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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
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Women in Bangladesh are challenging the power of Islamists by supporting full implementation of a general law giving women equal rights. If that law is implemented, Bangladesh will do the US one better.
A newspaper in Belarus defies the dictator's orders to shut it down.
Why the US and NATO Fed Detainees to Afghan Torture System.
BP continues getting big government contracts even no-bid noncompetitive contracts.
Israel arrested Palestinian writer Ahmad Qatamesh after taking several family members hostage.
The plan appears to be to hold him without trial as a political prisoner.
Right-wing fanatics in Israel are trying to crush academic freedom. They especially target events about "democracy" and "human rights".
Famous brands say they require factories to treat labor decently, but it's all a lie: sweatshop labor conditions are getting worse.
The mothers of Colombian youths murdered by the army still demand justice and receive death threats instead.
A homeless Connecticut woman is threatened with 20 years in prison for registering her son in a public school in a neighboring city.
Government doctors in Guantanamo hid evidence of torture.
Wikileaks cables say that drug gangs have taken over large parts of Central America and are removing US-supplied heavy weapons from military arsenals.
Gaddafi has found ways to bypass the porous and incomplete sanctions.
In Bureaucratic Brazil, orders to demolish slums were executed even though the inhabitants were still there.
This is all for the sake of the Olympic Games, which are like an artificial disaster for whatever city they occur in.
In occupied Palestine, similar things are done from malice.
Suggestion: the outside world can support the labor movement in Iran.
Uganda may relax a death sentence for homosexual activity to mere life imprisonment.
Sai Baba invalidated his prophesy by dying before he said he would.
But his wrongs went far beyond that.
All the evidence against 255 Guantanamo prison came from just 8 prisoners, whose testimony is thought to be untrustworthy (in some cases because they were tortured).
Accusations of fraud in the Haitian elections are being investigated.
Fraud would not surprise me, though I wonder if the investigation can be trusted. But what was really wrong in the Haitian elections was the exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas and President Aristide.
Syria is now using tanks against the protesters, and has arrested and killed hundreds.
Sri Lanka will be allowed to veto a UN investigation into its war crimes.
BP had a blowout in 2008 that almost resembled the 2009 Big Spill. Because this was in Azerbaijan, BP kept it secret and was able to continue the same risky methods.
The Guantanamo prison command considered Pakistan's intelligence agency as a terrorist group. If a suspect had ties with ISI, that was considered equivalent to ties with al Qa'ida.
I can't criticize that policy. ISI has long been known to have ties with al Qa'ida, and it would be foolish to disregard this.
The injustice of Guantanamo lies in of imprisoning people without trial. Having suspicions is not an injustice.
The Libyan rebels are planting antivehicle mines and failing to keep track of them for future demining.
I don't think antivehicle mines are inherently an outrage.
The labor movement worldwide calls for an end to repression in Bahrain.
Thousands of Pakistanis blocked NATO's main supply route as a protest against drone attacks in Pakistan.
Obama's attempt to distinguish Bradley Manning from Daniel Ellsberg got the facts completely backwards.
Many religious schools in the UK fail to challenge bigotry and bullying.
It amazes me that bullying so often goes as far as death threats. Things seem to have changed a lot since I was young; bullies bothered me but never threatened to kill me. Saying "sticks and stones will break my bones" is not enough, apparently, to deal with this.
What we have learned from the leaked Guantanamo files.
The US government tries to justify torture and injustice in the name of protecting Americans. Don't you dare torture in my name!
The US government argues for keeping innocent people in prison because if freed they might seek revenge for their imprisonment. How would you feel if a callous government kept you in prison because it had done you an injustice? That is the behavior of a monstrous juggernaut that needs to be stopped.
If you have done someone a great wrong, and you don't want him to seek revenge, you ought to give him a very humble apology, together with a convincing demonstration that you won't do such things any more. Show you have learned your lesson. That is what the US must do.
Dalit students complain that their teachers force them to clean toilets and won't mark their work.
US citizens: call your congresscritter and say to oppose the War on Women (rights of abortion and birth control). Also sign this petition.
US citizens: tell Congress, raise taxes on corporations rather than cutting social spending.
A scientific paper reporting apparent evidence of precognition was published and then drew widespread media coverage. A repetition of the study, which found no sign of precognition, was refused publication.
Misrata is defended by thousands of citizens who took up arms to resist Gaddafi's attack.
Rebels in Benghazi talk about how the protests turned into a rebellion after Gaddafi's men shot protesters.
The situation in Libya has not yet reached a clear stalemate. Gaddafi's troops continue attacking because they still think they can win (whether or not they really can). If they become certain they cannot win, that they can never again dominate Libya and profit from its oil, that's when many of them will look for a way to get out.
Feathers from the endangered black-footed albatross demonstrate mercury pollution from human activity, and this could be one of the factors driving that bird towards extinction.
Dropbox says it will decrypt users' files for the government, which means they must have been lying when they said they couldn't decrypt users' files.
The article's first paragraph states misguided judgments and irrelevancies. It makes no difference how "passionate" their team is; what matters is how they treat their users. This service is not a product. No product or service can be "great" if it implements surveillance.
However, that doesn't invalidate the main points of the article. If you're going to use Dropbox, you should encrypt the files first on your own machine.
The UK needs to charge for water use, as high temperatures make water scarce. But the system needs to be designed not to crush the poor.
If the Conservative Party wins in Canada, and imposes Internet censorship, the Pirate Party of Canada will offer VPN service for Canadians to evade censorship.
Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped as a punishment for her brother. She became a women's rights campaigner and prosecuted her attackers. Most of them were freed on appeal, and now she is afraid they will kill her.
There have been mass protests in Casablanca for more democracy.
Two Syrian members of parliament resigned because of Assad's repeated massacres of protesters.
His forces shot 100 people at the funerals of others they had shot.
Given how much popular support Assad still reportedly has, despite repression, he could allow dissidents to freely express their views and still remain in power.
Five crucial questions for evaluating nuclear power.
If an oil well in the Arctic explodes, it might be impossible to cap the well and impossible to contain the oil.
Wikileaks files from Guantanamo show people were held prisoner with no evidence of guilt — in some cases, without even a suspicion!
An al-Jazeera journalist was held for interrogation about al-Jazeera.
"If you could only know what we can know, you would understand that what we are doing is right," they said, but now we know for certain it was thoroughly wrong.
Correction: The Guardian subsequently said that these files did not come from Wikileaks.
Peter Wilmshurst, MD., has apparently been saved from a bankrupting UK libel suit because the company whose medical devices he criticized has gone out of business.
I hope it is true that he is now safe, and not just a surmise. Can the creditors take up the libel suit as an "asset" of the failed company?
Robert Frost's heirs damaged his legacy by refusing to let composer Eric Whitacre publish his setting of a Frost poem.
Eric commissioned another poet to write words for the piece. In resentment, he says he will never publish it with Frost's words.
Michigan has effectively abolished the local government of a city. And all the public school teachers in Detroit have been fired.
The concrete structure over the ruins of the exploded Chernobyl reactor is just an interim step — the cleanup is just beginning.
UK police raided a squat in Bristol, triggering a protest. During the protest they ran amok, attacking protesters and passers-by at random.
Meanwhile the protest developed into a riot. I can't tell from the information in this article whether the police brutality was a reaction to the riot or its cause.
I don't see anything very bad about another Tesco convenience store. It would be better if it were independent, not part of a large chain, to increase competition and reduce concentration of wealth. But I would not feel like protesting such a store. It's the police that deserve to be protested.
The police accused the squatters of making "petrol bombs". The squatters deny those charges, and say they were not even part of the opposition to the Tesco store.
Is there any physical difference between petrol bombs "assembled" for use at a later time, and a collection of beverage bottles to be recycled? Anyway, the accusation seems implausible. Given how easy it is to break store windows, why would anyone plan to commit arson instead? Police are not known for scrupulous adherence to the truth.
Based on prior patterns, I predict that people who smashed the Tesco store windows will be sentenced to prison, while police that attacked and injured bystanders will not be prosecuted.
Japan limits public information about the Fukushima disaster. Most press conferences include only the major Japanese corporate media, which repeat what they are told and ask no probing questions. Moreover, there are new threats of censorship of others that publish "illegal information".
Various groups of armed supporters of President Ouattara began fighting in Ivory Coast.
This suggests those forces are simply a coalition of militias belonging to warlords, like the one that constituted the "government" of Afghanistan after the US kicked out the Taliban.
Yemenite Protesters rejected Saleh's plan to step down and for his deputy to preside over elections and the writing of a new constitution.
I would guess they don't trust that deputy. Also, they say they want to prosecute President Saleh; but Saleh could make that impossible by fleeing if he so desires.
Trolls are fooling jittery Chinese censors and police to arrest innocent people, block nonpolitical web sites, and so on.
This raises a nice ethical question: is it ethical to say there will be a protest at XYZ Square and cause some people strolling there to get arrested?
It has the effect of hurting innocent people, but the harm is done by the agents of tyranny, and nothing except their tyrannical goals requires them to do it. My conclusion is that if the people are only arrested, not maimed or killed, it is ethical.
European music publishers shut down the IMSLP public domain music score library with a bogus copyright claim.
That their claim was bogus made no difference because there was no trial.
Go-Daddy has participated in a number of denial of service attacks, and it seems that people should refuse to do business with it. But that will not deal with the underlying problem: that use of the Internet is precarious and anyone can be kicked off by intimidation.
Obama justifies prosecuting Bradley Manning based on an erroneous comparison with Daniel Ellsberg.
Facebook deleted a photo of two men kissing, which was used to support a kiss-in in a pub that had shown bias against gays.
The person who posted it thinks that Facebook is not anti-gay, but rather than it is quick to censor whatever someone complains about.
While it might seem that the former would be worse, I think the latter makes facebook really dangerous. Don't use Facebook as a substitute for your own web site!
Human numbers and global warming are endangering well-known migratory birds.
60 prominent Israeli intellectuals and artists have signed a call to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
The US continues to hamper democracy in many Arab countries, but Saudi Arabia is at the heart of the repression.
The Arab world faces catastrophic food shortages, with the population growing and aquifers being emptied.
This is a glimpse of what the whole world is heading for, a few decades from now, if we don't cut the birth rate further.
Remember that global warming will turn some inhabited areas into deserts.
Watch out for the medical insurance companies' new front group.
A Wisconsin railroad company is accused of making illegal veiled campaign contributions to Governor Walker, and it appears his campaign knew about it.
In Syria, President Assad lifted the emergency law and recognized a theoretical right to protest. But dozens of real protesters were shot.
Two Peruvian reporters say they were fired from a TV channel for refusing to slant the news in favor of the right-wing candidate.
Police looked aside as right-wingers drowned out rally in Tel Aviv for ending the occupation of Palestine.
Bahrain is now persecuting Shi'ites in many professions. A thousand people have been arrested.
It seems to me that the US has a responsibility to move its fleet on its own initiative.
US citizens: tell Senator Durbin not to consider cuts in Social Security.
Congress is considering a law to remove the dangerous loopholes in regulation of oil and gas drilling.
How Tobacco companies use philanthropy as strategic PR to continue harmful practices.
The Gates foundation can be understood in the same light, as Microsoft PR, especially when it "donates" computers that run Windows.
American exceptionalism: how the US was exceptionally lucky, and is now exceptionally stupid. Now the US is #1 in many social problems.
"To aspire to the western model in Asia is a deadly lie."
The article's point is that rather than directing growth into an expanding middle class, with the false promise that everyone will get to join it later, Asian countries must direct some of the increase in wealth to reducing the poverty of the poor.
They must also work hard to reduce births.
Android also saves past location data, though if you're moving around the history buffer may get reused soon.
I wonder whether the code that does this is visible in the free source code of Android, and whether users have posted a patch to fix it.
The US will use drones in Libya.
This does not violate the UN resolution, but unless it is controlled in close coordination with the rebels, it creates a risk of hitting them, or civilians.
The Antarctic ozone hole could be changing the climate in parts of the Southern hemisphere — including parts of Australia which have seen disastrous floods in the past year.
The IMF "bailout" for Portugal is marginally less draconian than what the EU offered, but it is still a disaster for everyone that isn't rich.
Prenatal exposure to certain pesticides has been linked to brain damage.
Tortured Iranian protesters who sought asylum in the UK are on hunger strike because the UK plans to send them back to Iran.
The murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, founder of the Freedom Theater in Jenin, may have been motivated by the hatred of religious prudes.
The defenders of Misrata are citizens who took up arms against an army. They are barely holding out.
With 1000 people killed by Gaddafi's shelling, and snipers who shoot at anyone they can see, it is clear that attacking Gaddafi's army is authorized by the UN resolution that called for protecting civilians.
The iPhone file that records all its movements permanently gets even more sinister when combined with the practice of police to search portable phones without warrants.
The telephone network tracks phones regardless of whether they record locations, and for me that is enough reason not to carry one. But it takes a warrant (I think) to collect that information.
Colombia's "paramilitaries", really right-wing gangs of extortionists, are still operating in 1/3 of the country, despite having been formally "demobilized".
Former president Alvaro Horrible claimed to have demobilized them, but some of his close associates were connected with them. It was also Horrible who negotiated the proposed Free Exploitation Treaty than Obama now wants to ratify.
A company is trying to use the US-Peru Free Exploitation Treaty to evade pollution laws.
The US could save many trillions of dollars by discontinuing military spending that is nearly obsolete.
What use is an aircraft carrier that couldn't sail the seas and chew bubble gum at the same time — and would pardon the nation's worst enemies?
Rep. Ryan plans to privatize Medicare, turning it into a gift to medical insurance companies. He has planned with those insurance companies a PR campaign to mislead Americans into supporting it.
A hoax press release tricked Associated Press into announcing that GE had voluntarily decided to pay its fair share of US income tax.
US citizens: sign this petition condemning BP's $13b tax break due to causing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and calling on BP to pay those taxes anyway.
US citizens: tell the EPA to ban methyl iodide as a pesticide.
UK police plan pre-emptive arrests of would-be protesters.
They say these will be directed at people "planning criminal activity", but those words are deceptive since many kinds of protest have been criminalized. And the police lie when it suits them.
The effects of doses of radiation are fairly well known to medical science, but the effects of consuming microscoping particles of radioactive substances are a completely different story.
US citizens: call on Obama to take steps on his own to protect our shores from dangerous undersea oil drilling.
In the US: call your senators to support S.186, Barbara Boxer's bill to require a timetable for removing US troops from Afghanistan.
Police have banned evacuated Japanese from returning to homes near Fukushima.
One person, in two hours, cannot recover much in the way of possessions. In effect, these people's possessions have been confiscated. That seems unjustified, since things kept indoors should be safe to use. Livestock, on the other hand, may have absorbed significant radioactivity by eating grass. I am not an expert, but if their meat and milk will not be considered safe to use, they ought to be condemned now.
Broad protests against fracking are spreading in France.
People fear pollution of their water that can ruin crops as well as their own health.
Here in detail is why fracking is not a way to reduce greenhouse gas emission.
The US will give the Libyan rebels communication equipment and body armor, but not weapons.
I believe they have plenty of guns, though maybe they need ammunition in some places. But what they need most is military skill.
Zainab al-Khawaja has ended her hunger strike after receiving some word about the condition of her imprisoned relatives.
The rationale for staying alive and continuing the struggle is valid, but given that she isn't going to fast to death, it would have been wiser not to say she was doing so.
Natural gas companies are dishonestly lobbying for Europe to promote natural gas instead of renewable energy.
This would be a disaster, given that fracking results in a lot of greenhouse gas. The claim that carbon emission reduction can be achieved this way is apparently pure fiction.
Radio Free Europe says students in Teheran University are protesting against a police garrison.
Everyone: call on the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole to commute Troy Davis' sentence and not execute him.
I added a personal comment saying that with the evidence against him so flimsy, he deserves a new trial.
Michigan police search drivers' cell phones at traffic stops.
The coup-installed regime in Honduras is working with the IMF to destroy public education and public water supplies, following (apparently) advice from the US.
Although some of the protest methods involve actions that in normal times would be properly punished, they are legitimate as a response to the murderous violence and grand theft of the coup regime. Does Al Jazeera have a bureau in Honduras?
The Egyptian government says at least 846 people were killed in the protests that drove Mubarak out of power.
Saudi Arabia has arrested 160 dissidents in the past couple of months.
Kucinich has introduced a resolution calling on Congress to decide the extent of US intervention in Libya.
I support the intervention in Libya (though what Libya really needs is one well-trained division from Egypt or conceivably some other Arab country), but the US should act according to its constitution.
Police shot more protesters in Yemen.
The country is sort of split between the president's forces and those of an opposition general, but they are not fighting each other.
Just 21 billion dollars (annually, I guess) would extend birth control and reproductive health care to the world's poor. That would greatly reduce population growth and help us avoid disaster in a few decades.
There is no need to be concerned that a low birth rate will cause problems. It would be a good thing if, a hundred years from now, the human population were a mere four billion.
Besides, in that much time, if technological civilization is still around, life extension will probably make the population start to increase again. We will need to establish space or ocean habitats for all the people to live in.
Madrid's mayor regards homeless people as a nuisance, and wants Spain to force them out of sight.
Many US cities have done this sort of thing for decades. It is the ultimate in callous evil.
Facebook is considering adding censorship to bow down to China.
The US says it will improve Bradley Manning's prison conditions, moving him out of solitary confinement.
The US's vindictive stubbornness is very large, but sometimes we can overcome it.
Massachusetts citizens: phone your state rep to restore family planning funds by supprting this amendment by Alice Wolf.
The iGroan records every place it has been, in a file, forever. And carefully preserves this information when syncing from one machine to another.
What else should you expect, with nonfree software controlled by a greedy psychopath (a corporation).
One year after the big spill, oil is still washing up, and Congress is doing nothing.
The big oil companies pay 2% income taxes. If they paid the official 35% income tax rate, their taxes would be more than the proposed budget cuts.
The EU is trying to tighten up drilling regulations, but the UK is opposing it.
Gaddafi proposed ceding power to an "interim government" that would hold elections.
The idea is worth pursuing, but in the mean time, nothing has changed yet. As long as his forces keep attacking, they need to be resisted.
The US will move Bradley Manning to a different prison, which does not imply he will be treated more humanely.
Bill Moyers explains plutocracy in America: how the rich have subverted our government and turned it into a weapon against us.
US citizens: sign this ACLU petition to limit the TSA's use of body scanners.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the Fairness in Taxation Act. Also sign this petition.
The Fairness in Taxation Act would raise taxes to 45% on incomes over a million dollars a year. Much higher incomes would have a 49% rate.
Technological advance seems to be eliminating US jobs and not making new jobs.
I never use the self-checkout machines in stores, because I don't want the poor people who do the sales work to lose their jobs.
Despite changes in its rhetoric, the IMF continues blasting the countries it "rescues" into prolonged poverty.
The ruler of Bahrain is not satisfied with killing protesters, doctors, and journalists. He is also destroying Shi'ite mosques and shrines.
The protests were not religiously polarized, but the ruler is trying to make it a religious conflict. If he succeeds, it will probably go on for decades. Maybe he figures that will assure him external support to keep the Shi'ite minority down for however long it takes.
Zainab Alkhawaja's hunger strike for release of her arrested relatives is now in its 8th day.
5 months before the invasion of Iraq, Dubya and B'liar were squabbling over the expected oil loot.
Hungary's right-wing government has voted a new constitution that threatens the rights of atheists, of homosexuals, and women.
Iranian journalist Nazanin Khosravani has been sentenced to 6 years in prison.
The European Union is starting to enforce laws against illegal fishing.
Protesters occupied a square in Homs, but Syrian government thugs shot them.
Assad's government says it will now cancel the emergency law and make protests legal; but if they are sincere about this, why not start allowing protests now?
Although there is no evidence that Syria's protests have much to do with Salafism, that extremist sect does pose a real danger in Palestine and maybe elsewhere. But this danger spreads from Saudi Arabia, which the US treats as a great friend.
A degree in philosophy is better preparation for a career in management than an MBA.
Stephen Fry says he will continue retweeting Paul Chambers' "threatening message" even if it means prison.
The UAE will ban use of secure emails on the Blackberry. It is possible for states to do this because the software is nonfree; the company controls it, and can therefore be conscripted into serving as an enforcer for the state.
The US has similar plans.
Misrata is in siege conditions, as ships bring in limited quantities of aid supplies. The rebels ask for land troops to protect them.
The rate of teenage suicide is higher in right-wing regions of the US.
A woman in Indiana faces murder charges because she tried to kill herself while in a late stage of pregnancy.
It is inhumane to accuse someone of a crime for trying to kill herself in despair. It will teach her that she should have gone through with the suicide.
The fetus was advanced enough that it could have been born and survive. But a newborn baby, even after 9 months, is in the early stages of developing into a person, and is not yet able to have much in the way of rights. The killing of a newborn is mainly a wrong to the parents, not to it itself.
The EU wants to send a 1000-soldier force to Misrata to secure aid corridors, but not to fight unless attacked.
A UK tribunal ordered public disclosure of the UK military's cooperation with US "rendition" of prisoners.
With their protective ice largely gone, Arctic coasts are eroding at feet per year.
But in some areas it is 100 feet per year.
Poor farmers around the world are at risk from a global land grab.
Greeks are revolting against the austerity imposed by the IMF, which has put Greece into a recession in which it will never be able to pay that debt.
US citizens: sign this petition calling for solar power installations to protect wildlife.
Public health activists succeeded in blocking a plan to label sewage sludge as "compost" and use it on farms. So the proponents of the scheme called them "ecoterrorists".
The activists have threatened to sue for libel.
US citizens: if you might support Obama in 2012, pledge that you won't do so if he tolerates cuts in Medicare or Medicaid.
Normally when I recommend signing something, I have signed it myself. This is an exception: I feel I cannot honestly sign this, given that I would not support Obama anyway. Even before he was elected I considered him too right-wing. But those of you with somewhat different views might be able to sign this honestly.
Uri Avnery: Israel's government is increasingly dominated by the annexationist "settler movement".
A Firefox add-on automatically cancels out the tyrannical US domain name "seizures".
This should give the US government a seizure.
Biodigesters get rid of human waste and produce biofuel.
Egypt's military rulers sentenced a blogger to 3 years in prison for his writings.
Melting Antarctic ice is knocking down fish populations, which is making most young penguins die.
Humpback whales spread hit songs across the ocean, then remix them.
Obama has shown timidity in protecting national landmarks from gold and uranium mining.
Bahrain's regime has arrested a doctor, accusing him of treating wounded protesters.
Chinese government thugs have besieged a Tibetan monastery.
China says that it is located in Sichuan, but I presume this is Tibetan territory that China arbitrarily annexed around 50 years ago.
The NDP in Canada seems to be less bad, on the copyright issue, than the Liberal and Conservative parties.
However, the idea that copyright reform should comply with "international treaty obligations" suggests that they plan to implement some restrictions on free software that can access encrypted media. What Canada should do with the WIPO Internet Treaty is reject it, not implement it.
In addition, a "balance between consumers' and creators' rights" is conceptually misguided. Referring to users as "consumers" misrepresents the nature of using digital works, and this concept of "balance" distorts the goal copyright law.
There is also harmful bias in the word "creators".
Canadians, can you educate the NDP about these issues?
The European Union is planning to conscript ISPs into the War on Sharing.
An interview with Aung San Suu Kyi, who still calls for sanctions against Burma.
Gender-selection in India has resulted in a 10% surplus of males over females. In some localities, the surplus is almost 30%.
Some people think this is very bad, but I disagree. While I feel for the men who will not find any woman to marry (having experienced the same thing myself in the absence a social gender imbalance), it seems plausible that this will greatly reduce the births in the next generation — and that is a vital need.
Why would parents want to have a boy in a world where girls are scarce? (Apparently they have not taken account of the consenquences of the imbalance.) It is partly economic because of the pressure for dowry for girls. It also partly reflects sexist prejudice. Feminists condemn gender-selection because they resent this prejudice, but the wrong is in the prejudice; the gender-selection does no wrong to women.
Gaddafi's forces are using cluster bombs against Misrata.
While condemning Gaddafi for this, we must not forget to condemn the US and Israel for use of cluster bombs in inhabited areas.
Has the US signed the convention to destroy cluster bombs? I think it has not, but I'd be glad if it did.
Yahoo used to advertise shorter data retention, but has abandoned that policy.
The three main US TV networks have nuclear power executives on their boards.
Obama is pretending that the public wants budget cuts.
The TSA says that criticism of the TSA is grounds for special suspicion (and special harassment).
The supposed justification for searching all airline passengers without probable cause to suspect them is to prevent bombings and hijackings on the flight. Catching the occasional criminal is not an acceptable justification for searching you and me. Thus, if the TSA says it is trying to do this, that in itself makes the TSA an affront to our rights. The TSA should be strictly limited to keeping weapons off planes, and should not be permitted to show the police evidence of any other illegality.
Wikileaks reveals Israel's head of intelligence was happy Hamas took control of Gaza.
Due to population growth, plus some countries' development out of poverty, humans will need twice as much food in 2050.
It is good for more people to advance out of poverty, but we could do without the population growth. Just because it isn't as fast as it was a few decades ago does not mean it is harmless.
A few decades from now, we will probably be able to extend human life span greatly. The same birth rate that now leads to a stable or slightly decreasing population will then lead to renewed increase. So the world needs to make strenuous efforts to discourage births.
The opposition in Uganda will continue its protests despite police repression.
A convicted blackmailer who helped Putin crush independent media in Russia now owns a large stake in Facebook.
Croatian generals were convicted of violent ethnic cleansing in the 1990s war with Serbia and Serb secessionists.
Obama's planned US-Colombia trade treaty threatens a NAFTA-style disaster.
1000 economists have called on the G20 countries to enact the "Robin Hood tax" on financial transactions.
As Bahrain stifles protest movement, U.S.'s muted objections draw criticism.
Al Jazeera hardly mentions the protests in Bahrain or the atrocities committed against the dissidents.
The US "trusted identities" plan is much more dangerous than the problems it pretends to solve.
Hamas faces a challenge from murderous Islamic extremists.
It seems to be an inherent part of Islam that, even when moderate, it generates fanatical killers who think they are "better Muslims."
In the US: rebuke the mass media for giving coverage to tiny Tea Party events while ignoring large progressive marches.
US citizens: sign this petition for a criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs.
US citizens: support fines to compensate Gulf Coast residents and measures to help them control dangerous drilling.
BP plotted to control US-funded research that will study the Big Spill.
Cuba is preparing capitalist reforms.
Cuba ought to respect human rights; I hope it will not follow China into capitalism without freedom. And it would be a shame if the benefits of the Cuban revolution, such as medical care and education for all, are discarded along with the disrespect for human rights.
Bahraini students in Britain who protested for human rights now fear reprisals against them and against their families in Bahrain.
A book by Craig Murray has been kept out of bookstores by the threat of a libel lawsuit. So he published it on the Internet.
The threat appears to be bogus, because the complainant has not sued Craig Murray. He must not expect to win a real case, but just the threat was enough to deny the book widespread distribution.
I have not read it myself, I just want to inform people of its existence.
Obama is talking about an expanded war in Libya to avoid "putting the rebels at the mercy of Gaddafi".
That must indeed be avoided, but surely an expanded US war is not the only way to prevent it.
For Google, a Chrome user is a locked-to-Google user.
The People's Budget, proposed by the house progressive caucus, will balance the budget putting the burden on the rich instead of the poor.
Police in Honduras show little interest in investigating the increasing attacks on journalists under the coup-installed regime.
Kucinich says that the Pentagon is giving him a "Kafkaesque" runaround to stop him from having an unmonitored meeting with Bradley Manning.
Australian aborigines are blocking a uranium mine, citing a combination of traditional myth and rational humane concern.
A Senate committee accused Goldman Sachs of intentionally harming its investors, and lying to Congress.
If they don't face prosecution, it will reaffirm what we know: that the US government has surrendered to the banksters.
Foreign journalists in Tripoli live in a fancy hotel that is a microcosm of the police state around it. They may be expelled for what they write, but while they stay, they hardly ever see anything that would be worth writing about.
Why do they stay in Tripoli under these conditions? They could get more news in Benghazi.
The other members of the committee led by Judge Goldstone say they stand fully by the report, and reject the idea that there would be any reason to write it differently.
Fishermen from the Gulf of Mexico protested in BP's annual meeting. The US has aided BP by declaring fishing open, but fishing is not really possible since people know better than to trust seafood from the area.
A UK court ruled that the police acted illegally by besieging ("kettling") and attacking peaceful protesters at the G20 protests (in the course of which siege, the police killed Ian Tomlinson). This ruling may enable thousands of protesters to sue the thugs.
Obama has opened the door to cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. To his credit, he has also pushed to reverse the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
The US does not need to choose between Republicans' right-wing budget cuts and Obama's smaller right-wing budget cuts. The Progressive Caucus proposes to balance the budget by 2014, protect the safety net, and boost employment — by cutting the military.
A really stupid plan: charge a special fee for antibiotics to cover research and encourage their proper use.
This fee would discourage use of antibiotics, both by people who don't need them and by people who do. Maybe funding is needed, but that's a foolish way to get the funding.
The French law requiring sites to store user data for a year does not in fact require them to store plaintext passwords.
It is nonetheless an attack on Internet users' rights.
In and near San Francisco: object to the plans to record faces and IDs of everyone attending events with more than 100 people.
The Federal Reserve "bailout" program gave trillions of dollars to rich people, including the wives of some banksters.
US government "seizures" of domain names did little harm on the sites that were targeted, but great harm to human rights in the US.
New Zealand's legislators attacked the citizens with a new law to punish sharing with disconnection.
This betrayal was so urgent that they attached it to an urgent bill for the reconstruction of Christchurch.
In the European Union: Write to your MEPs to oppose extending the copyright on sound recordings. You can use this page to do it.
In the US: join a rally against unfair taxation (on the poor, not the rich). There will be many rallies around the US.
China says Ai Weiwei has confessed to various crimes.
That may well be true, but proves little. Under torture, he would confess to anything, true or not.
North Korea has arrested a US citizen and plans to try him on unspecified charges.
When North Korea does this, we understand it is because North Korea is a nasty dictatorship. Knowing what that state is like, we can expect the trial to be phony.
By contrast, the US grabs people from other countries and puts them in prison (in Guantanamo, for instance), and gives them phony trials ("military tribunals"), or no trials at all.
Zainab al-Khawaja saw her father, a human rights activist, beaten unconscious and dragged out of his home by the Bahraini regime. She is on hunger strike for her father's release.
Here she rebukes Obama for supporting the regime.
US citizens: tell Obama: hands off Medicare, and resist the Republican hostage-takers.
Craig Murray describes Ivory Coast President Ouattara's background as an Ivory Coast dictator's right-hand man, and then as an IMF economic warfare agent.
Natural gas extracted by fracking causes large methane leaks, as a result of which this gas contributes as much to global warming as coal does.
The EU advises some precautions to avoid radioactive iodine that blows in from Fukushima. Certain people should not drink rainwater or eat leafy leafy vegetables that might have got rained on.
These precautions would apply more strongly to the US.
Bradley Manning's mother, who was not allowed to visit him in prison, has asked the UK government to protest the inhumane conditions of his imprisonment.
Protests in Yemen have grown to hundreds of thousands, but it looks like "President" Saleh's men will turn to violence.
Berlusconi has passed a law to cancel his corruption trial, and 14,000 others.
In other words, his own corruption required him to create an atmosphere that favors corruption. Bush had to do the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Egypt's military has arrested Mubarak and his sons to investigate them for crimes, but this is not enough to placate Egyptians, who want Mubarak's former supporters removed from power.
Japanese evacuated from the vicinity of Fukushima protested to demand compensation.
China continues to condemn the US human rights record.
This time, China's criticisms seem to have partly missed the mark. Pornography does not violate human rights, and some of the accusations are not even true.
China could have made a stronger criticism of the US if it had mentioned the continued practice of imprisonment without trial, the prison conditions for Bradley Manning and thousands of others which amount to Chinese-style brainwashing, and the practice of the death penalty.
Israeli activists, arrested while protesting in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem who object to plans to force them out of their homes, were awarded compensation for the illegal arrest.
If only Palestinians' human rights were similarly respected. A month after an Israeli family was murdered in an illegal colony in the West Bank, reprisals against Palestinians in the nearby town of Awarta continue. 71 Palestinians are being held incommunicado without charges, and raiding troops hold families prisoner at gunpoint in their homes.
This has nothing to do with investigating the killing. It is simply the taking of hostages.
Israel should support recognition of a Palestinian state.
Despite Goldstone's recent statement, most of what the Goldstone Report says about Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians still stands and nothing has changed.
Biofuel production damages the environment and human rights, says an independent study.
This is because the biofuel is made from farmed crops. Biofuel made from plant waste would be ideal, but that technology is not usable at present.
BP and the US government try to pretend that the big spill has all dissipated, but local shrimpers keep catching oiled shrimp, and a few scientists keep finding massive amounts of oil and devastation on the sea bottom.
Victims of the big spill and other BP mistreatment will be protesting inside and outside the BP annual meeting.
Louisiana tried to force a new mother to give personal data in exchange for a birth certificate for her baby.
Jacob Appelbaum still gets "randomly" detained every time he enters the US.
Everyone: sign this petition calling on Israel to recognize Munther Fahmi as a resident of Jerusalem, where he was born.
Uri Avnery: Goldstone mistake is focusing on specific war crimes. The war itself was the crime.
How IKEA avoids taxes and acts to crush unions.
Syrian soldiers who refused orders to shoot protesters were themselves shot by the regime's men.
Natural gas wells are causing dangerous pollution of wells and homes in Pennsylvania, and people's health has been damaged.
The corporate media are enthralled by the numbers in Rep. Ryan's plan for disastrous budget cuts, even though the numbers do not add up.
The UK has backed off proper reform of the banking system (comparable to the former Glass-Steagel Act which the US ought to restore).
Berlusconi says he really believed his young friend was the granddaughter of Mubarak, and that he set her up in business so she could get out of sex work.
If he really believed that Mubarak's granddaughter would be short of money, he is a sucker and incompetent to run a country. And any Italian who believes he believed that is likewise a sucker.
More information about the veiled protesters arrested in France.
I firmly support the goal of ending social pressure on women to hide their faces, though I doubt Sarkozi really cares about it. Prohibiting the practice is too harsh and not justified. Meanwhile, because all face covering is banned, it attacks the freedom of everyone else too.
The Taliban are moderating some of their strict rules — against music, against schooling of girls — in an apparent bid for more popular support.
If this gets the Taliban back into full control of Afghanistan, they might become as nasty as before. But if they become a party in a coalition, the same political pressure will keep operating on them.
The UK will try to use trade treaties to force Iceland to cover the debts of a failed private Icelandic bank.
Any treaty that would make countries take on private debts creates moral hazard and must be cancelled.
An interview with Senator Wyden about COICA, the US plan to attack the Internet, which he is now blocking.
Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, rebuked the US for blocking him from an unmonitored meeting with Bradley Manning.
Protesters against France's law against covering the face have been arrested.
Everyone in France should protest this law, which prohibits people from blocking Big Brother's surveillance.
Laurent Gbagbo has been captured after UN peacekeepers retailated to attacks by Gbagbo's troops.
The European arrest warrant is supposed to be only for major crimes. The law needs to be rewritten to make that true.
A girl who was kidnapped, then taken to the UK and forced into prostitution, was prosecuted and deported there, while her kidnapper was let alone. She has won a suit and won asylum.
The obvious question is why Moldova is unable to protect her from a known kidnapper. Corrupt police?
Gaddafi accepted a South African proposal for a cease fire, but the rebels rejected it and NATO leaders treated it skeptically.
The rebels were incensed that South African president Zuma referred to Gaddafi as a "brother". I find that disgusting too.
Nonetheless, the rebels should accept the cease fire, and so should NATO.
Perhaps Gaddafi would not really respect a cease fire. He announced cease fires a few weeks ago which he did not respect. However, the rebels are on the defensive now. If they accept the cease fire but remain wary, the worst that could happen is that Gaddafi attacks again, just as he would have done without the cease fire. This is not a valid reason for rejecting it. Nor is the fact that people have died.
I don't know the rest of the proposed deal, so I can't have an opinion of that.
In foreign aid to help the poor people living in corrupt states, it is hard to prevent much of the aid money from fueling corruption.
Perhaps the solution is to give the money directly as income to poor individuals, since they are pretty smart about using it to improve their lives.
Rights groups in Bahrain report widespread arrests of dissidents. Some doctors have apparently been disappeared.
The Bangkok climate talks are already deadlocked. Our world is slowly burning, but instead of putting the fire out, our governments are arguing about who will get what share after they do.
The Koch brothers' lobbying is not based on Conservative principles; it is aimed directly at their own profits.
Wild Atlantic salmon are in decline, and conservationists accuse parasite-ridden fish farms of causing the problem.
The UK has arrested a right-wing extremist politician for burning a Qur'an.
Burning the Qur'an is a way of expressing disapproval of Islam. People have a fundamental right to express this opinion, or any other. To arrest people for expression of opinions is an act worthy of China or Iran. The UK government has violated the rights of Britons on behalf of murderous foreign fanatics.
The particular Briton arrested this time may be a fanatic of a different stripe. He may be a racist. If so, those views discredit him, but they do not excuse censorship.
I too disapprove of certain aspects of Islam, such as its contempt for women, and its contempt for the religious freedom of everyone (including Muslims). I express this condemnation in a more articulate fashion, writing words rather than burning words, to make a clearer point. But if the latter is criminalized, how long can it take before the former is criminalized too?
The Internet is very slow in Iran, which suggests the government is checking every packet.
The article also describes many other tactics purportedly used by the Iranian government to control Internet communication with foreign lands. It criticizes the TOR developers for not doing enough to defeat this, but I'm not sure they deserve to be blamed. There may not be any ideal solution.
France's latest attack on the Internet requires all network services to record users' passwords and hand them over to police.
As the article points out, this will require practices that facilitate disastrous security breaches, both accidental and caused by cracking. That unintended consequence may be useful. But we must avoid presenting this as the worst thing about the law; we must not say, "And, even worse, this law will lead to security holes." The worst thing about this law is its intended purpose: imposing the surveillance state.
Update: It now appears that this law does not require the storage of plaintext passwords.
US citizens: phone your senators to support Senator Lautenberg's Chemical Facilities Act and Secure Water Facilities Act, supported by Greenpeace, to reduce the danger of disastrous spills of industrial chemicals.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Russia is considering a proposal (from the ex KGB) to require access to encrypted communication services.
A similar proposal is being considered in the US.
Bolivia will establish a series of rights for nature. The biggest threat to nature in Bolivia comes from global heating, and Bolivia's own policies cannot protect it. However, this new law might set an example that could help spur other countries to reduce global heating. So it seems like a very wise decision.
Iceland's voters stood up to international pressure to take failed bank's debts on themselves.
In a world of servile governments that say banks are "too big to fail", Iceland has set an example.
250 eminent legal scholars have condemned the US attempt to brainwash Bradley Manning.
Granting religions "respect" just for being religions is "the most cowardly evasion of intellectual duty of our day."
Gaddafi's troops entered Ajdabiya and are causing havoc.
Al Franken proposes that Congress have to come up with the funds for a war before deciding to fight one.
In the current Republican climate of "Cut spending everywhere (but not the military)", this is a clever way to set one Republican goal against another, But I think it would have to be made a constitutional amendment to have binding effect.
Physicians for Human Rights reports that many medical doctors and medics in Bahrain have been disappeared. This goes together with the arrest of hundreds of dissidents, some of whom are being tortured.
Obama will probably choose to overlook this as he has done in Honduras.
Did Goldstone have sufficient grounds for saying he would now write his report differently?
The UK's plan for disposing of surplus plutonium was to mix it with uranium and use the mixture as nuclear fuel. Precisely the same kind of nuclear fuel that has made Fukushima unit 3 so dangerous.
Joseph E. Stiglitz: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.
The US seems to be deciding not to protect Yemen's ruler, "President" Saleh.
Israel's Parliament has voted to remove the million land mines in the Golan Heights.
Mubarak's privatization fueled the protests in Egypt.
Rep. Ryan's budget cuts and tax cuts would actually increase the US national debt 10 years from now.
After that, the debt would start to go down because old people would have to pay a lot more for their medical care. (Or just die.)
US and UK agents participated in the torture-interrogation of Kenyan human rights defender Omar Awadh Omar, who is a prisoner in Uganda.
Chiquita Banana says it paid protection money to the paramilitaries in Colombia, but court documents show it was actually paying them for services.
These services might include suppression of union organizers, which is what they did for Coca Cola.
Obama's "Yes we can" has become "Perhaps we could have".
Here is the legal scholars' open letter rebuking Obama for conniving at the brainwashing of Bradley Manning.
Bravo!
A report says that defectors from Gaddafi's regime worked with French intelligence to prepare for the revolt against Gaddafi.
I don't know whether this is true, but if it is, it is not necessarily bad.
Obama's men are lobbying Congress not to extend search warrant requirements to more of people's email.
As many have long expected, the US is talking about keeping troops in Iraq after the supposed deadline for their departure.
Portugal faces crushing bailout conditions.
Protests are spreading in Syria despite killings by the police.
Obama keeps trying to rehabilitate Honduras's illegitimate government, even as it continues murdering and arresting protesters.
The US admitted running secret prisons in Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch warns the US not to sign a free exploitation treaty with Colombia unless it sees progress in crushing the paramilitaries that murder union organizers.
This is an important issue, but, I think that position is not strong enough. The US should not sign any more free exploitation treaties, period. Every one of them is an attack on democracy.
Cease-fire negotiations are beginning between Gaddafi and the rebels.
I think Gaddafi will agree to go into exile in a few weeks if his attacks make no further progress.
I don't see any scandal in the fact that NATO planes have sometimes hit the rebel forces, because I am sure it was an accident. Such accidents happen in war; there is no way to avoid them. But better communications can reduce them. NATO and the rebels need better communications to make sure it does not happen again.
The immune bacteria in Delhi's water could ruin antibiotics around the world.
Australia plans to cut tobacco smoking by requiring boring, ugly cigarette packs, but tobacco companies claim they have a right to use their logos that overrides public health.
Apparently they think they get this right from some sort of treaty. The article does not say which treaty it is, but I think that is a very important question.
Germany's experiment with a legalized brothel district worked well for years. Then Bulgarian gangs moved in and ruined it.
The problem needs to be addressed, but I don't see how moving prostitutes back onto street corners will improve anything. I would suggest charging prostitutes a higher tax and using it to fund increased policing of the brothel district. It might be hard for gangs to exist in that climate.
Europeans must fight against plans to store more records of travel within the EU.
Amazon's profits are small publishers' losses.
The US government is putting money into developing cell phones that will forget the contact list when you push the "panic button".
If the phone was designed by the US government, and manufactured in China, can you rely on the feature to work?
Erzili Danto: Martelli's victory in the Haitian election was a good outcome, because it was a rejection of the political establishment, despite the illegitimacy of an election in which only 22% of the people voted.
Everyone: sign this petition to pressure Obama to treat prisoner Bradley Manning humanely.
The US would not have a deficit problem if corporations paid their taxes.
Monsanto is trying to push genetically modified maize on Mexico's farmers.
This would make it almost impossible to maintain landraces that are not contaminated, anywhere in Mexico.
Unionists in Guatemala say the government has ignored the flimsy requirements in CAFTA to uphold worker's rights.
The same thing is likely to happen in Colombia if the US signs the proposed free exploitation treaty with Colombia.
The kind of government that wants to sign a free exploitation treaty doesn't want these requirements to mean anything.
Honduras' coup-installed regime is crushing human rights, and is accused of killing 463 people.
Martelly was "elected" president of Haiti by the votes of under 17% of the voters.
I am not sure whether most Haitians were unable to vote, or whether they refused to vote because they support the Fanmi Lavalas party that was excluded from this dishonest election.
The latest Republican "compromise" is to destroy Medicare and raise taxes for working people, but cut taxes for the rich. Say no!
Craig Murray believes that the Ivory Coast election was not free; that everyone who voted for either Gbagbo or Ouattara was coerced.
UK citizens: tell your MP, no filtering of the Internet in the UK.
US citizens: support the Fair Elections Now Act.
Google and Facebook will go to court to overturn a French law requiring online services to get lots of identifying data about their customers.
The SpyLamp lets you track your bicycle if it gets stolen. Others can track it even if it isn't stolen. The company that makes the device can track it, and the phone company can track it too.
Without using this device, you can get an education from it. Most of the new municipal bike rental programs collect the same information about your movements.
The Libyan rebels might get military training, perhaps in Jordan.
US citizens: tell the Dirty Air Democrats you disapprove.
A gene that confers resistance to the last-resort antibiotics is widespread in the water supply in Delhi. Bacteria transfer genes between species, so even if these genes are present in bacteria that don't hurt people, they will be available to jump to other species inside a human gut.
The war in Afghanistan is now the US's most costly war. Ending that war would provide savings enough to cover the Republicans' US budget cuts.
If fighting in Afghanistan were necessary and justified, perhaps we would just have to bear these costs. But this war is neither justified nor winnable. The US should withdraw.
(The budget cuts are stupid anyway, because balacing the budget in a recession is stupid. This is the time for deficit spending.)
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to say, cut military spending not social spending such as health care. Also sign this petition.
Craig Murray was invited to a debate about the ethics of whistleblowing,
and then uninvited.
For one week:
US citizens: tell Republican representative Issa to repay the Federal government the earmarks for the roads and sewers right next to the office building he owns.
Here's what he did.
The UK government wants the ISPs to agree to "voluntarily" block access to file-sharing sites.
The term "voluntarily" is dishonest, because participation won't be "voluntary" for the public.
The US is holding many prisoners without trial in Afghanistan, some of whom are acknowledged to be innocent.
In effect, it is another Guantanamo.
The IMF has a 2-billion-dollar windfall from gold that it could use for debt relief for poor countries.
Republican cuts in USAID would result in the death of 70,000 children.
Argentina's president is using jingoist rhetoric about the Falkland Islands as a campaign tool and distraction.
Evidently the US government is not the only one inclined to treat people as pawns and property for the sake of oil.
The inhabitants of the Falkland Islands have no relationship with Argentina and do not want to be ruled by Argentina. That decides the issue; they should not be handed over to Argentine control if they don't want to be.
The water leak to the sea in Fukishima was plugged with a peculiar mixture of substances.
If Israel does not begin real peace negotiations by September, Palestinians will ask the UN for recognition of their state.
Although Goldstone now believes Israel did not intentionally shoot at civilians in Gaza, Israel remains responsible for fighting a war in a way that killed hundreds of civilians.
A "resilience training" program for US soldiers is actually an uncontrolled psychological experiment.
A patent troll is attacking research into Alzheimer's disease.
Former Taliban, and people in Afghanistan negotiating with the Taliban, are being attacked in their houses at night by NATO.
Massive amounts of fresh water released by melting Arctic ice could cause rapid changes in the climate of Europe and North America.
No one in the US government has been punished for torture in Guantanamo, but psychologists are suing to force an investigation of a military psychologist for violating the standards of his profession.
The center of Hebron is off limits to the Arabs who live there, thanks to 800 Israeli colonists who seized the area. Every time they attacked the Palestinians, Israel punished the Palestinians, worse each time than the last.
Israel quadrupled the rate of colony construction from 2009 to 2010.
Can Israel's progress towards an apartheid state be stopped?
US citizens: tell the US government not to allow uranium mining in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon.
US citizens: phone the White House and say, "Don't surrender to the Republicans' blackmail; don't make a budget deal that accepts their policy changes or defunds programs they oppose."
Bahrain's regime plans to put MPs on trial for backing protests.
Kenyans will sue the UK government for its occupation practices in the 1950s, which included murder as well as torture sometimes including castration.
Judge Goldstone says that he now believes Israeli troops in Gaza did not intentionally target civilians, but Israel's refusal to cooperate with his investigation prevented him from determining this before.
Uri Avnery: Non-cooperation with the Goldstone Commission caused Israel serious political damage.
Privately written state laws and regulations in the US can now be freely copied.
Mangrove forests are an important shield against global warming. Too bad they under attack all around the work.
A new measurement technique shows glaciers in South America are melting faster than was thought.
Since 1980, the melting rate has increased a hundredfold.
The World Bank proposes to limit loans for building coal-fired power plants.
The UK put restrictions on funds for legal aid so that torture victims would in the future be unable to sue.
Some top doctors reject airport x-ray scanners as dangerous.
Tell them, "Please feel me up!"
Prominent Israelis including former high officials are launching a new campaign for recognizing a Palestinian state.
Obama plans a military kangaroo court for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Obama has never been a strong supporter of human rights; he has occasionally proposed to do something, but doesn't stand firm if he encounters any resistance.
The Moscow police sued a publisher for libel in order to confiscate a book criticizing police corruption.
A right-to-die campaigner got help in Switzerland to die and escape constant pain, which otherwise might have continued for many years.
Some think such people should be forced to endure pointless unending torture.
The UK press smears nonviolent protesters by lumping them in with a few who committed property damage. And it exaggerates the importance of minor property damage to distract attention from the danger of violence against people, committed solely by the police.
Police in Yemen injured 400 protesters.
It appears that "president" Saleh's talk of willingness to resign was empty words.
The US brainwashing of Bradley Manning is getting criticism from Human Rights Watch and in the UK parliament.
We must not forget about the many other prisoners that receive this treatment in the US.
Unconstitutional Confinement
Israel plans to exile the owner of its best English-language bookstore, a native of Jerusalem, using a bureaucratic excuse on top of a lie as an excuse for this violation of human rights.
Assad's killing and arrest of protesters have made more Syrians oppose him.
Pakistan's murderous fanatical Muslims have turned their sights on other Pakistani Muslims whose practices are not strict enough for them.
For Pakistan's mainstream Muslims to defeat the fanatics, they will first have to articulate a position that firmly defends the right to worship as (and if) one sees fit, rejecting the fanatics' claim to be entitled to bully people to be "better Muslims".
If they fight back and defeat the fanatics, they will sustain the claim that the Qur'an can be a book of peace. If they surrender to the fanatics' demands, they will prove that moderate Islam constitutes fertile ground for seeds of terrorism.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been arrested, obviously for political reasons.
Since the Libyan rebels lack military training and leadership, and since Gaddafi's attacks have been stopped by NATO air power, Libya is settling into a stalemate.
One advantage of a stalemate would be a decrease in casualties. And I think that Gaddafi will not be able to hold out for the long term if he cannot reconquer all of Libya.
Reportedly the regime is trying to negotiate an exit for him now.
What oil drilling and deforestation mean to the 100 independent aboriginal tribes in the Amazon forest.
US citizens: tell your senators to block Boehner's public subsidy for religious schools.
Bahrain wages an unrelenting crackdown on Shiites.
In the US: Attend a talk by Palestinian students sponsored by Jewish Voices for Peace, in support of divestment from companies that support Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
The environmental costs of coal power are enormous, but the costs of nuclear power are incalculable.
How many dangerous are nuclear power accidents? Estimates of how many people were killed by Chernobyl run from a few thousand to almost a million.
Scientists point out flaws in the highest estimate.
Many of these criticisms seem valid. However, one simple argument in the report compares total death rates in provinces of Russia and Ukraine heavily affected by the fallout with total death rates in other comparable provinces, and finds hundreds of thousands of added deaths there, apparently due to Chernobyl. This is a very rough estimate, of course, but the issue deserves to be addressed and it has not been.
Obama appointed a former RIAA lobbyist as a judge, and that judge promptly ruled against the users in a copyright case.
The copyright industry has already purchased control over the executive and legislative branches of the US government, and is in the process of taking control over the judicial branch. Soon the US government will wholeheartedly serve these companies against the people.
An interview with two members of the black bloc in recent London protests.
Reportedly additional diplomats report that the US endorsed the Saudi repression against Bahrain's protesters in exchange for support for intervention against Gaddafi.
The author of that article condemns a straw man, the "Liberal imperialist", that defends both the US stance towards Libya and the US stance towards Bahrain. I as a Liberal do not believe many Liberals would support the US stance towards Bahrain.
If the US indeed faced the choice of abandoning either the protesters in Bahrain or the rebels in Libya, I as president would have found that a very hard choice. But I doubt the choice was really so stark, even if it was presented that way. There are usually many options in such a negotiation, not just two. If Obama endorsed repression in Bahrain, my theory is that Obama was never strongly against it. Obama is not much of a Liberal, after all.
Uri Avnery refutes many criticisms of intervention in Libya.
US citizens: phone Obama on April 5 to say renewal of the U SAP AT RIOT act must include checks and balances to protect civil liberties.
Muslim fanatics in Afghanistan killed UN workers, just to vent their outrage that a Christian fanatic in the US had burnt a Qur'an.
That Christian is a religious lunatic, but limited himself to burning a book which was not rare, and was (I suppose) his property. This was not nice, but it was not an atrocity. The Muslims who retaliated again innocent people are also religious lunatics, and their act was an atrocity.
However, other Christian religious lunatics in the US have committed atrocities, against gays and abortion providers. And many would commit atrocities against pregnant women by denying them the safety of an abortion.
Karzai's government is steadily attacking women's rights.
The Taliban would be worse, but this government is so bad that there is no sense in fighting to keep it in power.
In the 1992 Earth Summit, states pledged to carry out sustainable development. Bankers want to use the 2012 Earth Summit to get rid of all that, and define "Green" as another variant of Greed.
Various people, even a policewoman, testified that Ian Tomlinson was not threatening and there was no excuse for the police violence that killed him.
Assad's uncompromising speech stimulated more protests, and his police or troops have shot more protesters.
Norway will pay Guyana to preserve its forests; the payments will be based on success in doing so.
The Libyan rebels have proposed a cease fire to Gaddafi.
UK agencies that are supposed to help the jobless have been told to create excuses to deny benefits.
The Czech Republic joins several other European countries in having data retention requirements rejected as unconstitutional.
Former president Gbagbo of Ivory Coast refused to cede power peacefully; now he is about to be kicked out by force, as most of his soldiers have deserted and defected.
Foreign pressure and sanctions have probably played a substantial role in causing Gbagbo's army to fall apart. It can probably do the same in Libya, assuming Gaddafi cannot regain control of Libya's oil. If he were to do that, Europe would be compelled to drop much of the sanctions in exchange for that oil.
The US has granted Omar Barghouti a visa for his book tour. Barghouti, who advocates political pressure to supporty Palestinian independence, had been denied a visa for ideological reasons.
A former manager at the San Onofre nuclear power plant is suing the company, saying he was fired hours after he brought up safety concerns.
This reactor is located near the cost and very close to an active fault.
Samsung was reported to have installed a keylogger in its new laptops, perhaps with a back door to collect the information remotely.
It turns out this was a false accusation (though it is strange that the company made a false confession — and without torture, too).
Samsung did not install a keylogger. But it did install Windows, which is effectively equivalent. Using this backdoor, Microsoft could remotely install such a keylogger at any time. And how would you know it hasn't already done so?
Freedom-disrespecting software such as Windows makes users defenseless against abuse by the developer.
North Carolina has halfway approved a law to prohibit cities from setting up nonprofit ISPs to improve Internet access.
By voting for this, the North Carolina assembly has demonstrated that it is an organ of the corporate empire, not a legitimate government.
The FBI has a billion-dollar project to track people's biometrics.
This will do no good against the most harmful form of crime, the betrayal of our democracy to the power of business.
Singer Willie Nelson's punishment for possession of marijuana will be to sing a song for the judge.
I see nothing wrong with that. What's unjust is that others who are arrested for possession of marijuana are jailed and/or fined.
Gaddafi's forces have started an offensive again, retaking the two towns between Sirte and Ajdabiya, so civilians began fleeing Ajdabiya in case Gaddafi attacks it again.
This shows Obama was right in saying that the air strikes already made did not leave Gaddafi powerless and he was still a threat to Libya's civilians.
This also shows that the rebels are not an effective fighting force. They don't have military training or discipline, so they have trouble fighting against a real army, even a small one. I think continued outside support is the only way to prevent Gaddafi from recapturing Benghazi (and surely carrying out a massacre).
The defection of Gaddafi's foreign minister shows that the pressure on his aides to abandon him is real and does work. But they only feel the pressure strongly once they recognize that victory is impossible. The foreign minister is probably exceptionally cunning and calculating, so he has already reached the conclusion that staying with Gaddafi is a dead end. The others will take longer to convince. Soldiers are not going to believe the war is lost if they can still mount successful attacks. Thus, to defeat Gaddafi through defection requires protecting the rebels for a sufficient period of time.
Several weeks ago I suggested that one Egyptian division would be the best kind of support they could have. Subsequent events support that view. I don't think Gaddafi would dare fight such a force at all. If that's not available, NATO air power can do the job, but that requires actual fighting.
Iman al-Obaidi now faces charges of defamation for saying she was raped while a prisoner of Gaddafi's men.
US citizens: phone the White House on April 5 to fix the U. S.A.P. A.T. R.I.O.T. act to protect civil liberties. Click here to get a suggested calling script.
Part of an archeological region in Argentina has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site. The rest is threatened with destruction by mining companies.
How Western Corporations Have Been Helping Tyrants Suppress Rebellions (and protests) in the Arab World.
US citizens: sign this petition to put an end to debtor's prison in the US.
Here is a discussion of the problem.
Peru is doomed to US dominion: former leftist candidane Humala says he will respect the free exploitation treaties, such as the one that almost caused a civil war two years ago.
Texas is considering a law to ban discrimination against creationist college professors.
For biology professors, this is tantamount to saying, "Hire the incompetent."
After 50 years of false reassurances and covering up failures, the nuclear power industry cannot be trusted.
US regulation of nuclear plants is a joke. When a company can't cover up a problem, it can get the NRC to ignore it.
US citizens: phone your senators and say, "No loan guarantees or any sort of subsidy for nuclear power."
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
In Balochistan, a part of Pakistan, there is a war of assassination between the government of Pakistan and nationalist rebels that want independence.
The US is providing robots to Japan to help clean up the Fukushima reactors.
This raises two questions.
First, why weren't they sent the day after the earthquake?
Second, why didn't TEPCO have robots in Fukushima ready for use? Evidently they were overconfident; they assumed they knew precisely how bad a problem could be, and how much they might need to correct it. To save money, they provided that much and no more.
That attitude, reminiscent of BP's, invites disaster. We don't know how or when the disaster will happen, but we can be sure it will happen someday.
Oregon, Washington and Texas are considering laws to tax electric vehicles as much as if they used gasoline. Worse, the principal method used would be tracking the cars. That would give people a strong reason to reject these vehicle.
We need to encourage electric vehicles. The right way to make up for lost gasoline tax revenue due to electric vehicles is to increase the gasoline tax rate, and thus push more people to electric vehicles.
In the future, when gasoline cars have been mostly replaced, fast recharge services and battery swaps could be taxed. But better than that, why not tax only trucks? Trucks cause far more road wear than cars.
US citizens: call on White House chief of staff Daley, closely tied to AT&T, to stay out of the AT&T/T-mobile merger issue.
Five reasons why the AT&T / T-mobile merger should be blocked.
A Texas billionaire has opened a private nuclear waste dump which threatens to contaminate the region's ground water.
Will he pay for replacement water supplies for the affected area, and buy up any agricultural land that can is no longer safe to use?
Armed construction workers are forcing thousands of Cambodians out of their homes without warning, for an upscale development project.
US citizens: oppose uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
You might think a place as special as the Grand Canyon would be protected without question, but not with today's politicians, bought and sold by big business.
With any luck, though, the price of uranium will fall as plans to construct nuclear power plants get cancelled. Fukushima may save the Grand Canyon.
In the US: tell PBS's News Hour to stop limiting its discussion of the intervention in Libya to ex-officials and right-wingers.
To think some people say PBS has a Liberal bias!
In the US: join a protest or vigil on April 4 against the Republican attacks on working people and unions.
18 Palestinian protesters in Nabi Saleh have been arrested by Israeli troops, including organizers and a boy of age 11.
In protests on March 9, the Egyptian army arrested female protesters and subjected them to "virginity tests". Those who failed the tests were tortured.
US citizens: sign this petition against oil drilling in Artic waters where a spill could kill all polar bears in the region.
Iran's regime is using US copyright law to censor its dissidents.
London police told protesters in Topshop they would be escorted away to safety after their protest, then arrested them instead.
These dishonest arrests are being lumped together with others as an excuse for new restrictions on protesters.
The town of Iitate, 25 miles from the Fukushima reactors, has dangerous radiation levels and needs to be evacuated.
Craig Murray says that the NATO intervention in Libya has exceeded the limits of the UN resolution that authorized it.
Can bombing Gaddafi's army be justified when it is not attacking? It depends on the interpretation of the goal, "to protect civilians". With narrowest possible interpretation, Gaddafi's forces can only be attacked while they are doing something that endangers civilians. But I think the resolution allows attacking Gaddafi's forces if they could be a threat to civilians in the future.
Also, we should not assume that all the civilians in Sirte are safe from Gaddafi. Maybe most of them are his backers and are safe from him, but there may be some who are not.
Nonetheless, Murray's point is partly valid. To start a bloody battle over Sirte would not be protecting civilians.
A Libyan woman in Tripoli tried to tell Western journalists that Gaddafi's men had raped her in prison, but Gaddafi's men dragged her out of their hotel.
China is censoring the word "protest" in telephone calls.
If people make up a few verbal aliases for "protest", they can tie China in knots.
US citizens: sign this petition to tax the rich more rather than damage social services.
Chernobyl's old coolant lake still needs water pumped in constantly, lest it evaporate and allow toxic (radioactive?) sediment to disperse in the wind.
This pumping is no difficulty as long as civilization keeps going. But if we have a global eco-disaster, or a local war, the pumps might well stop.
There are countless small and large disasters in waiting that humanity holds off through engineering that requires maintenance. Each one has the potential to blow up if, for whatever reason, people are no longer available to pay attention to it.
India's latest tiger census shows a 10% improvement, but it is hard to be sure the figure is real.
The protests in Yemen have spurred a breakdown in Yemen's tribal rule: more individuals now think in terms of Western political rights.
The Century Foundation says that the war in Afghanistan is stalemated and recommends negotiation without preconditions under neutral auspices.
Libyan rebels have retaken Ras Lanuf. A doctor there said that Gaddafi's troops brutalized civilians, but says he saw no sign of foreign mercenaries among them.
Israel has legalized racial discrimination in housing, and is planning its attack on freedom to support any kind of boycott directed against Israeli policies.
When I was born, there were neighborhoods in the US that didn't allow Jews to live there.
Microsoft pandered to a dozen tyrants by disabling the "always HTTPS" option on Hotmail in the countries they oppress.
Update: Microsoft said this was an accidental bug, but I am skeptical.
The Wisconsin Republican Party is trying to use the state's open records law to get the private emails of a professor, as punishment for an article about the evolution of the Republican party.
A free-to-share science fiction video series seeks subscribers to finance it, chapter by chapter.
Criticizing Chomsky for valuing independence (for a country) over human rights (for its inhabitants).
I mostly agree, but Chomsky is right in one way.
The empire of the megacorporations, which dominates most of the world's states, tries to impose exploitative laws everywhere it can, threatening the environment, public health, and the general standard of living. To defeat this attack, we need governments that are independent (that reject the empire).
A truly free government would reject the empire's rule. But many governments that mostly respect human rights, as does the US, bow down totally to the empire. We need to judge governments on both characteristics. A good government is one that respects human rights and tries to destroy the empire.
Republican Christian fanatics in many states are trying to attack the teaching of biology.
India says that leprosy has been eradicated, but that exaggerated claim impedes raising funds to cure the people who catch leprosy.
Congress wants to cut funds to the agency responsible for safety of undersea oil drilling.
There has been no accident or oil spill for decades, and corporations would never take unnecessary risks, so why regulate?
In Radio Free Europe, the US condemns the US soldiers who murdered Afghan civilians.
Children in Australia are threatened with punishment for drawing in chalk on the sidewalk.
Libya's rebels have recaptured Ajdabiya, which means the whole of Eastern Libya is more or less safe from Gaddafi. The civilian population of Ajdabiya, which fled, is happy and returning.
This victory depended on foreign air strikes, suggesting that the rebels still cannot defeat Gaddafi's forces. However, it is now clear to them that they cannot reconquer Libya and cannot exploit its oil riches again. I think most of them will abandon Gaddafi after this sinks in, provided they have appealing ways to surrender or leave Libya.
A Tasmanian forest which has 60 rare species would deserve protection, but the Australian government is hoping to delay this protection to give mining a chance to eliminate the reason.
A store in Montana offers a gun gratis with every TV satellite antenna.
This means you can endanger your children in two ways for the price of one.
100 years after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that inspired the first worker protection laws in the US, Republicans are trying to eliminate them.
The Republican Party philosophy is, "Enrich business owners at any cost, even workers' lives." It is sad that the Democratic Party is not far behind them.
250,000 or 500,000 people protested in London against right-wing budget cuts that threaten to create a further recession.
It was mostly peaceful, but police besieged some groups of protesters.
Note that the crime of "aggravated trespass" really means "a protest in a place where it isn't wanted"; it was created specifically to criminalize peaceful protest. Thus, arrest figures which include that "crime" overestimate any real violence that there was.
UK teacher Leonora Rustamova was determined to help 5 students who had totally rejected studying, so she wrote a novel for them, using their first names for characters. It turned their lives around, so the school board fired her for "violating confidentiality".
The accusation against Leonora Rustamova is false in its own terms, because her book did not really indentify the five students, let alone give information about them. More deeply, it is standard bureaucratic tyranny to accuse an activity of violating someone's confidentiality when the supposed victims give it their full and unpressured support.
I do have one criticism of Ms. Rustamova: how dare she apologize for the book's web publication? That apology legitimizes the system's injustice. She has a right to forgive the injustice done to her, but this undeserved legitimacy effectively supports the threat of future unjust punishment of someone else.
I urge Ms. Rustamova to stop apologizing to tyrants, put the book up on the web again with a suitable CC license, and build a new career on rebuking the mentality that punished her. Make them rue what they did!
Yemen's president Saleh has agreed to step down if he and protesters can agree on a successor.
Tens of thousands joined protests in Syria, and soldiers shot at them.
India's intention to block the .xxx domain entirely shows that it is a recipe for censorship.
A proposed road in Tanzania could endanger the migration of gnus.
The US announced massive plan to expand coal mining, which implies 300,000 megawatts of added coal-burning generating capacity.
This plan dwarfs the 12,000 megawatts of planned renewable energy. It would also spew mercury and other toxins into the air. It reflects Obama's decision to surrender completely to the polluting industries.
Iraqis Take to the Streets, Call for Real Democracy.
Syria's government has killed dozens of protesters in the past few days.
US citizens: call on the EPA to ban the pesticide clothianidin, which is toxic to honey bees and suspected of playing a central role in the drastic decline in honey bee population in the US.
US citizens: call on the EPA to regulate power plant emissions of mercury, arsenic, lead, and other toxins.
Sex education in the Netherlands starts at age 4, and is very effective in teaching teenagers to avoid the various problems of sex gone wrong.
Thousands protested against the "free trade" treaty CAFTA during Obama's visit to El Salvador.
The total solitary confinement now imposed on Bradley Manning, and on thousands of convicts and suspects, represents the negation of the US Constitution and previous US ideas of justice.
South Korea wants to require all computer users to run proprietary malware.
The UN Human Rights Council launched an investigation into Iran's attacks on opposition and protest.
An opposition leader from Belarus has been given asylum in the Czech Republic.
The same rich people and large companies that backed Gov. Walker's anti-union law in Wisconsin also backed the Michigan law to destroy local government, through a secretive political organization.
The Wisconsin union-busting law has been blocked from taking effect because it was voted on illegally, violating the state's open meetings law.
Unions are calling on the public to boycott the businesses that have supported Gov. Walker.
Oil company flunkies are claiming that the moratorium on drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico has caused a rise in oil prices. It's a lie.
Low oil prices are a mistaken goal anyway. The US should put a tax on all CO2-producing fuels so as to encourage renewable energy, and should give a compensatory handout to poor people in rural areas whether they use fossil fuels or not.
(Another recent post on this topic here.)
US citizens: call on Obama to give back the ten-million-dollar loan that Duke Energy (a nuclear power company) made to Obama's campaign.
It seems inherently corrupt for political campaigns to accept loans from companies. It should be illegal.
Tokyo tapwater is considered unsafe for infants due to radioactive fallout.
ACLU's lawsuit against illegal government spying has been reinstated by federal court.
Iran installed expensive technology to block use of TOR, but TOR was ready with a defense.
NATO air strikes drove off the Gaddafi armored troops that were attacking Misrata, but Gaddafi's snipers continue shooting people at random.
Meanwhile, refugees from Ajdabiya say Gaddafi's troops, including foreign mercenaries, continue to kill civilians there.
I have seen arguments that the motivation for this intervention has to do with Libya's oil. That seems plausible to me. But that has nothing to do with whether the intervention is good or bad.
Iran accused of sending troops to Syria to kill protesters.
The Google Book Search settlement was rejected.
The FSF joined many others in opposing the settlement. Our reason was that it would give Google special rights that would not be available to anyone else. To give everyone the same rights would be fair and a good thing.
A student in Louisiana was suspended for wearing long hair.
The ACLU's response was too narrow, because it made a special exception for this one student on religious grounds.
Where does this school get off dictating short hair to male students? Will it next demand females wear skirts?
Most Haitians boycotted the burmese-style election imposed by the UN (and the US behind it).
Medical malpractice in the US costs 2.4% of the total spent on health care.
Thus, claims that "tort reform" could result in big savings are false.
When Pharma companies publish supposed costs of drug trials, they exaggerate in many ways, perhaps by a factor of 5.
This largely invalidates the argument they make in favor of allowing patents on drugs.
The Koch brothers praise the Harley Davidson workers who accepted pay cuts while the boss took home 6.5 million.
While the US and other states intervene to protect Libya's rebels from Gaddafi, Bahrain's king is using US weapons to attack protesters that have mostly remained nonviolent.
TEPCO repeatedly skipped safety checks in Fukushima number 2 reactor, and stored too much old nuclear fuel there — as a cost-cutting measure.
This is, ultimately, why we can't trust nuclear power reactors run by large companies. It's the same reason why we can't trust undersee oil drilling by large companies. Safety standards are worthless unless they are enforced, and enforcing them requires zero-tolerance for violations. If zero-tolerance is not feasible, then the project is unsafe.
Police in Ukraine are persecuting people who take methadone.
Israeli troops kept the Palestinian village of Awarta under total curfew for 5 days, repeatedly searching the same houses, destroying property, wounding helpless people and having dogs bite them, then blocking ambulances from helping them.
Someone (presumed to be Palestinians) murdered a family in an illegal settlement in Palestinian territory. There is no indication of who committed the crime, so Israelis punished Awarta because it was nearby. The searches were clearly sadism rather than a serious attempt to find the murderers (who probably don't live there).
Where did they get the idea? The Nazis did something similar: when the resistance attacked Nazis or their power, their policy was to retaliate against people living nearby. In effect, the civilians of any town were hostages of the Nazis.
Some Israelis must have remembered this and been inspired by it. Now Palestinians too are hostages.
A project that gave a monthly stipend to all inhabitants (except retirees) of a region in Namibia had many good effects.
It reduced indebtedness, school absenteeism, unemployment, and even crime.
I think it is a bad thing to make people give their fingerprints, however.
London protesters are suing the police to stop the practice of "kettling" or besieging protesters, which involves violence towards protesters who have committed no violence.
NPR was the latest victim of a dishonest Republican edited video attack.
TEPCO has falsified safety records of nuclear plants.
Bahrain's king tries to excuse crushing unarmed protesters by falsely claiming they represented Iranian subversion.
The US Congress demands human rights progress from Colombia before ratifying the Free Exploitation Treaty.
Colombians deserve more respect for their human rights, but they also deserve respect for their democracy, which is the opposite of what this treaty will do if it comes into force.
US Congressional representatives say Obama should have asked Congress to approve fighting in Libya.
I agree, but I also think Congress should vote authorization for this military action forthwith.
The US will soon say it is handing over security over parts of Afghanistan to Karzai's regime, but this is just for show.
The UN Human Right Council is considering a resolution to condemn Israel for ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories.
A Yemeni general says his forces will "protect protesters".
The nuclear industry, with Congress' help, has gained control over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, so the US does not take proper precautions with its old nuclear fuel rods.
Republican cuts in funds for vaccination could kill lots of US children.
Major oil spills continue happening in the Gulf of Mexico, but they get ignored because they are not in the same class as the big one last year.
Google accuses China of subtly sabotaging access to Gmail.
US soldiers face murder charges for detaining and then killing Afghan civilians, and pretending they were Taliban fighters.
I am glad that the US Army is not protecting them as it has so often done in the past. Such crimes probably happen often, in less spectacular ways, and it is rare to find evidence to prosecute anyone for them. However, one prominent prosecution might make soldiers think twice about the dehumanisation of Afghans which is what leads to this.
I am disturbed however by the charge of "possession of images of human casualties". That sounds like censorship which could threaten journalism.
Massive protests have resumed in Yemen even though many were killed by snipers on Friday. The "president" has fired the cabinet, but the protesters want him to quit.
Bahrain's monarchy continues to stop doctors from treating injured protesters.
Large protests for democracy are occurring in Morocco.
The Israeli Army recognizes that Palestinians still own the wells of al-Tawamin, but they can't use the wells because the surrounding land has been "seized" for settlers.
Thousands are continuing to protest in Syria for political rights and an end to the 50-year "emergency".
I am not sure what to make of the government's claims that "infiltrators" tried to get police to shoot protesters. It could be a lie meant to transfer responsibility for the shooting to some imaginary conspiracy. However, if they wanted to lie, why tell such a strange lie instead of scapegoating some police commander? But if it is true, who might those infiltrators be, and what might they want? Neither theory seems plausible.
The Fukushima reactors seem to be getting under control.
The radioactive fallout dispersed thus far is not a big danger. However, even if all goes well from now on, and even if few people are harmed, the economic cost of the reactor damage will be tremendous.
Chomsky does not recognize that Iran has changed from a limited, restricted democracy to outright tyranny.
A letter reveals how some of Iran's ayatollahs planned for religious tyranny while recognizing they were a minority among their colleagues.
Arguing that the Voice of America is being used to support Shah Khamenei's regime in Iran.
The author believes that the US and the Shah secretly support each other. I would not put it past the US government to lie like that, but I am not convinced it is doing so now. Nonetheless, if the VOA supports the Iranian regime, that calls for some explaining even if it does not result from a deeper scandal.
Uri Avnery believes there is a duty to intervene to stop states from massacring their peoples.
I agree with him. The hard part is how to prevent this from being used (as it was in Iraq) as an excuse for conquest, and making sure it won't lead to even worse massacres (as it did in Iraq).
I don't have a general solution, but there are many important differences between Libya today and Iraq in 2003. One difference is that between protecting a popular rebellion and intervening where there is none.
The US government wants to fund development of advanced sockpuppet software so that a few operatives can fake 50 people.
Even if the US government only uses this in Afhanistan and Pakistan, sabotage of democracy there is still bad. And if the US government does not use this in the US, others will — and maybe already do.
Kyrgyzstan is accused of imprisoning a nonviolent human rights defender on false charges, and torturing him.
The new .xxx domain seems to be intended for censorship, and seems to imply that porn sites will be forced to move there so they can be blocked more easily.
I think that if we are to have a domain for porn, it should be called . o r g y.
This article talks about how Saudi and other troops attacked protesters in Bahrain.
This claims Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain and got its "invitation" afterward. I don't have a way to check the facts about this.
This article criticizes the US for its weak support for the protests. Craig Murray reports hearing from another diplomat that the US endorsed the Saudi intervention in return for support for the UN endorsed intervention in Libya. Whereas the Washington Post report says that the US opposed the intervention in Bahrain but Saudi Arabia did it anyway.
I have no way of determining which one is accurate.
Gaddafi's "cease fire" proved to be a lie; the attacks continued. So various countries have begun attacking his planes and tanks.
A Catholic school in Canada led the students in an anti-abortion protest and suspended students who showed their dissent by wearing pro-abortion-rights stickers.
I refuse to refer to those who oppose abortion rights as "pro-life", and I won't be namby-pamby by calling my side "pro-choice". I am in favor of abortion rights, and also to some extent in favor of abortion.
Egyptians protested on March 9 against the army's plans for Egypt, and were tortured.
Aristide arrived in Haiti and said, "Modern-day slavery will have to end today."
Colombia has been saved from a trade treaty with the US for 4 years by concern about murdered union leaders.
I hope that Colombia takes action to stop the murder of union leaders, but it would be an awful shame if this enabled an attack on democracy in Colombia to proceed.
A town in Germany recycles 70% of household waste through financial incentives.
To make this widely applicable, it needs to be adapted to work in the cities where most of the human population now lives.
Republicans want the IRS to ask US women probing questions about abortions.
The FDA has given a company a monopoly on progesterone for preventing premature births, and the company raised the price from $10 to $1500.
Since the drug is cheap to make, that price is pure monopoly rent.
The UN's authorization of military support for the Libyan rebels excludes "foreign occupation forces" and maintains an arms embargo on the rebels as well as Gaddafi.
Troops to fight alongside the rebels might not count as an "occupation force".
I disagree with Murray's opinions about the intervention.
The last report I had seen is that Gaddafi declared a cease fire but his troops were continuing to attack. By the time this is posted you will probably know whether the cease fire is real. If so, this intervention will have been extremely successful with no casualties. If not, it may still be successful and might reduce the casualties of the war.
Egypt's constitution, with the amendments proposed by the military, will still have major flaws, one of them being a great obstacle to further amendments that might fix the flaws.
The Muslim Brotherhood likes the changes, but protest leaders say to vote no. It seems the changes will create a regime like the Obama regime: better than Mubarak, but not good.
I am sure the US's hand is behind this.
The Iranian supreme court approves death sentences in under 10 days. This includes death sentences for opposition to the regime (which is called "fighting god").
Iran is accused of secret executions.
Right-wing politicians in the US often say they want to make capital punishment more efficient. They should move to Iran where they belong.
The prominent condemnation of the psychological torture of Bradley Manning is calling attention to the broader cruelty of US prisons which keep many prisoners isolated for long periods.
There was a substantial protest for democracy in Armenia.
Some US nuclear power plants were licensed based on a wrong-headed assumption that the simultaneous occurrence of an earthquake and some other problem was too unlikely to be worth considering.
There is a campaign in Italy to censor web sites that encourage anorexia.
Which idea will they censor next? Support for Berlusconi? Opposition to Berlusconi?
100,000 people protested in Yemen, and the police shot 45 of them.
Israel kidnapped the deputy director of Gaza's power plant from Ukraine, and won't let a lawyer see him.
Nonviolent Palestinian campaigner Abu Rahman has been released from prison (which he should never have been put in) and says he will go straight back to activism.
Some Israelis blame the peace camp for the murder of a family of Israelis living on Palestinian territory that Israel seized.
This is totally irrational. The Israelis that are indirectly partly responsible for these killings are those who established the settlements.
All Palestinians are being blamed too for the killings.
Should we blame all Israelis every time Israeli police or soldiers kill Palestinians?
A Danish company will stop supplying security equipment to the Israeli settlements and checkpoints in the West Bank.
US citizens: sign the petition for Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
The US was criticized in the UN Human Rights Council for imprisonment without trial and military kangaroo courts. (Previous note here.)
It is hypocritical for Cuba and Iran to make these criticisms, since they too practice imprisonment without trial, and Iran's trials are even worse than Guantanamo military tribunals. However, let's not be distracted by that; the criticisms are valid nonetheless. The US cannot justify its disrespect for human rights by saying that other countries are worse.
The US claim that it does not tolerate torture is belied by Obama's acceptance of the torture of Bradley Manning.
Accusing the UN of underreporting the Afghan civilians killed in US Special Forces raids, estimating them at around 400 rather than 80.
It also says the US uses double standards to exaggerate the killings of civilians by the Taliban, and underestimate those by NATO.
Maybe this helps explain why Afghans in general seem to be more angry at NATO than the Taliban about such killings.
Development in Canada's boreal forests threatens to increase global heating.
Wikileaks cables allege that the Indian ruling Congress party bought votes in Parliament.
This is not proof, but the suspicion adds to lots more suspected and proven corruption.
Global heating means stronger hurricanes and more flooding, and these can cause nuclear power plant disasters.
Europe's chief climate official says that offshore wind power is cheaper to build than nuclear power.
The EU carbon emission credit trading scheme is failing to reduce emissions.
The mega-heatwave of 2003, which killed thousands in Europe, will recur more or less each decade by mid-century.
The US is stll trying to collect the debts contracted by Lon Nol's government in the 70s. Cambodia is asking them to be partly forgiven in various ways.
Cambodia could argue that Lon Nol's involvement made it a tbed rather than a debt.
A Tibetan monk set himself on a fire. Chinese police put the fire out, then beat him badly. Now he has died.
There is no way of knowing how much his death was due to the fire and how much it was due to the beating.
Between the Taliban and the US, civilian casualties in Afghanistan are higher than ever since the war began.
US citizens: sign this petition against Wall Street payment practices that encourage putting society at risk.
Bahrain has arrested leaders of the protests, accusing them of "contacting foreign agents".
This article asserts the Bahraini protest movement took a secular position, and the regime twisted it into a matter of Shi'a versus Sunni.
Aristide is on his way back to Haiti, and the US rebuked him for trying to "impact the election"?
And why shouldn't he? He has more right to a say in the matter than the occupying powers that set up this Burmese-style election. He is the candidate most Haitians want, and the occupiers contrived to block him from running by keeping him out of Haiti.
Aristide was outside Haiti because US troops kidnaped him. Why should those kidnapers expect him to cater to them now? Does they think he has Stockholm syndrome?
I hope his supporters force a restart of this fraudulent election.
However, this article warns that someone else might start violence, and blame it on Aristide.
Western and Arab armies will protect Benghazi from Gaddafi.
In addition to protecting the civilians in Benghazi, it will prevent Gaddafi from fully controlling Libya ever again. That might be enough to defeat him, but I think it will be necessary to deny him control over oil production there. Otherwise European countries will have to compete to buy Libyan oil, and the one that helps him the most will win.
Large protests in Wisconsin are still going on.
US citizens: Tell Democrats to stand firm against Republicans cuts in aid for poor Americans.
Many journalists have been attacked or threatened in Yemen.
The Egyptian secret police seem to have selectively destroyed documents including records of torturing suspects brought by the US.
Glenn Greenwald: "protecting those who are abusing Manning, while firing Crowley for condemning the abuse, is perfectly consistent with the President's sense of justice."
Uzbekistan kicked out Human Rights Watch.
Apparently it doesn't want people to notice the systematic torture.
US citizens: Call on the US to support action on Gaza war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
The speaker of the Majlis accused Ahmadinejad of massive fraud.
The Washington Post says that Obama tried to discourage Saudi intervention in Bahrain, but failed.
Witnesses in Bahrain describe the soldiers' attack on protesters, and on a main hospital.
Major report debunks alleged link between unauthorized commercial copying and terrorism.
I am not in favor of allowing unlimited commercial copying of artistic and entertainment works, but it's still wrong to call it "piracy".
Pete Bethune says he will outfit up ships to board illegal fishing boats in areas where governments don't enforce fishing rules.
Police are using water canons to cool reactors and old fuel rods in Japan. But they can't tell whether this is working, because workers can't enter the reactor buildings. (Why don't they have robots or waldoes? Those have been used for decades for work on reactors.)
This writer says uranium and plutonium could contaminate a large area around the reactors, but that the main danger at a greater distance is from milk and meat contaminated by fallout.
Even if the disaster had been avoided, and the sole cost of the failure were the loss of the value of the reactors and the cost of cleaning them up, that is still enough to make reactors a lousy investment for society (if they weren't one already).
New Jersey is considering a law to reduce penalties on teenagers who share naked photos of themselves with their lovers, or even keep such photos themselves.
It is just a first step towards a return to sanity. "Child pornography" should be illegal only for those involved in an activity that involves real abuse or exploitation of a real child.
Free haircuts if you donate your hair to clean up a future oil spill!
US citizens: Obama said he had ended federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries legalized by states, but he has resumed them. Sign this petition.
Basij thugs killed another student in Iran.
500 were arrested celebrating the fire festival.
Students and teachers in Iran face punishment in secret because their families have been threatened if they report what has happened.
India subsidizes "waste to energy" incinerators that emit toxins and don't produce much energy.
The Real Risks to America's Security.
Benghazi faces a siege by Gaddafi's troops. Without rescue, it will fall, and Gaddafi is likely to kill thousands.
The rest of the world has left the rebels to defeat on their own. Will it at least give them a way to evacuate so Gaddafi can't massacre them?
If I were the rebels, I would demolish the oil installations of Libya as thoroughly as possible so that Gaddafi would need years to rebuild them. If Gaddafi gets them back, he will make Europe accept his terms to get the oil. We will see those countries crawl and praise him and sell him whatever arms he wants to maintain his power, and this will be a salient lesson to every other dictator.
Pharma companies are effectively bribing doctors to push the psychiatric profession towards prescribing drugs rather than therapy.
The US National Association of Manufacturers supports policies to promote outsourcing of manufacturing from the US.
I don't know whether this currency manipulation issue is a real one; I have not heard of it before. I suspect that the trade treaties themselves are more responsible for sweatshops than this particular narrow issue.
What is interesting here is that the NAM has been subverted by the most powerful members and exploits its other members (real manufacturers) for their benefit. This resembles the way the US Chamber of Commerce exploits many local chambers of commerce and the way the American Association of Retired People exploits millions of Americans to lobby for right-wing policies most of the members don't even know about.
The Obama regime has admitted it seeks to keep Aristide out of Haiti.
This is in the name of finishing the Burmese-style fraudulent elections meant to impose a president that few Haitians voted for.
Protesters in Bahrain are being attacked by soldiers, and soldiers (including Saudis) are blocking doctors from treating the wounded.
The spent fuel rods in a Japanese reactor still contain plenty of uranium, and they might go critical again if the water leaks out.
The engineers that argue that reactors are safe are claiming, in effect, that they know everything that could possibly happen. They calculate the outcome for each possible event, and design the system to stand up against that. Then they claim the system is safe.
This reminds me of the arguments of the antievolutionists that a certain organ or a certain system of reactions is too complex to have ever evolved in a series of small steps. Those arguments presume one knows all the ways it might have happened, and can show all are impossible. The flaw is that there might be another way nobody has thought of.
Likewise, nuclear engineers can't envision everything that might happen. There is always a chance that a freak accident, or some clever enemy, can cause just the right series of events to make the system fail.
For other purposes, that approach might be adequate. Suppose the system is an airliner. If a freak accident can make an airliner crash, it could still be very safe, if such an accident is rare. That's because there would only be hundreds of casualties each time.
But a freak accident affecting a nuclear reactor could irradiate a large area, which is far worse than a plane crash. These plants are fundamentally unsafe.
Companies involved in fraudulent safety reports are supposed to build new nuclear plants in the US.
Spanish MP Arnaldo Otegi, who was convicted of the "crime" of accusing the king of protecting torturers, has won a claim of compensation.
Obama protects torturers too, but fortunately the US does not have a law that criminalizes insulting the president by saying so. Such laws are inexcusable tyranny.
Nuclear power plants inland need tremendous amounts of fresh water, and periods of heat and drought can make plants shut down. But coastal nuclear power plants using sea water are vulnerable to tsunamis and hurricanes.
Physicians for Human Rights have accused the military psychologists at Quantico of conniving at torture.
CVS and Walgreen sell customer prescription information to drug companies.
In an act of brilliant design, the "waste ponds" for spent fuel of the GE reactors now failing in Japan are above the reactor in the same building.
So explosions in those buildings, such as have occurred, can damage the "ponds" and make the spent fuel catch fire. This could release far more fallout than Chernobyl.
Things are just one step away from that. Japan is now improvising last-ditch expedients to try to prevent such a fire.
This design was reported as dangerous in 1972, but Japan continued building such reactors until around 1980.
Some accuse TEPCO of concealing radiation readings, and it wouldn't be the first time that TEPCO covered up nuclear safety problems.
Would you trust Obama to tell you truthfully what is happening in a nuclear accident?
Ralph Nader refutes charges that NPR has a Liberal bias.
Shah Khamenei has forbidden the traditional Persian fire festival.
Protesters around Iran are celebrating it anyway, chanting, "Death to Mullahs".
Protesters on motorcycles fought the Basij militia, so the militia began confiscating motorcycles.
People are going to hate them even more for that.
Israel has placed a Palestinian village under curfew for four days as collective punishment. They are breaking furniture and windows and people's bodies.
Following in the footsteps of China, Iran, and Gaddafi, they have excluded journalists so that their dirty work won't be noticed.
35 years later, forests in Vietnam destroyed by agent orange are still devastated.
Where acacia trees grow, maybe the wild forest could grow again. But it would be a lot of work to restore.
Greece has been given a small relief on its debt in exchange for a massive privatization.
Republicans in Wisconsin plan to use even a brief term in office to privatize and wreck the state's institutions.
Many countries are planning to build more nuclear power plants in earthquake zones.
It's not just that this particular policy is risky to the point of insanity. It also shows a misguided approach to evaluation of risk, which probably results in other bad decisions.
Massive protests have resumed in Bahrain.
The fact that Bahrain is divided between Shi'ites and Sunnis is a great obstacle there, because a nonviolent campaign for civil rights needs to avoid inspiring the members of the privileged group to defend themselves at any cost. The smaller the privileged group, the harder this is. Blacks in the US are only around 10% of the population, so civil rights leaders who preached equality for all, and opposed racism, were able to gather support from most Whites. To achieve that in Bahrain will be a great challenge.
Bahrain expects Saudi military help to crush protests.
The chief spokesman of the State Department had to resign after he criticized the abusive conditions of Bradley Manning's imprisonment, which amount to brainwashing.
Obama, meanwhile, has made himself personally responsible for yet another instance of US government torture by explicitly refusing to recognize the problem.
The wastes from Alberta tar sands are killing at least 2000 birds a year, maybe a lot more.
Various regions of Indonesia have banned Ahmadiya, a reformed sect of Islam that believes Mohammed was followed by another prophet.
In West Java, people are forbidden to identify themselves as followers of Ahmadiya.
These bans were imposed by decree, after fanatical Muslims violently attacked some Ahmadiya believers. On the excuse of "protecting" them, the state is oppressing them all. It seems they are acting out Islam's basic disrespect for religious freedom.
I have no information about the doctrines of Ahmadiya, but I suppose I would think they are mistaken. That's what I think about all religions. But they deserve the right to practice and to state their views.
US citizens: call on the US to act in the UN Human Rights Council to enable the ICC to take action on Gaza war crimes.
US citizens: phone the State Department to demand an end to Bahrain's violence against protesters (which includes use of Saudi troops), and an arms embargo for their use of US military equipment against civilians.
US citizens: sign this petition to Obama to end subsidies for nuclear power plants.
Without subsidies, they won't be built.
Michigan Republicans are passing a bill that would allow the state to supplant local governments with appointed ones, void union contracts, forcibly merge cities and school districts, and generally wreak havoc.
Iran's president Ahmadinejad says he can ignore laws passed by the Iranian Majlis.
The Iranian state presents a democratic face, but is a dictatorship in reality. The face is now slipping.
Obama and other pro-nuclear US politicians presented Japan as proof that nuclear power can be safe in the US.
There is no indication that the Japanese plants were not built correctly according to their plans, but you can't even count on that much in the US.
An opposition candidate in Belarus who was arrested and tortured has escaped from that country.
US regulations for nuclear reactors are not sufficient to make them safe from earthquakes.
For any site, scientists have some idea of the strongest quake ever recorded for that site. But this is not a guarantee against worse quakes.
Leaked documents seem to show Bank of America in an attempt to cover up facts about its loans.
India has won a significant victory over pirates.
An expert analyst says the nuclear accidents in Japan will probably not hurt people, but still demonstrate that nuclear proponents overlook unlikely but possible disasters.
Meanwhile, the situation in Japan has gone one step beyond what the expert thought was likely to occur.
Meanwhile, Obama tells us to stop worrying because the government is making sure we are safe.
He would have said the same thing a year ago about oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Craig Murray reports that the US agreed to tolerate Saudi troops in Bahrain in exchange for the Arab League vote to support no-fly zone in Libya.
If indeed the US was offered the choice of both or neither, I find it hard to say which choice was worse. With one choice, the protests in Bahrain are likely to be suppressed brutally, and with the other, the rebellion in Libya is likely to be suppressed brutally.
I think Murray's parting statement underestimates Gaddafi's strength. Without intervention in Libya, the rebels are likely to be crushed, and so now will the protesters in Bahrain.
In addition to Saudi troops, police from other nearby countries are in Bahrain, supposedly to "calm" the protests. What a euphemism that is.
The US left has been reinvigorated, and now has everything going for it except organization.
Wikileaks shows the Bush forces knew of 66,000 civilians killed in Iraq. Iraq Body Count recorded 104,000 civilians killed. But only 19% of the latter match the Bush forces records.
It follows that only around 30% of the Bush forces civilian death records are in Iraq Body Count.
This leads to a very rough estimate that around 350,000 civilians were killed.
Al Jazeera says Gaddafi's forces lured its camera team into an ambush and shot the cameraman.
A Guardian reporter is Gaddafi's prisoner.
Israel's retaliation for the crime of killing a settler family is a crime against all Palestinians.
Someone murdered an Israeli settler family in their home; now Palestinians in the vicinity are being subject to general reprisals by soldiers.
These killings were a war crime. However, the settlements are all illegal, so I think that chasing settlers out without murdering them would be justified retaliation for creating the settlements.
As Gaddafi's troops continue to capture rebel cities, the Arab League called for military intervention to support them.
Iranian dissidents say the Iranian regime is arming rural children with clubs and air guns, and setting them to attack protesters.
This congress is the most anti-science congress in history.
How plain packaging for cigarettes blocks tobacco company lies and helps smokers quit.
A second reactor in Japan has lost its emergency cooling system.
Japan's nuclear meltdown has galvanized opposition to nuclear power in Europe.
Building nuclear power plants is not effective as a way to reduce carbon emissions. As Amory Lovins has shown, efficiency improvements and renewable energy give more improvement per dollar.
Also read: Nuclear reactor protection
Reuters reports more of Gaddafi's soldiers defected while attacking Misrata.
In the US: tell Obama you're against subsidy for new nuclear power plants.
US citizens: call on Rep. Issa to disclose his meetings with lobbyists.
He has staffed the oversign committee he chairs with corporate flunkies.
Atheist soldiers are suing after Fort Bragg spent government funds on an event to convert soldiers to evangelical Christianity, then sabotaged their attempt to run their own event.
Missouri Republicans have a solution to low wages in the US: allow teenagers of 14 to work late on school days.
Next step will be to end school at age 14 because, for the jobs they will get, they won't need school.
The TSA discovered that some x-rated scanners are emitting 10 times as much x-rays as they were supposed to.
As if ACTA were not bad enough, the US wants to make the Trans-Pacific Partnership an all-out attack on computer users.
Police in Yemen fired at protesters, killing several and wounding hundreds.
Texas is planning a bill to ban most abortions, and other states are also trying to ban them.
Japan has built many nuclear power plants in seismic zones and without sufficient protection.
They built the nuclear plants near sea level, then failed to protect them (and their backup generators) from tsunamis. This shows that the question of safety was mismanaged. They must have given priority to saving money rather than protecting against a plausible disaster scenario.
It's not just Japan where nuclear plants are accidents waiting to happen. Some US plants are near seismic faults too.
You can't trust a US corporation to spend money to avoid an accident, since lobbying Congress to avoid liability for it is cheaper.
The nuclear lobby has been buying politicians in the US and the UK, trying to get a subsidy one way or other (since these plants are money-losers). Let's learn the lesson before we throw away billions more on creating disasters.
Whistleblowers at the World Bank still face retaliation. The policies to protect them look good on paper but are ignored.
Perhaps some democratically-minded country should offer a large reward to anyone that exposes major corruption in the World Bank.
How a US consulting firm used American academics to rehab Muammar Qaddafi's image.
Gasoline price increases are necessary to encourage conservation. Thus, the way to shield poor drivers from suffering from the impact of the high price is to give some money to poor people — whether they drive or not. That way, they too will have an incentive to conserve.
Climate change activist Tim DeChristopher is content to have protected pristine land from oil drilling even at the cost of a prison sentence, but was disappointed by how the judge intimidated jurors out of voting their consciences.
If you are ever on a jury, you must resist that pressure, or you could do something that would make you ashamed for the rest of your life.
US citizens: sign the petition to tell Senate Democrats: take a lesson from Wisconsin; stand and fight the Republican War on America.
Double-dealing Rep. King is using his divisive hearings about Muslim radicals, trying to call Muslims "terrorists", while he strives to keep the US vulnerable to terrorist attacks, accidents, and natural disasters in plants that store poisonous gases.
The companies that don't want to tighten security must be giving him something in exchange for this.
The Libyan rebels are begging for foreign help, including air strikes against Gaddafi's army.
14,000 people a year are murdered in Venezuela, many of them in gang wars.
Legalizing drugs would take a lot of the fuel out of this fire.
By the way, the comparison with Iraq is at least somewhat misleading because the civil war in Iraq killed more like 140,000 people a year during the peak years.
The US defense budget is larger than ever in history, not even counting the wars.
Amnesty International reports on Iraqi torture of political dissidents.
The earthquake in Japan damaged some nuclear reactors, and the workers had to release radioactive vapor from one of them to relieve pressure.
If they don't make progress soon, they could have an accident like Three Mile Island after around a day.
A Chernobyl-style accident is less likely given that these reactors have more layers of enclosure than the Chernobyl reactor. But it is not impossible, especially if the earthquake has damaged those layers.
Some US nuclear reactors are quite near major fault lines and near cities too.
It is hard to do anything about them, but we can avoid creating more such problems.
The UK's proposed policies for reducing CO2 emissions for electric power seem tailor-made to encourage more nuclear power.
Which US senator killed the Whistleblower Protection Act?
Citizens are trying to find out.
Russian environmental campaigners ask for European support to preserve the Khimki forest.
US workers have to compete with prison labor.
For the New York Times, waterboarding is torture except when the US does it.
The UK is considering abolishing the census in the face of substantial public resistance.
I am disappointed with the article for publishing Professor Voas' shallow dismissal of concerns about the census; he does not seriously address them. "Credit card information is more detailed"? Only if you allow it to be; mine shows only that I fly. "This is the most secure data set around"? Only until someone decides to leak your data — and there is no longer a penalty for doing so. The practice of fuzzing the published figures to protect personal privacy is the right thing to do, but it addresses a different issue, so it's effectively a change of subject.
If you do answer the UK census, consider answering "No religion" if you no longer really believe.
Help stop privatization of public libraries in the US: send a message to the Santa Clarita city council.
Sign this too:
http://action.seiu.org/page/s/CAlibraries
New York's Democratic governor is trying to shaft the parents of babies brain-damaged through malpractice.
It is good to punish malpractice, but as the article reminds us, it would be better to prevent some malpractice by barring incompetent doctors from practicing at all.
I think that the right to life really starts some time after birth, and that extending it back to birth is a matter of giving the benefit of the doubt. If a baby is born with severe damage, whatever the cause, euthanasia might be the best solution.
Eco-farming could double food output of poor countries, says UN.
It looks like grain will be more scarce next year than this year.
Humanity is pushing against the world's limits, and running an annual overdraft against some of them. Sure, there are ways to adjust, such as improved techniques, feeding less grain to cattle, and not using food-type crops for fuel, but people resist those changes.
Thus, we must also make further efforts to reduce population growth. A population peak of 9 billion may mean many countries experience disaster. Avoiding hundreds of millions of those expected births may avoid most of the disaster.
Most Americans now want troops removed from Afghanistan within a year.
Colombia has the largest number of internal refugees of any country, and the planned FTA with the US will make it worse.
India threatens to restrict blogs.
The Pentagon pretends to be "making progress" in Afghanistan, but those claims conceal gaping flaws.
Karzai's corrupt government and rigged elections can't win anyone's loyalty, and so he can never win. The most he can do is give the US an excuse for a war that will never end.
The US mainstream media gave very little coverage to the US bombing that killed 9 Afghan kids.
I think they may give more attention to Karzai's cousin, killed in a US raid on his home.
Obama: worse than Nixon in regard to whistleblowers.
Bradley Manning has been allowed to publish an official complaint about the prison's inhumane treatment of him.
Gaddafi's army continues to advance against the rebels.
The UK plans a pension cut for 6 million public sector employees, inviting them all to strike.
Gaddafi's men arrested and tortured BBC reporters.
Wisconsin Republicans passed their law to crush public sector unions by disconnecting it from the budget bill.
I don't think it is valid to call it cheating to keep this separate from the budget bill. To attach it to that was artificial anyway. I think they did that in imitation of the Republicas in Congress, without realizing that this only impeded their purpose.
It remains an attack on the people of Wisconsin no matter how they do it.
Both candidates in Haiti's Burmese-style presidential election want to reinstitute the Haitian army, which was abolished by Aristide because it had nothing to do except try to rule and bully Haiti.
This suggests that the US wants to restore the Haitian army as an instrument of US control.
Frankly speaking, Haiti has no use for an army unless that army could throw off foreign control.
The ultimate nimby: well-off jerks in a chic part of Brooklyn are trying to get rid of a bicycle lane that could save lives and gasoline, because it reduced their parking spaces. In the process they could kill off New York's plans for conservation.
The president of NPR has resigned because a fund-raiser said his personal view wass that Tea Party is xenophobic, has hijacked the Republican Party, and is racist.
I don't know about the accusation of racism, but the rest seems pretty valid. Meanwhile, why does the organization's president need to resign because of this?
I am afraid that these resignations will give credence to false charges that NPR has a Liberal bias. I found in the 90s that NPR had a right-wing bias, so I mostly stopped listening to it.
In the US: participate in a protest against Republican budget cuts.
US citizens: call and ask your congresscritter to support Rep. Lee's letter, which will ask Obama to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The UK recently sold Yemen body armor that is probably being used now to oppose protesters, and bullets probably being used to shoot them.
The International Criminal Court wants to prosecute ministers in Kenya for organizing the killings of 1300 people in 2007.
The Libyan rebels have asked for foreign support.
I think they deserve help.
My understanding is that other countries can recognize them as a government, then provide military support to them without a Security Council resolution.
Illinois has abolished the death penalty.
Now on to Texas!
Tens of thousands protested again in Wisconsin against Gov. Walker's plans to attack the whole state.
A student has sued the FBI for planting a tracking device in his car without a warrant.
A service hires actors to phone in to talk radio shows and not admit they are acting.
Texas is considering a law to ban TSA x-ray scanners and x-rated pat-downs.
US citizens: sign this petition for TIAA-CREF to divest from companies that profit from Israel's occupation of the West Bank or its attack and siege of Gaza.
China is likely to further relax the one-child policy.
This is dangerous and misguided, because China's environment is already under pressure from the human population, which is still increasing even with the current policy. Increases standard of living, which poor Chinese deserve, will multiply by the population. Changing the policy to allow even greater population growth will exacerbate every problem.
Gaddafi launched a heavy attack on Zawiya, and his tanks have destroyed many buildings in the city. The rebels are barely holding out.
Israel says it will destroy the "illegal settlement outposts".
All the settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal under international law. These "outposts" are illegal under Israeli law too, but the government has often supported their construction.
How sweatshops fool the auditors that are supposed to check how the workers are treated.
Many bank CEOs violated the Sarbanes Oxley law that required them to affirm they had set up adequate internal controls. Obama does not want to prosecute them.
Republican cuts would devastate housing programs for old people, handicapped people, and veterans. Many would lose their homes.
The US needs deficit spending now, not budget cuts. Obama's willingness to talk about cuts as a "compromise" demonstrates how little he differs from a Republican.
Journalists from Jordan's state-controlled media protested against censorship.
Will this spread to Faux News?
The US and UK are showing interest in imposing a no-fly zone in Libya, if given UN approval.
This could help the rebels, but it could also cause civilian casualties.
What to do? I think the UN should authorize a no-fly zone if the Libyan rebels ask for one, and then the US should let the rebels decide.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi's tanks are more important than his aircraft. So a no-fly zone might not be enough to make the difference. Would Egypt be willing to aidt he rebels in Libya?
The US has asked Saudi Arabia to provide weapons to the Libyan rebels.
I see no particular benefit in involving Saudi Arabia. Why not deliver arms directly to the rebels?
Tens of thousands are protesting in Yemen. Yemen's president had police shoot at protesters, wounding around 100, many of them seriously.
Genetic engineering is being used to protect bananas from a disease that could wipe them out.
I don't think genetic engineering is inherently wrong, but it must respect farmers' rights to save and breed their crops, and the resulting organisms must be tested carefully to ensure they are safe for the consumer and for wildlife. This seems like a case which is ok.
Now it's Philadelphia's Catholic Church which is accused of protecting pedophile priests.
A proposed Hungarian law that would have attacked freedom on the Internet was amended not to cover the Internet.
20 lies (and counting) told by Gov. Walker.
The US is considering publishing all the information on where private planes travel.
While I recognize this is useful for investigating possible corruption or other bad activities, I believe everyone deserves the right to anonymous travel. I am not convinced there should be an exception for private planes.
Perhaps public officials should be required to disclose this information as a condition of office.
Organizations anywhere: sign this petition to the Council of Europe against demanding biometric information from people who are not criminals.
Michael Newdow's lawsuit over the religious motto "In god we trust" on US currency was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Here are many incidents in which fracking natural gas is suspected of polluting water in the US.
Egypt's new PM appointed a caretaker cabinet, removing Mubarak's former ministers.
Protesters sacked the State Security offices, and former prisoners saw their old cells again.
I hope the records are being carefully preserved.
Some web sites now allow only facebook users to post comments.
This means the discussion is limited to people who are willing to let facebook abuse them — in effect slanting the discussion against criticism of Facebook.
What's needed to avoid destroying the world's coral reefs.
A proposed dam in Ethiopia would ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The dictatorship has crushed local opposition.
The Obama regime is restarting Guantanamo kangaroo trials.
These men might be guilty, but they deserve a fair trial like anyone threatened with punishment.
Karzai has backed down from expelling mercenaries from Afghanistan.
Karzai's government can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em.
Global heating is causing a risk of water-born disease for humans in the Arctic.
And not just in the Arctic.
What's Happening in Iran Explained.
Through the modern miracle of surgery, virginity can now be restored.
This offers women a way to protect themselves from prejudice. However, that any woman believes she needs this surgery is probably a sign she is being pressured to marry someone she does not trust. That, rather than the lack of a hymen, is her real problem.
Halliburton and other oil companies are lobbying against US sanctions on Libya; they want to be able to keep selling to Gaddafi.
The recent reported US job gain is mythical, the result of methods that systematically err towards the positive when times are bad.
An Iranian student reports that part of his university has been used as a prison for protesters.
As part of the Republican War on America, they want spending cuts that would devastate America on a broad range of areas.
It's hard for the US to pretend the latest Afghan civilians killed by bombs were Taliban, since none of them was older than 12.
Bradley Manning is forced to strip every night as a cruel punishment for a sarcastic quip.
The US uses nudity as a tool to break prisoners.
George Monbiot explains economic measures that the UK should protest for.
To implement these proposals may require a party to commit to supporting them. Perhaps it could be called the Old Labour Party.
Libyan rebels captured an armed British special forces unit which had been landed by helicopter.
I doubt the official claim that this was a diplomatic mission to talk with the rebels, and I wonder what their mission really was.
There is heavy fighting around Libya, and so far the rebels seem to be gaining a little more than they are losing.
The Iranian opposition candidates seem to be disappeared: their children cannot find out what happened to them.
Italian public TV censored a film trailer for criticizing Berlusconi.
Afghans protested another bombing raid that killed children.
Protests have been called for March 11 in Azerbaijan.
There are already protests in Armenia.
Armenia is effectively a Russian client state, since Russian troops protected Armenia from the threat of Turkish attack in the early 90s during the war over Nagorno Karabakh. A few years ago, I was told, border controls in Armenia were carried out by Russians.
The Iranian regime is accused of massive corruption to the benefit of Shah Khamenei's children.
Right-wing front groups are buying TV ads to support Wisconsin Governor Walker.
Their money got him elected in the first place.
Tuvalu is losing its fish and plant food resources, due to improper disposal of wastes and to rising sea levels caused by global heating.
Libyans report that Gaddafi's forces have encircled Zawiyah, and snipers and tanks are shooting at people there.
The Obama regime systematically lies about Bradley Manning's prison conditions, and the compliant press doesn't question the lies.
Congressman Kucinich asked to visit Bradley Manning and investigate the allegations that Manning is being abused. The Pentagon is stonewalling.
Using a person's privacy as an excuse to cover up abuse of that person is the sort of dishonest excuse that a tyrannical regime makes.
Saudi Arabia has banned a mass protest called for Friday, saying that protests violate Islamic values.
The US Chamber of Commerce is a lobbying group for the nastiest megacorps. A campaign asks US small businesses to announce, "The US Chamber of Commerce does not speak for us."
Massey Energy broke the mining union by switching to strip mining. Now a few local people get jobs, but nearly everyone has had to move away.
Massey succeeds in buying enough local support from poor people by offering them a tiny amount of money. That's because they are divided and thinking short term.
The cry of freedom is pouring out of the Middle East, but Washington's echo chamber does not hear it.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam's doctoral thesis argued in favor of intervention to protect the human rights of people suffering under a dictatorship.
Growing economic inequality in the US is not the result of different abilities or even different educational opportunities. It is caused by several government policies that help the rich.
A UK phone company is forcing users to identify themselves in order to get uncensored access to the Internet.
South Korea is dropping leaflets into North Korea describing the virtue of democracy and freedom.
The US-Korea "free trade" treaty will devastate Korean farmers.
The South Korean government distributes many documents in proprietary formats.
South Korea also undermines its safety and pollution standards to please the US government.
Recently, South Koreans have been imprisoned for handing out political pamphlets condemning their government.
Despite this, South Korea's government is miles above North Korea's, which by all accouts is hell on Earth. But since when is that the standard for judging a government? Koreans deserve better than this.
US Republicans are attacking every aspect of environmental protection, apparently just from spite, and Obama is doing little to resist them.
The growth of the environmental movement into mass support was fueled by the US middle class in the 1960s. They had enough money and goods, and they wanted things money could not buy, such as better health through clean air and water, and wilderness whose existence they were glad about.
The US middle class is getting smaller, so perhaps fewer people can afford to care whether they are getting poisoned.
Violent crime and robbery in Oregon have been decreasing for years and are now the lowest since 1966. But most people in Oregon have been led by the media to think it is getting worse (except in their own home town).
This study was about Oregon, but the phenomenon is probably not limited to Oregon. And the erroneous fear boosts right-wing politics.
China plans systematic tracking of people in Beijing through their cell phones.
False reports are coming from both Gaddafi and his opponents.
However, we do have a first-hand report of attacks by Gaddafi's forces against a town in the east.
Latest reports from the Guardian say Gaddafi is stepping up the attacks.
Doctors without Borders reports over 1800 wounded people in Benghazi.
US Uncut protested the Bank of America for paying lavish bonuses but no taxes.
Here's what it takes to be serious about selling sustainable fish.
The ACLU argued before the Supreme Court to hold Ashcroft responsible for imprisoning an American then restricting him for a year as a "material witness".
Libyans in Tripoli dared to protest again.
Maliki's thugs sealed off whole neighborhoods of Baghdad, as they killed and arrested protesters and beat up journalists.
The pressure of the downtrodden in Muslim countries seeks an exit, and if denied others, it will support Islamic extremism.
Iranian women have called for a protest on March 8.
US citizens: sign this petition telling Congress: not one dollar more for the Pentagon.
Yemeni opposition is asking presidet Saleh to step down by the end of the year.
Israeli diplomat Ilan Baruch resigned from the foreign service saying he cannot defend Israel's policy towards the Palestinians.
He also condemned the frequent tactic of accusing anyone that criticizes Israel of being "antisemitic".
Rising oil prices could push biofuel as a substitute.
When biofuel plants transpire more water, that could mean they also need more water in order to grow. However, many regions are short of water already, and this is going to get worse.
Biofuel is good when it uses plant waste, or land not otherwise arable. But when it replaces food production (such as by using land or water needed to grow food), it is a disaster. When it needs fertilizer made from petroleum, it is self-defeating.
About the group that wants to legalize killing abortion providers.
A minister in Pakistan was assassinated for standing for freedom of speech.
Saudi authorities arrested a Shi'ite cleric for advocating constitutional monarchy
Everyone: sign this petition urging Canada to pass a law facilitating provision of cheap pharmaceuticals to poor countries.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support HR 780, the bill to de-fund the war in Afghanistan. Also sign this petition.
More info about the bill.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: sign this petition to put lions on the endangered species list.
The budget cutting debate between Democrats and Republicans is a distraction from the real issue: unemployment. The debate is between a harmful policy and a disastrous one.
A list of Gov. Walker's lies.
The Republicans' attack on the EPA's regulation of mercury in the air will kill almost as many Americans as the 9/11 attacks did.
Speaking of those attacks, we still don't know whether the Republicans' participated in them too. Support the call for a thorough and honest investigation.
A former Guantanamo prisoner says he was given drugs against his will and wasn't even told what they were.
His accusation is supported by other evidence.
The TSA has been working on plans to search people in train stations and on the street with x-ray scanners.
Gaddafi's forces are trying to reconquer the rebel areas of Libya. So far, the rebels are mainly holding, but they are taking substantial casualties.
Wisconsin governor Walker excluded the public illegally from his budget address, and brought in his own unidentified supporters to pack the room.
Some US schools lock students in all day. One of them suspended a student for opening a door.
Bradley Manning faces additional charges including the threat of execution.
If we cannot free him, I think that the citizens of Cambridge Massachusetts should erect a statue to honor him. I would like to contribute, and I think many others will too.
Israel has announced another settlement in East Jerusalem.
Mexico complains that the US makes it too easy to buy guns and smuggle them into Mexico. It turns out one of those guns was used to kill a US agent working in Mexico.
In a flagrant act of censorship, a man is being prosecuted in France for "public insults" involving bigotry.
One of his insults was directed at "Jews" as an ethnic group. That targets me; but I find his prosecution more offensive than what he said.
An Iran accuses the BBC Persian service of supporting the regime.
Thousands in Tehran protested the imprisonment of opposition leaders.
Indiana asst attorney general Cox has resigned. He had called for shooting protesters.
Obama has for once done something progressive, cancelling a Bush regulation that let hospital employees opt out of various medical procedures for women.
It was the right thing to do, but why did it take him two years to get around to it?
American Muslims actually do quite a bit to prevent terrorism.
The US Supreme Court ruled that companies are not entitled to "personal privacy" under the Freedom of Information Act.
Police systematically attacked journalists in Yemen and Iraq.
Hunting by humans, often for trophies, is driving lions to extinction.
A Mexican politician says that former Mexican presidents protected drug trafficking in order to avoid war with the traffickers.
Children of former Chilean presidents want the US to release documents about their parents' deaths and Pinochet.
The gulf oil spill's toxic legacy.
The American rich have screwed the rest by focusing public attention on lowering taxes, then on hurting the poor, and now on hurting public employees.
When the Israeli hawks' lobby pretends to speak for all Jews, it is to blame if some are fooled by this and criticize a "Jewish lobby".
Gaddafi's air force has attacked rebel-held towns, so far without much effect.
Western powers are talking about intervening against Gaddafi, but the security council is unlikely to approve it. However, if the rebels start a government, they could ask for assistance. I still think that my suggestion to ask Egypt for support is better.
Clinton, speaking in the UN Human Rights Council, called for an investigation of the Iranian regime's human rights abuses.
I support this initiative wholeheartedly, but why limit to Iran (and Libya). Why omit the US? Its regime still practices torture and imprisonment without trial.
US spending on "security" amounts to around 1,201 billion dollars.
I disagree with the author's decision to include the entire foreign relations budget of 18 billion dollars in the total, so I reduced the article's total by 18 billion.
Tennessee is considering a law to ban organizations that "advocate shari'a law".
Shari'a law is brutal and violates human rights. It ought to be banned world-wide. However, censoring those who hold such views is just as bad.
A Massey mining manager has been arrested for destroying evidence.
That evidence probably showed that the company was responsible for the fatal mine disaster.
UN inspectors in Ivory Coast, trying to check whether Gbagbo received helicopters from Belarus, were shot at by Gbagbo's forces.
That ought to count as tentative verification.
China has banned reporters from covering certain areas in Beijing and Shanghai.
The protest announcement, whether or not it was intended to lead to a real protest, has succeeded in making China embarrass itself.
The London police refuse to explicitly say whether they will infiltrate March 26 protests with undercover cops.
They do, however, admit they expect "troublemakers" to be among the protesters. Perhaps they refer to their infiltrators.
A poisonous weed from South America threatens to wipe out the native wildlife in the Masai Mara wildlife reserve.
The US has cut taxes on the rich by almost 2/3 since the 1960s.
Raising their taxes again, and not just a few percent, is something America needs.
Should foreign countries attack the Iranian dictators' regime?
Intervening in a country to establish a free democratic government is justified if that we know the people of that country want this kind of help, and we can be confident that the new regime will be free and democratic. How does this apply to Iran?
If Iranians in general want help overthrowing the tyranny that rules them, we ought to help them. But it is hard to tell if Iranians in general would welcome such an invasion. Many Iranians are angry at the regime, but many could still be a minority; we have no way to tell.
The Shah's regime constantly says that the opposition is a tool of the US. I don't think this is true now, but some Iranians must believe it. If the opposition were visibly linked with foreign invaders, would that win the regime enough support to fight a long guerrilla war?
We also have to ask whether such an invasion would achieve its goal. The invasion of Afghanistan seemed to turn out well, for a while, but things are much worse now. And the invasion of Iraq, which Bush claimed was meant to free Iraq from a regime that killed unjustly and tortured, gave them another regime that killed unjustly and tortured, and most Iraqis said they were better off under Saddam. An invasion of Iran could go bad too.
Obama is not Bush. Bush cared nothing for freedom or democracy in his own country, so it was clear he would not care about them in Iraq. Obama cares a little about freedom and democracy, just not enough to let them get in the way of his higher priorities. If we asked Obama, "Would you prefer democracy or dictatorship in Iran?", he might say "democracy, all else being equal". At least he would prefer democracy to the present Islamic dictatorship. But I would not count on Obama to be a reliable custodian for democracy in Iran after he has failed to be one in the US.
At present, much as I would like to see the Iranian regime overthrown, I have to conclude that the conditions to justify foreign intervention do not exist.
Tim de Christopher saved land from oil drilling and pollution by bidding a high price in the auction Bush arranged for. Obama withdrew the land from oil drilling, but de Christopher faces ten years in prison for saving it.
Everyone: state your solidarity with the campaign to recall Republican state senators in Wisconsin.
Everyone: urge the Wisconsin Demoractic senators not to return and let Walker crush the unions.
Everyone: sign this petition calling on NOAA to release the research funds to study the big spill's effects.
Congressional Republicans promote gratuitous conspicuous waste as a symbol of their rejection of rationality.
BP says most of the damage claims from the big spill "lack proof".
That doesn't mean they are false (though some of them might be). It means that BP harmed large segments of society in ways that are hard to prove specifically, and now it will avoid compensating the damage it did.
An opposition politician in Belarus describes being tortured by the KGB.
It sounds a lot like US torture practices.
I wonder how landlocked Belarus managed to sell arms to Ivory Coast. Did some neighbor of Belarus also violate the arms embargo?
A US ISP has started doing Deep Packet Interference: inserting its own advertisements into pages coming from other sites.
Thousands protested in Baghdad on Friday against al Maliki's corruption and imposed religious restrictions.
As the US rebuilt relations with Gaddafi, human rights concerns took a back seat.
The US is stopping Aristide from leaving South Africa until after the Burmese-style election is finished.
The UK Labour party shows its weakness by proposing tax incentives for employers to pay an adequate wage.
A real Labor party would enact a higher minimum wage and not reduce business taxes at all.
Obama seems ready to end US efforts against global heating rather than let the Republicans shut down the US government.
When Clinton faced a similar threat, he refused to capitulate, and he won. Obama knows this, of course, but he doesn't care enough to fight.
A painstakingly reconstructed rainforest farm is being destroyed by a fire apparently caused by arson.
Although this sabotage might not have happened, natural fires do occur. I think that such projects are futile in places which have a long dry season that makes them so vulnerable.
Global heating will destroy many forests. A few decades of drying and most of the Amazon rain forest could be ready to burn up — and there will always be sparks.
Iranian opposition leaders Mousavi and Karoubi are now in a real prison, and so are their wives.
Obama frequently hobnobs with executives and promotes their business, but does not seem to even think about NGOs.
That is, except when (as Wikileaks did) they get in his way.
Ralph Nader suggests lessons to draw from the Wisconsin resistance.
An Iranian blogger argues that ncr-iran.org is the Iranian version of Faux News.
I don't know enough facts about the NCR or PMOI to judge the criticism's validity.
How to keep up the pressure on Wisconsin governor Walker when the protesters "have to" stop protesting and return to work?
As the protesters in Egypt showed, the way to keep up the pressure is not to stop protesting. In the long view, you don't have to return to work. You have to keep up the fight.
Everyone sign this petition calling on US Customs to stop seizing Internet domains.
Note that "seizing a criminal's car" is not as acceptable as it might sound, because the US does this without giving the alleged "criminal" a proper trial.
Everyone: sign this petition not to let Rupert Murdoch (owner of Faux News) control most UK television.
US citizens: phone your senators saying don't allow cuts in the agencies that regulate Wall Street. Also sign this petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the Pentagon follow whatever spending reductions apply to the rest of the federal government.
Please sign: Call on US supermarkets to stop selling unsustainable fish.
An organization of small UK stores that sell newspapers and such things has been co-opted by the tobacco companies to lobby against smoking-discouragement laws.
People often assume that perfectionism leads to more achievement, but it tends to cause anxiety that can have the opposite result.
Hundreds of police, ordered by Wisconsin governor Wilson to evict the protesters occupying the part of the state house, joined the protest instead.
General Petraeus has made night raids on homes a common occurrence, with lots of civilian casualties (though the US won't acknowledge them all).
Movie theater income rises every year.
Piracy is great for Hollywood: they make tons of money from all the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. What bothers them is not piracy but sharing. Don't repeat their propaganda — don't call it "piracy".
"Theft" is another propaganda term. If you take someone else's DVD or film, that's theft. Copying is not theft.
Gaddafi has been jamming satellite telephones and Al Jazeera's satellite.
A US general illegally ordered his psy-ops team to investigate US senators. The team commander resisted, and he was punished with a spurious investigation. The illegal practice apparently continued after this.
After 30 years of dishonest trickle-down economics, look how much of the US' wealth the rich have collected.
The campaign against Alternative Voting in the UK is based on shallow lies.
Tunisia's premier, who worked with the former dictator, has been ousted by protests.
The town of Zawiyah, 30 miles from Tripoli, threw out Gaddafi's men after over 3 days of fighting, with support from some soldiers. Now it is surrounded by territory still under Gaddafi's control.
I don't get the impression that Zawiyah could withstand attack by a substantial part of Gaddafi's army. For the moment, it seems he is not in a position to send such a force there. Perhaps he needs all his remaining forces to keep control of Tripoli and the other towns they occupy.
The danger is that if he manages to kill enough people in Tripoli to discourage further uprising there, he might then be able to send a batallion to capture Zawiyah and various other rebel towns, one by one.
Many wars have been lost by underestimating the enemy, and we must not underestimate this one. The rebellion may need help and it deserves help.
Pakistani newspapers claim that Raymond Davis was recruiting for the Pakistani Taliban.
I would not put it past the US government to build up a phony enemy, but the Taliban is real enough, and there is another legitimate reason a CIA agent might be in contact with members of an enemy army: to spy on it.
BP reneges on deal to rebuild oyster beds, repair wetlands, Louisiana officials say.
Doctors in Iran accuse Shah Khamenei's forces of spraying poison gas, not ordinary tear gas.
In Ivory Coast, both of the presidential candidates controlled parts of the country for years. Since defeated former president Gbagbo refuses to yield power, Ouattara's supporters are now trying to win militarily.
Under these circumstances I wonder what was done to hold a free and fair election, and whether this was indeed possible in either side's territory.
Fracking, injecting water underground to release natural gas, makes toxic waste water which is not properly treated. US water supplies are being contaminated.
The US is deporting legal Haitian immigrants that have served prison sentences.
In Haiti they are imprisoned again, without trial and without food, apparently in pursuit of bribes.
The fact that they face imprisonment without trial if returned to Haiti ought to be legal grounds for asylum, right?
The phony democracy in Djibouti has put a stop to protests by arresting 300 leaders and menacing the other thousands with lots of police.
Suggestions for protests in Beijing did not inspire any protests, but the regime's nasty preemptive response made it look bad.
Iranian opposition candidate Mousavi has been arrested, with his wife. They are being held unofficially in an secret police "safe house" — that is, a place where it is safe for the secret police to carry out any sort of mischief.
Applying Howard Zinn to Iran.
The Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo prisoners can plead Habeas Corpus, but the appeals court in charge of this has made the conditions so strict that nobody can win.
US citizens: tell Senate Democrats to stand firm and not make disastrous "compromises" with Republicans.
A popular videogame has been banned by Australia's censorship.
The game is disgusting because it is proprietary software. I would probably find the violence in that game disgusting, too, but not as disgusting as censorship.
The gloves are off: the corporations are fighting with Americans over what sort of country the US should be.
Egyptian troops attacked protesters demanding resignation of a minister held over from Mubarak's regime.
US citizens: call on the government to allow Omar Barghouti to speak in the US.
Evidence shows Obama's economic stimulus worked — and that right-wing budget cuts will cause disaster.
In Bangladesh, even MPs can be arrested and tortured.
Obama wants to spend billions to fund unprofitable (and dangerous) nuclear power reactors in the US.
France wants to put small nuclear power reactors in special motorless submarines.
These submarines might solve the problem of possible small leaks, which would disperse in the ocean, but they do not solve the problem final disposal of the nuclear waste. While these submarines would be inccessible to casual visitors, they have a vulnerability that land-based nukes don't have: a well-financed team with a submarine and underwater robots could steal one and tow it away.
Maybe they would be safe if they used thorium instead of uranium, but a stolen thorium reactor could be modified to make bomb material even if it doesn't do so in normal operation.
The opponents to Alternative Voting in the UK are using lies as arguments.
If Assange is sent to Sweden, he will have a fundamentally unjust secret trial.
This highlights the general injustice of the European Arrest Warrant.
Gaddafi has retained military control of most of the area around Tripoli at the cost of attacking protesters with tanks.
Veteran anti-apartheid campaigners call on South Africa to help Aristide return to Haiti as soon as possible.
That he has not returned shows the US must be preventing him, but how is it doing that?
Wisconsin's governor revealed his corruption, both moral and legal, in a phone call with a journalist who pretended to be one of the Koch brothers.
US citizens: call on Google and Facebook to protect their users' privacy from Big Brother.
I support this campaign but really it doesn't go far enough. You shouldn't use Facebook at all.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support enactment of the recommendations of the oil spill commission.
A glacier in Peru has shrunk by half since 1983. Shrinking glaciers has been accompanied by a decrease in water, which is already scarce there.
The UK proposes to require "zero carbon" homes starting in 2016, except that they will only have to cut carbon emissions by 50% to qualify as "zero". The rest can be a "carbon offset".
Carbon offset programs are dubious, and often mere swindles. It may be that a the best short-term strategy is a target short of zero, but if so, they should be honest about it.
46 opposition leaders in Zimbabwe were accused of treason for "planning an uprising", but actually they only tried to hold a protest. They were apparently tortured.
That accusation is dishonest: protests are not treason, except in the mind of a tyrant.
Starting April 1, everyone in Switzerland will be required to wear a mask while in public.
We should all get used to wearing a variety of masks in public as the only way to prevent total state surveillance.
Did Iran use tear gas — or poison gas?
A critique of the US and European media's coverage of protests in Iran.
Regarding the Telegraph, I think the criticism is not for covering the events in Camp Ashraf, but rather for associating that protest specifically with the People's Mujahideen.
The Shah's forces threw a student off a bridge onto a road and he was killed by a car.
HB Gary developed undetectable Windows rootkits for the US government to break the security of computers running sapware.
US citizens: tell Senator Durbin you support reforming the U SAP AT RIOT Act.
More info:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sc-dc-0218-patriot-act-20110217,0,2938720.story
The UK approved Julian Assange's extradition to Sweden. He will appeal the decision.
Syria is crushing protests with massive police presence.
Raymond Davis, the US spy in Pakistan, may really not be entitled to diplomatic immunity.
Telesur has turned into a boring propaganda engine, epitomized by its defense of Gaddafi — it says that Libya is calm under his control.
When I was invited to serve on the advisory committee for Telesur, which functioned only during its launch, I suggested following the model of Al Jazeera. My suggestion was not heeded.
I don't expect this to have any influence, but I hereby formally resign from that relationship with Telesur.
The Arab revolutions are damaging US dominion over the Arab world. In Tunisia and Egypt, Washington started by opposing them, but yielded when the world's eye turned firmly on them. But will it yield with clients such as Bahrain that have US bases?
The Arab revolutions also point the way way for how to topple the empire of the megacorporations and free our own countries from the dominion of the corrupt, immune rich.
Australia proposes to put a tax on CO2 emissions.
The UK's inquiry into collaboration with torture is so restricted as to be inadequate for the job.
95% of the world's coral reefs are expected to be dying by 2050.
George Monbiot poses the question: what must we do to defeat Internet astroturfing by PR companies managing dozens of sock puppets.
Why we see what isn't there.
The Republicans' War on Women.
It is confirmed that Eastern Libya has been liberated by parts of the army that have rebelled against Gaddafi.
A drought endangers China's wheat crop. Global heating has probably helped cause this drought, and will certainly cause bigger ones in the future.
The oil from the Big Spill has killed the marsh grass on the beach, the shrimp in the shallows, the crabs and brittle stars on the sea bottom, and now baby dolphins are mysteriously dying too.
Right-wing fanatics in Georga plan to make abortion and miscarriage a capital offense.
The Shah's men arrested the son of opposition leader Karroubi.
Several Libyan tribes have supported the rebellion.
The Iranian resistance says that the Shah's men are confiscating satellite TV receivers.
Some Iranians condemn Mousavi for a statement that disclaims any demand for deep change in the Iranian regime.
I am not convinced that it is valid to say "Mousavi saved the regime" last year. That asserts that protecting the regime was his goal. Perhaps he wasn't bold in opposition because he thought they would shoot him for that, and then he would have achieved nothing. That might be the case. They may torture and/or execute him for what he has already done.
The US border fence with Mexico has increased the number of illegal immigrants that die in the desert, without greatly affecting the number that get in.
Iranian diplomats are defecting, ashamed of the cruelty of their government.
US citizens: Tell Wisconsin governor Walker what you think of him.
Efforts to file charges for torture against Bush in other countries are just the beginning: Bush deserves a trial in the US.
Obama's faulure to no support Wisconsin teachers and public workers reflects his general contempt for working Americans.
Rwanda says it will give a priority to preserving remaining wild habitats and sustainable development.
Achieving this goal requires a strong campaign to limit birth. Rwanda must not passively wait for the population to double in 30 years. It should make sure this does not happen. Charities could offer donations to young women that get sterilized after having at most one child.
Gaddafi's forces have lost control over eastern Libya, but corpses are lying in the street in Tripoli.
I think the Security Council should ask Egypt should send troops to protect the people of eastern Libya, so that Gaddafi's killers cannot return there.
Protests in Bahrain are now occurring without state violence.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support bill HR780 to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
In the US: go to protests on Saturday around the US in solidarity with Wisconsin workers.
General Petraeus accused Afghan civilians of burning their children to pretend the harm was done by a US bomb.
Is it ethical to work on automating business?
Iraqis are protesting in Baghdad agqinst the corruption, brutality and religious repression of their "democracy". Government thugs were brought in, and police and troops are interfering with foreign reporters.
Although the US vetoed the Security Council resolution condemning Israel's land-grab, the resolution has shown that the world has focused on these settlements as the main obstacle to peace.
Everyone: call for UN sanctions to hamper Gaddafi's military attacks on protesters in Libya.
Iranian criticism accuses the Voice of America's Farsi broadcasts of supporting Shah Khamenei under chairman Ali Sajadi. But now it has appointed a new chairman for VOA Farsi who might, or might not, correct this.
Ralph Nader: Americans must topple the corporate dictators.
To have an effect through democracy, just voting is not enough. Only voting for candidates who reject the corporate empire and are prepared to destroy it will do any good. Nader has been one of them, and I have voted for him for president several times, but until most Americans do this, they will get more corporate flunkies like Bill Clinton, Dubya, and Obama.
Ex-president Gbagbo in Ivory Coast had troops shoot protesters.
The US is deporting Haitians to Haiti after they serve sentences for more or less any sort of crime. In Haiti they get imprisoned again in conditions that have already killed one of them.
I wonder what grounds Haiti has for imprisoning them.
UK Uncut's next target is the bank RBS, which is mostly owned by the state but allowed pay giant bonuses while financing global heating.
A Congolese officer has been sentenced to a long prison term for mass rapes he allowed his troops to commit.
House Republicans voted mainly against cutting the military budget.
When they talk about reducing the budget, that's just an excuse to hurt poor Americans and women.
Card-only purchasing at school lunch enables parents to monitor and control what their children buy.
If you buy by credit card, companies and governments can monitor what you buy, too. So I buy things with cash. If the business says "no cash", say "no sale".
The SEC is so corrupt that it systematically ignores fraud by large corporations. It received tip-offs of fraud in AIG and Lehman Bros, and pointedly ignored them.
HB Gary developed software for PR business to generate large numbers of fake "personas" and pretend to be broad support on an issue.
The US government wants this software to distort public debate in Afghanistan, but megacorps don't need to have the US government directly run it for them. They can do this themselves.
Gorbachev says Putin's regime resembles the Communist regime that Gorbachev ended.
The Republicans' continuing resolution would make the US deaf, dumb and blind towards global heating.
It also attacks protection of public health from air and water pollution.
The term "global heating" comes closer to doing justice to what is happening than "global warming" or "climate change". Perhaps it is still inadequatel; maybe we ought to call it "planet burning". However, I reserve that term for the activity of intentionally trying to exacerbate global heating.
Republicans increase social spending more than Democrats, but they direct it towards full-time high paid employees of large companies instead of towards the poor.
Shah Khamenei's reaction against the protests has made the regime look very bad.
Gaddafi's men have attacked protesters with rifles and airplanes, and the protesters are arming themselves, seizing and destroying government buildings.
In Benghazi, Gaddafi's men were attacking all around the city.
Libyan diplomats and air force pilots have defected.
On Feb 20, Shah Khamenei's men killed several protesters and arrested thousands. However, protesters succeeded in freeing other arrested protesters.
The Iranian resistance says there is fighting in the streets of Tehran.
US corporations shifted the tax burden to individuals, then steered resentful citizens into opposing government spending rather than increasing the tax on companies.
The UK government wants to subcontract nearly all public services to companies.
This is a form of union-busting, among other things.
Novelist Ian McEwan rejected calls to boycott the Jerusalem Prize, but he turned the prize ceremony into criticism of the siege of Gaza and the land-grab in the West Bank.
Chinese tried to call for protests, but massive police presence stifled them.
Undercover police spy/provocateur Mark Kennedy brought 5 German undercover police to a protest in the UK.
The UN calls on every country to invest 2% of income in green industry.
A CIA agent working in the US embassy in Pakistan has been detained, ignoring diplomatic immunity, because he shot two thieves that attacked him on the street.
The real issues between the US and Pakistan concern US drone bombings and Pakistan's toleration of the Taliban. I think Davis is being used as a scapegoat to substitute for confronting those issues.
Ugandan leader wins again, but critics say vote was fraudulent.
China is holding Liu Xiaobo's wife incommunicado under house arrest.
Palestinians plan mass protests against the US veto of their security council resolution.
Thus, ironically, the US has helped strengthen the Palestinian movement for democracy as well as independence by refusing its support.
Everyone: for live updates about the protests in Wisconsin, see this page.
US citizens, sign this petition supporting Wisconsin public workers.
In the US: join the SEIU's protests to defend workers' rights.
Anyone: donate to support the Democratic state senators of Wisconsin in blocking the governor's union-busting plans.
Police in Yemen are shooting protesters.
In Egypt, the protesters organized to protect their neighborhoods when the regime tried that trick. I wonder if the looters in Aden are police. That would explain how they got started so fast.
Algerians continued protesting despite tens of thousands of police that blocked and attacked them.
Western pressure helped restrain the level of government violence. Some of the descriptions of the police attacks, and the resulting injuries, remind me of London last year.
Gaddafi has launched all-out war on the protesters.
Their families will hate him for decades because of this.
Howewer, in Bahrain, the police pulled back from the protest center.
Uri Avnery: Israel must make peace with Palestine so it can sincerly support the new Arab revolution.
The alternative, to help the dictators that try to stop the revolution, is so wrong that it can't lead to anything good.
UK activists plan to refuse to answer census questions in protest against Lockheed Martin's role in the census.
In addition, the legal protections against leaking census answers are inadequate.
Salmon farms spread swarms of lice that are killing the young wild salmon.
Since the farms are losing the battle against sea lice, they may have to shut down in time to save the wild salmon. But we must not count on that!
Many Middle Eastern and North African countries are running short of water and depend on food imports.
The high price of imported wheat helped trigger uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. Eliminating the corrupt elite could reduce waste and help the rest of the people get enough food and water — but that only goes so far. The projected increase in future water needs is a function of projected population growth.
These countries need to face up to the need to limit their population to what they can sustain.
The Western intervention in Afghanistan perpetuates poverty that kills far more people than the war itself.
A French journalist was convicted of a crime for stating political views.
I disagree with part of Zemmour's views, but censoring any views is tyranny. Shame on France.
An opposition Iranian criticizes Obama for not supporting the protesters in Iran as much as he ultimately did the protesters in Egypt.
I think this article has missed a vital difference between the two cases. Remember that, at first, the US government did not support the protests in Egypt. That's because Mubarak was a US-supported dictator. The Egyptian army has deep ties with Washington, and I suspect the US used them to convince the army to first restrain Mubarak's violence and ultimately make him step down.
Besides which, once the Egyptian protests really got going, nobody in Egypt was going to regard the limited US support for them as "foreign meddling" and support Mubarak in reaction. After Mubarak had been the US's puppet for so long, he could hardly score any points by charging his opposition with being the US's puppets, although he tried.
The US has no influence with any part of the Iranian government, so it is not in a position to do anything behind the scene. There is great hostility between the US and Iran, so accusing opposition of being US puppets could succeed there.
The fraudulent Haitian elections should be cancelled.
Laws give banksters an extra incentive to foreclose.
Live reporting from the protests in Madison, Wisconsin.
Aristide supporters march in Haiti for his return.
In Bahrain and Libya, the government forces are massacring protesters.
The EU concluded privately that cutting carbon emissions by 25% by 2020 will be easy, and 30% not too hard.
Human overfishing of predator fish, such as tuna, salmon and cod, is distorting the ocean ecology.
Republicans in the House of Representatives eliminated the funding for Planned Parenthood to provide birth control and cancer screenings.
While this was partially intended to make abortion difficult (while making more abortions necessary), it fits their general intention to make everything harder for working and poor Americans.
Some in the Iranian opposition criticize Mousavi for being too mild in his opposition to the regime.
Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac have spent half a billion dollars of bailout money on legal fees, trying to sabotage a trial for fraud by overloading it with lawyering.
How big business subverts democracy in the US.
The US Congress is planning to attack sharing, no matter what legal rights it destroys in the process.
Ebooks with DRM won't work on an iGroan which is jailbroken, due to intentional sabotage by Apple.
E-books with digital handcuffs are products designed to attack your freedom, much like the iGroan itself.
The US government is considering uranium mining in the Grand Canyon.
It would sell its grandmother for a few dollars.
As mining tar sands is polluting land and water in Canada, transporting it to the US is polluting land and water in the US.
Three influential foundations tie US schools in knots, pushing large reforms not based on scientific evidence.
I don't see any ulterior motive in this, so I wonder why they don't proceed more carefully.
US citizens: sign this petition to your senators to preserve title X funding for family planning.
Massachusetts citizens: urge your state rep and senator to vote for the Transgender Equal Rights Bill.
US citizens: sign this letter in support of the Wisconsin public workers.
The governor has threatened to use soldiers to crush the protests.
US citizens: Natural gas fracking in the Delaware River basin can poison the water supply for 15 million people, including New York City. Demand careful review.
Bilingualism helps children think clearly and postpones Alzheimer's disease.
Banksters' PR company forged letters to oppose firm regulation of the banksters.
PA President Abbas stood firm against a US demand that he drop the proposed Security Council resolution to condemn Israel's land grab in the West Bank.
As Clinton spoke, a silent protester turned his back to her.
For this he was beaten and arrested, as she went on talking about freedom of speech.
Republicans are trying to block the EPA from protecting Americans from many forms of air pollution and water pollution.
The Bahraini regime has oppressed Shi'ites for decades, and torture of dissidents is standard practice.
Afghan villagers dispute the US position about destroying the houses of their village.
At least the villagers were not injured by the attack. Afghanistan is a war zone, and if they let the Taliban occupy and mine their village, they must expect some damage.
30,000 people are protesting in Wisconsin against the bill to destroy public sector unions. Where's Al Jazeera when we need it?
Japan has admitted defeat by Sea Shepherd and called its whaling fleet home.
Yemen has persistent protests by people that don't belong to organized opposition. The state sends police to crush the protests.
US citizens: sign this petition for federal prosecution of the Houston police who repeated kicked (and injured) a suspect who had surrendered.
If that suspect committed the robbery, he deserves to be put in prison, but not in the hospital.
Morocco continues arbitrary arrest and torture in Western Sahara.
Morocco occupied Western Sahara after Spain pulled out, replacing one colonial regime with another.
US citizens: Sign this petition to protect social security and to make people with high salaries pay the same share as everyone else.
The FBI wants to impose more surveillance on Americans, with requirements for back doors in a large range of network services and programs.
A virtual reality system produces artificial out-of-body experiences.
I seems that the capacity to have an out-of-body experience is part of the brain's normal flexibility.
Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer says that Germany warned Tenet that Curveball (the Iraqi defector) might be lying.
California consumers are suing stores for demanding they give their zip code when paying.
However, the really bad effect of credit cards on privacy is that the credit card company records who you buy from. And at least some credit cards give your name to the store's computer too. So if you care about privacy, do what I do: buy goods with cash.
When a business says "credit cards only", it forfeits my business.
The US government intended to seize 10 internet domains without a trial, and carelessly took down 84000 other domains in the process.
When floods and heatwaves occur, it is due to specific circumstances, but the blame falls mainly on global heating, which is chiefly responsible for them today. Likewise, this accident resulted from specific careless mistakes, but the blame falls mainly on the unjust (and careless) policy of seizing domains without a trial.
Sites should move to TLDs not under the control of the US government.
Professors and Canadians: sign a petition in support of Canadians being sued for criticizing mining companies.
The EU is planning a trade treaty with the dictatorship of Uzbekistan even though the state practically conscripts child labor.
Private lie/smear companies now offer the dirty tricks of FBI's COINTELPRO as a service to big business.
Measuring the political influence of poor and middle income voters on the US congress: very small.
Some legislators might pay attention.
Shah Khamenei's forces admit arresting 1500 protesters in Teheran on Monday.
As the UN resolution condemning Israel's land grab in the West Bank approaches a vote, the US says it will veto the resolution — but it is trying to avoid the blame so it wants the proponents to drop it instead.
The US says this resolution will hurt the "peace process". As shown by the Palestinian Papers, the kind of "peace negotiations" that the US wants involve concessions by the Palestinians in return for nothing. Uri Avnery explained that this phony "peace process" was intended to give an appearance of willingness to make peace with no chance of doing so. Its only real effect is to bamboozle those who want a real chance for peace.
Bahrain police made a bloody night attack on a protest camp, killing and wounding protesters. Police took wounded protesters from ambulances.
This would justify all-out guerrilla war against the government.
The governor of Wisconsin wants to restrict public sector unions to the point where they are nearly ineffective.
Greg Palast investigated the Chevron-Texaco spills in Ecuador and reports on the dead children — and on proof that the company tried to destroy evidence.
The US government supports Internet freedom abroad while attacking Internet freedom on several lines in the US.
Egypt's military wants a new constitution written in ten days, and an election within six months.
It is good that the military is not clinging to power, but a constitution written so fast cannot be good.
Protests have begun in Libya for an end to Ghaddafi's dictatorship.
To some extent one can measure the depth of tyranny by the size and frequency of pictures of the ruler. In Libya there are giant photos of Ghaddafi on the side of buildings.
A study calculates that global heating has doubled the risk of severe floods in parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
The Palestinian Authority has called new elections, defying orders from the US and Israel to keep the same people in power no matter what.
Russia follows democratic forms, but the suppression of opposition is so strong that Putin's party can do whatever it likes.
The Shah's men killed a protester, then gave him a state funeral pretending he was part of the government militia.
Many dictators are equally violent, but few can match the Iranian regime for pervasive callousness and dishonesty. It reminds me of Stalin and North Korea.
Japan has suspended whaling, and is thinking of calling back its whaling fleet early. It acknowledges that this is due to Sea Shepherd.
Stop blaming Italians for Berlusconi — it's his near-monopoly of TV that warps the political system that keeps him in power.
A study reports that using Ecstacy does not seem to reduce mental ability.
The Iraqi defector whose lies provided Bush with an excuse to attack Iraq could face criminal charges of fomenting a war of aggression.
His lies provided the raw material for a process of rigged analysis designed intentionally to produce the conclusion that Bush wanted.
Prosecuting "Curveball" would be a good first step towards charging Bush with the crime of launching a war of aggression.
Philadelphia homeowner 'forecloses' on Wells Fargo.
Due to fear of right-wing fanatics, Mila Means can't find a place in Wichita to have an abortion clinic.
The article reports that Means' landlord got a court order forbidding her to do abortions. I think that itself is scandalous: why should a landlord be allowed to impose such a restriction?
Chevron says that Ecuador's courts are dishonest, but it was Chevron that argued to move its pollution case to Ecuador in 2003.
I think I understand Chevron's reasoning, then and now. In 2003, the government of Ecuador was totally corrupt and a patsy for the US. Chevron probably thought it could procure a favorable outcome in Ecuador. Then President Correa was elected. Perhaps the system is not corrupt enough now to satisfy Chevron.
Venezuela has a close relationship with Ecuador and might enforce this judgment on Chevron.
A UK woman faces charges of theft for taking food discarded by a store.
Al Maliki continues torturing prisoners in secret prisons, just like Saddam Hussein and George Bush. They sign confessions they have not read.
Anyone, including you, can be accused of terrorism. If you accept that a person has no rights once he is accused of terrorism, you have accepted that nobody has any rights.
Rafad Alwan admits he fabricated stories about nonexistent Iraqi weapons so as to cause trouble for Saddam Hussein.
The article shows that the UK had evidence that some of Alwan's stories were false. So why did Colin Powell believe the rest? I suspect Bush told B'liar not to look too deeply into the validity of this testimony, which gave them the excuse they sought.
When the article says that the occupation of Iraq killed "more than 100,000" civilians, it isn't wrong, but it is definitely misleading. The best estimate is around a million deaths.
Former juror Jezz Davis says the police's failure to mention infiltrator Kennedy in the trial makes him feel "betrayed by the British judicial system".
Israel plans to build a new military school in East Jerusalem.
In effect, the state is thumbing its nose at the US.
For many Palestinian activists, Israeli prison was a political education in democracy, studying history and literature more than most universities.
The Egyptian "security forces" that were run by Omar Suleiman got FBI training despite their involvement in torture.
Cables show the training starting by 2005 and continued through 2010. The US forbids giving training to so-called terrorist organizations, even training in human rights. Why should torture organizations get favorable treatment?
Berlusconi will be prosecuted for paying an underage prostitute, and for lying to the police to get her released from arrest for theft.
I don't think paying her was wrong, but intervening dishonestly with the police is abuse of power. Of course, what's really bad about Berlusconi is his corruption and his dominion over the media.
Besides the police infiltrators, UK environmental organizations were infiltrated by hired corporate spies.
I can't criticize a company for sending people to public meetings to find out what is said in them. However, as the infiltrators begin lying more and more, so as to obtain the group's secrets, at some point it becomes fraudulent.
When spies infiltrate a company to obtain its secrets, that is a crime. Shouldn't it be a crime if a company does the same thing to a protest group?
The political issue of the proposed Belo Monte dam.
I don't have a position on this. I don't have the information to judge the benefits of that particular dam, but I don't think it is bad a priori.
I have doubts about the argument that the reservoir would emit methane and CO2 from decaying organic material. I can believe that happens for a while, but I wonder how long a reservoir continues to do this. I'd expect it to be a one-time event. I also wonder how this compares quantitatively with the CO2 that would be saved annually by using the dam rather than burning fossil fuel.
The Saudi oil executive, reported by US diplomats to have said Saudi oil reserves were much less than supposedly, says they misunderstood him.
It is not clear who to believe.
Greenpeace is suing Dow Chemical for running spies to infiltrate and sabotage its activities.
The same shady operation spied for the NRA, infiltrating gun control groups.
The Egyptian opposition says the military is planning an inadequate constitutional reform without consulting the opposition.
Ralph Nader: Civic Institutions Essential for Egypt's Revolution.
The Middle East's Pox Americana.
Faculty at Bar Ilan university say that right-wingers in the administration have threatened professors they won't be promoted if they endorse contrary views.
Analyzing Wikileaks cables, Shir Hever concludes that the siege of Gaza is partly intended to guarantee a market for Israeli goods.
Israeli settlers near the Palestinian town of Beit Fajjar have forced a quarry to close. Burning the mosque was not enough.
Settlers plan to confiscate the farmland around the village of Beit Ummar to extend their colony.
I suspect their subsequent move will be to claim it is too dangerous to let Arabs keep living in that village.
The US will veto a security council resolution condemning Israel's land-grabbing "settlements" in Palestine, even though official US policy is to condemn them.
Gas frackers, embarrassed by the film Gasland, have tried to pressure the oscar committee to withdraw the film's nomination.
South Dakota is considering a bill to excuse murder of abortion doctors.
Police in Bahrain shot at thousands of peaceful protesters with tear gas and bird shot.
A democratic Egypt would still cooperate with the US against violent Islamists.
The US forces in Afghanistan have never lost a battle, but strategically the Taliban keep attacking more.
Periods of higher temperature correlate historically with increased war -- especially in arid regions. If that correlation reflects causality, global heating could kill with guns as well as with floods and fires.
Karzai wants to free a Taliban prisoner from Guantanamo so he can participate in negotiations.
Oxfam: Western foreign aid that was meant to help the poor is being diverted to support military policies.
Chevron has been found responsible for widespread pollution in Ecuador and fined 8 billion dollars.
I do not believe Chevron's accusations of fraud. The alleged massive conspiracy is unlikely a priori, but spilling a lot of oil is normal practice for oil companies operating in areas where people were poor and the state was corrupt.
It is no surprise that Chevron is getting help from the US government to fight back. What else would the US government, which has hardly bothered to stop more Big Spills, do?
Students in the UK are protesting plans to ban lap dancing, which they depend on to make money for school.
I have nothing against lap dancing, or prostitution for that matter. But not everyone can do it. If society makes education so expensive that students who aren't rich need to do do sex work, those who aren't qualified for such work will be excluded.
Thousands of people protested in Tehran, and the Shah's forces could not stop them, according to a resistance organization, the NCR.
A further statement from this organization.
UK coal power companies pay spies to infiltrate environmental organizations.
Obama proposes to boost clean energy funding by cutting fossil fuel subsidies. One change for the better would make possible a second change for the better.
Isn't it amazing how hypocritical Republicans suddenly found a good side to government subsidies? What's special about these subsidies is that they go to the companies that pay the congresscritters.
Global heating threatens to wipe out many Arctic species because competing species from the temperate zone are moving north.
The guilty verdict in Khodorkovsky's trial was ordered from above, says the judge's assistant, who saw the order. Each step the judge took was under explicit control.
The Republican War on the Poor aims to eliminate the Legal Services Corporation.
That way, it won't matter if poor people formally still have some rights; they won't be able to afford to act when those rights are violated.
Slave laborers in Argentina formally have legal rights too.
UK secret agencies want the right to present secret evidence in court.
This means, in effect, the abolition of justice.
Courts may consider Obama's health insurance bill unconsititutional because of the feature that made it a sell-out to the insurance companies. Yet most of the people who wanted real health care reform before seem to be defending Obama's bill now.
1000 Nokia employees protested Nokia's decision to ally with Microsoft.
Hundreds of thousands of rural laborers in Argentina work in conditions close to slavery, and the police and the state support their employers. (Page in Spanish.)
The BBC plans to destroy vast quantities of web archives.
Natural gas spurting from the Big Spill could create deep-sea dead zones that last for decades.
Algeria's government claims that the protesters are an insignificant minority.
Perhaps the majority is too afraid of the police.
Here's the corporate empire view: ending the emergency law and restoring human rights is a "dangerous move".
Business prefers a dictatorship that will keep people from making trouble.
Criticizing the fad of travelling to remote beautiful places for the sake of exercize or danger.
The Egyptian military has rejected an immediate transition to democracy and threatens to crush the protests.
The Iranian opposition called for protests today despite the government's pre-emptive arrests.
How the metaphor of "balance" for political decisions systematically obscures and biases the issues.
Everyone: sign this petition for all nations to return Mubarak's stolen assets to the people of Egypt.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose HR 358, the bill to put abortion out of reach for many women, and which would also allow hospitals to let women die rather than do an abortion.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to defend the National Family Planning Program and its funding.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to preserve the presidential campaign financing system.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The Egyptian military command expected Mubarak to resign on Thursday; when he didn't do that, they pushed him out.
Now the protesters are not confident the military rulers will accept democracy.
Uri Avery: Israel can either make the Egyptian revolution an opportunity for friendship, or ensure hostility by opposing it.
Pakistan wants to prosecute Musharraf for letting Benazir Bhutto be assassinated.
Tea Party representatives want to cut the US military budget.
Anonymous cracked HB Gary's web site, and exposed its plan to join other companies to smear Wikileaks and its supporters using lies — funded by Bank of America.
Other smear campaigns were being prepared to attack other targets, and the US government seems to be connected to some of the companies involved.
These campaigns reflects a situation where the corporate elite and the government can trash anyone's rights at will. In the US of Bush and Obama, the law exists for the elite to crush opposition.
The Algerian regime has arrested thousands of protesters, while shutting down the Internet.
Obama is secretly extending the FBI's powers of surveillance over telephone call records.
Congress is investigating a US company that sold Internet surveillance technology to Egypt.
Hindu fanatics want to embarrass couples that kiss in public on Valentine's Day.
I think the proper response to this is a kiss-in protest. Protesters should also offer condoms to passers-by to demonstrate their commitment to safe sexual practices.
Some Israeli Rabbis who published a book justifying killing non-Jews in some situations are facing arrest and a criminal investigation.
I don't know what views were stated — the article doesn't say. Quite likely I as a Secular Humanist would disagree totally, but I can't judge any views unseen.
Here's what I am sure of: whatever their position, they had a right to publish it. It is wrong to arrest anyone, rabbi or no rabbi, for stating views on a question. Freedom of speech is nothing unless it includes views we disagree with.
When foreign companies buy land in poor countries, they say it is because they are "more efficient" than the subsistence farmers they leave landless. But they don't use most of this land to grow plants people can eat.
Growing grain to feed cattle is very inefficient as a means of feeding people.
Growing seeds to make oil to burn is a step back from burning petroleum.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say, vote for the Nadler amendment to cut funds for the war in Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Everyone: call on President Zuma of South Africa to pay attention to the practicalities of a fair election in Zimbabwe.
US citizens: phone your senators to oppose renewal of the U SAP AT RIOT act. No more spying on us!
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
In the UK: participate in protests against tax-avoiding businesses on Feb 19 and Feb 26.
In the US: move your money out of the "too big to fail" bankster banks.
There is an additional reason to stop using Bank of America: to punish its refusal to send money to Wikileaks.
US citizens, tell Obama: stand up for me, not Monsanto, regarding GM alfalfa and beets.
Republicans want to end NASA's funding to monitor climate changes.
They are behaving like a gang that has momentarily seized control of the US capitol for a private mission, and intend to destroy whatever gets in its way.
The US is apparently still trying to prevent Aristide from returning to Haiti and the corporate media try to blame Aristide for the "instability" caused by US-supported destabilization campaigns. (Example: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021004454.html)
Instead of preventing global heating, the US would rather prepare to kill the multitudes of refugees who will flee the regions where they can no longer live.
Some of those multitudes will be Americans.
If all you have is a military, everything looks like an enemy army.
A drought threatens China's wheat harvest.
Coming on top of disasters on other continents, this is likely to make wheat very expensive around the world.
Meanwhile, Bolivia's president Morales faced protests after trying to end subsidies on food.
Subsizing basic food is a bandage for the world's food problems. A real solution requires deeper changes. I hope this causes people to take the issue seriously.
Some UK lake fish need to be moved to other lakes to avoid extinction due to global heating.
The UK government has temporarily yielded on its plan to privatize England's forests.
US citizens: declare your opposition to Republican attacks on abortion rights.
Everyone: Sign this petition to protect the archeological site of Carthage.
It was damaged through the corruption of the recently deposed dictatorship.
The head of AIG criticizes Americans for thinking that the government should help them when they are in trouble.
The US Air Force threatened to prosecute family members of its personnel if they read Wikileaks cables.
While they pretended this was simply following the law, it was in truth an aggressive attempt to stretch the law and attack Americans' human rights.
The Air Force later retracted this "guidance" for further consideration. But it did not apologize, and therefore does not deserve forgiveness.
Republicans want to sabotage the EPA by cutting funds for the parts that need to implement greenhouse gas regulation.
Obama is just the sort of weak opponent to grant success to such overreaching attacks.
Republicans want to eliminate the funding for Planned Parenthood to provide birth control and cancer screenings.
Monsanto and its sidekick the US are pressuring Europe to allow genetically modified animal feed to sneak in.
Bangladesh has banned the religious practice of whipping women to death for having sex, and a judge is campaigning to enforce the ban.
The Iranian dictators are very concerned that Egyptian protests could spark a revolution in Iran.
Explaining the right-wing dishonest smear campaign against Planned Parenthood.
The UK is considering an electric plant that would burn cultivated food.
The police in Camden are so busy enforcing prohibition of drugs that they have no time for theft.
A former nark explains how the "War on Drugs" was based on lies (he and his colleagues told them), and how it made US drug problems worse.
Mubarak has given up power, and Suleiman the torturer has been sidelined.
The UK will exempt half of the people who are required to get background checks so they can do jobs that involve children.
I am very interested to read what they plan to do about the system that tracks all car travel.
UK protests against state-starving businesses are escalating.
Having extracted lots of money from the Irish people, the banksters' next target is Portugal.
Bradley Birkenfeld came to the US government with information about tax cheaters using a Swiss bank, and he was rewarded with imprisonment.
The Canadian government is so desperate for money from tar sand oil that it is willing to destroy the climate and the water supply.
The "Washington consensus" which supposed that free trade would help the poor has been rejected as global trickle-down, but the global policies adopted in its name remain in effect.
Extension of the U SAP AT RIOT act was blocked in the house because the leaders tried to pass it in a special rush fashion that required a 2/3 vote. It has not been defeated.
We need to change some representatives positions. Phone your congresscritter today.
ISPs are being turned into unofficial, unaccountable censors of the Internet.
Where ACTA talks about encouranging ISPs to cooperate in copyright enforcement, it means more of that.
After Mubarak and Suleiman yielded power to the army, Egyptians are celebrating, expecting this will lead to democracy.
That may occur, but is not guaranteed. I've heard that the protests are continuing.
Scientology vs its critics: which side is lying?
Rohingyas in Burma suffer the harshest persecution in a land where the dictators persecute everyone. When they flee to Thailand, they are imprisoned.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the resolution to establish Darwin Day.
It's Not Just Egypt: The Domestic War on Protesters.
Shark fishing continues full speed ahead in Japan (and elsewhere), even though there are fewer sharks to catch.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter saying, "Let the dishonestly named 'Patriot' act expire — it is an un-American attack on our civil liberties."
Also sign this petition.
Chomsky: The US government will support secular Arab dictators (e.e., Egypt, Tunisia) or dangerous Islamic extremist regimes (e.g., Saudi Arabia) as long as they keep the population under control. What the US really hates is indepedence.
That's why Obama pretends to support Egyptian democracy — just not now.
Sue Caldwell, a teacher in London, faces the threat of losing her job. She has bee accused of encouraging her students to join protests instead of going to school.
This ought to be praise, not an accusation. The students should organize to demand that the school give Ms Caldwell an award if she acknowledges doing that.
It can be argued that the protest was more educational than a day in school. But there is no need to stick to such limited grounds when defending the protest.
UN official Richard Falk supported the call for a new investigation of the 9/11 attacks, and since then has faced personal attacks and pressure to fire him.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter on Friday Feb 11 and say, "Pass a comprehensive response to the Big Spill so as to make sure oil companies can't do it again."
See this link.
Lukashenko, the tyrant of Belarus, continues his reign of terror, arresting people even for being near a protest.
To protect African bird species from the effects of global heating will require international cooperation and new nature reserves, since many species will not be able to keep living where they live now.
Suleiman has rejected a transition government, and the opposition in Egypt has given up on talking with him.
The Egyptian military is participating in the arrest and torture of dissidents and protesters.
Rejecting Reagan's caricature of politics: "conservatives" are for government intervention in markets, but they want different kinds of intervention, for opposite purposes.
The term "conservative" is misleading, since their goal isn't to conserve anything, or even to keep something unchanged. They aim to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich, a large and disastrous social change. What is a good term for that? "Hobin Roods"?
Australia is learning the hard way that global heating causes more floods, more droughts, and more heat waves.
Republicans want to create legislative support for bogus biology.
The USSR under Stalin also meddled with teaching of evolution; the facts of life did not accord with his ideology either.
CIA employees get promoted despite gruesome mistakes (which are also horrible crimes).
States are asking for federal bailouts, but Republicans tell them "the era of the bailout is over", meaning the rich already got theirs.
I don't favor state bankruptcy — that would be an unnecessarily drastic solution — but "we got ours" is no solution.
US citizens: call on Senator Reid to push to confirm judicial nominees.
Activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng is being held at home under round-the-clock guard, but he found an opportunity to make a video and smuggle it out.
Drug-crazed school officials in Colorado say a student with a rare disease is forbidden to come to school after taking his medicine.
Reporter Robert Tait was forced to listen, blindfolded, as the Egyptian police tortured other prisoners.
The agribusiness giant Sinar Mas has accepted conditions for reducing deforestation in Indonesia.
(Golden Agri-Resources is a subsidiary of Sinar Mas.)
New York Times reporters in Egypt spent the night as prisoners listening to the secret police torture other prisoners.
