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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
On the Republican false accusations about ACORN's voter registration program.
The Iraqi government has demanded a firm requirement for the Bush forces to leave Iraq by 2011, and limitations on their immunity in the meantime.
The Israeli colonists in Palestinian territories regularly attack Palestinians. Some even attack Israeli police and soldiers. Now Ehud Barak proposes to arrest the latter, but the former can apparently continue enjoying impunity.
Deborah Purdy, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, may have to kill herself while she still has enough capability to do it on her own, so as to spare her husband from being imprisoned for helping her do so later on.
Forcing people to stay alive when their lives have deteriorated into useless suffering is tantamount to torture.
If Mr Purdy faces prosecution by England for helping his wife go to Switzerland for a later assisted suicide, instead of performing an earlier unassisted one, I wonder if the Swiss government might Mr Purdy politcal asylum.
Humans are using resources much faster than the Earth can replace them. According to these calculations, 30% faster — and that can't go on.
The winter ice in the Arctic is much thinner this year.
In effect this means that the disappearance of Arctic summer ice is proceding rapidly. That will mean positive feedback in global warming.
How the US right wing makes ignorance a virtue and education a smear.
Republican Senator Stevens has been convicted of corruption charges.
Israeli troops kept 100 international doctors from entering Gaza for a WHO-sponsored conference on the health crisis caused by Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Activists are planning a second boat trip to Gaza, to bring medicine. Israel says this time it will stop them.
Shi'ites in Karbal are trying to ban dancing and other forms of parties.
Following the Repblican philosophy that nothing is too low, a woman fabricated accusations that someone attacked her because she had a McCain bumper sticker.
US citizens: How to prevent the Republicans from stopping you from voting.
US citizens: tell Attorney General Mukasey not to try to suppress voting in Ohio.
The Bush forces crossed into Syria and killed several people. The attack was supposedly aimed at supporters of the Iraqi resistance but seems to have killed construction workers instead.
Lt. Ehren Watada has escaped some of the charges that he faced because of criticizing Bush for lying to start the conquest of Iraq.
The Iraqi Islamic Party is protesting the killing and arrests of its members.
Delivery workers at Saigon Grill won a lawsuit for fair wages. Now the movement will target other restaurants.
Australia's planned internet censorship will be worse than Iran's.
Many Republicans have endorsed Obama for president. And why not? In the 1970s, Obama's views would have made him a liberal Republican.
13,000 Iraqi Christians have fled the city of Mosul. It is not clear whether their attackers are Kurds or Sunni Arabs.
Ahmed Zaid Zuhair has kept up his hunger strike for three years in Guantanamo, even fighting the guards when they take him away to be force-fed.
Although I oppose the Islamist cause which he is accused of supporting, I admire his resistance to the injustice of perpetual imprisonment without trial.
Israeli Prime Minister designate Tsipi Livni has rejected an alliance with a right-wing hawkish party even though this could force an election.
It sounds to me like she might be serious about the concessions necessary for peace with the Palestinians.
A summary of the case against Cheney for abetting the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001.
Deregulation produced the current financial crisis. Now the banks will lobby against the regulations we need to prevent the next financial crisis. This includes regulation of energy trading.
In the UK, the option to pay extra for "green electricity" is just a con game. It does not lead to increased use of renewable power generation, and it enables companies to pretend they have cut their emissions.
The US Government Printing Office outsourced the manufacturing of the passports to companies that make them cheaper. The result is that the GPO makes a profit (which it appears not to be inclined to give back to the treasury), and some of these companies might be less effective at preventing fake passports.
It may be interesting to think personally about a theoretical question: if any John Q. Public can get a false passport, and that is a bad thing, how much government violence and injustice would it take to transform that into to a good thing?
The Guantanamo Bay kangaroo courts have been denounced as unjust even by their own prosecutors and judges. The Bush regime response did little to address the problem.
The Chagos Islanders, forced out of their home 40 years ago so the US could build the military base on Diego Garcia island, have been forbidden to return to the other islands in the group.
The statements of the judges go beyond this case and asserts total power for the state, denying the very ideas of any kind of human rights.
Support the Atheist Bus Campaign, putting ads for atheism on buses in London.
As the FDA prepares to decide what to do about Bisphenol A, a company that makes it has tried subtly to corrupt the FDA head.
Gifts that don't go to an individual, but do go to something that he is attached to, have the potential to corrupt. For instance, Microsoft built a large facility in Gordon Clown's district in Scotland. Legally, this is not considered a payoff to Clown, but practically speaking it functions as one.
We should increase the taxes on companies; then the government can fund university research with that tax money. This will shield research from the corrosive effects of corporate funding.
Some Republicans face charges for voting fraud that is unrelated to computerized voting.
German tobacco companies conspired in the 90s to keep cigarette vending machines in reach of children.
Israeli colonists repeatedly attacked Palestinians harvesting their olive crops, and the Israeli army repeatedly took the side of the colonists against the Palestinians.
US citizens: demand that AIG refund the $534,000 of its bailout fund that it spent on partying.
The UK's Director of Public Prosecutions, on the brink of retiring, denounced the UK's regime of surveillance and control.
Interpol wants to create a massive database for face recognition.
Last I looked, face recognition was not reliable. But we cannot assume that will hold back Big Brother forever.
The Clown regime wants to make all cell phone users register.
The Iraqi negotiators made an agreement to let the Bush forces stay in Iraq, but the Iraqi parliament seems likely to reject it.
After the army attacked a protest by indigenes in Colombia, thousands more have joined in protests all around the country.
President Uribe of Colombia is closely associated with Colombia's worst terrorist group, the paramilitares.
Bush's plan to put 20,000 Bolivians out of work, and how Americans can oppose it.
Massive Republican voter-suppression is stealing the election. Millions of eligible voters may be blocked using dishonest excuses.
A former head of MI5 (the UK's counterspy agency) condemned the political overreaction to the 9/11 attacks, and blamed the invasion of Iraq for stimulating terrorism.
China plans to identify and photograph everyone that uses an Internet cafe.
This is a couple of steps beyond the unjust laws of France and Italy, which forbid open wireless networks. But any nasty thing that China does to the Internet is likely to show up in "free" countries soon. The excuses are "terrorism" (which often means dissent) and "child" pornography.
Conclusive proof that most airline security is just for show. It would block stupid terrorists, but not smart ones — if the smart ones are still interested in airplanes.
Blocking stupid terrorists is worth something, but it could be done with a lot less hassle without the show.
Wall Street banks, just bailed out with 700 billion, are planning to pay 1/10 of that money to their staff.
A large oil discovery in Cuban waters may help end the US trade embargo.
The trade embargo is supposed to pressure Cuba to respect human rights, but it has achieved zero towards that goal; if anything, it convinces Cubans to rally behind their government. Likewise for the occasional US-supported terrorist attacks against Cuba.
A representative of the UK's probation agents says, give the reckless bankers ASBOs.
The idea is amusing as satire, because if anyone does deserve such treatment, it is these bankers. On the other hand, it is also a serious possibility, because many kinds of police and governments in the UK can issue these orders and there are no clear rules about when they are justified. Almost anything that results in annoying people can be the excuse to threaten someone with jail for repeating it.
But this is precisely the reason why ASBOs are an unjust system and must be abolished. In effect, ASBOs replace rule of law with a system of imprisonment for whatever the authorities do not like. Such a vague law may occasionally be used in a way that implements justice, such as telling bankers they will be jailed if they continue their recklessness. But that is the exception that proves the rule.
Can anyone show me an article which explains why the failure of some banks (private companies) in Iceland causes the state of Iceland to owe money? I have heard that banks in other countries are refusing to convert the Icelandic kronor; why is that?
The EFF has sued to overturn the law that gave retroactive immunity to telephone companies' illegal spying.
Yet again, the Bush regime claims to have struck a devastating blow against Al Qa'ida in Iraq, by killing one leader.
No leader is crucial to an underground group like that. What weakened Al Qa'ida in Iraq was that they pissed off the Sunni resistance groups, which then accepted Bush's dollar — for the moment.
The latest example of terrorism hysteria: banning drinks on trains.
The Election Protection Wiki (EPwiki.org) aims to provide a central resource about efforts to rig the US election.
See http://www.prwatch.org/node/7840 for a brief list of some of the voter-suppression schemes described there.
A sheriff in Texas has been accused of large-scale drug smuggling.
Whether or not this policeman is guilty, it is clear that many are, because prohibition of drugs leads to systematic corruption. Since marijuana is less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, it ought to be as legal as they are.
I don't believe in legalizing truly dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroin, but addicts ought to be able to get their fix in a doctor's office. That would eliminate most of the harm of prohibition while pulling the plug on the lucrative black market.
Iraq's missing generation — driven into exile.
The US plan to by stock in banks is flawed, because it does little to restrain bank executives from acting in ways that endanger the banks and harm the public.
Mugabe has scuttled his deal with the opposition.
Clown has temporarily abandoned his demand for 42-day detention of suspects — but plans to bring it out again whenever he sees a more favorable climate.
Britons can protect their freedom from New Labour if they remain vigilant, but they deserve to be governed by a party that does not threaten it.
Human Rights Watch has criticized President Chavez of Venezuela for abuses such as political discrimination, interfering with judicial autonomy, and interference with labor unions.
I partly disagree with some of the report's conclusions:
However, rather than administratively canceling the station's license, I think the government should have prosecuted the station and/or its management and owners.
Peace activists helped the Palestinians of Ni'ilin to harvest their olives, and were attacked by the Israeli army.
Maryland Police put activists' names on terror lists.
This included opponents of the death penalty and antiwar activists: a strage place to look for violence.
The "temporary" US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, which has now lasted almost 2 years. Kenya has sent many prisoners to Somalia, whence they were taken to Ethiopia and tortured so that US officials could interrogate them.
Contribute funds to avoid a ban on selling hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Netherlands. (They are now sold in a small number of special stores.)
To propose to ban a non-addictive drug because on rare occasions someone dies from using it wrong reflects a double standard based on prejudice. People occasionally die from mountaineering, skydiving, and swimming in the ocean, but we do not see proposals to ban those activities.
Tell ABC TV you protest its refusal to air an ad about the influence of coal and oil companies in blocking clean energy.
If you become a support of the Simultaneous Policy Initiative, you can vote on what policies it should support.
Alaska's ethics panel found that Palin abused her authority to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.
Perhaps this is an instance of what Republicans call "family values".
The "temporary" US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia continues, which has now lasted almost 2 years. Kenya has sent many prisoners to Somalia, whence they were taken to Ethiopia and tortured so that US officials could interrogate them.
In response to the video game about catching Saddam Hussein, Islamist extremists have released their own game, about catching Bush.
Playing a game of shooting hundreds (or is it thousands?) of people to attack an evil ruler, whether that be Saddam Hussein or Bush, does not strike me as something likely to build good character. However, Americans with a shallow idea of what patriotism consists of, the ones who might have enjoyed demonizing Hussein, might learn some ethical maturity by seeing the shoe on the other foot.
An outbreak of Cholera in Iraq was caused by corruption.
NSA agents habitually listen to phone calls of Americans for fun, in the total absence of grounds to suspect them of terrorism (or anything else).
To prevent such things, formerly police could not listen directly to anyone's phone. When they got court orders to wiretap phones, the phone company listened, made transcripts, and gave them to the police to carry out the order. Changes in the past decade or so have eliminated this protection.
It should be no surprise that the NSA abuses its power. That is the general tendency when "authorities" are given the power to investigate people at will.
The Clown regime openly wants total surveillance of communication and web browsing for the entire population of the UK.
European governments are planning to use the financial crisis as an excuse to cancel CO2 cuts.
The US Army finall admitted to killing lots of civilians with a bomb in Afghanistan, but still refuses to apologize, saying it "did not know" the Taliban were in positions near civilians.
This excuse won't wash. This attack was on a village, a place where civilians live. An army must presume that civilians are present in their homes, unless it knows they have fled, which it certainly did not know in this case.
What happened here is that the US decided to attack the Taliban with weapons that would endanger any nearby civilians, without checking first. NATO has changed its rules to avoid such recklessness, but the US (which operates in Afghanistan separately from NATO) has not.
Excerpts from the US government's manual for crushing insurgencies.
Some of these methods seem to be in use in the US as well — for instance, surveillance of dissidents, detention without trial, surprise raids on meeting places for protestors, as well as psy ops to convince us that these attacks on our freedom are for our own good. In effect, the US government is a government of occupation.
Urgent Note: Support Freedom not Fear Day, a worldwide protest againts surveillance in the name of "antiterrorism".
and, for the US
US citizens: see if your neighbors have tried to register to vote but were rejected on a technicality, and tell them about this web site.
Bush threatened to impose martial law the US unless Congress passed
the bailout bill, and has a special army unit trained for "crowd
control" with which to attack Americans for protesting.
1/4 of the world's species of mammals face extinction.
Using total surveillance plus data mining to find terrorists doesn't even work, according to the National Research Council.
The most efficient way to find terrorists in the US is to check people
with connections to the White House, the CIA, and the State
Department. Those state-sponsored terrorists are not the only ones
they are likely to kill more people than the ones without ties to the
state.
An European Parliament committee has voted for strict limits on CO2 emission, which would prohibit new dirty coal-burning plants.
The European Parliament does not make the final decisions on EU directives, however.
Iraq refugees (mostly Sunni) are being forced to go home where they may be killed by Shi'ites.
Uri Avnery: Olmert's recognition of the need for a fair split with the Palestinians is important even though it comes when he can no longer do anything to implement it.
U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media.
$100k reward for evidence tying Karl Rove and Michael Connell to computerized election fraud.
Bush made no plan to capture Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan —
because he was already husbanding forces for the war he really wanted, in Iraq.
Massachusetts DAs claim that tobacco is safer than marijuana, along with other lies, to try and defeat the decriminalization.
Green Party: how congressment's support for the bailout was bought.
Robert Kennedy Jr. explains how Republicans, using the HAVA law, plan to stop millions of Americans from voting.
The Anthrax Case Reopens: Why Did the FBI Let the Fort Detrick Scientists Investigate Themselves.
Bush created panic to get his financial bailout through Congress.
This reminds me of how the anthrax attacks were used to pass the U SAP
AT RIOT act.
Some MPs are pressing the UK to set a target of 80% cuts in CO2 emissions
by 2050.
But that is 40 years from now. To achieve such cuts, they need to
start soon — and they need a specific, practical plan.
US citizens: call on your candates to
support the Simultaneous Policy.
Police kept a union delegation prisoner in a train at the Mall of
America, blocking it from accompanying a rehired worker back to
Starbucks.
Nader:
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?
South Africa's new health minister will try to provide real treatment for people infected with HIV. This is a benefit of getting rid of President Mbeki.
Now the only obstacle South Africa faces in dealing with AIDS is the
patent system imposed on it by US pressure.
Dean Baker: The bailout round II: Adult Version?
Republicans are using fake polls to spread lies about Obama.
I do not support Obama, because his positions are too close to the
Republicans. But if we cannot put an end to this sort of systematic
lying, it threatens what little is left of our democracy.
A clear example of
why fair use needs to be extended.
Skype software in China is built for censorship and surveillance.
The Skype software used in the rest of the world does not participate
in this particular surveillance system. Since it is proprietary
software, we can't check whether it does some other kind of
surveillance. And if it doesn't do surveillance today, the developers
could install it tomorrow.
This illustrates the general principle that proprietary software
is a threat to your freedom.
UK citizens: tell your MP you are against 42-day imprisonment on suspicion.
Binyam Mohamed, a prisoner in Guantanamo, has no chance of a fair trial
in the US kangaroo court.
The government of Queensland, a state in Australia,
is funding a campaign to denigrate renewable energy and promote burning coal.
Whether the government of Queensland has been bought, or whether it is
thinking in narrow terms of boosting business in Queensland, is hardly
important. The world cannot afford politicians who do either of these
things.
For two weeks: US citizens: sign this petition to reregulate financial institutions, help people with mortgages, invest in energy convservation, and provide universal health care.
For two weeks: US citizens: sign this petition for Congress to put a bailout deal online for 72 hours before voting on it.
The most important thing about Sarah Palin is what her reception says about Americans.
The RNC8 face "terrorism conspiracy" charges for organizing nonviolent protests agains the Republican Convention.
A Republican IT consultant has been subpoenaed in a case about stealing the Ohio election in 2004.
McCain and Obama both voted for Senator Leahy's "PRO-IP" bill, which calls for seizing people's computers for sharing.
Don't vote for them!
(The use of the term
"intellectual property" is a sign that someone is either confused
or trying to confuse you. In this case, it's the latter.)
How the US funded and arranged the invasion that overthrew President Aristide in Haiti.
Israeli colonies in occupied Palestine dump their sewage into Palestinian water supplies.
Right-wing thugs in Israel offered a huge reward for killing any
member of Peace Now.
Mugabe has shredded the agreement with the Zimbabwe opposition by claiming he will appoint all the ministers himself.
The UK's Met Office says that only significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, starting very soon,
can save the world from a catastrophe.
We have got this close to the edge as a result of politicians that
sell out to business and put economic growth above everything else.
Here's more information about these climate projections.
Sarah Palin doesn't agree with this — she cited several climate
change deniers (including those funded by oil companies) for a lawsuit
trying to block the designation of polar bears as a threatened species.
Freedom of the press is deeply endangered by pressure not to offend religion.
The bailout for the banks is the culmination of an old, corrupt US
tradition of subsidizing the rich and the businesses.
When most of the UK's public housing was sold off to its tenants at a
discount, the short-term result was increased investment and public
satisfaction. 30 years later, many of these houses have been sold to
slumlords, rents are too high, and there's a big shortage of public housing.
The US will appoint a special prosecutor to probe the firing of federal prosecutors that
would not launch bogus prosecutions for political reasons.
Olmert, now caretaker PM of Israel, says Israel will have to
withdraw from all the conquered territories (or make small swaps) in order
to have peace.
The bailout deal that Congress rejected was a bad one; it did not
protect homeowners and did too little to limit executive pay.
However, many Republicans voted against it because they want a give-away and more of the same deregulation that caused the crisis.
The Tories pulled the rug from under Clown's green pretensions, by promising to build high-speed train line instead of extending
Heathrow airport.
Through October 11 - In the UK: take photos of Big Brother surveillance for a photo protest.
A Bush regime contractor, being suid for torture in Iraq, claims that it is immune from all lawsuits in Bush's law-free zone.
25 criticisms of Bush's bailout plan.
Fascist thugs in Israel are becoming more aggresively violent as the police and courts wink at them. Recently, they planted a bomb for an Israeli professor who studies the growth of fascism.
Ahmed Agiza, seized by CIA agents and taken to Egypt for torture and emprisonment, has been awarded compensation by the Swedish government which illegally allowed him to be taken.
Unfortunately, that won't get him out of the Egyptian prison.
USAID refuses to say which groups it is funding in Bolivia, leading to suspicions that itt is funding right-wing rebels
A Peace Corps volunteer comments on being ordered by Bush to stop helping people in Bolivia.
The Sarbanes-Oxley protection for corporate whistleblowers is ineffective. The whistleblowers lose 98% of the time.
From the film "Condor: The First War on Terror", I learned something
new about Pinochet's murderous dictatorship which was established by
the 9/11 attacks in Chile. Namely, that the dictatorial governments
that ruled most of South America at the time all cooperated to
capture, torture, and kill dissidents — and that they justified
this as a way to stamp out "terrorists".
One of the organizers of this collaboration appears in the film
defending his work by saying they only did the same thing that
Bush is doing now in the "war on terror".
A former head of the UK's security service
condemned the Blair/Clown plan for 6-wek detention without trial, and also condemned ID cards.
The problem of piracy is getting worse.
Berlusconi and the people that work for him are becoming increasingly open in their support of facism.
An important McCain staffer was paid by the company Freddie Mac until a month ago.
The UK is secretly trying to sabotage EU renewable fuels targets
The Clown regime talks about conservation, but its goal is to do
as little as possible.
Michigan Republicans plan to forclose African-American voters.
Danes face jail for 'terrorism' T-shirts.
It makes sense to prohibit giving support to terrorist organizations
as long as this is done even-handedly. The most dangerous terrorists
in Colombia are the paramilitares, supported by the Colombian
government. The most dangerous terrorists in Palestine are the
Israeli troops and settlers. When Denmark punishes those that do
business with the Colombian government and the Israeli government,
this law will be just.
Olmert told diplomats that Bush denied him permssion, last May, to bomb Iran.
An U.S. military interrogation expert saw, and stopped, actos of torture in Iraq in 2003.
The people committing the torture (let's not help Bush with euphemisms like "harsh techniques") claimed that higher-ups authorized it.
Indeed, Bush regime cabinet members participated in the discussions about torturing prisoners as early as 2002.
How Republican laws created the economic crisis.
10 ways to Bail Out Wall Street (and Main Street) without soaking taxpayers in debt.
Kucinich's Main Street Recovery Plan.
Another federal court ruled that file sharing does not violate copyright law.
I am concerned that Leahy's nasty law could change this.
Global warming is making tons of methane bubble up from the arctic sea floor.
It could already be too late to avoid global disaster
Psychiatrists still participate in U.S. interrogations (i.e., assist in torture), despite the ban instituted by their association in 2006.
The U.S. Congress has again shamefully supported the continuing occupation of Iraq.
Dennis Kucinich: Protecting the public interest in any economic 'bailout'.
A Wall-street bailout must change the incentive structure or it will lead to more of the same speculation.
The FBI is investigating fraud charges against several of the failed banks and financial companies.
Iraq Veterans Against the War continues to condemn all of the politicians that vote to continue occupation of Iraq; whether Republican or Democrat.
Palin poses for photographs but refuses to talk to the press.
McCain and Palin persistently repeat lies that already have been refuted.
They are following the example of Bush.
The deal to end North Korea's nuclear program has broken down, or at least North Korea is threatening to cancel it.
If the list of terrorism-supporting states were honest, it would be
absurd to remove any country from that list as part of a deal about
something else. A country would be de-listed when, and only when, it
stopped supporting terrorism.
But the US-maintained list is a joke, since it doesn't include
Colombia (whose army and president support the murderous thugs known
as the paramilitaries), or Pakistan (whose intelligence service
started Al Qa'ida and apparently maintains close ties with the
Taliban), or the US itself. This list is merely an excuse to bash
countries arbitrarily while hiding the arbitrariness. It should be
abolished.
(Pakistan's army)
Electric generation from ocean waves is now in service. But how much will it be implemented?
It depends on whether governments dare to resist the fossil fuel
companies that have corrupted them.It depends on whether governments dare to resist the fossil fuel
companies that have corrupted them.
How Congress can make more time to plan the details of financial bailouts.
An Iraqi official says that
13 billion dollars of reconstruction money was stolen through elaborate
fraud schemes. Investigators who tried to probe them were murdered.
The American Psychological Association has voted a resolution that appears to
forbid its members to give the US government advice on torture in prisons such
as Guantanamo.
But a deliberate loophole in the APA's ethics code
strips that resolution of practical consequences.
The Bushmen's bailout plans
defend rich gamblers by crushing homeowners.
Systematic corruption in Wall Street companies leads them to steer the
public to foolish and dangerous investments. Proper government would have to
forbid these corrupt practices.
Companies want to extend Big Brother tracking of all car travel to the U.S.
Report: Voting problems in several swing states.
Greg Palast has been saying for years that the Republicans will try to steal this election by any possible means. Problems like these offer easy opportunities
As the UK hold an inquest into the police shooting of de Menezes, his relatives protest that no policemen were charged with his killing.
McCain and Palin are trying to shut down the investigation into corruption charges against Palin, at least until after the election.
Staff at the European Patent Office went on strike accusing the organization of corruption: specifically, stretching the standards for patents in order to make more money.
One of the ways that the EPO has done this is by issuing software patents in defiance of the treaty that set it up.
The Burmese military rulers released a handful of political prisoners (out of more than 2000), hoping to undermine pressure for international sanctions.
The next ships to break siege of Gaza will carry surgeons as well as food.
Iraqi detainees languish in clogged justice system.
Since Bush launched the "Annapolis peace process" — which was
only for show anyway — Israel has drastically increased construction of its "settlements" in Palestinian territory.
The Israeli government systematically aids the settlers by denying Palesinians access to their own land.
The Palestinian village of Ni`ilin faces more than the loss of much of
its land: Israel plans to wall it off. So it has persistently opposed the bulldozers with unarmed protest, standing up to violent attacks that go as far as murder.
For 15 years, Israel has been officially in favor of peace
with a Palestinian state, but has insisted that the Palestinians
make all the concessions, thus ensuring there is no deal.
Now Palestinians are on the verge of giving up on the idea.
Everyone: sign this petition asking PBS to ask McCain and Obama what they propose to do regarding illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, says there is still a chance for peace between Israel and Palestine — if Israel lets Palestinians have a real state in the whole West Bank.
A Chinese milk company concealed its knowledge of melamine poisoning in milk for the sake of having nice, cheerful Olympic games.
That is a perfect illustration of the culture of false front and coverup which pervades the Chinese government and Chinese business.
US citizen: phone your congresscritter and say, "Hold Karl Rove in Contempt of Congress and make him testify."
You can also send a message through this page but a phone call counts a lot more than a message.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and
888-355-3588.
The RIAA is using a fraudulent accusation to threaten the main lawyer
that defends the RIAA's victims.
The US government and many others are displaying contempt for their
citizens by negotiating the so-called
"anti-counterfeiting" treaty in secret. 100 opposition groups
signed a demand to see the text, which so far only certain favored
businesses have been allowed to look at.
US citizens: send your congresscritter this
message not to give the auto industry a bailout without tightening
fuel economy standards.
The fact that only a big handout to business makes it possible to
defend the world from global warming illustrates the weakness of
democracy. That weakness was created by right-wing polititians
through their Free Exploitation Treaties. And they haven't stopped!
ACTA is supposed to be the next one.
So you might also say to your congresscritter that we should not have
to wait till companies need a bailout before we refuse to let them
run away with the public interest.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and
888-355-3588.
Paul Krugman: The current financial crisis results from allowing
new forms of unregulated lending to replace the old, regulated
banks.
The regulations on bank lending were put in place by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, after a previous wave of speculation caused the
Great Depression.
The Great Depression was caused by overheated speculation which
encouraged people to make risky investments. But the right-wing
government of the 1920s played a role by refusing to do anything to
prevent the problem. Herbert Hoover did nothing to end the
depression; instead he proclaimed his faith in the Invisible Hand.
The Invisible Hand did not see fit to do anything.
In 1929, the speculation took the form of buying stocks with too much
leverage. Suppose you borrow 90% of the money to buy some stocks,
contributing only 10% of the purchase price yourself. If the stock
goes up 11%, you can sell it, repay the loan, and end up with twice
the money you put in. But If the stock goes down 11%, you don't get
out enough to repay the loan. You'll have to sell something else.
These extra-risky bets start to look good when the market has been
rising so long that people forget it can go down. So any downturn
will ruin som people, making them sell assets, making more prices go
down, etc. That can be a chain reaction.
This time it the problem arose specifically from subprime mortgages,
which were set up to charge low interest as long as the homeowner
walks the straight and narrow and the lender doesn't get in a bad
mood. One difference is that the lenders preyed on people who were
not wealthy enough to invest in stocks. We could tell stock owners,
"Tough, you should have known better." But these borrowers were
exploited. They deserve to be protected from foreclosure, in a way
that stock investors don't.
The worshipers of the Invisible Hand generally claim that their god
will do what is good for the public. but, when pressed, they reveal
that this is a tautology, because they define "good" as "whatever the
Invisible Hand does".
U.S. citizens: call your congresscritter and say, "don't give a
bailout to big companies without protecting the taxpayers and the
homeowners and making those who have gained from dangerous speculation
pay!"
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and
888-355-3588.
Also sign this petition
Although Mbeki resigned for politically arranging to prosecute of
Jacob Zuma, that
doesn't necessarily mean Zuma was innocent. He may be prosecuted
anyway.
A histrorical
summary of Thabo Mbeki's presidency.
I think it is partly mistaken, though. The only foreigners he
impressed or neoliberals.
Bernie Sanders: If a
company is too big to [be allowed to] fail, it is too big to [be
allowed to] exist.
Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros, and Merrill Lynch are among 5 companies to
which
Bush gave special exceptions from SEC regulations in 2004.
These exceptions from sensible precautions allowed them to get too
greedy and drive themselves bankrupt.
Mike Tabor is suing the city of Portland after policeman stopped him from using his video camera to witness an arrest.
Thabo Mbeki will step down as president of South Africa after a court condemned him for making false charges against Jacob Zuma, his political rival.
Mbeki opposed state-funded medical treatment for poor people with AIDS, because his property is to give the best possible economic treatment to profitable foreign business
What Haitian-Americans are
asking of the next U.S. president.
Paying singers to mention products is an organized industry. Ad agencies spam companies that seem to be possible clients.
Chalabi: U.S. wants secret bases in Iraq.
JK Rowling gave the UK labor party a million dollars. I fear that one
of the things she asked for in return is increased copyright power
over citizens that share.
Bush and his creature in Iraq, al-Maliki, still have not agreed on a treaty to authorize the Bush forces to remain past the end of the year. Bush demands immunity for the Bush forces, and Iraq (after they have murdered so many Iraqis) refuses.
The Colombian army and police threatened striking sugar cane workers.
The big use of private mercenaries instead of officially recognized soldiers is spreading from Iraq to Afghanistan.
The EFF has sued the NSA and Bush over the illegal surveillance.
Maybe it will argue that the law passed to authorize this surveillance by our cowardly Congress was unconstitutional
The Bush regime promised Pakistan it would not unilaterally attack
— then broke the promise a few hours later.
For businesses, labeling their activities as "carbon-neutral"
is a fad; but the claims are often bogus, or impossible to check.
The US and EU have lost a lot of power in the UN.
This shows up not only in the response to their power grabs
but also in the failure of human rights initiatives.
This is the US' fault. It is hard for the US to exert influence for
human rights when it tramples them around the world.
Roanoke VA has just one company to get health care from.
When the local newspaper wrote about how it exploits this monopoly,
the company got the reporter taken off the issue by cutting its advertising.
This must happen all the time, and mostly go unnoticed.
To prevent further financial disasters, we must reverse the policies of deregulation that set the state for this disaster.
In a multinational poll, less than half the respondents believed that Al Qa'ida was responsible for the US 9/11 attacks.
There are grounds for skepticism about plenty of the official story.
I don't believe the "missiles, not planes" theories, since I
understand that many witnesses did see the planes. I have no basis to
believe the claims that the planes were flown by remote control (set
by the Bush regime) rather than by hijackers, although I won't say it
is flat-out impossible.
But I have doubts about who the hijackers really were. It was always
suspicious that the Bush regime claimed to be sure, so soon after, who
they were. The leaked private message from Osama bin Laden, which
denied involvement, creates more reason to doubt. (The published "bin
Laden" tapes have been suspect all along.)
10 years of statements by Osama bin Laden, translated by the CIA and
then leaked, include a message he sent to the US government saying he
had nothing to do with the US 9/11 attacks.
I have no particular reason to assume bin Laden would not lie. On the
other hand, I have no reason to assume he did lie, whereas I know the
Bush regime can never be trusted. I won't treat this as proof that
bin Laden was not involved, but it creates a real doubt. Until there
is an honest investigation of those attacks, we do not know who
organized them.
If you live in Washington DC, don't use
"Smart bikes"! They are Big Brother's eyes. The system records
where a user gets the bike, and records where she returns it.
It's possible they track the bike RFIDs along the way, too. The
system in Paris is repored to do so.
When they say they do not distribute this information, they are being
disingenuous. Under the U SAP AT RIOT act, the FBI can get this information
without even a search warrant.
McCain and Palin have gone to unprecedented level of brazen lying.
The major media are
starting to report McCain's and Palin's lies.
But their respose may not be adequate to the brazenness.
Debunked: Ten
Conservative Myths About National Security.
The UK is expanding its network of cameras to record
everywhere cars go.
The opposition disappoints me. It is a mistake to quibble about how
long the data is kept. This system must be abolished!
Bush put a bioweapons
lab in Galveston, Texas, where it is sure to be destroyed by a
hurricane sooner or later.
When a garment worker in Los Angeles makes a dress that retails for
$100, the worker gets $1.72. This is according to Sweatshop Warriors,
by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie.
Next time someone claims that we can have faith in the invisible hand
to pay people according to the value of what they produce, we can suggest
he investigate why the invisible hand thinks the dress is worth so much
to the person who wears it, and so little to the person who makes it.
Aung San Su Kyi rejected food supplies from Burma's military rulers for a month in order to gain the right to receive magazines and letters from her sons.
The Burmese military rulers remain in power due to support by China.
Pakistan's army has been ordered: if US forces enter unauthorized, shoot at them!
An opposition gang shot marching supporters of Bolivian President
Morales with machine guns, leading Morales to declare a state of
emergency in that region. The opposition appears to have the support
of the US ambassador, so Morales expelled him. Perhaps he should
close the US embassy.
Both McCain and Obama condemned Morales, effectively supporting the
terrorist opposition.
It makes me very sad that Brazil is partly doing the same thing.
When Lula calls for negotiation with separatist gangsters who are escalating step by step to see how far they can get, it is tantamount to encouraging them. Unless Brazil says it will support Bolivia's government against a rebellion engineered by rich people and their hirelings, it will encourage such a rebellion.
A partial explanation for the US housing lending crisis in terms of Chinese wanting to invest.
Pakistani troops fired at, and drove off, US helicopters that were
heading to attack Taliban supporters (and civilian bystanders) in
Pakistan.
Unilateral US intervention in Pakistan was absurd when Obama
suggested it, and it's absurd when Bush does it.
Sarah Palin's career in Alaska politics has been a matter of supporting her cronies and trying to suppress critics.
After outbreaks of cholera in Iraq, the Iraqi government's response
was to block journalists from talking with the victims.
The Popov family came to France and asked for asylum, but the French
goverment is determined to deport them back to Kazakhstan where they will certainly be killed.
French President Sarcoma won election by promising to be harsh to
immigrants, because supposedly there were too many. It is typical of such regimes that they don't limit their cruelty to illegal immigrants or those who seek asylum falsely. They attack whoever they can get their hands on.
Dalits made homeless and destitute after the floods in Bihar face attempts to exclude them from emergency aid too.
A new general surveillance and dossier system in France has provoked
sustained opposition.
Gush Shalom asks for support so that more
boats can bring food to Gaza.
London subways and buses use an RFID-based payment card which seems to
have been designed
for tracking.
If you use Oyster cards, keep them in aluminum foil when you
are not using them to pay. That way, no one else can read them.
Don't register them, and swap them frequently.
As for broken cards, I suggest giving them up for lost. If you
refrain from storing a lot of money into the card, a broken card once
every couple of years will be insignificant as a loss.
A house in Texas burned down because the fire
hydrants were turned off to "prevent terrorism".
This absurd precaution is merely stupid (and perhaps partly corrupt),
but other things done to "prevent terrorism" are much more sinister.
The Republican Party wants to prevent
people from voting if they have lost their homes recently.
Do they think these people might be dissatisfied with the Bush regime?
The US is starting to admit substantial numbers of Iraqi refugees.
"Tens of thousands" may amount to 1% of the millions rendered homeless
by Bush's invasion.
Some Christian farmers say RFIDs in cattle are "the mark of the beast".
I don't agree with their religion, and I don't believe cattle have a
right to privacy. But humans do, and RFIDs are a grave threat to it.
If opposition by Christians helps block plans to put RFIDs in products
for sale, I will be glad of their support.
The RCMP tightened its policy for using tasers, because the old policy caused unnecessary deaths.
A Quebec man changed
his name to escape from the US terrorist suspect list.
The US treats everyone as a terrorist suspect, but some people more
than others.
The IRS offers tax
loopholes for booming pay for executives, including stock options.
The stock options encourage CEOs to take actions that boost the stock
price temporarily, while undermining the company.
Mugabe has agreed to a deal handing
over most of his power to Tsvangirai, who won Zimbabwe's
elections.
It sounds to me as if this deal could
be sabotaged by Mugabe through later reinterpretation.
Bush secretly ordered US troops to enter
Pakistan and attack Taliban supporters there.
Despicable as the Taliban are, unauthorized intervention in Pakistan
is the stupidest possible response.
Kucinich has called for a Truth
and Reconciliation Commission to investigate how Bush launched the
Iraq War.
Companies use "voluntary
codes" to avoid regulation, but this is an inferior substitute.
Sarah Palin was a vocal supporter of the infamous "Bridge
to Nowhere" until the project started to become embarrassing.
Police and FBI staged a violent raid on the office of several community support
groups in Berkeley California. The supposed reason could not explain this even if it were true.
Pakistan's president and its chief general have both condemned US attacks on Pakistan's territory.
2500 Iraqis live under the stands in Kirkuk's soccer stadium.
Police in St Paul attacked and arrested protestors before the protests
started, and continued doing so after. Here is the summary of how they shredded the US Constitution.
Greenpeace activists were acquitted of charges of "property damage" after they painted a statement of protest on a coal-burning power plant.
Note the subtle dishonesty in the description of painting of a word on
the chimney as "property damage". That makes it sound like sabotage,
which it wasn't.
The Church of Scientology has used the DMCA
to get criticism deleted. It has a history of strained copyright
claims.
Using copyright for censorship is not a new thing. Copyright in
England originated as a system of censorship.
US citizens: phone yor congresscritter and senators in support of the
Clean
Water Restoration Act.
Bush and the Iraqi government hold dearly to one of Saddam Hussein's laws:
the one that prohibited unions for most Iraqi workers.
US residents: canvas on Sep 20 to pull the Bush forces out of Iraq.
"Free trade" keeps poor countries poor, while protectionism can lead
to development. No wonder the the European Union is trying
to force the poor countries of the world into a "free trade"
treaty that will keep them subjugated and poor.
Republicans in Virginia told lies to scare
college students out of voting.
This reflects the Republican party ethic that any means of winning is
ok. Republicans more frequently try to scare Blacks away from voting,
and that gets less coverage.
Maqbool Fida Husain, a prominent Indian artist, lives in exile because of lawsuits from Hindus that consider his work "obscene".
A similar form of persecution in the name of Christianity is occurring in England.
NATO troops in Afghanistan have changed rules for air attacks to try to reduce civilian casualties. But I think this does not include the US troops.
A plane caught carrying drugs thru Mexico had visited Guantanamo Bay, and is being investigated by the EU on suspicion of use in US torture kidnapings.
The US troops in Afghanistan are killing more and more civilians due to increased use of air attacks.
To solve this problem, they would first have to admit it,
but the dishonest Bush regime would rather deny a mistake.
The Iraqi government is making oil deals with companies from various
countries.
This seems to mean that Bush and Cheney have lost their bid to get
control of Iraq's oil. I hope so. But Iraq as a nation has lost
also, in that its oil revenue will go to foreigners (regardless
of what country they are from).
Extreme surveillance in the UK is part of a general practice of increased
government interference in every aspect of life. Citizens must contend
with both petty and major tyrants.
The interference is haphazard and unpredictable: one town will
threaten people for putting up posters about a lost cat; other towns
commit different outrages. But codifying these intrusions would not
make them acceptable.
Georgia is the graveyard of America's unipolar world -- and that's a good
thing.
The cold war put pressure on the US and the USSR to compete to present the
world with a more appealing model, and respect for human rights was one aspect
of the competition. Maybe such pressure will help us restore human rights in
the US.
McCain and Palin attacked Obama
for supporting the US constitution and working as a community organizer.
The mainstream media treated this as valid.
I guess the press is being manipulated — either through its business
owners or through understanding of its herd instinct.
Obama on Iraq and Iran does not sound very different from Bush.
Since the Iraqi government has developed enough gumption to say no to Bush, it
seems clear that most of the Bush forces will be removed by 2010 in any case.
That is good, but it also moves Obama effectively further closer to Bush.
Still not a hint of ethical criticism of the conquest and destruction of Iraq.
Palin said that the Iraq war is "a task from god".
Supporters of the UK cracker McKinnon protest that he will be extradited
to the US and not get a fair trial there.
The US-UK extradition treaty is an obvious injustice: it doesn't even treat
the two countries equally.
This article explains other more subtle injustices in the treaty.
Everyone:
join the protests against surveillance on Oct 11.
Fighting to publish state laws, as states try to use copyright to impede
access to them.
Bush fired US attorneys who would not launch actions for partisan political
reasons.
Sarah Palin fired commissioner Monegan because he would not act to support
Palin's personal grievanes.
Supporters of the Chinese domination of Tibet like to defend it on the grounds
that China liberated the Tibetans from a feudal theocracy. That's true;
here in brief is what that feudal theocracy was like.
As the article also mentions, ending theocracy and serfdom does not justify
China's new forms of oppression and colonization, and respecting Tibetans'
autonomy and human rights does not imply restoring theocracy or serfdom there.
While Obama calls Bush's troop increase a success,
Bob Woodward says it was a minor secondary reason for the reduction in the
level of violence in Iraq.
The US Army is heading for
a record suicide rate.
War is hell, always, but it's not always equally bad. If soldiers see that
the cause they are fighting for is unjust, and that the rules of ethics that
they have been taught are supposed to be ignored, they feel worse.
Pakistan reinstated some of the supreme court judges that Musharraf fired, but
omitted the heroic chief justice.
Can anyone tell me why he was left out?
Attiqullah's bride and around 45 of his relatives were killed ago when the
US bombed his wedding party. The US says only that it is "investigating".
In two months of "investigating" it has not recognized who the bombs killed.
The UK will publish the instructions given by B'liar and his cabinet for
changes in the "dodgy dossier" in which intelligence reports were distorted to
create an apparent excuse for conquering Iraq.
Obama gave an interview on Faux News and used it
to show how right-wing he is.
The "war on terror" is a dishonest and confused concept whose main purpose is
convincing Americans and others to cede their freedom without a fight. The
US government opposes some terrorism, and supports some terrorism —
including, at present, terrorism against Iran. Obama's use of the term should
remind us he is not really a defender of human rights in the US.
Did Bush's troop increase in Iraq "work"? That depends on what goal we judge
it against.
It may have been partly responsible for the reduction in intercommunal
violence. But the main cause of that change is probably that the ethnic
cleansing campaigns between the Sunni and Shi'ites were completed, so there
was no one left to chase into exile.
Did it make Iraq stable? No, because a more conventional civil war between
Shi'ites and Sunnis is now pending. Bush made peace with parts of the Sunni
resistance, by pointing out that al Qa'ida's violence against Shi'ites only
brought retaliation, and then offering money. The result is that these
regions have some peace and some autonomy. The Shi'ites of SCIRI, who
dominate the Iraqi Army, plan to fight them next year.
Two other Bush aims, to station troops in Iraq permanently and to control
Iraq's oil,
seem also to have been thwarted.
Perhaps this is the only good thing one can say about Bush's crime in Iraq:
that it faile
(Pakistani troops drive off US helicopters)
(US troops secretly ordered)
(Pakistan's officials condemn US attacks on Pakistan's territory)
(US troops raid a village in Pakistan)