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Political notes from 2006: September - December

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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.

 

• 31 December 2006 (Saddam Hussein executed)

  Saddam Hussein has been executed, after being convicted for a small part of his crimes. Now that he is dead, there will probably be no trials for the bigger crimes he committed. Was the execution intended to cover up the involvement of other governments in those larger crimes?

  The execution of Saddam Hussein was unjust, regardless of his crimes, because execution is always unjust. He deserved life imprisonment for his murders. His execution makes it impossible to punish Bush properly for his similar crimes; imprisonment in the same cell with Hussein is the only fitting punishment for Bush.

   

• 31 December 2006 (Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost arrested)

  Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, who wrote a book about his three years of imprisonment in Guantanamo, has now been arrested again -- because his book criticizes the government of Pakistan for handing him over to Bush.

   

• 31 December 2006 (Highway Privatization)

  Privatization of highways in the US will give American drivers a taste of what the US has imposed on many other countries.

  Because building a new highway is so politically difficult, as well as expensive, there is effectively no competition in the road market, so highway privatization is obviously harmful for the public. This practice is nothing more than raiding the public treasury. it ought to be a crime.

   

• 31 December 2006 (Military Spy Teams)

  The Bush regime stationed "military spy teams" in many countries -- even "friendly" ones -- out of distrust for the CIA.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Predatory companies)

  Large predatory companies squeeze billions out of poor Americans for loans, check cashing, money transfers, etc.

  Those companies are also very effective at lobbying, which is why the government permits them to continue.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Who to call the enemy)

  The Bush regime have had trouble, for years, figuring out who in Iraq to call "the enemy".

  The Bush forces troops have a simpler view of things. They consider Iraqis enemies, pure and simple. For instance, a Bush forces patrol in Ramadi couldn't find the resistance fighters they were looking for. So they arrested 50 men at random, broke their arms, and crushed their fingers.

  Since the Bush forces have already crushed medical care in Iraq, many of those men will be crippled for life. But I am sure some of them will overcome their handicaps to find ways to fight their country's oppressors. Perhaps some will become suicide bombers.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Separation fence)

  Israeli protestors set up a barbed-wire "separation fence" in the middle of Tel Aviv, giving Israelis a taste of what they are doing to Palestinians' lives.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Ice Shelf)

  An ice shelf bigger than Manhattan Island broke off from Ellesmere Island in the Arctic. This part of a long-term trend which is caused by global warming.

  The melting of sea ice does not alter sea level, but ice reflects sunlight much more than water does. As the Arctic loses its ice, it will warm even more -- and if Greenland melts, it will be Manhattan Island that we say goodbye to.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Back into the fight)

  The Bush forces, desperate for troops to secure their conquest of Iraq's oil, are forcing discharged troops back into the fight.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Seas gulp inhabited island)

  Lohachara Island, formerly home to 10,000 people, has been taken by rising seas.

  It will be the first of many; as I write this note, in Manhattan Island, I wonder how long before it too is flooded.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Ethiopean army conquers Somalia)

  The Ethiopean army has conquered Somalia; the fighters of the Union of Islamic Courts melted away.

  If Somalis accept the foreign-appointed "transitional government", the results may be good. On the other hand, the transfer of allegience of warlords and clans sounds like what happened in Afghanistan, and it might unravel the same way Afghanistan is now doing.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Jonathan Hutto)

  Seaman Jonathan Hutto is organizing against the occupation of Iraq.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Suicide)

  In addition to the thousands killed by the Bush forces and the civil war they have provoked, an increasing number of Iraqis are commiting suicide from the stress that this causes.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Polar bears)

  In a crack in Bush's War on the Environment, the US has listed polar bears as a threatened species due to global warming.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Opposition TV channel)

  Venezuela's President Chavez plans to shut down an opposition TV channel.

  It is true that the opposition media actively supported the coup attempt in 2002, going far beyond the expression of political opinions. But that is in the past, and shutting down opposition media is not a good thing to do.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Political manipulation of disaster)

  Greg Palast documents the government actions that are keeping Blacks from returning to New Orleans -- political manipulation of disaster.

  The city of New Orleans should not be rebuilt in the same place, because that is asking for future disaster. They can't keep raising the levees as the sea rises. But the city should be rebuilt, on higher ground -- moving the parts that were not flooded this time.

  This will cost money, but it will be money well spent.

   

• 30 December 2006 (Armadillos)

  Armadillos are moving into the northern US, probably as a result of global warming.

  Lots of other organisms are on the move too, including some that can devastate crops or make people sick.

   

• 28 December 2006 (Apartheid and Israel)

  Desmond Tutu compared Israel to the apartheid system he lived under. Here's more explanation.

   

• 28 December 2006 (Iran oil revenue)

  Iran's oil revenue is declining fast.

  To my mind, this lends more credibility to the statements made by the government of Iran about developing nuclear power.

   

• 28 December 2006 (Bush forces deaths exceed 9/11)

  The Bush forces death toll now exceeds that of the 9/11 attacks in the US.

  The Bush regime is clearly responsible for the deaths of the soldiers it sent to Iraq, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis it has killed. Whether it was responsible for the attacks of Sep 11, 2001, has not been properly investigated.

   

• 28 December 2006 (US army may recruit abroad)

  As the Bush regime struggles to recruit enough soldiers for its wars of conquest, it is considering active recruitment of foreigners, offering US citizenship as a reward.

  The Bush regime's aggression completely changes the way we must judge this issue, as it does so many others. If these recruits were truly "defending their country (to be)", as the soppy propaganda of the mainstream media says, giving them citizenship would be entirely appropriate. However, if that were the mission of the US Army, it would not have a shortfall.

   

• 28 December 2006 (Carter: US is Prime Proliferation Culprit)

  President Carter warns that Bush has made the US the "prime culprit" in nuclear weapons proliferation, destroying decades of work.

   

• 28 December 2006 (Apartheid in the Holy Land)

  Desmond Tutu: Apartheid in the Holy Land.

  Uri Avnery: Israel's insistence on pretending it is in Europe is part of a world view that prevents peace.

   

• 28 December 2006 (War in Somalia)

  A commentary on the war in Somalia calls on Somalian expatriates to try to reconcile the fighting.

  I don't share that writer's admiration for Islamist martyrs; Islamic law is another name for cruelty and injustice. The regime of the Islamic Courts can only show merit when compared with the anarchic warlord violence that Somalia has known for decades.

  Nonetheless, his point about where the war is headed seems valid. Ethiopia's army can probably conquer some or all of Somalia, but the "transitional government" in whose name they are doing so exists only in name, and its support comes purely from outside the country. Ethiopia is likely to have to turn to murderous warlords to exercise control. Somalis will not obey willingly.

  There are reports that the US organized this intervention.

  This is the sort of disastrous thing the Bush regime habitually does. Whether it intentionally promotes the growth of Al Qa'ida because it needs an enemy to scare Americans with, or whether it persistently fights Al Qa'ida in ways that backfire, is hard to tell from the outside -- because either way the outcome is the same.

  Here's some more information.

   

• 26 December 2006 (Colombian death squads)

  The Colombian government has been tied by hard evidence to the right-wing death squads (which we always knew were working for that government).

   

• 26 December 2006 (Great debate)

  The great debate among Iraqi Sunnis: is the fighting in Iraq a religious war or a fight against an external occupier?

  Harith al-Dhari is right in his advice to Iraqis: don't fight each other, fight the occupiers. However, factually it is clear that many Iraqis have turned their backs on this wise advice, and are now engaged in what they see as a battle between Sunnis and Shi'ites. It is also clear that Bush forces activities have played up that conflict -- following the age-old policy of "divide and rule".

   

• 26 December 2006 (Gas tax)

  The UK made a small increase in the gas tax, which has drawn a lot of opposition from short-sighted drivers.

  Greenhouse gas emissions are rising rapidly, and they are already too high. In my view, as long as driving continues to increase, the gas tax is too small.

   

• 26 December 2006 (Holocaust-denial conference)

  Iranian president Ahmadinejad organized a world-wide holocaust-denial conference.

  While B'liar is right to condemn this, he pointedly ignores the lessons about oppression that we ought to learn from Nazi atrocities.

   

• 24 December 2006 (Plans for Iran)

  Amy Goodman interviews Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh about Bush plans for Iran.

  Ritter has a good point that most Americans are only "anti-losing", and don't recognize the invasion of Iraq as wrong. This is why the recently elected Democrats are doing nothing to end the war, and why I didn't support them and still do not.

   

• 24 December 2006 (Raoul Castro)

  Raoul Castro has suggested he might lead Cuba to more freedom of speech.

   

• 24 December 2006 (Complete the theft)

  Bush is rushing to complete the theft of Iraq's oil, by pressuring the "Iraqi" government to hand it over to Western oil companies.

  As Iraqis blead, and Americans pay, those thieves are the ones to blame.

   

• 24 December 2006 (Soldiers charged with murder)

  Four Bush forces soldiers have been charged with murder for shooting helpless Iraqi civilians after the resistance attacked them.

  These murder charges are a speck of doing what is right, in an ocean of Bush evil. The command structure was well on its way to covering up these murders when bad luck tripped them up. We can be sure that lots of other Bush forces soldiers succeed in covering up similar murders.

   

• 24 December 2006 (Cost of the war)

  Economist Joseph Stiglitz says that Bush's war will cost the US 2 trillion dollar.

   

• 24 December 2006 (The Sunderbans)

  The Sunderbans, home to the world's largest wild tiger population and to almost 2 million people, is being flooded and destroyed by global warming.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Mugabe intends to stay on)

  Mugabe, who has crushed democracy and freedom in Zimbabwe, says he intends to stay on as "president" for as long as he likes.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Copenhagen squat eviction riot)

  A riot broke out as Copenhagen police tried to evict a squatter group from the building it has used, with official acquiescence, for 24 years.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Refresher about PNAC)

  A refresher about the PNAC, and what they did with their convenient New Pearl Harbor.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Bush forces arrest Reuters reporter)

  The Bush forces arrested Reuters reporter Ammar ad-Dulaymi.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Al-Safadi open letter to Ahmedinejad)

  Mahmoud Al-Safadi, recently released from 18 years in an Israeli prison, wrote an open letter to Iran's president Ahmedinejad calling on him to recognize the Holocaust.

  I stand in honor of the moral courage shown by Palestinian in respecting the great wrong that was done to the ancestors of the Israelis that now oppress his people -- even as he champions the end of that oppression. Unlike most Israelis, Mr Al-Safadi has drawn the right lesson from the Holocaust: never again--to anyone!

  Three cheers to the former Israeli soldiers who have gone on tour explaining to the world the "monsters" that they became while enforcing the Israeli occupation.

  And three cheers to Jimmy Carter for daring to say in a prominent way what Israel is doing in Palestine.

  Jews who want to prove the injustice of using Israel's wrongs as an excuse for anti-semitism have a duty to speak up in support of Carter.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Expert accuses Bush regime on bioweapons)

  A prominent expert in bioweapons disarmament accuses the Bush regime of developing biological weapons for aggression and terror.

  This raises the question of what must be done to take away Bush's weapons of mass distruction.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Bush to expand Army)

  Bush, admitting for the first time that he isn't winning the war against the Iraqi Resistance, took up the proposal to expand the US Army.

  The most interesting point here is that this adopts the solution Democrats have found to avoid ending the occupation.

  Maliki has a plan for how to use extra forces to defeat the Resistance.

  I don't think it would work. Occupying armies that try to defeat a popular uprising tend to fail; the guerrillas "melt away" when the opposition is concentrated, and come back later.

  However, Bush might win if he destroys outright the areas where Sunnis live, killing them or forcing them into exile. Examples such as Falluja show we should not put that past him.

  Otherwise, the ISG's proposal for Iraqization is available as a way to make defeat look less bad.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Gates admits Bush forces not winning)

  Robert Gates, now confirmed as Secretary of "Defense", admitted that the Bush forces are not winning the war in Iraq.

  But he presented a skewed version of the range of possible outcomes: either "improving" (from the Bush point of view) or a "regional conflagration", designed to put the idea of ending the war off the table.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Palestinians can sue Israel)

  An Israeli court ruled that Palestinians can sue the Israeli government for damages -- but the exceptions are so broad that this will cover just a small part of the damage that Israel does to them.

   

• 22 December 2006 (Barcelona artists naked protest)

  An evicted group of artist squatters in Barcelona transformed their defeat into theater, by protesting naked when the mayor spoke.

   

• 21 December 2006 (Freedom of Information law)

  B'liar plans to gut the UK's Freedom of Information law. It has been too effective at enabling journalists to find out what he is doing.

   

• 21 December 2006 (Correctional Corporation of America)

  The Correctional Corporation of America operates a privatized prison that holds 400 prisoners, half of them children, none of whom is accused of a crime.

   

• 21 December 2006 (Guantanamo)

  The Bush regime is making the Guantanamo prison more painful, claiming all the prisoners are all dangerous "terrorists", even though many of them are known not to be terrorists at all.

   

• 21 December 2006 (1000 attacks a week)

  The Iraqi resistance, which specifically attacks the occupying Bush forces, is more active than ever before, launching almost 1000 attacks a week.

   

• 21 December 2006 (Supposed plot)

  Last summer's supposed plot to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" (but nothing to what Bush has committed in Iraq) turns out to be pure hype, but Bush and B'liar won't admit it.

   

• 21 December 2006 (Syria)

  Neo-cons in the US wanted Israel to attack Syria, and they are still blocking Israel from opening talks with Syria.

   

• 20 December 2006 (Local causes)

  Citizens of Shenzhen, China, are trying to organize and run for local office for the sorts of local causes that people commonly champion in the West--despite legal and political systems rigged to keep them down.

   

• 20 December 2006 (Restrictions on protest)

  The opposition in Russia, including former politicians and the leader of a banned party, planned a mass protest march in Moscow, defying Bush-style and B'liar-style restrictions on protest.

  I presume this has already occurred, but I have not read about the outcome.

   

• 20 December 2006 (FBI informer in prison)

  The Bush forces in Iraq kept an FBI informer in prison for 97 days, after arresting him in the raid triggered by his own information. They refused to believe him, and apparently did not hurry to ask the FBI.

  If people working for the FBI take 97 days to be released, imagine how many years it takes if you don't have something like the FBI to back you up.

   

• 20 December 2006 (Iraqi Red Crescent)

  The Bush forces often attack the Iraqi Red Crescent. Now Iraqi kidnapers have joined in.

   

• 19 December 2006 (Wildlife)

  Where did all our wildlife go?

   

• 19 December 2006 (National reconciliation)

  "Iraqi" prime minister al-Maliki called a meeting about national reconciliation, but nobody came to represent the militias.

   

• 19 December 2006 (Carne Ross' testimony)

  Here is the full text of Carne Ross' testimony. He testifies that through mid 2002 (when B'liar was already preparing the "dodgy dossier" that would present excuses for war), UK intelligence believed that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no WMD and posed no threat to any other country, and never got any evidence to the contrary.

  He also shows why this means that the Bush invasion was illegal under the UN charter.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Yangtze river dolphin)

  The Yangtze river dolphin (baiji) seems to be extinct.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Thoroughly corrupted)

  The National Science Teacher's Association's refusal to distribute An Inconvenient Truth is no exception. The organizations has been thoroughly corrupted by business, and distributes materials to whitewash various forms of business wrongdoing. Its president lies to cover this up, and has tried to suppress criticism.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Obstructing the investigation)

  Russia is obstructing the investigation of Litvinenko's murder. This tends to confirm Russia was involved in the murder.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Free the women)

  Gaza City: ' Free the women and you free the whole country'.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Picketing Starbucks)

  The IWW is picketing Starbucks Coffee for its anti-union activity.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Atrocities of Augusto Pinochet)

  The Atrocities of Augusto Pinochet and the United States.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Political assassination)

  The Israeli high court gave its approval in principle to political assassination.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Iraqi courts)

  The "Iraqi" courts set up by Bush dispense justice just marginally better than that of Abu Ghraib. The court can sentence you to death and get you executed, but if it finds you innocent, that doesn't mean you go free.

  For women in Iraq, life is 'just like being in jail', thanks to Bush.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Nonviolent protests in Bil'in)

  Nonviolent weekly protests in Bil'in continue, but the annexation wall has already been built through the town.

  Nonviolent resistance is essentially a method of winning redress of an injustice by flagging it before the sight of the world, and pressuring the perpetrator through the shame brought by its own actions. To suppress the protests often requires even more flagrant injustice, which increases the shame.

  This approach works against some oppressors, in some situations, but not always. Gandhi famously called on the Jews to practice nonviolent resistance, including fasting to death, against Nazi mistreatment, but even in the 1930s this probably would not have bothered the Nazis much. There was so much worldwide prejudice against Jews that the world would not have criticized them sharply. And once the Nazis were at war with most of the world, in the 40s, and began systematically killing Jews, nonviolent protest had even less of a chance to stop them. Armed resistance as in the Warsaw Ghetto was the only way.

  Sad to say, the situation is similar in Palestine today. The world does not care enough about Israel's oppression of the Palestinians to make Israel feel the shame when its acts of oppression are highlighted.

  Unless Israel shows a willingness to respect the rights of Palestinians when they are claimed without force, it cannot condemn the use of force to do so.

   

• 18 December 2006 (Most Guantanamo Prisoners Not Dangerous)

  Although the Bush regime says that the prisoners in Guantanamo are "dangerous terrorists", in most cases this is not true.

  The Bush regime keep up the pretense because the worst thing for a tyrant is to admit a mistake.

   

• 17 December 2006 (Striking textile workers)

  20,000 Egyptian textile workers, who must be rather badly paid, have held a successful strike when they were denied their annual bonuses.

   

• 17 December 2006 (Bush forces attack Red Crescent)

  The recent Bush forces attack on the Iraqi Red Crescent is part of a common pattern.

   

• 17 December 2006 (Imprisoned for ever)

  Bush plans to keep 200 or so prisoners in Guantanamo forever without a trial.

  I distrust the claims of the US State Department that the reason for this is that "countries won't take their nationals back". Oh, it may be true, literally--but I suspect they refuse because Bush asked them to refuse.

   

• 17 December 2006 (Diplomat Carne Ross' report)

  Diplomat Carne Ross' previously secret report that UK intelligence never believed that Saddam Hussein had WMD or posed any threat to anyone until in 2002 they were told to provide support for such conclusions.

  We already had the smoking gun. Now we have a film of Bush and B'liar holding it. So will this lead to removal and imprisonment of these lying mass murderers?

   

• 17 December 2006 (Executing prisoners in Florida)

  Florida Governor Bush doesn't mind killing prisoners, but wants it done quickly. Thus, a fluke mistake which slowed down an execution has been the accidental occasion for a stay of executions in Florida.

  The death penalty does not work better to deter crime. Meanwhile, it debases society, and makes the frequent miscarriages of justice more uncorrectable. It should be abolished. Even mass murderers such as Saddam Hussein and Dubya should not be executed.

   

• 17 December 2006 (Palestinian elections)

  The Palestinian president is talking about calling early elections. Hamas, which won the previous elections, says this would be illegal.

  This is the outcome of pressure from the US and Israel to crush the results of Palestinian democracy, which elected a government they did not like.

  If I were a Palestinian with my general world view, I would disapprove of Hamas' religious orientation. But its refusal to surrender to Israeli brutality and annexation might win my vote nonetheless.

   

• 16 December 2006 (Awaiting trial)

  Many people arrested even for minor crimes during Hurricane Katrina are in jail awaiting trial, over a year later.

   

• 16 December 2006 (Pinochet)

  Pinochet succeeded in escaping punishment for his crimes by delaying his trial for his whole life.

  The Spanish judge who tried to put Pinochet on trial laments his ability to avoid justice.

  It is a mistake to credit Pinochet for Chile's economic success. His laissez-faire policies destroyed Chile's economy, and then Allende's achievements came to the rescue.

   

• 16 December 2006 (Prostitution)

  Irrational revulsion against prostitution leads to irrational and pointless harassment of prostitutes, which facilitates violence against prostitutes, including murder.

   

• 16 December 2006 (The Credit Card Industry and Predatory Capitalism)

  I think credit cards would not be dangerous if they were used in a healthy democracy. A democratic state would require credit card companies to follow understandable rules, to discourage people from getting in over their heads, and make money from people who use the cards wisely.

  However, in the US all attempts to make them do this have been blocked by the power of the card companies' lobby. They send college students credit cards they didn't ask for, to give them a chance to get in trouble.

   

• 15 December 2006 (Indian forest dwellers)

  Indian forest dwellers are protesting in Delhi after officials suddenly destroyed their crops (and some of them were arrested resisting this).

  It can be bad to have large numbers of people living in forests that are meant as reserves. However, if people lived there when the reserve was created, they are entitled to full compensation for being evicted -- something that poor people in India generally do not get when they are displaced by the government. And there can be no grounds for evicting them at all, if the government will then let other people live in the same forest area, or allow it to be cut down.

  This issue is important, but the underlying problem is India's unchecked and dangerous population growth. 40% of Indians are under age 18.

  According to Amartya Sen, around half of all Indians can't get sufficiently nourishing food, even though nobody actually starves to death. This too will be impossible to correct unless population growth is brought down.

   

• 15 December 2006 (Second coming video game)

  Christians nuts, common in the US, are using a video game to encourage their followers to believe in the imminent second coming.

  A Christian nut I knew once lent me a copy of the book, Left Behind. I read it, and concluded that this was a good presentation of the sort of events it would take to rationally justify their beliefs. The fact that these events are not happening therefore provides strong support for Atheism.

  As for "the Night of Bush Hunting", that game could teach people it is ok to shoot mass murderers. However, the best way to deal with them is to arrest them, convict them in a fair trial, and sentence them to life in prison.

  I used to say that George Bush and Saddam Hussein should spend their lives as cellmates, but it seems that we need Hussein to restore order in Iraq.

   

• 15 December 2006 (Bush forces raided Falluja General Hospital)

  The Bush forces raided Falluja General Hospital, arrested doctors, closed it, and forced the rest of the staff out into the cold without blankets. This violates the Geneva Conventions, but Bush only says he obeys those.

   

• 15 December 2006 (Where no law applies)

  " This is the first time in the history of this country that a court has held that a man may be held by our government in a place where no law applies."

   

• 15 December 2006 (Urgent Note)

  Everyone: Colombian journalist Fredy Muoz Altamiranda has been accused of "rebellion"...for working for Telesur. Send a letter to the Colombian embassy in your country to protest this.

   

• 15 December 2006 (Strengthening Iran's hand)

  The occupation of Iraq has strengthened Iran's hand in the Middle East.

  As a recent note shows, the Bush forces a year ago were looking at which sectarian side to back in Iraq. They chose to back the Shi'ites. So this result should not be a surprise.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Refugees)

  The US refuses to accept Iraqi refugees, because it pretends that the violence that has made them flee will not last.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Wearing down)

  Since the occupation of Iraq is wearing down the Bush forces, they want more money to increase forces. They also want to be able to grind down the US National Guard more quickly.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Kofi Annan)

  Kofi Annan, in his parting speech, condemned the Bush regime for trampling human rights.

   

• 14 December 2006 (War on Drugs)

  Many Americans have been sentenced to long prison terms, even life imprisonment, as part of the War on Drugs. Others have been killed by police raids, or by their imprisonment.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Pinochet)

  The Bush family protected Pinochet and his operatives from prosecution for crimes such as murder in the US, and even terrorist bombing, and Pinochet in return helped by providing weapons to Saddam Hussein.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Political interference in science)

  10,000 scientists in the US have signed a statement condemning Bush's political interference in science.

  This brings to mind Stalin's political interference in biology through the support of Lysenko's groundless theories about evolution. Effectively, nondemocratic political systems corrupt knowledge.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Sectarian division)

  The Bush forces have played on the sectarian division in Iraq. Here is specific evidence of how.

   

• 14 December 2006 (ISG report)

  Some see the ISG report as the beginning of a plan to blame the Iraqi government for losing its grip, as an excuse to pull out.

  I hope it is -- at least it would be a way to end the occupation.

  But another analysis suggests that the report is a plan for how to continue plans for US domination of the middle east. When it talks of "redeploying" some of the Bush forces combat units, that very likelys just means putting them in other bases inside Iraq. And when it talks of "reducing support" for the "Iraqi government", that could mean installing a strongman who could impose order.

  If a strongman is wanted, I suggest Saddam Hussein. Some unknown would probably need even more brutality to establish control than he would, and it would be impossible to tell in advance if he is capable of doing the job.

  Bush does not seem to want to follow the report's recommendations. So the main importance of the report is in its influence on public debate. The US mass media work with politicians to steer the debate towards the question of how to "win", and away from the question of how to punish the criminals that launched this war of conquest.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Chemicals that might be dangerous)

  As the EU adopts a directive for recording and testing chemicals that might be dangerous, businesses want their own economic interests to come before public safety.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Police acted illegally)

  The UK law lords ruled that the police acted illegally when they stopped busses of citizens going to a protest.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Extend censorship)

  The UK wants to extend censorship by banning the possession of artwork that present "abuse" of children. (I suspect their definition of "abuse" refers to sex, not violence.)

  In the 1980s, US officials arguing that "child pornography" (involving "children" of ages up to 17) was evil because it was always made by "abusing" a "child". Then the US government made a mockery of that argument by prohibiting all art depicting "children" having sex, even when made without a real "child". But this law was rejected as unconstitutional.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Axis of Evil)

  Here's what the Axis of Evil has been up to in Iraq this week. Among other things, they blocked a woman giving birth from reaching the hospital, and they killed a helpless, bound prisoner because he laughed to see Bush forces soldiers dead.

  That prisoner had courage; the soldiers that shot him are murderous cowards. The murder they committed was a big breach of military discipline, which shows that these troops are cracking up. That's the only good thing about what's happening in Iraq: it is grinding down Bush's army so he cannot invade any other countries.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Polonium contamination)

  Police have identified Dimitry Kovtun as the suspected murderer of Litvinenko. He spread Polonium contamination before he met with Litvinenko.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Permanent sensory deprivation)

  Jose Padilla, whom Bush wanted to imprison without trial, has been subject to permanent sensory deprivation for years. This appears to have made him lose his mind. He no longer understands what it means to be on trial, for instance.

  But this is not an isolated case. Torture is routine, standard practice for the Bush regime.

  Several Jordanians, released from an Iraqi prison after three years during which the question of their innocence was not addressed, carry permanent emotional and physical scars from their torture by the Bush forces.

  Nine former prisoners who were tortured by the Bush regime are trying to sue Rumsfeld and top commanders of the Bush forces.

  The Bush regime and its many subservient governments are the main "Axis of Evil" in the world today.

   

• 14 December 2006 (Kucinich for President)

  Congressman Kucinich is running for president again.

  What a breath of fresh air, compared with all those "continue the war" Democrats. Kucinich for President!

   

• 14 December 2006 (Arctic Ocean)

  As greenhouse gases increase, melting of Arctic ice will speed up, and by 2040 the Arctic Ocean will have essentially no permanent ice.

  Since ocean absorbs more heat from sunlight than ice, the result will be even more warming.

   

• 13 December 2006 (Government in Lebanon)

  Hezbollah demands a new government in Lebanon, through large street protests, which remain peaceful. But there are small sparks that could set off a civil war if people are not careful to avoid it.

   

• 13 December 2006 (Corporate mercenaries)

  Corporate mercenaries are active in many countries, not just Iraq. The Geneva Conventions apply to mercenaries, but the Bush regime loves them because in practice enforcing those inconvenient rules of war against them is too hard.

   

• 13 December 2006 (Teach torture)

  The US School of the Americas used to teach torture to soldiers from other American countries. In response to public condemnation, the US changed the school's name, and contracted its activities. Now Bush is expanding them again, to spread torture through the Western Hemisphere.

   

• 13 December 2006 (Children suffer)

  UNICEF: Children suffer when women face discrimination.

   

• 13 December 2006 (AIDS prevention)

  Senegal's success story in AIDS prevention.

   

• 13 December 2006 (Prison)

  1 in 32 American adults are in prison, on probation, or on parole, due to the insane 'War on Drugs'.

  As long as this war remains "on drugs", it will continue to devastate the US.

   

• 13 December 2006 (Fiscal disaster)

  The Republicans have created a fiscal disaster and left the Democrats holding the bag.

  The disaster is no surprise; Republicans' tax cuts for the rich, together with spending billions on the crime of invading Iraq, had to cause such disaster sooner or later.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Kidnaping and rape)

  The Bush forces threatened to rape Um Ahmed unless her husband surrendered. Then they threatened to rape her unless he confessed to their list of crimes. But this sort of kidnaping is just the tip of the Iraqi iceberg.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Murderous warlords and gangsters)

  RAWA says that the US-established Afghan government doesn't respect human rights very much, since it is full of murderous warlords and gangsters.

  Notwithstanding RAWA's points, the current government does appear to be better than the Taliban in some ways--it encourages schools for girls, for instance. But it may be true that a government made of warlords and gangsters can't win much popular support.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Cannibis bars)

  Britons with multiple sclerosis who sent free "cannibis bars" to other victims of MS face 14 years in prison.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Corporations and charity)

  Corporations are honing the practice of giving a tiny fraction of income to charity, in order to make you feel good about their much larger profits, your own wasteful comsuption, and any other problems.

  This is part of a general tendency to the corruption of most areas of life by business.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Access to personal information)

  One Iraqi thinks the Mahdi army has access to personal information on former Baathists, and used it to track down him and his brother.

  If the "Iraqi" government has this information, it would not be hard for Shi'ite death squads to get it.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Sexual paranoia in the US)

  Sexual paranoia in the US has reached a point of total absurdity.

  You can see the dishonesty of the school officials when they cite a student's privacy as an excuse to refuse to respond to a complain made on behalf of that student.

  I'm with John Holt: school is not a very good way for children to get an education.

   

• 12 December 2006 (Campaign against Starbucks)

  The IWW is extending its campaign against Starbucks, which has repeatedly punished workers for union organizing.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Riot in UK prison)

  A riot broke out in privatized UK prison, when the guards tried to turn off the TV which was showing a news report about how badly that prison was run.

   

• 11 December 2006 (UK government wants to impose biometric surveillance)

  A trial run in Heathrow airport shows the sort of biometric surveillance that the UK government wants to impose on everyone.

  They always bring out the absurd idea that "If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide". But that's nonsense; the question is not whether your actions are wrong, but whether someone else (perhaps someone powerful) could hurt you if he knew. Nearly everyone wants to keep aspects of their life from being known to others.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Al Sadr's militias attacking Sunnis)

  Al Sadr's militias are openly attacking Sunnis in a part of Baghdad.

  Sunnis cannot effectively defend themselves and their neighborhoods from Shi'ite militias, because the "Iraqi" army and police are almost branches of those same Shi'ite militias, and they prevent such defense. Iraq is now inevitably going to be divided into Sunni and Shi'ite areas. But the Shi'ites might well commit genocide conquering the Sunni areas.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Uri Avnery about Baker Report)

  Uri Avnery reads the Baker report as a proposal to make Israel agree to peace with Palestine.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Denial of global warming)

  Exxon continues funding the denial of global warming. The executives in charge of this probably figure on moving to high ground when global warming floods the coastal cities.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Protest in favor of democracy)

  A protest in favor of democracy in the kingdom of Tonga led to violence. Some 8 protesters were killed, perhaps by their own fire.

  The article says that the protest destroyed most of the capital city, but then it admits this refers only to the central business district. Perhaps the parts of the city where people live don't count for businessmen.

  The violence could be used as an excuse to refuse to establish a democracy.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Resolution to impeach)

  Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) introduced a resolution to impeach George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Condolezza Rice.

  Here is the resolution.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Terrorist potential)

  The Bush regime is breaking the law yet again, by profiling international travelers for their "terrorist potential" even though Congress forbade it.

  I think Bush will use this as he has used past confrontations with Congress and laws: to undermine the system of checks and balances by ignoring it. I predict that he will not stop for anything short of impeachment.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Torture at a distance)

  The US army has a new weapon which tortures people at a distance. It causes unbearable pain. The torture does not cause permanent injury...provided people run away fast enough.

  This weapon will be ideal for suppressing embarrasing political protest.

   

• 11 December 2006 (Clothing workers)

  Clothing workers in Bangladesh are forced to work 80 hour weeks and get paid under 10 cents an hour. These clothes are sold to major retail companies which claim to require their manufacturers not to do this. When the factories are checked, the companies force the workers to support the lie.

  This is what "free trade" treaties do.

  (5 pence in the UK are worth around 8 or 9 cents in the US.)

   

• 10 December 2006 (Iraq Study Group and its corporate friends)

  The Iraq Study Group may not have a solution for how to end the war, but it does have a way for its corporate friends to make money.

   

• 10 December 2006 (Hide the crime)

  The Bush forces killed the civilians in some houses, then bombed them from the air to try to hide the crime.

  This article explains why the Bush forces call them all "terrorists".

  There are two levels of lie here. A person who really carries a gun might be a resistance fighter (though this is not certain), but is probably not a terrorist. A person who is in a house with a gun may very well be neither one.

   

• 10 December 2006 (Censorship of the Internet)

  The 13 coutries with the worst censorship of the Internet.

  Many other countries practice censorship on the net, however. The whole EU joins the US in censoring the free software that you can use to read a DVD.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Privatization of water and sanitation)

  The UK spent around $50 million of its "foreign aid" persuading poor countries to privatize their water and sanitation systems.

   

• 09 December 2006 (The Baker Boys)

  Greg Palast: The Baker Boys: Stay Half the Course.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Covering up the violence)

  The Bush regime is systematically underreporting the violence in Iraq, presenting perhaps 1/10 of the real level. This violence has led 100,000 Iraqis to flee the country each month, with almost 2 million now in exile.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Urgent Note: Israeli Academics Request )

  A group of Israeli academics asks people around the world to write to their own governments in opposition to Israel's policy of refusing to allow Palestinians with foreign citizenship to be residents in Palestine.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Brazil declares rain forest protection)

  Brazil has declared protection for 63,000 square miles of the Amazon rain forest.

  Even assuming this is successfully enforced, it is just a first step in what must be done. Over 200,000 square miles of the rain forest were cut down in the past 35 years.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Iraq Study Group)

  The Iraq Study Group report recognized that things are going wrong for the Bush forces, but admits no uncertainty in the assumption that their "victory" is to be desired.

  The report recommends a plan of Iraqization of the occupation, which could mean recruitment of Iraqi traitors, or could mean helping the Shi'ites to commit genocide against the Sunnis. Or it could be a way to cut and run without losing face, as happened in in Vietnam.

   

• 09 December 2006 (War supporters admit truth)

  Iraq: One by one, supporters of the war admit the truth.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Guantanamo facilities replacement)

  Far from closing the Guantanamo prison, the Bush regime is replacing the facilities with new ones.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Iraqi women imprisoned)

  Many Iraqi women are imprisoned by the Bush forces, often as hostages, and sometimes they are raped by their jailors.

   

• 09 December 2006 (Threat of concentration camps)

  CNN announcer Glenn Beck threatens Muslims with concentration camps.

  Bush and his Christian fanatics have caused a lot more deaths in recent years than Muslim fanatics have. Should they be put in concentration camps?

   

• 09 December 2006 (Eliminating planning control)

  B'liar, apparently with Brown's approval, wants to eliminate local planning control so that projects "in the national interest" can be forced through.

  These projects "in the national interest" include nuclear power plants, which are dangerous and vulnerable to attack, as well as airport expansions that can only be needed if air travel grows to an extent that will assure global catastrophe.

   

• 08 December 2006 (Political opposition in the Maldives)

  Political opposition in the Maldive Islands has been crushed with the arrest of the dissidents.

   

• 08 December 2006 (Israeli highhandedness)

  Israeli police tortured a 15-year-old Palestinian, and threatened to rape him, until he signed a confession he could not read.

  Israel often tortures Palestinian prisoners.

  Arabs who are Israeli citizens are not treated very well either. Israel now plans to destroy the homes of Bedouin who live in the Negev desert.

   

• 06 December 2006 (Siniya)

  The resistance took control of the Iraqi town of Siniya, which is now besieged by the Bush forces. It looks like they are trying to starve and freeze the town into submission.

   

• 06 December 2006 ('Leaked' memo)

  Was Rumsfeld's "leaked" memo a plan to falsify his image for the future?

   

• 06 December 2006 (Mercenary workers)

  The Bush forces have at least 100,000 contract workers in Iraq. Many of them are mercenaries.

   

• 06 December 2006 (Global inequality)

  Global inequality: half the world's wealth belongs to the richest 2%, while the poorest half own just 1%.

   

• 06 December 2006 (Dalit women)

  In India, thousands of Dalit women are forced into the "career" of scavaging excrement from toilets. This is not just disgusting, it is dangerous.

  A team of engineers has tried to design a safer way to do this job.

  However, despite its technical success, convincing India to invest in switching to this new technology will be very difficult. And making the job safer is not a substitute for ending the bigotry of the caste system.

   

• 06 December 2006 (UCLA Police Tazed Student)

  UCLA police attacked a student with a tazer as he was leaving the library. (He had been ordered to leave because he did not have his university ID card with him.) They kept attacking him while he was lying on the floor, because he didn't get up when they ordered him to. (A tazer can stun a person so much he cannot stand up.)

  When a witness asked for a policeman's badge number, the policeman threatened to attack the witness.

  I sent this letter to the editor, but I don't think they printed it.

  Dear Editor

  Americans' safety is endangered by a cocky and lawless gang that will threaten nearly anyone. The riot in the library gave UCLA students a taste of their violence, but a glance at www.copwatchla.org shows that it's not unusual in your city. What is special about this instance is that they made a slip.

  The library rioters threatened a student who asked them to identify themselves. Intimidating witnesses is standard practice for this gang, and it is usually impossible to prosecute them because they lie to protect each other. But this time they were caught red-handed. The student who was threatened now has an opportunity to deal the gang a sharp defeat--by pressing charges and insisting that justice be done.

  The real message of this letter is addressed to that student. Please, I beg you, insist on justice. No matter who asks you to let these gangsters off the hook, stand firm! None of us will be safe until we rein them in, and we now depend on your courage. If you can put a few of the hooligans behind bars, or even just take away their badges and weapons, the rest of them will not be so eager to attack again.

  Sincerely,
  Richard Stallman
  Cambridge, Massachusetts

   

• 06 December 2006 (Radiation traces in aeroplanes)

  Traces of radiation in airplanes is evidence that Litvinenko's poisoning was done by Russian agents.

   

• 06 December 2006 (SCIRI leader wants Bush forces to remain)

  The leader of SCIRI wants the Bush forces to remain in Iraq and let the "Iraqi security forces" have more control.

  SCIRI's Badr Brigades operate death squads that are part of those same "security forces". They are now paying doctors to tell them about Sunnis in hospitals in order to kill them.

  I think SCIRI wants to use the Bush forces' heavy weapons and air power as backing to commit genocide.

   

• 06 December 2006 (Congress legalises torture)

  Torture at Abu Ghraib followed the methods that the CIA developed and that the US has taught to many governments. The US Congress recently legalized the use of these torture methods.

   

• 06 December 2006 (War on Integrity)

  The War on Integrity continues: Bobby Maxwell was a US government auditor that collected millions of dollars that oil companies had shortchanged the government. The Bush regime works for the oil companies, which considered his effectiveness a problem. So it eliminated his job.

   

• 05 December 2006 (Set fire to the Red Crescent headquarters)

  The Bush forces in Falluja deliberately set fire to the Red Crescent headquarters, then stopped people from putting out the fire. It was totally destroyed. Meanwhile, in Samarra they took a resistance fighter's children (ages 7 and 10) hostage.

   

• 05 December 2006 (Olmert offered peace)

  Olmert offered peace and an independent state to the Palestinians. I worry, however, that this offer implicitly demands acceptance of the annexation wall, and the annexation of large parts of the West Bank's land and water resources.

   

• 05 December 2006 (Total surveillance society)

  The propaganda campaign for biometrics and the total surveillance society.

   

• 05 December 2006 (FEMA bureaucrats)

  FEMA bureaucrats have been very effective in shutting out Katrina victims from federal aid.

   

• 04 December 2006 (Insurrection in Oaxaca)

  The insurrection in Oaxaca has been crushed, and the police are going around disappearing and killing people.

   

• 04 December 2006 (President Chavez reelected)

  President Chavez was reelected in Venezuela with a large majority.

   

• 04 December 2006 (Battlestar Galactica)

  Battlestar Galactica shows Americans Iraq from the Iraqis' side.

  This sort of allegory is necessary because such ideas can't penetrate the bias of mass media "news".

   

• 04 December 2006 (GI Special)

  GI Special responds to a soldier's criticism of its opposition to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  Another soldier says he is being sent to Iraq and has concluded that it is only for Bush cronies' profits. Meanwhile, a conscientious objector was sent to Iraq based on spurious requirements, in violation of military regulations.

   

• 04 December 2006 (Massive peaceful demonstrations)

  Hezbollah and various allies mounted massive peaceful demonstrations against the US-backed Lebanese government.

   

• 04 December 2006 (Activist Zackie Achmat)

  Heroic activist Zackie Achmat risked his life to force South African President Mbeki to back down from his insane policy on HIV.

   

• 04 December 2006 (War on Integrity continues)

  The War on Integrity continues: a State Department analyst who told the truth about B'liar's "special relationship" with the US faces pressure to lie or be punished.

   

• 04 December 2006 (Hunger strike)

  Chanu Sharmila has been on hunger strike for 6 years to protest killings of civilians by Indian soldiers. For 6 years she has been force-fed. Thangjam Manorama Devi had it even worse: the soldiers that raped her then machine-gunned her body to shreds, to destroy the evidence.

   

• 04 December 2006 (Why cancel meeting with Bush)

  Why did Maliki cancel his meeting with Bush?

  Was this because of the US memo which said that he either can't or won't do the job that Bush assigned to him? (Of course he can't; nobody can do it.) Or was this because al Sadr threatened to scuttle the "Iraqi" government if he had the meeting?

   

• 03 December 2006 (Urgent Note: Emergency Contraception)

  US residents: tell national pharmacy chains to stock Plan B (emergency contraception).

   

• 03 December 2006 (Bush refuses to recognise defeat)

  Like many other rulers before him, Bush refuses to recognize the reality of defeat.

  However, Bush's defeat is not in his homeland, His policy in Iraq is dead in substance, but he can keep the dead body propped up for as long as he can make others pay the price.

   

• 03 December 2006 (Hilary Benn)

  Hilary Benn, who wants to be deputy leader of the Labour Party, is trying to avoid government measures to prevent global warming. His alternative: "Let's just ask individuals to conserve".

  Conservation by individuals can make a difference, but does he want to bet the survival of London on their making enough difference?

   

• 03 December 2006 (Death squads)

  The Bush forces now openly talk of using death squads to kill the leaders of the Iraqi resistance.

  The joke here is that they have already done just this, by allowing the Iraq police to be infiltrated by Shi'ite death squads. These death squads kill lots of Sunni civilians, but they don't have as much success against fighters. However, if they commit genocide against the entire Sunni population, that would extinguish the Sunni parts of the resistance along with the population from which it comes.

   

• 03 December 2006 (Situation in Iraq)

  Iraqi militias are trying to provide law and order in Iraqi neighborhoods.

  In effect this is use of the solution I have proposed.

  Al Sadr is trying to convince the "Iraqi" parliament to demand withdrawal of the Bush forces.

  The "Iraqi" government will be truly Iraqi only when it does this.

  Meanwhile, Al Sadr's followers have ordered Iraqi Christians to follow their extreme Muslim rules.

  The potential for this sort of tyranny is always to be found lurking in the heart of a mostly Muslim society.

   

• 03 December 2006 (Dalits)

  A Dalit who was raped was then burned alive for testifying.

  Injustice, even brutal crime against Dalits is not rare.

   

• 03 December 2006 (Cattle cause global warming)

  Cattle contribute more to global warming than cars.

  Cattle raising also causes deforestation. This means people need to eat less meat. Individuals can do this, but I don't think individual activism will be enough to deal with the problem. I think we need to tax meat just as we tax gasoline: to discourage consumption. Cattle raising also causes deforestation. This means people need to eat less meat. Individuals can do this, but I don't think individual activism will be enough to deal with the problem. I think we need to tax meat just as we tax gasoline: to discourage consumption.

   

• 01 December 2006 (War on Integrity)

  As part of the War on Integrity, Bush continues appointing people to run Federal offices whose mission is to protect the public or the environment who oppose the mission they are supposed to do.

   

• 01 December 2006 (More troops)

  The Bush forces want to send more troops to Iraq.

  This won't really change anything, because a few more troops won't defeat a whole occupied country whose populace hates them. But it will at least buy time against the pressure to end their crime.

   

• 01 December 2006 (Gingrich wants to abolish freedom of speech)

  Newt Gingrich wants to abolish political freedom of speech, officially, to "protect" us from Al Qa'ida.

  If we were going to censor some political opinions, the highest priority should be opinions like Gingrich's which attack the constitution. But even that much censorship would be too much.

   

• 01 December 2006 (Condemn all electronic voting machines)

  NIST is planning to condemn all electronic voting machines that directly count the votes.

  I wonder if Bush will intervene to stop or change this report. He has to, if he intends to defend the gains of the War on Integrity.

   

• 01 December 2006 (Berlusconi)

  Berlusconi is accused of trying to rig his last election.

   

• 01 December 2006 (Nuclear weapons program)

  Hans Blix says B'liar's government's nuclear weapons program makes it harder to discourage countries such sa Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and generally undermines the nonproliferation treaty.

   

• 01 December 2006 (RIAA bullying)

  Patti Santangelo's attempt to resist RIAA bullying was sabotaged by a sleazy lawyer.

   

• 30 November 2006 (Interview with Nir Rosen)

  An interview with Nir Rosen, who recently saw al Sadr speak in Iraq. He talks about the power of various militias including the Bush forces.

  The Bush forces are considering more or less pulling out of al Anbar province. They would send "Iraqi" (Shi'ite and Kurdish) troops to occupy the area.

  Shi'ite troops could easily take it into their heads to commit genocide there, spreading the butchery of Baghdad. However, they are not as well armed as the Americans in the Bush forces, so in al Anbar they might end up retreating from the resistance.

   

• 30 November 2006 (Iraq Study Group)

  Bush's Iraq Study Group is preprogrammed not to reconsider anything important.

   

• 30 November 2006 (National Science-Teachers Association)

  The National Science-Teachers Association rejected a gift of 50,000 copies of "An Inconvenient Truth". Telling the truth about global warming would be inconvenient for their funding from Exxon.

  The corruption of civil institutions (both governmental and nongovernmental) by corporate money debilitates civic life and gives the corporate donors control over politics. An association of science teachers ought to have noble social goals, and maybe this did at one time, but now it seems to have has become primarily a scheme to help business brainwash kids. (It probably still does some useful work, which it uses as an excuse to pretend that the organization has noble social goals.)

  It is possible for an organization to accept a certain amount of donations from companies while refusing to let them set the agenda. The Free Software Foundation (fsf.org) does this. To avoid being corrupted by these donations, I as president must be prepared to say "no thanks" to some or all of those funds, if and when they try to distort our goals.

  This requires a clear awareness of the kind of corruption that could happen, and the firm will to avoid it. The prevalence of such corruption of institutions in our society makes such awareness and firm will rare. People get used to corruption and tolerate it, and that makes it easy for institutional leaders to excuse their corruption in their own minds. The leaders of the NSTA probably have convinced themselves that being Exxon's tool on global warming is worth while because it gets them funds to do some small usefu thing.

  Remember that "xx" in "Exxon" is pronounced like the "ch" in German "ach" ;-). Can you say "Yech-on"?

   

• 30 November 2006 (Exotic pets)

  A flood of exotic pets threatens to bring viruses along.

  For many kinds of animals, their capture in the wild is also likely to be horribly traumatic, which is another good reason to discourage import of pets caught in the wild.

   

• 30 November 2006 (Violence in Haiti)

  Under elected president Preval, violence in Haiti is decreasing slowly, but the poor are just as poor.

  It is noteworthy that Clinton imposed cruel neoliberal economic policies on President Aristide in exchange for helping him regain power. Maybe that had something to do with why he was unable to make things much better. And maybe similar external opposition is why Preval can't help the poor.

   

• 30 November 2006 (Israeli troops take hostages)

  Israeli troops occupied a Palestinian house and took 15 members of the family hostage in their home.

  I've heard that this is standard practice.

   

• 30 November 2006 (Can NATO continue Afghan war)

  NATO's resolve to continue the war in Afghanistan is wearing thin.

  I supported this war, but I don't think it can be won any more unless the conditions that now give the Taliban its support are changed.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Rumsfeld charged in Germany)

  Charges of war crimes including torture have been filed in a German court against Rumsfeld and others.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Al Dhari)

  Sunni Iraqi leader Al Dhari condemns Al Qa'ida for the killing of Iraqi civilians, but says it is ok to fight militias that support the "Iraqi" government against the resistance.

  I don't think it is really clear that al Sadr's militia supports that government. In some ways it does, in some ways it doesn't.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Killing Iraqi civilians)

  The Bush forces continue heavy aerial bombing in Iraq. This kills a lot of civilians.

  Artillery fire does too.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Secret CIA jails)

  Many EU nations 'knew about CIA jails', and officials are still covering up their cooperation.

  Bush continues to deny that the prisoners were tortured. Where Clinton tried to squeeze the meaning of "sex", Bush tries to squeeze the meaning of "torture".

   

• 29 November 2006 (Dick Cheney)

  Cheney has a long career of trying to expand presidential power at the expense of all kinds of checks and balances.

  This is what conservatives used to be against.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Gaza)

  Israel and Palestinians have agreed to end the fighting in Gaza.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Gasoline prices)

  US oil companies are accused of contracting the gasoline supply so as to boost prices.

  If they are doing so, it has an important beneficial effect: to reduce gasoline consumption. (In Europe, taxes have been used to keep gasoline prices much higher than in the US, ever since the 70s.)

  The US should do this with taxes too, so that the windfall goes to the treasury instead of to the people that own the oil companies. But low gasoline prices are a suicidal goal.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Private police)

  The UK now has privately-owned police-- constables who are paid by (and perhaps loyal to) specific businesses.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Who killed Pierre Gemayel)

  While US media accuse Syria of the assassination of Pierre Gemayel, the Arab world generally holds the US and/or Israel responsible. Hezbollah is showing respect for the murdered minister and his family and faction, in an attempt to build unity.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Baghdad)

  Neighborhood by neighborhood, Baghdad descends into civil war.

  That Baghdad is mostly divided into Sunni and Shi'ite by the Tigris river could facilitate peace through partition.

   

• 29 November 2006 (Alexander Litvinenko)

  Former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London using radioactive polonium, production of which requires expensive facilities. No one knows which side killed him, but he had said he was about to identify Anna Politkovskaya's killer.

  Too bad he didn't also say he had put the information in a letter to be opened in the event of his death.

   

• 28 November 2006 (In Lebanon)

  Robert Fisk: Gemayel's mourners know that in Lebanon nothing is what it seems.

   

• 28 November 2006 (Afghan women)

  Despite the ouster of the Taliban, Afghan women are still treated as chattels, while women MPs have to hide from assassins.

   

• 28 November 2006 (Oaxaca)

  Police entered the university in Oaxaca and threatened to attack its radio station, which supports the protests.

   

• 28 November 2006 (President Delgado)

  Ecuador has elected a new president, Rafael Correa Delgado, who opposes the "free trade" treaty with the US and will expel US troops from Ecuador.

   

• 28 November 2006 (Troops take hostages)

  Israeli troops regularly take Palestinians hostage.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Saddam's trial)

  Human Rights Watch says that Saddam Hussein's trial was not fair and the verdict was "questionable".

  The full report.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Ramadi shelling)

  Reportedly the Bush forces shelled houses in Ramadi, then prevented anyone from rescuing the people who were bleeding to death in the rubble. 35 people died, all civilians.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Iraqi civil war)

  Iraq's simmering civil war is moving rapidly to overt civil war. Al Sadr's militia took over a state TV station and denounced the "Iraqi" government, while the chief Sunni cleric (whom the government tried recently to arrest) was in Egypt asking other Arab countries to de-recognize that government.

  The Bush forces are to blame for this civil war, but they cannot possibly end it, being a hated occupying force. They can give Iraq the peace of the grave, which they have given to many Iraqis already. But the only way to achieve peace for the living is to strengthen various militias into governments that can control and defend territories from each other, and eventually make peace with each other.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Rumsfeld ordered torture)

  General Karpinski says that Rumsfeld personally told civilian interrogators to practice specific torture methods in Abu Ghraib.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Police shoot unarmed man)

  NYC police killed an unarmed man leaving his bachelor party. His friends were merely wounded.

  He was driving very badly, and perhaps was drunk. But that shouldn't be a reason to shoot him.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Life in Iraq)

  Six Iraqis tell about life in the violent mess that Bush has made of Iraq. They wish for the days of Saddam Hussein.

  Iraq's Palestinians are targeted by kidnapers and find it hard to flee anywhere else.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Nepalese king guilty)

  A commission in Nepal ruled that the king, formerly an absolute monarch, should be punished for his troops' violent attacks that killed or injured some 5,000 protesting citizens.

   

• 27 November 2006 (West Bank)

  Palestinians 'own 40%' of Israeli West Bank settlements, says Peace Now.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Government against the people)

  Bush has made the US government more vindictive towards government employee whistleblowers.

  The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is the same court that gave us software patents. It seems to be biased against the public interest in every area it touches. This suggests it should be abolished.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Megacorporations, government and media)

  In Russia, the government will soon control 90% of the mass media.

  In the US, the megacorporations own the media and control the government.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Paul Roberts)

  Paul Roberts, a prominent conservative, calls for the impeachment of Bush for attacking the constitution.

   

• 27 November 2006 (Al-Shariqiya TV station)

  Iraq's Al-Shariqiya TV station says its staff are being systematically attacked by militias.

   

• 26 November 2006 (CIA role in Kennedy killing)

  Three CIA agents were in the room when Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated. There is no obvious explanation for their presence there, and they worked far away from LA.

   

• 26 November 2006 (Robert Gates distorted reports)

  Robert Gates, now appointed as the Secretary of Defense, appears to have distorted intelligence reports about Iran in the 1980s in order to help Reagan justify selling missiles to Iran. These missiles were provided as ransom for hostages kidnaped by Iranian-supported groups, but the CIA said, apparently with no new information, that Iran was no longer supporting terrorists.

  When Reagan ransomed hostages with weapons, he betrayed his country. His name should be remembered in shame.

   

• 26 November 2006 (Children under surveillance)

  B'liar aims to impose close surveillance on everyone in the UK, starting with children, in the name of "protecting" them. But the system is likely to undermine protection of children who are seriously at risk, even as it attacks their privacy.

   

• 26 November 2006 (Shias, Sunnis, al Sadr and Iraq)

  Sunni car bombs killed over 200 Shi'ites in one day in Baghdad. (This article has an earlier, lower figure.) And the health ministry was attacked.

  The next day, Shi'ites retaliated by burning Sunnis to death while "Iraqi" troops looked on passively.

  It is interesting that the al Sadr militia demands that Maliki not meet with Bush. Maliki cannot disobey Bush, but he depends on the support of that militia. So it seems to me that this is a deliberate attempt to put Maliki in an impossible situation and bring down the "Iraqi" government.

   

• 26 November 2006 (Fanatics controlling medicine)

  The occupation is destroying Iraq's medical system, which is under the control of religious fanatics that know nothing about medicine.

   

• 26 November 2006 (Australia knew about Iraq)

  Australia knew a year in advance that the invasion of Iraq was already decided.

   

• 26 November 2006 (B'liar on Afghanistan)

  B'liar talks big about aid for Afghanistan, but since he exaggerates the achievements of past aid, it looks like this is just talk.

   

• 26 November 2006 (Rumsfeld and Bush are torturers)

  Rumsfeld and Bush were personally involved in directing the interrogation (i.e., torture) of an al-Qa'ida suspect in 2002. They must be glad that Congress voted to exempt torturers from prosecution.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Torture-for-hire)

  CACI, a torture-for-hire military contractor, has repeatedly sued and threatened journalists that expose its activities.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Environmentalists are suing)

  Environmentalists are suing the Bush regime for failing to produce a legally required report on climate change.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Confront the truth)

  As Bush collides with Americans' increasing desire to end the occupation of Iraq, this may force Americans to confront the truth about the war, and about US power and aggression in general.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Ministers in Iraqi government)

  Ministers in Bush's Iraqi government are staying away from work because they might be assassinated. One minister has gone traveling for a month, and the ministry does not know where he is.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Training Iraqis to fight for him)

  Bush's project of training Iraqis to fight for him was planned so badly that it is a joke.

  At the same time, it encountered problems which come inevitably out of the nature of the situation: the Bush forces are hated by all patriotic Iraqis, and they and their collaborators face unremitting attacks from the resistance.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Chilling Vision)

  Chertoff's "Chilling Vision" of the future -- rule of law, with respect for human rights, is what he fears.

   

• 25 November 2006 (You are the terrorist)

  Indonesian protesters told Bush: You are the terrorist.

  Bush's response, that protest shows a healthy democracy, is hypocritical lip-service coming from him, but it is true, and it presents a good yardstick for judging the US. Protest in the US is compressed into "free speech zones", and our democracy is sick.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Syria or Israel)

  Was Pierre Gemayel killed by Syria, or by Israel?

  I don't have an opinion. Either one might have done it.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Deadliest month of the occupation)

  October was the deadliest month of the occupation of Iraq, with almost 4,000 civilians known to have been killed. But the record probably won't last long.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Stood by and watched)

  Israeli troops stood by and watched while settlers attacked and injured a Swedish visitor who had come to escort Palestinian children to school. Then they arrested the attackers, but let them go without even taking their names.

  The visitor was there because the settlers frequently attack these children on their way to school.

  My mother told me that, when she was young, at Easter time the Catholic children used to call her "Christ killer". The Catholic Church dropped this calumny decades ago, but now the settlers are resurrecting it and throwing it in Christians' faces. Are they nuts? Or do they want a resurgence of anti-semitism?

  Perhaps that will facilitate their standard lie, which consists mislabeling all condemnation of their violence (and their theft of Palestinian land and water) as "anti-semitism".

   

• 25 November 2006 (Dishonest slaughterhouses)

  Dishonest slaughterhouses open a door to BSE to spread in the UK.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Worse than prison)

  The Bush forces have declared total curfew on some Iraqi cities. Telephone and internet use are banned as well. It is worse than being in prison.

  Perhaps they hope Iraqis will come to regard a mere murderous military occupation as a step up.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Failing to recognize the reality)

  Former UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says that the US and UK are failing to recognize the reality of Iraq.

  However, when he opposes partition, he too does not recognize the reality of Iraq. Iraq is already partitioning itself, as a result of the conflicts that Bush helped to stir up.

  I sympathize with the wishes of Iraqis that continue to support a unified Iraq just as I do with the wishes of secular Iraqis that do not want Islamic rule (i.e., injustice).

  The reason I support allowing militias to set up an effective de facto partition of Iraq is not that I think partition is good, but rather that I think it is the only way to end the mass murder, except for genocide or unbearable tyranny.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Accommodation with Bush)

  The Democratic Party is already making an accommodation with Bush to extend the occupation of Iraq.

  It did not take them long to let down the hopes of the people who voted for them. I am not surprised, though, because few of the Democratic candidates said that the occupation was wrong. That is why I did not support them.

   

• 25 November 2006 (Cheating disabled veterans)

  The Bush forces are cheating disabled veterans out of their benefits.

  But they have to cut costs somewhere to pay the high fees that mercenary companies charge.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Darfur massacre)

  Sudan "agreed in principle" to a stronger foreign military force in Darfur, after its militias massacred civilians in Chad.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Syria wants Golan Heights)

  Reportedly Syria will demand the return of the Golan heights as the price for cooperating with Bush on Iraq -- as well as a timetable for withdrawal of the Bush forces.

  It would be bad if Assad and Bush, neither of whom respects human rights, get together on a plan to keep Iraq in subjection.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Fatah and Hamas)

  The US and Israel are planning an international conference to boost Fatah over HAMAS. This is meant to forward Israeli plans for annexation of parts of the West Bank.

  At the same time, Israel is threatening to assassinate the elected leadership of the Palestinian Authority, which comes from HAMAS.

  Israel formed the Islamist organization HAMAS in the 80s so as to weaken the power base of secular Fatah. This has sometimes backfired, but the rivalry between them is sure useful for Israeli plans.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Bush mercenaries)

  Bush mercenaries in Iraq were fired after they reported that their boss murdered Iraqis for fun.

  Their employer doesn't deny the shootings, but defends firing the mercenaries that reported them. This rules out all explanations except that their are monsters.

  The use of privately employed mercenaries by the US government should be prohibited by law for this reason as well as many others.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Protestors block pipeline)

  Protestors in Wales have blocked construction of a monster natural gas pipeline through land that is prone to landslides.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Iraqi minister kidnapped)

  The deputy health minister of the "Iraqi" government was kidnapped.

  It's peculiar that the kidnapers included police (Shi'ite) while he is a Shi'ite too. I wonder if two Shi'ite militias are fighting.

   

• 22 November 2006 (Bush quotes)

  A list of Bush quotations.

  The list of Bush quotes is a hoax. See snopes.com for details.

   

• 21 November 2006 (Conscientious objector)

  A conscientious object in Turkey faces repeated trials and imprisonments for his refusal to enter the army.

   

• 21 November 2006 (Iran)

  Iran, 26 years of religion in power, has made young people secular.

  It should be noted that the position of Ayatollah Montazeri is not really "reformist" except in a short term sense. Khomeni broke a centuries-old Shi'a tradition that clerics should not have secular power. Montazeri holds to that tradition.

   

• 21 November 2006 (Surrender to the megacorporations)

  Gordon Brown's vision for the UK's future is one of surrender to the megacorporations: competing economically with other countries to attract the favor of business.

   

• 21 November 2006 (Toxic waste suit)

  Dumping toxic waste from rich countries in poor countries is not unusual, but now a company is getting sued for it.

   

• 21 November 2006 (AIDS and tyranny)

  AIDS and tyranny have reduced women's life expectancy in Zimbabwe to 34 years or less.

  If Dubya's pretended concern about the evils of Saddam Hussein's regime were real, he would be far more concerned about rescuing Zimbabwe (and various other countries) from tyranny. However, as events in Haiti show, Bush is quite ready to introduce tyranny.

   

• 21 November 2006 (Build a wall)

  Israel plans to build a wall around Azun Atme, turning the village into a prison. It has become a new site for the Palestinian nonviolent protest movement.

   

• 21 November 2006 (Plan for conscription)

  Americans hoped that electing Democrats would end the war, but instead they will get a plan for conscription.

   

• 21 November 2006 (War on Integrity)

  As part of the War on Integrity, Bush appointed a new head for family-planning services -- who also works for a group of Christian fanatics that opposes birth control.

   

• 20 November 2006 (B'liar puts blame on Human Rights Act)

  The B'liar regime has systematically blamed the Human Rights Act for its administrative failings. This appears to be part of their systematic campaign to abolish the Rights of Englishmen.

   

• 20 November 2006 (Musharraf commutes death sentence)

  President Musharraf of Pakistan has commuted the death sentence that was given to Mirza Hussain by an Islamic court. He may soon be freed after 18 years of imprisonment for a crime that he probably did not commit.

  While it is good for a single injustice to end, the Islamic courts of Pakistan remain as unjust as ever.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Uri Avnery)

  Uri Avnery contrasts two approaches to peace between Israel and Palestine.

   

• 19 November 2006 (US witch-hunt against charities)

  The US government has a systematic policy of witch-hunts against Islamic charities and Muslims who try to help the sick and hungry in Muslim countries. US laws prohibiting any kind of cooperation with groups that have been labeled (sometimes arbitrarily) as "terrorist" are so broad that they amount to guilt by association.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Israel planned to bomb refugee camp)

  The Israeli air force planned to demolish a house in a refugee camp by bombing it. 50 Palestinians climbed on the house and discouraged the bombing.

  Refugee camps are typically densely built. To bomb a house in a refugee camp, even if it is empty, has a substantial chance of killing people in other nearby houses.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Attendance goes down)

  The attendance rate in Iraq's schools are at a record low. Universities are now controlled by religious fanatics who are often corrupt.

   

• 19 November 2006 (GI resistance grows)

  GI resistance to the occupation of Iraq is growing.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Biometric passports)

  Biometric passports are being imposed in the name of security, but they are totally insecure, and actually make it easier to produce fake passports. The insane decision to use RFIDs makes it possible to read the data off someone else's passport while it is in his pocket without his knowledge. Security measures which are supposed to prevent that are feasible to overcome.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Cuban denied UN prize)

  A Cuban boy who won a UN contest was denied his prize, a camera, because it had parts made in the US.

  I think the UN agency was being too subservient to the US. The UN is not under US jurisdiction, though all too often it acts that way. People who are not US citizens and buy a product outside the US are not under the jurisdiction of US export control or boycotts. The UN should have asked its staff to do that and told the US where to get off.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Sunnis to leave Iraqi government)

  The "Iraqi government" is disintegrating, as the main association of Sunni clerics called on Sunnis to leave the government after it called for the arrest of their leader.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Blind mice get sight)

  Blind mice were given sight with transplants of cells cultured from stem cells.

  Soon the song "three blind mice" may be obsolete -- but in order to help blind humans, we must first defeat the Christian fanatics that believe that a zygote is a person.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Interpreters targetted)

  Interpreters used by British Bush forces are being systematically killed by the resistance, as collaborators.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Murat Kurnaz)

  Murat Kurnaz, former Guantanamo prisoner, talks about how they tortured him, including electric shocks, starvation, and being shackled for days. Doctors rule on whether the prisoner can stand more torture without dying, but occasionally they make a mistake.

  Without a real trial, it took years, to determine that he was not guilty of anything. Kurnaz accuses the German government of complicity in his arrest.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Palestinian peace proposal)

  Spain and France have proposed a peace plan for Palestine. It is inadequate, but at least shows some recognition for the mistreatment of Palestine. It's good they had the guts to sideline the UK; they must have known that B'liar would only try to sabotage the plan on behalf of the US.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Hezbollah protecting NATO)

  Robert Fisk: in the strange world of South Lebanon Hezbollah defends a NATO army from possible al Qa'ida suicide bombers.

   

• 19 November 2006 (Israel versus Palestine)

  After Israeli fighters killed some 70 Palestinians, other Palestinians demanded revenge. They fired Qassam missiles which scored a rare hit and killed one Israeli. (That happens about once a year.)

  Now Israelis are calling out for revenge. Who has more to get revenge for?

   

• 19 November 2006 (Assault on human rights)

  B'liar's probable successor, Gordon Brown, plans to continue the assault on human rights. He wants the same 90-day imprisonment without trial that B'liar couldn't get last year.

   

• 19 November 2006 (B'liar against CO2 reduction)

  B'liar shows his true position on global warming by trying to protect business from strict annual CO2 reduction targets.

  Strict annual targets could really compel reductions. B'liar prefers a 5-year plan, which would allow business 5 years of pretending before being caught doing nothing. And when it is caught, another 5-year plan would give it another chance to do nothing (except move the factories to higher ground).

   

• 19 November 2006 (Russia tortured Chechens)

  Human Rights Watch accused Russia of systematically torturing Chechens, US-style, to make them confess to crimes they did not commit.

   

• 19 November 2006 (UK attempts to reduce obesity)

  The UK plans to ban TV advertising of junk food in an attempt to reduce obesity.

  The goal is important; I am not sure whether the method will work, but it is worth a try.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Soldier admits hating Iraqis)

  A Bush forces soldier said in court that he raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl because he hates Iraqis.

  It's natural that many Bush forces troops come to hate all Iraqis. They know nearly all Iraqis hate the troops for what they have done to Iraq. This mutual hatred is the natural consequence of a war of aggression and conquest followed by subjugation of the conquered people. He who decides to launch a war of conquest is responsible for its natural consequence.

   

• 18 November 2006 (US Media discourages withdrawal)

  US media are spinning wildly to discourage withdrawal of the Bush forces from Iraq. They use the argument that the Bush forces paradoxically prevent the instersectarian violence which in fact they have caused.

  It's true that the Bush forces put some limits on the violence that the militias can use. But they also keep the violence going by preventing any side from making its territory secure. While the Bush forces remain, the only way Iraq's violence can end is if the Iraqis are all dead.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Zaytoun)

  The Palestinian town of Zaytoun asked international volunteers to come and deter attacks by Israelis as they harvested their olives. Ed Hill from the UK went there, and now reports on what he saw.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Lives Per Gallon)

  An excerpt from Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction.

  The solution to these problems can also help against global warming: tax oil enough to substantially discourage its use.

   

• 18 November 2006 (UN Environment Program)

  The UN Environment Program proposes to combat global warming by inviting people to plant trees. They hope to count a billion newly planted trees.

  Unless they do something more organized, and with funding behind it, I doubt that this program will lead to the planting of very many additional trees. More likely they will count lots of trees that people would have planted anyway, and call it a great success, without really having changed much.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Lawyer accuses Bush)

  A leading Iraqi lawyer has accused the Bush forces of throwing 211 families, including his, out of their homes. And they have shot Iraqis trying to get into their homes to retrieve their property.

   

• 18 November 2006 (High-command ordered abuse)

  An officer testifying in the trial of British Bush forces soldiers accused the high command of ordering the abuse of prisoners.

  Dutch interrogators in the Bush forces tortured prisoners too.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Travesties of justice)

  The hearings that Guantanamo prisoners get instead of trials are travesties of justice.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Non-violent protests is terrorism)

  The US has defined non-violent animal rights protests as "terrorism" if they are perceived as threatening by the targets of the protests. That essentially leaves it up to those targets to declare protest as "terrorism".

  I am not particularly an advocate of animal rights, but any threat to democratic political freedom is unamerican. Even worse, this law is based on a lie. Since people condemn "terrorism", they figure they can manipulate people by labeling other things as "terrorism". (A similar kind of dishonesty can be found in the term "statutory rape": it isn't rape, but a law decrees the lie that it is rape.) Next thing you know, they will be asking a jury to consider protest as evil because "it is terrorism, and you hate terrorism".

  Jurors should never convict anyone of violating a law which is itself a lie.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Unregulated trawling)

  Unregulated deep-sea trawling is destroying entire ecosystems.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Gunmen intrude research agency)

  Shi'ite militia gunmen wearing police uniforms kidnaped large numbers of people (some say 150) from an Iraqi government research agency office. The agency is under the control of a Sunni minister.

  Some of the prisoners were released, but others were tortured and killed.

  The reason the attackers were wearing police uniforms is probably that they are police. Here's more information on the police death squads.

  The end of the inter-sectarian killings in Iraq can only occur if Sunnis can defend their own cities and neighborhoods, to keep these murderous police out. And that requires ending the occupation and the "Iraqi government" which works for Bush and employs these police.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Ayesha's tragic story)

  Palestinian girl Ayesha was just released from an Israeli prison where she has spent her entire life. Her mother is imprisoned without trial for no stated reason. Both of her parents have spent many years in prison for political activity. Ayesha cannot meet her brothers, who live in Jordan, since they cannot go to Palestine and her father would not be allowed to return if he ever leaves.

  This is nothing unusual in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The "defense" of Israel, while a legitimate goal as such, cannot justify the evil being committed in its name.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Consumers for Peace: report)

  Please read the Consumers for Peace report on Bush war crimes in Iraq.

  This report does not include the crime of launching a war of aggression, a crime for which German leaders were sentenced to death.

  One point noted is that the Geneva Conventions forbid the punishment of civilians for helping wounded combatants. The Bush forces just recently arrested Iraqi doctors and medics, accusing them of giving treatment to wounded Iraqi resistance fighters.

  Bush is unabashed, and now wants to "win" the occupation of Iraq by increasing the size of the occupation forces.

  It is absurd to think that 20,000 more troops could give Bush victory over the population of Iraq. But Bush doesn't care about reality, only the appearance presented in the media; so he doesn't need to win, he only needs to avoid an appearance of defeat. Any excuse will serve for that, if the media support it.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Bechtel has nothing to show)

  Bechtel, having taken billions from the willingly complicit Bush regime to "rebuild Iraq", has given up operations in Iraq, leaving Iraq with essentially nothing to show for all the money.

   

• 18 November 2006 (B'liar wants more injustice)

  B'liar is not satisfied with keeping people in prison for 28 days without charges; he wants 90 days. Last year Parliament agreed to 28 days as a compromise, which he now wants to change.

  He seems to be playing a game of "meet me half way, then meet me half way again," which eventually takes 100% from anyone fool enough to play it.

   

• 18 November 2006 (Oaxaca protests)

  Report from Oaxaca: protestors hold many of the streets, but police grab people for no apparent reason.

   

• 17 November 2006 (Urgent Note)

  US citizens: support Amnesty International's campaign to restore the right to a trial and end the practice of torture.

   

• 17 November 2006 (Censor films)

  The B'liar regime wants to censor films that show sex combined with violence -- a further attack on human rights in the UK.

   

• 17 November 2006 (Puppet government)

  Bush has been forced to give some political ground on Iraq, but he continues the pretense that the puppet government there is somehow helping the situation.

  It is vital to reject that pretense, because many Americans who opposed the invasion have let themselves use that excuse to justify the occupation. They say it must be continued so as to prevent the evils it has unleashed from getting worse. But this is a delusion: the "Iraqi government" cannot make Iraq safe or peaceful, because Iraqis know it isn't really Iraqi.

   

• 17 November 2006 (Israeli jets threatened French troops)

  Israeli jets threatened French troops in Lebanon, and almost received real anti-aircraft missiles in return. (Robert Fisk says that these missiles are automated.) France now demands that Israel stop flying planes over Lebanon.

   

• 17 November 2006 (Custom-made to support Bush)

  A statement from al-Muhajir, who claims to be the head of al Qa'ida in Iraq, looks custom-made to support Bush. (It's not the first time.)

   

• 16 November 2006 (Urgent note: Call for impeachment)

  US citizens: send Nancy Pelosi a telegram calling for impeachment of Bush.

   

• 16 November 2006 (Buying Africans)

  A proposal to help Africans by letting companies buy and sell them was warmly received by an audience of neoliberal government officials.

  I think this speech was given by a representative of the Yes Men, who show the evil of neoliberalism by proposing small extensions that take it into the territory of absolute evil, and getting positive responses.

   

• 16 November 2006 (To Robert Gates)

  An open letter to Robert Gates, new US Secretary of "Defense".

   

• 16 November 2006 (Ramadi killings)

  The Bush forces reportedly killed 30 civilians in Ramadi by shelling a residential area.

   

• 16 November 2006 (Soldier pleads guilty)

  A Bush forces soldier pled guilty to raping an Iraqi teenager.

  The occupation of a hostile population creates a hostility between the occupying forces and the civilians which leads to crimes like this. (In Iraq, killing of civilians is much more frequent than rape.) It's a good thing that soldiers are punished when caught committing such crimes, it is inevitable that only a small fraction of them will be convicted.

   

• 16 November 2006 (ACLU makes CIA admit)

  Thanks to the ACLU, the CIA has admitted that Bush gave orders to operate secret prisons and specifying "interrogation methods" (i.e., torture techniques) for them to use.

  Some additional information.

   

• 16 November 2006 (Kyle Snider)

  Kyle Snider, Bush forces resister, says that the army made a deal to discharge him, and then cheated on it.

   

• 16 November 2006 (Pelosi is biased)

  When it comes to Israel and Palestine, Pelosi is just as biased as Bush.

   

• 16 November 2006 (B'liar wants more censorship)

  Leaders of a right-wing party in the UK were acquitted of the crime of "inciting religious hatred" for the criticisms they made of Islam and Muslims. In response, the B'liar regime proposes to increase censorship so that no one can express opinions that would "offend mainstream opinion".

  The B'liar regime seems to believe that it can compensate for police mistreatment of innocent Muslims (such as shooting them in their homes) by censoring criticism of their religion. Two wrongs don't make a right.

   

• 16 November 2006 (Chinese emission levels)

  China will pass the US in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010.

  If rising CO2 emissions melt a substantial part of the Greenland icecap, the sea will submerge Shanghai and Shenzhen. That will trim China's economic growth.

   

• 15 November 2006 (Pelosi rejects Bush impeachment)

  Nancy Pelosi rejected impeachment of Bush.

  This is why I do not in general support the Democratic Party. If Bush's crimes are not punished, the effect is to legitimize them, present and future.

   

• 15 November 2006 (150 kidnapped from Baghdad research institute)

  150 people were kidnapped together from a research institute in Baghdad by 80 militia gunmen dressed as police.

  The idea that the puppet government could provide security against the militias is absurd. When militia gunmen dress as police, usually it's because they really are the police.

   

• 15 November 2006 (Kremlin 'complicit in Chechen murders')

  Kremlin 'was complicit in Chechen murders', says a European court.

   

• 15 November 2006 (Alleged Bush forces revenge killing)

  A news report says that Bush forces troops murdered 6 defenseless civilians as revenge for killing of 6 Bush forces soldiers in battle.

   

• 15 November 2006 (Saddam's trial)

  There are accusations that Saddam Hussein's trial was unfair.

  The chief judge of Saddam Hussein's revolutionary court has been sentenced to death along with Hussein... for sentencing people to death after unfair trials. One must wonder when the judges of this court will in turn be sentenced to death for the same crime.

  The death penalty is wrong, but sentencing its perpetrators to death is not the way to take action against it.

   

• 14 November 2006 (Berlusconi)

  Berlusconi used Italians' voluntary contributions, meant for cultural activities, to pay for the occupation of Iraq.

   

• 14 November 2006 (Iraqi militia)

  Militias in Iraq are killing high police officials.

   

• 13 November 2006 (Nepal peace deal)

  A peace deal could end the civil war in Nepal and lead to a constitutional monarchy.

   

• 13 November 2006 (Bush forces shoot cell phone users)

  As Iraqi resistance snipers shoot at the Bush forces, Bush forces snipers shoot anyone that uses a cell phone.

   

• 13 November 2006 (Lt. Ehren Watada)

  The US Army withdrew some specific charges against Lt. Watada and will proceed to a court-martial on the vaguer charges. Lt. Watada has refused to go to Iraq on the grounds that the order is illegal.

   

• 13 November 2006 (Uri Avnery)

  Uri Avnery discusses Israel's moral responsibility for the shelling that killed 18 Palestinians in their beds.

   

• 13 November 2006 (Boy Scouts)

  Boy Scouts are actively expelling Atheists.

   

• 12 November 2006 (Israeli minister quits)

  An Israeli minister quit the cabinet in protest against including Lieberman's party in the government.

  Lieberman is a right-wing extremist. Here is more information about what he stands for.

   

• 12 November 2006 (B'liar-Bush ignored warning)

  UK diplomats warned B'liar and Bush that "regime change" in Iraq would lead to chaos...until the ever-obedient B'liar ordered them to shut up.

   

• 12 November 2006 (Rumsfeld may be charged)

  Rumsfeld has resigned, and may perhaps face charges in Germany for the torture of prisoners.

  Many Americans criticized Rumsfeld for "mismanaging" the occupation of Iraq, and demanded his resignation. However, the question of whether the war was badly managed is a side issue; the real point is that it was fundamentally unjustified, and Bush should not be allowed to place the responsibility for this crime on his henchmen.

   

• 12 November 2006 (MoveOn offers reward)

  MoveOn offers a reward for evidence of organized voter suppresion or fraud.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Urgent note: Ceasefire petition)

  Everyone: sign the cease fire campaign petition.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Gross misconduct by NYPD officers)

  When the manager of a McDonald's in New York attacked Christina Sforza, one of her friends called the police. The manager told them she had attacked him, and the police didn't want to see the evidence.

  In fact, the police have persistently refused to allow Sforza to file a complain for the attack.

  I can see how police might not know who to believe when two people accuse each other. But in this case they only had to look at who was injured -- precisely what they did not allow paramedics to check. That alone calls out for the police to be punished. And denying a diabetic access to medicine can cause permanent injury. Even real criminals have the right not to be mutilated by their jailors.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Saddam's sentence)

  The death sentence for Saddam Hussein is being widely condemned in Europe.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Republicans are traitors)

  Republicans made dishonest, even threatening phone calls to intimidate and confuse likely Democratic voters.

  The Republican Party has no respect for democracy or the rights of those who disagree with them. In effect, they are traitors.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Historian underwent legal harassment)

  Turkish historian Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, who studies ancient Sumer, was prosecuted for "inciting religious hatred" after she wrote that the headscarf that Islamists wish to force women to wear started out in ancient times as the insignia of a temple prostitute.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Destruction and murders by Israel)

  To "prevent" Qassam missile attacks from Gaza that hardly ever hit anyone, Israel killed 56 Palestinians (most of them civilians) and ruined 200 houses.

  Then killed a sleeping family with tank artillery.

   

• 11 November 2006 (Muslim officers suspended)

  Muslim police officers in the UK have been suspended from various duties because of indirect family associations, based on rumors instead of evidence.

  These policemen could hardly be more dangerous than the ones who shot innocent people, but B'liar gives them "101% support".

   

• 11 November 2006 (Khalilzad fails to win over Sunnis)

  Bush representative Khalilzad has failed in his mission to conciliate Iraqi Sunnis.

  The only way Bush can have Iraqi's hearts and brains is to collect them from cadavers.

   

• 10 November 2006 (Pollution in the Pacific)

  A nature reserve in the Pacific Ocean is heavily polluted with trash drifting in from remote lands.

  Human activity now generates so much waste of all kinds that it can pollute the whole ocean. We cannot treat the ocean as a boundless dump any more.

   

• 10 November 2006 (March in Oaxaca)

  10,000 women marched in Oaxaca to support the protestors and condemn the federal police.

   

• 10 November 2006 (Sleeping family)

  The Israeli army killed a sleeping family in Gaza with tank fire. (10 of the 18 killed were children.)

  And two paramedics. That was on top of 56 other killings, mostly of civilians.

   

• 10 November 2006 (Republican harrassment calls)

  Republicans made harrassment calls to voters, which pretended to come from the Democratic Party unless you listened to the very end.

   

• 10 November 2006 (Secret uranium bomb)

  Robert Fisk: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb.

   

• 10 November 2006 (DNA records)

  The UK has DNA records of almost 4 million people, including half a million people aged under 16. This leads to all sorts of abuses.

  B'liar wants to get DNA records of everyone, and makes the usual excuse that "You have no reason to be afraid of being watched if you're not doing something wrong." It takes just one word to refute that absurd argument: "Menezes".

   

• 10 November 2006 (Poisonous chemicals)

  1/6 of all children have some sort of brain disorder. Is this due to poisonous chemicals?

   

• 09 November 2006 (Phony accusations against Venezuela)

  The Bush regime has made phony accusations against Venezuela of refusing to cooperate in the absurd US "War on Drugs".

   

• 09 November 2006 (Resisting oppression)

  A dalit family resisting oppression by its upper-caste neighbors was treated to gang rape and murder.

   

• 09 November 2006 (When the US removed Aristide)

  When the US removed Aristide from power in Haiti, his party's peaceful protests were crushed by gunfire. A journalist caught the attack on film. It looks like the US forces prepared it.

   

• 09 November 2006 (Closed TV stations and newspapers)

  Bush's Iraqi government closed TV stations and newspapers for reporting on protests against Saddam Hussein's death sentence.

  Hussein is probably guilty of these charges, and of many more, that were not brought because in his defense he would have embarrassingly cited the US support he received at the time. However, the death penalty is itself wrong, even for mass murderers such as Hussein and Bush.

  They should be sentenced to life imprisonment in the same cell.

   

• 09 November 2006 (Mid-Term Election)

  palast@gregpalast.com: How They Stole The Mid-Term Election.

  It appears that these methods weren't enough to give Republicans victory, but they may have retained several congressional seats that the Republicans would have lost in a fair election.

   

• 09 November 2006 (Massive crop failures)

  Africa will suffer massive crop failures due to global warming, and 70 million people will have to flee rising seas. And that's even supposing Greenland does not melt.

   

• 08 November 2006 (Shias fear Sunni-Bush alliance)

  Iraqi Shia leaders fear the Bush regime favors a Sunni alliance.

  Such an alliance seems unlikely to me, considering that the Sunnis are the most active in the resistance, and the most hostile to Bush. However, the fears show how impossible it is for Bush to control Iraq.

   

• 08 November 2006 (Worse threat than the cold war)

  A minister in the B'liar regime said that terrorism is a worse threat than the cold war.

  Is he nuts, or does he think the public is stupid? The Soviet Union had the power to sterilize the world. By comparison, non-state-sponsored terrorists are pipsqueaks.

   

• 08 November 2006 (Cluster bombs)

  Nearly all those killed and wounded by cluster bombs over the years are civilians. Many of them are children.

   

• 08 November 2006 (ASBOs)

  ASBOs, the UK government measures that put people in prison for actions that are not against the law, are now a badge of honor for teens. They are so often violated that the state can't afford to enforce them.

   

• 08 November 2006 (Anti-gay US Christian leader)

  An anti-gay US Christian leader quit after a male prostitute identified him as a client.

  The wrong that this leader did was not that he used a prostitute's services, or even that he had sex for pleasure. What he did wrong was to condemn sex for pleasure.

   

• 07 November 2006 (Pressure to rejoin negotiations)

  China pressured North Korea to rejoin negotiations about its nuclear weapons program.

  If China is willing to keep the pressure up, while assuring North Korea of protection from a possible US invasion, North Korea might be willing to forego nuclear weapons.

   

• 07 November 2006 (Big Brother Britain)

  Big Brother Britain 2006: 'We are waking up to a surveillance society all around us'.

   

• 06 November 2006 (Developing events in Oaxaca)

  Developing events in Oaxaca.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Already-deteriorating democracy)

  How Lieberman affects Israel's already-deteriorating democracy.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Lebanon coup)

  The US government claims Syria and Iran are planning a Lebanon coup. I would not put it past Assad to do this, or put it past Bush to fabricate the accusation, but it seems implausible that Iran would go to any lengths to bring about such a coup.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Sunni militias)

  Sunni militias are trying to encircle Baghdad and cut it off from the rest of Iraq.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Citizens of Oaxaca)

  Citizens of Oaxaca protected the university from Mexican troops.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Chevron underpaying for natural gas)

  The Bush regime let Chevron get away with underpaying for the natural gas it pumps out of Federal land. This will enrich Bush's oil buddies, while promoting global warming.

  The article errs when it says the gas is "produced" in the Gulf of Mexico. It was produced long ago; today we only extract it.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Women's lives in Afghanistan no better)

  Women's lives are "no better" in Afghanistan after the Taliban were kicked out.

  However, this is partly due to the operation of the Taliban, which threaten schools that teach girls.

  For more information, see http://www.rawa.org/.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Palast analyses US propaganda)

  Greg Palast analyzes US war propaganda. It leads readers to identify with Bush soldiers while dehumanizing the Iraqi civilians they kill.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Senator Allen's staff attack questioner)

  Senator Allen's staff attacked and choked a man who was asking annoying questions. The staff claim he attacked first, but the video recording shows they are lying and he plans to press charges.

  I don't think it matters whether Senator Allen ever spit at his wife or not, just as it didn't matter whether President Clinton had sex with Ms Lewinski. Attacking people who ask questions is much more serious than either of those things.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Overseas soldiers' votes)

  Overseas U.S. soldiers' votes are being sent by faxes and emails, and processed by a company that supports the Republican Party.

  They also have to worry that commanders will punish them if they didn't vote Republican.

   

• 05 November 2006 (Clearance to fly)

  The Bush regime wants to require US citizens to get "clearance" to enter or leave the US by air.

   

• 05 November 2006 (UN investigating Israeli dirty bombs)

  UN investigators are studying possible evidence that Israel used depleted uranium dirty bombs in Lebanon. The Israel response that "these are the same weapons used by Western countries" seems to me like an admissiuon of guilt--and this is no less wrong for Israel than it is for any other country.

   

• 04 November 2006 (Limited to millionaires)

  The Green Party senate candidate was arrested in Seattle for trying to enter a TV studio, where a debate was being held among other candidates for his senate race. The debate was limited to millionaires.

   

• 04 November 2006 (Urgent note: Prevent lame-duck Congress)

  US citizens: organize to prevent a lame-duck Republican Congress from committing even worse vandalism.

   

• 04 November 2006 (Limit for CO2 emissions)

  Proposal: set the target for limiting CO2 emissions at the level where Greenland won't melt. But what level is that?

  Given the dishonesty of some governments and the greed of corporations, we can be sure that in order to reach any given target, we have to set a more ambitious target.

   

• 04 November 2006 (Global warming)

  With global warming, African birds are moving to Europe.

  African parasites will surely come along.

   

• 04 November 2006 (Cheney faces prison)

  Halliburton is being investigated for fraud and corruption under Cheney's tenure. He could go to prison for this.

  Having him in prison for corruption won't be as good as having him in prison for the crime of launching a war of aggression, but it would do. However, I don't think it will happen. If Bush can't get Halliburton off the hook, he will probably pardon all his cronies before leaving office.

   

• 03 November 2006 (Urgent Note)

  US voters: See the League of Conservation Voters' lists of recommended candidates.

   

• 03 November 2006 (Mexican police attacking)

  Mexican police are attacking a university in Oaxaca. The university's radio station is broadcasting a report of the attack; translations are posted here.

   

• 03 November 2006 (Prevent the theft of the election)

  Progressive democrats are trying to organize to prevent the theft of the coming US election.

   

• 03 November 2006 (Almost too late)

  It is "almost too late" to avoid a global catastrophe due to global warming -- but still possible, if governments can muster the political will to overcome the short-sighted greed of business.

   

• 03 November 2006 (Mercenaries)

  B'liar is "withdrawing troops" only to replace them with mercenaries.

   

• 03 November 2006 (Dishonest political campaign ads)

  William Fisher: what is the effect of dishonest political campaign ads?

  In order for them to backfire, the press has to function well enough to enable the public to learn the truth.

   

• 02 November 2006 (Desperately cling)

  An article about veterans of a single unit in the Bush forces returning home to find they don't fit in. Meanwhile they desperately cling to the idea that their war was justified, rather than the war of conquest which it clearly is.

   

• 02 November 2006 (Climate change can hurt business)

  Climate change can have worse results than death of millions of people and extinction of thousands of species. It can hurt business, too! So now politicians are impressed.

   

• 02 November 2006 (Prevent voters from voting)

  The Republican Party pins its hopes on a massive campaign to prevent voters who oppose them from voting (or preventing their votes from being counted).

   

• 02 November 2006 (Swans)

  Swans that normally migrate from Russia to the UK for winter are showing up in small numbers. It seems Russia is so warm that they have not bothered to leave.

   

• 01 November 2006 (Officials in Oaxaca shot at protestors)

  Government officials in Oaxaca shot at protestors and journalists. Fox, in a move so dishonest that it resembles Bush, used this violence against protestors as an excuse to send in troops to commit more.

   

• 01 November 2006 (Microlending)

  Fashionable microlending has become a band-aid on the open sore of neoliberalism.

  I think the article is too harsh towards Mohammed Yunus. His pioneering microlending program was effective (or so I've read) at helping poor people in specific circumstances escape from permanent bondage to moneylenders. But those are limited circumstances, and the article is right that microlending is no substitute for the other programs that aid the poor in general. (This must, in the long term, include birth control and abortion aid.)

   

• 01 November 2006 (Religious school bombed)

  Pakistan bombed a religious school accused of harboring Taliban.

  I do not know whether that accusation was valid, but if the people in the school at the time included many Taliban, I do not criticize the attack. However, it is unlikely that attacks like this can defeat the Taliban if they have public support in Afghanistan.

   

• 01 November 2006 (President Lula)

  Lula has won reelection as president of Brazil.

  His policies have not been as firm against the business empire as I would have wished; nonetheless, he blocked the FTAA and has helped Brazil's poor. In addition, he recently announced a strengthened commitment to free software.

   

• 01 November 2006 (Famine in North Korea)

  Famine in North Korea has sent thousands fleeing, and the numbers could increase.

   

• 01 November 2006 (German agencies knew)

  German government agencies knew about torture in secret CIA prisons many years ago.

   

• 01 November 2006 (US Customs takes away laptops)

  US Customs arbitrarily and randomly seizes laptops of travelers entering the US, without giving a reason; the result is that travel to the US is a risk.

  This article reflects the media's general bias by giving priority to the effects on business and in particular business secrecy. If we set that bias aside, we see that this is equally unjust for individuals.

   

• 30 October 2006 (Google providing info to Government)

  Google is providing information on people's searches to the US government -- about everyone, not just about specific people for whom the government gets search warrants.

   

• 30 October 2006 (Repression under China)

  Repression under China: the full story of the Chinese attack on fleeing Tibetans.

   

• 30 October 2006 (Bloggers imprisoned)

  Amnesty International reports on bloggers imprisoned by various governments for their political views.

   

• 30 October 2006 (Cut and run)

  Greg Palast teaches Americans to recognize situations where the right thing to do is "cut and run".

   

• 30 October 2006 (Cheney endorsed torture)

  Cheney explicitly endorsed a form of torture.

   

• 30 October 2006 (NBC rejects TV ads)

  NBC rejected TV ads for Dixie Chicks film because it criticizes Bush.

   

• 30 October 2006 (NATO killed civilians)

  NATO forces killed dozens of civilians in Afghan attack. NATO 3~claims they were mostly Taliban fighters, but the evidence suggests that is not true.

  No people like to see their compatriots killed by foreigners; they only way this won't make them hate those foreigners is if they greatly appreciate those foreigners' help. In Afghanistan, public opinion is already moving towards the Taliban; the kind of public support that would lead the public to stand for this is already lost. Trying to deny what happened only makes its effect worse, since it adds lying to the list of crimes.

   

• 28 October 2006 (Computerized voting)

  Computerized voting is not just vulnerable to cracking, it's fundamentally unreliable. And, even worse, voter-verified paper ballots have a serious practical problem: voters don't check them.

  Perhaps voter education will suffice to make voter-verified paper ballots work. But it does seem that the idea of using computers for voting is a bad idea.

   

• 28 October 2006 (Elizabeth Loftus)

  When memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus took the stand in Scooter Libby's trial to testify to the fallibility of human memory, prosecutor Fitzgerald embarrassed her by demonstrating her failures of memory.

  Does that weaken her testimony, or support it?

   

• 27 October 2006 (Withdraw Americans from Bush forces)

  Bush has announced a plan to withdraw most of the Americans from the Bush forces, and have the "Iraqi" army take over most of the fighting to maintain the occupation of Iraq.

  The plan is contingent on their being capable of doing so, which seems unlikely. So I think Bush's intention is to mislead Americans into expecting that he will withdraw the troops, while preparing the excuse for not actually doing so.

   

• 27 October 2006 (The wearing of veils)

  Some European countries are banning the wearing of veils.

  Several issues of freedom come into this on different sides. On one side, there is the general freedom to dress as you wish. On the other, there is freedom from intimidation and pressure to bow down to religious bullying.

  However, I am disturbed by the demand that "people in public be identifiable", because this is part of the basis for the total surveillance state that is gradually being assembled.

   

• 27 October 2006 (In UK majority condemn the war)

  In the UK, vast majorities condemn the war in Iraq, while 60% now call for pulling the UK's contingent out of the Bush forces.

   

• 27 October 2006 (Deregulation of electricity)

  Deregulation of electricity, which was pushed by Enron and then exploited by Enron, has been a disaster, and Bush is trying to perpetuate it.

  Higher electricity prices are not in themselves a bad thing as long as these prices don't go for windfall profits. The US should tax electricity more, to raise prices and thus encourage conservation.

   

• 27 October 2006 (Syria crushes human rights and democracy)

  The government of Syria has crushed the movement for human rights and democracy by pointing to Iraq as an example to prove they are bad. This weekened the movement to the point where Assad felt comfortable crushing it.

  Poor Syrians -- they made the fundamental mistake of believing Bush. He said that his conquest of Iraq was a plan to establish freedom and democracy there, intending to fool the American public, and ironically fooled the Syrian public too.

  Let no one make the mistake of judging freedom or democracy by the conduct of the US today.

   

• 27 October 2006 (Man faces execution)

  A British man faces execution under Pakistan's system of Islamic courts, after a secular court concluded that the police were framing him for murder.

  "Islamic law" is another name for cruelty and injustice which are not entitled to hide behind religious freedom.

   

• 27 October 2006 (Nicaragua bans abortions)

  Nicaragua has adopted a law banning abortions even at the cost of killing a woman. Around 400 women per year are expected to be killed by this.

  Islam is not the only religion that kills.

   

• 26 October 2006 (Reconstructing Iraq)

  The money spent by Bush on "reconstructing Iraq", what part was not siphoned off by business executives, was mostly spent on housing foreign workers, leaving little funds for actual rebuilding.

  Such inefficiency is almost inevitable when occupying forces try to "rebuild" a country whose population hates them. In this way, as in other ways, Iraq would be better off today under the well-organized and stable despotism of Saddam Hussein than under the more violent yet less stable despotism of King George.

   

• 26 October 2006 (Efficiency gains)

  US houses are getting more energy-efficient -- for their size. But they are also getting bigger, which overwhelms the efficiency gains.

   

• 25 October 2006 (In Colombia)

  In Colombia under Bush's deputy Uribe, union organizers, teachers and student leaders face indefinite imprisonment and assassination.

   

• 25 October 2006 (Coca-cola workers blockade plant)

  Former Coca Cola workers in Venezuela are blockading the plants, demanding pay they are owed. If the company does not pay them it may be expropriated.

   

• 25 October 2006 (Suspended sentence for helping suicide)

  A British man who helped his wife commit suicide was given a suspended sentence.

  To help others escape from a life of torture should not be punished at all.

   

• 24 October 2006 (Spurred Islamic radicalism)

  A UK minister has admitted that the occupation of Iraq has spurred Islamic radicalism. He claims that this admission is an attempt to "reach out" to young Muslims.

  He needs to realize that just admitting a mistake is not sufficient for forgiveness. You have to at least try your best not to keep making the mistake. Otherwise the "admission" is just manipulation.

   

• 24 October 2006 (More cluster bombs)

  Hezbollah used cluster bombs too.

  Maybe Israel and Hezbollah can sign a treaty not to use them.

   

• 23 October 2006 (The next president's responsibility)

  Commentary: as Bush continues the war just so that the retreat from Iraq will be the next president's "responsibility", the Democratic party offers nothing better.

   

• 23 October 2006 (Phosphorus bombs)

  Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon.

   

• 23 October 2006 (Cluster bombs)

  The UK is accused of blocking negotiations to ban cluster bombs.

  If that is true, it is probably obeying orders from the US, which is among the principal makers of cluster bombs.

   

• 23 October 2006 (Track cars)

  Watch out: European countries are planning to use the Galileo location system to track everyone's car.

  There is absolutely no need for "road pricing", because the increase in gasoline taxes--and improved mass transit--that we must implement in order to prevent global disaster should suffice to end congestion in cities too.

   

• 23 October 2006 (Half the civilian deaths)

  Half the civilian deaths in Iraq are due to a shortage of doctors and medical supplies. This shortage is due to the violence and destruction caused by the Bush invasion.

   

• 23 October 2006 (Security Council seat)

  The US has won more supporters than Venezuela in a contest for a security council seat, demonstrating that it has more influence over other countries than Venezuela has.

  I find it encouraging that as many as 77 countries openly oppose US pressure.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Bin Laden campaigns for Republicans)

  Osama bin Laden continues to campaign for the Republican Party.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Iraqi Civilian Deaths)

  Bush's Iraqi government is trying to keep civilian death figures secret. This is the standard Bush regime response to embarrassing failure, just as it was the standard Soviet response.

  The article is misleading when it describes the Iraq Body Count as an "estimate" of the number of civilian deaths in Iraq. That project counts deaths in specific reported incidents, and explicitly says that this is not an attempt to estimate the total.

  This misrepresentation, which I have seen in other mainstream media articles as well, has the effect of creating a false impression that Iraq Body Count constitutes evidence against higher figures which really do try to estimate the total number of civilian deaths, thus falsely discrediting them.

   

• 21 October 2006 (UK Freedom of Information)

  B'liar's government wants to make it easier to block freedom-of-information requests, using processing costs as an excuse.

  The costs of handing these requests are insignificant compared with the costs of the wrongdoing that transparency can prevent.

   

• 21 October 2006 (German SDP right-wing reforms)

  When the Social Democratic Party was in power in Germany, it adopted right-wing economic "reforms" that have spread poverty.

  This is a consequence of the competition between countries to attract businesses. Instead of "free trade" treaties, countries should sign treaties where they all commit to similar measures to reduce poverty, protect the environment, and protect public health, thus preventing business from playing each country against the rest. (This is essentially the idea of the Simultaneous Policy campaign.)

   

• 21 October 2006 (War on Integrity - Mine safety)

  As part of the War on Integrity, Bush placed a mining company manager in charge of mine safety.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Katrina relief fund auditors fired)

  Most of the auditors working for the US House of Representatives to investigate fraud in spending Hurricane Katrina relief funds have been fired.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Bush forces deploy soldiers with PTSD)

  The Bush forces are so desperately short of men that they have to deploy soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

  The Bush forces have failed to end the sectarian violence in Baghdad. (They cannot do so, because the causes of this violence are a structural result of their own intervention.) Bush made the surprising admission that the situation resembles the quagmire of Vietnam.

  The more the Bush forces get worn down, the harder it will be for Bush to try to conquer some other country. Thus, the Iraqi resistance is keeping other countries safe from invasion.

  It is also the case that this damages the US capability to defend against a hypothetical attack. But the US is much more likely to attack other countries than to be attacked; therefore, on the balance, its weakness is a good thing.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Henry Porter on Bliar's attack on liberty)

  Henry Porter's speech: how Bliar has masterminded the greatest attack on liberty (in the UK) in the last hundred years.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Urgent note: Stop Target)

  Support the campaign to pressure Target to stop selling PVC.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Armitage admits defeat)

  Richard Armitage, Bush regime official until 2005, now effectively admits defeat in Iraq, and the nasty attitude that the Bush regime has shown the rest of the world.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Neglect of power net upgradation)

  Bush has neglected to upgrade the US electric power net as demand for electricity surges.

  I think taxes should be increased on electric consumption, to encourage conservation. This will help reduce global warming as well as avoiding the need for blackouts.

   

• 21 October 2006 (Coral reefs of Madagascar)

  The coral reefs of Madagascar have been mostly denuded of live coral. It is probably caused by global warming. Some corals can survive at today's elevanted temperatures, but given another degree or two, they might die also.

   

• 20 October 2006 (Interrogate student about art project)

  The US secret service pulled a student out of class to interrogate her at school about an art project.

   

• 20 October 2006 (Legionnaires' disease)

  Legionnaires' disease is spreading due to global warming.

   

• 20 October 2006 (Afghanistan on the path to being lost)

  Another signal admission from a UK military commander: that the invasion of Iraq put Afghanistan on the path to being lost to the Taliban.

   

• 19 October 2006 (Kidnaped with Romanian journalists)

  A US citizen who was kidnaped in Iraq, along with Romanian journalists that he was accompanying, faces execution for supposedly aiding the kidnaping. There is apparently no evidence that he participated in the crime, but Bush wants him dead anyway, and some Bush forces agent went to his trial where he falsely claimed to represent the Romanian government.

   

• 19 October 2006 (Fires and drought)

  Fires and the worst drought in 100 years wake Australia up to the reality of climate change.

  Drought like this will be common world-wide if we do not reduce CO2 emissions.

   

• 19 October 2006 (Increased air travel)

  The UK plans for increased air travel even as it claims to be planning to cut CO2 emissions, but that is impossible.

  UK ministers personally cause lots of wasteful CO2 emission by flying when they could have taken the train.

   

• 19 October 2006 (Denial louder than reality)

  As recognition of growing defeat in Iraq spreads among the public and in the US and UK governments, Bush and Bliar still refuse to admit any doubt that they are winning. They are extreme liars, whose approach to inconvenient facts is to deny them and hope their denial is louder than the reality.

  Baker may be heading for a solution along the lines of what I have proposed.

   

• 19 October 2006 (Indian states abolishing religious freedom)

  Some Indian states have passed laws abolishing religious freedom to stop Dalits from converting to Buddhism. They are following the example of Dr. Ambedkar, their great leader, who converted to Buddhism 50 years ago.

  The more I read about Dr. Ambedkar, the more I admire him. He promulgated a rationalist variant of Buddhism, which Buddhism in India (by Gail Omvedt) suggests may be what the Buddha actually taught, before superstition seeped in to it from mainstream Indian thought.

   

• 18 October 2006 (Taxes on airline tickets)

  A wise suggestion to the UK (and everywhere else): raise taxes on airline tickets, to prevent an increase in air travel.

  This will also avoid the need for lots of expensive airport construction.

   

• 18 October 2006 (Sgt Clousing)

  Sgt Clousing explains why his conscience forced him to desert from the Bush Forces. He now faces a court martial, for the sake of his self respect.

  For more information see here

   

• 18 October 2006 (Nobel Prize for Literature)

  Orhan Pamuk, who was prosecuted by Turkey for talking about the genocide of the Armenians, received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

  The French law making it a crime to deny the genocide of the Armenians may be well intentioned, but it is censorship, and I will not condone it merely because I disagree with the views being censored. To deny the genocide of the Armenians damages human rights, but censorship of such views damages them even more.

   

• 18 October 2006 (Bolivia's deposed president)

  Bolivia's deposed president is allowed to live in the US, while those who want him to face justice are denied entry.

   

• 17 October 2006 (Is Humanity wise enough)

  Is Humanity wise enough to invest 1.6 trillion dollars per year now, to avoid 6 trillion dollars per year in losses due to global warming a few decades from now?

   

• 17 October 2006 (Guantanamo prisoners from UK)

  Bush wants to send 9 Guantanamo prisoners back to the UK, but only if they are kept under permanent surveillance and restrictions. The UK objects to that requirement, saying there isn't evidence against these prisoners to justify it.

  From this information, I cannot be sure whether either of the two countries' positions is honest or an excuse. But the UK position shows some signs of being an excuse.

  Bliar has already twice adopted policies of imposing restrictions without trial on foreigners legally resident in the UK, first actual imprisonment, then a severe form of house arrest, and he gives the police 101% support when they shoot and even kill people who are then determined to be totally innocent, so I can't believe he would object to putting 9 more people under house arrest even if he is sure they did nothing to justify it. He launched a war that has killed hundreds of thousands just to please Bush, so why wouldn't he arrest (or kill) 9 more people to please Bush?

  See these previous notes:
  101% support
  House Arrest 600,000 killed in Iraq.

  It appears that most of the prisoners in Guantanamo are not guilty of any crime. That is why Bush doesn't want them to have their day in court.

  Here is information about these prisoners.

  One of them claims to have made a false confession because he was afraid his injured leg would be untreated and he would lose it. It is to America's terrible shame that it has acted in such a way as to make such accusations entirely credible. False confessions are quite common even among ordinary criminal suspects in ordinary jails, so this should not be treated as implausible.

  See this previous note about false confessions.

   

• 16 October 2006 (Irish protestors found not guilty)

  An Irish jury found five anti-war protestors not guilty of attacking a US airplane.

  Here's what these activists have to say about their future plans.

   

• 16 October 2006 (TSA)

  The TSA is not very competent (see other link), but it is doing a great job of protecting us from 4-year-old terrorists.

  I suspect that the name "Sam Adams" was put on the no-fly list by the previous King George, who considered him subversive, and has not been removed since.

   

• 16 October 2006 (Sarbanes-Oxley law)

  The Sarbanes-Oxley law was adopted to prevent corporate executives from swindling stockholders. Executives are lobbying to get rid of the law. I guess they want to lie to their investors once more.

  They are making the usual shallow argument about competing with other countries. In this case, they must be competing to be the country that allows the most lying to investors.

  Whenever business makes such an argument, it is an instance of the harm that "free trade" policies do. By allowing businesses to move too easily from country to country, they also put business in the position to make countries compete for who can bow down the most. The proper conclusion to draw is that we must put limits on capital migration, limit "free trade", until business no longer has the power to do that.

   

• 16 October 2006 (Salman Rushdie)

  Salman Rushdie says that Islamic fanatics are crushing the tolerant form of Islam that he grew up with, and that their aim is to impose an Islamic state on the whole world.

  I believe there is a hard core that wants this, but if the US stops imposing dictatorships and occupation on the Islamic world, I am sure that hard core will get a lot less support for aggressive activities.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Urgent note)

  Not In Our Name calls for teach-ins about the Bush regime across the US on Oct 26-30. Contact them if you want to organize one.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Punishing drivers)

  The UK plans a patently unjust policy of punishing drivers if they used marijuana days previously.

  Constable Hughes misrepresents the plan when he talks about punishing drivers for being "under the influence" of an illegal drug. If they really did that, it would be legitimate.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Toxic metal)

  Israeli air attacks have tested a new US weapon that kills within a smaller radius than ordinary explosives, using toxic metal.

  Perhaps they hope that this weapon will reduce the number of bystanders that they kill with these raids. However, it won't avoid killing family members traveling in the car with the target that they ought to have arrested instead.

  Meanwhile, the weapon is reported to leave a carcinigenic residue. So it could kill a larger number bystanders, but they will be "deniable".

   

• 15 October 2006 (Palestinians of Al Khader)

  The Palestinians of Al Khader, blocked by Israeli checkpoints from selling their grapes, held a protest -- giving the grapes away to passing cars. For this, the army attacked them.

  Israel blocks Palestinians from traveling for medical care, and uses the threat to block them as a way to recruit informers.

  The army also arrests and attacks journalists, then lies to construct an excuse. They fear the truth.

  One Palestinian's tale of torture.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Willing to talk peace)

  The more Arabs become willing to talk peace with Israel, the more Israel imposes preconditions to make sure no negotiations occur.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Even sycophantic regimes have trouble)

  The UK foreign minister criticized the Guantanamo prison; even sycophantic regimes have trouble swallowing it.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Anna Politkovskaya's last article)

  Anna Politkovskaya's last, unfinished article describes how the Russian government tortures Chechens to make them confess to supposed "terrorism".

  It sounds like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Silence the climbers)

  China is trying to silence the climbers who saw Chinese troops shoot Tibetans.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Released from Guantanamo)

  16 Afghans were released from Guantanamo. It took four years for King George's men to determine that there was never any reason to arrest them. One of them says that nearly all the prisoners there are innocent, and that torture continues.

  Imprisonment of the innocent is a regular, normal result of imprisoning people without a real, fair trial.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Casualties)

  Bush forces casualties are at the highest level since they destroyed the city of Fallujah, as resistance attacks continue to increase.

   

• 15 October 2006 (If Democrats take control of Congress)

  When asked about her fondest wish, if Democrats take control of Congress, Nancy Pelosi mentioned only side issues. Nothing about ending the occupation of Iraq. Nothing about restoring the Bill of Rights. Nothing about making the US a nation that really does not torture.

  The things she proposes to do are good, but they won't stop the US from being a force for evil in the world.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Deportation hearings)

  The UK security service appears to spin the evidence that it secretly presents in deportation hearings. It tried to spin the same evidence in two contradictory ways in two deportation hearings, and through good luck, it was caught out.

  Since the odds of getting caught are small, such spinning must be quite common. It is the spinning, not the getting caught, that is wrong.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Gordon Brown)

  Bliar's probable successor, Gordon Brown, appears to be more of the same "war on terror" (war on civil liberties).

  It is absurd to suggest that Europe avoid being anti-American, because that is impossible. The principal enemy of the US ideals of freedom and democracy is the US government; to support either one is to oppose the other. Whichever side you're on, you're anti-American in some sense.

  Europeans should take the side of freedom and democracy, which means opposing the US government until it is no longer in a position to do harm in the world.

   

• 15 October 2006 (Nato commander warned)

  A Nato commander warned that Afghanistan may "swing to the Taliban" in six months.

   

• 15 October 2006 (RFID rest program)

  An airport in Europe has a test program: requiring all passengers to wear RFID tags.

  Here is more information about the system. It is designed to treat people like sheep.

  This system must be superfluous for security, since the existing systems are supposed to prevent passengers from going where they are not supposed to go. In other words, this system doesn't make sense in its own terms.

  To track people inside an airport is not particularly dangerous to civil liberties, since people are required to identify themselves just to get in. The danger I see is that this will get people accustomed to being treated like sheep (even more than existing airport security does), paving the way for the universal total surveillance that the Bush and Bliar regimes clearly want.

   

• 15 October 2006 (More success as a lobbyist)

  Rep. Foley wanted to retire (by not running for reelection) and become a lobbyist -- a common practice which is a form of corruption. But Karl Rove pressured him to run again, saying he would have "more success as a lobbyist" if he did so. For officials to offer someone "more success as a lobbyist" is also corruption.

   

• 15 October 2006 (New song parody)

  I've written a new song parody: Guantanamero.

   

• 14 October 2006 (Disabled veterans)

  1/5 of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the US are at least partly disabled.

   

• 13 October 2006 (Robert Redecker warns of intimidation)

  Philosophy professor Robert Redeker published an article warning of a campaign of intimidation subjecting Europe to Islamic demands. This angered Islamic fanatics, who want to kill him; his cowardly newspaper Le Figaro apologized for the article (shame on them!). Here's a translation of the article.

  Redeker didn't insult Muslims, or make fun of their religion (though people have a right to do either of those things). Instead he addressed real issues of Islam seriously and directly. The events following the publication of his essay demonstrate the truth of his accusations about Islam's behavior today.

  I do not entirely agree with Redeker; I think he excuses Christianity too much. Christian fanatics continue to attack the use of contraception as well as scientific knowledge and research. But that is a side issue.

   

• 13 October 2006 (Head of British Army on Iraq)

  The head of the British Army says that the presence of UK troops in Iraq as part of the Bush forces makes things worse -- in Iraq and elsewhere.

  Bush congratulated the Iraqis for being "willing to tolerate" a high level of violence to be free.

  He's right: the strength of the Iraqi resistance shows that Iraqis are willing to use violence to free themselves from the violent occupation of the invader. But I didn't expect Bush to congratulate them for this.

   

• 13 October 2006 (Rachel Corrie diaries play)

  A play made from the diaries of Rachel Corrie was not presented in New York City due to intimidation.

  And then again in a school in Miami.

  However, a different group in New York City has more courage.

   

• 13 October 2006 (North Korea nuclear test uncertainty)

  It is not yet certain whether North Korea really tried to explode a nuclear bomb, or, if so, whether it worked.

   

• 13 October 2006 (Ahmed Zaoui receives bail)

  In New Zealand, Ahmed Zaoui was imprisoned as a terrorist suspect. However, he has since received bail, and will have a court hearing to determine whether he should remain in New Zealand.

  This makes a good contrast with the arbitrary imprisonment that the US practices and that the UK has tried to practice.

   

• 13 October 2006 (Inequality without Growth)

  Inequality Without Growth, Pain Without Gain.

   

• 13 October 2006 (More cartoons about Mohammad)

  More cartoons about Mohammad have provoked more protests from Muslims who believe they are entitled to silence disapproval of their religion.

  Anyone who tries to silence a critical opinion deserves to be buried under a heap of mocking cartoons. If people publish enough cartoons mocking Islam, eventually Muslims will learn to live with it.

   

• 13 October 2006 (Gag and distort science)

  Many leading scientists have denounced the Bush regime for trying to gag and distort science.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Imprisonment without trial)

  Contrast the current US policy of imprisonment without trial with the US policy after World War II that even Nazi leaders had to get a fair trial.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Anti-labor NLRB)

  Bush's anti-labor NLRB has arranged to deny millions of Americans the right to belong to unions.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Starting to run dry)

  The world's rivers and aquifers are already starting to run dry...and if we don't cut down carbon emission, it will get much worse.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Parallel killer)

  A new scientific study estimates that Bush has killed 600,000 Iraqis.

  Bush is a parallel killer, much worse than a serial killer. What must we do to prevent him from killing again?

  The article is inaccurate when it says that Iraq Body Count estimates the number of civilians killed in Iraq. It reports the bodies that it counts, without trying to estimate how many others there may be.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Critic of Putin was assassinated)

  The principal journalistic critic of Putin was assassinated on Putin's birthday.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Holding back information)

  The Bliar regime is accused of holding back information about the killing of journalist Terry Lloyd, just as the Bush forces held back information from him which could have prevented his death.

   

• 12 October 2006 (Odious lenders)

  Odious debt is a term for borrowing done by oppressive governments, imposing repayment burdens that can last decades afterward. Now there is a movement to hold the lenders responsible for encouraging these borrowers, arguing that they own the people all that they "repayed".

   

• 12 October 2006 (Defense lawyer in Guantanamo case victimized)

  The US Navy defense lawyer who defended a Guantanamo prisoner all the way to the Supreme Court (and won there) has been forced into retirement. They say this isn't a punishment, but it will surely make other Navy defense lawyers hesitate to do a good job.

   

• 11 October 2006 (Israeli police assaults journalist)

  Videojournalist Imad Bornat was arrested and wounded by Israeli police while he was covering the regular Bil'in protest. The police then lied to justify it.

   

• 11 October 2006 (Robert Fisk on Islamic terrorism)

  Robert Fisk explains how Islamic terrorism is the natural result of decades of systematic Western violence, duplicity and oppression across the Muslim world.

  The West now uses the response, terrorism, to justify continuation of the stimulus that provoked and provokes it-- as well as for denying the freedom of its own people.

   

• 11 October 2006 (Accidental nuclear war)

  Using Trident missiles to carry non-nuclear warheads could trigger an accidental nuclear war.

   

• 11 October 2006 (Natural Capital)

  Humanity is using up its natural capital by consuming resources 23% faster than the Earth generates them. This cannot go on for long -- if we don't cut down intentionally, resources we depend on will disappear, with fatal results.

   

• 09 October 2006 (Human encroachment on elephant society)

  Human encroachment on elephant society -- including killing most of the older elephants -- is driving them crazy.

   

• 09 October 2006 (Track down anyone)

  The Bush regime wants to make ISPs keep information about their customers. This will make it easier to track down anyone that the regime does not like.

  "Child pornography" is one of the favorite excuses for many kinds of surveillance and control measures that attack everyone's human rights.

  The statement that this would "keep the information in the companies' hands" is deceptive, given the laws that allow the police to collect such information en masse with hardly any limits. The phrase "other lawful process" is designed to slip this past you without your realizing what it really means.

   

• 09 October 2006 (Israeli settlers)

   

  Israeli "settlers" took advantage of the recent war as a cover to convert new settlement "outposts" into real settlements. These are ostensibly illegal, but in fact the government supports them.

  Israel's many forms of attack on Palestinians make more sense in terms of strategy than in terms of the good faith that most Western commentators presume.

  The tense circumstances created by Israel's policies have driven Palestinians into fighting each other. Is that an accident, or a plan?

  In the past, Syria demanded preconditions to negotiate with Israel. Now that Syria makes no preconditions, Israel has added some.

   

• 09 October 2006 (Unarmed Tibetans)

  Chinese troops shot and killed unarmed Tibetans trying to flee Tibet.

   

• 08 October 2006 (9/11 widows blast Bush administration)

  9/11 widows blast Bush administration for covering up their responses to advance warnings about the 9/11 attacks.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Arms manufacturers)

  Arms manufacturers are trampling export laws by selling parts separately to embargoed countries.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Preparing to attack the protestors)

  Mexican troops seem to be preparing to attack the protestors in Oaxaca who have driven out their corrupt governor.

   

• 08 October 2006 (The March to War)

  The March to War: Naval build-up in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Wild tigers)

  The last few thousand wild tigers are being killed to sell to superstitious Chinese. Laws against poaching are doing no good, because they are not enforced.

  Perhaps what is needed is to spread a rumor in China that eating tiger makes men impotent.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Lawsuit by the Sierra Club)

  A lawsuit by the Sierra Club made the Defense Department stop blocking wind power development in the US.

  I think the most interesting point here is the narrowminded and misplaced focus: protecting Americans from hypothetical attacking airplanes by leaving everyone vulnerable to drought, plagues, and inundation.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Navy sending ships out of port)

  The US Navy is sending ships out of port, just as it would if it were preparing to attack Iran.

  The US support for terrorism, its manifest desire to control some of the world's richest oil regions, its contempt for human rights and its disrespect for democracy all support the conclusion that the US should not have nuclear weapons.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Forecast for 2100)

  Forecast for 2100: desert! If your land isn't submerged by the rising sea, it is likely to be bone-dry.

   

• 08 October 2006 (Torture is ok but sex is horrible)

  Republican voters think torture is ok but inviting someone to have sex is horrible. And yet sex is one of the Bush regime's approved tortures: used in Abu Ghraib, and now legalized by Congress. If torture is sex, does that make it wrong?

  It is normal for humans of age 16 to have sex, and normal for other sexually mature humans to find them attractive. There's nothing wrong with Foley for that. What Foley did may have been wrong for a different reason--if the pages felt they didn't dare say no to him because of his position. (You may know whether this was the case; I don't, because I mostly ignore sex scandals.)

   

• 07 October 2006 (Oil in Nigeria and Chad)

  In Nigeria and Chad, as oil is pumped out for the great profits of the oil companies, most people live in grinding poverty and get none of the wealth of the oil. The governments are corrupt, and the oil companies help corrupt them.

   

• 07 October 2006 (America in Ten Years)

  Ten Reasons You Will Not Recognize America in Ten Years

  I used to consider such articles to be wild projections, but very little of this one is projection -- nearly all of the article is about past events already documented. It is a good summary of many reasons why the United States is today's evil empire, just as the Soviet Union once was.

   

• 05 October 2006 (Anti-Abortion Law blocked)

  The Christian fanatics' bill to make it nearly impossible for teens to go to another state for an abortion was blocked in the Senate, thanks to public pressure.

   

• 05 October 2006 (Guilt-by-fiat law)

  Amy Goodman interviews Senator Leahy about the guilt-by-fiat law.

   

• 05 October 2006 (Baghdad police brigade)

  An entire Baghdad police brigade was demobbed for "allowing sectarian death squads to move freely."

  I suspect that is an understatement. It is well known that the Iraqi death squads which "dress in police uniforms" are really police. I suspect that the death squads that this brigade "allowed" to move freely are part of the brigade.

  I also think this action, being just a tiny part of what the Bush forces would have to do to make their rule legitimate, won't alter anything -- not even the prevalence of death squads in the police.

   

• 05 October 2006 (Green Party candidates)

  Green Party candidates including Rep. Stensenbrenner's opponent were among those arrested at a peace demonstration outside his office.

   

• 05 October 2006 (Guilty-by-assumption bill)

  How the guilty-by-assumption prisoners bill shreds human rights, rule of law, and the US constitution.

  The US already holds 14,000 prisoners with no rights, and there is nothing now to stop it from reaching 100,000.

  At least this makes the situation simpler. The United States is an evil empire of torture, the enemy of human rights all across the world. The question of whether it has any redeeming qualities is irrelevant now.

   

• 04 October 2006 (Criminalize dissent)

  The Australian government scheduled a "review" of its laws that criminalize dissent in a loose way. When the panel called them too broad, the government disregarded it.

  Australia has essentially abolished human rights, just as the US would later do.

   

• 04 October 2006 (Lower oil prices for the election)

  According to Woodward, Saudi Arabia has promised to lower oil prices for the election, hoping that shallow-minded Americans will vote based on the gasoline price on election day.

   

• 04 October 2006 (Buy court decisions)

  In states where judges are elected, campaign contributors buy court decisions.

   

• 04 October 2006 (Destroying northern forests)

  Global warming is causing ecological changes that are destroying northern forests. This contributes to further global warming, raising the threat of runaway warming.

  As part of the War on the Environment, the Bush regime has blocked NOAA scientists from speaking to the public about global warming.

  As part of the War on Integrity, officials deny having gagged the scientists, but there is proof.

   

• 04 October 2006 (Toxic waste)

  Massive amounts toxic waste from Europe is disposed of in Africa, where the governments are corrupt or nonexistent, and it kills people.

   

• 04 October 2006 (Government thugs)

  Government thugs handcuffed children and killed the family dog during a $60 marijuana raid.

  The police response is essentially a rejection of all ethical responsibility for their actions: "No matter what we do, it is never our fault, always that of people who break laws." (This also presumes that breaking laws is wrong.)

   

• 02 October 2006 (Boycotts of Israeli institutions spreading)

  Boycotts of Israeli institutions are spreading. These boycotts demand that Israel obey international law.

   

• 02 October 2006 (B'tselem accuses Israel of war crimes)

  The Israeli peace group B'tselem accused the Israeli government of war crimes for its attack on the Gaza electric plant.

  The flimsy justification that the government offers would be equally valid as an excuse for rocket attacks against major Israeli cities. They too contain civil infrastructure that supports military activity.

   

• 02 October 2006 (Green Party candidates arrested)

  Green Party candidates were arrested in a protest in Wisconsin.

   

• 02 October 2006 (Revolt of Retired Generals)

  The Revolt of the [Retired] Generals.

   

• 02 October 2006 (Diebold patched voting machines)

  Two witnesses confirm that Diebold secretly patched voting machine software just before the 2002 election, whose existence Diebold formerly denied. The Georgia secretary of state seems to be persuing the matter lackdaisically.

   

• 02 October 2006 (6 in 10 Iraqis favor attacking Bush forces)

  6 in 10 Iraqis are in favor of attacking the Bush forces. 4/5 share my view that the Bush forces provoke violence more than they prevent it.

   

• 01 October 2006 (HP spying scandal)

  The HP spying scandal is a tiny part of the Big Brother corporate-state nexus.

   

• 01 October 2006 (Reporter Brenda Norrell fired)

  Reporter Brenda Norrell was fired by Indian Country Today because she complained about the important stories they refused to cover -- or covered one-sidedly.

  Of course, higher-profile newspapers do such things too. But their reporters are rarely ready to complain in public.

   

• 30 September 2006 (Afghan women's rights campaigner)

  Safia Amajan, Afghan women's rights campaigner, was shot on the street by the Taliban. The government had denied her a bodyguard, so she went on with her work.

   

• 30 September 2006 (Civil war in Diyala province)

  Civil war is raging in Iraq's Diyala province, and the Sunnis are winning overall, despite the presence of a Shi'ite "Iraqi" division that opposes them. They are forcing Kurds and Shi'ites into exile, and setting up an oppressive Islamist regime.

  I'm sure many Sunnis don't like that regime, but they must feel compelled to support it because the only choice is to be massacred by Shi'ites.

   

• 30 September 2006 (Imprisonment without trial)

  The bill for imprisonment without trial of foreign prisoners makes it a crime to rape or torture them -- but it has a narrow definition of rape, and a narrow definition of torture.

   

• 29 September 2006 (War on the Environment)

  Bush's War on the Environment suffered a setback: a court ruled against his attempt to open up large forest areas for logging.

  However, he avoided another setback, as the EPA rejected calls from its own scientists (and public health organizations) to substantially reduce particulate pollution.

   

• 29 September 2006 (Columbian senator accuses army)

  Colombian senator Gustavo Petro says the army killed 100 civilians in recent years, to present them to the press as "guerrillas who were killed in battle".

  English auto-translation.

   

• 29 September 2006 (UN condemns Swiss vote)

  The UN condemns a Swiss vote to detain failed asylum-seekers.

  International accords on the right of asylum were adopted after to World War II, during which many civilians were killed by the Nazis after other countries refused to allow them in. It appears to me that the world is moving back to that.

   

• 29 September 2006 (National Book Festival)

  The National Book Festival sounds like a nice thing, but it is a "public/private partnership", which means that it benefits from government sponsorship while the private parties maintain effective control. These private parties include Laura Bush. As a result, it is limited to politically safe books.

   

• 29 September 2006 (US Officials condemn torture plans)

  A number of CIA and other US officials condemn the Republican torture plans. And, hooray to them, they put moral issues first.

   

• 29 September 2006 (Renewable electric power generation)

  The European Commission demands that Luxemburg cease its subsidy for renewable electric power generation, saying that this "distorts the market". This is a sick idea of priorities.

   

• 29 September 2006 (Nanomaterials in foods and cosmetics)

  Foods and cosmetics contain nanomaterials, but there has been very little study of whether they are safe.

   

• 29 September 2006 (Global warming)

  One or two more degrees Centigrade of global warming will make the Earth as hot as it was 3 million years ago. Back then, sea level was 80 feet higher, and it is likely to end up that way again sooner or later.

   

• 28 September 2006 (Losing Afghanistan)

  Newsweek's cover story this week was supposed to be "Losing Afghanistan", but they didn't dare show Americans such bad news, so they put a puff piece on the cover instead. I don't know whether the article ran in the magazine, but here it is.

   

• 28 September 2006 (Possibility of attacking Iran)

  Congressman Kucinich warns that Bush might launch a war against Iran in October.

  I previously wrote that this was a danger of a nuclear war, but a reader pointed out that the bunker-busters Kucinich mentioned could be non-nuclear. However, others in the past have pointed to US government decisions that seemed to lean towards using nuclear weapons to attack Iran. A nuclear attack is conceivable, but so is a non-nuclear attack.

   

• 28 September 2006 (Urgent note: Let America vote)

  US citizens: support the Let America Vote Act, which would require all voters to be given the option of paper ballots.

   

• 26 September 2006 (Republican general retires)

  A Republican general retired so he can condemn the Bush regime's approach to the war in Iraq.

  The article uses Rumsfeld as a scapegoat for his superiors, and refuse to entertain any doubt about the legitimacy of invading Iraq. Nonetheless it is interesting for what it does say.

   

• 26 September 2006 (Torture bill)

  US citizens: call your senators and tell them to vote against the bill that would stop prisoners from going to court if they are tortured--or if they are innocent.

  Please call again even if you have called before.

   

• 26 September 2006 (CIA had warned Bush)

  Bush was warned by the CIA before invading Iraq that this would boost Islamic radicals. CIA's recently-retired top expert on radical islamists says the occupation of Iraq is "part of the problem".

   

• 26 September 2006 (IRS investigates church)

  The IRS is investigating a Liberal church for a guest preacher's sermon which talked about Bush and Kerry.

  The sermon certainly criticized Bush; judging from this article, I think it criticized Kerry too (though I can't be sure of that). If that is true, then it appears the sermon didn't really endorse or oppose a specific candidate-- which would suggest that the IRS is applying a double standard.

  Can anyone verify what the sermon actually said about Bush and Kerry?

   

• 26 September 2006 (Export of garbage to Africa)

  Western garbage is exported to Africa and burnt in incinerators, sometimes poisoning thousands of people at a time.

   

• 26 September 2006 (Baghdad)

  In Baghdad, people pass wounded men lying on the street and don't dare try to help them.

   

• 26 September 2006 (Maya farmers demand farmland)

  Poor Maya farmers in Guatemala have occupied the land of a foreign-owned nickel mine, demanding farmland. The mine has caused deforestation and environmental damage that affects the neighboring communities, which (of course) have not been properly compensated, because the ruling elite supports foreign corporations against poor citizens.

   

• 26 September 2006 (Ignoring global warming)

  Glaciers in Alaska are shrinking-- faster than previously believed.

  Now the US congress is starting to look for ways to give lip service to reduction of global warming, as long as it doesn't involve any real inconvenience.

  Brazilian plans to expand biofuel production threaten the rain forest: it will be cut down to expand farms.

   

• 25 September 2006 (Charges against Elif Shafak dropped)

  Charges of "denigrating Turkey" were dropped against novelist Elif Shafak, one of whose fictional characters mentioned the genocide of the Armenians, but the law remains on the books and writers keep facing such accusations.

   

• 25 September 2006 (Torture rules to deny habias corpus)

  Bush and senate Republicans have agreed on details of torture rules, in a bill intended to deny prisoners the right of habias corpus.

  This article explains more.

  Without the right of habias corpus, there will be nothing to restrain the Bush regime from imprisoning people based on fabricated evidence, evidence obtained by torture, or no evidence at all. When prisoners cannot talk to a lawyer, their guards can often get away with torturing them even if it is ostensibly illegal.

  Here's an example, made possible by the lack of habias corpus in Bagram air base.

  Why do the Republicans do this? They must hate our freedoms.

   

• 25 September 2006 (German government under pressure to get agents arrested)

  The government of Germany is under pressure to demand the arrest of CIA agents accused of kidnaping a German.

  I don't think this is enough to teach the US government a lesson. Germany should order all US troops out of Germany promptly, and announce that it will downgrade diplomatic relations with the US if anything like this happens again.

   

• 25 September 2006 (US threatens Pakistan)

  The US threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" to demand it cease supporting the Taliban.

  It may have been justified, as a way to end Pakistan's military support for Islamic extremism.

   

• 25 September 2006 (Britishers lose right to remain silent)

  A trial in the UK illustrates Bliar's abolition of another of the human rights for which the UK was famous: the right to remain silent without prejudice. Now the judge encourages juries to infer, from a refusal to give evidence, that the suspect is guilty.

   

• 25 September 2006 (Fingerprinting children)

  Several European countries are systematically fingerprinting children. Some are starting to organize resistance in their schools.

   

• 24 September 2006 (Bush wears down the National Guard)

  Bush, having worn down the army, is now wearing down the National Guard. Thus, Iraq is protecting other countries from invasion.

  This also has the unfortunate potential effect of preventing intervention where intervention would be called for on humanitarian grounds, such as Darfur. In practice, though, this makes no difference; Bush would never support intervention for such reasons.

   

• 24 September 2006 (Bush Crimes Commission)

  See the report of the Bush Crimes Commission.

   

• 24 September 2006 (Sue car manufactures)

  California has sued car manufactures over the harm done by exhaust including CO2.

   

• 24 September 2006 (Minister for surveillance and control)

  Blair's minister for surveillance and control gave a speech asking British Muslims to spy on each other for the government. He was roundly rebuked.

  What decent person would want to report the apparently suspicious act of his neighbor, when this might result in said neighbor's being raided and shot in the middle of the night, and then charged with some other offense when he turned out to be no terrorist?

  The only way British Muslims will try to suppress extremism is if they feel that Islamist extremists are wrong, the British government is right, and that non-terrorists who are erroneously suspected will be treated justly. Blair's policies make this impossible. They alienate non-radical Muslims, even as they promote the extremism that reflects Blair's own contempt for our freedoms.

   

• 24 September 2006 (Manuel Bravo)

  Manuel Bravo, imprisoned and facing deportation with his son from the UK, committed suicide so his son would not be deported.

  Bravo was from a political opposition family, and feared he and his son would be tortured if sent back to Angola. Despite this, the UK rejected his plea for asylum. The Bliar regime is trying all sorts of measures to reduce the number of people who get political asylum in the UK, and this includes randomly rejecting valid requests when they can.

   

• 23 September 2006 (Hugo Chavez)

  Hugo Chavez's Address to UN: After Bush speaks, it smells of sulfur.

  Greg Palast interviews Hugo Chavez.

   

• 23 September 2006 (Bush pressurised states)

  The Bush Department of Education illegally pressured states to adopt reading textbooks published by Bush cronies.

   

• 23 September 2006 (Schools in Iraq)

  20% of Iraqi children don't go to school, for fear of violence, and teachers are fleeing.

   

• 23 September 2006 (Court described Guantanamo torture)

  Previously secret US court complaints describe the continuing torture of prisoners in Guantanamo. (The specific descriptions are the crucial parts.)

   

• 23 September 2006 (Torture is their choir)

  Bush forces soldiers called torture their "choir"-- a choir of Iraqis moaning in pain.

   

• 23 September 2006 (Soldier pleads guilty)

  A British soldier in the Bush forces has plead guilty to charges of torturing Iraqi prisoners.

  The British Army is doing the right thing by prosecuting these brutes, but we have to remember that such crimes do not happen because these people started out as monsters. These are normal people who found themselves in a situation that brings out this side of people-- and most of the Bush forces soldiers have been influenced by this more or less. This is the predictable result of an occupation where troops regard the whole population as "the enemy".

   

• 22 September 2006 (Presidents Chavez and Ahmadinejad)

  Presidents Chavez and Ahmadinejad signed cooperation agreements and made statements of mutual support against the US.

  Iran's government is more or less democratic, but does not respect human rights. Dissidents have been imprisoned and newspapers closed. However, I won't criticize Chavez for making whatever alliances he can. When the US was in a war against aggression and it could not be sure of winning on its own, it made an alliance with the Soviet Union.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Torture in Iraq)

  Torture is rampant in Iraq today, including the prisons run by the Bush forces. It didn't end with the exposure of Abu Ghraib.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Maher Arar)

  A Canadian court ruled that there is no reason to suspect torture victim Maher Arar of any crime or disloyalty.

  Arar was kidnaped by the Bush regime and sent to Syria for torture. Even if it were legitimate to torture real criminals or real terrorists, that excuse would not apply to him.

  More coverage at here.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Voting machine fraud)

  In the 2002 election, Diebold surreptitiously installed a patch in its voting machines in Georgia, without telling state officials, only in counties full of Democratic voters. Then Max Cleland lost the election despite polls putting him well in the lead. There were already suspicions that Diebold rigged the election, and this new information adds to the suspicion.

  However, voters are fighting back against electronic voting machine cheating. 27 states have requirements for paper ballots. But some states, such as Florida and Ohio, have laws designed to make election fraud easy. To restore democracy in the US will require the Federal government to step in and enforce the constitutional requirement that states have democratic governments. That will require a Supreme Court which is inclined to demand democracy in substance, not just formal democracy as an excuse for despotism.

   

• 22 September 2006 (US let victory slip)

  Although the US appeared to win the Afghan war, it let this victory slip out of its grasp through not really trying to win the peace.

  What the article does not mention is the underlying reason for this: Bush really wanted to invade Iraq instead.

   

• 22 September 2006 (British Petroleum launches new scheme)

  BP announced a scheme to allow drivers to pay for activities to reduce CO2 emissions and cancel out the effect of their driving.

  A weakness in this scheme is that drivers who make this contribution and then feel "Now I'm not contributing to global warming" may be led to feel it is ok to burn more gasoline.

  The amount of effort needed to cancel the effect of burning gasoline is proportional to the amount you burn. So the right way to do this program would be as an alternative way to buy gas. But it shouldn't be just an alternative-- it should be the only way.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Shaker Aamer lawsuit)

  A lawsuit on behalf of Guantanamo prisoner Shaker Aamer describes how he has been tortured there, physically and psychologically.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Bush compelled to move prisoners)

  Bush was compelled to move the prisoners out of secret CIA prisons because CIA agents were afraid they would be prosecuted for breaking the law.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Worldwide protests)

  There were protests around the world for action to protect the people of Darfur.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Challenge imprisonment in court)

  McCain's version of the bill about Guantanamo prisoners, like Bush's version, would strip prisoners of the right to challenge their imprisonment in court.

  If either version of the bill passes, it will be a shameful sore on the United States of America.

   

• 22 September 2006 (Blocked congressional move)

  Bush blocked a US congressional move to put pressure on Sudan over Darfur.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Water problem in Spain)

  As Spain faces decreasing rainfall due to global warming, wasteful irrigation is rapidly draining its aquifers.

  The European Union subsidizes agriculture, so a lot of this irrigation simply isn't needed.

  Human beings have a right to sufficient clean water to live; but businesses (and non-subsistence farms qualify as businesses) should have to pay market prices for the public's water.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Gaza)

  Gaza: Children Killed in a War the World Doesn't Want to Know About.

  Regarding the second article on this page, I think that these demands (recognize Israel and renounce violence) are unjust when applied only to one side. Israeli fighters commit far more violence, and Israel effectively refuses to recognize Palestine. The world should apply these demands to both sides. We could start by demanding both sides renounce the various forms of indiscriminate violence that they are accustomed to use.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Lopez Obrador forms 'parallel government)

  Lopez Obrador, denied the recount that would have shown whether he won Mexico's presidential election, has announced the formation of a 'parallel government'.

  The US media refer to Lopez Obrador as the "defeated" candidate, using the same word we would apply to someone who ran in an honest election and was honestly defeated. This is misleading, to say the least, since we don't know who really won. In context, it forms the final stage in a common technique for misleading the public: the multi-stage lie.

  This one has three stages: the Mexican authorities ran the election improperly (this has been proved); the Mexican court certified the results in disregard of this proof; finally, the media pretend that Lopez Obrador had lost a fair contest. It is quite smooth, but it is less effective in Mexico than in the US: millions of Mexicans are not fooled.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Committee rejects Bush plans)

  A senate committee rejected Bush's torture plans, to affirm the Geneva Conventions.

  However, both versions of the bill deny prisoners in prisons such as Guantanamo the right to go to court.

  This means that any sort of abuse could flourish even if ostensibly prohibited.

  A list of torture techniques that the CIA wants to use has been published.

  "Sound manipulation" is apparently a euphemism for ear-splitting noises (which can cause permanent hearing damage as well as being painful).

  Sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners painfully cold, and forcing them to stand until it hurts, are clearly torture. Sleep deprivation was Stalin's favorite torture technique.

  Torture Is Torture: Bush's 'Program' Disgraces All Americans.

   

• 21 September 2006 (IMF meeting a sham)

  The IMF and World Bank surely chose Singapore for their meeting because it would not allow any public protests. (Singapore is a democracy in form but does not respect human rights.) But Singapore went further and denied entry to some accredited participants. The result is a scandal--just what the IMF deserves every time.

  Policies that crush the poor, such as making children pay to attend public school, are the IMF's normal work.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Lebanon loses harvest)

  Southern Lebanon is losing its harvest because the fields and trees are full of unexploded cluster bombs. Israeli fighters fired them indiscriminately without bothering about specific targets.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Mercury pollution)

  Mercury pollution is affecting every ecosystem, but it can be reversed.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Fake science)

  Exxon funds many organizations to spread fake science casting doubt on global warming, including one organization originally founded to deny the dangers of tobacco smoke.

  For more information:

  http://www.exxonsecrets.org/

  The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Alexis de Tocqueville Institution were also funded by Microsoft to say repeat things about free software and give them an undeserved veneer of respectability.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Minibars)

  Diebold voting machines open with the same key that opens many hotel minibars.

   

• 21 September 2006 (Trench around Baghdad)

  The "Iraqi" government plans to dig a trench all the way around Baghdad, supposedly to prevent intersectarian violence.

  I don't see how this would be effective, since there are both Sunnis and Shi'ites in Baghdad.

   

• 20 September 2006 (Pressure for privatization)

  The UK is withholding a lot of money from the World Bank to oppose its pressure for privatization.

  (I'll have to admit that the Blair regime is doing one good thing.)

   

• 19 September 2006 (Urgent Note: Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act)

  US citizens: phone or write your congressman and senators to oppose the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which would define boycotts and protests against meat and fur companies as "terrorism". There is no legitimate need for any part of this bill.

   

• 19 September 2006 (EPA lab closures)

  As part of Bush's War on the Environment, the EPA plans to close labs and fire scientists.

   

• 19 September 2006 (Melting ice affecting polar bears)

  Melting ice has driven polar bears onto land where they have nothing to eat. Underweight, the females don't have enough fat to last last through the summer. This probably means no more polar bears will be born.

  Go see the last generation of polar bears now, before they are gone.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Persistent government attacks)

  Mike Ruppert, who has presented the case for Bush regime involvement in the 9/11 attacks, reports on the persistent government attacks on his organization, as a result of which he has gone into exile and called for overthrow of the US government.

  I share Ruppert's view that the US government has forfeited its legitimacy, but I cannot see any hope in the idea of a revolution. The only Americans who might plausibly overthrow the US government are right-wing military fanatics, and they would hardly restore the democracy and human rights we have lost. Just as the Bush occupation has made most Iraqis long for the days of Saddam Hussein's despotism, which most of them hated at the time, I think that a revolution in the US could make us long for the bydone days of the Bush regime.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Refused to receive report)

  The White House refused to receive the Bush Crimes Commission's report.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Melting faster)

  Arctic ice is melting faster and will disappear in a few decades at the present rate. (But further warming could easily speed this up.) Without ice, the arctic will absorb more heat from the sun, causing even more warming.

  Hansen says we have 10 years to save Earth as we know it, but nobody really knows. We might have 20 years. It could be too late already.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Peacemongers)

  Uri Avnery: Help! Peacemongers!

  If peace were established between Israel and Palestine, I think the big losers would be the religious fanatics that use the conflict to boost their own power: Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad, and Al Qa'ida.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Troops for Afghanistan)

  NATO asked for more troops for Afghanistan, but no country offered to send more.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Charges dropped)

  Charges against Greg Palast were dropped. He faced possible imprisonment for photographing an oil refinery.

   

• 18 September 2006 (US Army's decay)

  Rep. Murtha blames Rumsfeld for the US Army's decay.

  Since Bush's invasion of Iraq was a crime, not merely a fumble, the question of who is responsible for doing a bad job of it is secondary. What is most interesting here is the response of the government spokesman who says that it is insulting to suggest that the army has problems.

  One of the advantages democracy is supposed to provide is that problems get discussed, and then addressed; but the Bush regime shares the "don't you dare say there's a problem" attitude that plagued the Soviet Union and still plagues China.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Looming disasters)

  Global warming is having effects visible around the world, and some are looming disasters.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Twisted intelligence)

  The Bush regime is trying to twist intelligence to justify attacking Iran just as four years ago it twisted intelligence to excuse the already-planned invasion of Iraq.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Starving)

  Many in Gaza are now starving because Israel has closed the borders.

  After Israeli attacks destroyed the main electric generation station, the water supply and sewage treatment don't function. This could lead to epidemics.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Approach towards Palestinians)

  The general Israeli approach towards Palestinians is to make their life unbearable until they flee. In other words, ethnic cleansing is the goal. Here's an example:

  When Palestinians complain to the police about settler violence, 90% of the time no charges are brought. And that's not counting the times they can't get the police to take the report.

  The police also engage in gratuitous violence against Palestinians.

  Do you think the guilty parties will be punished?

   

• 18 September 2006 (Prison slave labor)

  Israel uses Palestinian teenagers (many under 16) for slave labor in prison. They get two meals a day.

  I presume that Israel uses adults for prison slave labor too. But this practice is not unique. Countries from the US to China have found that prison slave labor makes it easy to imprison large numbers of people.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Computerized voting machines)

  A lawsuit in Colorado seeks to ban use of computerized voting machines.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Banned peace camp)

  Blair has banned a small "peace camp" which 10 families of soldiers killed in Iraq wanted to set up near the Labor Party conference.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Blueprint for capping global warming)

  A blueprint for capping global warming (in case it isn't already too late).

• 18 September 2006 (Without a Trial)

  Ohio approved a policy of listing people as "sex offenders" without going through a criminal trial.

  This policy of denying people their legal rights without the usual safeguards is called a "rule" because, apparently, the legislature did not deign even to adopt it as a law. It ought to be a no-brainer that this is unconstitutional; but with several negative-brain Republicans on the Supreme Court, it may not be able to do the right thing in no-brainers.

   

• 18 September 2006 (Condemning the War)

  Most Americans now join Europeans in condemning the "War on Terror".

   

• 16 September 2006 (Spy chips)

  Putting RFIDs (spy chips) into every DVD will make it possible for movie companies to keep track of all users (as well as tighten the coils of digital restrictions management).

   

• 16 September 2006 (Blasphemous articles)

  Iran closed the leading reformist newspaper for "blasphemous articles" and "insulting officials".

   

• 16 September 2006 (Police support)

  The Blair regime is planning to promote the policeman who was in charge of the operation that shot and killed an innocent man a year ago.

  Blair says he gives the police "101% support" for their violence against the public.

   

• 16 September 2006 (Nuclear-free treaty)

  5 former soviet republics have signed a nuclear-free treaty. The US doesn't like this, since it wants to put nuclear weapons in some of them.

   

• 16 September 2006 (Diebold voting machines)

  Students demonstrated the insecurity of Diebold voting machines by creating a virus that can spread from machine to machine, falsify election results, and then erase itself.

   

• 16 September 2006 (International Atomic Energy Agency)

  The International Atomic Energy Agency called a US report on Iran's nuclear program "outrageous & dishonest".

   

• 16 September 2006 (Only reports the administration liked to hear)

  The CIA found out in 2002 that Saddam Hussein was not friends with Al Qa'ida, but passed upward only reports that the administration liked to hear.

   

• 16 September 2006 (Media concentration)

  The FCC destroyed a draft report about media concentration in 2004. Presumably someone didn't like the conclusions.

   

• 16 September 2006 (CO2 emission standards)

  Several states are suing the US government to demand CO2 emission standards for autos. (Bush, in his War on the Environment, has told the EPA not to do this.)

   

• 16 September 2006 (9/11 skeptics)

  Democracy Now held a confrontation between 9/11 skeptics (makers of the video Loose Change) and defenders of the official explanation.

  We can be sure that a plane hit the Pentagon because many people in the area saw it hit. I think the theory of explosives in the WTC buildings is plausible. It isn't proven-- but proof is too much to demand of unofficial investigations carried out against government interference. We must demand a thorough independent investigation, not just of the physical questions, but also of the suspicious actions of various government officials, the stock options, etc.

   

• 15 September 2006 (Widespread American disapproval)

  Widespread American disapproval of Bush and his war, and his theft of our democracy, is not turning into passionate protest.

   

• 15 September 2006 (Lobbyists)

  Some of the news magazines that cover Washington function as ways for lobbyists to print ads for members of Congress to read.

   

• 15 September 2006 (Warrantless wiretapping)

  The Senate is considering a bill to allow essentially unlimited warrantless wiretapping.

  This bill would in effect declare the constution's prohibition of "unreasonable searches" to be meaninglss words.

   

• 15 September 2006 (Monsanto tried to shut down research)

  Monsanto tried to shut down research into a possible danger from its genetically modified crops. Meanwhile, genetically modified crops have in fact caused various dangers.

  I should point out that it is very unlikely that any given unusual protein would cause a long-term disease. The prion protein that causes mad cow disease is a misfolded variant of one that is normally found in the cow brain. The proteins found in genetically engineered plants are probably not similar to anything in animal brains. If that were the only possible danger (which it isn't), I'd be willing to bet on the safety of these crops; but that would in no way excuse trying to suppress research into the possibility.

   

• 15 September 2006 (Chinese Communist Party)

  Reportedly 13 million people have formally resigned from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations.

  I challenge the US to match this: for 3 million Americans (approximately the same fraction of the population) to quit the Republican Party and its affiliated organizations.

   

• 15 September 2006 (Double Jeopardy)

  Thanks to Blair, double jeopardy has returned to England.

  The man convicted just now had confessed to murder, and appears to be guilty. I am not sorry for him as an individual. However, it would be folly to think that such opportunities to do good with this law will appear frequently; in the future, criminals who are acquitted will know in the future not to confess.

  Meanwhile, the same law will enable the state to repetitively prosecute any suspect-- guilty or innocent-- as long as "new evidence" can be obtained or manufactured. You could spend your whole life being repeatedly tried.

   

• 15 September 2006 (A million cluster bomblets)

  An Israeli commander, now demobilized, says that Israel dispersed over a million cluster bomblets across Lebanon and "covered entire towns".

  The Israeli government responses quoted in the article are interesting examples of the way governments deny actions that ought to cause outrage. We are told that Israel "obeys international laws" (the same way the Bush regime "does not torture"), as a supposed substitute for the facts that would enable us to determine whether that claim is true.

  Then we are told that the firing of these weapons was a "response" to enemy fire-- which tells us nothing about what the Israeli army actually did, only that they are willing to stretch the term "response".

   

• 14 September 2006 (Religious fanatics)

  Religious fanatics in Pakistan thwarted the attempt to reform rape law. Women there do not dare report being raped, because the report is likely to result in their being convicted of adultery.

  This illustrates the injustice and evil of Islam. People have a right to believe whatever they wish, but practicing it is another matter: putting Islamic Law into practice is a crime against humanity.

  Several people have been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy.

   

• 14 September 2006 (Oil Spill)

  The Israeli bombing of Lebanon has created the biggest oil spill ever in the Eastern Mediterranean. The oil has affected the coasts of three countries, including a nature reserve where endangered species live.

   

• 13 September 2006 (Professor Steven Jones)

  Professor Steven Jones has been suspended from teaching as a reprisal for his statements about why the WTC towers collapsed.

  The university's excuses are an attempt to distract attention from the enormity of taking reprisals against professors' political statements. For instance, casting doubt on the certainty of his conclusions is a red herring. Suppose he's wrong: would that justify reprisals against his job? Certainly not!

  This illustrates the threat that Bush and his supporters pose to freedom of speech in the US. Americans must not let the threat posed by foreign terrorists distract them from the bigger threat posed by corrupt domestic despots.

  The evidence I know of provides reason to suspect that parts of the Bush regime participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center, but is not sufficient for certainty. To ascertain the answer we need a thorough and independent investigation with the power to subpoena Bush regime officials including Cheney and Bush. Short of a proper investigation, the best anyone can do is present evidence and arguments that are less than conclusive. Reprisals against people who do indicate an intent to suppress the truth.

   

• 13 September 2006 (Slush fund for US)

  Canada is proposing an agreement with the US that would give the White House a $450-million slush fund.

   

• 13 September 2006 (Journalist Greg Palast)

  Journalist Greg Palast faces Federal criminal charges--for taking a photo of an oil refinery whose exhaust pollutes the air right next to a camp for New Orleans refugees.

  These bans on photography, which have also been applied to public places such as bus stations, are inexcusable acts of tyranny. (They are also unlikely to hinder real terrorists, who could easily arrange to avoid being spotted taking their photos-- but this is a secondary issue.)

   

• 13 September 2006 (Boycott Beijing Olympics)

  10 reasons to boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in communist China.

   

• 12 September 2006 (Peak Gas, Coal, Uranium)

  Oil is not the only natural fuel that is likely to peak soon. Gas, coal, even uranium seem to be headed for this, and not too far in the future either.

  If peak uranium is likely to happen in 50 years, that is an additional argument against building more nuclear reactors now. The main reason is that the waste is dangerous, but anyone who suggests disregarding that problem is likely to become less eager when he finds out that uranium fuel will only last a few decades. Conservation and renewable energy are what we need!

   

• 12 September 2006 (Burning Oil Tanks in Lebanon)

  The burning oil tanks that Israel bombed sent a cloud of pollution over Lebanon. Lebanon's environment minister says this could kill more people than the the war did.

   

• 12 September 2006 (Israel and US starving Gaza)

  Israel and the US are starving Gaza, while Israeli troops maraud, killing people and destroying houses, factories, cars, fruit trees, and domestic animals.

  If the current policy continues, it could lead to many deaths. It could be genocide.

   

• 11 September 2006 (Urgent Note)

  Don't let Nestle bottle up the McCloud river.

   

• 11 September 2006 (Crushing public dissent)

  A violent right-wing intimidation campaign is crushing public dissent in Japan.

  The 1930s campaign of assassination, whose targets included the high government officians, put the military in charge and led to World War II in the Pacific. I don't think that today's Japanese right-wing wants to launch a big war; the world situation is too different. But they will itch to fight someone, until sooner or later they do.

  If Japan ceases to be a free country, we will have lost half of World War II.

   

• 11 September 2006 (The World Can't Wait)

  Debra Sweet, US coordinator of The World Can't Wait, explains why it is important to Drive Out the Bush Regime.

   

• 11 September 2006 (Plan the occupation)

  The Bush regime did not allow the Pentagon to plan the occupation of Iraq, telling the generals that the Bush forces would leave immediately after conquering the country.

  Bush forces Marine Alex Markey's interview talks about his unit's attitude toward Iraqi civilians-- and what he thinks of the phrase "support our troops".

   

• 11 September 2006 (Vegetative state)

  A woman in a vegetative state shows signs of hearing what people say to her, according to brain scans.

  How to determine whether she is conscious? One idea is to set up a brain scan machine to let her select letters from the alphabet under its control. If she is conscious, and her brain damage only prevents motor control, she can learn to spell out words this way.

   

• 11 September 2006 (Supporting aggression)

  UK police say that thousands of Muslims in the UK are supporting terrorism. They don't raise the question of whether their policy of supporting aggression in the Middle East ought to be changed.

  An ethical person who encounters widespread hostility must ask himself, "Have I done something wrong which justifies such anger against me?" The answer is not an automatic yes; sometimes many people are angry for bad reasons. But anyone who assumes the answer is an automatic no is behaving amorally.

   

• 10 September 2006 (Bush rejects offer of UN debate)

  President Bush rejected President Ahmadinejad's invitation to a debate at the UN.

  Perhaps Bush is ashamed that, unlike Ahmadinejad, he was not democratically elected to his office. Perhaps he worries that his command of the English language is inferior. Or perhaps he does not want the world to note the similarities between these two religious fanatics that don't respect human rights.

   

• 10 September 2006 (Blockade of Lebanon)

  Israel has ended its blockade of Lebanon.

  The excuse for the blockade was to stop Hezbollah from receiving arms. Various writers have noted that this was nonsense, and in fact Hezbollah had plenty of arms right up to the cease fire. I think the blockade, like the attacks on civilian targets such as fishing boats, power plants by the sea and their oil tanks, highways, cities, and convoys of fleeing civilians, were simply a way of taking all Lebanon hostage.

   

• 10 September 2006 (Yonatan Shapira)

  Interview with Yonatan Shapira, who led the campaign of Israeli pilots to refuse to attack the Palestinian territories.

   

• 10 September 2006 (Calderon succeeds in stealing the presidency)

  The Mexican election tribunal officially awarded the presidency to Calderon, ignoring widespread irregularities, thus expressing contempt for Mexican voters.

  I don't see how Lopez Obrador can continue the fight in a way that could win in the short term. The conspiracy of thieves has apparently triumphed. However, in the long term, simply repeating everywhere that Calderon stole the election and is not a legitimate president will make it harder for him to get away with Bush-style cruelty.

  I wish the citizens of USA were so determined to defend their democracy.

   

• 10 September 2006 (New Orientalism)

  The New Orientalism's 'Barbarians' and 'Outlaws'.

  The separation between church and state is extremely important; regimes that don't respect it deserve disapproval. However, that doesn't invalidate the main conclusions of the article. People who don't respect human rights are wrong, but that doesn't make them cease to be human themselves.

   

• 10 September 2006 (Israel's cruelty towards Palestinians)

  Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reports on how the occupation of Gaza is killing people. Some die because the hospitals have no specialists, or no electricity. Some die from treatable diseases because they are not allowed to go to Egypt for treatment. And then there is malnutrition.

  Palestinians with foreign passports, and resident spouses, are being systematically denied the right to return to Palestine if they ever leave. Israel cruelly tells them to ask permission from a committee which has not met since 2000.

  The weekly nonviolent protest in Bil'in met with violent attack by the Israeli army.

   

• 10 September 2006 (US operates secret prisons)

  Bush has moved 14 prisoners from secret prisons to Guantanamo, thus admitting that the US operates secret prisons. The practice apparently continues, since there is no indication that they are now empty. Bush says that Guantanamo will follow the Geneva Conventions, but not the secret CIA prisons.

  It is clear that this step is a small concession, meant to stave off pressure to truly end these evil practices. Bush continues to pretend that "the US does not torture" (i.e., if Bush approves it, it isn't torture), and to pretend that the prisoners in Guantanamo are all guilty of something beyond resentment of the way they have been treated there (we know this is not true).

   

• 10 September 2006 (The West Bank horror)

  Life in the West Bank is being crushed as Israeli checkpoints prevent Palestinians from going to work, to school, to the hospital, etc.

   

• 10 September 2006 (Anti-marijuana campaign has inverse effects)

  US government anti-marijuana ads actually promote marijuana use, says a study whose report was buried for two years by White House.

  Marijuana is much less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, so the question of how to discourage its use is not the most important of drug policy questions. I think the most interesting aspect of this deception is that it demonstrates that the Bush regime's pervasive dishonesty extends to drug policies. If the regime were sincerely fanatical about reducing marijuana use, it would have dropped this method upon learning that it doesn't work. That it did not do so is proof that it is motivated by other goals. I do not have direct evidence of what those goals are, but I speculate it is a matter of public image. These ads may not discourage use of pot, but they sure look like trying.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Effects of the 'War on terror')

  Resentment against the aqggression of Bush and Blair has made large areas of the Middle East dangerous for all Americans and Britons. Their "war on terror", which veils a war to keep the Muslim world under US control, strengthens the one movement which seems capable of resistance: that of Islamic fanaticism.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Discouragement among Bush forces)

  Discouragement among the Bush forces is showing in the mainstream press.

  Of course, it is "balanced" with "patriotic" gung-ho talk. Some soldiers claim that with more troops they could make the Iraqis who hate them welcome them instead. Some claim that Anbar would slide into chaos without them, but that's ridiculous; the resistance there is well-organized, has near-universal public support, and has already proved itself capable of governing cities.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Unknown Israeli weapon)

  Gaza doctors encounter mysterious injuries in people killed by the Israeli forces, leading to speculations about some sort of unknown weapon.

   

• 08 September 2006 (South African AIDS policies)

  Prominent scientists have denounced the AIDS policies of South Africa as "ineffective and immoral".

  President Mbeki, who also supports water privatization policies that caused an epidemic of cholera, has denied that HIV causes AIDS.

   

• 08 September 2006 (War on the Muslim world)

  Bush wants to declare war on the whole Muslim world, and anyone in the US who disagrees.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Italy considers conflict-of-interest law)

  Italy is considering a conflict-of-interest law that would require Berlusconi to end direct contact with his media empire if he holds office again.

  A law like this is needed, but Italy should also explicitly limit media concentration, which would force Berlusconi to break up his media empire.

   

• 08 September 2006 (The Taliban is back)

  The Taliban have regained control of half of Afghanistan.

  The war against the Taliban 'causes misery and hunger' for Afghan civilians. Of course, those civilians will blame NATO and support the Taliban.

  The reason for the "lost opportunity" of failing to reconstruct Afghanistan was that Bush really wanted to attack Iraq instead. If even half the money spent on that act of aggression had been pumped into Afghanistan, it might be stable with the Taliban just a memory.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Outsourcing torture)

  Pentagon Spends Billions to outsource torture.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Bliar deports Iraqi refugees)

  Bliar is deporting Iraqi refugees to Iraq even though they face the threat of violence for their politics. (Life in Iraq is very dangerous even for people who are not specifically persecuted.)

  I think the reason for these deportations is to uphold the official pretense that Iraq is getting better every day. Governments act according to their own propaganda to avoid creating inconsistencies.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Al Sistani withdraws from politics)

  Al Sistani has lost influence to radicals such as al Sadr, and has withdrawn from politics.

   

• 08 September 2006 (More settlements in Palestine)

  Israel plans a large expansion of settlements in Palestine.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Khatami condemns neocons)

  Iran's ex-president Khatami, speaking in Chicago, condemned the neocons for policies that stimulate extremism.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Urgent Note)

  Everyone: tell ABC you object to their presentation of a biased, Bush-supporting history of the 9/11 attacks in the US.

   

• 08 September 2006 (War on the Environment)

  As part of the War on the Environment, the Bush regime is trying to sneak around requirements for dams to protect salmon.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Criminal government in Haiti)

  Under the "interim government" which Bush put into power in Haiti, 30,000 rapes were committed-- many of them by the Bush-supported police and army.

   

• 08 September 2006 (Sudan orders peacekeepers out)

  Sudan has ordered peacekeeping forces to leave, and plans to send in its own troops, perhaps to commit genocide.

   

• 07 September 2006 (Urgent Note: MoveOn campaign phone party)

  US voters: help MoveOn by going to a campaign phone party this weekened.

  See moveon.org

   

• 07 September 2006 (CEO earnings)

  Economic analysis rejects CEOs' claim that they earn their tremendous income.

   

• 07 September 2006 (Valerie Plame)

  Valerie Plame's job at the CIA, in 2002 and 2003, was to find evidence of Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. Of course, she was unable to find any credible evidence of their existence. Perhaps one of the reasons for punishing her was that she didn't lie for Dubya.

   

• 07 September 2006 (British troops abandon base)

  British troops in the Bush forces have abandoned a base because it was under too much attack. They are under siege in Basra too.

  This was supposed to be the "safe" part of Iraq, which Bush handed to British units because they were supposed to know how to remain on good terms with the locals. Apparently that plan has now failed too.

   

• 07 September 2006 (Profiteering from Iraq war)

  Profiteering from the Iraq war is rampant and steeped in cheating and fraud.

  You might say that this is not news. In the Bush regime, diversion of funds by profiteers is not considered a problem; it's the whole point. So of course it happens often. Nonetheless, the details are important for appreciating the depth of the regime's corruption.

  For instance, why would Natsios give a no-bid contract to Bechtel after observing Bechtel's cost overruns in Massachusetts? If his goal were to spend public funds wisely, the Big Dig would have taught him not to trust Bechtel again. But suppose that his goal is to feed money to a company that is going to reward him later on. Bechtel would have told him "Good work" after the big dig, and it would be natural to continue the profitable collaboration.

   

• 07 September 2006 (Iraqis changing names)

  To Stay Alive, Iraqis Change Their Names

   

• 07 September 2006 (Bush trying to revise War Crimes Act)

  Bush is trying to slip through a law to revise the War Crimes Ac so as to evade prosecution. He hopes that Americans won't notice.

   

• 07 September 2006 (Oaxaca uprising background)

  The background of the uprising in Oaxaca: resistance to a government that has arrested political organizers and shut opposition newspapers.

   

• 07 September 2006 (EPA scientists fight back)

  EPA scientists are fighting back against Bush's War on Integrity: they have denounced, through their union, the political pressure placed on them by pesticide companies to disregard the EPA rules.

   

• 07 September 2006 (Bush removes whistleblower protection)

  The Bush regime has arbitrarily declared the whistleblower's protection part of the Clean Water Act void for federal workers.

  Since Bush represents business and not the citizens, he does not want polluting businesses to have to obey this law. In effect, he has told government employees that they dare not report violations.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Bush forces lost control of al-Anbar province)

  The Bush forces have lost control over al-Anbar province, which contains Falluja and Ramadi. They move around a little but achieve nothing except to get killed.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Salt Lake City Mayor blasts Bush)

  Salt Lake City Mayor Anderson blasts President Bush.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Provocateur in Florida "plot")

  A supposed "al Qa'ida plot" in Florida was mainly organized by an FBI provocateur.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Second blow for Lebanon)

  The second blow falls on Lebanon: to rebuild what Israel destroyed, it is offered IMF loans instead of aid.

  Hezbollah may be able to reduce the harm that the IMF does in Lebanon. For instance, the IMF commonly makes countries force children to pay to go to elementary school. If the IMF does that in Lebanon, Hezbollah might offer free schooling in the regions where it operates. Bush, you better tell the IMF to be gentle this time.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Media campaign to exonerate Bush)

  There is a big media campaign to exonerate the Bush administration for leaking Valerie Plame's name to the press.

   

• 06 September 2006 (As Iraqis and Americans die)

  As Iraqis and Americans die, CEOs prosper.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Palast on Bush's Class War)

  Greg Palast reports on how Bush has prosecuted the class war against Americans.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Pentagon on Syria)

  Some in the Pentagon would like to create a civil war in Syria like the one in Iraq. See the last paragraph of this belligerent article.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Mexico election irregularity)

  Evidence of widespread irregularity in Mexico's election.

  Based on this, I think that nullifying the election and holding another is the right thing for Mexico to do.

  For More details see here

   

• 06 September 2006 (Iran's experience of Iraqi WMDs)

  Iran's experience with Iraqi chemical weapons-- and the US's shielding of Saddam's use of them at the time-- led to a view that "international laws are nothing but ink on paper" which will not protect them. The only way to be safe, they concluded, is to have nuclear weapons.

  Bush's visible contempt for the Geneva Conventions surely does not help to reassure Iran to put its trust in treaties.

   

• 06 September 2006 (Ice core CO2 measurements)

  An ice core from Antarctica has enabled scientists to measure the CO2 level for 800,000 years. It has never been as high as it is today. Thus, we can now be certain that humanity has pushed the Earth's biosphere outside the natural range.

   

• 05 September 2006 (Programmer testifies)

  See Clinton Eugene Curtis's testimony about how he was paid to write a program to rig elections using Diebold machines.

   

• 05 September 2006 (Global warming)

  1/4 of the World Bank's programs are menaced with failure due to global warming.

  Many World Bank programs do harm on society as a byproduct. If the programs are ineffective because of global warming, that won't avoid the harm; it is only the benefits that won't materialize.

   

• 05 September 2006 (Airline bomb plot)

  One of the airline bomb plot suspects is accused of "possessing items likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". These items consist of wills given him when he was a child, and a map of Afghanistan he drew as a child.

  What sort of state consider it a crime to have drawn a map of Afghanistan? Only one that does not recognize human rights. What makes this danger more subtle is that it isn't a crime for everyone. It is only a crime for people that are somehow considered "suspect". And that depends on things like who your friends are. Say farewell to freedom of association, too.

  (I also wonder how the geography of Afghanistan can be considered "useful" for any sort of violence in the UK. But that's just a side issue and should not distract us from the main issue.)

   

• 04 September 2006 (Traitors to democracy)

  The Mexican court which rejected calls for a full recount has approved the results of a partial recount-- which did not change the outcome much.

  We don't know who really won the Mexican presidential election, but Lopez Obrador is not inclined to concede the fight.

  Protestors by members of Mexico's congress forced president Vincente Fox to abandon his annual state-of-the-nation speech. They called him a "traitor to democracy".

  Bush is a traitor to democracy, too. I wish we had more people in the US Congress who were willing to say it.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Sri Lanka accused of war crimes)

  The European monitoring mission (for the truce that is now dead) to Sri Lanka accuses the government of massacring 17 aid workers, and obstructing the investigation afterward.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Disaster capitalism)

  Disaster capitalism: the privatization of disaster relief means that in the future only the privileged and/or wealthy will be rescued.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Blair broadens censorship of 'violent porn')

  Blair has decided to broaden the censorship of "violent porn". The idea is to prohibit even the possession of a copy.

  I share the disgust that some feel for this violence. I find some popular violent video games so disgusting that I cannot bear to look at them. But that does not mean I believe they should be censored. Censorship is more dangerous than images of violence. It threatens everyone in society.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Jews protest against Israeli policies)

  Jewish peace activists held protests in New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia against support of Israel's belligerent policies.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Businessman arrested for broadcasting Hezbollah's channel)

  A businessman in the US has been arrested for enabling clients to view the broadcasts of al Manar television, which is the channel of Hezbollah. This accusation was made in despite of an explicit exception in the law.

   

• 04 September 2006 (California to adopt CO2 trading scheme)

  California is about to adopt a CO2 emissions trading scheme for electric generation; but its requirements won't start for 6 years.

  If we are to avoid disaster, we'd better not wait six years before starting to pressure companies to conserve.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Israelis protest against kangaroo court)

  An attempt by Israelis to protest at the military kangaroo court where Palestinians are sentenced to prison reveals the dishonesty and despotism into which the occupation has led Israel.

   

• 04 September 2006 (Pressure for ban on Cluster Bombs)

  There's pressure for a ban on cluster bombs, as Israel is accused of dropping them on civilian areas.

  The Israeli response is a sort of boilerplate--the way governments try to evade accusations which they can't really deny.

   

• 02 September 2006 (Oxfam asks rich governments to aid poor ones)

  Oxfam calls on rich countries to support poor countries' governments in working to end poverty and improve public health, instead of imposing privatization that tends to do harm.

  Oxfam pounts out that it was through government programs that the now-advanced countries of the West did this.

  For more information, see here

   

• 02 September 2006 (Uprising of the poor takes control in Oaxaca, Mexico)

  An eye witness reports on the uprising of the poor that has taken control of the Mexican city of Oaxaca.

   

• 02 September 2006 (EU rules pushing sharks to extinction)

  Weak EU fishing rules are pushing sharks to the brink of extinction, since fishing boats cut off the fins and throw the rest of the dead shark back in the sea. So what does the EU propose to do about this? Make it worse!

  This is an example of the insane short-sightedness of fishermen. They'd rather put themselves entirely out of a job next year, by killing all the fish, than accept any decrease in employment this year.

   

• 02 September 2006 (New York Times censors article in UK)

  The New York Times censored one of its articles to readers in the UK, bowing to Bliar's threats to prosecute whoever might publish the information. The article casts doubts on some of the airplane bomb plot accusations.

   

• 02 September 2006 (Beslan massacre blame)

  A Russian MP's report blames the Russian government for seeking to kill the Beslan hostage takers rather than to rescue the hostages.

   

• 02 September 2006 (Sudan rejects peacekeepers)

  Sudan rejected pressure to allow UN peacekeepers in Darfur, and says it will instead send its own army. Since the murderous Janjaweed are supported by the government, the Sudanese troops are more likely to help them than to restrain them.

   

• 01 September 2006 (Troops in Diwaniyah)

  Al Sadr's militia beat "Iraqi" troops in Diwaniyah and forced them out of the town.

   

• 01 September 2006 (CO2 emissions)

  PIRG proposes a plan for the US to reduce CO2 emissions.

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