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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
My intention is to make links only to publicly accessible, stable URLs. If you find a link to a page that requires subscription, please report that as you would report any other broken link.
US citizens: tell Obama, don't sell arms to Bahrain.
US citizens: tell the Department of Health and Human Services to support availability of insurance to cover abortion.
Activists trying to visit imprisoned Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng have been beaten by government thugs.
I disagree with Chen Guangcheng's cause. I support China's one-child policy, because in this limited planet, which we are already using beyond capacity, people cannot have a fundamental right to reproduce without limit. However, he is entitled to advocate his views without being imprisoned or beaten.
The Injustice Department has sabotaged a Guantanamo prisoner's case about his abuse in Lithuania, which collaborated in his torture, by refusing to give lawyers the document he signed to authorize them to represent him.
The CIA seized his own writings about how he was tortured in secret prisons, and classified them "secret operational documents".
Is this any better than Stalin?
India is examining Blackberry messages with RIM's help, but has to demonstrate that each investigation is authorized. However, the government wants to be able to look at any and all messages with no controls.
Syria continues shooting large numbers of protesters, and is getting increasingly isolated.
Some of the opposition have asked for a no-fly zone. I doubt that it makes sense to do this when military resistance is at this very low level.
In the US: protest in Washington DC on Nov 6 against the Keystone XL planet-roaster tar sands oil pipeline.
Report: South Dakota Removes Hundreds Of Native American Children From Their Homes, Collects Millions In Federal Funds.
The EPA official in charge of water resources advocates privatization of the water supply.
A progressive president would not appoint officials with such right-wing views.
When police testify in court under a false name, it may not be perjury, but it can easily lead them into perjury.
In the US, police frequently commit perjury even when they don't disguise their names.
Laws against abortion and birth control threaten the lives of women in many countries.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose the E-TYRANNY bill. Also send email through this page.
The arbitrary US financial blockade against Wikileaks threatens all journalism. Not to mention all political dissidence.
Giles Fraser resigned from St Paul's Cathedral in protest against the idea of forcibly clearing protesters' tents.
US citizens: sign this petition to protect the shinnery oak and sagebrush lizard from oil companies.
The UK tried to stage a hasty and quiet mass deportation of refugees to Iraq, but it was blocked.
The radiation released by the Fukushima meltdowns was much more than the Japanese government estimated.
In the UK, support libel reform at Parliament on Nov 9.
The US Injustice Department wants permission to lie in response to Freedom of Information requests.
A Wikileaks cable shows how the US supports a businessman in Honduras with "war on drugs" funds although he seems to be connected with drug trafficking.
Is this war on drugs, or what?
Sudan is deporting Eritrean refugees back to Eritria, where they face terrible punishment.
The police in the Dominican Republic regularly torture prisoners.
Medicaid cuts proposed by right-wing politicians including Obama could have a harmful ripple effect on state governments.
Massey Energy's former security chief has been convicted of lying to the officials who were investigating the disaster that was caused by Massey's contempt for safety standards.
Defense lawyer Wilmouth is right that they should have prosecuted the executives responsible for the dangerous practices. Not instead, but in addition.
Activists have occupied the site of the Belo Monte dam to block construction.
A court ruled that the dam was being constructed illegally, but that seems not to have prevented construction.
A company selling protected black coral has been fined over 4 million dollars.
This is the sort of thing that we need states for, and the reason why I am not an anarchist.
Meet the real parasites of the Internet: the US Congress.
Libya's former rebels acknowledge that Gaddafi was murdered, and say they will prosecute the killer if they can identify him.
The US has the duty to prosecute whoever decided to kill Osama Bin Laden, even if that person is President Obama. Just because Gaddafi and Bin Laden committed massive crimes, almost comparable to those of Dubya, is no excuse for their summary execution.
53 Gaddafi supporters were murdered in Sirte, apparently while prisoner.
US citizens: sign to protect the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Reserve) from oil drilling.
Canadian officials crushed the prosecution of Bush for torture.
The world will miss out on the possible contributions of a billion young people, for failure to make the investment to educate them. And will fall into a poverty trap if it does not provide birth control to everyone.
We can thank the IMF for a lot of this.
Assange says WikiLeaks may have to cease operation due to the US payment blockade.
ACLU Sues Government to Find Out Secret Interpretation of Patriot Act.
Republican hypocrites say Obama has created many regulations, but in fact he has made fewer than Bush.
There is nothing particularly bad about regulations anyway — we need to regulate businesses more so they can't hurt us. This criticism of Obama is therefore really an attempt to spread the irrational idea that "regulations are bad".
The E-TYRANNY Act, just introduced in the House of Representatives, would create the Great Firewall of America.
Everyone: tell Oakland Mayor Quan to condemn and investigate the police attack on protesters.
US citizens: rally Nov 6 in DC against the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
US citizens: phone your senators to oppose the Let Women Die bill. Also sign this petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
It seems that ex-minister Fox sold a lobbyist a meeting in exchange for cash to fund Werrity.
Fox clearly didn't do this because Werrity was such a good friend. It was all part of a scheme, and he too must have expected to gain somehow from it.
Scott Olsen, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, suffered a skull fracture as the police attacked the Occupy Oakland camp.
A former UK police infiltrator called for a full public inquiry, to lay bare the truth of these practices and expose the commanders' lies.
Turkey's president says that the effects of the quake must teach Turkey that shoddy construction is in effect murder.
China said it would increase the censorship of microblogging, since Chinese people have been clever about using it to talk about opposition to the government.
Women protested in Yemen, calling on their tribes to protect them from "the thugs".
I spoke too soon — not all the Bush forces will leave Iraq. The official troops will leave, but 5000 mercenaries will remain.
Wall Street will be proud of the Oakland police and mayor, for arresting everyone in the protest camp, then attacking later protests with tear gas.
The article lists the absurd excuses that they made up for their political intervention.
The UN (working for the US) brought cholera to Haiti. But the reason cholera has been able to spread there so much is that the US blocked Aristide's plans to provide clean water.
Scott Olsen, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, suffered a skull fracture as the police attacked the Occupy Oakland camp.
In my first posting about Steve Jobs, I misquoted Mayor Washington's words. According to this radio program, his exact words were:
When he says that he would hope that I would have all the good qualities of past mayors, there are no good qualities of past mayors to be had. None. None. None. None.
I did not mourn at the bier of the late mayor. I regret anyone dying. I have no regrets about him leaving.
I remembered two sentences ("I regret...leaving.") of what Washington said, but got the words wrong. The error did not alter the meaning, but accuracy requires this correction.
Overall, Washington's statement was harsher than mine. He criticized Mayor Daley as a person; I criticized Jobs' public activity. My feelings about Jobs as a person are not strong, since I barely knew him. The important thing about Jobs is what he directed Apple to do to those who are still living: to make general-purpose computers with digital handcuffs more controlling and unjust than ever before. He designed them to refuse even to let users install their own choice of applications — and installing free (freedom-respecting) applications is entirely forbidden. He even tried to make it illegal to install software not approved by Apple.
Jobs saw how to make these computers stylish and smooth. That would normally be positive, but not in this case, since it has the paradoxical effect of making their controlling nature seem acceptable.
Jobs' death inspired a flood of articles lauding him for these very devices. That further increases their potential for harm, which is why now more than ever we must focus attention on it. We must not let secondary considerations about Apple or Jobs distract us from this threat until we have thwarted it.
Jobs also made it a personal crusade to attack Android with software patents. In practice, Android is not entirely free software, but it is a big step closer compared with the iPhone. If Apple's guns hit Android, they could wipe out all possibility of free software portable devices that are attractive to use. Jobs' final legacy may be the patent disaster we have warned about for 20 years.
Biotech companies are trying to get approval for GMOs in Europe by pretending this will help feed Africa.
You can see this is bullshit because they are talking about selling the crops to Europe — not eating them. It won't be poor hungry Africans that grow these GMO crops, but foreign-owned plantations being created now by chasing them off their land.
If poor Africans do try growing GMOs, they will need loans, and the result will be that they go broke and lose their land, as thousands of Indian farmers have done.
US citizens: tell the FCC not to give a handout to the big phone companies.
US citizens: rebuke NPR for its one-sided crackdown on political opinions.
It's about time Not Progressive Radio got some grief for pretending to be Liberal while really being right-wing.
Everyone: call on the Smithsonian to withdraw copyright claim on public domain images.
Syria's hospitals have become torture centers.
Police in the US asked Google to delete videos showing police brutality.
It must be real brutality or the police would not have cared.
UK police ordered 135 videos deleted in the first half of 2011.
I wonder what the "threat to national security" is. Does it reveal something about undercover police spies? If you know anything — if the cops deleted your video — please write to me.
I also wonder what law gives the police in the UK the power to carry out such censorship.
Right-wing prejudice calls protesters lazy if they don't stay at the protest full time. And also if they do.
Iraqis have given the US a clear message: Bush forces go home!
Ironically, this means that Bush succeeded in establishing a form of democracy in Iraq. Who'd 'a thunk it? Maybe with the Bush forces out Iraq can settle down.
Meanwhile, the US program to train Iraqi police seems to be a total boondoggle.
Everyone: support American Crystal Sugar workers.
US citizens: phone your senators to oppose the bills that would make new federal regulations effectively impossible. Also sign the petition in this page.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: call your congresscritter to oppose the Internet Blacklist bill, aka "PROTECT IP Act". Also send mail to your congresscritter through this page.
The concept of "intellectual property" distorts the US constition's idea of the purpose of copyright law. Any bill that uses that term is almost sure to be misguided and harmful, and the "PROTECT IP" bill is totally nasty.As your constituent I expect you to oppose this bill.
US citizens: sign this petition to cut fossil fuel subsidies and tax short-term speculation.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support extending unemployment benefits. Also sign this petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Everyone: call on China to treat Tibet with respect.
The Javan rhino is one step closer to extinction — the population in Vietnam is gone, and only 50 remain in Java.
A "moderate Islamist" party seems to have won the election in Tunisia.
As Iraq shows, Islamist government can lead to a tyranny no better than what Tunisia recently escaped from. I hope in Tunisia's case that this party respects democracy and the rights of non-Muslims.
The Vatican calls for weakening the power of the banksters.
Uri Avnery: If all of Israel is drunk with emotion because one boy has been returned to his family, what about [doing the same to] 4000 families on the other side?
The UK sent Sami al-Saadi's whole family with him to Libya to be imprisoned separately by Gaddafi.
A US company made the software that Syria uses for censorship and surveillance of the Internet.
UK undercover police used long-term sexual relationships as cover for spying on political dissidents.
Demonstrable voter fraud in the US is rarer than being struck by lightning.
Nonetheless, Republicans cite this non-problem as an excuse for measures designed to stop a few percent of Democrats from voting.
Here's how it looks in practical effects.
Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever, with temperatures last year at a record high.
You have to think for a while to realize that "a 5-decade high" means an historic high (since the records only go back 5 decades).
If China recognizes the danger it is in, it may be more inclined to take action to prevent global heating.
The "green revolution" bought humanity a 40-year breathing space in which to stabilize its population. It has failed to use the chance. Our population is increasing and Earth's ability to support it is dwindling.
The ACLU has sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement for armed raids on people's homes without warrants, and arresting people on no grounds.
Did the thugs that beat up Peter Watts work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement? I think so.
The Deification of Steve Jobs is Apple's Greatest Marketing Triumph to Date.
The article is mistaken at the end, where it says that Jobs chose not to change the world. Apple's app store, which restricts even the user's choice of programs to install, is a substantial change for the worse.
Tens of thousands, perhaps 100,000, protested in Madrid against cuts in education.
The Mayor of Melbourne sent police to attack protesters and remove their camp.
It is surely inconvenient to have protests going on, but it is shallow-minded to give that priority over the important issues of the protest.
The mayor's criticism of the protesters is invalid. If protesters had agreed to leave, it must be because he had threatened them. He did wrong in threatening them, and gains no moral legitimacy from whatever "agreement" he thus extracted.
There were protests across the UK against cuts in welfare for disabled people.
The UK is considering a two-level rule for libel accusations against web sites, which distinguishes between anonymous postings and postings with the author's name.
This would be an improvement compared with the UK's strict current libel rules. However, distinguishing between identified and anonymous comments might be a bad precedent.
Another concern is whether sites would need to verify the names that people give.
Massive protests in Greece turned violent as the government voted to cancel all collective bargaining agreements with workers,
Cancelling contracts is one of the consequences of bankruptcy. In effect, the Greek government is going bankrupt towards the workers and the people, but not towards the banksters. That's the reverse of the priorities it ought to have.
And this is not the end. The banksters will continue to make things worse in Greece until it eventually refuses to go along.
The people with helmets and gas masks, who began by attacking the peaceful union protest — were they protesters, or were they sent by the police? I don't know, but if they were real protesters, why would the attack other protesters?
Why the Food Movement Should Occupy Wall Street.
West Papuan independence campaigners held a meeting at which they declared independence.
Indonesian soldiers fired at the meeting and then arrested some of the participants.
Indonesia took over West Papua by force when the Dutch pulled out in the 1960s, and has ruled the area as a colonial power.
Canada seems to have won UK support for the use of its tar sands oil, against EU efforts to prevent catastrophe.
That point is at the end of the article.
The UK government is concealing the source of Werrity's funds.
Note how the Conservative Party is trying to separate itself from the behavior of its leader, Prime Minister Cameron.
The opposition is not letting the issue fade away.
The US military pays a hundred million a year to companies guilty of frauds against the US military. And that's just fraud that has been proved or admitted.
This is not likely to reduce fraud.
Nine Tibetans have set themselves on fire this year to protest Chinese oppression.
Thousands protested in rural Italy against construction of a high-speed train line to France.
I think that this train line is a very good thing. It can reduce damage to the environment, if it replaces car and air travel. So perhaps the opposition is just NIMBY.
On the other hand, there might be a real problem with specifics, such as the route. Governments often make such decisions with hardly an effort to study the alternatives.
The Libyan government forces now admit that Gaddafi was murdered shortly after he was captured.
They cite the probable US murder of Osama bin Laden as a precedent.
Bahrain is now holding civilian trials for medics accused of treating wounded protesters.
While this avoids the injustice of military trials, civilian trials in Bahrain may not be very fair either. Anyway, there is a basic injustice in the idea that treating a wounded person is a crime.
Another collapse at ancient Pompeii demonstrates that Berlusconi has done nothing to improve maintenance there.
Pompeii is the tip of the iceberg. Italy is full of old buildings that are falling into ruin because not enough is done to protect them.
Karzai's amazing declaration: if the US gets into war with Pakistan, he would side with Pakistan.
It is a strange way of declaring his independance, but it will probably work, at least in the short run — the US will go on keeping him in power anyway.
Bolivian President Morales has cancelled the planned highway and says he will permanently protect the reserve where it would have run.
The EU is investigating the possibility that a big pharma company paid to delay the introduction of a generic drug.
California has put a cap-and-trade CO2 emission system into effect.
The European Union's carbon-trading system has been subject to tremendous cheating, and appears to have achieved very little reduction in emissions. I fear it will be the same for California, but if they can avoid that and achieve a reduction, that will be good.
NPR had radio host Lisa Simeone fired from the show Soundprint because she was participating in the mass protests.
Perhaps this is what the new president of NPR means by "depoliticizing" the organization.
The US government plans to ask unemployed people to use Facebook.
Facebook is bad, of course. I've read that the main jobs sites in the US abuse personal data too. However, I have no reference to offer.
Even nonsense is considered news if it is from the Tea Party.
The comparison with the Progressive Budget demonstrates the right-wing bias of the mainstream media.
Sign the "Free Bieber" petition, against the bill that would impose a 5-year prison term for streaming any material without permission.
US citizens: tell the EPA to block the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
The UN has advanced a treaty to ban the export of toxic waste, which the rich countries often dump in poor countries.
However, the US, which rejects the treaty, will continue the stream of poison.
US citizens: sign this petition to extend unemployment insurance benefits.
Since the Citizens United decision, millionaires have systematically begun buying elections.
North Carolina's state government has been totally wrapped up.
As demographers debate whether the human population in 2100 will be 10 billion or 15 billion, others warn that 7 billion are already loading the Earth beyond what it can sustain.
Those who predict a crisis of population decrease more than a hundred years from now are assuming that medicine will not, even in 100 or 200 years, greatly extend the average human life span. I think that is a rather unlikely assumption. I cannot assert life-extension is certain, but they are the ones assuming that the absence of life-extension is certain.
They want us to ignore urgently needed population limitation measures based on that absurd sense of certainty.
The FBI wants a new, secure internet for power plants and banks to use.
It might be a good idea to use this for power plants, but if you let the banks on, you can hardly trust its security.
First State Super bank was told by a client that its security was incompetent, and could be breached in 30 seconds. The bank sent the police after him.
5 behemoth banks hold the US political system hostage.
Trying to block "adult" material (please don't call it "content") from children is ineffective, and harmful to them.
It is also a fundamental injustice to adults when applied in public access locations such as libraries.
Republicans are trying to fabricate accusations of conspiracy against Occupy Wall Street, and Democrats are trying to co-opt it.
I take exception with the article's identification of centrists such as Obama and the DCCC with "the left". MoveOn is really somewhat on the left.
The NYPD's serial pepper spray officer was punished with a fine of 10 days of vacation time.
That's a slap on the wrist. What punishment would you get if you had pepper sprayed him?
One graph summarizes how candidate Cain's tax plan would increase taxes for most people and cut them for the wealthy.
The US policies to support renewable energy are also, through their details, supporting special business interests or the affluent.
I see this as part of the general capture of our democracy by business interests and the affluent.
There are conflicting stories about how Gaddafi was killed.
They disagree even about whether he was shot in the head. This lends plausibility to the idea that he was murdered. The fact that his general Jabr was also killed after being captured gives further support to the idea.
Those who rose up against him had good reasons to fight him, and perhaps even hate him. But they should not have killed him when he was a prisoner.
Republicans claim to be "libertarians" while fighting to eliminate some of our freedoms.
US residents: tell Verizon you won't stand for ISPs that release your personal data to other companies.
Even if Verizon eliminates this recently added abuse, it won't make things OK. It practices punishment-by-disconnection, and it saves data about who its customers talk with, which enables the FBI to collect it all.
Still, it is important to push back when they try to make things even worse. So I signed.
Two "progressive" US congresscritters told Bahrain's main opposition party, in effect, that they support the oppressive government and will continue to do so.
A dangerous law in Louisiana bans selling second-hand goods for cash.
Arab dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Yemen got their weapons from countries including the US.
US support for the Afghan military and police is illegal because of its systematic human rights violations, but the US government has ignored this so far.
If only we could make US government support for the Pentagon and the CIA obey the same rules, the US would greatly improve its human rights record.
Egypt's military rulers say they will keep control until the planned transition process is finished, which could mean more than another year. The US, which only reluctantly gave support to Egypt's democracy movement, supports this.
How the Austerity Class Rules Washington.
Its domination of the media plays a crucial role, and that is probably due to business ties between the media corporations and the billionaire vultures who profit from everyone else's suffering.
Student activists have occupied the administration at Michigan State University, to pressure it to close its large coal-fired power plant.
Striking miners in Peru started a hunger strike to pressure the state to intervene on their side. It has already done so to a certain extent.
The Libyan government says Gaddafi was killed in a crossfire after surrendering.
It isn't obviously false, but may not be true.
Bangkok faces an unstoppable flood. Global heating might play a role in this. If so, there will be worse floods in the coming decades.
How the UK government plans to "investigate" the Fox/Werrity scandal and not see what's really going on.
US citizens: support protection for FDA whistleblowers.
US citizens: tell the FDA you want GMO foods to be labeled.
US citizens: ask your congresscritter to call for an investigation of Clarence Thomas' ethics violations.
Syrian protesters say the government is prosecuting doctors that treat protesters.
Venezuela's opposition television station has been fined heavily for its coverage of a long uprising in a prison.
Although Globovision is the only national opposition television station, there are many opposition newspapers. However, this does not justify censorship of Globovision.
A leading opposition politician has been barred from holding public office administratively, without being sentenced or even charged.
Victims of Bush's torture will prosecute him in Canada thanks to his visit there.
The New York City police work hand in hand with the banksters to do surveillance of everyone in lower Manhattan.
The US Senate is considering a law that could have put Justin Bieber in jail.
Alas, it would be too late to touch him. But it could get your children.
The fact that global heating has occurred, 1 degree C in the recent past, has been confirmed by another line of research.
Saudi Arabia has arrested the makers of a video that criticized poverty there.
A Brazilian judge ruled against a dam project that was designed without consulting the indigenous people that it would harm.
Amazon's browser offers faster browsing, at the price of telling Amazon all about it.
I think it is foolish to trust companies' "privacy assurances", since it is hard to tell what they really do. Besides, under the U SAP AT RIOT Act, the FBI could collect the all the data every week. If all the data is deleted after two weeks, the FBI will get every last bit.
Everyone: rally Oct 29 to support the "robin hood" tax on financial transactions.
Global heating will force millions to migrate from areas of shortage into areas where they face disaster.
The GMOs companies offered famous people opportunities to give prestigious speeches and interviews, and to put their names on other people's writings, if they would promote GMOs.
It would be interesting to investigate which events they offered to give these people speaking slots in, because they must represent other corrupt ties.
Ron Paul wants to abolish the government departments that aim to help and protect people.
A French court ordered ISPs to block access to a web site that shows incidents of police brutality.
I got further explanation that the specific reason is that the site also publishes the addresses of the culprits.
The Fox/Werrity corruption scandal seems to involve the center of the Tory party.
What isn't known is what these donors were told they were paying for.
A radar system is being developed that can see through concrete walls.
Under the anti-human-rights climate that gave us the "Patriot Act", I am concerned that police will be too ready use this to look into people's homes. We need a cheap system to put into our walls and windows to block such spying.
The UK's use of long-term police spies and disruptor in peaceful political activist groups has become a tremendous scandal after it was exposed that one of them lied on the witness stand about his real name.
The practice, overall, is an attack on democracy, but I don't find that one particular point bothersome. If they had found a way to avoid the need to put this spy on the stand, the harm would have been just as great.
The Basque terrorist group ETA has renounced violence.
I think that the question of whether the Basque country remains part of Spain or not is, in general, less important politically than whether it remains part of the European Union and the World Trade Organization.
The EU Parliament considered a proposal to require a censorship "black box" on every computer.
This has been discussed in science fiction, but I have not heard of its being seriously proposed before.
The excuse is, of course, "child" pornography. It is the perfect excuse for tyranny, since an irrational fear of it has already been spread, and politicians fear to question any measure proposed to attack it.
Naomi Wolf relates how she was arrested for resisting the unjust and often arbitrary restrictions that New York City (like much of the US) has imposed to undermine the freedom of assembly.
A UK undercover police infiltrator may have spied on his fellow protesters' conversations with the lawyer representing them all.
The UK government plans secret hearings so that people like Binyam Mohamed cannot get an admission they were tortured.
Of course, the motive for this plan is to bow to the US government, whose evil deeds this plan would help to cover up.
Iran says that the supposed plot to kill the Saudi ambassador was funded by the Mujahideen-e Khalq,
the possibly terrorist opposition group that is seeking to get off the US government "terrorist" list.
I would not trust the Iranian government for this claim, any more than I would trust the US government for the claim that Iran's forces were behind it.
The accusation against the MEK has one point in its favor: that organization would have gained from the results of such an attack, if it were attributed instead to Iran. But that is not proof.
High-tech military surveillance equipment will be used by police against Americans.
Senator DeMint wants to ban use of the Internet for women to discuss abortion with their doctors.
It is unfortunate that NARAL's president spoke of Skype as if it were acceptable. If DeMint wanted to require its replacement with free software, I'd cheer.
ALEC, the right-wing legislative machine, wants to abolish paid sick days.
Illegal immigrants in the US, when detained, are subject to abuses that go as far as rape.
India must repeal the law that allows the army to arrest, imprison and kill civilians.
Gov. Perry's men in Texas are trying to change a scientific report to avoid mention of the expected effects of climate change.
Both houses of Congress want to require holding civilians in military prisons, and one wants to require military kangaroo courts too.
The State Department will "consider" Bahrain's investigation of its own human rights abuses before the planned arms sale.
The State Department surely knows all about these abuses. In effect, it is saying it will take account of those abuses Bahrain's government is willing to acknowledge.
More pressure is called for.
PayPal froze $45,000 of community donations to the Diaspora project and refused to say why.
Later: after a lot of public pressure, PayPal said it would unfreeze the account. I have seen no details yet.
The German trojan surveillance program can collect data from 15 different applications.
I don't know about all of them, but I'd expect most of them are proprietary. This means either the interception capability was developed using reverse engineering or it was done with the cooperation of those companies.
10,000 protested in Kuwaiti to dismiss the corrupt prime minister.
The US has objected to Chinese Internet filtering as an obstacle to trade. But only when it affects business profits.
It would be an ironic benefit if the WTO someday gets China to reduce its censorship, but it won't really be much to the WTO's credit. The US could achieve just as much simply by putting its remaining clout with China firmly behind human rights. And this could not outweigh the harm that the WTO has done.
A French company faces a legal investigation for selling Internet surveillance systems to Gaddafi's regime. These were used to find dissidents and torture them.
It appears that Sarkozy himself approved the sale.
The US and Europe had a cozy relationship with Gaddafi for most of the last decade. Once Gaddafi was willing to cease his former hostilities, there was a good case for making peace with him, despite his being a tyrant. But there are limits to how far a relationship with a tyrant should go, even if he is not also an enemy. This relationship went so far as to include torture; for instance, various countries sent prisoners to Libya for torture.
That is unacceptable.
People who criticize the NATO intervention in Libya should recognize that letting Gaddafi crush the rebellion would have resulted in more of the same cozy relationship. Thanks to the intervention, Libyans have a chance to set up a better government. Of course, it might go wrong and lead to a new tyranny — there is always that chance. There is no guaranteed recipe for good government, just as there is no guaranteed recipe for pulling down a tyranny. To wait for an opportunity that can't go wrong would be to wait forever.
For the same reason, people must try every plausible chance to destroy the empire of the megacorporations. Nobody knows a guaranteed method, so we must try whatever might work, until something does.
Gaddafi's regime was not the only one that does unjust surveillance. The US does it too.
The company's PR head is related to the French defense minister. This is not proof of corruption, but the idea that a desire for corrupt influence wasn't part of the reason for hiring that person strains credulity. Such a close relationship between a company and an official who has influence over the company's business ought to call for an automatic investigation.
Canada's plan B for exporting tar sands oil, a pipeline to British Colombia, faces such strong opposition that it probably can't be built.
Thus, if the US blocks the Keystone XL pipeline, that oil won't be able to ensure a planet-wide catastrophe.
Congress is considering bringing back mandatory minimum sentences, overturning a Supreme Court decision against them.
Most of Congress is not interested in overturning the Supreme Court decision that allowed corporations to secretly buy unlimited influence in elections.
Colombian union leaders fear that the ratification of the destructive treaty with the US may cause the world to forget about the continuing murders of unionists there.
If the AFL-CIO campaigns only not to implement the treaty for a while, that would be weak. The campaign goal should be to cancel this treaty, along with all the other antidemocratic "free trade" treaties.
Iran has sentenced two movie directors to prison, and in addition banned one of them from talking with journalists or leaving the country for 20 years.
This reminds me of Israel's sentence against Mordecai Vanunu.
Nosferatu, the undead movie almost killed by copyright law demonstrates the harm done by the Berne Convention.
Federal Reserve forced to report which banks benefit from loan programs.
Swedish journalists chain themselves to a prison to protest against imprisonment of their colleagues in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The UN special rapporteur on torture has called for an end to solitary confinement except as a short term measure to protect a prisoner.
Uganda has arrested protest leaders, saying that protesting to bring down the government constitutes "treason".
How congresscritters voted on the let-women-die act, also known as Stupak on Steroids.
The US killed Anwar al-Awlaki's son, who had run away from home to look for his father.
If you look at the Facebook page, use Tor from a browser with no cookies.
For the first time, a vaccine against malaria shows substantial effectiveness.
But it isn't clear yet whether the effect is enough, in practice, to make it useful.
Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit and around 500 Palestinian prisoners have been freed in a swap deal.
This has the potential to facilitate peace negotiations, but their success will depend on Israel's willingness to make necessary concessions.
According to Hamas, relaxing the siege of Gaza is part of the deal.
The State Department demonstrated the rigged nature of its decision about the Keystone XL pipeline by hiring an oil company subcontractor to run the hearings about it.
The contractor tried to rig the proceedings subtly so that they would appear honest.
The pipeline developers are spreading false claims that it will create many thousands of jobs. This article shows that the construction jobs will be much fewer; and in the long term, it will make only around 50 jobs.
However, even if it made thousands of jobs permanently, that could compensate for the catastrophe that would result from burning the tar sands oil.
Israel plans a new "settlement" at the edge of Jerusalem, which would create an added obstacle to possible peace.
In economic terms, what justifies the Wall Street protesters' anger.
I think, however, that the reduction of democracy into a form of corporate control is a deeper reason to protest.
Protesters in San Francisco rebuilt their camp after a police raid.
The raid had an excuse, of course, but its apparent purpose was to suppress democracy.
Maikel Nabil Sanad would rather starve to death than be tried again by the Egyptian military for "insulting the army".
He refuses to apologize for his criticism, which he considers justified.
For the most part, I do not mourn the death of people I did not have a relationship with. The exceptions are heroes such as Sanad. I honor him now, and I will honor him if he dies.
Naomi Wolf was arrested at a protest against New York Governer Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo takes the side of the wealthy against tax increases.
The OAS's intervention in Haiti's presidential election was such as to make it more dishonest, not less so.
However, it was wrong to treat the election as legitimate at all, since the exclusion of the Fanmi Lavalas party made it fundamentally invalid.
US-imposed Haitian president Martelly wants to reverse Aristide's most durable achievement: abolishing the army.
After weeks of bloody fighting, Sirte is mostly destroyed.
There was probably no better way to take the city, but was it really necessary to take the city in a hurry? Sirte was encircled, so Gaddafi's forces could not get out and do harm elsewhere. Eventually they would have surrendered.
Law student Max Schrems has had the gumption and the knowledge to put Facebook in legal trouble for many violations of EU privacy and data protection law.
I fear Facebook will escape by playing its trump card: the idea that it is so important that states do not dare punish it in any effectively dissuasive way.
The campaign to repeal prohibition of marijuana in California.
The UN voted to reduce the size of its occupation force in Haiti, which was increased after the quake, but Haitians demand its complete removal.
The UK's National Health Service is suffering greatly under right-wing budget cuts.
It is still better than what 50 million Americans get for health care.
A UK state inquiry into the one-sided extradition treaty with the US concluded it's fine and dandy, and only wishes that the European Court of Justice would get out of the way.
Protesters plan to occupy a square next to the London Stock Exchange.
I support this protest, along with the many similar ones. However, I criticize the hyperbole of saying they will "occupy the London Stock Exchange" when the plan is to occupy a square. Let's not exaggerate.
This article demonstrates a general injustice: giving the public diminished rights in some streets and squares which are designated as "private". If it looks like a street, and the public are normally free to walk on it, they should enjoy the same rights there as in any other public street.
Syrian protests are drifting towards an armed revolution.
The city of Homs has kicked out Assad's forces, and other cities' protesters call on soldiers to defect.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the Arbitration Fairness Act. Also send email through this page.
Facebook says that a user can't have Facebook's data about him, because it's a trade secret.
In the US: call on retailers not to stock tissue products from APP, which cuts down rainforests to make tree farms.
Canadians used a "trojan horse" to protest a treacherous trade treaty that their government is negotiating with the EU.
I have no inside information about the treaty's provisions, but the EU wouldn't consider a trade treaty that wasn't treacherous to democracy.
I would not trust the study's claims about how much economic growth such a treaty might result in, but it might cause some growth. However, it will also ensure such growth mainly benefits the wealthy, making it unhelpful to the rest of society. It is also likely to endanger the environment, public health, and the rights of all Internet users.
Thousands rallied for freedom of expression in Tunis in response to another protest by Islamists in favor of religious censorship.
A US drone fired at US troops, killing two of them.
In the fog of war, avoiding such mistakes is impossible. Every army tries, more or less, and the US armed forces put some care and study into the effort. But no army can entirely succeed at avoiding this.
What conclusion follows?
There are a lot more civilians in Afghanistan than there are US troops. And the civilians look a lot more like the Taliban than US troops do. We don't have enough data to know how often US troops will get mistaken for Taliban with the current (recently increased) rate of drone attacks, but suppose it is once every two years.
How often do civilians get mistaken for Taliban? Every week? Every day?
Those too are errors — frequent errors. However, they are much easier to cover up, so the US claims they don't happen. The US should own up to them.
Plankton near Fukushima show high levels of radioactive cesium.
People don't eat this plankton, but fish do, and those fish might concentrate the cesium resulting in higher levels.
Police in Gainesville, Florida, arrested Ellas Anthony McDaniel, who is Bo Diddley's son, in Bo Diddley park, as he stood on a stone which carries the slogan, "freedom of speech".
I don't like the name "occupation" for these protests, because it is confusing. A government of occupation is what we already have, and what these protests are against.
Senator Sanders endorses the Wall Street protests.
Wendell Potter suggests Washington protesters direct their protests at the health insurance industry.
Gov. Perry wants spending cuts to balance the budget, but his men are prepared to give a gratuitous tax rebate to oil companies.
If Obama is not reelected, we face a new Bush era. And if he is reelected, the same is true.
Before Obama was elected, he told progressives, "Make me do it." Now that he is in office, his message is to get someone else to do it.
EPA whistle-blower Weston Wilson warns that the petroleum companies are trying to force the EPA to cover up the danger of fracking — as it has done twice before with those companies.
How Rumsfeld created the war-logistics industry, which now has a business incentive to continue any and all wars.
Ethiopia's tyrannical government is handing out minority people's land to global agribusiness, and arresting the people when they object.
The UK government wants stronger police powers to stop riots. So far, no sign of a plan to stop corporate looting.
Nobelist Diamond: The U.S. has an unemployment crisis and a debt problem, but many people in Washington are behaving as if we have a debt crisis and an unemployment problem,
The officials that order these priorities wrong are not making a sincere mistake. They are engaging in class warfare.
US citizens: sign this petition in favor of a financial transactions tax.
Also phone your congresscritter — a phone call carries more weight.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The UK government says it refuses to investigate the Atlantic Bridge "charity" which was central to the Fox/Werrity corruption scandal. What's more, it will change the rules to help hide any other similar cases of corruption.
Turning Occupation into Lasting Change.
Former minister Fox's sneaky associations contradict the Tory Party's claims to wish to protect the environment.
Of course, so do their policies.
The opposition wants the investigation into corrupt financial links to continue.
US citizens: tell the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to stop supporting candidates that vote in favor of the Republican War on Women.
Facebook has been sued for tracking users without their permission.
Bank of America refused to let two customers close their accounts because they participated earlier in a protest.
A similar event occurred at a Citibank office, complete with the false accusations you'd expect the banksters to make.
I suggest that the the lawyers associated with the movement sue these banks demanding closure of the accounts.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is raising money based on the Republican War on Women — and planning to spend it in support of Democratic congresscritters who took the Republican side.
The right wing of the Republican Party achieved so much power (with which it is now waging war against non-rich Americans and especially women) by actively opposing moderate candidates. Meanwhile, progressives have let them be sucked into supporting right-wing Democrats such as Obama. It is high time for that to change.
The last time the US had an economic crisis, the Republicans wanted to let it go on, but the Democratic Party offered to create jobs. The Democratic Party was voted in and governed for 20 years. But this option is not available today — today's Democratic Party is only marginally less bad than today's Republican Party.
CREDO Action's criticism of this is the first step of trying to change that. What use is having some Democrats in office if they act like Republicans?
Protesters in London, in the area where the banksters work, have been invited to camp in the yard of a cathedral.
Gays and transsexuals in Indonesia face persecution, as a harsh and bigoted form of Islam gains influence there.
Bradley Manning was not the only US prisoner held in conditions that amount to brainwashing. There may be 20,000 more. One of them is Tarek Mehanna.
The use of brainwashing on people accused but not tried raises the concern that its purpose is to extract false confessions, such as many of the US POWs held by North Korea gave after they were brainwashed.
Meanwhile, to accuse someone of terrorism for translating a book is a clear violation of freedom of the press. People have a right to say that terrorism is good, and we must respect that right even if we disagree with their views.
The Pentagon says that it won't be able to pass an audit in 2017. Large amounts of payments cannot be accounted for because the documents to justify them cannot be found.
Part of the cause of the problem is that the Pentagon's budget is large and growing. Big budget cuts will help correct that problem.
12 Most Absurd Laws Used to Stifle the Occupy Wall St. Movement
When protesters become numerous enough, they can massively defy these laws, and pack the jails until the police give up arresting them.
San Diego plans to build a water desalination plant in Mexico to evade California's environmental protections.
The US will fully remove the Bush forces from Iraq.
Americans can thank those in the Iraqi government, such as the party of Muqtada al-Sadr, that refused to give the Bush forces the continued immunity from prosecution that Obama demanded.
Chinese are using local protests and even riots to demand correction of injustices, and sometimes it works.
The article says that "calls for pro-democracy demonstrations...received little public support", and appears to assert that Chinese people wouldn't support them, but we don't know this. Government censorship prevent a movement from getting started.
The US government is almost as callous towards the 99% as the Chinese government is. And Americans are learning to follow the example of the Chinese.
Protesters in Brooklyn tried to shut down a foreclusure auction.
Hooray!
Republicans in Congress seek to block EPA regulation of toxic coal ash — a change which could kill many Americans.
Every harmful thing that business asks for, it claims is to protect jobs. When you look closely, it is really a threat to close some plant. "If you won't let us pollute and endanger your life, we will shut the plant." Ok, shut it, should be our response.
But often that threat is a bluff. When it comes time to decide, they might clean up the plant rather than shut it. However, it costs them nothing to say, now, "We will shut the plant." Who knows, we might yield to the bluff.
When it comes to handling toxic coal ash, the threat is certainly a bluff. The companies that burn the coal will pay whatever it costs to dispose of the ash according to regulations. The only question is whether to make them dispose of it in a way that is safe for the public.
Obama's man was directly involved in negotiations to make major US ISPs impose censorship on their users.
Oct 15 protests spread around the world, with 10,000 in New York.
Gaddafi's cult of personality seems to be the reason why some of his soldiers continue fighting in Sirte. However, it seems that they also killed civilians who wouldn't join them.
As tens of thousands protested in Rome, some made violent attacks against banks, stores, cars, and police.
I don't approve of this violence, part of which seems to have been directed randomly. It was a self-defeating tactic for the protest movement, and it was also simply wrong.
The perpetrators may have done this to damage the protest. During the protests in Genoa in 2001, Italian police deployed armed provocateurs disguised as "anarchists", apparently to create an excuse to attack the real (nonviolent) protesters. Maybe they did this again in Rome.
But even if these were real dissidents rather than police stooges, we should not let their comparatively small wrong distract us from the giant wrongs done by the corporatocracy.
US citizens: call on Obama to veto a bill that would make Guantanamo permanent.
Everyone: call on Boston Mayor Menino to respect the right to protest.
US citizens: sign this petition to Congress to end the War on Women.
US citizens: sign this petition to Obama to free Bradley Manning.
The UK government's austerity program has caused unemployment, so few jobs are available. To distract attention from this, it proposed a new plan to help workers move if they find a job distant from home.
I can't tell whether the plan is good or bad, but it certainly fails to address the problem.
As 100,000 protested in Yemen for the ouster of President Saleh, his army shot 12 protesters dead.
Dubya's tax cuts, which the Republican Party demands to preserve, cost the US treasury $11 million per hour — $72 billion a year.
That is a large piece of the US deficit.
The US has arrested an Iranian for trying to pay to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, but some are skeptical about the accusation.
If Arbabsiar is guilty of trying to arrange the assassination, whether he was working for the Iranian goverment is another question. I would not put this past the Iranian goverment, but it is a valid point that it would have had little to gain from doing this. Is there proof that Arbabsiar had state support, other than his say-so? Maybe it was a false boast, or wishful thinking.
There was recently a factional conflict inside the Iranian state, and maybe there still is. Maybe some faction in the Iranian state tried to use Arbabsiar to make trouble for some other faction.
Maybe Arbabsiar set out to harm the Iranian state by getting it into a war, and having failed that, hopes to embarrass it. Or maybe someone with this goal was using Arbabsiar. The Iranian state richly deserves to be harmed, but not that way. The main effect of starting such a war would be to harm thousands or millions of people.
The Saudi monarchy is equally tyrannical, but assassinating its ambassadors won't make it better.
The Wall Street Journal paid companies a kickback to buy lots of copies so as to falsely increase circulation figures.
NATO has systematically exaggerated the effectiveness of its tactics against the Taliban — for instance, by calling lots of Taliban casualties "leaders"
Australia is on track to pass a tax on CO2 emissions.
Prime Minister Gillard is doing this even though it means the possible sacrifice of her political career. That is heroism.
If the tax is repealed, it won't achieve its goal. But it is better to try than to give up at the start. And perhaps it won't be repealed. Perhaps Australians will see they can live with it. Perhaps increased signs of global heating will show them it is necessary.
Ukraine's opposition leader was sentenced to prison after a questionable trial about a gas deal she signed with Russia.
The deal might have been bad, but as long as Ukraine does not repudiate the deal itself, it can hardly justify calling the deal criminal.
One paradoxical good result could flow from this trial: blocking the EU's "free trade" treaty, which I suspect would impose unjust laws to prevent and persecute sharing.
Witnesses blame Egyptian government forces for attacks against Egyptian Christians protesting violence against them.
If you get your email through a US commercial email service, the US government can collect information about it without ever showing you a search warrant.
The wealthiest countries have increased their subsidies for oil consumption.
A study finds that commercial web sites give visitors' personal data to large numbers of other sites.
My response to this is not to identify myself to web sites. I don't buy things over the Internet. In addition, my batch method of accessing web pages fetches the page I asked for, and not whatever else it points to.
Part of Alabama campaign against illegal immigrants is to cut off their water supply.
This persecutes citizens too, if they don't have a drivers' license. It effectively makes the license a mandatory identification card, which is inherently unjust.
People also fear that they will be picked up off the street and deported, leaving their children suddenly alone.
US citizens without drivers licenses could be deported too, if the police guess someplace to send them.
School buses in part of the US (I can't tell where) are checking students' fingerprints.
This is education for citizens of a tyranny.
The tram connecting Jerusalem with a settlement inside the West Bank is another tool used by Israel to make an independent Palestine impossible.
New York Night-Mayor Bloomberg tried to shut down the protest camp on the pretext of sanitation, but retreated in the fact of physical support from thousands of protesters.
The park's owner, Brookfield Properties, is a bankster company.
Was Zuccotti Park created by a private company, or was it a public park that was privatized?
Imprisoned Bahraini opposition leader Hassan Mesheima faces execution through cancer.
Exxon is trying to avoid paying for damage done by its big Alaska oil spill, damage that still persists, and the Department of "Justice" doesn't seem to care much.
The US deserves a president that would call for the most vigorous possible action against companies such as Exxon and BP, and who would support laws to hold them 100% liable for damage they do. Meaning not Obama!
The US will send 100 soldiers to help fight the Lord's Resistance Army.
This is long overdue.
The House of Representatives passed a law encouraging hospitals to let women die rather than perform abortions.
In typical hypocritical fashion, this is called the "Protect Life Act." In effect, it represents the Republican position that human life is sacred except after birth.
One member of Congress said this policy would have killed her.
16 October 2011 (US: Drone Bombers)There was a protest at the base where the US operates drones by remote control.
I am not against drone bombers per se; supposing there is a war, I don't think attacking enemy troops with drone bombers is worse than attacking them with artillery or manned bombers. What is disturbing about the US use of drones is that it uses them against people who are not clearly enemy troops, far from any battlefield. Attacking them with artillery or manned bombers would pose the same moral problem, but isn't often done, because it is not feasible.
The US Congress approved Obama's anti-democratic trade treaties. This list says how US senators and congresscritters voted.
Anyone that voted for these treaties is working to eliminate democracy piece by piece.
Canada should prosecute Bush for ordering torture.
Nasser bin Ghaith has been imprisoned in Abu Dhabi for "insulting the president".
He is boycotting the Bush-league trial that they have given him.
The article calls on the French Sorbonne university, which he is connected with, to condemn his imprisonment, which it has in cowardly fashion refused to do. When it does this, it should condemn French President Sarkozy for punishing French people for insulting him.
Ireland will investigate many aspects of how Facebook tracks its users.
Protests against corporatocracy are planned for 71 countries on Oct 15.
VeriSign withdrew its request for the power to censor several top level domains.
The ACLU sued to overturn a law requiring poor people to get drug tests when they apply for public assistance.
It should be illegal to demand drug tests of job applicants, too — even airline pilot applicants. The right thing to do is test them before every flight to verify they are not impaired in their level of awareness.
The independence of Southern Sudan left the South Kordofan region under Sudanese repression.
House Democrats presented a recommendation to the super committee: raise taxes.
This article does not say whether the recommendation accepts any cuts in areas outside the military. I would like to know.
Imprisoned Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad has been on hunger strike for 52 days.
Congressional Republicans passed a bill to block EPA regulations that would save 20,000 lives.
This is consistent with their general policy that human life is worth nothing after birth.
The UK's defense secretary Fox resigned due to evidence of a corrupt relationship with his friend Werrity.
Werrity posed as an official working for Fox, and seemed to be funded through "charities" that didn't do any visible charitable work.
Craig Murray says that the Mossad provided the money, and that the motive was to influence UK policy.
I speculate that Fox resigned so as to prevent an investigation that would have revealed more about the sources of funding.
Israeli intelligence routinely tortures prisoners, and even kills them occasionally, with total impunity.
Israeli "settlers" attacked Palestinian families who were harvesting their olive trees.
For once, Israeli soldiers acted to stop it: they took the bullies away and let the Palestinians harvest their trees.
For the first time, the Israeli government has arrested someone for violence against Arabs.
However, these were Israeli Arabs. Violence (even arson) against Palestinians has never been punished.
Hamas is demanding high taxes in Gaza, provoking resistance from the populace.
If not for Israel's siege, Hamas might lose power there.
The government of Israel is pushing hard to legitimize West Bank colonies built in violation of Israeli law, and even colonies built on private Palestinian land.
All these colonies are considered illegal by the world outside Israel.
Right-wing business flunkies hope to stop the National Labor Relations Board from protecting workers against business abuses.
Sandblasting jeans, done to make them look worn, causes silicosis for the workers.
Rich countries ought to ban the sale of sandblasted jeans, not just the sandblasting itself. But the WTO would probably call this a "barrier to trade". The WTO's purpose is to defend business profits against "protectionist" laws, such as laws to protect people's health and lives.
The WTO, and all "free trade" treaties that make it harder to do that, must be abolished.
Global heating has created Lake Imja in the Himalayas, which grows every year. Some day the water will send a disastrous flood downstream.
Irish are protesting to resist being made "the next Greece".
A large strike shut down transportation in France.
Israel and Hamas reached a prisoner-exchange deal.
If Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, he will be safe in Israel. The Palestinians that Israel releases may not be free for long: the Israeli army could rearrest them or kill them.
If it does not systematically do this, the deal may make it harder for Israel to say it is impossible to negotiate with Hamas.
US corn-for-ethanol is blamed for driving up world food prices.
The US must drop this policy, but that will only delay the problem. It will be difficult to grow enough food for the 9 billion people projected for 2050, and difficult even to find enough water for them, and meanwhile global heating will reduce production.
The shortage will make itself felt through prices that rise to the level where millions cannot afford food. The population may be limited at a smaller level by shortages — which means that having a baby will mean killing someone (very likely that baby, if the parents are poor; probably someone else, if the parents are not poor).
To avoid that horrible outcome, we need vigorous birth control programs, sufficient to keep the world's population short of the resource limit.
The European Union is planning another bank bailout.
It makes sense to use public money to keep banks from closing only if the state ensures that this does not represent a gift to the banksters. The state must require either shares, or repayment with market interest, in return for whatever it gives the banks.
Some sugar-free drinks and desserts contain acids that damage teeth.
The "rescuers" of Greece say they will keep it from immediate default in exchange for additional painful cuts — and they will come back for more cuts next year.
Greeks now plan to occupy government buildings. If they occupy Parliament quickly enough, they may prevent the current round of cuts from being passed, and force default now rather than later.
The longer it is postponed, the more cuts.
Paranoia about vaccines has become a substantial threat to health.
Europe is considering improvements in subsidies for farmers, such as to limit the amount of subsidy any farmer can receive. (Would this be a cap for the cap?)
The UK is right that there might be a danger that some farms would be "split up" among relatives without real change. But that is a problem to be solved, not a reason to give up.
An experiment shows that Reiki is merely a placebo.
A massage has more real effect.
Global heating will make concrete structures near the ocean fall apart much faster.
Peyman Aref was expelled from university, imprisoned for a year, then flogged, for "insulting" the president of Iran and talking with foreign reporters.
Neither of these activities should be a crime. All countries which have such laws, from Iran to France to Ecuador, must abolish them.
Automatic license plate recognition is being deployed in the US. It is not systematic and ubiquitous, as in the UK, but if there are enough recognizers the result could be the same.
JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Accused Of Overcharging Military Veterans — with illegal hidden fees.
We need to break up large banks, that have so much influence that courts will look the other way when they commit foreclosure fraud , and eliminate mortgage-backed securities, so that the bank that made the loan retains the power to adjust it and give the home-owner more time.
Everyone: sign this petition against Virginia's War on Women.
The US executed Anwar al-Awlaki without a trial, or even a hearing. Obama convinced courts to leave the issue in his hands without question.
The Obama regime's argument seems to be that al Qa'ida is an enemy army and al-Awlaki is effectively an officer in it, so killing him is a normal part of such a war.
That reason would be sufficient. What is questionable is to classify what al Qa'ida does as "war". That error led the US into responses that were self-defeating (as well as, in the case of Iraq, fundamentally unjust).
As for the fact that al-Awlaki was "hiding in a place where he could not be captured", lots of criminals do that. Is that a reason not to indict him and ask him to surrender for prosecution?
The G20 promised to eliminate global tax havens, but has done very little to reduce them.
Two more supposed grass-roots groups that AT&T has corrupted: Americans for Digital Equality and the Hispanic -Technology And Telecommunications Partnership.
This is in addition to GLAAD and the NAACP.
You can tell whether a group is run by sincere activists by their reaction to discovering such corruption. GLAAD's activists cleaned up the corruption and cleared the organization's name, but I never heard that they NAACP has done so.
Tell Amazon you object to the China-style way it treats its US workers. It is considerate of them to have an ambulance standing by for workers that collapse, but that doesn't make it ok.
I replaced
it forces me to reconsider using Amazon for my online shopping.
with
I consider it a reason not to buy from Amazon.
since I refuse to buy from Amazon for other reasons anyway:
Greeks are again protesting the constantly increasing austerity program, demanding default instead of surrender.
15 October 2011 (Paid To Fake News)
A right-wing billionaire is paying "journalists" to "mock and undermine" the Occupy Wall Street protests.
15 October 2011 (Official German Malware)
Several German states admitted using malware to spy on people's computers unconstitutionally. The program can "plant evidence" — I think that means, write files on the computer. That suggests it amounts to a universal back door, like the one Microsoft put in Windows.
15 October 2011 (Profiteer Greed)
Bush gave business a temporary tax break on "foreign profits", which hurt the US treasury and did no good for the US economy. Now the same profiteers want it again.
15 October 2011 (Corporatocracy Case Study)
Corporatocracy in action; a case-study in government-business corruption.
15 October 2011 (Connecticut Apologizes)
Connecticut apologizes for Dubya.
Does anyone know if the apology sign is really there on the road?
15 October 2011 (UNICEF Condemns UK)
UNICEF condemned the UK for being too eager to imprison minors after the August riots.
However, the worst thing about the UK's conduct in the matter is that it pursues the small looters mercilessly, while winking at the big looters.
End looting in the UK — join UK Uncut.
15 October 2011 (Contractors Inefficient)
Increasing use of contractors in the US military is leading to less oversight and more vulnerability.
Although the supposed reason for this is to save money, it is probably more expensive.
15 October 2011 (CA Warrants Vetoed)
The governor of California vetoed a bill that would have required police to get a warrant before searching people's cell phones.
Apparently he did this as a political deal for the support of police in his election campaign. Shame, shame!
15 October 2011 (Urgent: Label GM Foods)
US citizens: sign this petition for labelling of genetically modified foods.
15 October 2011 (UK Police Bully Man)
Police in the UK bullied a man for taking photos of his daughter in a shopping mall.
He has called for a boycott of the mall. That's a good response. However, he should know better than to post photos of his daughter on facebook.
Karzai's police and intelligence systematically torture their prisoners.
A right-wing agent provocateur admits leading the group that entered the Air and Space Museum, while most protesters remained outside following their original plan.
Should Labor Fight To Revive U.S. Manufacturing?
I disagree with the article on one point: it doesn't recognize the harm done by "free trade" treaties to all the countries that participate in them. These treaties systematically undermine democracy, so we must eliminate them to restore democracy. This does not imply "protectionism".
One need not be "protectionist" to wish for democracy in the US and Colombia, and therefore oppose the US=Colombia "free trade" treaty.
One need not be "protectionist" to support efforts to reduce smoking in the US and therefore call for elimination of the WTO.
Facebook tracks users that see 'like' buttons, even users who never visited facebook.com and never click on those buttons.
A grounded container ship is spreading oil on pristine New Zealand beaches.
Ships which contain enough oil to present a danger should not be allowed to travel within 20 miles of any land without positive control of their locations.
More doubts about the Arbabsiar plot. There is little evidence that the Iranian state was behind it, and it doesn't fit Iran's methods or interests.
Americans lean towards favoring recognition of a Palestinian state.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the McGovern-Wyden resolution to block an arms sale to Bahrain.
Coca Cola Company is working together with the Koch brothers to impose unjust state laws.
There is already a worldwide boycott of Coca Cola Company.
If Iran had really tried to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US, that would not be very different from what the US does.
Major UK ISPs will offer the option of blocking access to known porn sites.
In principle, I see no harm in this as an option. However, other articles warn that subscribers may be forced to prove their age to opt out of the blocking, and that means identifying yourself. That is an unjust requirement. In addition, public access sites might impose the same censorship.
Republicans want to make it a crime to plan, in the US, to use drugs lawfully in a foreign country.
Even professional advice about lawful activities could be prosecuted.
More on how much facebook tracks users.
US citizens: call on your senators to say where they stand on medicare and medicaid cuts.
Protesters tried to enter the National Air and Space Museum to criticize its glorification of the military.
The residents of the Korean island of Jeju are using every peaceful method to restrict construction of a US/Korean naval base.
In Boston, rally in Boston Common at 1pm for peace and against social cuts.
Powerful resistance seems to be scuttling the Tories' plans to destroy the UK National Health Service.
NAFTA drove millions of Mexicans to migrate; Obama's free exploitation treaties would do likewise in other countries.
Everyone: call on the governor of Missouri to commute Reggie Clemons' death sentence; there was essentially no evidence and his trial was questionable.
US citizens: tell your senators, don't pass a law to allow arbitrary detention of anyone.
Since Assad has crushed nonviolent protests in Syria by force, some in Syria are trying armed resistance.
I sympathize, but I don't see how they could possibly get anywhere.
1/3 of US veterans of the past decade think that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were "not worth fighting".
The conquest of Iraq was much worse than a misjudgment, but given the natural tendency of people who fought a war to resist the idea that it wasn't necessary and justified, it is remarkable that so many have overcome it.
Muslim fanatics in Egypt have attacked Christians and a church.
In February, the protest leaders and the Egyptian people clearly established a nonsectarian stand. They must reiterate this now.
The BBC says Iran is pressuring its Iranian employees in London by threatening their relatives in Iran.
This disgusting tactic was also used by the Bush forces in Iraq.
40,000 "drug rehabilitation patients" are forced to do hard labor in Vietnam, shelling cashews, with constant exposure to the toxic outer parts of the nut.
With 30 years of fighting, the Vietnamese replaced their overt French colonial rule with indirect colonization through a native satrap.
Boston police attacked and arrested 141 protesters for being in a park.
Bahrain has bowed to international pressure and granted a new trial to some (not all) the medical personnel imprisoned for treating wounded protesters.
The new trials will be civilian trials, but that doesn't guarantee they will be fair. In any case, the very idea of that it is a crime to give medical treatment to certain people is inherently evil.
Comparing the right-of-return issue for Palestinians with the comparable issue for Jews.
The proposed Italian law that would make Wikipedia impossible to run there is being used by Berlusconi to interfere with publishing evidence of corruption.
Alaskans condemn Obama's decision to allow undersea oil drilling there.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say, support Donna Edwards' constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision.
You can also phone Rep. Edwards at 202-225-8699 and thank her.
This amendment would specifically allow laws to regulate political "speech" by corporations.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at 1-800-718-1008 and insist on opposing the unfair trade treaties proposed with Korea, Panama, and Colombia. See http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=4956.
Each of these treaties is unfair to both countries involved, because it gives the advantage to corporations.
The US Congress blocked $200 million aid to the Palestinian Authority.
This can block humanitarian projects that the aid was meant for.
The Palestinian Authority has clearly decided not to bow to this pressure. It has already threatened to dissolve itself and deny Israel a buffer over its conduct of the occupation.
Cutting off its funds would push it towards carrying out that threat.
The Israeli education ministry arbitrarily ordered schools not to talk about riots in 2000 in which some Israeli Arabs were killed.
US citizens: sign this petition for an investigation of Justice Thomas' ethics violations.
US citizens: sign this petition to end the witch-hunt against Planned Parenthood.
How a few billionaires used the White House to profit by screwing poor sick Americans and poor countries.
And they want to do it again.
The latest austerity measures imposed on Greece have led to a general strike that shut down the entire government.
An Iranian actress has been sentenced to imprisonment plus flogging for appearing in a banned film.
Has the US considered developing drone aircraft that can drop leaflets?
Someone told me that the M129E1 could probably be carried by a drone.
Shell regularly paid the Nigerian army to crush protests against Shell.
United Steel Workers support Occupy Wall Street.
As we overload the oceans with CO2, not only will this kill much of the life in them, but the CO2 will start to come back out.
The full membership of UNESCO will vote on whether to admit Palestine as a member.
Several countries signed the Anti-Citizen Tyranny Agreement, which commits them to support media businesses against their citizens by banning devices that break digital handcuffs.
The other provisions that these companies have not got this time, they will come back for with another treaty.
Omar Khadr is being punished for shooting a US soldier in Afghanistan. Video footage suggests he was tortured in Guantanamo, and there is some evidence his confession was false.
Child soldiers are not supposed to be punished for war crimes, but supposed he had been older. It is not a crime for soldiers to shoot enemy soldiers — it is simply war. He should have been treated as a POW, not as a criminal.
I am not surprised that the government of Canada didn't care about the case. What's a mere Canadian citizen against the dictates of the US? What the Canadian government really cares about is selling tar sand oil and roasting our planet, because that's what business wants.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch rebuked the Obama regime for giving military aid to other regimes that use child soldiers.
The European Commission voted to designate Canadian tar sand oil as particularly dirty for its high production of CO2.
Burma's regime showed a small sign of willingness to hear the people's voice, by suspending the planned Myitsone dam project. But this does not mean the regime will allow dissent, or even that the dam won't be built.
Israeli police turned a blind eye to a pogrom carried out by right-wing rioters against Israeli and Palestinian protesters.
After the pogrom, the on-duty police informed the protesters that their protest had been arbitrarily banned.
I think the word "lynching" is not correct here, since it is normally limited to cases where a victim is murdered in cold blood. However, this does not invalidate the article's point.
One of the rioters has been identified as a police inspector.
Another pogrom burnt a mosque in Galilee.
This is part of a spreading threat of Jewish terrorism in Israel.
Naomi Klein points out that the Israeli elite profits greatly from the insecurity that results from not having peace.
Italian Wikipedia has taken its pages off line to warn Italians about a proposed law, being debated now, which would make Wikipedia's operation impossible in Italy.
The UK is investigating 100 incidents where UK troops in Afghanistan were accused of killing or wounding civilians.
In some of these incidents, the soldiers involved acted criminally, but most were simply bad luck for everyone involved. Such accidents are inevitable in a war, which is why launching a war is a crime in the absence of very strong justification.
Civilians fleeing Sirte say that the government forces are firing lots of rockets which are endangering civilians.
More info:
Since NATO's mission in Libya is to protect civilians, it ought to insist that the new government not endanger them.
Support the march on Wall Street or another occupation in another US city, or the "virtual occupation".
Republicans want to cut the budget of the Government Accounting Office, which reduces government waste.
I read an article recently which suggested that the way to understand government decisions is to replace "despite" with "because" (or "for the sake of"). I think that applies here too: Republicans want to eliminate this organization because it prevents waste.
After all, what is wasteful government spending? Excess payments to companies. Republicans represent those companies, so they are in favor of wasteful payments to those companies.
Dubya and Cheney set up a system of wasteful spending in Iraq to reward their cronies, and the system was general enough that others took advantage of it to drink from the same trough. This is another example of the same thing.
Furthermore, eliminating waste reduces the deficit, and that undercuts the arguments of Republicans for attacking benefits to poor Americans (which they want to do because they use it to get votes).. If a fairy gave the US $400 billion a year, they would need another tax cut for the rich to create a new the excuse for these cuts.
In fact, that is what Wisconsin Gov. Walker did this year: he cut taxes for the rich, created a deficit, then uses it to attack workers' rights.
The world financial system is in a disastrous loop of debt which nobody is in a position to fix.
Motel owners face the threat of confiscation because, over the years, a tiny fraction of their guests were arrested.
Russia and China vetoed UN sanctions against the Syrian dictatorship.
Israeli troops supposedly attack protests because Palestinian youths throw stones, but an Israeli soldier says that the troops usually shoot first.
The right to protest is respected more in Egypt and Spain than in New York.
The boycott of companies that profit from the Israeli occupation and colonization of the West Bank is hitting some companies hard, and they are moving their production.
Larry Lessig in support of the occupation of Wall Street.
A lawsuit by an Iraqi ex-prisoner has brought about a ruling banning the UK from putting hoods over prisoners' heads.
Bush ordered the US to put hoods over prisoners' heads. Has Obama changed this?
The government of South Africa refused to allow the Dalai Lama to make a private visit for Desmond Tutu's birthday party. It could only be sucking up to Chinese tyranny.
The Occupy Wall Street protest has inspired sister protests in several US cities, and are hoping to get 30 more soon.
A Libyan Jew, exiled by Gaddafi, returned to help the rebels. But his efforts to reopen the old synagogue have been met with threats of violence.
Ralph Nader is trying to organize a primary challenge to Obama. Hooray! Finally, we progressives will have a chance to show Obama how much we despise his right-wing policies.
The article refers to the myth that Nader was responsible for the election of Dubya. Dubya stole the 2000 election and the 2004 election.
Protesters are blocking the road to a nuclear construction site in the UK.
Great advances in efficiency of appliances are being nullified by the purchase of energy hogs such as plasma TV screens.
Tzipi Livni can now safely visit London, thanks to a change in UK law which gives ministers a political veto over prosecutions even when the crime cannot be denied.
With typical state hypocrisy, they say that this is to prevent the law from being "used for political purposes", when in fact the result is to authorize precisely that.
With the Lake Wobegon effect, large companies try to pay their executives more than most comparably-sized companies pay theirs.
Alabama's anti-Immigrant law, upheld by a US court, has scared illegal Immigrants into pulling 2000 children out of school. Some of those children are US citizens, but they can no longer get an education.
When illegal Immigrant women are too scared to get prenatal care for their children, the result will be US citizens with incurable birth defects.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support Obama's American Jobs Act. Or use this page to send a message, but a phone call carries more weight.
Here's information on the proposal.
I see only one point here that is specifically bad: that of new computer labs in schools, which I fear would teach dependence on proprietary software to America's children. However, this would be a small part of the plan, not enough reason to reject the whole thing.
A few other points might be of questionable effectiveness - some of the tax breaks for businesses.
Obama probably isn't serious about the issue either, but it is an opportunity for us anyway. The Republicans will oppose anything that helps American workers, but we may as well make them lose something for opposing it.
The lawsuit against Chevron shows companies that if they pollute, they may be made to pay.
Unfortunately there remain many examples where companies were able to avoid paying, such as Exxon for the still persisting damage from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
For the first time, there was a large ozone hole in the Arctic stratosphere like the one that happens every year in the Antarctic.
A proposed list of demands for the Wall Street protests.
The Keystone planet-roaster pipeline has a booster inside the State Department.
The UK says it has to cut support for the poor because it is out of money, so why does it hand out so much to the rich?
Tuvalu is running out of fresh water due to a lack of rain.
This might get worse with global heating, but not for long; in a decade or two, Tuvalu will be inundated frequently by storms and will no longer be inhabitable.
State Department admits its "Independent" tar sands pipeline review was paid for by TransCanada (the company that plans to build the pipeline).
Thousands protested in Chicago to tax the rich instead of budget cuts.
US citizens: phone your representative and senators to support H. Res 365, to forgive student loans.
Lithuania is covering up for the Bush regime about how it participated in the kidnaping-for-torture system.
Princeton University has adopted the "open access" publication policy, as I have urged universities to do since the 90s.
This policy may be marginally stronger than those of Harvard and MIT. It allows a professor to request a waiver, but are those waivers granted automatically, or does the university have the option to refuse, to make the publisher negotiate?
US citizens: send a comment to the State Department opposing the Keystone XL planet-broiler tar sands oil pipeline.
The UK government says it supports global human rights, but not when the it has an interest in supporting a dictator.
The New York police arrested people for no apparent reason during a recent protest on Wall Street. Was the reason a 4.6 million donation from J. P. Morgan?
Bribing a policeman is a crime; bribing the police department is not.
The current US supreme court persistently favors corporations against everyone else: customers, employees, stockholders, and whistleblowers.
Big Oil Clings to Tax Breaks While Hoarding Tens of Billions.
The US appeals court upheld a bizarre, general patent on using information found in scientific literature.
Thousands protested in Portugal against austerity measures.
US employers are fraudulently describing employees as "independent contractors" to deprive them of pay and benefits.
Mike Daisey's one-man campaign to call attention to the suffering inflicted by Apple on the people who make its products.
Apple will probably try to diffuse the criticism with some sort of "corporate responsibility" pledge, which Chinese companies will then pretend to follow. It will be very hard to get Chinese factories to treat workers decently as long as the Chinese government is corrupt and won't enforce whatever laws they might have about labor conditions.
In effect, the responsibility for these abuses falls on the corporations that decided to move all the manufacturing from the US to China and on the subservient politicians that helped them do it.
Big Pharma companies test experimental drugs in poor countries where they don't bother to tell the subjects that they are participating in an experiment.
We should not allow these companies to run trials of their own drugs. That is an opening for corruption, and these companies, which assiduously research new ways to corrupt medicine, will take advantage of any opening they get. We already know that studies funded by drug companies are less likely to report any problem.
We should tax these companies and run studies which they have no connection with.
Earth Justice is suing for proper environmental impact consideration before opening a new coal mine in Montana.
A congressional committee allowed two witnesses into its hearing to describe the harm done by strip mining of coal, but ignored them.
The fact that political debate in the US is focused on debt and deficit reduction, which is not a real problem, demonstrates the banksters' power to dominate politics.
US citizens: stand up against legalization of torture in the US.
The Kindle was a scheme for knowing what books are read by the fools who use it. The new version, Kindle Fire, will let Amazon track users' web browsing too.
Stallman's Law: under corporatocracy, every advance in technology is an opportunity for corporations to reduce, in practice, the rights of human beings.
Everyone: call on the NYPD to investigate officer Bologna's violence rather that try to feed us the bologna that there could have been some justification for shooting pepper spray at helpless unagressive protesters.
How "social" computer games are subtly designed to get some vulnerable players hooked and paying lots of money.
The article is written in a style that is too clever gets in the way of its point, but the point is visible nonetheless.
Taxing the rich more should not be a means to continue paying for wars that shouldn't be contined at all.
We should end the wars and tax the rich more.
"Pinkwashing" means making questionable or expensive products seem good by linking them somehow with the cause of treating breast cancer. The foundation which started the practice is now selling a perfume with toxic contents.
The latest Republican looney lie: cutting the Pentagon budget would "force" the US to reinstate the draft.
The hypocrisy of Republicans is visible when they say military cuts would cost jobs, but disregard the loss of jobs that would result from the other cuts they advocate. Any given amount of spending creates fewer jobs when it is spent on the military.
The UN found that violence in Afghanistan is up 40% over 2010.
There is no way the US can "win" this war except by crushing the country. The sooner it pulls out, the less harm it will do.
Chilean police massively attacked the protesters.
They sprayed tear gas directly on the leader of the students, paralyzing her. She says that they sprayed her with a burning chemical too.
The protesters have called for a general strike.
This article argues that the European Union is planning for the Greek state to become bankrupt.
Interestingly, it assumes that Greece will use the bankruptcy to shaft Greek workers rather than to cancel debt to banks. I won't say this is impossible but I don't see why it is a certainty.
PACs donated $83,000 to the members of the supercommittee during August alone.
A group of medical doctors asked New York State to study health implications before permitting fracking.
CIA's vaccine ruse in Pakistan has harmed vaccination efforts as well as relations between the US and the Pakistani people.
The phony vaccination scheme may have been wrong, but it is clearly not "treason"; accusing people based on exaggeration is just as wrong in Pakistan as in the US or anywhere else.
By making that accusation, Pakistan effectively says, "To attack bin Laden was to attack the Pakistani state." I hope Pakistan does not really wish to identify itself with a terrorist.
Ten thousand started protests in Portland, Oregon.
More information about the bill to help Americans close bank accounts.
Although the US gained some jobs recently, they are not enough to keep up with population growth.
Sirte seems to be on the edge of falling to Libyan government forces.
I have to wonder why Gaddafi's men continue to fight, even though it is clear they will lose. Is it from discipline? I doubt they had so much of that. Loyalty to Gaddafi? Maybe, but I wonder why. Fear they will not be allowed to surrender? I hope that is not it. Tribal loyalty? If so, the government needs to do something to win the support of that tribe, or it will lead to some sort of problem later.
The UN is investigating the murder of 16 journalists in Honduras since the coup that probably occurred with US support.
Imprisoned Bahraini doctors rebuked the US for its weak concern for their rights.
As parts of the US run short of water, they need to take polluted water and clean it up.
It works, but it takes more energy — which brings us back to global heating.
Syria is attacking dissidents outside Syria by sending thugs to fight them and by torturing their relatives.
Measuring US media's disregard for the Wall Street protest, in its first week.
NPR's new president plans to "depoliticize" the service — which means, increase the right-wing bias.
NPR stands for Not Progressive, Really.
In rural Venezuela, the wealthy opponents of President Chavez murder with impunity.
European companies can buy "carbon credits" from plantations in Honduras that operate on land stolen from peasants.
Citizens of the EU: sign this petition to use public bailout money to help the people of Greece, not the banks.
Human Rights Watch (and many others) have called on Congress to block US arms sales to Bahrain.
India deports foreign journalists who try to cover its bloody occupation of Kashmir, or its cruel war against the tribals. Indian journalists get framed and imprisoned instead.
Banks Successfully Lobbied For Weaker Bailout Repayment Rules So They Could Pay Bonuses.
More information about this.
The latest Republican distraction: Wall Street protesters threaten poor bankers who are "Are Struggling To Make Ends Meet".
Th corporations which rule with their unjust power do have some employees. But what they do with their power, to transfer wealth to the rich, has destroyed millions of jobs and left millions more with lousy jobs. We need to eliminate that power. If the result is that some unproductive jobs disappear, that will be a minor offset to the overall benefit.
US companies are using face recognition and fingerprints to control workers.
A gigantic loophole allows US corporations to designate a low-tax country for their profits.
Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to 11 years in prison in Iran for representing dissidents in court.
This bogus trial was not as bad as what Obama does, sentencing people to execution by decree.
Small amounts of oil from the Big Spill had devastating effects on fish in marshes in Louisiana.
Internet services such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are making broad surveillance easy and cheap for governments around the world.
Many federal agencies are systematically gagging their scientists.
James Hansen says, "If we stay on with business as usual, the southern U.S. will become almost uninhabitable."
Coal is very costly to society: the economic damage it does is worth twice the price of the electricity generated.
The US-sponsored Afghan Border Police have followed the US lead by practicing torture.
US citizens: send mail to your senators telling them to oppose the resolution to block the FCC's network neutrality rules.
Even better, phone them too.
The FCC's rules are not as strong as they should be, but they are much better than nothing, and nothing is the senators who are working for the telcos want us to have.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the bill to make it easy to move your money to a different bank.
Also sign this petition, but the phone call carries more weight.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Citizens of Massachusetts: support state-level medical marijuana legislation.
Everyone: call on New York City officials to respect the protesters' rights.
Everyone: state your support for the Wall Street protests.
Chilean high school girls have occupied their school for 5 months.
Big US drug companies get away with illegal medical experiments because they are too big to sue.
The US needs to adopt policies that will make large companies split up.
Obama's "free trade" treaties include more financial deregulation (the opposite of what we need), and loss of jobs — but Obama is presenting them as a "jobs program"!
Republicans want to cut off the US government's investment in birth control for poor women, even though this change would increase the deficit.
It would also result in more abortions (slightly dangerous) and more births (more dangerous).
A conservative front group, "FreedomWorks" is trying to hijack public anger and protests and direct them on paths that support the banksters.
The Federal Reserve Bank has been trying to stimulate the economy, but it cannot do so very effectively. The right tool for this job is deficit spending, but Republicans won't allow that, and Obama has mostly embraced the Republican goal of deficit-cutting.
Sami al-Saadi is suing the UK government for colluding with Gaddafi to have him tortured.
Iran has blocked all VPNs, for the sake of censorship.
A movie industry executive says that unauthorized copying is not a big problem. What he really fears is the sort of monopoly that Apple has.
The term "piracy" is propaganda — please join me in refusing call people who share "pirates".
Turkey has imprisoned 500 protesting students using "anti-terror" laws.
If a law is described as "anti-terror", that is plenty of reason to suspect it unjustly restricts citizens' freedom. This is because reacting to a sensational crime often leads legislators to switch off their better judgment.
Obama's decisions about who to assassinate are made by a secret panel of officials that releases no deliberations.
Whatever crimes Awlaki may have been involved in, and no matter what crimes he may have been planning, they don't justify execution without trial.
Transcanada is illegally carrying out preparations for the Keystone planet roaster pipeline.
Some in Congress say the pipeline's environmental impact statement was done improperly and disregarded important pollution risks.
But they do not raise the biggest issue, which is the extra contribution to global heating.
Egypt's military rules are accused of trying to delay the election of a civilian government.
Koch Industries either lied to the US Congress or lied to Canadian regulators.
Israeli Arabs went on strike, shutting down several towns, to protest in Beersheba against plans to kick 30,000 bedouin out of their homes.
New comic Beating up on Canada.
Anwar Al-Awlaqi has been assassinated at the orders of Obama, who seems to have won uncontested power to order US citizens killed.
The Supercommittee said it would conduct its meetings openly, but in fact makes most meeting an "exception" and holds them in secret.
New Forest Company wanted to grow trees in Uganda as a carbon-offset scheme, so it violently chased out the people who lived on the land.
Growing trees as a carbon-offset scheme is bogus in the first place because the CO2 absorption is only forecast, not real.
How the US set up an indiscriminate killing machine in Afghanistan.
Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died.
As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone." Nobody deserves to have to die - not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing.
Unfortunately, that influence continues despite his absence. We can only hope his successors, as they attempt to carry on his legacy, will be less effective.
(I posted a follow-on : 27 October 2011 (Steve Jobs) )
100 protesters against the planet-burning Keystone tar sand oil pipeline were arrested in Toronto.
This article omits the reason why this pipeline must be stopped: because extracting and burning that oil will commit Earth to an amount of warming that is catastrophic.
The US pressured Haitian senators to approve as prime minister a man who has ties to the former dictatorship and is currently employed by Bill Clinton. (See the last paragraph.)
This is after imposing its choice of president on Haiti in a Burmese-style election.
The UK is forcing people to go through body scanners at train stations.
On seeing a photo I find it is just a metal detector, not a body scanner. Fortunately, therefore, it was a false alarm.
Israel's fanatical followers in the Republican Party openly avowed their support for Israel's annexation of the West Bank.
Annexation is what Israel has been gradually doing for a few decades. What we see here is the fading of shame about that goal. The rest of Boehner's statement is typical right-wing disconnect from reality.
Gov. Perry jumped in with more of the same disconnect, accusing Obama for motivating the Palestinian recognition bid by public statements giving them a sign of support.
The truth is exactly the opposite: Obama helped motivate the Palestinian recognition bid by privately demanding that they concede everything, even more slavishly than Dubya and Clinton did.
Greenpeace has pressured Mattel into ceasing to use paper made by cutting down rainforests in Sumatra.
After Palestinian prisoners started a hunger strike, Israeli police responded with violence.
Israeli Rabbis and government ministers that advocate racism against Arabs have created a climate in which others go one step further and commit pogroms against Arabs.
It looks like the New York police told protesters they could march on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, then arrested them for doing so. The New York Times recognized this, then mysteriously deleted it.
The Atlanta police chief firmly defends a policeman who repeatedly attacks people without even a shred of a rational motive.
Ossifer Hobbs says he thought victim Hoolihan was drunk. What difference would that have made? Supposing Hoolihan had passed out from alcohol, rather than due to a diabetic coma, would that have made it ok to brutalize and injure him while he was unconscious?
What this demonstrates is the need for an effective system for punishing uniformed thugs, which abound in the US and elsewhere. While few police ossifers engage in random irrational violence as Hobbs does, many commit violence when they feel provoked or offended — for instance, when citizens exercize their rights in ways that the police find distasteful.
New York state legislators want to reverse the First Amendment and declare freedom of speech a "privilege" to be granted when it suits them.
US mobile phone companies vary greatly in how long they keep information about their customers calls and messages — and in how much data they keep.
I expect that the FBI collects it all each month anyway.
Canada's ice shelves have shrunk by 50% in the past 6 years.
A torture dossier about Belarusian President Lukashenka will facilitate prosecution of him if he visits various other countries.
Is one prepared for Dubya?
When a market trader said he "dreams of another recession", some people assumed he was from the Yes Men. But he was serious!
Major unions will support the Wall Street protests.
The major US media bend over backwards to legitimize police violence against protesters in Wall Street.
US citizens: sign this petition telling the FBI to come clean about how it uses the U SAP AT RIOT.
In the US: sign this petition calling on supermarkets not to sell Monsanto's GMO corn.
In the US: make a clamor for peace on Oct 6.
Free Press has sued the FCC for the weakness of its net neutrality rules for mobile Internet providers.
I think their rules for non-mobile providers are too weak too.
The Palestinian Authority rejected returning to peace talks while Israel keeps building its colonies in the West Bank.
Such talks are useless because Israel demands all concessions and will make none.
Bahraini hospital staff have been sentenced to long prison terms for treating wounded protesters.
Has anyone read Captain Blood?
Trichloroethylene, an industrial chemical that contaminates water in large regions of the US, is more toxic than was previously believed.
Afraid to protest in the street, Algerian youth protest during football matches.
US citizens: sign this petition calling on the senate not to oppose network neutrality.
For even more effect, phone your senators' offices.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
US citizens: tell your senators to end the death penalty.
Support Kentucky Attorney General Conway in not giving the banksters a deal where they won't be prosecuted.
In the UK: go to TESCO and write down the prices you see on the shelves.
US citizens: sign this pledge to work to abolish the death penalty.
My opposition to the death penalty is not based on the fact that the system is broken (though it is), or that it is expensive (though it is), or that it is discriminatory (though it is). For me, the reason is more simple: the death penalty eliminates any chance to correct a miscarriage of justice.
US citizens: sign this petition against software patents.
The petition has some flaws. For instance, it talks of the "software industry" as if its success were unquestionably a good thing, and it misuses the term "antitrust". I am not sure the president has the power to change this policy by himself, anyway. Despite that, the petition is worth signing as a way of showing the amount of public concern.
So I will sign it.
US citizens: Obama proposed to cut health benefits to extend the wars. Tell him you don't like this.
Whatever Republicans propose to hurt the poor and sick, Obama supports it.
US citizens: help the campaign to stop the Keystone XL planet-broiler oil pipeline.
US citizens: take action in your state to end the death penalty.
Everyone: tell Bolivia to stop the planned highway through an important nature preserve.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support reform of the ECPA, the US privacy law about our electronic communications. And sign this petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Saving the rich and losing the economy.
The Supreme Court has been asked to consider the constitutionality of Obama's health insurance reform law.
The Taliban never considered Rabbani's Afghan High Peace Council a serious peace initiative.
That could explains why they assassinated him.
Pakistanis blame alliance with the US for the 355 suicide bombings in their country.
Since the US/Colombia Labor Action Plan started in April, 15 more union leaders have been murdered in Colombia.
Evidently it is ineffective.
General Motors retreated under pressure, and reversed its recent changes in the terms of service for the cellphone spy in its cars.
That means we blocked a bad development, but I hope you think that the very existence of a cell phone inside your car, to spy on you, is unacceptable.
Does anyone know how hard it is to disconnect the cell phone's power lead, in current GM models?
It's a Lie That Working Poor Don't Pay Taxes.
The nastiest part of this lie is the assumption that they should HAVE to pay taxes. Why should the state squeeze money out of people who can barely get by? It should be giving them help, not taxing them.
Ecuador is looking for 100 million euros this year in exchange for leaving a large oil deposit in the ground, but it has received only half that.
Bahrain: Pro-democracy activists convicted of killing policemen appear to have been framed.
A reporter reports on being arrested while trying to interview protesters on Wall Street.
Even passersby who took photos were arrested, in what seems to be a systematic assault on press coverage of police brutality.
Peter Van Buren was part of the US State Department's project to reconstruct Iraq. He reports that it was a pyramid scheme of fraud: nobody even tried to make sure their activities did real good, or could even potentially do so.
He is going to be fired by the State Department for the absurd offense of making a link to a published Wikileaks cable.
Reporter Lisa Romero says the major media's non-coverage of the Wall Street protests looks like a media blackout to her.
New York City police tore down posters telling citizens their rights in dealing with the police.
The "automatic" spending cuts that are supposed to happen if the supercommittee does not reach an agreement are not really automatic.
Nevada says, "Make a corporation here, and you can have it do almost anything, and you can't be sued."
Earth Overshoot Day, which was Sep 27 this year, marks the point of the year when humans have consumed a full year of Earth's natural capacity to replenish itself.
Our consumption for the rest of the year represents long-term degradation of the Earth.
Considering just the US, that point was probably reached months ago.
Chile's President Pinera agreed to talks with the protesting students.
NYC police imprisoned nonviolent protesters in a net, then Officer Anthony Bologna sprayed some of them in the eyes with pepper spray.
Cory Doctorow says, parents who monitor their children all the time are teaching them not to value or defend their privacy. Instead we should encourage them to break surveillance.
The US Senate, in debating the internet censorship PIP Act, allowed its propents to set up an "educational" propaganda display in a Senate office building.
Saudi Arabia gave women the right to vote, but this does them little good since it doesn't give them other equal rights.
There is not much that gets decided by elections in Saudi Arabia.
Why don't the deficit-cutters suggest a financial transaction tax? Because the supposed goal of deficit-cutting is an excuse to attack Social Security.
Congresscritters that want the air we breath to endanger us.
Wikipedia sets an example of refusing to let Facebook spy on its users.
A military-style border with Mexico is causing military-style corruption and waste.
What mountaintop removal coal mining means to the surroundings — to the rivers, to the land, to the people.
A US company specializes in Internet surveillance equipment used by untrustworthy regimes such as the US and Egypt.
Chomsky stated his support for the Wall Street protests.
The police crackdown on Wall Street shows signs of spurring resistance.
Bolivian President Morales is losing support after trying to impose a highway project through a nature reserve.
Senators called on the FTC to stop GM from collecting data from former subscribers to their car-tracking service even after they cancel the service.
This is not enough. Such a "service" would be inexcusable even if it did not collect from former subscribers.
President Saleh returned to Yemen and faced new massive protests.
Corporate pressure groups are directly involved in Republican redistricting activities, which often hide their funding sources.
The US is planning to sell lots of weapons to Bahrain, rewarding its brutal king.
Two US hikers arrested by Iran at the border, and recently released, say that when they complained about their treatment, their captors responded, "This is not as bad as Guantanamo".
The IMF and World Bank have broken their promise not to drop the brunt of worldwide austerity programs on children and the poor. Their cuts in prenatal care can do lifelong damage.
Wesley Dutton and Greg Gonzales say they can't get any officials to investigate their evidence of official corruption near the Mexican border.
Instead, they have been threatened to make them shut up.
"Logging out" of Facebook does little to stop its surveillance.
In particular, every page with a "like" button still knows who you are.
Police attacked protesters on Wall Street several times, and posted videos substantiate the protesters' claim that there was no justification.
ABC's headline was that the "protests turned violent", which falsely accuses the protesters of committing the violence.
Republicans in Wisconsin want to ban all use of fetal stem cells, even for making the vaccines that save thousands of lives every year.
Use of fetal stem cells does not involve an ethical trade-off; there is nothing whatsoever wrong with it. Likewise, using embryonic stem cells from embryos made for the purpose involves no trade-off. An embryo is not a person even if religious extremists pretend it is one.
The article bends over backwards to win over some of the opponents of abortion rights, even calling them "pro-life". I think that is a mistake: by doing that, we legitimize their unjust cause.
The UK government tries to demonize attempts to scientifically understand what occurred in the UK riots, although such an investigation into the 1960s US riots was very useful.
80 people were arrested at the protests in Wall Street.
I am not sure what "cordoned off" means. Maybe the New York police have adopted the tactic known in the UK as "kettling".
Israelis uprooted 400 olive trees belonging to Palestinians.
Abu Mazen says the Palestinian Authority is considering terminating its own existence, which would force Israel to accept direct responsibility for the occupation of Palestine.
Republicans are trying to destroy the US Postal Service.
The world needs to spend less on arms. For instance, Greece could reduce its austerity if it stopped buying fighter jets.
Uri Avnery: Obama betrayed both the US and Israel by embracing lies about Palestine, and then received his pay from Netanyahu.
New York City set up massive and widespread surveillance of places Moslems might go, from mosques to restaurants, and labeled them as suspect for reasons including political views.
On the pretext of deporting "the worst of the worst" among immigrants who are criminals, Obama set up a program that deports thousands of immigrants (even legal immigrants) who are arrested for any reason.
The police say this program provides information "too vital to halt". You can always trust police to say that; you might as well make a policeman doll that says "This information is absolutely vital" when you push a button.
One of the few good things Obama has done was raise automobile fuel efficiency standards. The car dealers are now campaigning against, saying that cancelling these is their top priority.
With a govermnent that had even a shred of civic responsibility, we wouldn't need to give them even a thought.
An Iraqi opposition journalist was murdered, added to a long toll of journalists killed.
The United Arab Emirates has imprisoned people for "insulting officials", after Guantanamo-style bogus trials.
Republican congressional leaders demanded that the Federal Reserve let the US economy slide into depression.
Their strategy is to make people suffer, and blame the Democrats. The sad thing is, they won't be entirely wrong, because today's Democrats are such sellouts that they won't fight against this; and least of all Obama.
The oil companies, to gain permission for their planet-roasting Keystone XL pipeline, hired Clinton's former campaign official to influence her decisions.
If Clinton had an ounce of concern for our country, she would not meet with her former colleagues who have sold out to companies.
For the mainstream media, what "terrorism" is what others do; whatever the state does is automatically excluded from the category.
The article goes too far by labeling all the UK's wars as "terrorism". The clearest error was applying that description to the war to recapture the Falkland Islands from the army sent by Argentine dictators to conquer them. Some other examples in that list may also be inappropriate.
However, these errors don't invalidate the overall conclusion of the page.
Afghanistan's chief peace negotiator was killed by a suicide bomber who pretended to be a Taliban negotiator.
Whoever killed him apparently wanted to poison those negotiations. Who could that be? An extreme faction of the Taliban? Someone profiting from the fighting?
I wonder if the Taliban will punish whoever it was. It would be natural for them to want to.
The US is planning to develop autonomous killer robots.
Thanks to the deficit cutting plan, weapons contractors are fighting to cut your social security and medical benefits in order to avoid cuts to their income.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the 1968 student protests in France, told the Israeli youth movement that they cannot gain their domestic aims if they disregard the issue of the occupation.
A former US Army intelligence translator heard evidence of an explicit Army plan to attack international journalists.
The text of Abu Mazen's speech to the UN.
Hundreds of Israeli intellectuals stated their support for the move.
Uri Avnery's statement of support.
Although the Palestinian appeal to the UN will not end the occupation, it can make a difference in many ways.
The US Army has officially ended discrimination against homosexual soldiers.
The IMF and the World Bank are behind the global land grab that kicking millions of poor people off their land.
A few decades ago, many governments used to protect their people from foreign land purchases. Now we know why this has changed.
In strategic terms, al Qa'ida defeated the US.
Pages that contain Facebook "like" buttons enable Facebook to track visitors to those pages even if they don't use Facebook.
The ACLU has a different way of enabling users to click a Facebook "like" button, which avoids this problem. Its pages have a link called "like us on Facebook" that leads to a Facebook page where it is possible to push a "like" button for the ACLU. But if you don't follow that link, Facebook gets no information about your visit to the ACLU page.
Here's an example of the practice.
Obama's speech at the UN was a pledge of allegiance to Israel.
I disagree with the writer's position on Libya. The US had a cozy relationship with Gaddafi, and supported him when the rebellion first began. But when it was clear that the rebellion was serious and substantial, the US was effectively compelled to choose one side or the other. Should it have supported Gaddafi instead?
I also disagree in regard to Yemen. The article criticizes the US for not intervening there, but Yemen had no rebellion like that in Libya. To intervene in Yemen would have been more comparable to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Of the various Arab states that have had protest movements, the real shame for Obama is Bahrain. By endorsing the propaganda and justifying repression, he gives Bahrain's bloody monarch the same kind of support that he gives to Israel's extremists.
Law professors have asked the SEC to require corporations to disclose their political campaign spending.
This is a step in the right direction, but the only real solution is to abolish the idea that corporations are entitled to the rights of "persons".
Two Mexicans accused of "terrorism" for repeating reports of violence on Twitter were freed.
However, prosecuting people on a "lesser charge" is equally unjust even if it does less harm to them.
Meanwhile, the narco gangs seem to be also threatening Mexicans for reporting violence.
This means that people need to post these reports through anonymous accounts - which is another instance of how the "real name" policies of Facebook and Google+ are harmful.
The FCC endorsed a weak definition of network neutrality that amounts to network filtering under control of the state.
It also omits a crucial aspect of network neutrality: being able to connect to the network with software of your choice.
US night raids in Afghanistan now target non-combatants.
65% of Israelis say that if the UN recognizes Palestine as a state, Israel should accept the decision.
In Gov. Perry's fantasy land, the increase in droughts, floods and fires are not the result of global heating. Rather, they have been sent by a sadistic god to punish America for tolerating homosexuality.
Perry did not say what the heat wave in Russia or floods in Australia were a punishment for. Perhaps those countries are outside his awareness.
A US appeals court ruled that people in Ecuador, suffering from the pollution spread by Chevron (formerly Texaco)'s oil extraction there, can collect their 18 billion dollars damages in the US.
Wikileaks cables show that Chevron lobbied Ecuador's President Correa to intervene in the court case against Chevron, working closely with the US embassy. Correa apparently did not do what they wanted.
Senators Wyden and Udall accused the "Justice" department of lying about how it uses the U SAP AT RIOT act.
An Ethiopian journalist had to flee into exile as the government demanded he reveal his sources, after he was mentioned in a Wikileaks cable.
It is unfortunate that the Wikileaks cables were released in unredacted form, but this is mostly the fault of others.
Ironically, the Obama regime is cracking down on whistleblowers while the UK regime is trying to use the Official Secrets Act (normally used in cases of espionage) to get similar data from Guardian reporters.
Troy Davis was executed; everyone that could have saved him refused to intervene. This has led to a resurgence of opposition to the death penalty in the US.
Obama refused to comment on the execution, saying, "it is not appropriate for the president of the United States to weigh in on specific cases".
But he didn't let that stop him from pronouncing Bradley Manning guilty before his trial.
US citizens: sign this petition calling on Obama to publicly recognize the protests in Wall Street.
What if the Tea Party Occupied Wall Street?
Of course, that's purely hypothetical. Why would the Tea Party ever want to occupy Wall Street? The Tea Party works for Wall Street.
Berlusconi's supporters have proposed a strict Internet censorship law which would also involve punishing people by disconnection when accused even once of violation.
Massachusetts citizens: tell the state house, don't recriminalize marijuana.
Phoning your state senator and representative is also a good idea, since phone calls carry more weight.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Everyone: call on the Attorney General of Delaware to revoke Massey Energy's charter.
Everyone: sign this petition urging Palestine not to yield to Obama's pressure, and to go ahead with asking the UN for recognition as a state.
The Wall Street Occupation: A Sleep-In Protest in the Shadow of Power.
Fact-Checking The Fact-Checkers: The AP Releases Misleading Analysis Of Obama's Tax Plan.
Another reason to reject Obama's Free Exploitation Treaties: they are advocated by companies that have outsourced at least 18,000 jobs (or maybe much more) since 2001.
Whatever they want, they should not get.
The German Pirate Party got 9% of the vote in Berlin regional elections.
I am sure they can do some good there, but they cannot affect copyright or patent policy since that is national, not regional. I hope that regional election success does not distract the Pirate Party from the goal of copyright reform.
The Council of Europe appealed to the State of Georgia for clemency for Troy Davis.
It didn't do any good, because the State of Georgia will kill to avoid acknowledging a probable mistake. If only our governments were so stubborn towards the megacorporations that want to buy laws.
Tax Dodging Corporations Form Coalition To Call For Lower Corporate Taxes.
General Motors cars have built-in cell phones which General Motors can use to get lots of information about the car, including its location. General Motors can make a complete dossier of where someone drives.
Now General Motors has decided to collect all this data and sell it with no further warning.
It is not only General Motors that can collect this information. I suspect that under the PAT RIOT act, the FBI can collect it all from General Motors without a court order. Meanwhile, the cell phone company also collects and saves location information from that phone.
If you don't want them tracking you as you drive, you need to cut the power to that cell phone.
Pentagon contractors will use the influence they have purchased with campaign support to Democrats to make the supercommittee dump the whole burden on the poor instead.
Campaigning to revoke Massey Energy's corporate charter for its repeated illegal endangerment of people and the environment.
The world does little to help end cholera in Haiti, but at least Haitians can now buy small amounts of cholera insurance.
How oil and mining companies evade taxes by shifting their profits and losses between countries.
The EPA gave Shell permission for Arctic undersea drilling — in terms of air pollution caused by the drilling.
In narrow terms, this decision might be correct. The drilling should be blocked because of the danger of an oil spill that would be impossible to clean up.
Non-Islamist Syrian dissidents in exile launched a joint movement for a secular and non-racist Syria.
Chinese are talking about dangerous pollution and protesting it despite the government's strong censorship.
It is now legally possible to indict Rumsfeld in the US for the torture he authorized, torture which went far beyond waterboarding, if only a DA has the guts to prosecute.
The article reports that Rumsfeld and Dubya don't dare visit some countries because they would be arrested and tried. Also, it presents evidence that this torture was never intended to get true intelligence — its aim was brainwashing to get false confessions.
Yemen's suppression forces have shot dozens of protesters dead, and injured hundreds.
More of the Arctic is without ice cover than ever before recorded.
Obama has taken a first step to reorganize regulation of undersea oil drilling, but it won't suffice to resist the tremendous pressure to drill more.
New Jersey seems to have covered up security flaws in voting machines rather than fix them.
Resisting corporate control over seeds is a part of the food movement.
Lloyds insurance company sued Saudi royals for funding the Sep 11 attacks .
A banker described Geithner as "our man in Washington", thus explaining why Obama put Geithner in his post: to appease and submit to the banksters.
Further, Obama's sudden recollection that he ought to try to create jobs is just a sham — he says this because he knows the program won't be passed.
As the Liberal Democrats vote on a position about the Digital Economy Act (punishment without trial for those accused of sharing), someone unidentified snuck a statement into their position paper saying that sharing is "theft" and endorsing prosecution of people who copy.
Hundreds of protesters are camped in a park near Wall Street.
An effective action needs a lot more than that.
Jimmy Carter gives support to UN recognition of Palestine.
A Wikileaks cable shows that Obama directly pressured Zapatero to escalate the War on Sharing in Spain.
This surely makes Obama responsible for the nasty Ley Sinde that provides for filtering the Internet and shutting domestic websites without a trial.
People of Spain, Obama and the US have attacked your country and damaged your freedom.
US special forces are active in almost 100 "unstable" countries ,and the effect of US military involvement is often to make them more unstable and more angry at the US.
US citizens: Tell House Democrats to vote against any supercommittee deal that cuts Medicare or Medicaid benefits.
US citizens: Call on the Supercommittee to do no harm to US employment.
The vote for Palestinian statehood will break US influence in the Middle East.
This article also contains an interesting commentary on Israel's right to exist and be recognized: it needs to specify what borders it claims in order for that to be judged.
Lawsuits by patent trolls do 80 billion dollars of damage per year, of which very little goes to anyone associated with "inventing" anything (even if these patents can be said to be about "inventions").
Not all the trolls' victims get sued, so this is an underestimate of the damage.
Obama wants to give military aid to Uzbekistan despite its atrocioous human rights record.
Craig Murray thinks Obama's motive is to withdraw US military equipment from Afghanistan through Uzbekistan.
I don't see how help from Uzbekistan would make much difference. The only way to get the equipment out of Uzbekistan is by air, and it can be flown out of Afganistan directly too — unless Bagram air base has become a lot more dangerous lately.
But if this really is crucial for pulling the US troops out of Afghanistan, it might do more good than harm.
Wal-Mart's latest scheme for worming its way into cities is donating support for urban agriculture.
Although this farming project is a good thing in itself, allowing Wal-Mart to increase its power by supporting good things is, overall, a threat.
Right-wing extremists now accuse Obama of failing to give Israel's government 110% support, because he asked Netanyahu timidly for a settlement freeze.
Obama has paid the price for breaking this chain without actually doing it. Too bad he didn't do more.
The Afghan local police, which are the latest US scheme to try to have Afghanis maintain security in Afghanistan, are accused of human rights violations.
Palestinians have set up a rapid response news squad to document the frequent attacks and vandalism by Israeli "settlers".
What is the right word for this violence? Terrorism? Pogrom?
The inhabitants of these colonies plan marches into major Palestinian cities as a provocation.
However, some of the "settlers" have launched a campaign against such violence.
New York Night-Mayor Bloomberg warns that unemployment and poverty might lead to "riots", saying that this is what happened in Spain and Egypt.
What it ought to lead to is not riots but protests.
Be it noted that Bloomberg defamed Spanyards and Egyptians by calling their massive disciplined protests "riots".
US companies are keeping cash rather than hiring workers.
Thus, any proposal to create jobs through further corporate welfare are nonsense.
200 people in Ecuador have been charged with "terrorism" for opposing mining and dam construction projects — for instance, by blocking streets while protesting.
The article has a spelling error: it should say "sacred sites".
1/3 of Yemenis are now suffering from food shortage.
This is caused by the worldwide high price of food, which in turn is due to world population increase, speculation, and control of agriculture by megacorporations. However, Yemen suffers also from its aridity and its local population growth.
The Inter-American Court ruled in favor of Leopoldo López, who has been arbitrarily denied the right to run for office in Venezuela.
Tens of thousands protested in Japan to call for the end of nuclear power there.
A mob of Buddhists in Sri Lanka destroyed a mosque, demonstrating that each one of the world's major religions can be used to incite violence.
Sony will demand users of its gaming network agree not to engage in class-action lawsuits against Sony.
This is typical of Sony.
Obama has declared an 11th year of "national emergency".
I suppose they intend to continue this "emergency" without end, much as Egypt has done.
The Pentagon exerts substantial influence on the content of Hollywood movies, and now the CIA offers script suggestions.
Siemens has sworn off nuclear power construction and will now focus on renewable energy sources.
A campaign by Amnesty International pressured RBS to stop investing in cluster bombs, but the US still hasn't signed the treaty to ban them.
The US government, since Sep 2001, has encouraged the misguided idea that terrorism is mainly a Muslim phenomenon, resulting in broad attacks on the rights of American Muslims.
I am not sure it is mistaken to call Mohammed a "cult leader", but the term is equally applicable to Jesus.
The UK government is not satisfied with its direct threats to those who share (the Digital Economy Act), so it plans additional attacks.
These seem to be inspired by the US internet censorship bill.
Obama has endorsed Buffett's call for increased taxes on millionaires.
It is no surprise that the Republicans oppose it. The way our political system is supposed to work is that Democrats make them vote on it and they lose the next election as a punishment. But we haven't had many real Democrats in congress for a long time.
On the Mexico-Guatemala border, Migrants demand an end to the violence.
The violence against Guatemalans heading to the US is committed by Mexican organized crime and police (there seems not to be much difference between the two).
I don't have an overall solution to recommend for this problem, but I know of a few things that would probably help.
Legalizing the drug trade to the US in Mexico might help by reducing the income of the gangs.
Canceling NAFTA, which has boosted poverty in both countries, might help. A government in Guatemala committed to social welfare might improve life for people there and reduce the desire to go to the US to work.
Part of the cause of the migration is population growth. Strong programs of contraceptive aid in Mexico and Guatemala will therefore help in the long run, as will legalizing abortion. However, that alone would not be a full solution.
Cases of people poisoned by toxic substances used for fracking near their homes are mounting up across the US.
A long list of secondary economic reasons to reject the US government's new system to track all people authorized to work in the US.
This is in addition to the main reason: it's a Big Brother system.
Iranian student Somayeh Tohidlou was flogged for posting on the Internet.
It is a standard part of Islamic law, which is represents the ethical standards of 1400 years ago.
The UK government has cut down public assistance to the point that some Britons don't have enough to eat.
Rather than limit the austerity, let alone reduce it, the government will refer hungry and penniless Britons to food banks — but only for 9 days' worth of food. What are people supposed to do after that?
Americans have the right to record the official actions of the police in public, but we need to fight against the police that don't respect this right.
An interview with Camila Vallejo, leader of Chile's protesting students.
Gaddafi's men in Sirte say that NATO bombing killed 354 people in a residence and a hotel.
If this is true, I am sure it was not intended. It is impossible to avoid civilian casualties in a war. However, it raises the question of whether NATO ought to be attacking Sirte. It doesn't seem to fit into the UN-approved mission, and it inevitably endangers civilians.
Protesters in Yemen took over the principal university to make it a protest headquarters.
However, many schools are shut because buildings are occupied by soldiers on one side or the other.
Booths in a big weapons trade show were found to be offering cluster bombs and torture devices.
The House Republicans reduced the American Jobs Act to a small set of tax cuts.
In Boston: see How to Start a Revolution on Sep 18.
Also sign this petition calling on Chatham County District Attorney Chisolm to oppose Troy Davis's execution.
US citizens: call on Rep. Issa to investigate News Corp for phone tapping etc.
(It is a shame they call this "hacking", but the campaign needs our support anyway.)
Cheney's memoir maintains the false history presented by the Bush regime, while condemning everyone that didn't support the lie.
Even as megacorporations such as Monsanto have taken control of the majority of agriculture in the US, its opposition, the Food Movement, is growing around the world and resisting in many ways.
The scientists who found Nanothermite in the ruins of the World Trade Center face mainly ad-hominem attacks.
US citizens: sign the call for an ethics investigation of Rep. Darrell Issa.
The US can increase jobs and protect the environment, if it resists the pressure and obfuscation of the fossil fuel industry.
The UN occupying force must withdraw from Haiti promptly — not in years. The Haitian people demand this.
The supposedly transitional military government in Egypt increased Mubarak's decades-old "emergency" powers.
The UK police are trying to force Guardian reporters to reveal the sources of the leak that blew the lid off the Murdoch phone tapping case.
Rep. Issa has passed many laws to help his own businesses and companies he owns stock in.
