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Very sad news: the US is moving close to imposing machine-readable national ID cards (for all practical purposes).
The Bluefin tuna population in the western Atlantic has gone down 80% since the 1970s, due to overfishing.
When bankers were offered an "acceptable risk calculator", an industry standard to determine for how many deaths are acceptable for a large profit, they jumped for the idea.
They had been tricked by those great hoaxers, the Yes Men. The Yes Men also announced, on behalf of Dow, that Dow would pay to clean up the poison in Bhopal that continues to kill the people there.
Religious fanatics in Kansas are making another attempt to sabotage teaching of evolution there.
Evolution is what makes biology make sense. To understand aspects of biology without recognizing the role of evolution in producing them is as hopeless as trying to understand aspects of comparative religion without recognizing the role played by the concept of a deity in producing them.
Highlighting the injustice of ASBOs in the UK, police have applied this all-purpose bullying policy to a quadraplegic teenage boy.
I'm sure the police are embarrassed for having been caught threatening a cripple in this way. They will surely say, "It was a mistake to apply this policy to him. Everyone makes mistakes." However, this instance is just the tip of an iceberg of injustice. What about the other boys who were caught "chatting" near some stores--should that be treated as a crime? Is it right for anyone, even someone with healthy arms and legs, to be threatened with imprisonment if he holds another conversation there?
After Philippine-born Australian citizen Vivian Solon was attacked and wounded, she was in a confused state. The Australian government deported her in a hurry. Her family had no idea what had happened to her, and she was reported missing. In 2003, an Australian government agency realized the mistake, and did nothing.
She was just recently located in the Philippines.
Although mistakes and confusion played a role in these specific events, they are also the result of the general Australian government policy of being cruel and callous to refugees. The ruling party gets votes by demonizing them and showing how nasty it can be. For instance, it intercepts ships full of refugees and does not let them land.
In an election campaign a few years ago, it published photos of refugees throwing their children off a ship, into the ocean, saying "They were ready to kill their own children to get to Australia--what nasty people!" Only after the election did the Australian naval officers on the surrounding Australian ships get a chance inform the public that the refugees' ship was already sinking.
Thousands of students protested against the US in Afghanistan, and one of the protests turned violent (apparently due to extremists). Troops shot at the protestors.
If you shoot people's children, it tends to make them hate you. So I think that the Afghan government emplaced by the US will find itself facing increasing opposition. Could this have been avoided if Bush had spent more money on rebuilding Afghanistan, instead of invading a source of oil? We cannot be sure, but it would have been wise to try.
These protests were sparked by reports that guards in Guantanamo put copies of the Koran in a toilet. Apparently they are religious nuts, more concerned about the Koran than about torturing mere people.
If the guards really did this, it is one of the few things they have done which I would not myself criticize. The Koran is just a book. If police can get useful information from someone by putting a book in a toilet, I have no objections. I don't care if it's the Koran, the Bible, the Mahabharata, or even the GNU Emacs Manual. It's just a book, and people can print more copies.
But that should not distract us from the real issues of Guantanamo rights. Even if these protestors have seized on a foolish reason to condemn the treatement of prisoners there, that doesn't excuse the real wrongs. Those prisoners are facing life in prison without trial, and some may face execution after a sham trial. And they have been tortured. The US government cannot defend its actions by pointing to the foolishness of the present complaint.
Real wages in the US are falling at the fastest rate in 14 years.
Planned mergers of giant telecommunications companies would nearly wipe out competition in the US.
Experts: Iraq Verges on Civil War. And: even the Bush's Iraqi police blame the Bush forces for the violence in Iraq.
Theocratic Republican leaders, including senators and congressmen, are threatening violence against judges.
US troops and civilian personnel in Colombia sell arms to murderers, traffic drugs, and occasionally kill, all with impunity.
The mayor of Spokane, who has fought long and hard against gay rights, has been outed as secretly gay.
He was attacking other gays as a callous, cynical act to further his own career. Such a man would have a great future in US politics if it were not known that he is gay.
Human Rights Watch says, to send a prisoner to Egypt is tantamount to having him tortured. Over 60 prisoners are known to have been sent there, but probably there have been many more.
These Islamists are religious fanatics, but that's no excuse for the religious fanatics in the White House to have them tortured.
Former ministers are fleeing Iraq--perhaps because they are afraid of being accused of corruption (which they are probably guilty of), perhaps because they're afraid of the resistance.
Freedom of the press is endangered in Colombia by widespread attacks on journalists who report news that irritates the paramilitaries.
In Nepal, some political leaders have been released from prison, and phones have been turned back on, but basic freedoms are still denied.
The Iraqi resistance has stepped up attacks, often targeting Iraqis that fight on Bush's side. However, the hostilities between the groups are taking Iraq further towards civil war.
Anger at Bliar wasn't enough to make Labour lose the election, but with its decreased majority it will have trouble driving through his nastiest policies. Bliar himself may also have to go.
Government agents in Burundi have been convicted of murdering an investigator sent by WHO to track diverted funds.
As massacres continue in Darfur, under the support of the government of Sudan, the response is inadequate.
A suggestion for Iraq: Operation Golden Shower.
A friend commented thus: What White House or Congress would ever approve a plan to short stop the money in Iraq before it, er, trickles down to the Carlyle Group?
Germany is turning to human-powered pedicabs to reduce urban pollution.
Expect to see more of this as gasoline gets more expensive, which it will probably do from now on (except for a possible temporary reduction between now and 2010).
Global warming is already interfering with the circulation of water in the Atlantic--the Gulf Stream that takes warm water from South America to Europe, and the deep water "conveyor" that takes cold water back south.
Meanwhile, the CO2 that doesn't go into the atmosphere and cause warming instead goes into the ocean and makes it more acidic. This endangers many ocean species.
No one knows how close we are to a climate disaster, but we keep finding that we've crossed major milestones on the way there.
Gaza settlers will be offered new towns in Israel to convince them to leave peacefully.
This proposal has been controversial because Nitzanim is a protected natural area. It would be better to find another place. But if this plan enables the withdrawal to occur, I think it is good overall.
Police in Bogota, Colombia, attacked a young protestor for no particular reason, and beat him so badly that he died from his injuries. Now they are lying about it (just like police).
Toxic chemicals are causing an explosion of cancer.
A leaked UK memo, written 8 months before the invasion, proves that Bush and Bliar had already decided to start a war, and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of invading Iraq.
For another article, plus a copy of the memo, see here.
Israeli police disguised as Palestinians infiltrated a nonviolent protest and tried to make it turn violent. They started throwing stones, which provided the excuse for other police to arrest the real protestors. This was all caught on video, providing conclusive proof of what happened.
The Palestinians arrested--for asking the provocateurs not to throw stones--are still in custody.
Israelis protested in Tel Aviv after their soldiers shot two Palestinian children.
Republicans want to impose monitoring and controls on university courses.
US auto companies are getting punished for their years of selling overlarge oil-wasting vehicles. They have actively opposed all plans to increase fuel efficiency--and Bush has supported them all the way.
8% of Americans have auto-immune diseases, and man-made toxins in the environment are a large part of the cause.
Since mercury is one of the causes it is relevant to mention that Bush has done his best to prevent the EPA from reducing mercury pollution.
Police harassed a woman at an Earth Day rally in Modesto, California, claiming it was illegal for her to hand out flyers in the park where the rally was occuring.
Police regularly use their arbitrary power to stop people from lawful participation in democracy. They don't care that it is lawful, they stop it anyway. By the time people go to court about it, it is too late to make a difference: the police already achieved their goal.
For police to interfere with lawful political activity should be a crime carrying a month of mandatory jail time. Police might rein in their lawlessness when they start seeing jail from the other side.
A secret Bush forces report shows the Iraqi resistance is not weakening, belying what Bush tells the public. However, many of the victims of the attacks are Iraqi civilians.
Germany is pressuring the US to remove its nuclear missiles which remain in Germany since the Cold War.
By funding medical research directly, instead of paying drug companies the monopoly prices caused by drug patents, the US government could save $110 billion annually on Medicare alone. (The US public would save even more, and so would the rest of the world.)
A TV station in Afghanistan is spreading Western mores.
Bliar hid the doubts about legality of attacking Iraq even from his own cabinet, thus manipulating them into a decision that he had chosen in advance.
(This isn't the best article to explain what happened, but it's the one I have a URL for.)
The Bush forces are trying to blame a few soldiers, plus the prison commander, for the torture at Abu Ghraib. But torture has been widespread in the Bush forces, so it can't be the fault only of people stationed at Abu Ghraib. And it cannot be unrelated the support for torture that comes directy from Bush.
A large area of Ecuador was been poisoned permanently by Texaco.
The megacorporations promise benefits from their "investment", but often deliver only suffering.
Conservative legislators in Kuwait have blocked a proposal to let women vote.
The US Air Force Academy is controlled by theocratic officers who use their office to bully cadets to become Christian extremists.
The resemblance between military training and religious cults is nothing new. They use similar methods to try to break a person's spirit so they can rewrite him as they wish. However, it is something new that the two are merging in the US military.
Representative DeLay has cunningly used his own charity as a way to disguise selling influence to corporations.
Berlusconi personally rewrote the Italian report about the attack on Giulia Sgrena's car, to avoid embarrassing Bush with the truth.
Industrial progress rests largely on the shoulders of publicly-funded R&D. Companies add a little more and then get complete monopolies in the form of patents.
Arguing that military spending has turned the US partially into a command economy, much like the one that failed in the Soviet Union. (So no wonder it is doing so badly.)
I think the basic idea is true to an extent, but the specific points need to be checked carefully. For instance, if the overall effect of military spending is to distort the US economy and control the social sciences, it doesn't necessarily follow that DoD-support university research in physical sciences and computing was harmful.
Bliar made a secret decision to build a replacement for the Trident nuclear missile, despite saying that the decision would be made later. We see a lie, and a coverup.
During the Cold War, it made sense to have a nuclear deterrent; there was an enemy to deter. It doesn't make much sense for the UK now.
I don't think the UK's nuclear submarines are very dangerous directly; I worry that the theocrats in the US will start a nuclear war as fulfillment of their prophesies, but I don't think the UK will do so. However, it undermines the efforts to prevent proliferation, and that can be much more dangerous.
The real cost of burning coal.
The Palestinian Authority says it is prepared to fight the few militant groups that threaten to cause trouble during the planned Israeli withdrawal of some of the settlements.
This makes sense as a strategy for the while. Most of the militant groups support a cease fire now, which means there are only a few that they would have to fight.
However, doing this now may make it harder to resist later demands to attack all the militants, while Israeli violence proceeds unchecked. As long as Israelis continue stealing the Palestinians' land, destroying their olive trees, poisoning their animals, knocking down their houses, arresting them on the way home from the hospital and denying them medical care, etc., while using provocateurs as an excuse to attack peaceful protests, Israel is not entitled to criticize Palestinians for fighting back.
Florida has blocked a 13-year-old girl from getting an abortion, in effect intending to force her to have a baby.
The Bush forces have decided that the soldiers that shot at Giulia Sgrena's car in Baghdad Airport are innocent. Italians refuse to accept this, and even the Italian government is about to accuse Bush of a cover-up.
The truth about Bush is slowly percolating through the world's people, and eventually he will be unable to keep up the pretense.
Ecuadorians have chased out one president, but they are not ready to accept the next one either. He has resisted Bush just a little, but doesn't have the courage to resist very much.
Ecuador should cancel its debt and its contracts with the US. If Bush gets mad, they can sell their oil somewhere else.
Railroad privatization in the UK has been a failure--for everyone except the lucky train owners.
Uri Avnery reports on the different treatment that settlers and peace activists receive from the Israeli government when they protest.
Another Labour MP has joined the Liberal Democrats, urging voters to "Give Mr Blair a bloody nose".
Israeli settlers in Palestine are poisoning the Palestinians' sheep.
In many areas, the settlers regularly harrass and even shoot Palestinians nearby.
Bliar's dishonesty about Iraq has been conclusively proved.
The specific lie Bliar has been caught in is his claim about what legal advice he received. In fact, it said that attacking Iraq would comply with international law only given clear, strong evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass distruction. Bliar pressured his advisor into changing his advice by telling him there was conclusive evidence of that,
We know that this claim was based on phony evidence, which was probably the result of pressure that Bush and Bliar exerted in that direction.
The initial advice was hidden and Bliar pretended never to have received it.
The UK brought criminal charges against a woman for not calling an ambulance after her husband, who was incurably ill and had suffered for years, took an overdose of pills. (All she did was keep him company while he achieved the goal of ending his pain.) The jury acquitted her.
The Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, but the weapons that the US used are still killing Vietnamese.
Iraqi Sunnis may have killed 50 Shi'ite hostages--or maybe not.
Many new species are discovered each year in Borneo's rain forest. Many are in danger of extinction as these forests are cut down. Probably many will be extinct before they are observed.
Israeli occupation forces arrested a Palestinian with meningitis, preventing him from continuing his treatment.
Global warming threatens world agriculture.
In 1990, police in Wales decided to "solve" a murder by framing the usual suspects. Now some of them are facing prosecution.
This sort of dishonesty happens frequently, but only rarely is there clear proof to expose it. Most of the time the police get away with their testilying.
Bush and the Republicans are dropping in popularity, and many oppose their latest bullying tactics.
However, they will have plenty of chance to blur the issues before the next election. And they can always rig the vote count again.
We all knew Blair was lying about Iraq, but due to his obfuscation we could not pin it down. Now a leaked document proves he lied about the advice he got over whether invading Iraq would violate international law.
It is clear that Bliar made a decision to attack and generated excuses for it. Kick this bum out!
A Mexican environmentalist is in jail for denouncing the killing of dolphins.
A UN inspector who exposed US war crimes in Afghanistan has been fired under US pressure, as part of Bush's War on Integrity.
Lethal injections used for US executions could be death by torture.
However, even humane killing of prisoners cannot be justified.
Sharon is ready to defy Bush's feeble attempts to restrain the increase of settlements in Palestine.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army is forcing more Palestinians to leave their homes.
The Republican party has two groups of supporters: theocratic Christians and business conservatives. Now they are at odds about the plan to abolish filibusters on judicial appointments.
An Argentine officer who participated in murdering prisoners has been convicted in Spain of crimes against humanity.
Spanish courts can punish crimes against humanity no matter where they were committed.
Spain should put Bush on trial next.
The Republican Party is now controlled by Christian fanatics who are set on abolishing all opposition and all secular society. It has become the party of theocracy.
For full details, and careful documentation, see this site.
These churches use the methods developed by cults in the 70s and 80s.
Uri Avnery on the continued harrassment of Mordechai Vanunu.
Bush is aiming to get the power to eliminate any Federal agency, by appointing his own friends to vote on the question.
Bush's record includes (1) staffing the Texas board of clemency with people who would carry out his wishes while denying him responsibility for them, and (2) dishonestly undermining all the agencies that protect the environment. To suppose he would staff the "sunset board" with people ready to abolish those agencies is not a leap of faith.
Here's a list of Federal agencies that the Texas Republican Party said it wants to abolish.
Ecuador's president, who broke promises in order to cater to the US, has been removed from office after a wave of popular outrage.
I hope the new president learns the right lesson and stands up to the empire.
The Burmese army appears to have used chemical weapons against Karen rebels.
Groping Arnold has made most of California hate him.
Perhaps he should switch to making movies about what he would do as governor. In those movies, everyone would admire him.
The Israeli soldiers who killed three Arab boys playing football were intentionally shooting to kill.
The Galapagos Islands are in trouble from a human population explosion.
Eradicating goats was worth a few million dollars, since the result is permanent. If the human fishing population could be moved out permanently for a few million dollars, that would also be worth the expense. However, paying them every year not to fish while their numbers increase would be like trying to protect native vegetation by feeding the goats.
Here's an idea for reaching a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine: democratically elect a joint representative body to negotiate it.
I have some disagreements with specific points in the plan. I disagree with the idea of adding "religious, civil society, community and business leaders" to the elected representatives. This is undemocratic because it would mean that people associated with religious groups, business, or community activities get represented more than once. Such leaders should have to run for election like everyone else.
(Also, the Palestinian Authority is democratically elected now.)
Arundhati Roy: Public Power in the Age of Empire.
An Arab family chased out of its home in Hebron by fanatical settlers has returned, protected by Israeli soldiers.
These settlers should be shot with tranquiliser darts and released in the wild, far from the abode of civilized people. But I've read that Sharon has recently insisted on maintaining them in Hebron where they regularly harrass and attack Palestinians.
Iraq is full of landmines, but clearing them has become slower since Bush moved in.
A UN agency has begun examining the issue of caste discrimination in India.
Germany's chancellor suggests boycotting companies that have fired lots of workers.
The industry response reflects the basic view of business executives that the public should bend over backwards to help business, but business need not do the converse.
The Bush forces do count Iraqi civilians they kill. They have repeatedly claimed that they do not, but this is apparently yet another lie.
The new Pope thinks it is ok for Catholics to disagree with the Pope about killing, if the killing they support is capital punishment or war. Only abortion and euthanasia are completely unacceptable to support.
Eels in Europe are being driven close to extinction.
Exxon-Mobil funds 40 different groups to create false doubt about global warming.
Some of the same organizations have also been funded by Microsoft to create an image of public dissatisfaction with free software.
Iraqi Sunnis have taken Shi'ites hostage and threaten to kill them. This moves Iraq closer to civil war.
I believe Bush wants such a civil war, since divide-and-rule is the only way he can make the conquest succeed. He hopes that Shi'ites will be the ones to destroy the resistance of the Sunnis.
Iraqi Shi'ites are talking about prosecuting everyone involved in wrongdoing during Saddam Hussein's regime. Bush doesn't like this.
The Bush regime is eliminating an annual summary of global terrorism because the results were not going to be favorable.
I suspect that this report was subject to political bias anyway. I suspect that state-sponsored terrorism carried out by the Bush regime and its allies was generally omitted. If someone wants to check that, I will update this note.
Piercing the peer-to-peer myths: An examination of the Canadian experience.
The European Commission's policy treats the environment with contempt.
How Three Firms Came to Rule the World [of food]...Food Central.
People often wonder, "Doesn't Bush know he's running the country into the ground?" Bush is good at being intentionally blind, but I don't think Cheney is a fool. Here's a proposed explanation for why Bush and his clique would do this intenionally.
A small bipartisan initiative to make the House Ethics Committee function again.
Bush claims "the tide is turning" in Iraq.
It would be a tragedy if he gets away with conquering that country, butchering its citizens, and stealing its wealth. But he may not be right:
Iraqi Resistance Stages Another Large-Scale Assault
There is also a sign of resistance from the elected "government" of Iraq. Rumsfeld warned the elected "leaders" not to replace the Bush toadies that run some Iraqi ministries.
However, they can't possibly gain the loyalty of Iraqis unless they start to resist the universally-hated occupation.
Meanwhile, more countries are pulling their troops out.
In the UK, "anti-social behavior orders" have become an all-purpose excuse to imprison people without trial for activities that are not punishable with imprisonment--or are not crimes at all.
The article doesn't mention it, but "engaging in political protest" is also a common occasion for ASBOs.
The Gaza pullout is a smoke screen for step-by-step ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
What sort of world are supermarket subservience cards leading to?
Police officers harrassing a political activist--that's not news. Police officers lying, stealing, framing the activist--that's not news. Activist suing and getting them fired, that's news!
Congress is rushing headlong into new censorship for radio and television.
Two Bush cronies, with a long history of corruption with Dubya. have been accused of racketeering. However, Bush himself so far seems to be getting away with his share of the booty.
An art auction is planned to support US dissidents in the Critical Art Ensemble, facing fabricated criminal charges.
Turkish police killed a 12-year-old Kurdish boy from short rage, then left a rifle next to his body and called him a "terrorist". (He was too small to even carry such a rifle.)
DeLay's Position on Tort Reform Was 'For Sale'. (And other issues too.)
The practice of feeding antibiotics to chickens produced drug-resistant bacteria that are now found in a large fraction of the chicken sold in US markets.
And even though the practice has been ended, the bacteria continue to get into the chickens.
Perhaps the factories that formerly used antibiotics should be condemned and burned.
The thugs that Bush used to drive Aristide out of Haiti are shooting at each other now.
Haiti under Bush influence is a land of murder. Refugees trying to flee to the US, with valid passports and visa, are denied asylum and imprisoned. One was murdered by denying him his medicine.
It was Bush that arranged to drive Aristide out. He's guilty of murder for each one of these deaths.
A high school principal was arrested, and accused of bogus crimes, for supporting a student that a policeman was improperly trying to arrest.
Recently the charges were dropped, and the principal is back at work. (I made no link to that article because it is on a site that is not generally accessible.) The prestige of the social role of school principal surely helped bring this about. If you, rather than a principal, had been falsely accused, you would not find it so easily to overcome the lies.
New Japanese school textbooks are whitewashing Japan's crimes in World War II. This has sparked protests in Korea and China.
If the US had an honest self-respecting government, it would join the protests.
Peaceful protestors against military recruitment at the City College of New York were attacked violently by police.
The police are like Dr Jekyll--much of the time, they actually do protect and help citizens, but when their vicious side takes over, they turn into something between a street gang and a mafia.
Christians in North Korea are sent to prison camps where they are tortured.
Soot, particles of unburnt carbon, is contributing to melting the Arctic ice cap.
Uri Avnery: the Gaza settlers wagered on their future, so we need not pity them for having to leave.
A call to defy corporate domination.
As Israel honors Major Plagge, a German officer who saved Jews from extermination, we should consider carefully what his lesson means today.
It is easy to recognize evil in the forms it took in the recent past, with the benefit of hindsight. If someone tries to organize a Nazi-style genocide campaign today, many people would recognize it as such and oppose it.
But history does not repeat itself in detail. It is often harder to recognize evil in today's different forms, harder to see what it is that we must do to "resist being sucked into the vortex of evil" as evil appears today. Would today's equivalent of Plagge be someone who helps people escape from torture in Guantanamo?
The World Bank is planning a big dam in Laos. The people living in the area to be flooded are unlikely to have their lives restored, and rare animals living in the area will be threatened.
Charges were dropped against a Bush forces soldier accused of murdering an Iraqi civilian.
It is hard to restrain an occupying army from crimes against civilians; Iraqis can expect to be shot with impunity by soldiers until the occupation is over.
Rio de Janeiro police went on a murder spree, and shot 30 people.
The Bush regime asked the USPS to eliminate anonymous postal mail. The USPS, to its credit, refused.
This attack on your freedom was consistent with the Bush regime's policy of total surveillance on communication and travel. They want to know where everyone goes, and what everyone says.
What stores are really doing with their "discount cards": discriminating among their customers. For instance, they can raise the price for you but not for your neighbor.
The UN Security Council called for prosecution in the International Criminal Court of those who organized mass murder in the Sudan. Now the challenge is to get the government of Sudan to hand them over.
Leaders of indigenous people in Brazil are being frequently murdered.
It is done by the henchmen of rich people who want to cut down their forests.
Corporations killed our commons.
The US corporate media, and corporate government, are using the pope's death as a PR opportunity for religion, and for distraction.
Enforcement of US laws about lobbying is very lax.
Uri Avnery: Jinn in the ballot box.
Amnesty International report French police frequently attack, even kill Arabs or Africans that they arrest. Even witnesses who threaten to report their violence have been violently attacked, and charged with fake crimes. Thanks to a range of excuses, the police are never seriously punished.
Some Labour MPs are planning to use their opposition to the war as the basis for their campaigns for reelection. This highlights the way the public in the UK has lost its trust for Bliar.
Another Labour MEP joined the Liberal Democrats, denouncing Bliar's attacks on civil liberties.
We don't call him Bliar merely for lying about Iraq. He cannot be trusted on anything at all, since his primary domestic policy goal is to abolish civil liberties. If the war, based on lies, enables some Britons that Blair has been lying to them about everything, their country may derive some benefit from it.
The big car companies sued California for trying to make them reduce CO2 emissions. They said they couldn't cope with such requirements. But they backed down when Canada demanded the same thing--which proves they were bluffing all along.
What happened here is that these companies have more power over the US government than over the Canadian government. In the US, they figured that their pet legislators and pet president would accept false excuses as valid, so they could get away with their bluff.
Pope John Paul II: a political obituary.
Sharon is thumbing his nose at peace, and even at Bush, with an announcement of a plan to expand settlements. Uri Avnery predicted this.
See also http://www.geocities.com/keller_adam/gazit.htm for commentary.
Meanwhile, Israel plans to set up garbage dump in Palestinian territory that could poison an important water supply. Either it's an attempt to make the land uninhabitable for Palestinians, or it's simply insane.
A thoughtful analysis of the Venezuelan Constitution and what it means for Venezuela.
New Zealand seems to have a system of imprisonment without trial for non-citziens, similar to what Blair tried to do in the UK.
This has been applied to Algerian refugee, Ahmed Zaoui, an Islamist who was elected to the legislature by the elections that were canceled in a coup. After that he had to flee for his life.
Zaoui has been hounded from country to country by accusations from the military government. These accusations could be true, or they could be lies, but they can't be taken on faith. As the site says: Free Ahmed Zaoui--or give him a fair trial.
Rap musicians like to present an air of being anti-establishment, but they shamelessly sell advertising in their own performances, showing that they are no better than the executives of the megacorporations.
Speaking of "artistic integrity", I'd say that any musician who turns his work into a commercial has no such thing.
The Iraqi resistance attacked Abu Ghraib prison very effectively. Attacking a strongpoint like this suggests that the resistance is gaining strength.
If political parties still mean anything, Energy Security could be the opportunity for the Democrats to protect the US' future.
However, I think that they won't do it, because the power of business is too great. The Democrats can't win an election covered mainly by the corporate media--even supposing the votes are counted--unless they do what the megacorporations want, and on an issue like this it's primarily the oil companies that exert their influence. What the oil companies want--as we can see from what friend in the White House does for them--is for us to burn up the world's remaining oil as fast as possible.
Galapagos islands wildlife is threatened by fishing. The fishing interests have a lot of power in the government of Ecuador, through corruption.
This "cut it down, wipe it out, make me rich, then I'll move on" attitude is a menace to humanity.
The propsoed EU Constitution was designed to privilege business rights over citizens' rights, it is undemocratic, and it is nearly impossible to amend.
See Quand l'Union Europene tue l'Europe, in www.urfig.org. (Sorry, I don't have it in English.)
"Reforming" the US intelligence services under the control of people such as Negroponte and Goss won't prevent them from "failing" again, because it won't give them what they need so as to resist telling Bush whatever he wants to hear. That requires integrity, and integrity is precisely what the Bush regime will not tolerate.
Parasitic mites, invaders from other continents, are wiping out the bees that polinate US fruit crops. Killer bees didn't turn out to be a disaster, but these might be the end.
How the US media encouraged atrocities in Falluja.
Spain is selling some transport planes and Coast Guard ships to Venezuela. The Bush regime, which fights Venezuela on behalf of the oil companies, criticized this.
When Zapatero defended this sale by saying that these planes and ships have "no offensive capacity", he conceded too much. There is nothing wrong with selling arms to Venezuela, since Venezuela is not likely to use them to attack anyone. What people should worry about is selling arms to the Bush regime.
What is would mean to crack down on crime (by corporations).
Bobby Fischer, arriving in Iceland, criticizes the US and Israel in a perfectly lucid way. (A little more harshly than I would.)
Other stories have given the impression he is crazy, but he doesn't sound crazy here. Perhaps those stories were meant to unjustly discredit him.
Zimbabwe's formerly excellent medical system is a shambles as AIDS spreads and life expectancy falls to 33 years.
Settlers in Gaza are are threatening to resist with violence rather than leave.
They went to Gaza for the express purpose of imposing their will on the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. I hope they leave peacefully, but if they start violence, I won't be sorry for them if they get hurt in it.
However, I think what is happening is that they think the Israeli Army won't have the stomach to confront them with force. This army, which regularly shoots Palestinian children, will pretend to feel humanitarian considerations when it faces the settlers.
A scientific report shows how widespread ecological degradation imperils the survival of humanity and the rest of life.
In addition to the slow decline of natural resources on which we depend, the strains create opportunities for various kinds of catastrophic collapse. Meanwhile, Bush does his utmost to accelerate the degradation.
US government scientists working on storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain falsified data to make it appear safer than it really is.
Such dishonesty is disgusting but I no longer find it shocking. What does shock me is that a Bush regime official was honest enough to reveal it. The usual Bush pattern is to deny any inconvenient scientific facts, so I wonder why Bush didn't do so here.
Temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctic are rising fast, and the ice is disappearing fast. The danger is not limited to polar bears, and to people who are cut off for months because they can't drive across the ice. We're getting close to a rise in sea level that could swamp coastal cities.
Discovery of new, even more horrible, Enron conversations. (Gloating as fires threatened California's electric supply is just the least of it.)
Illegal loggers who threaten murder against whoever opposes them are tearing down the Amazon rainforest. But President Lula, far from trying to resist this, is building roads to help them.
You can help Greenpeace campaign to stop the logging.
Comparing Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and France in regard to national ID cards.
The Iraqi puppet government is arresting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of long-term foreign residents, making demands they cannot possibly meet. Some of them have no other home to go to.
This is reminiscent of how Bush treated Arab foreigners in the US.
Protestors dared to march in Nepal, handing out flyers in favor of democracy. They were arrested.
Perchlorate pollution is poisonous, but unregulated, because it comes from rocket fuel that the military uses.
Here's the executive summary of the NAS report.
Congressman DeLay participates in many forms of corruption. And he doesn't hesitate to use his own power to prevent his corruption from being punished.
Elected officials would not dare act like this if they expected the voting public to have a chance to respond. DeLay can do it because corporate control of the media is so effective that he know's he's safe from public ire. In other words, because democracy in the US is mostly fiction.
The Bush regime shows a peculiar lack of interest in pursuing evidence of corruption in spending money in Iraq. In fact, it is trying to prevent US courts from pursuing corruption cases involving Bush forces spending there.
This does not surprise me, because I've believed all along that funneling money to cronies is a major part of the motive for war. I'm not surprised either that the Pentagon has dragged its feet on appointing auditors. They would spoil the party.
A military tribunal said Kurnaz, in Guantanamo, was a terrorist. But the evidence they looked at is now declassified, and it shows they had no reason for that conclusion.
So why is Kurnaz still a prisoner? Because of reluctance to admit a mistake? Because of a "bureaucratic trap"? Both occurrences are common, and this is why punishment without trial threatens everyone's freedom.
Bush opposes a plan to block the commerce in illegally logged wood.
The Bush forces tank fired at Giuliana Sgrena's car as it was moving away (toward the airport), and without warning. Interview with Naomi Klein, who spoke with Giuliana in her hospital room.
Israel is creating a new crime - of talking to journalists.
The Israeli Border Patrol arrested a 12-year-old Palestinian boy (illegally), made him terrifying threats, then released him alone in the middle of Israeli settlers. After he ran away to hide, it was hard to find him.
When I was last in Israel, I was told that the people in the Border Patrol are particularly cruel.
Giuliana Sgrena gives more information about the Bush forces' attack that wounded her severely--exposing further lies.
A letter that Blair tried to hush up provides more evidence thast he pressured the UK Attorney General into changing his conclusion that invading Iraq was against international law.
Coca Cola Company pays American Academy of Pediatric Dentists to hush up talk about how soda damages kids' teeth, and to undermine campaigns to stop selling soda in schools. It also bullies and silences dentists who try to talk about the issue.
Many people will agree that what the AAPD has done is corrupt. I will go further and say that schools that try to make money from sweetened beverage sales are corrupt too. Each school administrator that does this is engaging in inexcusable corruption. "We need money" is not an all-purpose excuse. If schools are underfunded, they should take the bull by the horns and start a movement to increase funding through taxes. Collecting the money from sales of Coca Cola costs the children, and their parents, a lot more.
250 Israeli high school students have vowed to go to prison rather than be drafted to support the occupation.
The Arctic Is The Chemical Sink Of The Globe.
Photos show Israelis building rapidly in settlements in Palestine.
Angkor is being destroyed by robbers that cater to secret collections.
Studies conclusively show that herbicide-resistant GM crops hurt wildlife.
The problems are not the direct result of the plants' genetic modifications; they are the result of cultivating the plants with certain herbicides, a method which the genetic modifications were designed to make possible. This means that the problems are independent of the precise way the modification was done. At the same time, these problems do not apply to other kinds of genetic modifications that have entirely different purposes.
Robert Kennedy Jr. reports on Bush's systematic campaign to destroy environmental protection in the US. Every agency is now run by its worst enemy.
Thanks to Bush, coal-burning electric plants are causing lung damage and brain damage in American children. They emit mercury, and 1/6 of American women have so much mercury in their bodies that their children are likely to be born with brain damage. This is because Bush allowed those plants to keep polluting.
The essay degenerates at the end into religious blither, but that doesn't make its information less cogent.
Transparency International's report on corruption in Bush-ruled Iraq.
The Bush regime doesn't get good marks.
The main Palestinian peace negotiator says continued Isreali expansion of settlements around Jerusalem will make peace impossible.
The FBI admitted (secretly) that evidence obtained from Guantanamo prisoners was "suspect at best" because it was obtained by torture.
New EPA Mercury Rule Called Illegal.
A court in California ruled that journalists have no right to protect their sources when it comes to trade secrets. In addition, it approved getting the information from journalists' ISPs. The EFF will appeal the ruling.
There are many reasons not to trust your email to any ISP in an environment like the US that doesn't respect civil liberties. A previous note describes the experiences of the person whose ISP permanently denied him access to his own email at the simple request of the US government.
Bush showed his contempt for the world by proposing Wolfensohn to head the World Bank.
The World Bank has acted for decades to promote privatization and the empire of the corporations. Perhaps appointing an unqualified bully as its head will help the opposition organize.
Zimbabwe, in economic collapse, prepares for a rigged election.
Privatizing the London Underground has been a costly failure.
This is what people get for dogmatic worship of the invisible hand.
The BBC bowed to Israeli censorship by apologizing for not allowing censors to view its interview with Mordechai Vanunu. Shame on you, BBC.
Evo Morales and Bolivians demanding a large increase in taxes on exports of natural gas called off their street protests, after the lower house of Congress passed a bill giving more or less what they asked for.
I've read elsewhere that the 32% tax imposed on gas exports by this bill, combined with other existing taxes, would amount to more or less the 50% demanded by the protestors.
The energy minister is mistaken: economic suicide for most of Bolivia is what would result from continuing down the current path. He, like President Mesa, has taken the side of the megacorporations who are Bolivia's principal real enemies.
Uri Avnery: Memory of the Holocaust - from Jewish property into human possession
The European Commission is concerned about problems from a fall in Europe's population in coming years. Fortunately it recommends more immigration as the solution.
The world's population increase threatens living standards, the environment, causes extinction of species, etc.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel reports that a Palestinian peace activist has been arrested and is being tortured.
Unemployed workers in Argentina got a loan to build a housing project. It seems to be working so far.
A long report by Giuliana Sgrena about her experiences as a hostage in Iraq.
World Bank employees are saying they object to Wolfowitz.
I expect the Bush regime to steamroll their protests. His standard practice is to crush any sort of integrity that an agency may have, so that it becomes totally obedient. I would guess that's what Wolfowitz is meant to do in the World Bank.
If so, maybe the regime is trying to turn up the pressure for privatization. This could work, but it could also backfire by stimulating stronger resistance.
Here's an example of resistance: in Bolivia, the inhabitants of El Alto (which lies between La Paz and its airport) are once again taking to the streets, because President Mesa refuses to cancel the privatization of their water.
It is a mistake to even think of compensating the privateers for their "investment" in something fundamentally exploitive. Kicking them out without a cent would teach "investors" a salutary lesson about the risks of "investing" in charging poor people exorbitantly for water.
Palestinian groups voted to maintain a truce. Will Israel stop its violence against Palestinians?
The West should demand that the Israeli government do more to rein in its extremist groups.
As Bush pretends to have succeeded in promoting democracy in the Middle East, the fact is that his policies are spreading hatred for the US, as well as religious fanaticism.
However, all the anti-Americans in the Middle East can't mistreat the US as much as Bush does.
An Israeli calls for popular pressure through divestment in companies that support the occupation.
He reports on the regular torture of Palestinians that he witnessed as a soldier, and the steady advance of Israeli settlements even in times of "peace".
Vietnam's Agent Orange Victims Feel Cheated by U.S. Court
Remember this when people talk about chemical weapons.
Bush's appointment of Wolfowitz: a declaration of contempt, or a declaration of war?
It would be a mistake to see the World Bank as an political instrument of the US. Rather, both the World Bank and the US government function mostly as instruments of the megacorporations.
Thanks to murderous paramilitaries, 75% of the land in Colombia is in the hands of the rich. The result is urban poverty for many. This is supported by the US and the UK.
This reminds me of Vietnam, where the US also had a policy of driving peasants off the land and into "strategic hamlets".
Coca Cola Company is involved in these murders too. That's one of the reasons for the boycott of Coca Cola Company. See kiillercoke.org.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu faces new imprisonment for speaking to journalists, which violates conditions unjustly imposed on him after the end of his sentence.
Most Palestinians now reject suicide bombings and want to give peace a chance.
Genetically modified corn in the US, and logging in Mexico, are wiping out the Monarch Butterfly.
Bush has pressured Guatemala into adopting a law restricting generic drugs. The result will be thousands of deaths.
This is a simple but clear example of what "free trade" treaties mean. I'm not against international trade, but these treaties must be abolished.
Greg Palast reports that oil companies have beaten out the neocons, and convinced Bush to drop the plan to privatize Iraq's oil.
Meanwhile, he presents evidence that Bush began planning the attack--and the privatization--shortly after taking office. More proof that 9/11 was just an excuse for what he wanted to do anyway.
Il Ducino says that Italian troops will leave Iraq starting in September. Even other fascists find it hard to fully support Bush.
However, this statement falis to say when Italian forces will actually be out Iraq. So it could be just a way to appease Italians for the election while really not planning to change much of anything.
Israel's parliament accepted a report detailing how the government had secretly funded illegal expansion of settlements, and announced a plan to eliminate a fraction of them.
I'm concerned about the plan to "make illegal construction in the West Bank a criminal offense." Palestinians essentially cannot get construction permission from Israel, so all new houses are illegal, and Israel frequently uses that as an excuse to demolish these houses. With this law, Iseael could also imprison the Palestinians who build on their own land.
Hariri Reportedly Assassinated To Make Way For Large US Air Base In Lebanon
I'm not sure how much credibility to give to this theory, but I wouldn't put assassination beyond the US government, any more than I would put it beyond the Syrian government.
The Earth's fish stocks are overexploited, and the situation is rapidly getting worse. This raises the prospect of wiping out fish stocks, much as the cod of the Grand Banks were wiped out.
Ken Livingstone shatters the Bush-Blair terror campaign, saying there is "More danger from bird flu than from terrorists".
Unfortunately, despite all the opposition, Blair has achieved his ends: to undermine civil liberties in the UK. A minister can now sign a "control order" to take away anyone's rights.
The hearings that these suspects can have do not follow the rules of trials, and do less to protect people from fabrications. (Not that real trials do enough, since perjury committed by or arranged by police often suffices to frame people.)
I believe it is just a matter of time before these control orders are applied to crushing political dissent of all kinds.
Bush and Schwarzenegger have both produced fake news stories.
This article asserts that the US media are independent. The mass media are hardly independent, they are controlled by the same corporations that (more or less) control the government. However, that doesn't diminish the wrongness of corrupting the situation further.
36 cases of using software patents for aggression, many against free software.
1/3 of the population of Lebanon protested to tell the Syrian army to pull out, and the President of Lebanon too.
Ward Churchill is the focal point for a long-planned Republican attack on academic freedom in the US.
Large anti-Syrian and pro-Syrian rallies are being held in Lebanon. Meanwhile, it appears there was a coverup in regard to the assassination of Hariri. That might be evidence for Syrian involvement in the killing.
What Syrians can do, Americans can do. The debris of the World Trade Center was moved and discarded without an investigation, which lends support to the theory that the Bush regime was involved. I wish the UN would conduct a serious investigation of who was responsible, but the UN is unlikely to apply the same standards to a US coverup as to a Syrian coverup.
Accord With Tomato Pickers Ends Boycott Of Taco Bell.
The plea of a Palestinian who has been punished for building a house for his family on his own land in his town.
Global warming is increasing the amount of forest fires, which make carbon dioxide from the trees and from the ground below the fire. This contributes even more to global warming.
Peculiarities of the Kyoto Treaty are encouraging harmful investments in poor countries. These peculiarities were imposed by the US, which due to Bush then turned around and didn't sign.
Pier Scolari, who was with Giuliana Sgrena and Nicola Calipari when the Bush forces killed the latter and wounded the former, says that the attack was deliberate and without warning.
An interview with Giuliana Sgrena.
A response to Ken Livingstone: if Sharon is a war criminal, then so is Blair.
This is basically true, but the crime that Blair is guilty of, for launching a war of aggression, is more accurately described (in Nuremberg terms) as a crime against the peace.
The Israeli government has collaborated eagerly in establishment of illegal settlement outposts in Palestinian lands.
Noam Chomsky: US election campaigns work like ad campaigns for toothpase, based on image and nothing else.
One of the honest bureaucrats in the US Army tried to do her job and block Halliburton's corruption. The Army tried to label her as incompetent and force her retire. But she's determined to fight corruption, even if that means fighting the White House.
The Bush regime is corrupt from the top on down, and there is no room in the US government for anyone who is honest and incorruptible.
US infrastructure is crumbling under the weight of Bush regime. This is consistent with the Bush philosophy of "grab what you can" and his lack of concern for the future of the country.
It would be better to spend money on maintaining US infrastructure than on conquering Iraq. However, there is no point expanding highways or airports now, since oil prices are likely to shoot up in a few years, and this will reduce traffic.
Some courts in France are refusing to enforce copyright law against people who make copies for noncommercil distribution. Hooray.
All across Central America, people are protesting against plansfor a new "free trade" treaty with the US.
The European Union is planning to crush human rights in the name of safety."Evidence" obtained from anonymous "intelligence sources" would be presented in court, making it easy to fabricate a basis to imprison anyone. Even to express certain opinions--such as, to say that an act labeled as "terrorism" was necessary or justified--would be a crime.
People were shocked when the ACLU defended the rights of Nazis to hold a public rally in the US--but there is a good reason for this. France and Germany have long prohibited certain kinds of statements of support for Nazism. Given that precedent, it is hard to argue against extending the prohibition. In effect, it is already functioning as the "edge of the wedge" to attack freedom of speech.
Blair broke the government's own rules by concealing information from his ministers, in order to gain their acquiescence for attacking Iraq.
A boycott-Coke protest at Iowa State University.
Why does Bush want RFIDs in passports?
How business delayed the recognition that diesel fumes are dangerous.
One way to reduce these fumes would be to encourage sending freight by train rather than by rail. (Trains use diesel engines too, but use much less fuel for the same amount of cargo.) High taxes on diesel fuel would be one way to do the job.
Opposition to the war is hampering US military recruitment.
Italian journalist Sgrena accuses the Bush forces of intentionally shooting at her vehicle, and says that they lied about the circumstances. (She was injured; the Italian agent who had arranged her release from Iraqi kidnapers was killed.)
I believe Sgrena, because this fits a pattern.
Bush has sent over 100 people abroad to be tortured.
Protestors are blocking a plan to cut down a burned but vital old-growth forest in Oregon.
Other reports, for which I have no URLs, say that the cops arrested several protestors and dragged them across a gravel road face down. They dislocated one protestor's shoulder. Apparently they did not accuse these people of "assaulting an officer"; there must have been too many witnesses.
War protestor Chris Gaunt talks about her experiences in prison for nonviolent protest, including being falsely accused and convicted of attacking a policeman when she went limp.
Policemen lie to support each other just like members of a gang. On a question like this, I will trust the protestor's unsupported word more than any number of policemen.
Coca Cola Company uses a series of deceptions and half-truths to evade responsibility for actions over which it has control. It refuses to cooperate with independent investigations, but instead funded a phony "independent" investigation.
The telecom companies are funding a large network of organizations to pretend to be grass-roots support for their policies.
As a result, the FCC Consumer Advisory Committtee is packed with people that indirectly represent the telecom companies.
Greg Palast wishes Dan Rather, and American journalism, "rest in peace".
Bush's "Clear Skies" bill is actually a rollback of environmental regulations. Even some Republican senators oppose it, and it seems unlikely to pass. So he is now trying to attack the organization of state officials that oppose it.
A Half Million Lebanese March for Syria.
Now I am starting to worry more than violence will break out afresh in Lebanon.
I wondered for a while whether this is what Bush intends. However, given Bush's preference not to hear bad news or projections of problems, to disregard reality for fantasy, I think he simply isn't paying attention to the issue.
Public pressure convinced Tiffany's to continue boycotting Burmese gems, which are mined with slave labor by the military rulers.
This shows how even when companies act with ethical scruples, the public needs to keep the pressure on.
Bush policies undermine the global fight against the spread of AIDS, by opposing needle-exchange and requiring recipients to pledge to "oppose prostitution". This pledge, aside from being unethical, makes it hard to help prostitutes stay healthy.
The reason this pledge is unethical is that prostitution isn't wrong. I can't imagine wanting to pay someone to have sex with me, since I would not feel loved or wanted in such a situation, but I see no grounds to condemn prostitutes. Being a prostitute isn't doing wrong to anyone.
There are moves in the US to limit protections for journalists to major (corporate) media only.
This makes sense. The corporate media are controlled enough not to be very dangerous. The First Amendment is therefore most important, most dangerous to corrupt officials, when it applies to independent journalists.
Texas Republicans are moving to block prosecution for election law violations, to save Tom DeLay.
These things are possible because the US media are so controlled. If we had a healthy democracy, they would be afraid of public opinion.
Bush resumed military aid to Indonesia, based on a dishonest claim that Indonesia has met the legal requirements for doing so.
Opposition is growing to water privatization in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Muslim women's rights activists say that Bush is undermining the gains they have made.
Victims of a Stalled Revolution
Bush imposed a deathlike quiet on the city of Mainz, and the inhabitants (and Germans in general) are getting angry.
If you are living in a place that Bush wants to visit, I suggest you start a public "Bush is not welcome" movement before he gets there. Maybe you can cancel the visit that way. If that doesn't work, pay for a big "Bush go home" sign near the place he wants to go. Bush does not like to see criticism; perhaps that sign will be enough to make him stay away.
Since the Israeli settlers have been threatening violence if they don't get their way, Gush Shalom suggests, "Take away their guns".
Robert Fisk: Is Lebanon walking into another nightmare?
While Fisk warns that Hezbollah's refusal to disarm opens the threat of renewed violence, the leader of Hezbollah says he doesn't want violence in Lebanon. I hope it is true.
Brazil convinced the WTO to rule the US must end its cotton subsidies.
While it is nice to see a poor country benefit from the WTO for a change, we shouldn't let this blind us to the harm that the WTO does.
Ending the US subsidies could eliminate wasteful use of resources in the US. But if this is to benefit the poor farmers in poor countries, it needs to be accompanied by Fair Trade measures. Otherwise, the rich in those countries will capture most of what US agribusiness loses.
Human Rights Watch says the king of Nepal's army has seized and murdered hundreds of civilians. His enemy, the Maoist rebels, are also murdering civilians, but the style differs.
Things seem to have got worse since the king abolished the civilian government.
The Bush forces marine that was filmed murdering a prisoner in Fallujah apparently won't be prosecuted.
I feel sorry for him for being shot in the face, for seeing his buddies shot, but that is no excuse--neither for killing prisoners, nor for fighting the war, because he was wrong to be there in the first place. It is justified for a conquered people to resist the aggressor with force, and this does not excuse the aggression.
New Zealand developed a weapon to produce tsunamis during World War II. It appears there has been further development of the weapon since then.
The guards in a UK prison had a game: putting prisoners together who would fight each other. One of these prisoners, who was just about to be released, was beaten to death. The guard who reported this has received threats from other guards--including their union leaders.
The Fair Trade movement is growing.
I wish I could participate, but I don't buy much of the goods that they cover. Most of the food I eat is either in restaurants, or ready-to-eat in boxes--not raw materials--so it is the restaurant or the food company that decides where to get the ingredients.
I think Fair Trade should be imposed by law by the rich countries, as a way to transfer income from business to poor country producers. The WTO probably prohibits this, because the WTO serves business, not the poor. This is another reason to abolish the WTO.
A militia leader in Sudan says the government arranged the mass murder that his group participated in.
Efforts to defend the US against bioterrorists - by throwing money at research - are backfiring, says a 750-strong group of top scientists.
Bush is using a claim of "national security" to wipe out lawsuits from people who he arranged to torture.
Long before Bush, it was well known that most of the information kept secret by the army was kept secret to protect them from public criticism, rather than from enemies. The Reynolds case proves, if proof was needed, that the government cannot be trusted in saying what needs to be secret. What we see now is the application of this principle, "national security" as an excuse to cover up vicious government crimes, at the highest level.
In Ukraine, senior police officers have been arrested for murdering a journalist.
The UK will stop requiring privatization as a condition for foreign aid.
Hear, hear!
The US has used the tsunami as an excuse to push two kinds of intervention in Sri Lanka--military and economic.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, dared to criticize Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, and to call Ariel Sharon a "war criminal".
I agree wholehearedly with the sentiments in this speech. I wish it were not so rare that I get a chance to say that about a political leader.
The global warming denial industry, funded by oil companies, works to create just enough skepticism about the danger so that nothing will get done to prevent it.
The most important part of this article is, "CBI...warned that companies could decamp to less heavily-regulated jurisdictions." That's what business-dominated globalization means: any government that tries to rein in the dangerous or cruel practices of business receives this threat.
I see only two solutions: either a world-wide democratic government that the companies can't threaten to escape from, or put an end to business-dominated globalization. The effective way for governments to regulate business is to regulate the sale of products: "If you want to sell it here, you must follow these rules." This is what the WTO prohibits. The WTO must go!
The fashion show that was really a protest.
U.S. Must Charge Padilla With Crime or Release Him
Blair's attacks on civil liberties in the UK: a sorry pattern.
When Bush visited Mainz (Germany), the whole city was effectively shut down to present a pretty and fake backdrop. A visit with citizens was canceled when the German government refused to select only those who are friendly to Bush.
European leaders are politely ignoring what Bush has to say.
Uri Avnery thinks the situation in Lebanon is indeed a new expression of the old struggles between religious groups.
This disagrees with the report I linked to recently which says that the opposition is general. I have no way to check either one, but I have more confidence in Avnery than in an American newspaper. And it seemed too good to be true.
Liat Weingart, of Jewish Voice for Peace, thanks the Presbyterian Church for deciding to put pressure on companies that support the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The US is developing a weapon designed to attack crowds by causing extreme pain.
Jonathan Schell argues that the apparent power of the US is a mirage, because the US is unable to use that power to attain its objectives.
I don't entirely agree. Keep in mind that it is not really the US government that rules this empire; it aids the megacorporations in maintaining their empire. So the way to measure the effectiveness of the megacorporations' power is to see how often the megacorporations get what they want.
Recently in India, person who ought to know told me that the pressure for India to change its patent laws (well beyond what the WTO requires--not that WTO requirements are legitimate) comes mainly from the US government. India is the main supplier of cheap medicine to keep HIV in check. The drug companies stand to make lots of money from cutting off the flow, while millions of the not-quite-poorest-of-the-poor will die as a result.
In Iraq, it looks like Bush may get away with the privatization and plunder of the country's assets, even though it may cost thousands of Bush forces casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties per year.
It seems that Bush often gets the megacorporations what they want, even though this may not correspond to announced "national interests".
A member of the House of Lords speaks eloquently about the need to preserve the right to a real trial.
The Turkish prime minister has sued a cartoonist for a cartoon that criticized the prime minister. This despite the fact that he was himself imprisoned for speaking against a previous government.
Blair is making some concessions in his attempt to impose a policy of punishment without trial on UK citizens. But he is very determined to get it through, and rejected a proposal to require reconsideration of the law next November.
The amendments being considered would make the law less bad, but there is still no justification for it. If they think someone is using telephones to plot something, they can listen to his phone calls.
Uruguay's new president, a leftist, forges bonds with various other leftists--including Castro.
The question is, will they go beyond occasional defiance of Washington, and confront Washington's masters: the megacorporations, and their low-wage treaties.
Bush said that the US needs "reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy", but that was just meant to sound good. Less then 2 months later, his budget plan cuts funds for clean energy research.
Invading other countries is expensive, so something or other has to be cut. But why this? I think Bush has a specific reason for these cuts: he wants to make the US as dependent as possible on the products sold by his friends in the oil business.
The pro-Syrian prime minister of Lebanon resigned after massive protests.
I am heartened to read that the opposition is spread across all the religious groups in Lebanon. My concern at first was that this was a manifestation of an underlying power-struggle between the groups. If opposition to the Syrian troop presence is uniting Lebanon, that is a good thing for Lebanon. It also suggests that the reason for the Syrian troops to be there is no longer applicable.
Bhutan has banned all public smoking, and sale of tobacco. I support efforts to reduce tobacco addiction, but prohibition goes too far.
An Iranian journalist has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in a secret trial where his lawyer was not present.
This journalist was not allowed to meet with his lawyer, and he wasn't given a real trial. Sounds like the mullahs are learning from Bush.
Blair wants to imprison people who are mentally ill and violence-prone.
I sympathize with the motivation, but the danger from such people is quite small; meanwhile, such imprisonment was abused in the past. So I think this proposal will cause more danger than it prevents. If Blair and co. want to protect the public from dangerous psychopaths, how about starting with the megacorporations?
Bush is negotiating with the Iraqi resistance.
Bush will not agree to a solution that doesn't let his cronies plunder Iraq. I think Bush is trying to play on divisions within Iraq, and the result could also be a civil war. It would be awfully sad if the Iraqis accept this, rather than pushing the Bush forces out.
South Africa is failing to address the AIDS problem, hiding the extent of it rather than taking effective action.
The total deaths due to President Mbeki's refusal to recognize the situation will number in the millions.
Israel is trying to blame Syria for a recent suicide bombing.
I think it is partly a matter of "blame the usual suspects", partly a matter of helping Bush (who wants to cause trouble for Syria), and perhaps partly a matter of its relations with the Palestinian Authority.
Israel isn't blaming the Palestinian Authority for the bombing, rather for not preventing the bombing. Of course, it has no practical ability to do so. This demand is like the labors of Hercules--it is unjustified and designed to be impossible, so it realy serves as an excuse to block peace and put the blame on the Palestinians.
Israeli terrorism is carried out by soldiers and police, and by settlers. The first two could be stopped by a simple government decision. The terrorism committed by settlers, like that committed by underground Palestinian groups, is harder to stop. But if Israel stops the terrorism that is directly government supported, that might be enough to change the climate so that the Palestinian underground groups will have to stop too.
How to save a criminal corporation from prosecution.
A new Republican report claims scientists have overestimated the danger of mercury poisoning. But since this report was written by politically-appointed congressional staff, I'd believe the scientists.
Bush's plans for forestry involve eliminating environmental impact statements--which means that he can give his cronies whatever they want, without format review.
The new rules also authorize the agency to ignore scientific evidence. As a recent note pointed out, another Bush agency frequently pressures scientists to lie. Just ignoring them must be easier.
I predict that next Bush will fire the scientists in federal agencies. With the major media ready to support his lies, he has no interest in facts.
Turkey has become quite hostile to the US, and with good reason.
Without supporting the Turkish position on all the issues, I urge the Turkish government should stop pretending to be best of friends with Bush, and start proudly opposing him.
Novartis wants to buy major makers of generic drugs. I worry about the possibility for corruption that this would open up.
I suspect that Novartis will try to use its position to prevent generic drugs from being available, and I think this merger should be blocked.
The Bush forces took Iraqi civilians prisoner, and when their relatives came to ask about them, the soldiers attacked the relatives.
And this was the British Bush forces, the ones that are supposed to know how to be less cruel.
Novartis wants to buy major makers of generic drugs. I worry about the possibility for corruption that this would open up.
I suspect that Novartis will try to use its position to prevent generic drugs from being available, and I think this merger should be blocked.
How biased and controlled are mass media in the US? Comparing the coverage of two scandals, one right-wing and one left-wing, gives a clear picture.
By the way, I don't see anything the slightest bit wrong in a reporter's helping a citizen formulate a question to ask an official.
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