says it will support Bolivia's government against a rebellion engineered by rich people and their hirelings, it will encourage such a rebellion.
A partial explanation for the US housing lending crisis in terms of Chinese wanting to invest.
Pakistani troops fired at, and drove off, US helicopters that were heading to attack Taliban supporters (and civilian bystanders) in Pakistan.
Unilateral US intervention in Pakistan was absurd when Obama suggested it, and it's absurd when Bush does it.
Sarah Palin's career in Alaska politics has been a matter of supporting her cronies and trying to suppress critics.
After outbreaks of cholera in Iraq, the Iraqi government's response
was to block
journalists from talking with the victims.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Popov family came to France and asked for asylum, but the French government is determined to deport them back to Kazakhstan where they will certainly be killed.
French President Sarcoma won election by promising to be harsh to immigrants, because supposedly there were too many. It is typical of such regimes that they don't limit their cruelty to illegal immigrants or those who seek asylum falsely. They attack whoever they can get their hands on.
Dalits made homeless and destitute after the floods in Bihar face attempts to exclude them from emergency aid too.
A new general surveillance and dossier system in France has
provoked
sustained opposition.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Gush Shalom asks for support so that more boats can bring food to Gaza.
London subways and buses use an RFID-based payment card which seems to have been designed for tracking.
If you use Oyster cards, keep them in aluminum foil when you are not using them to pay. That way, no one else can read them. Don't register them, and swap them frequently.
As for broken cards, I suggest giving them up for lost. If you refrain from storing a lot of money into the card, a broken card once every couple of years will be insignificant as a loss.
A house in Texas burned down because the fire hydrants were turned off to "prevent terrorism".
This absurd precaution is merely stupid (and perhaps partly corrupt), but other things done to "prevent terrorism" are much more sinister.
The Republican Party wants to prevent people from voting if they have lost their homes recently.
Do they think these people might be dissatisfied with the Bush regime?
The US is starting to admit substantial numbers of Iraqi refugees.
"Tens of thousands" may amount to 1% of the millions rendered homeless by Bush's invasion.
Some Christian farmers say RFIDs in cattle are "the mark of the beast".
I don't agree with their religion, and I don't believe cattle have a right to privacy. But humans do, and RFIDs are a grave threat to it. If opposition by Christians helps block plans to put RFIDs in products for sale, I will be glad of their support.
The RCMP tightened
its policy for using tasers, because the old policy caused unnecessary deaths.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Quebec man changed
his name to escape from the US terrorist suspect list.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US treats everyone as a terrorist suspect, but some people more than others.
The IRS offers tax
loopholes for booming pay for executives, including stock options.
The stock options encourage CEOs to take actions that boost the stock
price temporarily, while undermining the company.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Mugabe has agreed to a deal handing over most of his power to Tsvangirai, who won Zimbabwe's elections.
It sounds to me as if this deal could be sabotaged by Mugabe through later reinterpretation.
Bush secretly ordered US troops to enter Pakistan and attack Taliban supporters there.
Despicable as the Taliban are, unauthorized intervention in Pakistan is the stupidest possible response.
Kucinich has called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate how Bush launched the Iraq War.
Companies use "voluntary codes" to avoid regulation, but this is an inferior substitute.
Sarah Palin was a vocal supporter of the infamous
"Bridge
to Nowhere" until the project started to become embarrassing.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police and FBI staged a violent raid on the office of several community support groups in Berkeley California. The supposed reason could not explain this even if it were true.
Pakistan's president and its chief general have both condemned US attacks on Pakistan's territory.
2500 Iraqis live
under the stands in Kirkuk's soccer stadium.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police in St Paul attacked and arrested protestors before the protests
started, and continued doing so after.
Here
is the summary of how they shredded the US Constitution.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Greenpeace activists were acquitted of charges of "property damage" after they painted a statement of protest on a coal-burning power plant.
Note the subtle dishonesty in the description of painting of a word on the chimney as "property damage". That makes it sound like sabotage, which it wasn't.
The Church of Scientology has used the DMCA to get criticism deleted. It has a history of strained copyright claims.
Using copyright for censorship is not a new thing. Copyright in England originated as a system of censorship.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators in support of the
Clean
Water Restoration Act.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush and the Iraqi government hold dearly to one of Saddam Hussein's laws:
the one that prohibited
unions for most Iraqi workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
US residents: canvas on Sep 20 to
pull
the Bush forces out of Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
"Free trade" keeps poor countries poor, while protectionism can lead to development. No wonder the the European Union is trying to force the poor countries of the world into a "free trade" treaty that will keep them subjugated and poor.
Republicans in Virginia told lies to scare college students out of voting.
This reflects the Republican party ethic that any means of winning is ok. Republicans more frequently try to scare Blacks away from voting, and that gets less coverage.
Maqbool Fida Husain, a prominent Indian artist, lives in exile because of lawsuits from Hindus that consider his work "obscene".
A similar form of persecution in the name of Christianity is occurring in England.
NATO troops in Afghanistan have changed rules for air attacks to try to reduce civilian casualties. But I think this does not include the US troops.
A plane caught carrying drugs thru Mexico
had
visited Guantanamo Bay, and is being investigated by the EU on
suspicion of use in US torture kidnappings.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The US troops in Afghanistan are killing more and more civilians due to increased use of air attacks.
To solve this problem, they would first have to admit it, but the dishonest Bush regime would rather deny a mistake.
The Iraqi government is making oil deals with companies from various countries.
This seems to mean that Bush and Cheney have lost their bid to get control of Iraq's oil. I hope so. But Iraq as a nation has lost also, in that its oil revenue will go to foreigners (regardless of what country they are from).
Extreme surveillance in the UK is part of a general practice of increased government interference in every aspect of life. Citizens must contend with both petty and major tyrants.
The interference is haphazard and unpredictable: one town will threaten people for putting up posters about a lost cat; other towns commit different outrages. But codifying these intrusions would not make them acceptable.
Georgia is the graveyard of America's unipolar world -- and that's a good thing.
The cold war put pressure on the US and the USSR to compete to present the world with a more appealing model, and respect for human rights was one aspect of the competition. Maybe such pressure will help us restore human rights in the US.
McCain and Palin attacked Obama for supporting the US constitution and working as a community organizer. The mainstream media treated this as valid.
I guess the press is being manipulated — either through its business owners or through understanding of its herd instinct.
Obama on Iraq and Iran does not sound very different from Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Since the Iraqi government has developed enough gumption to say no to Bush, it seems clear that most of the Bush forces will be removed by 2010 in any case. That is good, but it also moves Obama effectively further closer to Bush. Still not a hint of ethical criticism of the conquest and destruction of Iraq.
Palin said that the Iraq war is "a task from god".
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Supporters of the UK cracker McKinnon protest that he will be extradited to the US and not get a fair trial there.
The US-UK extradition treaty is an obvious injustice: it doesn't even treat
the two countries equally.
This article explains other more subtle injustices in the treaty.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Everyone: join the protests against surveillance on Oct 11.
Fighting to publish state laws, as states try to use copyright to impede
access to them.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush fired US attorneys who would not launch actions for partisan political reasons. Sarah Palin fired commissioner Monegan because he would not act to support Palin's personal grievances.
Supporters of the Chinese domination of Tibet like to defend it on the grounds that China liberated the Tibetans from a feudal theocracy. That's true; here in brief is what that feudal theocracy was like.
As the article also mentions, ending theocracy and serfdom does not justify China's new forms of oppression and colonization, and respecting Tibetans' autonomy and human rights does not imply restoring theocracy or serfdom there.
While Obama calls Bush's troop increase a success, Bob Woodward says it was a minor secondary reason for the reduction in the level of violence in Iraq.
The US Army is heading for a record suicide rate.
War is hell, always, but it's not always equally bad. If soldiers see that the cause they are fighting for is unjust, and that the rules of ethics that they have been taught are supposed to be ignored, they feel worse.
Pakistan reinstated some of the supreme court judges that Musharraf fired, but omitted the heroic chief justice.
Can anyone tell me why he was left out?
Attiqullah's bride and around 45 of his relatives were killed ago when the US bombed his wedding party. The US says only that it is "investigating". In two months of "investigating" it has not recognized who the bombs killed.
The UK will publish the instructions given by B'liar and his cabinet for changes in the "dodgy dossier" in which intelligence reports were distorted to create an apparent excuse for conquering Iraq.
Obama gave an interview on Faux News and used it to show how right-wing he is.
The "war on terror" is a dishonest and confused concept whose main purpose is convincing Americans and others to cede their freedom without a fight. The US government opposes some terrorism, and supports some terrorism — including, at present, terrorism against Iran. Obama's use of the term should remind us he is not really a defender of human rights in the US.
Did Bush's troop increase in Iraq "work"? That depends on what goal we judge it against.
It may have been partly responsible for the reduction in inter-communal violence. But the main cause of that change is probably that the ethnic cleansing campaigns between the Sunni and Shi'ites were completed, so there was no one left to chase into exile.
Did it make Iraq stable? No, because a more conventional civil war between Shi'ites and Sunnis is now pending. Bush made peace with parts of the Sunni resistance, by pointing out that al Qa'ida's violence against Shi'ites only brought retaliation, and then offering money. The result is that these regions have some peace and some autonomy. The Shi'ites of SCIRI, who dominate the Iraqi Army, plan to fight them next year.
Two other Bush aims, to station troops in Iraq permanently and to control
Iraq's oil,
seem also to have been thwarted.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Perhaps this is the only good thing one can say about Bush's crime in Iraq: that it failed to bring him and his cronies the gains they sought.
The Republican Party
is the hate party.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Anchovies have been overfished, and are now endangered in Europe.
US troops raided a village in Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government, and reportedly killed children.
Some Pakistanis called for responding to this act of war with a warlike response.
Everyone: tell
CNN and MSNBC you want them to cover the fact that police arrested journalists at the RNC.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
If you'd like to find out how to phone the offices of the presidents of these networks, please tell me and I will post the phone numbers. Ten phone calls will have far more impact than ten names on a petition.
The World Bank is financing big CO2 emissions.
A sheriff in South Carolina bought a 50-caliber machine gun and threatens to shoot the public with it. This weapon cannot even be aimed carefully.
Israeli soldiers who shot a harmless Palestinian and critically wounded him
were
acquitted by a military investigation.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
It is standard practice for most parts of the the Israeli government
to wink at any atrocity committed by Israelis against Palestinians.
For instance, "settlers" stealing Palestinians' land
can
be violent with impunity.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The Israeli navy
shot
Palestinian fishing boats.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Bush's "peace process" for Israel and Palestine
has
made no progress since 2001.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
What this article does not explicitly say is that the talks were doomed because the Bush regime has not dared to demand that Israel make any concessions.
California voters:
support
proposition 2 for humane treatment of some farm animals.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Police attacking protestors at the Republican Convention
arrested Amy
Goodman as well as two other Democracy Now journalists, injuring them
as well. These journalists now face bogus criminal charges.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
Al Maliki has shown surprising firmness in resisting the Bush pressure for permanent stationing of the Bush forces in Iraq. This article proposes an explanation of why.
The fact that the UN mandate Bush obtained had a termination date is also crucial. I doubt that Russia would approve an extension now.
Sarah Palin would be even worse than McCain, if that is possible.
9% of the UK's prison population is made up of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. It seems that war is dangerous even for those that survive it.
The Bush regime won a court victory:
it
has the right to forbid companies from testing cattle carcasses for mad cow disease.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-15 because the
old
link was broken.]
The housing bubble, and the crisis of its bursting, was visible years in advance. The Federal Reserve didn't look.
Chalabi Aide Arrested on Suspicion of Baghdad Bombings.
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