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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.
Virginia has sneakily allowed adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples.
If you are in Virginia and thinking of having a baby which would be adopted, have an abortion instead!
Businesses in Central America support drug legalization.
That would be a big step forward but we need it in the US as well.
The Israeli hawks' lobby wants the US to change its policy so as to go to war to stop Iran from developing even the capability to make nuclear weapons.
Wal Mart subcontracts operations to other companies, which sometimes rob their workers.
Climate scientist Peter Gleick says he obtained the Heartland documents by pretending to be someone else.
This affirms that the documents are genuine, except perhaps for the one which Gleick says he received anonymously and sought to validate. However, he says that the other documents agree with that one in substance.
Obama's plans to revive US manufacturing sound good but the methods he proposes are too weak to achieve the goal.
In Homs, hospitals have been turned into torture chambers and doctors that treat wounded protesters are punished brutally.
When it says that "The men torturing him weren't even trying to get information," it falls into the common but erroneous belief that torture is a means of getting information. Torture is a system for getting false confessions, or simply for venting hatred; the supposed desire for information is a pretense.
The US Trade Representative boasts that the TPP negotiations are fully transparent (but only if you're a lobbyist for big business).
The secretive process is part and parcel of the malicious purpose of this treaty.
A proposal to give whales a legal right to life and freedom.
I might support this. It's a lot more reasonable than offering such rights to a 3-month human fetus.
Shows presenting dolphins would be able to continue if the dolphins stay and perform voluntarily. Sometimes dolphins are willing to do that.
Soot from industry in Asia is falling on Himalayan glaciers and making them melt faster.
Environment scientists say drastic action is needed to avoid eco-disaster.
Thich Nhat Hanh says that putting an economic value on nature is not enough — it is necessary for people to love the world's ecosystems.
If that is really necessary, it would require the elimination of corporations (psychopaths).
The Russian heatwave of 2010, which destroyed a large amount of the harvest, became 3 times as likely due to global heating.
In other words, it could have happened without global heating, but probably would not have happened.
Canada is making blustery threats to deter Europe from recognizing the heavily polluting effects of tar sand oil.
Canada's tar sand oil is more dangerous than Iranian nuclear weapons. If Iran builds nuclear weapons, it could very well never use them. If Canada is allowed to finish developing its tar oil export capability, it will attack the world immediately.
Nations threatened with attack (by inundation, drought or agricultural plagues) by Canada's planned weapon would do well to plan preemptive military intervention to prevent Canada from finishing its deployment.
The UK government, which was elected condemning the surveillance state, plans a tremendous increase in surveillance.
Some Americans may be subject to gratuitous drug tests in order to collect unemployment benefits.
No one should be required to take a drug test, not in connection with employment, and much less in connection with any benefits from the state.
They are not a good solution to any real problem.
US police using tasers have killed 500 people since 2001. Most of these people were unarmed and not threatening anyone.
The taser is not a "nonlethal weapon". It is a sometimes-lethal weapon.
Morocco arrested people for handing out leaflets calling for a boycott of the elections.
This also shows the danger of laws that forbid anonymous public statements.
Over a million people protested in Spain against plans to attack workers' rights..
ACTA is part of a multi-decade, worldwide copyright campaign by governments working for corporations to impose injustice.
One step in resisting their demands is rejecting their propaganda terms. Why say "copyright protection" when it is shorter and easier to say "copyright"? Copyright lawyers use the word "protection" because it spins the copyright issue their way. Since they are the "experts", their way of speaking is prestigious, so others imitate it in order to sound prestigious.
While Republican liars call Obama "socialist", he is actually less socialist than any recent president — and much less socialist than the American people.
Everyone: call for action to end Assad's massacres in Syria.
Refuting Kurzweil's singularity predictions.
It would be nice if they came true, but 2045 would probably be too late for me anyway. If immortality were ready in 2020, I might live to see it.
Meanwhile, after 2045 the social upheavals due to global heating will probably interfere with scientific progress. If immortality isn't developed by then, society may no longer be in condition to make progress towards it.
Obama's negotiations with the Taliban disregard the Afghan people.
Consulting the Afghan people is not only the right thing to do, it is likely to lead to a better settlement.
The Heartland Institute threatens to sue those who commented on its leaked documents which describe its plans for global heating denial.
Scientists whose leaked emails were commented on by the Heartland Institute point out the contradiction between the way it wants to be treated and the way it treated them.
Scientists Who Had Emails Stolen Ask Heartland Institute to End Attack on Climate Science
Obama has no interest in a diplomatic deal with Iran about uranium enrichment. The other parties (including Iran and Israel) also have no interest in reaching agreement.
The Shabaab in Somalia is cooperating with al Qa'ida.
This would never have happened if the US had not intervened in Somalia (using Ethiopian troops) against the Islamic Courts Movement government.
Apple's assembly workers in China got a 25% raise.
Will Apple products' users get a 25% increase in their freedom to control their own computers? If I know Apple, they will seek increased control.
US citizens: support Congressional investigation of the FDA's harassment of whistleblowers.
A police official is aghast that adolescents "as young as 13 years" are using Facebook to look for lovers among their own circle of youth gangs.
This article distorts a real issue by viewing it through the filter of sexual overprotectiveness. You can see that when the official calls these adolescents "very young girls".
These teenagers are being mistreated in various ways. They are being pressured into dangerous criminal activities, such as hiding guns. They may also feel pressured into having sex, which people shouldn't be. Sex is not inherenly harmful, but could be dangerous for them if they don't use condoms. Some of them are abused by their lovers, too; that could mean violence. All these are real problems or wrongs.
But the article treats the real problems as side issues, and focuses on shock at the fact that they are looking for lovers. It even says their lives are "ruined". Involvement in gangs can give people a bad start in life, but that doesn't mean they have no hope of overcoming it, so "ruined" is an exaggeration. But I think "ruined" is meant to resonate emotionally as "no longer virginal". This article uses the problem of youth gangs to endorse victorian prudery.
High school students in Chicago occupied their school to block planned privatization.
Obama is trying to discourage Netanyahu from launching an attack against Iran.
His stronger predecessors would have told Netanyahu not to attack Iran. Israel depends on tremendous amounts of US aid.
There were few shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico this winter, and a large fraction of them were deformed.
Climate Change Killing Yellow Cedar Trees In Alaska.
Syngenta actively targeted scientists, journalists and NGOs that investigated the danger of atrazine.
Obama Proposal Could Lead to Bigger Domestic Cuts, Smaller Defense Cuts.
President Correa in Equador has persecuted journalists who criticized him, to the point of shutting down the country's principal newspaper.
Correa calls that newspaper corrupt, but even if it is the Equadorian equivalent of Faux News, that can't justify punishing it for criticizing an official.
Protests in Europe and the US condemned the dictatorship of the banksters, saying "We are all Greeks now."
Republican attacks against abortion rights include allowing and even requiring doctors to lie to women.
The tyrannical regime of Ethiopia is driving hundreds of thousands off their lands to make way for sugar plantations.
The US has a close relationship with that regime, which has attacked Somalia on the US' behalf.
A color-blind artist who uses a computer to translate colors into sounds had his cameras broken by thugs.
Google used malicious Javascript code do turn off a browser's protection against surveillance.
China is arresting Tibetan cultural figures.
The UK Labour Party may advocate subsidizing child care so that poor women can work.
Of course, this is a good policy — but it fails to address the main problem: no jobs. The UK needs to smash the power of the banks so it can increase taxes on those who are not poor.
Greeks link resistance to the IMF with resistance to the Nazi conquest.
Blaming the poor for their poverty, considering them disgusting, is connected with the political policies that spread poverty.
For technology companies, DRM amounts to a ban on interoperable products.
When Obama said he had no choice but to start a super PAC, he said in effect that money rules the US and its government is pure corruption.
Legitimate government is government of the people, by the people, for the people. By this standard, the US government has no claim on our loyalty.
A report concludes that the Earth is now doomed to 2 degrees centigrade of heating, if not more.
Short-term thinking, manipulated and used by the oil and coal companies, have caused a catastrophe, but they are not satisfied yet: they continue to delay countermeasures, making the coming disaster even bigger.
Does this mean that people who sabotage fossil fuel facilities can argue the necessity defense?
The Canadian government is blocking scientists from talking with the press.
Harper is dead set on destroying Earth's climate, so maybe this is meant to prevent scientists them from interfering.
Under the proposed Canadian Internet surveillance law, inspectors would have the power to go to any ISP and copy any data whatsoever.
Colorado is considering banning red-light cameras.
I support this. However, what really needs to be restricted is the indiscriminate use of automated license-plate scanners. These scanners should be required by law to recognize only license plates on a watch list of court-ordered license numbers. Then they could be used to catch fleeing criminals, but could not be used to build up dossiers about everyone.
The Heartland Institute was developing a plan to teach global heating denial in US public schools, comparable to the right-wing campaign to sabotage teaching of evolution.
Copyrighted furniture designs in France mean that many photos of people at home can't be published.
Petr Kropotkin endorsed Anarchism after making a tremendous discovery in evolutionary biology.
Raquel Rolnik, UN rapporteur on housing, accused Israel of pursuing a "strategy of Judaization" in areas where Palestinians live.
More than 70% of the demolitions in Jerusalem are carried out against Palestinian residents, even though they make up only 20% of the infractions.
When thugs know they can't arrest people for making video recordings, they threaten to make up other charges such as "loitering".
This bullshit will stop when there is a zero-tolerance policy for perjury and frame-ups by thugs.
Thousands of Americans are living in tent cities.
They are far away from cities, which helps keep them out of everyone elses mind.
Why a country's budget is not like a family's budget.
Phone companies in Kentucky want to abolish regulation, and abolish land lines for remote areas.
Google exploited a browser bug to force third-party cookies into people's browsers.
Beware coupons sent to you in the mail — they are used to track people.
US citizens: sign this petition to break up Bank of America.
Some US officials are trying to legitimize an Israeli attack against Iran, shortly before the US elections.
Since such an attack could at most delay Iran's development of nuclear weapons by a short time, I don't see how it could be a better option for Israel than no attack at all. At least, not directly through effects on Iran. However, a war between the US and Iran could be very useful for Netanyahu.
A war might be useful for Obama too, especially if he can pretend he got into it only as a last resort. It could give him credentials as a tough guy.
Americans tend to vote for the incumbent president when there is a war
Undercover thugs befriend high school students, then pressure them into getting some pot and accepting reimbursement for it, just to put them in prison.
Republicans are trying to destroy protection for whistleblowers. Meanwhile, Obama prosecutes whistleblowers more than any previous president.
The US media seem to be repeating, about Iran, the sort of distortions that paved the way for Dubya's conquest of Iraq.
The claim that Iran and al Qa'ida are working together is particularly absurd. Iran's regime is run by Shi'ites, while al Qa'ida is Sunni. They don't get along very well; in neighboring Iraq, al Qa'ida fought Iran-supported Shi'ites with bombings.
The claim that Saddam Hussein and al Qa'ida were working together was equally absurd (and false).
A Saudi writer faces execution for "blasphemy".
This is the most extreme example, but not unique. Pakistan has also sentenced people to death for blasphemy.
Indonesia and Malaysia have imposed lesser punishments on people for criticizing Islam In general, most "Islamic" countries do not respect freedom of religion.
Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan Mousa, imprisoned without trial, is on hunger strike and has also challenged his imprisonment in Israeli court.
Human Rights Watch calls for Israel to release him.
Secret evidence against prisoners in Guantanamo was often a lie. Someone told the lie and then a chain of others repeated it along the chain of custody, without wanting to verify. We know it is the same for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
In Boston:
Protest on Feb 23 at noon, outside Senator Brown's office, JFK Building, 15 New Sudbury Street. He supported the Blunt bill would allow companies to eliminate anything from their employees' medical coverage by saying they have an "ethical objection".
Of course, the main goal is to cater to religious objections to contraception.
The US government appears to have shuttered the JotForm.com web site almost without thinking.
It is indeed stupid of any company to use GoDaddy — aside from the point that you should boycott it because of its support for SOPA.
Using someone else's site to have people fill in a form for you is Software as a Service, which means you lose control of the computing of your site.
None of that excuses what the US government has done to JotForm. There is a vague report this was because of phishing. Phishing is bad, but this was comparable to spraying tear gas over an entire neighborhood because a robber was active in it.
To make pseudoephedrine a prescription medicine might shut down dangerous meth labs, but the costs for society, if people had to see a doctor to get a prescription to unstuff your nose, would be much more harmful.
Then again, it might not succeed in shutting the meth labs. They would turn to another method. The fact that prescription requirements in two states have eliminated meth labs in those states reflects the fact that it easy to bring in meth from other states. If pseudoephedrine required a perscription all around the US, they would get it anyway, perhaps robbing trucks, perhaps corrupting someone to "lose" a large shipment. This is why the war on drugs is futile.
A Jesus and Mo cartoon — an example of what arrogant religious people want to forbid.
The cartoon shows Mohammed in a bar, probably drinking beer, which an observant Muslim would not do. I don't know whether this is an error or an intentional point.
Why do good people feel poor countries must repay loans to the IMF?
Those who repeatedly borrow and don't pay back are spongers. We properly learn not to lend to them.
However, we do not believe that people or businesses absolutely must pay every debt. A business can be set up as a corporation, so that if it fails, it ceases to exist and its debts are never paid. A person can declare bankruptcy, and we do not hold that person in scorn forever (as perhaps was the attitude in some circles in the 19th century).
So why can't poor countries do the same? Theoretically, they can: it is called default, However, the wealthy countries, working hand-in-hand with the banks, discourage this by menacing them.
Political squatters in the UK have taken over the a forest visitors' center and are operating it as volunteers.
There is a new campaign for Internet censorship in Australia.
Syngenta paid "experts" to dismiss and even ridicule concern about atrazine in your water supply.
US citizens: tell Obama to replace Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Ed DeMarco, who works for the banksters against homeowners.
US citizens: tell Congress to reject the transportation bill.
Some states are considering bills to classify ALEC as a lobbying agency and make legislators treat it as one.
Wisconsin Republicans, embarrassed by revelations about their campaign funds, want to pass a law to help disguise both legal and illegal donations.
US citizens: say Bank of America should be broken up.
The Dutch government wants to legalize remix.
Europe's highest court ruled that social network sites can't be required to install copyright filters.
In the nastiest move yet in the War on Sharing, the UK government threatened people with 10 years in prison for downloading a song.
European politicians in many countries are retreating from ACTA.
Popular opposition is having an effect. We have to push harder.
Israel plans to demolish solar energy facilities in Palestine.
UNESCO is holding a conference about the effects of Wikileaks and did not want anyone from Wikileaks to speak.
It's true that UNESCO has a right to invite the speakers it wishes. This is not a trial, so Wikileaks has no right to be heard. But it is a lousy way to run a conference on the subject.
Paid to deny global heating.
In an act counter to freedom of thought and freedom of speech, a French court upheld the conviction of a right-wing politician for saying that the Nazi occupation of France was "not particularly inhumane".
He's wrong, but that is no excuse for repression.
The UK government wants to force partially disabled people to do unpaid work.
This will displace some paid workers, increasing unemployment. Doesn't the UK have enough unemployment already?
The FCC has imposed strict rules on robocalls.
This is one small example of what we need government for. Our government does little of this because democracy is sick.
Microblog services in China will require users to give their real names and to expose them to repression if they spread true rumors.
The International Olympic Committee decided to keep Dow Chemical as a sponsor (and thus promote it) despite its refusal to pay the settlement for the Bhopal disaster.
I'm sure that Dow was happy to take on the assets of Union Carbide.
The bombs used to attack Israeli diplomats in Georgia and India match those prepared by Iranians in Thailand.
So it is pretty clear that Iran was trying to do tit-for-tat for the Israeli assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. On both sides, this is low-level war, not terrorism.
The UK makes unemployed people work without pay as a "learning experience".
I hope they learn to support unions.
General Wesley Clark said that in late 2001 an officer in the Pentagon told him of a written plan from Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to overthrow the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.
Somalia did not have a government at that time, and Lebanon is a complex situation. The other governments listed were tyrannies, and in some circumstances eliminating them could be a good thing if the people want such help. It was bad for Iraq, whose people did not ask for help. In Libya, where a large fraction of the populace did want help, it is too early to tell how things will turn out. But it was legitimate to try.
In Iran, even the people who hate their government do not want a US invasion to "help them" get rid of it.
US citizens: tell the FDA to label GMO foods.
US citizens: tell your elected officials : don't vote for any bill that includes an anti-birth control amendment or provision.
Phoning them as well will increase the effect.
In the US: Join a protest on Feb 16 against Obama's arrests of medical marijuana patients and providers.
US citizens: tell Congress to release the drafts of the TPP free exploitation treaty.
US citizens: tell the US trade representative to work for American citizens' rights, not for companies that want to restrict everyone's rights.
In Ngaba, annexed by China and called part of Sichuan, many monks have set themselves on fire.
Many more have been shot or disappeared by the Chinese suppression forces.
Thugs in Honduras regularly murder people, and respond with violence to anyone that tries to investigate their crimes — even prosecutors.
The coup against Zelaya, apparently approved by the US, made this much worse.
Keeping out foreign reporters will cost Bahrain in other ways.
The "Justice" Department has failed to report to Congress about some kinds of telephone surveillance, and Congress has failed to monitor the practice.
The Canadian government says, if you defend privacy rights, you're
"on the side of child pornographers".
The term "child pornography" is the basis for
And it is used regularly as the excuse to crush everyone's rights.
Malaysia hastily deported Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, without a hearing, and thousands are clamoring for his execution.
Shame on Malaysia for its contempt for human rights.
Leaked documents from the Heartland Institute show how it spends millions of dollars from carbon companies to spread denial of global heating.
Using military force to prevent Iran from being able to make nuclear weapons is neither possible nor necessary.
If we could get Washington and Netanyahu to stop threatening Iran, the subjects of that tyranny would have nothing to distract them from how much they hate it.
Many iPhone apps are spyware and send the user's address list to someone else's server.
So much for the idea that Apple's total censorship will protect users. The only defense for users is to have control over the software they use: that is, to insist on free software.
Guatemala's president wants to legalize drugs so as to undermine the narcotraffickers.
If Republicans attack Iran, how would they pay for it?
More budget cuts to impoverish most Americans, is my guess.
Rich people that fund Netanyahu and Gingrich are using Iran war talk to weaken Obama.
When it comes to restraining Israel, Obama is the weakest US president ever. Apparently this inspires Netanyahu to hope to go even further.
The Taliban's commanders would like a peace agreement, but the footsoldiers find the idea of negotiating peace hard to understand.
Is it only a coincidence that Republicans are the same way? Perhaps because both groups are right-wing religious extremists that have little respect for human rights.
Reportedly Indian investigators do not consider Iran a suspect in the attack on an Israeli diplomatic car there.
However, Iranians were caught trying a similar attack in Bangkok.
A US company continues selling tear gas to Bahrain.
A strong Volcker Rule is one way to make the big banks smaller.
I doubt it will go far enough. I think we need to break them up too.
The UK continues selling arms to Bahrain, as well as Saudi Arabia which can use them in Bahrain.
Bahrain is preemptively suppressing protests on the anniversary of the start of protests last year.
Bahrain also denied admission recently to human rights observers and journalists.
Real soldiers warn the US against attacking Iran.
This article sadly underestimates the civilian casualties in Iraq by calling them "tens of thousands". The best estimates are hundreds of thousands.
Congressman Eric Cantor stood up for banks against homeowners. He had investments in banks and mortgage companies. Coincidence?
Iran now blocks access to major search engines and social networks.
This would build opposition to the Iranian tyrants. The only way they can maintain the loyalty of the population is if a foreign enemy threatens to attack Iran.
100,000 protested in Lisbon against austerity.
Obama wants to expand the army's secret hit squads and send them into more countries.
Including, effectively, the US.
After thugs handcuffed 5-year-old Ty's grandpa for vague suspicions, then grilled her, she has learned to fear the police and plays "hiding from the kidnapers" with grandpa.
They said this was ok because they were just doing their job.80,000 people protested against the new austerity plan just agreed by the Greek parliament.
Mining companies are using political flunkies in Congress to block a study of how diesel engines in mines hurt miners' health.
Sanctions in Iran are hitting the middle class hard.
US citizens: state your support for Arturo Santos, who is occupying his own home after dishonest treatment by JP Morgan and Freddie Mac.
Israeli official cars were attacked in other countries using the same method that Israel used to kill Iranian nuclear scientists.
It does seem plausible this was done by Iran. I don't find that scandalous; it is retaliation in kind. The targets were not random civilians, any more than Israel's target were. However, I don't think a diplomat's wife is a legitimate target.
Freedom of the press under assault in India from spreading censorship.
The "myth" that India censors only "obscenity and hate speech" is a myth at two levels. India censors sex that only prudes would criticize; I saw a few minutes of American Pie on cable in India, and things seemed to have been cut.
In regard to religion, India censors all sorts of criticism of any religion — no "hate" required. Taslima Nasrin's first book, Shame, about persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, was banned in West Bengal lest Muslims feel offended by it. I'm pretty sure the cartoons about Mohammed are banned there too. Neither of them expressed hate.
Censorship starts with things that many find disgusting, and spreads from there. So we need to fight censorship at the root. Censorship of "obscenity" or "hate speech" is already too much.
Obama proposed a progressive budget, with a tax increase for the rich and some needed spending increases.
Of course, he knows the Republicans will reject this. A real Progressive president would propose far more things that Conservatives would reject, to keep reminding Americans how bad the Conservatives' positions are. Obama does this rarely because he is not much of a Progressive.
This won't make me forgive Obama for so many wrongs, but I won't criticize it.
Thousands protested in Bahrain, and did not give up when the thugs attacked them.
Some in Congress want to hamper negotiations with the Taliban by stopping the release of a few prisoners.
Ehud Barak, a minister from Israel's Labor Party, warned that failure to make peace with Palestine would lead to a state that was either non-Jewish or non-democratic.
For once, a corrupt cop goes to prison.
What is most amazing is not that a jury convicted him, but that he was prosecuted at all.
EU ministers demand an irrevocable commitment to further austerity in Greece. This is to make the coming election in Greece will be meaningless, and thus effectively squash democracy there as it was squashed in Italy.
US citizens: tell your senators, no Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
The Senate is considering a plan to require the pipeline, with no environmental study.
The Arab League asked the UN to approve a joint monitoring mission to Syria.
Punishing Protest, Policing Dissent: What is the Justice System For?
The US government says it has not got enough money to help the poor, but it wants to pay for churches.
No More Racketware won a court case in France demanding a refund for an unwanted Windows license.
The decision is based on an EU directive so it might affect other countries too.
Reporters Without Borders will set up mirror sites of news sites threatened with overt or covert censorship.
Brazil will be Twitter's first test, to show whether per-country censorship means more censorship.
Protests forced Chile's right-wing government to drop a plan to require journalists to hand over information to the thugs.
Amnesty International: Israel should stop its plan to forcibly displace 2,300 Bedouin.
Thugs attacked Maldives president Nasheed and his supporters during a peaceful march.
The US fires drone-launched missiles at rescuers who pull bodies from the rubble from previous missiles, at medics aiding wounded from previous missiles, and at crowds at funerals of people killed by previous missiles.
Evidence shows this is an intentional tactic, not an error.
I think that other terrorists have used a similar tactic, setting off a second bomb once rescuers arrive at the scene of the first bomb.
The US use of drones to kill individuals obeys neither the laws of war nor the laws of peace.
Senator Wyden has been trying for more than a year to get Obama's secret legal analysis that is supposed to justify killing Americans overseas.
A disabled person and a retired nurse were accused of "aggrevated trespass" in the UK — basically, protesting.
They protested against the agency that is supposed to determine who is really disabled, but actually aims to exclude people on any handy pretext.
Saad Allami texted his coworkers to "blow away the competition" (more or less) at a trade show, so the thugs, who were somehow spying on these messages, searched his house and told his wife he was a terrorist.
Then they secretly blacklisted him.
He is suing, but that won't necessarily explain why his text messages were under surveillance.
Court Challenges Put Unusual Spotlight On Pakistani Spy Agency.
Obama has set up a Super-PAC for corporations to campaign for him.
Colonel Davis, who was stationed in Afghanistan, says that the US military's claims about progress towards defeating the Taliban and strengthening Karzai's forces are totally bogus. US forces don't even control the areas they can see.
More info about Davis's career and whistle-blowing.
The unclassified version of his full report has leaked.
In Vietnam, the commanders and high officials deluded each other. I'm not sure whether they commanders and high officials now are deluded, or simply lying to the public.
He reports unofficial local truces between the Afghan police and the Taliban. These might perhaps offer a path towards peace, once the US decides to stop prolonging the war.
Republicans in many states are trying to destroy science teaching in public schools, while they destroy public schools.
The UK wants to adopt the US policy that makes it effectively impossible for victims of state-sponsored torture to sue.
The effect of this policy in the US is to establish impunity for torture and to cover it up as well.
Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields.
I am not sorry for those farmers, if they knew what they were planting.
The carbon bubble: carbon companies' reserves are 5 times what we dare burn.
They will never be able to use all those reserves; society will collapse first. But they don't dare admit those reserves are valueless, so they will go all out to deny global heating until the day stock ceases to mean anything.
Low intelligence predisposes people to believe right-wing ideology.
The "terminal niceness" of progressives, which Monbiot refers to, is no mere custom. Fear of the right-wing noise machine pushes politicians and NGOs towards that, while funding from business attracts them towards it.
US citizens: oppose Republicans' latest attack on women and gays.
In the US: join a "shut down the corporations" protest.
US citizens: Republicans are attacking all requirements that health insurance should cover certain things. Say no!
US citizens: tell Congress to get rid of the loophole in the House's version of the STOCK Act.
250,000 have signed a petition to eliminate nuclear power in Tokyo.
The proposed EU-India free exploitation treaty could destroy millions of jobs in India for the benefit of the 1%.
It should be cancelled entirely, but a pause in negotiations would be a step in the right direction.
Austerity: a UK family now lives in a tent on a farm because it was paying its whole income for rent.
I don't think it would be feasible for all the unemployed people in the UK to live this way. Finding farms to host them and so much wood to burn would be difficult.
Limiting fishing in the short term, so fisheries can recover, would provide long-term benefits greater than the EU's fishing subsidies.
Tens of Thousands Across Europe Protest Against ACTA.
I am impressed!
Stop the Hysteria Before War Erupts With Iran.
ACTA Threatens Your Freedom (first published in Poland, by Tygodnik Powszechny).
Greek politicians pushing for further austerity and recession are trying to exaggerate the dangers of default. However, default has not been a disaster for other countries.
The New York Times quoted a government official who insinuated that anyone counting civilian casualties of Obama's drone missile raids must be a supporter of al Qa'ida.
Since giving support to al Qa'ida is illegal in the US, I wonder how long it will take before the US lays charges against those journalists.
WIPO seems to be secretly planning something nasty, through a meeting that has been set up in just the way to spring a bad treaty on the world.
The most subtle form of harm done by WIPO is encouraging people to warp their idea of copyright law, patent law, and several other laws by generalizing about them through the term "intellectual property".
The deadly snowfall in Europe is due to an Arctic weather phenomenon that becomes more likely with global heating.
Miami thugs singled out one journalist at a protest for no obvious reason, arrested him on false charges, then deleted his video to cover up their lies.
However, he recovered the deleted video which proved what really happened.
Nevada City thugs pulled a driver out of his car, thinking he was drunk, and began kicking him on the ground.
In fact, he was not drunk. He was being affected by diabetes. He sued the city.
Suppose the driver had turned out to be drunk — he would deserve to be charged with drunk driving, but that can't justify kicking him as he lies on the street.
Saudi Arabia used Interpol to get Hamza Kashgari arrested in Malaysia, so that he will be extradited to Saudi Arabia to face execution for his words.
Indigenous people in Panama are fighting with government-imposed mining projects.
"Patients" at a Christian drug "rehabilitation" center in Peru were imprisoned in hellish conditions, and their treatment consisted of Christian cruelty. They escaped by starting a fire.
Nicaragua's green energy projects will take the country from almost total dependence on imported oil to making over 90% of its electricity from renewables, by 2016.
Why can't the US do what Nicaragua has done? Partly it is because the US uses a lot more energy per capita, and has already constructed the obvious hydroelectric facilities. But partly it is because the oil and coal copanies would veto it. The US lacks sufficient democracy to have any vision.
Bahrain has denied visas to reporters from major Western media.
Yes the US still wants to sell arms to Bahrain.
Why sending arms to the Syrian rebels is a foolish idea.
Soldiers and Pentagon employees that donate to campaigns seem to prefer the least militarist of the major candidates.
The article errs in stating that Obama is "slashing the Pentagon's budget".
In fact he only reduced planned increases.
Obama gave right-wing antiabortionists a "compromise" which in practice protected employees' abortion coverage, but would offer Catholic hospitals a way to say it wasn't through them.
If these antiabortionists were inclined to be satisfied with a symbolic concession, this would have been clever. But they are pushy, and this demand was only a step in their larger campaign to abolish contraception. Naturally they say it is not enough.
I am concerned that Obama's clever compromise has undermined the defense of contraception rights by suggesting that these absurd demands were worthy of some sort of consideration.
The issue is about religious institutions tat do secular work. For instance, Catholic hospitals hire non-Catholics to do a non-religious job.
They should not be allowed to impose the Church's rules on their staff.
Thousands of people in the Maldives protested in favor of the elected president Nasheed.
(5000 people would be 1% of the population.)
The US, which had immediately legitimized the coup, has retreated from that position.
A tremendous blizzard fell on Romania. Someone there I know reports that 60,000 people are trapped in freezing houses, and that the government is doing nothing to rescue people in the districts that voted for the opposition.
Are billionaires aiming for a brokered Republican convention with a super PAC that only pretends to be for Romney?
There is reason to be suspicious, but I am not sure it's true. The executives of that super PAC are Romney's close political supporters and it seems unlikely they would all be betraying him for the Koch brothers.
Iranian officials are concerned that the US may soon be capable of building its 8500th nuclear weapon.
(This is satire of course, but just barely.)
Senator Lieberman has proposed a resolution calling on Obama to insist on a probably unattainable goal in any negotiation with Iran.
In other words, block the path of negotiation and assure a war.
Argentina has imposed a system of cards for trains and buses which require identification and track everyone.
Argentinos should resist the government's distraction issues and mobilize to demand anonymous SUBE cards. And until they win, they should swap cards to defeat the surveillance.
Obama has made a deal with the banksters, which will require them to pay the wrongfully foreclosed homeowners about 1% of their losses.
The banks that got bailouts of $700 billion will have to pay only $25 billion.
It's clear whose side Obama is on.
Obama decided to start a super PAC, which Russ Feingold calls a "a legalized Abramoff system".
The danger is not that Obama might sell out to corporate interests: he has little unsold merchandise left. The danger, rather, is that it reduces the chances of fixing the problem of super PACs.
In some states, utility companies, public libraries and even food stamp distribution are demanding proof of citizenship.
The Greek government agreed to more austerity, but the promised bailout won't be enough to overcome the damage done by the austerity.
US citizens: sign this petition to open up the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free exploitation treaty.
In the US: tell Chicken of the Sea to get serious about fish conservation and talk with Greenpeace about it.
Everyone: oppose Brazil's new forest law, which would reduce the protections against cutting down forests.
US citizens: tell President Obama, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich: Don't attack Iran.
US citizens: Phone your congresscritter to oppose the transportation bill.
Here's more about what's bad.
Judge Garzon was suspended for 11 years (probably, in effect, for life) for ordering surveillance of conversations between right-wing politicians accused of corruption and their lawyers.
It was wrong for him to do that, just as it's wrong when the US does that in Guantanamo. The prosecution of those people has to be dropped if they can't have fair trials (which would require disregarding what was learned from that surveillance).
Whether this calls for suspending Judge Garzon, I am not sure. However, if Garzon is punished but the following judge that continued the policy is not punished, that demonstrates a political vendetta.
An absurd Indiana law restricts using celebrities' mannerisms (or their names or faces)) for 100 years after their death. Now Indiana proposes to extend it to celebrities that died before 1994.
Elvis impersonators may be boring, but should they be the subject of lawsuits? Should videos of Elvis impersonators be censored? If US sites outside Indiana can be sued because their videos can be viewed in Indiana, they will delete such videos.
However, I don't know whether this law bans videos of impersonators. It is not copyright law, and I don't know how broad its requirements are. (Can anyone tell me?)
This demonstrates the harm done by the term "intellectual property", which leads attention away from the details that make these laws totally different issues.
In a study comparing many countries, dividing schoolchidren into groups by ability goes with lower overall achievement.
President Nasheed of the Maldive Islands, a long-term democracy campaigner compared to Mandela, has been overthrown in a military coup.
Jill Stein said that the oil companies will rejoice. Nasheed campaigned strongly against global heating, which threatens to convert the Maldive Islands into the Dive Islands. I wonder if some government, perhaps the US or India, arranged this coup on behalf of the oil companies.
The US says that Israel is working with the Mujahedin-e Khalq to kill Iranian scientists.
The US has designated the Mujahedin-e Khalq a "terrorist group". There is a well-funded campaign to remove this designation, based on the claim that the Mujahedin-e Khalq no longer practices violence. If the group is working on attacks, that's clearly not true.
Are these attacks properly considered terrorism? I'm not sure, because they are a borderline case. I call them low-level war, but when is war "terrorism"? One suggestion is, terrorism is when civilians are targeted. I am not convinced that scientists in projects that develop advanced weapons capabilities should be considered civilians.
However, appointed officials should never be the ones to decide such questions. Banning any organization other than through a fair trial is tyranny.
Americans Elect is a plan funded by some rich people to run another presidential candidate "in the middle" between right-wing Obaa and an even-more-right-wing Republican.
What good is that?
Brazil has sued Twitter demanding it censor messages saying where checkpoints for drunk drivers are.
I never drink as much as a full glass of wine, but even totally sober I would not like to be stopped by a checkpoint.
Although the UK's "investigation" into the Fox-Werritty scandal was purposefully incomplete, there is evidence Werrity was given inexplicable high priority by officials.
This suggests he was doing something of great consequence, which might be a great scandal if it were known.
Whoever was behind this has surely not stopped it. Someone else must have replaced Werritty.
Everyone: join protests on Feb 11 against the anti-freedom treaties, ACTA and TPP.
Occupy Movement Split over Confrontational Tactics.
The Cancer in Occupy (the Black Bloc).
Serious armed resistance would not sabotage a nonviolent protest, and senseless vandalism is not protest or resistance.
At the same time, we have to recognize that US thugs thoroughly crushed Occupy's medium-scale protest around the US, without needing anything like the Black Bloc as an excuse.
Drones operating from aircraft carriers, and other military plans, will enable the US to attack anyone anywhere at any time.
And then, no doubt, claim that whoever was hit was a "terrorist".
US states spend lots of money (or tax credits) for "job creation" programs, but often they are useless give-aways to business, ineffective for their goal.
Copyright infringement is not theft — not under US law.
Everyone who refers to it as "theft" is spewing false propaganda.
The League of Conservation Voters presents the environmental voting records of Congeress.
Syngenta's pesticide Atrazine contaminates the water supply in most of the US. The company paid "experts" to claim that it is safe.
Persistent nonviolent protester John Catt sued the UK state for keeping a dossier on him.
Sarkozy's former minister has been charged with illegally receiving lots of cash for Sarkozy's campaign in 2007.
The AFL-CIO called on Obama to postpone the US-Colombia free exploitation treaty after murders of union leaders showed that Colombia hasn't implemented the requirements to protect workers' rights.
Obama does not give high priority to people who resist businesses; if he did, he would not be in favor of free exploitation treaties. But he sees a need to pretend to care, and maybe something can be achieved by pressuring him about it.
A Pentagon official says that the US overestimated al Qa'ida's capabilities after September 2001.
So when will we reduce the nasty "security" measures against an imaginary future attack?
The sanctions against Iran fail mainly on ordinary people — for instance, on food.
Iran is not democratic enough for these people to convince the regime to make a concession, even if they wanted to. But I don't think they will want to, at least not soon.
A new study found that ice in the Himalayas has not decreased in recent years.
However, the world's overall ice loss in Greenland, Antarctica and elsewhere was confirmed.
The reason Abu Qatada can't be deported to Jordan is that he might be convicted based on evidence extracted from others via torture.
Bush is indirectly responsible for this problem. By making torture the official practice of the US, he encouraged it around the world. He even pressured countries to reduce their protections for human rights (one of them being Morocco). It will take a long time to overcome the damage Bush did to the world, and Obama doesn't even try.
Terrorism in the US is a small danger.
This means that the US gave al Qa'ida an avoidable victory through its overreaction. It also means that there is not even a shadow of a justification for the assaults on human rights done in the name of "terrorism".
In the US: support US journalists who have been arrested.
US citizens: sign this petition to extend the right of first sale to ebooks in libraries.
US citizens: support stronger fuel efficiency and emissions standards for cars.
Amnesty International says Egypt should stop trying to prosecute the staff of foreign-funded NGOs.
The US-funded IRI and NDI may be up to no good, but banning (or effectively banning) foreign-funded human rights organizations is dangerous, as can be seen in Israel where the government wants to prevent human rights organizations from operating using foreign funds.
US condemnation of Assad's massacres in Syria would carry more moral weight if the US applied the same principles to its ally in Bahrain. Bahrain has blocked the entry of human rights observers.
The UK government wants to deport jihadist Abu Qatada to Jordan, but can't do so because he might be prosecuted on evidence obtained by torture. His "bail" amounts to 90% house arrest.
The claim that this man is "dangerous to Britain" is absurd. Supposing there is evidence that he plans some sort of terrorism, that would convince a court to approve any and all sorts of surveillance of him. It is ridiculous to think that he could organize any substantial act of violence under such circumstances. If he tried, that would be a real crime and would be a basis to imprison him without trampling human rights.
Why military spending makes few jobs, and other ways to spend the same money make more jobs.
A bill to close dozens of tax loopholes for companies.
A movie industry pro-SOPA astroturf group is paying people $1 per signature collected.
Trademark law is supposed to protect buyers from inferior imitation products, but it does no good when the trademark holders produce the inferior imitation products.
The article refers to a book called "Against Intellectual Property". I have never seen it, so I don't know what points it makes, and I have no opinion about them. However, since "intellectual property" is a misguided overgeneralization, it is just as foolish to be against "it" as to be for "it".
When Indian censorship bans criticism of religion, that already includes censorship of some criticism of politicians
Investigating a prisoner killed by UK troops in the Bush forces has partly exposed a CIA-related US torture squad.
Ben Griffin, who tried to inform the public about torture, was a hero. If the UK still has him gagged, he should flee to Argentina and speak out.
A US university set up a SWAT team. So it will need to find excuses to use it.
"I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness, because I did not pay enough attention."
Teaspoons are "drug paraphernalia".
The ban on drug paraphernalia — even real drug paraphernalia — is one of the injustices of having a war that's on drugs.
Google agreed to carry out censorship in India.
Protests against ACTA have spread around Europe.
I think the article is mistaken about ACTA's effect on the US. Obama said he personally could approve it because (he claims) it requires no changes in US law. If that's true, it means that ACTA has imposed unjust US laws on other countries. However, if ACTA calls for changes in US laws, they would need congressional approval.
Uganda is again considering a law to persecute homosexuals.
An anti-abortion executive of Susan G Komen foundation resigned.
Furthermore, she contradicted the founder's claim not to have included her in the decision to defund Planned Parenthood.
State officials in the pay of coal companies have sued to block EPA regulations to limit pollution from coal-burning power plants.
Craig Murray's freedom of information request was answered with the entire substance deleted. But, through an error, it proves that officials lied to the investigation of the Gould/Werrity scandal.
The Czech government has suspended ratification of ACTA.
This means it is feeling the pressure, but it is not yet a victory.
One way to increase the US' savings rate is by increasing the capital gains tax.
Monsanto gave the Vietnamese Agent Orange. Now it wants to give them GMOs.
It is ironic that the Vietnamese government, which triumphed over the US and Monsanto in a long war, now sells itself and the Vietnamese people to the US and to a national corporations, and even to the WTO.
Assad's army is committing a tremendous massacre in Homs.
A federal appeals court ruled that California's initiative that banned gay marriage is unconstitutional because it has no purpose except to discriminate against gays.
Putin has a group of paid Internet astroturfers whose job is to give the impression that just about everyone in Russia admires him.
Billionaire Polluter asked a US judge to conceal reports of safety violations from the public.
The UK has 2.7 million unemployed people seeking jobs, and only 460 thousand job openings, but a reality-defying right-wing minister says they could all find jobs if they were willing to work.
After large protests in Romania, demanding the president resign, the president sacrificed his prime minister instead.
US citizens: ask your senators to cosponsor the bill to give Warren Buffett (and other super-rich) the tax increase he asked for.
Everyone: oppose the law proposed in St Petersburg that would ban writing or speaking about being gay.
In the US: call on the Susan G Komen foundation to commit to funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings.
US citizens: Support the bill against discrimination against gay students.
US citizens: tell Obama, no permits for drilling in Alaska seas.
Everyone: call on Walmart to reject GMO corn.
US citizens: sign this petition rebuking Obama's appointment of a former Monsanto lobbyist as an FDA lobbyist.
Craig Murray on Syria: NATO's stretching of the UN resolution on Libya have made Russia and China wary of similar stretching.
I believe the intervention in Libya was justified and necessary, but NATO wrongfully stretched its mandate, especially toward the end. The fact that there are still injustices in Libya doesn't alter this conclusion.
The US is prosecuting a Swiss bank for helping Americans commit tax fraud.
Computers for students make no difference in learning skills, but they are great for diverting public funds to tech companies instead of teachers.
The article does not mention that computers in schools often have proprietary software with malicious features, making them an injustice, or that e-textbooks are likely to be DRM-ridden.
Mines in Mali use child labor, and children are even more vulnerable to mercury poisoning than adults.
Adult miners in Africa often get silicosis, which suggests to me that they get inadequate protective gear.
The anational corporation fobs off the legal responsibility to intermediaries which cannot fulfill it.
The harm that web sites' "real name" policies can do.
As far as I know, the Korean policy has not yet been changed.
Drone bombers encourage the US to attack in places where it would otherwise not attack at all.
In October a US drone killed a human rights worker investigating the damage done by drones, but the US government still pretends that this never happens.
Obama says that the US and Israel are in "lockstep" regarding war with Iran.
Since he has already renouced te idea of stopping Israel from attacking Iran, the implication is that he will let Israel decide whether to drag the US into war.
The UK government has demonized the disabled , as an excuse to cut welfare for them, and the result is that its supporters revile them on the street.
China says it will forbid Chinese airlines to pay EU's carbon tax.
The idea that the EU needs to "negotiate" about this leaves me puzzled and worried. The EU's response should be straightforward: nobody forces those airlines to fly to European cities. Why is there anything to negotiate? And does that negotiation mean China and the US can force the EU to back off environmental protection?
Assad's army is flattening residential areas with artillery.
Aung San Suu Kyi will be allowed to run in Burma's election.
This election is for only 1/10 of the seats in Parliament. One question not clear in the article is, how many seats in Parliament will her party be allowed to contest fairly in a future election? This system could be like that of Hong Kong, set up so that the people have great hurdles against them.
Sustainable management has made fisheries more profitable.
It was clear this had to be true in the long run, since after overfishing makes the fish disappear, nobody can catch them. The question is whether humanity is smart enough to choose the long run.
The ideology of global trade is endangering food production and impoverishing the poor. It could stir up massive riots.
The proposed agreement between India and the EU will surely have many unjust, antidemocratic provisions aside from crushing 14 million chicken farmers in India. Just about every "free-trade" agreement attacks democracy, and nowadays they typically give corporations power over laws.
Most attack the rights of Internet users too.
Cambodia has kicked hundreds of thousands of citizens out of their homes and lands, for development projects.
These projects aim to make lots of money, and could afford to pay poor people for their homes, but the rich are so greedy they would prefer to screw the poor.
New York students protested plans to close their schools.
Many of them were suspended from school as punishment.
The US plans to fly drones over Iraq and didn't bother to ask the government of Iraq, which objects.
Dubya said he would give Iraq freedom and democracy. The government of Iraq seems to be capable of saying no to the US, and it was elected in a more or less democratic fashion, but it is rather corrupt and suppress political opposition. Police/thugs arrest people just for ransom. I don't think most of the Iraqis driven from their homes by the sectarian war have been able to return home. Thus, Iraq remains worse off than it was under Saddam Hussein.
The FBI Director said that cybersecurity threats "will" be bigger than terrorism as the greatest threat to America. Congress, naturally, is considering a cybersecurity bill that could increase the general effective level of Internet surveillance in the US.
What the director says is not about real threats; it's about the threats the FBI would like us to worry about. I think that the banksters, the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline, free exploitation treaties, and government are all bigger dangers, but he probably did not have them on his list.
Obama is pressuring Iran by pointing at Israel's threats of an overt military attack. I don't see anything wrong with this pressure tactic. What worries me is that Obama is not making sure Israel won't launch a war.
Global heating deniers are pressuring Penn State University to cancel a speech by a prominent climate scientist.
The campaign is run by a business-funded disinformation group. Once again, it accuses honest scientists of forming a conspiracy because it really did so.
Madrid thugs attacked protesters, and journalists that took photos of them, and passersby who criticized that.
Some of the people attacked had entered the metro without paying, as a form of civil disobedience. I don't think that the penalty for that is a beating in the metro.
Despite extreme cold, a hundred thousand Russians protested Putin.
Americans; when will you get off your asses and protest in large numbers?
Some global heating deniers claim the world is cooling, but here is the flaw in their claim.
Scientists: You are Elsevier: time to overcome our fears and kill subscription journals.
US citizens: tell your senators not to use the FAA reauthorization to attack workers' rights.
The New York Times granted unquestioned validity to false claims that Keystone XL would create lots of jobs.
Even if these claims were true, they would be insignificant compared with the disaster that the CO2 from the tar sands oil would produce.
Bradley Manning will face trial.
Nixon wanted to prosecute Daniel Ellsberg in the same way for releasing the Pentagon Papers that disclosed US government lies about the Vietnam War.
The Iranian regime is threatening relatives of the staff of the BBC Persian service.
The BBC is sometimes biased, but whatever bad things it says about the regime in Iran are surely true. However, even a totally dishonest channel such as Faux News should not be censored, and certainly not attacked by hostage-taking.
Iran is not the only country that tramples the religious freedom of people who were formerly Muslims. Malaysia is one example but other Muslim countries do it too.
The Indiana bill requiring teaching of religious creation stories was withdrawn after it received public attention.
Real climate scientists refuted the Wall Street Journal op/ed in which a number of scientists (mostly from othher fields) said global heating was nothing to worry about.
Here's the op/ed they responded to.
Note the true but irrelevant statements about CO2. "Plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today" — I don't know whether that's true, but it was hundreds of millions of years ago. Today's species and ecosystem are adapted to the CO2 levels they have evolved under.
Half of the signatories of that letter are funded by oil companies.
This may explain why they make the absurd claim that most climate scientists are conspiring to lie, merely to get grants. They are part of a funded conspiracy to deny global heating, so that's the accusation that occurs to them to make against others.
The Susan G Koman foundation now says it won't say whether it will fund Planned Parenthood again.
We are supposed to think that this reverses their decision to cut off that funding, but actually it only means they might reverse it later. Or they might not.
Reporters Without Borders relates Twitter's per-country censorship feature to a stated intention to have an office in China.
Checking email or other messages can be seriously addictive.
I'm not convinced by the argument that they are harder to resist than tobacco or alcohol. If people resist them less often, because there is less motivation to resist them, that doesn't prove they are "hard to resist". However, that doesn't invalidate the rest.
Syrian dissidents say Assad's army is shelling Homs, and has killed 200 or more civilians there in the latest attack.
Greek workers and employers have rejected minimum wage cuts that the EU wants to impose.
Austerity is targeted at the poorest.
Greece could not meet its targets after the first "bailout". Apparently the plans did not take account of how the first dose of austerity would impact the economy and tax revenue. Maybe that was a mistake, or maybe it was a plan to impose austerity in multiple steps. Using multiple steps could undermine resistance since at no one time did people have a chance to say yes or no to the whole thing. Austerity is targeted at the poorest.
Farmers are suing Monsanto for unwanted genetic contamination of their organic crops.
The danger is not only that Monsanto's patented artificial genes get into their crops, but that Monsanto then sues them.
Most Americans are against war with Iran. Even most Israelis are against it.
That by itself won't stop politicians from starting a war.
It's more important to stop Walmart from expanding than to get it to make some improvements.
Republicans want to eliminate the agreed-on reductions in military budget increases that result from the deadlog of the supercommittee.
That would get them what they always wanted: cuts only in goverment activities that benefit Americans.
Republicans want to kill funds from the gas tax for buses and trains.
Clearly they are doing this for the oil companies. They have a base cunning about tactics, but their goals are predictable: whatever will enrich the businesses in any area is their policy.
Indiana is on the verge of mandating religion in biology classes.
US citizens call on the House of Representatives to pass the STOCK act, which bans insider trading by members of Congress.
The Senate just passed it.
US citizens: call on Obama to revive the Federal Election Commission.
This is all the more important with Republicans' passing so many voter-suppression laws.
Occupy Wall Street stands with farmers against Monsanto.
The FDA should regulate the level of salt in prepared foods.
The copyright industry wants to add SOPA-style outrages to the Canadian copyright bill C-11.
Even worse, Canada's government is desperate to undermine democracy by signing the TPP free exploitation treaty. Absurdly, it is so desperate that the copyright industry is using this as a lever to impose nastier copyright laws.
Canadians should tell their government, don't sign the TPP.
The article would be clearer if it did not use the confusing term "intellectual property" which lumps together unrelated laws.
One of the board members of Susan G Koman is connected with "crisis pregnancy centers" that lure in women and give them false information in order to discourage abortion.
In particular, they make the false claim that abortion causes breast cancer.
A South Korean faces imprisonment for repeating North Korea's Twitter postings.
That he probably intended to mock those posts adds a level of self-defeating stupidity to the accusations, but even if he had meant them seriously, to censor an opinion is tyranny. It is tyranny to censors support for North Korea (as South Korea does). It is tyranny to censor Nazism (as France and Germany do).
Respect for freedom of speech means respecting the freedom to state even views you detest.
The FBI to Internet cafes: when customers try to protect their privacy, consider them terrorist suspects.
When customers don't try to protect their privacy, consider them sitting ducks.
A phone application sends photo and location information about a crime to the police.
Don't believe it is anonymous; the phone company can tell the police who sent it. If the criminal is one of them, they could come after you.
A proposal to regulate and tax sugar like tobacco and alcohol.
As a sugar addict, I don't relish the thought of being asked to show ID when I buy candy. However, I agree it would be good to do something to discourage sugar consumption. I think that a plausible tax would not be enough to decrease the amount of sugar used in restaurant food.
Report: Global Land Grab Efforts Will Lead to "Widespread Civil Unrest".
Digital voting for the Oscars will open the door to indetectable election rigging, just as in public elections.
The US no-fly list has doubled in size in the past year. The US also uses this as a way of exiling citizens, without trial and without admitting it.
The US admits that some are on the list solely to hamper their travel and not because of any expectation that they would try to endanger a flight.
There is no excuse for the no-fly list.
Haiti's US-imposed president is trying to welcome the former dictator Duvalier. This probably why a judge dismissed the torture and murder case against him on secret reasons that can't be valid.
When rap group After the Smoke posted its own performance on YouTube, Universal Music took it down with a false copyright claim.
These bullies enjoy impunity when they falsely use the power they have. They should not be given any additional power. When they ask us what we propose instead of SOPA to "solve their problems", the answer is, "Nothing — you have too much already. We must reduce existing copyright power."
US politicians love bashing Americans with drug tests, unless they have to get tested too.
Welfare in the US is only available to single parents, and only for a limited time. There is no rational reason for drug testing welfare applicants, especially not for recreational drugs that don't cost much and have no effect on their ability to handle their responsibilities. However, it is great as a distraction so people won't focus on how corporations are robbing them.
The founders of the Pirate Bay will have to go to prison, as Swedish courts accepted the argument that posting links to copyright infringement is a crime.
Republicans had Josh Fox and film crew arrested as they tried to film a public hearing in Congress.
How right-wing anti-abortion fanatics infiltrated the Susan G. Komen Foundation and constructed a phony excuse to condemn Planned Parenthood.
Obama's weak restraint on Israel: if Israel attacks Iran, the US won't join in.
Previous US presidents told Israel not to start wars. They were able to do this because Israel depends on US support.
Romney is using the old right-win trick of offering a big tax cut to the rich plus an insignificant tax cut for everyone else.
The main effect on everyone else would come from the consequent tremendous budget cuts.
A bill in Congress would make a small improvement in privacy for US mobile phone users. Phones would not be allowed to send information to anyone except the phone company.
This would not affect Big Brother's ability to find out your present and past whereabouts, so it won't alter my decision not to carry one of these.
US citizens: Obama's men are working on the successor of ACTA, once again negotiated secretly with manufacturers. Phone or fax Vice President Biden to pressure him to try to stop it.
The negotiators and their flunkies lie routinely just to keep activists out of the hotels where they are meeting.
Whatever they are planning, we know it will harm us and undermine democracy. That's what "free trade" treaties are for, and this one will aim to go further than any other before.
Craig Murray continues pushing for information about the secret unofficial foreign policy of Gould and Werritty, while the UK government does its best not to find out.
ABC is using misleading and false claims to make Americans think that Iran is a threat to the US. Reagan tried to pretend that Nicaragua's Sandinista government was a threat to the US, but it turned out only Nicaraguan women were in danger.
Twitter says per-country censorship is better than global censorship, but tries to duck the third option: continue to have no censorship. I already explained how per-country censorship will tend to encourage censorship in the future.
US citizens: call on Obama to dump FDA Food Safety head Michael Taylor, who is a former Monsanto lobbyist and is failing to enforce regulations against agribusiness.
The frequent murder of dissidents and journalists in Honduras "made in the USA".
A US appeals court ruled that Americansn have no legal resource if they are arrested in the US, handed over to the army without a trial, and tortured in prison.
This is especially dangerous given the law, passed by Congress and signed by Obama, allowing imprisonment without trial.
It not only "can happen here", it is already happening.
London's new bylaws for Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, imposed in honor of the Olympic Games, ban carrying signs and making speeches.
This continues a decades-long trend to ban protests and convert democracy into a sham. An earlier step was the creation of the crime of "aggravated trespass" which basically means "protesting which wasn't illegal for any other reason."
Why do Americans pay 3 or 4 times as much for medical treatment as other advanced countries? Follow the bills.
Scientists: Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico Dying 'At an Alarming Rate'.
Taxing the rich is not enough — the US needs to redirect spending towards helping the poor instead of arms and war.
A UK report proposes to continue sending police to infiltrate protest groups, only with a little more supervision. Perhaps they won't be allowed to have children with real activists.
Google has set up a system for per-country censorship on Blogger by redirecting access to a country-specific host name.
This can be dangerous for the same reason Twitter's per-country censorship is dangerous.
There is a feature to disable the redirection.
I am not sure whether this is enough to prevent the danger. Will people notice and complain if it ceases to work in certain countries?
A group of Britons plead guilty to plans to set off bombs, including some in the London Stock Exchange.
The UK needs to crush the London Stock Exchange, which is the main obstacle to restored democracy there, but a bomb in its building would not do the job.
The UK has abolished protection against self-incrimination if it happens to cover "commercial" information or "intellectual property". That means only scraps of that human right remain.
Since the concept of "intellectual property" is incoherent, any argument, policy, law or treaty which is formulated in terms of that is almost certainly bad.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose plans for massive US surveillance of the Internet.
In the US: rebuke the foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, for bowing to right-wing pressure and cutting funds for Planned Parenthood to do breast-cancer screening.
Here is more information about the situation.
Since those right-wing groups are against women's rights in general, women's death from breast cancer doesn't bother them. Especially when they are poor women.
Why so much foreclosure fraud? One explanation is that banks began using mortgages as tokens for short-term trading, and in order to do so, they had to violate legal requirements for assigning mortgages.
The UK government misled Parliament in order to build nuclear power plants.
The conclusions of The Limits to Growth, that economic growth cannot continue indefinitely, are being ignored by the world.
In the short term, economic growth can end the fiscal crisis. But in the long term we need to adapt to a world without growth. I think that stabilizing and then decreasing the population is the way to do it without poverty.
Multinational publisher Elsevier paid New York congresscrony Carolyn Maloney to introduce a bill to hamper public access to medical research.
China's largest lake is empty due to the Three Gorges Dam.
NATO's Taliban prisoners think that the Taliban will oust Karzai after NATO troops leave. I share their expectations.
The Taliban are tyrants, and not only towards women, but Karzai's corrupt regime cannot hold on to anything, and there is no use propping it up forever by perpetual war.
How the International Republican Institute has opposed democracy, in several countries.
Medecins Sans Frontieres says that ACTA threatens medecines for poor countries.
Amnesty International says the US must disclose its policies about drone attacks in Pakistan.
Obama admitted that these are being used to attack in Pakistan, won't allow any discussion about the details, and expects us to take his word that the US is not killing lots of bystanders.
A comparison between Occupy in 2011 and ACT UP in the 80s shows the US is systematically squeezing the right to protest, and aiming a military response at dissent.
Naomi Wolf calls it the beginning of a civil war.
Intentional safety flaws in inspection equipment lead predictably to avoidable leaks in oil pipelines, and this will apply to Keystone XL too.
Obama wants to sell military equipment to Bahrain, which has used military equipment against protesters during the past year.
Obama's big miitary sale to Bahrain was blocked by Congress, so he has split it into many small sales in order to bypass Congress.
Obama seems to be preparing for war with Iran. His intelligence director openly accused Iran of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US, which seemed implausible from the outset. I don't think the Iranian regime would scruple to kill someone, but this assassination would onlyt have done it harm.
Obama ducked responsibility for the attempt to extradite and prosecute Richard O'Dwyer for running a search engine in the UK. He says he played no role in choosing that particular target.
That may well be true, but why did the Department of Justice decide to pursue someone like O'Dwyer? Is it because Obama appointed several lawyers from the music and movie companies to important jobs in that department? If so, he is directly responsible for the wrong, even if he did not choose the victim.
His use of the propaganda term "intellectual property" instead of "copyright" is further propaganda for their side.
Assad's men are fighting rebelious soldiers in many cities of Syria including Damascus.
An Indian border thug beat up a smuggler, and got a medal for it.
Video proof means the government cannot pretend ignorance.
Iran's phony democracy is imprisoning union organizers.
Ultimately there is not much difference between the Islamic Republic and fascism (which Mussolini said could have been called "corporatism").
Human Rights Watch: Israel's supreme court has abandoned the defense of human rights. This is because the right wing planned to put an extremist "settler" onto the court.
DC thugs tasered a protester who shouted at them. They told him to walk away, which he did, and they followed him and attacked him.
New Yorkers in the South Bronx rallied against the New York Thug Department's practice of searching people on the street without specific cause.
Note how the thugs create excuses to arrest people that they are beating up.
NYPD, under fire, to end CIA collaboration program
A UK resident citizen who joked he would "destroy America" (UK slang for have a party) and "dig up Marilyn Monroe") in LA was treated as a real terrorist and blocked from entering the US.
They even searched his girlfriend's baggage for shovels.
When US border agents tell us how much they do to keep us "safe", I am sure they will count him as one of the people they protected us from.
This reminds me of when the Australian TV producer tried to go to LA to "shoot a pilot", and the border numbskulls thought he meant he would kill someone.
China bashing is cheap talk for US politicians, but it is really the US government that's responsible for the policies that enabled sweatshop workers (some in China) to replace well-paid jobs (often in the US).
In the US: join a local action against war with Iran.
In Europe: support protests against ACTA on Feb 11 (and after).
US citizens: tell Congress not to approve undersea oil drilling in Arctic waters.
US citizens: support the STOCK act, which would make it illegal for congresscritters and senators to do stock trading based on their knowledge of upcoming legislative action.
Employees in Egypt of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute have taken refuge in the US embassy.
I would not describe the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute as working for democracy and human rights. At least, not always. Sometimes they are instruments of US policy.
For instance, they were willing to monitor the election in Honduras, where the violence of the coup-installed government made a fair election impossible even if votes were counted correctly, even as all other international organizations refused to grant the election that legimacy. This clearly reflected US support for the coup.
However, if there is anyone in Egypt that the US would support, it is the generals that closed these organizations. Given their past and present relations with the US, I suspect this is a political ploy.
The Euro-zone has agreed to tie its hands, so that its only response to recession will be austerity and more recession.
Amnesty International calls Fadhila Mubarak a prisoner of conscience. She was sentenced to prison in Bahrain for the crime of protesting.
The FDA spied on the email of whistleblowers who told Congress about wrongdoing inside the agency.
It is legitimate, in general, for the FDA monitor what is done with FDA computers. But it must not harass or fire whistleblowers no matter how it finds out about them.
Today's movie pirates are the 6 major companies that dominate Hollywood.
The page segues into a series of rants, but the first part is interesting. One flaw is that it uses the term "intellectual property", which promotes the spin of the companies that it criticizes.
Military Secretary Panetta had trouble listing all the countries in which US troops are now fighting. And Congress has never authorized most of these conflicts.
Iraqis, in government and on the street, are outraged over unauthorized US drone flights.
The Pentagon invites students to develop better drones.
If any of these ideas is applicable to civilian life, they won't do us much good since the Pentagon will own them.
It would be good for people to protest this program to the schools involved.
The pesticide imidacloprid is suspected of causing the collapse of honey bee hives. In an experiment, it tripled the probability that bees got infected by a fungus.
Libyan opponents of Gaddafi will sue a senior UK spy official over the UK's role in kidnapping them and delivering them to Gaddafi.
Indians: write to your state's chief minister to oppose the BRAI bill that would end states' power to block GMOs.
Human Rigths Watch: Indonesia should drop charges against Papuan activists, and stop punishing political activity as "treason".
Some were accused of reading a declaration of independence for West Papua, which was made from 1961. Can anyone tell me what country West Papua declared independence from? Was it Indonesia, or the Netherlands?
The declaration of independence they read was for indepenendence from the Netherlands.
The copyright companies want to force search engines to agree to a "voluntary code" of censorship.
Republicans want to use the transportation bill to legalize drilling for oil in the Arctic.
Of course they have resisted any reform to reduce the danger of oil pills.
The Public Eye award identifies companies that do great harm to the world.
Egyptian democrats are not satisfied that the military "lifted" the state of emergency... except when they decide it still applies.
Even police joined in mass protests in Barcelona against budget cuts.
UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon called on African countries to respect gay rights.
Inside China's Censorship Machine. The copyright industry demands strict censorship of search engines outside China.
Protesters in Indonesia have pressured the state to promise to cancel plans for a gold mine that could pollute their land. However, the inhabitants don't trust the government to carry through on this cancellation.
Meredith Alexander: Why I resigned (from a London Olympics body) over Bhopal.
Biofuel from palm oil and soybeans is as dirty as tar sand oil.
A Japanese nuclear engineer says that the recent safety inspections of Japanese nuclear plants were not adequate.
Megaupload's users' data is in danger of being erased now that the US government has finished searching it.
This as users plan to sue the FBI over the files that may be erased.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals will fund a London police unit aimed specifically at organized wildlife trafficking
Hardened wildlife traffickers are just as bad as hardened banksters. So I approve of this plan. But the banksters must not be left out.
Afghan immigrants in Canada have been convicted of an "honor killing" against family members.
The Pakistani MD who helped the US find Osama bin Laden was imprisoned and tortured in Pakistan.
The fake vaccination scheme seems to have been wrong, because it sowed distrust of real vaccination projects. Maybe this should be a crime, but it apparently isn't. In any case, imprisonment without trial, and torture, are just as wrong when Pakistan does them as when the US does them.
If the US consistently opposed torture, and didn't practice torture, it would be in a stronger position to criticize the torture of its friends. It would also perhaps deserve admiration and support.
Assad's army is attacking residential neighborhoods in Damascus where rebels had taken control.
IAEA inspectors will visit Iran's underground uranium enrichment plant.
Explaining why the reductions in planned US military spending are not reductions in military spending.
Americans: imagine if Iran's government said the sort of things that the US government says about Iran.
The Oakland thugs arrested everyone they found at the Occupy protest, even the journalists. This is the report of one of them.
US citizens: tell the National Park Service to respect Occupy DC.
The Treasury Department under Obama approved high pay for banksters that got bailed out, as exceptions to the bailout rules.
There were protests against ACTA as most European governments signed it.
You can tell that ACTA is bad at the root because it claims to be against "counterfeiting" but represses sharing between individuals. You can see more of this mean-spirited propaganda in the way the Guardian described the treaty:
Acta is a far-reaching agreement that aims to harmonize international standards on protecting the rights of those who produce music, movies, pharmaceuticals, fashion, and a range of other products that often fall victim to intellectual property theft.
"Protect" is propaganda, using "rights" to describe private privilege and not users' rights is too. Using "intellectual property" to refer to various laws is always misleading, since it reifies a generalization that is misguided.
The idea that there could be "theft" of this imaginary something is even more twisted. This is the language that the proponents of ACTA use to muddle thinking about what they want.
There is still a chance to defeat ACTA by convincing the European Parliament not to sign it.
How car exhaust causes tornados — as well as floods and droughts.
49 million Americans are at risk that a nuclear power plant accident could pollute their drinking water. This includes the water supplies of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego, Cleveland and Detroit.
Bahrain's suppression forces have killed over a dozen people using tear gas canisters as weapons. Many others have been injured. Often they fire tear gas into homes, from which it does not disperse.
Oakland thugs arrested 300 Occupy protesters who were marching.
The mayor and the city endorse the democracy-suppression agenda that equates protesters to "terrorists".
This agenda plans for the US to remain democratic in form, but all avenues to reach a substantial number of people with ideas that the 1% don't approve will be shut off one by one.
The French government has voted to ban another historical opinion: denial of the genocide of the Armenians.
This lowers France to the same level as Turkey, which has convicted people for acknowledging the genocide of the Armenians.
In Turkey, to affirm the genocide is heroic. In France, under this law, it will be as worthless as any statement dictated by the state.
Ironically, this law will make it impossible to affirm the genocide in France with seriousness. Where denying a position is banned, affirmation of that position is a ritual of conformity rather than a real statement of belief.
Freedom-loving people in France who do not wish to deny the genocide (for instance, because they agree that it occurred) must object to any any attempt to raise in France the issue of what happened to the Armenians: "Where we are forbidden to discuss this with integrity, we could only have a sham discussion. Let us talk about this issue only outside France."
I hope the lack of diplomatic relations between France and Turkey will not stop them from exchanging political prisoners: Turks who affirm the genocide and Frenchman who deny it.
The US marine who led a massacre in Iraq won't go to prison.
Iraqis are angry, but not surprised.
Tibetans held public protests and Chinese suppression forces shot them.
Like thugs anywhere, the Chinese said the protesters started the fight.
Anti-torture activists in North Carolina have investigated CIA torture activities in their state, and hope to prevent the CIA's subcontractor from doing any more of this.
Apple will soon have more cash than the US government. This shows it should pay a higher tax rate.
An EFF article which argues that Twitter's per-country censorship is benign actual explains exactly why it is dangerous.
The EFF has missed the crucial consequence of the information given. At present, Twitter need only obey court orders from the US, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Japan. Without this handy per-country censorship feature, Twitter would hesitate to open an office in Turkey and make itself vulnerable to orders to censor criticism of Ataturk.
With no office in Turkey, if Turkey ordered Twitter to censor such material, Twitter could disregard it. And if Thailand tried to order Twitter to censor criticism of the King of Thailand, Twitter could shrug it off. If Mubarak, in January 2011, ordered Twitter to delete a tweet criticizing him, Twitter could shrug it off. Mubarak was led to try to block access to such sites by shutting down the Internet in Egypt because he could not censor selectively.
Now, however, there is nothing to discourage Twitter from opening an office in Turkey and censoring people there, opening an office in Thailand and censoring people there, and opening an office in the next Egypt and censoring people there.
In 1981, Gingrich advocated legalizing marijuana. In 1996, he proposed to execute anyone importing a couple of ounces and said that marijuana was "destroying our children".
He smoked marijuana, and reconciled this with his draconian law by saying that marijuana was moral for him and immoral for those of the 90s.
Next he will blame this lack of political constancy on the marijuana he smoked, but I think it is a lack of moral fiber.
The US financial sector has grown to 8% of the economy, and political donations from rich banksters have shot from 15 million in 1990 to 178 million in 2010.
This is how they eliminated the regulations meant to prevent the crisis and how they prevented new regulations to stop another.
The Portuguese collecting society that pretends to represent authors advocates a new tax on blank disks to further subsidize that society. It claimed support from 100 authors, but some of them never gave permission to use their names.
The New York Thug Commissioner participated in making a video condemning Muslims, then lied about it.
I have no information except this article about that video, so I don't know whether it was racist hate, but lying about it is intolerable in a city official either way.
In press freedom, the US isn't number one. It is number 47.
Gush Shalom's weekly ad compares housing security for Israelis and Palestinias in the West Bank.
The cost of globalizating trade policies: 60% of Apple's factory ubcontractors make people work more than 60 hours a week.
Even if that were reduced to zero, it is a tremendous step backward in working conditions compared with former production in the US. It was made possible by government decisions and treaties, which were themselves purchased by the megacorporations that take advantage of them.
Employees of Murdoch's newspaper, the Sun, have been arrested as well a policeman; the charge is that the former paid the latter for scoops.
It is interesting to contrast this policeman with whistleblowers such as Daniel Ellsberg and perhaps Bradley Manning. Whistleblowers release information about official misconduct, for the public good, whereas this policeman is accused of selling personal information which doesn't describe official misconduct.
US citizens: Tell Congress not to cancel the reduction in increases in military spending that resulted from the supercommittee's deadlock.
I call it "military spending" rather than "defense spending" since often it is used to attack. And I don't use the term "cuts" since it is a matter of reducing planned increases, not reducing spending. Nonetheless, I signed the petition.
The US should make real cuts in military spending.
Big Pharma companies recruit and pay "key opinion leaders" among medical doctors and academics to encourage non-tested uses of drugs.
This Is a Test... (And Too Many Americans Are Failing).
UK Prime Minister Cameron's argument for giving the executives of a public-controlled bailed-out bank millions in bonuses — in addition to their large salaries — is that otherwise they might quit.
Ok, let them quit. It will help reduce executive pay in general.
The UK's cruel government's attack on the poor is now targeting disabled people, but they made a visible protest in London.
I read elsewhere that the UK is having a worse depression now than in the 1930. Austerity is the cause — it always makes a depression worse.
The Arab League suspended its monitoring campaign in Syria because Assad has continued and increased the violence since the campaign started.
I don't think this is the Arab League's fault. While there was a suspicion that its Sudanese leader might close his eyes to the violence, evidently that did not occur. The plan was worth a try, but it depended on shaming the regime, and the regime did not care enough to change its conduct.
Just as the Argentine military rulers attacked the Falklands Islands to distract attention from the desaparecidos, the current government is using the Falklands to distract from austerity.
That most Argentines support the expansionist agenda does not mean this isn't government manipulation. Rather, it means this is effective and long-term government manipulation. I'm glad some young Argentines are starting to see through it.
The inhabitants of the Falklands are people, and Argentines must stop thinking of them as mere appurtenances to islands they covet.
Laws to ban publishing photos of the conditions in farms have been proposed in several states.
This shows that state representatives are proposing laws for agribusiness that they hope to sneak through without public notice. This is another sign of the corruption of democracy in the US.
RBS, a bailed-out UK bank now largely state-owned, has been lobbying in the US against banking reform.
Pharma companies profit from perverse incentives in the US health system, and they oppose reforms that would remove those perverse incentives.
One reason so many Afghan soldiers attack NATO troops is that the two armies practically hate each other.
USA Today presents Republican lies about Keystone XL jobs as unquestionable truth.
Drive-by x-ray machines now endanger the American public.
These X-ray scanners are not safe for humans. Neither are the airport scanners.
There is no danger if Customs agents x-ray a car while nobody is in it. The car can't get cancer. If the Customs agents drive your car through the scanner, that's safe for you, but it isn't safe for them.
Outside of Customs inspection, the cops in general should not be allowed to search everyone's cars, not this way or any way.
Huffington Post has a special section on health news, sponsored by a drug company.
That means there is a danger it will fail to cover dangerous activities of that company.
Uri Avnery salutes the Egyptian parliament and shows that Israel and Egypt can have real peace.
I think the controversy about privacy policies of Facebook and Google is a distraction. No privacy policies could stop the FBI from collecting whatever data the company has about you, without serving a court order on the company, let alone on you. Thus, I think the crucial issue is to reduce what information these companies get about us.
Billionaire's "philanthropy" is no substitute for justice for the poor, and often it does harm.
Sarkozy and Karzai agreed to push for NATO troops to leave Afghanistan in 2013.
Why wait so long?
Human Rights Watch says the United States fails to enforce human rights conditions imposed on military aid to Colombia, nor the labor rights conditions in the Free Exploitation Agreement.
This doesn't surprise me. The 1% don't care about these conditions; they were added to make a bad activity look good, just as the labor rights conditions were added to the Free Exploitation Agreement
Colombia's military is associated with terrorists, so this "aid" is support for terrorism. And this Free Exploitation Agreement, like all of them, must be abolished.
The Pentagon budget "cuts" (actually reductions from planned spending) need to be doubled.
An Israeli general recognizes Israel cannot stop Iran's nuclear program with a military attack.
The purpose of such an attack would be to get the US and Iran to fight. The Republicans are eager for a chance.
Elliot Abrams says that the US knew how Argentina's military rulers were handing out the babies of dissident women that they killed.
Country-by-country censorship features effectively invite every country to censor, by removing the global pushback.
The US has work to do if it wants to merit the description, "land of the free".
Public Citizen calls for breaking up the Bank of America. Its size endangers financial stability.
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the '1 Percent'
Iran wants to negotiate about nuclear enrichment.
Perhaps this is due to the recent new sanctions, or the planned EU oil buying cutoff. If they convince Iran's government to make a deal, that makes them a potential success.
However, the point is to negotiate and get a diplomatic solution, rather than have a war. For this to occur, the US must also sincerely seek a diplomatic solution, rather than a war.
The EU Parliament's rapporteur in charge of ACTA quit and denounced the treaty.
It would have been better to quit during the negotiations, but better late than never.
Police have trumped up various excuses to evict Occupy LSX protests and squats.
Escalating violence in Syria amounts to a kind of civil war.
The UK was about to deport dissidents back to Cameroon, where they had already been tortured. A letter-writing campaign saved them.
That prominent dissidents faced deportation shows the system's criteria are wrong.
US citizens: support reproductive rights.
Everyone: call for protection of the Ross Sea ecosystem and fish.
US citizens: oppose Alaska sea drilling.
The Coast Guard has said that it has "zero" spill-response capability in the Arctic, and the oil industry has no proven cleanup method for ice-filled waters.
President Correa's achievements in reforming Ecuador.
Although I admire these achievements, he ought to stop prosecuting people for insulting him. That is an injustice. The law which makes that a crime needs to be repealed.
The former dictator of Guatemala will face charges of genocide and torture.
This is very good, but Mr Torture (Dubya) continues to enjoy impunity.
Although Obama dropped the idea of giving the banksters immunity for fraud, it is too soon to tell if he really will do a good job of prosecuting them.
Obama associates closely with banksters — he keeps appointing them as his chief of staff and to other positions.
Arguing that the US has no case against Megaupload.
Governor Walker is receiving millions of dollars of donations to try to defeat the recall vote.
Greenpeace has complained to the SEC that Transcanada deceived its shareholders by exaggerated claims about jobs from the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
A Republican governor used state funds to lobby for the pipeline.
The Gates Foundation considers global heating an opportunity to make everyone accept genetically modified foods. Not that that would help much.
Genetically modified foods are not inherently dangerous, or harmful to grow and eat. However, any particular kind might be dangerous; and they are all harmful to farmers if they are patented.
Gingrich's think tank, from which he resigned in 2011, was lobbied for various wealthy interests.
Bank of America demands people delete criticism of the bank if they want their mortgages adjusted.
French police persecute Blacks and Arabs with repeated identity checks and searches on the street. Similar persecution is reported from the UK, and I wouldn't be surprised if it still happens in New York City despite the absence of Night-Mayor Giuliani.
However, at least the US makes efforts to stop this.
Making it a crime to "insult police" is an injustice in its own right. (Another unjust French law punishes insulting the president.)
Freedom of speech includes the right to insult anyone.
Obama wants to reopen undersea drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, it seems that government agencies knowingly presented false low estimates of spill rate in the Big Spill. And recently it proposed to approve drilling in Arctic waters.
What a friend to the oil companies!
Romney has invested heavily in mortgage-backed securities and profited from foreclosures, show his tax returns.
They also show investments not mentioned in his candidate financial disclosure forms.
Romney says they were left out because he has so many investments that he couldn't keep track of them all. If true, that in itself proves a point about him.
US citizens: sign this petition calling on broadcasters to cover the issue of corporations' political ads.
Blaming poor immigrants is a useful tool for distracting people from how the 1% are screwing them.
Illegal immigration does cause an economic problem: because these immigrants don't dare complain about mistreatment at work, their employers can drive down wages and working conditions for citizens and legal residents of a country.
However, if labor law enforcement were separated from immigration law enforcement, so that even illegal immigrants could complain about abuses by their employers, it would reduce this effect.
Meanwhile, prison labor has the same effect — so why don't the politicians try to eliminate that? Because it isn't a useful distraction, I suspect.
Twitter has a new system to submit to censorship in each country in parallel.
Although this is designed to inform people they are victims of censorship, I don't think that secondary feature compensates for the harm done by Twitter's acceptance of censorship. Ask yourself, would this sort of censorship in Egypt have helped Mubarak stay in power? I think so.
Hawaii is considering a strict data-retention requirement that might ban anonymous Internet access.
Later: the bill was withdrawn.
In Russia, public protest is prohibited — even dolls holding signs.
Prisoners in Libya are being tortured.
It appears the government lacks real control over the country, which is run by various militias.
Protesters at the G8 summit in May plan to disregard Chicago's new anti-protest laws.
The UK now permits trying the same person more than once for the same alleged crime. The result is that no one is ever really acquitted.
There are so many conditions that can allow trying the accused again, that a person could be tried over and over. Each trial gives a different jury the chance to convict him. Sooner or later, even if there is no significant change in the evidence, conviction will occur.
This is why the rule against double jeopardy was made, and the reason is just as valid as it always was.
Everyone: call on the European Parliament to reject ACTA.
US citizens: call on Schneiderman to prosecute the banksters vigorously.
US citizens: tell Congress to return the MPAA's money.
Whenever prostitutes start advertising on a web site, a pervert kills some of them. Then people propose to "protect" the prostitutes by blocking their advertisements.
This pretends to be motivated by concern for the prostitutes who might be attacked, but that is bullshit. Any prostitute prefers to seek safety by not advertising in a web site can do that now. Shutting the site would only hurt the prostitutes, and I suspect it reflects by the hatred many people feel towards them.
Anyone who really wants to protect prostitutes from violence should support measures to deter the violence rather than obstruct their business.
Mitt Romney: Banks that foreclose "aren't bad people".
That's true, because they are not people. They are bad corporations.
Notice how he presumes that the foreclosures are honest, covering up foreclosure fraud.
That may have to do with his support for a state official that permits foreclosure fraud to continue.
The US is avoiding court cases that might decide whether tracking someone's location through a cell phone requires a warrant.
The EU is considering a directive to regulate collection and storage of personal data by Internet services.
If the order to delete personal data is taken seriously, it requires deleting all backup copies — which is not feasible. But if it does not include backup copies, I don't see that it does much good: you're fooling yourself if you think the data has been deleted.
What's really needed is to prevent the collection of the personal data.
US courts disagree about whether people can be compelled to decrypt data.
I lean towards the view that this is self-incrimination in disguise.
August Walter says BP fired him for refusing to help BP cover up its defective cleanup of the Big Spill.
Inhabitants of La Rioja, in Argentina, are protesting to stop a mining project that would pollute the province's only water source.
Colombia's most dangerous terror gang, the paramilitares, must still have state protection.
With unions weakened in a time of high unemployment, companies are using lockouts to crush them and lower Americans' wages.
Business profits are booming already, but nowadays, they see no reason to allow any of that to trickle down to workers.
Ralph Nader comments on Obama's State of the Union address.
Romney's budget proposal would make drastic cuts in US domestic spending.
He has enough money to buy his way out of the resulting problems. You and I don't.
Giant dollar signs were displayed on the Supreme Court to protest the Corporations United decision (*).
* The official name of this case, "Citizens United", comes from the deceptive name used by an association to promote the interests of the corporations. We should call it what it was, not what it pretended to be.
College education in the US used to offer broadening of the mind as well as a path to higher salaries. Nowadays the former has been undermined, and the latter often doesn't come through either.
Chris Hedges has sued Obama for signing the law to allow imprisonment without trial.
Mexico's soldiers murder and torture civilians with impunity.
Gingrich, Romney and Santorum all supported Bush's war with Iraq. Now they want war with Iran.
They have not learned the lesson of the suffering caused by Bush's war of aggression. Maybe they learned a different lesson: that war — any war — serves their political purposes.
The UK wants to make the European Court of Human Rights limit itself to criticizing obvious dictatorships, and not protect human rights in corporatocracies such as the UK.
A former stock exchange president speaks at an Occupy Wall Street protest.
Afghan government troops have tried 26 times to kill US or NATO personnel.
People will do things for Karzai's government — mainly in exchange for money, whether salary or via corruption — but hardly anyone feels loyalty to it. Thus, there is no way to build up an Afghan army that isn't full of people who hate the foreign troops.
Only a fraction hate them enough to risk their lives to kill some, but many are almost at that point. A mere insult (like urinating on corpses) can push them over the line.
Karzai's government won't stand for two years after it is no longer propped up, so why keep the fighting going?
Why Obama's 'Targeted Killing' is Worse than Bush's Torture.
Most Americans oppose rule by corporations, but need to be shown ways to put an end to it.
Ten requisites for the radical transformation of the US into a democracy.
In the US, long prison sentences are imposed for thefts of a few dollars, but thefts of billions go unpunished.
Occupy Davos confronts the meeting of the rich and their politician servants.
US citizens: tell your congresscritter and senators to defend federal laws for protection of whistleblowers.
Call on Congress to require a warrant for access to cell phone location data.
If this is adopted, I still would not carry a cell phone. I do not object if prosecutors could get a warrant to track someone, then track him. However, to put everyone's location data in a dossier that can be checked retroactively goes far beyond that, and I decline to provide data for it.
US citizens: phone your Republican senators to support Obama's proposal that all nominees for office receive a vote in the Senate within 90 days.
Amnesty International warns that the prosecution of Judge Garzon for investigating Franco's murders threatens human rights enforcement world wide.
However, if he really did allow police to listen to prisoners' discussions with their lawyers, that was wrong.
The US will resume diplomatic relations with Burma in response to the release of many (but not all) the political prisoners.
The US, in its foreign relations, often acts to bully and oppress other countries. Perhaps in the case of Burma it is serving the cause it ought to serve. If so, this step might make sense. This reward might convince Burma's rulers that freeing the rest of the political prisoners will bring further reward.
US citizens: sign this petition calling on Obama to cancel ACTA.
It looks like a very good thing; however, I did not sign it myself because it is not clear what I would be promising to do if I signed. I hope they will clear up that question, and then I can reconsider.
Google plans to combine its various user-surveillance data bases so as to know more about each user.
It may be possible to overcome this by having several user names, one for each Google service. However, it is much better if you prevent Google from knowing who you are. For instance, if you make sure that your Google searches are not even known to be from one person.
Only a few of the visitors to Japan experience this arrest, torture and shakedown, but all visitors experience a preliminary injustice described in the fourth paragraph: being fingerprinted. I will not visit a country which does that to its visitors.
Amnesty International reported on this practice in 2002. Apparently nothing has been done to correct it.
So Craig Murray tried to contact the police investigation, to give evidence. The police told him there is no inquiry.
Murray later added that he has been put in touch with a police investigation and will report on whether the investigation seems serious.
Dissent in Israel is under attack by organizations that label dissidents as "anti-Zionist".
Former cabinet ministers probably won't be scared of this, but those who are younger and less well established are likely to be intimidated out of disagreeing with the state.
Many Palestinians in Israeli jails are tortured. Many make accusations which are dismissed. One is suing with an ex-guard's testimony to support him.
If we look at this situation in terms of the idea of national interest, it is incomprehensible that the US does not publicly dissociate itself from Israel enough to remain neutral in such a war.
In fact, US politicians are doing very little to avoid war with Iran. Perhaps the 1% want another war to distract Americans from their economic warfare activities.
Human Rights Watch condemned Israel for many kinds of human rights violations. It condemned Hamas, ruling in Gaza, as well.
Although SOPA is dead in the US, the copyright lobby is pushing for similar provisions in Canada, as well as a vague 3-or-so-strikes disconnection policy (without due process, of course).
If a woman does not want to have a child, for whatever reason, then she should not have one. We should not demand that she justify the decision.
Rep. Bill Johnson wants to force women to have babies and wants the babies to get mercury poisoning.
Gingrich was a lobbyist, but twists language to pretend he wasn't.
Israel imprisoned the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament without charges, apparently to prevent negotiations between Hamas and Fatah.
US citizens: sign this petition to investigate the MPAA's bribery of elected officials.
Everyone: Call on Toys R Us to stop using cotton picked by children in Uzbekistan.
The 1% like to claim that they are entirely responsible for a company's profits, so they should keep them all. And that's what they do. They don't allow anything to trickle down.
Obama has attacked whistleblowers like no president before. In effect, Obama considers that telling the public is telling the enemy, because the public is the enemy.
The UN continues to condemn the US for imprisonment without trial.
What the US does now is as bad as what Stalin did. The difference is that Stalin did them frequently, while the US does them rarely, and most people think it can't happen to them.
This is the right decision, but I fear it won't do much good for long. With ubiquitous license plate scanners, the police can track all cars without touching any of them.
Last time, Putin blocked Kasparov from launching his campaign.
The Pirate Party of Catalunya is organizing lawsuits against the FBIfor the damage it has done to users of Megaupload.
Jill Stein spoke at the DC "Occupy the Courts" rally for a constitutional amendment to reject the idea that corporations have human rights.
According to the book Corporations Are Not People, by Jeff Clements, the idea that corporations are entitled to human rights was promoted by Justice Powell, who proposed this to the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971 as a way to protect cigarette companies, and shortly thereafter was appointed to the Supreme Court to put it into effect.
Romania's foreign minister was fired after insulting protesters, but they won't be satisfied with that
The comparison of protesters with the "miners" of the 90s is backwards. Those "miners" were organized by the state to intimidate protesters.
An armed band flying the flag of Gaddafi took over a town in Libya.
I wonder what this fighting is really about. I don't think it is about Gaddafi or his family. I speculate it might be factionalism or tribal rivalry. I hope to see analysis from someone who knows more than I do.
Foxconn's chairman compared his employees to animals.
US prosecutors are trying to get data about dissidents from social networking sites without giving the subjects a chance to contest.
It is trampling the rights of people who resist trampling our rights.
Israel keeps Palestinian youths, even children, in solitary confinement for weeks or months, interrogating them occasionally for hours in shackles.
They are pressured to confess, and also testify against others, which provides no real evidence of any crimes except those of the people that run the prison.
Of course, the government spokesmen parrot the official line. How they can live with themselves, I cannot understand.
An Indonesian is threatened with 5 years in prison for saying he is an atheist.
When religious people say that you shouldn't be allowed to criticize their religion, what they want is this.
SOPA will be redrafted, says its author.
Hollywood will try to divide the opposition by placating parts of the opposition so it can defeat the rest.
Top officials at the "Department of Justice" were formerly partners in a law firm that represented banksters.
It is not enough for high officials to avoid conflicts of interest to the extent required by law. They must make their honesty unmistakably clear. We must know that our Attorney General does not hesitate to prosecute the most dangerous criminals: big business.
Citizens of North Carolina are taking action at state level to stop the use of their state's facilities for transporting prisoners to be tortured.
The South Carolina primary used faith-based voting: computerized voting machines that have been rigged before.
This article cites several examples of election fraud through manipulation of computerized voting machines in the US.
BP (Billionaire Polluters) forecasts a shining future in which the US becomes almost self-sufficient in oil and gas, thanks to plenty of fracking plus tar sands oil from Alberta. (Apparently Canada in this scenario becomes part of the US.)
The forecast includes increased nuclear power generation; does it include any Fukushima-style disasters?
With a world-wide increase in CO2 emission of 28% by 2030, this forecast implies disaster on the way, but doesn't say so.
Some apartment buildings in Japan were built using gravel from near Fukushima, and the radiation level inside them is almost twice the background level in Denver.
I've seen estimates that sea-level background radiation kills 1.5% of the people, and Denver's higher background level (due to its higher altitude) is estimated to kill 3% of the people there (not necessarily when they are young). These buildings, providing extra radiation comparable to Denver's background, might kill 3% too.
This is a naive estimate. Someone knowing the isotopes involved could make a better estimate that might be much bigger or much smaller. But it's enough to show that those buildings ought to be knocked down, or else left vacant until the radiation level has died down
US citizens: tell companies that support ALEX that you want them to stop.
A web site designer in Iran faces execution because someone posted porn on his image-sharing site.
SOPA and PIPA are designed to allow anyone to shut an entire web site if allegedly copyright-infringing material is posted on it. Perhaps Dodd, head of the MPAA, should go to Iran to study best practices.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to support a constitutional amendment to reject "human rights" for corporations. Also sign this petition.
Also sign this, which is directed at Obama.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
The Republican National Committee is suing to allow corporations to give campaign donations directly to candidates.
The grounded cruise ship that killed perhaps 30 passengers and crew could also destroy a nature reserve if its fuel leaks.
Ecosystems in which poor people live provide 500 billion dollars of services annually to the rest of the world.
Maybe it would be fair or useful to pay those people not to allow development which would destroy those services.
Why does Apple do manufacturing in China rather than the US?
This article criticizes Apple's immediate reason. Looking more deeply, I can suggest underlying reasons to criticize too.
Governor Walker's voter-suppression law might protect him in his recall election.
I have said for decades that right-wingers intentionally call centrist media "Liberal" to pressure them to move to the right. Now we have proof: Bill Kristol privately confessed that he was lying when he called NPR "liberal".
(The Guardian linked to this note, but summarized it in a misleading way. See the Guardian Correction.)
The government of New Zealand arrested the founders of Megaupload to send them to the US for trial. They are accused of commercial copyright infringement. And many of their personal goods were seized, for no obvious reason. Here is what the US says about them.
I do not advocate in general legalizing commercial use of music without permission. (I think all works meant for practical uses must be free, but that does not apply to music, since music is meant for appreciation, not for practical use.) So if Megaupload intended to do that, I won't criticize stopping it.
Here's what Megaupload's lawyer says.
Lots of people used Megaupload in ways that did not infringe copyright. Now they are screwed: the US can get their data and they can't. The US government has shown contempt for thousands of people who it has not accused of anything.
I wonder why the executives of Megaupload have been charged personally with crimes, when the executives of Massey Energy, who intentionally disregarded safety rules and killed employees, are not?
Perhaps it's because Megaupload was the enemy of corporations that dominate the US, while Massey Energy is one of those corporations.
Apple wants to invite millions to work on digital textbooks that Apple would control and would only run on iThings..
Even people who don't understand the injustice of nonfree software see the danger of this.. That's good, but making these textbooks run on competing nonfree platforms is not enough to make them ethical. E-textbooks must carry free licenses and must be capable of running on a free software platform.
Hamas' political leader, who called for a policy of nonviolence except when attacked, appears to have lost a power-struggle.
This means that Hamas continues ready in principle to attack Israel, just as Israel continues ready to attack Hamas. In practice both of them mostly comply with a long-term truce.
Islamist parties dominate Egypt's new parliament.
I hope that won't threaten Egyptians' human rights.
Obama offered religious organizations one extra year to comply with the new requirement that health plans cover birth control.
I don't think this is unreasonable as a compromise, but note that the issue only arises because in the US medical coverage is tied to employment. If we had a national health service, the issue would not even arise.
Obama's "Jobs Council" seems to advocate the Republican agenda.
In effect, he has adopted the lie that increased business profits means more jobs. Business profits are increasing in the US but few Americans are getting jobs.
I go to drug stores and supermarkets that have self-checkout machines. I never use them, and I shout out to the people who do, "If you use those machines, you're putting Americans out of work."
Wilman Villar Mendoza, political prisoner in Cuba, died in prison after being on a hunger strike.
He had been imprisoned after an unfair trial for participating in public protests.
His supporters held a vigil for him outside the hospital, and some of them were arrested for that.
Unfair trials continue in another part of Cuba where the US government is responsible.
In an act of contempt for freedom of speech, the UK convicted people for distributing leaflets advocating a death penalty for homosexuality.
They did not threaten to kill anyone themselves. They simply advocated a law to do so. How can a country that criminalizes legislative proposals be a democracy?
I oppose those views, and I hope you do too. But that does not mean they don't have the freedom to advocate those views. They wished to do a wrong, but the UK has really done one.
Which legislative proposals will be criminalized next? Reductions in copyright laws? Raising taxes for the rich? Shame on the UK for this punishment.
Greece may get 70% debt forgiveness.
That is most of the way towards default, but without the downside of default. I wonder if it could save Greece. Will there be a nasty catch in it somewhere?
Some of the UK thugs working as undercover infiltrators in dissident groups fathered children with people they were spying on.
A secretive group spent $250,000 to defend Maine's Republican voter suppression law from a referendum. (It lost anyway.) It won't say where the money came from, but since the group is connected with ALEC, we can be sure it came from corporations and the 1%.
ALEC is a business-funded organization which state legislators join in order to receive orders from the megacorporations. It just had its annual convention in a hotel.
A journalist rented a room at the hotel and walked through an open door into one of the ALEC events. He was spotted and told to leave, which he did. Later a group of thugs and hotel staff told him he was not allowed in the hotel. Then the hotel refused to talk about what they had done to him, "for the sake of his privacy."
Despite events like this, ALEC claims its meetings are open to the public. Telling such easily refuted lies is a sign they think their power is so great that no one can effectively expose their lies enough to hurt them.
Outside the event, hundreds of protesters had come to condemn ALEC. The thugs sent provocateurs in to make an excuse, then attacked the protesters, arrested some, and arrogantly made false charges against a cameraman.
Why did they show the cameraman they knew his name? That was meant as intimidation. They figure some people will be afraid to protest if the thugs or other political operatives could take revenge against them later. The US has not reached the point where you really have to worry about that, but if it discourages some people from protesting, the thugs call it a victory.
If you are ever on a jury and thugs testify against the defendant, and you can't be positively sure the alleged crime was not at a protest, you should disbelieve the thugs on principle. They are experienced at lying in court, so you should not suppose you could tell when they are lying. If they lie 20% of the time, that means there is a reasonable doubt about every statement them make.
US citizens: phone your senators saying they should oppose all versions of PIPA. Also tell them electronically.
I suggest adding that they should oppose any plan to give copyright holders more power, because they have been catered to too much. Stop fussing about their problems and start addressing the problems they have imposed on us — for instance, legalize software and devices to break digital handcuffs, and legalize noncommercial sharing.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Congress has "postponed" the vote on PIPA/SOPA. but it is not dead.
Lamar Smith is still using the same lie, that copying is "stealing", stretching it even further to speak of "stealing products", which is utterly nuts.
When he talks about "American inventions" he drifts from exaggeration into ignorance. SOPA's attack provisions only apply to copyright and trademark, neither of which covers inventions. Patents are a totally different issue.
Perhaps he has used misleading over-generalization "intellectual property" so much that he has confused himself.
Thousands are protesting against austerity in Romania.
MPAA head Dodd, a former senator whose career taught him to be unashamed of corruption, said, “Those who count on Hollywood for support need to understand this industry is watching very carefully, ” in a Faux News interview. “Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay attention to me when my job is at risk.”
There you have it. The MPAA buys legislators and expects them to obey, and is so shameless that it says so on TV. We are expected not even to be outraged when they declare they buy our elections.
Of course, you won't vote for anyone that takes Hollywood money. But the ones that don't take Hollywood money took money from other megacorporations, indirectly of course. The only candidates that deserve your vote are the ones who reject corporate money.
Meanwhile: did you give Hollywood money this month? Next time, think twice before you pay to watch a movie. Ask yourself, "How likely is this movie to be very good?" If you don't see a strong chance of that, buy a printed paper book instead. (Or see the html version of this article.)
21 January 2012 (Shabab)Foreign armies in Somalia are attacking the Shabab on several fronts.
The article is full of newspeak. The African Union troops are referred to as "peacekeepers" although their purpose is to fight a war. The "transitional government" is a bunch of puppets put in place by those troops. It never had a mandate from Somalians.
Its enemy, the Shabab, is an Islamist tyranny. If Somalians would like to be rescued from it, I am in favor. But I have seen no evidence that they want this.
Why does the Shabab exist? Because when a somewhat milder Islamist regime (the Islamic Courts Movement) established peace in Somalia, with substantial popular support, the US sent Ethiopian troops in to drive it underground, whereupon it split up into factions. The Shabab is one of those factions. Ironically, the "transitional government" is another.
What was the point of pushing a country that has just achieved peace back into civil war? Was it that the Islamic Courts Movement was not subservient to the US, and the "transitional government" is?
The festival organizer tried enthusiastically to enforce censorship, but he did not want to admit that, so he described it as "not tolerating any illegal action". A Chinese party cadre couldn't say it better. Did he at least condemn the censorship law while enforcing it? If he had said that the law is wrong but he was enforcing it in terror, we could be sorry for him instead of despising him.
There is no bigotry in The Satanic Verses. Muslim extremists condemn it because a character has a dream in which Mohammed does embarrassing things (I forget what). The fact that it's only a dream, that even in the novel's fictional world these things don't really occur, is no excuse in their view. They believe that they are entitled to require the whole world to "respect" their views by not writing such things.
No one has a right to that kind of "respect". I applaud Kunzru and the others who have defied these bigots. To heed their demands, as the government of India has done, only encourages them.
The article errs when it calls the ruling Congress Party "centre-left". Its principal policy is to toady to business, like the Republican Party in the US and much of the Democratic Party. If its heroic past leaders could see it today, they would be ashamed of it.
India is starting to censor the Internet too, banning anything that might "offend" someone. After the Megaupload example, will India start arresting people who publish The Satanic Verses in other countries and allow Indians to access it over the Internet?
ALEC offers state legislators "scholarship funds" to go on vacation and listen to arguments for laws business wants. One state legislator is trying to treat this officially as lobbying and to require legislators to report these vacations as gifts.
Smirnoff made something like flavored vodka with beer as an ingredient, then advertised it on TV as if it were beer, so as to get teenagers hooked on drinking it.
Citizens of Massachusetts: oppose the "three strikes" extra-punishment law that is rapidly advancing in the Massachusetts legislature.
The "check engine" light in a car is an excuse to deny car owners information about what's happening in their cars.
This problem is related to the problem of proprietary software in cars.
Several PIPA supporters are copyright infringers.
Everyone: call on Kmart to stop buying from Asia Pulp & Paper, which chops down rainforests to make paper.
US citizens: tell Obama to take a firm stand against global heating and to stop the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline for good.
SOPA is not dead, just hibernating. Hearings will resume in February.
The UK's Financial Policy Committee warns that the companies in the City of London have large investments in fossil fuels. Successful efforts to reduce dependence on those fuels could reduce those companies' asset value.
I bet that those companies have something to do with the UK's slowdown on its alternative energy plans.
UK subsidies for another nonrenewable energy, nuclear, will be challenged in court.
Ending subsidies for fossil fuels would take the world half way towards climate stability.
People who sued the US governmet over Bush's illegal wiretapping will be allowed to proceed to court.
The phone companies were given retroactive immunity, but the government was not.
Nonetheless, the decision was mostly a defeat for Americans who oppose government spying, since it validated that retroactive immunity.
Israel violates Palestinians' human rights by arbitrarily denying them the right to travel abroad.
The Supreme Court approved a law putting copyright back on works already in the public domain.
Thus we have a Congress and a President bought by the copyright industry, and a Supreme Court that is unwilling to restrain them from attacking Americans' rights.
Republicans can advocate damaging budget policies based on absurd arguments because the press does not mention the facts to show what's wrong with them.
What Romney says as a candidate is the opposite of what he did as a vulture.
Obama reluctantly chose to support Internet companies over Hollywood, but Hollywood will keep paying him since he has served them so well on other issues.
Gingrich says he would disregard the Supreme Court in order to attack human rights.
Our current Supreme Court won't give him much else to object to.
The Jan 18 blackout protest has had effects: several senators have turned agaist SOPA/PIPA. That doesn't mean the bill is dead.
In addition, several of them pointedly repeated Hollywood propaganda, such as by calling copying "theft". In effect, they are announcing they will support the next nasty thing Hollywood wants to do to us.
We must say to senators and congresscritters, "Stop working for copyright industry's demands and start heeding ours. Copying is not theft!"
Young Afghanis wanting to emigrate can buy a fraudulent Taliban death threat letter.
Governor Walker of Wisconsin probably faces a recall election.
Democrats filed a million signatures, around twice the number required.
US citizens: phone Obama to veto SOPA/PIPA. Also sign this petition.
Protest in Washington DC against the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
However, Obama explicitly said that he had not killed the project. He has only insisted they reapply. And they will.
The government of Canada is supporting the project in a way that is thoroughly corrupt.
This article shows its lies ("thousands of jobs"), distortion (ignore global heating for a company's profits) and cronyism (working closely with Transcanada, which also corrupted the US State Department's investigation).
It's up to us to kill this project before it kills our civilization.
Police now have scanners that can be used to check if passersby are carrying guns.
I think there are some legitimate places to use these scanners: for example, on entering an area where security is being maintained. However, they should not be used without probable cause to justify searching that person.
US citizens: support "open access" for scientific literature: oppose the "research works act".
Everyone: tell Cooper Tire what you think of locking out its workers after they took pay cuts to help the company become profitable again.
When a company asks workers for givebacks to get through hard times, the workers should demand stock in return. That way, if the company rebounds, they will benefit — and they may even be able to prevent it from locking them out.
The US wants to use social media in Latin American to restore and maintain its domination.
The US government report says that "Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua are led by authoritarian leaders". That is true in the case of Cuba; Venezuela sometimes violates political rights but not systematically. The most authoritarian policy I've seen reported in Nicaragua is the total ban on abortions, like what most US Republicans advocate. But the list does not include countries such as Honduras and Colombia, where US-stimulated forces commit murder.
How Rick Santorum Ripped off American Veterans (for the Catholic Church).
Ex-senator Dodd, who promised in 2010 not to lobby, is the highest-paid lobbyist for SOPA.
For democracy's sake, we must close the revolving door between government and industry. Anyone who has been an elected official, or a high official in any branch of government, should not be allowed to lobby for 10 years after. And this must include any sort of business position aimed substantially at influencing government policy.
Some states have passed laws to require global heating denial in science classes.
The TSA admits making two old women (on separate occasions) pull down their pants, but says this was not a "strip search".
The TSA is probably using a narrow and extreme definition of "strip search" in order to make statements that are literally true but misleading.
Paris is setting up hundreds of security cameras.
Whether this is a danger to human rights depends on how the cameras are used and how long the video is saved.
A model predicts global heating will double annual hurricane damage by 2100.
This is on top of a doubling due to increased population and construction in vulnerable areas, independent of global heating.
Way to go, USA! Let's bring the sweatshops home. Meanwhile, the private prison industry will use this to justify imprisoning more Americans.
Hackers made Bank of America's ATMs inform users about the harm that bank does.
Many think that "hacking" means breaking computer security, but this particular hack did not involve computer security as far as I can tell.
Anonymous is becoming a pillar of direct action against tyranny.
The UK "Labour" party, which has the official support of major unions has endorsed right-wing austerity policies, so the unions are talking about removing their support.
Of course, working people in England should not support a right-wing "Labour" party, but they need to go reject more than austerity. They must reject the policy of bowing down to the banksters, and form a party that will fight to take away the political power of the City of London at any cost.
Whatever that costs the UK, it will be less than the harm that the banksters will do if they are not defeated.
Occupy LSX has lost a court case and might be evicted eventually as a result.
If Europe raises its carbon emissions reduction target for 2020, it will save money in the long term. This is because the stricter target will encourage people to make pre-2020 long-term choices in ways that will lead to emission reductions later.
However, it seems to me that basing policy on targets, and cap-and-trade, is a weak policy in general. A simple carbon emission tax would be more effective, since it would give everyone an incentive to conserve more no matter how much he has conserved already.
Romney is a right-wing extremist, proposing more tax cuts for the rich even in a time of hardship.
The French parliament criticized Israel's "water apartheid" in the West Bank.
We know that sleep deprivation is brainwashing, but an Israeli judge accepted the confession of a 14-year-old Palestinian who was subject to sleep deprivation and denied contact with a lawyer.
A 6-year-old Palestinian boy was arrested and interrogated for four hours.
In both cases, this disregarded Israeli laws about human rights.
Israel is developing the idea that legal rights simply do not apply to Palestinians. Israels judges systematically give that a facade of legality.
And Netanyahu has already spoken of extending this to Jews too. The disregard for human rights which most Israelis have winked at is likely to turn around and bite everyone there, making things even worse than they are now.
Palestinian from the West Bank who have married Israeli citizens cannot get permanent residence in Israel.
They fear that they may be permanently split up instead.
The appointment of a right-wing judge to Israel's supreme court, who lives in a colony in the West Bank, makes this even more likely.
Stop SOPA, or the web will go dark and stay dark.
This article explains the bias carried by the term "intellectual property". That's a sufficient reason to refuse to use it. However, the term is misleading in another, subtler way: it lumps together laws that in practice are totally unrelated. Clear thinking about any of these laws requires that we not confuse it with the others
Anyone can get a Facebook user's personal information by buying ads on Facebook.
A Guantanamo prisoner is facing the possibility of the death penalty and is denied basic rights accepted in other US trials, as Obama protects the people who tortured him.
A French judge wants US cooperation to investigate Guantanamo torture of French citizens.
Obama's policy is to continue most forms of torture that Bush used and protect the guilty, so he will surely refuse to cooperate. However, this has a chance to build the pressure to make him stop protecting torturers — some day.
If corporations are people, as Romney says, then he's a serial killer.
Romney condemned Obama for negotiating with the Taliban.
Romney says it is unthinkable to negotiate with the enemy during a war. Why, that might bring peace!
Meanwhile, Ron Paul wants to avoid war and cut military spending.
Ron Paul was booed by Republicans for applying the Golden Rule to foreign policy.
Funny response from an audience with a lot of people who make a big fuss about Christianity.
London police tried to crush a protest near Parliament, and concealed their intentions while discussing this before a judge. They were blocked.
Your garden pesticide may be killing bees. Even potting soil can have it.
To Understand Tensions Between the US and Iran, Follow the Money.
The article includes a lot of speculation, and I am not ready to say that it is true. But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it is true.
At the same time, we should not forget that Iran's regime is a brutal and totalitarian tyranny. Many Iranians hate it, and the only thing that can make them support it is if the regime can manipulate them through their patriotism — such as, by citing a threat of attack.
Renewables Now Surpass Nuclear Power in the US.
US citizens: thank Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline.
He called the oil companies' bluff, after their congress puppets voted to require a decision by Feb 21.
It is good that Obama is not totally feckless, but this is surely not the end for that pipeline proposal. They forced a quick decision hoping he would approve it without a safety study. Since he didn't cave in to that, they will come back and ask for a safety study, which they will try to rig the way they rigged the State Department's study.
While the danger of pipeline leaks is important locally, the danger of the CO2 emissions it will lock in is bigger and global.
US citizens: sign this petition against PIPA/SOPA.
Also phone your senators against them — even if you did so before.
In California: help the ballot campaign to repeal marijuana prohibition.
* Yes, I know the name of the organization these corporation made was "Citizens United". But I don't have to treat their dishonest label as truth.
US thugs are not content to arrest photographers or club them. They also try to censor posted videos of their crimes.
A court in the Netherlands gave a copyright organization arbitrary power to censor Internet access.
The CEO of Twitter says it is "foolish" for Wikipedia to black out for a day to oppose PIPA.
People who don't care much about freedom often think it is foolish to make a sacrifice of other secondary goals for freedom's sake.
This can cause extinctions, and as we pump more CO2 into the air, it will get worse.
US citizens: phone your senators and say, "Every part of PIPA is bad — oppose it and anything like it."
(The advice is at the end of the article).
61 senators are refusing to meet with their constituents to talk about SOPA/PIPA.
These senators are saying, in effect, "I don't represent you, I represent Hollywood."
Ethiopia is forcing 70,000 Nuer herding people off their fields and into "villages" where they have no food and no work. Apparently this is in order to sell the land to foreigners
The OPEN act is a proposed substitute for SOPA/PIPA. It is a lot less bad but it is still bad.
Copyright gives too much power, not too little; increasing copyright power is going in the wrong direction.
Increased repression of prostitutes in the UK has led to a crime wave against them.
Is it wise for Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists?
The US should give negotiations with Iran a real try.
This article blames Obama without mentioning that Congress is even more dead set against a diplomatic resolution. The latest sanctions against Iran were adopted by Congress against Obama's opposition.
The join US-Israel missile defense drill has been postponed.
However, the EU says it will stop importing oil from Iranian in six months.
In the hands of skilled negotiators, and paired with a positive offer, this promise of future sanctions might do some good. But the will to negotiate needs to be there.
The article errs when it says that the goal is inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities, because the IAEA has been inspecting them all along and still does. A rash of similar errors in US media give rise to suspicions that they are participating in a campaign for war.
The US has done nothing to bail out people with home mortgages, and millions more foreclosures are likely.
However, there are things states can do about the fraudulent and invalid mortgages.
The sponsors of SOPA in the House of Representatives have withdrawn it.
But that doesn't mean we are safe. The Senate is still considering its similar law, PIPA, which reveals its ill-foundedness through the words "intellectual property" in its name, and another law which would imprison musicians such as Justin Bieber.
Thus, we must keep up the pressure on the senate.
The Iraqi police arrest innocent people and torture them to demand ransom from their families.
In effect, the state is terrorist and the police are hostage-taking terrorists. Bombing a police station in Iraq is fighting terrorism.
One policeman was quoted as saying it is the same as under Saddam Hussein. I wonder. Hussein showed no mercy to opposition, but did his police take Iraqis hostage merely for money? I never saw that accusation made against him, and if it had been true, Bush would have used it.
Ex-marine Ross Caputi, who was in the Bush forces that occupied Iraq, thinks that the fuss about troops' urinating on corpses is a distraction from the real issue: what US troops do that creates corpses.
The US border control at San Ysidro x-rays all vehicles with high-frequency x-rays, and the so-called safety tests are bogus.
The freedom-loving Russian government wants to impose biometric digital ID cards on all citizens.
The New York Times doubts whether it should contrast politicians' lies with the facts.
Non-theocratic right-wingers say they can ignore what Romney says to win votes from theocrats, since it's mere election year dishonesty.
This reminds me of all the progressives who told themselves that the "real Obama" was progressive and would show up one he was elected.
They also praise Romney for his readiness to adopt whatever position will gain him something.
Thousands of Indonesians protested against their president, who has supported large companies in grabbing land.
SOPA's supporters have started to offer concessions, but as yet only very small ones.
The problem with a campaign whose aim is to defeat a proposed law that goes in the wrong direction is that is easy for the supporters to "meet us half way" by eliminating half of the bad provisions in the law. Copyright is too restrictive already; we need to reduce it, not increase it. And when we oppose SOPA, we need to demand change in the other direction. Then "meeting us half way" would mean no change.
Santorum is pre-sold to the health insurance companies.
Romney's Republican rivals are exposing him as a ruthless economic predator.
Lakhdar Boumediene: My Guantanamo Nightmare.
The real winner in the Iowa caucuses: Super-PACs, which can accept unlimited funds from anyone, and coordinate privately with a candidate while pretending to be independent of the candidate.
Most TV sets nowadays are actually computers designed to restrict their users.
I would not be willing to own one of these. Fortunately I broke off watching TV in 1970, because I didn't want to spend my time on it. That's a good reason for you also not to buy a TV, in addition to the DRM.
However, even if these companies didn't in fact do that, the devices can still be used that way.
A UK student who ran a sort of wiki search engine of TV shows may be extradited to the US for trial, though he never was in the US and neither was his site.
90% of aid to Afghanistan is directly wasted in that it doesn't get delivered to the intended use.
Even when it does get delivered, the project can be a waste too.
The US has failed to prosecute gross Wall-Street corruption, and the culprits are spending their money in arrogant excess.
We used to have regulations so that banksters couldn't reach the point of doing such things, but Obama has not fought to bring them back.
Tunisia's former ruling mafia exported much of the country's wealth, and hid it well.
Sanctions have not stopped Iran's development of technology for nuclear weapons, and a military attack couldn't stop it, but there is still a chance for diplomacy.
What Rick Santorum doesn't know about sex.
In New York City on Jan 18: protest SOPA outside the offices of New York's senators.
When Rasiej says that "we all agree" that "piracy" is a problem, that may be true of the members of his organization. I do not advocate eliminating copyright, but "piracy" is a propaganda term whose purpose is to create a climate favorable to unjust laws like SOPA.
Uruguay's prosecutors apparently tried to protects its troops from prosecution for rape in Haiti by claiming they couldn't find the victim.
Apparently they never tried.
India's government has formally moves to censor all social media and even attack foreign web sites.
There are persistent protests at a US airbase where drones attacks in Afghanistan are controlled.
Population growth in a slum suburb of La Paz is polluting Lake Titicaca.
Even fairly wealthy parts of South America drop their sewage into rivers and lakes. Driving along the beach west of Rio de Janeiro, passing a line of recent high-rise buildings on the other side of the road, I was told that their sewage went straight into the lagoon beyond them, and it had become very polluted.
Shaker Aamer, now in Guantanamo, wants the UK to investigate his accusations of its complicity in the torture inflicted on him in Afghanistan.
A French journalist in Syria was killed by mortar fire. The killing was almost certainly set up by Assad's men.
Everyone: ask major web sites to join the Jan 18 anti-sopa net strike.
Everyone: support the UCLU Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society against censorship.
The threat has been withdrawn but more signatories will still help them.
Opposing the proposal to make conservationists "buy" whales to protect them.
The fact that there is no demand for the all whale meat that is caught is a crucial fact. The whale hunt is simply wasteful government spending, and it should be ended.
Cambodia arrested people who were protesting their eviction.
That resembles what US cities did to the Occupy protests.
Now the Mayor of Washington wants to close down a protest camp, supposedly to eliminate rats.
I appreciate his concern, but before the protest camp he should close down the rats' offices — Congress and the lobbying companies.
Canada says it protects polar bears, but it pays a big bounty for each one that is shot.
Maybe the government of Canada figures the CO2 from its tar sand oil will wipe out all the wild polar bears anyway, so why not shoot them all?
Professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones started organizing to stop global heating after his favorite run in the alps shrank by hundreds of yards.
Afghan Commission Alleges US Detainee Abuse.
I believe the accusations. At the same time I don't trust Karzai's men to me any more humane than the US. Thus, it is hard to see what to recommend here. Perhaps end the war and free the prisoners.
Workers at a Foxconn plant threatened mass suicide to demand severance pay.
Ironically, the product being made was the Microsoft Xbox, a locked-down computer with DRM, which should not be made at all.
Canada's "natural resources" minister is resorting to ad-hominem distractions to confront the resistance to its tar sands export pipelines.
He is part of a gang that aims not only burn up Canada's resources and spread pollution, but also to burn up the world.
The IAEA has a little recent evidence that claims to show Iran is developing nuclear weapons. But there are reasons to suspect that evidence was falsified.
Despite strong evidence that the UN "peacekeeping" troops brought cholera to Haiti, the UN still pretends it wasn't so.
Lots of "aid" was offered to Haiti after the earthquake, but most of the people displaced two years ago still live in tents and have no access to water.
A lot of the aid was never delivered, or was spent inefficiently on expensive foreigners instead of work in Haiti.
The family of a union leader in Colombia's Coca Cola plant was taken hostage by gunmen.
US citizens: call on Obama to stand with the 99% in the State of the Union address.
Might as well let him know people will be disappointed if he doesn't.
Pakistan's army and its spy service are undermining the civilian government by accusing it of giving the US a memo asking for help keeping the army under civilian control.
No article I have read about this "scandal" has explained what is scandalous about this. Everyone just takes for granted it is a scandal.
The only scandal I see here is that the army was so defiant and uncontrollable as to make this memo necessary.
It seems the US has prevented the prosecution of other agents UK for cooperating with US torturers in Afghanistan, by refusing to give the evidence needed to prosecute. More shame on Obama, who protects US torturers.
Afghanistan is in a tizzy about a video showing US troops urinating on corpses.
I am more concerned about the killing, rape and torture of living people.
Micro-RNA from plants humans eat can get into human cells and have effects on them. This disproves the general claim that genetically engineered plant DNA can't directly hurt humans.
That genetically engineered plants could produce micro-RNA that hurts humans does not mean that they do or will. The genetic engineering that is done is typically not intended to change the plant's micro-RNA at all. It might do so accidentally, but that would be unlikely. For that change to be harmful to humans would be a freak accident.
I think the other problems of genetic engineering — patents that harm farmers, and toxins that harm wildlife — are bigger issues in practice.
Daniel Ellsberg speaks for Bradley Manning, who is not allowed to speak for himself, and admires him for standing firm against brainwashing and refusing to incriminate Obama's other targets.
Ellsberg says that Obama is repeating Nixon's attempt to stretch the Espionage Act to cover informing the American public. When Obama accuses Manning of "aiding the enemy", "the enemy" are we the people.
A "super-PAC" set up by Romney's close associates raised millions from rich people and corporations to pay for attack ads.
Romney claimed in a radio interview that he was not responsible for these ads or for what they say. Legally, that may be true.
Morally, it is a lie.
The US Supreme Court should follow the ethics standards for other judges.
US neocons are pushing for an unjustified war with Iran, and Congress is helping them along.
In the UK. 14% of young teens are unhappy with their lives.
However, is it a good thing to make kids "fit in" by helping them be manipulated by the fashion industry? I think that teaches people to be weak.
The TSA proves its own irrelevancy to Americans' safety.
The telling argument, which shows that the TSA is not deterring airplane attacks by unidentified terrorists: such terrorists, if they were really in a position to attack the US, would have attacked softer targets instead. However, such attacks have been very few.
Although much of the TSA's activity can be explained as an out-of-control bureaucracy, that doesn't explain the audio warnings in our trains and buses, and now signs on our streets. I am convinced that the people who hate our freedoms understand full well what they are doing to the US this way.
Occupy Rigged Elections is looking for web developers and programmers to set up its web site. If you want to help, write to tact@votescam.org but add con to the front of that address.
US citizens: call on Obama to break up the Bank of America rather than allow it to move junk derivatives into its FDIC-insured division.
Israel's new law that calls for mandatory imprisonment of asylum-seekers violates human rights treaties.
It makes me think of the movie, Exodus.
The law punishes anyone "assisting [immigrants] who were armed or engaged in trafficking people or drugs." It is acceptable to punish collaboration in those activities (though some drugs should be more or less legalized), but does this law require proof that the accused knowingly and voluntarily helped such immigrants? If not, does it turn humanitarian aid into Russian roulette?
Argentina has advanced towards a universal surveillance state by putting mandatory national ID cards in a computer data base.
Mandatory national ID cards are an injustice in themselves.
One of the Arab League monitors sent to Syria resigned, saying he had seen "scenes of horror" and his mission was ineffective at stopping them.
46 million Americans are now in poverty, and it is likely to increase.
Oil companies have launched an astroturf campaign, "Vote For Energy".
Republican candidates plan tax cuts. The tax cuts for the rich would be 100 to 270 times as big as tax cuts for the middle class.
Meanwhile, the necessary cuts in government activities would crush the poor. I guess they figure the poor won't notice what they are planning, or perhaps that the poor will be blocked from voting.
Unhappy Anniversary for Guantanamo.
Muslims in the UK are on trial for advocating a change in law.
The law they want, which would impose the death penalty on homosexuals, would be extremely unjust, and I have posted condemnation of a similar proposed law in Uganda. However, to criminalize proposals for changes in laws is incompatible with democracy. What political position will the UK ban next? Abolishing "free trade" treaties? Legalizing file sharing? Taxing the banks?
Another Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated.
This is a kind of low-level war, but very different from an overt military attack. But Israel is not starting a war; if I understand right, Israel and Iran have been officially at war for decades.
Bayer's pesticides are killing lots of bees. This suggests that the pesticides play a large role in the massive honeybee die-offs in the US.
If so, the use of these pesticides on other crops is likely to increase the bee die-offs.
I also wonder whether honey is contaminated with these or other pesticides.
On March 2-6, AIPAC, the Israeli hawks' lobby, will have a meeting. Protesters will be there too.
Some Democrats say we should ignore US imprisonment without trial to protect Obama.
How can our freedom be less important than a politician that failed to defend it?
US threats against Iran may have convinced Khamenei that the US is set on war, and only nuclear weapons can stop it.
The Pentagon accuses Iran of helping first Iraq and now Afghanistan kick out US troops on schedule.
If this were the main thing Ahmadinejad had done, I would thank him. However, this does not cancel out the tyranny of the Iranian regime towards the Iranian people.
Regular protests continue in Nabi Saleh. Here's how some nonviolent protesters were arrested, tortured for a while, and threatened with false charges.
These protests are against Israeli colonies in the West Bank which take away Palestinians' land. In 2001, Israel increased the rate of colony extension.
There is an Israeli colony in the middle of the town of Hebron. The colonists seek to drive out Palestinian residents through violence and threats. Israeli soldiers who see this do nothing to stop it.
Elsewhere, colonists put up a fense through a Palestinian's farm and soldiers kicked the farmers off their land.
One of the "settlers" leaders has called for the abolition of democracy in Israel.
Putin's men used a doctored photo to make a false accusation against an opposition leader.
This sounds like the way a right-wing sabotage squad attcked ACORN.
The US and Israel are integrating their forces and command structure for missile defense.
I see no harm in Israel's installation of antimissiles — though they may not work as well as supposed; in the 1991 Gulf War, Patriot missiles supposedly knocked down many Iraqi SCUD missiles, but further study suggested the Patriots had not really damaged them. I hope that the newer missiles really do work.
To integrate US and Israeli command structures for missile defense is not directly dangerous, but its implications could be far-reaching. If this means Israel cannot attack Iran without US backing, maybe Obama can use that to prevent the attack. On the other hand, if Obama lacks the guts to do that (which it seems he does), this integration might pull the US into the war.
Shell's enormous oil spill in Nigeria, 20% to 40% as large as the Big Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has been ignored by the world, and nobody seems likely to start to clean it up.
The cause of this is the corruption of Nigeria's government. Its leaders have not got the courage and integrity necessary to challenge Shell. They have surrendered (perhaps in exchange for a rich reward).
Things are somewhat better in the US, but not much. The US government has not imposed the regulations needed to prevent another Big Spill, because our leaders have not got the courage and integrity necessary challenge Big Oil. On the contrary, Obama wants to allow Arctic undersea drilling.
Los Angeles wants arrested Occupy protesters to pay hundreds of dollars to a private company for lessons about freedom of speech.
Aside from doubts about whether these lessons would be slanted, and the fact that the protesters don't need them, these protesters should not be charged with anything. It is the city thugs who arrested them that should be in prison.
New forms of torture leave 'invisible scars', say researchers.
What is handy for the torturers is that these mental scars are not easily characterized: it is hard to prove they were caused by torture.
Of course, old fashioned physical torture is still practiced too, even by the US.
The New York Times treats it as a certainty that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, even though there is no evidence of this.
I am convinced Iran is preparing to be able to make nuclear weapons, but that is not the same as actually making them. The facts support the view that Iran wants to reach a point where it could make nuclear weapons in under a year, then pause there.
The difference is significant, because as long as Iran remains in that intermediate position, no one need fear it will launch a nuclear attack.
At present, Iran's nuclear activities are being monitored by the IAEA. If Iran decided to press towards nuclear weapons, the IAEA would see this, or else Iran would have to kick it out to prevent that. Either way, there would be warning.
But even if Iran did try to make real nuclear weapons, war would not be able to prevent it.
US citizens: tell the FDA to make its approval standards for medical devices strict, not weak.
Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) give banks ways to repackage bonds in ways too subtle for their clients to properly judge. They played a major role in creating the financial meltdown.
Now it seems that the banks selected the bonds that were going to fail to put into the CDOs.
A German police official illegally used spyware on his daughter, and got paid back drastically, as she opened the door for freedom-minded hackers to reveal information about secret state surveillance systems.
This would make a great novel.
I believe the GPS tracking devices referred to are attached by police to the targets or their cars.
Bahrain denied entry to Richard Sollom of the Physicians for Human Rights,
He was going to observe the trial of a protester, which apparently the Bahraini government expects not to pass muster.
The Uruguayan troops caught on video raping a Haitian prisoner have been freed.
The charges against them have not been dropped, but prosecutors say they can't find the victim for testimony.
I wonder what happened to him. It must be easy in Haiti to make someone disappear.
Everyone: sign this petition calling on the UN to have Syria's tyrant prosecuted in the International Criminal Court.
Game designer Amir Mizra Hekmati has been sentenced to death in Iran for making games in which US troops attack Iran.
He was made to confess that he did this for the CIA. That confession proves nothing — Iranian torturers can extract false confessions just as well as US torturers. At the same time, it would not surprise me if the US government (perhaps not the CIA) did somehow support the development of that game. It acknowledges doing such things.
If so, that would not justify punishing Hekmati. Nobody should be punished for making a game — not even if it is proprietary.
If You Want More Local Food, Stop Criminalizing Family Farmers.
A town should not be able to nullify all state and federal laws as Sedgwick tried to do. And I am not particular a supporter of unpasteurized milk. But many food safety regulations that are needed for agribusiness can safely have exceptions for local food production.
Parts of China are increasing the minimum wage.
I did not think I would see the day that this happened. Note that the wages mentioned in the article are per month.
In much of the US, police department thugs tyrannize students starting in primary school, sending them to prison for absurd "crimes" such as leaving crumbs on the table after eating.
The result is a school-to-prison pipeline for anyone who has mental deficits, anyone who is eccentric, and anyone who won't bow and scrape to a bully.
The impunity of the police is crucial for their bullying. They are never punished for starting violence; instead, the victim is punished, unless he maintains a level of self-control that most adults couldn't match.
The supposed reason for the presence of these bullies in the schools is to prevent very rare crimes. Maybe they do — it is not certain. Even so, they do far more harm than they prevent.
As for disruption of class, 60 years ago disruptive students were sent to the principal's office, and if they didn't stop, they were suspended. This did not normally require a policeman. Once in a while it might, but police can be called from outside on those rare occasions; and there is no need to press charges against the student just for that. Suspension will solve the problem.
The political philosophy of libertarianism, based solely on property rights, cannot deal with the issue of externalities, such as environmental pollution, that damage others.
The easy way out for them is to deny the existence of the problem. This may partially explain why many right-wingers deny global heating.
Flight posed a similar problem in countries where landowners were considered to own the space above their land. No airplane pilot could possibly have obtained flight permission from every landowner on the route between New York and Washington; in fact, you can't fly so precisely as to be sure you'll go over A's farm and not B's neighboring farm, let alone A's building rather than B's neighboring building, and an emergency or even a cloud might require a deviation miles away from the intended route.
The solution chosen by governments was to decide that pilots did not need landowners' permission. However, once people couldn't order airplanes not to fly over their houses, they needed some other way to limit noise from airplanes, and this too had to be done by the state.
A recent note about US/Israeli missile defense mentioned that Ahmadinejad was falsely accused of wanting to destroy Israel.
In fact, he expressed a general wish for regime change in Israel, which was mistranslated, and the correction was not circulated widely.
US citizens: call for abolishing imprisonment without trial.
Nigerians protested the end of gasoline subsidies, and troops shot them.
Shooting was inexcusable, but I don't support the protests: fuel must be expensive, so people will use less.
This is a separate issue from corruption. Corruption in Nigeria surely does great harm, end reducing it would provide funds that the government could use in many ways to help the poor, including forcing Shell to clean up its oil spill and take safety precautions in the future. However, subsidizing oil is a foolish way to use the money.
Giving the money directly to the citizens might be a good thing, but it needs to be done carefully. Rather than give in proportion to how much petroleum each person uses, the state could give an equal annual sum to everyone who was alive on Jan 1, 2001, or to the person's heirs. This would create an incentive for the poor to have fewer children.
Wikileaks revealed that the US and Canada are waging a global campaign of spying and sabotage aimed at indigenous peoples.
Occupy Portland has called for a national day of action on Feb 29.
Lamar Smith: no lie is too big for SOPA.
Why dissident movements need to start on the communications platforms that lots of people use.
The point is valid — except that nowadays the widely used communications platforms are themselves bad for freedom, and call for opposition from dissidents like me.
What we and the public domain have lost due to the US's extensions of copyright since 1976.
These changes must be cancelled.
Thugs in Florida arrested a man with no crime, then killed him by pepper spraying him repeatedly while he was tied up.
Suing the city for this is not enough; the thugs must be prosecuted.
Social activist data mining exposed a network of slumlords who traded buildings among themselves to evade housing laws.
The US expelled a Venezuelan diplomat who had previously discussed a hypothetical cyber-attack against the US.
The US launched a cyber-attack against Venezuela (specificially PDVSA, the state oil company) around a decade ago, whereupon Chávez realized that the state needs to move to free software.
Iran is preparing for a worthless election (only Islamist fanatics can run) by talking about war to win support.
Ten years ago, Bush and al Qa'ida needed each other. Now US Republicans and Iranian tyrants need each other. People in the US can criticize the Republicans who talk about war for helping Iranian tyrants distract the Iranian people from oppression.
The Republican War on the Poor has a new tactic: find excuses to exclude people from unimployment insurance.
Here, it would be people without high school degrees. In some states, it's anyone that takes drugs. In some states, it's anyone that isn't pursuing several job offers a week (what if there are none in your field?). What they all have in common is their goal: to kick people when they are down.
Easy possible savings in US military spending.
Religious bigots in New Hampshire have proposed laws to ban the teaching of evolution.
A note to Bergevin: Hitler was not an Atheist and the Nazi regime did not advocate Atheism. The Scandinavian countries are highly nonreligious and quite peaceful; while Iran supports religion very strongly. Where would you rather live?
Investigators sent by Karzai accused the US of torturing prisoners in Bagram, and imprisoning them without evidence.
It is probably true, since the US has done this in other places. However, we cannot have confidence that Karzai's "goverment" would treat its prisoners any better.
Evan Emory was charged with "making child pornography" for singing lewd lyrics and remixing this with a separately-made video of children, making it appear that they they were reacting to his song.
Emory pled guilty to a lesser charge and was jailed for 60 days. The plea bargain means that no court will consider the constitutionality of these charges, so the "authorities" can go on threatening people with 20 years in prison to show how tough they are.
I am glad he did not face years in prison, or the much worse requirement to register on a sex offenders' list (which is often imposed for no real reason), but he should not have been punished at all.
This page shows what was in Emory's song.
It isn't funny, because it has little wit. The wit is limited to one shocking juxtaposition, and drawing that out at length adds no humor. It is also somewhat crude, and with no wit to sweeten the mix, the crudeness sticks out unpleasantly. However, it is not deeply disgusting like the violence in Pulp Fiction. And this crudeness is not a crime: the newspaper wasn't prosecuted for stating the lyrics in that web page.
Should juxtaposing the lyrics with recordings of kids, made on another occasion, be a crime?
The parents accuse Emory of hurting their children. It didn't hurt them directly. If young children saw this video, they would not understand the sexual aspect. The parents could understand it, and might have felt offended, but it takes more than a feeling of offense to justify punishing someone.
A parent says his kid was teased after the video became known to other kids. Teasing hurts, and teachers should try to stop it — but kids find and make all sorts of occasions to tease, so it is futile to try to prevent teasing by declaring war on possible occasions for it. Kids have been teased for not wearing the latest clothing fad. Shall we imprison parents for not following childrens' fashions? Even imprisoning the executives of the companies that create the fashions would be unjust. Efforts against teasing must focus on changing the teasers' behavior and on supporting the victims.
I think (though IANAL) the parents could sue Emory for using the kids in a video without permission, regardless of details, but that isn't a criminal matter.
It was crude and it wasn't nice, but that's no grounds for a witch hunt.
CNN was so totally in the Pentagon's pocket that it fired commentators who didn't support Bush's war party line.
This was in the time of the Pentagon's Paid Political Pundit Program, which the Pentagon just decided was in accord with its rules. This means it would not hesitate to do the same thing to promote war with Iran.
The Israeli government plans to demolish the Palestinian village of Dkaika.
The school will be left standing, but its students will all be homeless.
The people of an Andaman Islands tribe, isolated until recently, faces dangers from tourism that they can't possibly understand.
I don't know what is right to do in such a situation, except for one aspect: they could be offered vaccination against most of the diseases, and taught how to avoid the others.
A former staffer at New York's Department for Environmental Conservation says that fracking would be dangerous and must not be allowed.
New York's "Democratic" governor is the one who wants to end the state's ban on fracking.
Pentagon head Panetta acknowledged Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon.
General Dempsey says he would like Iran to believe that a military attack could wipe out its nuclear facilities. I don't think Iran will oblige him.
Canadian harp seals are threatened by global heating.
The pups need sea ice that lasts into summer, and there is now little of that.
Thus, Canada needs to end the slaughter of the few pups that survive or it will wipe out these seals.
Republicans deny facts — such as that Americans die for the lack of health insurance.
"Just in time" supply delivery is efficient in good times, but leaves businesses and society no reserves to cope when anything goes moderately wrong.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, necessary to avoid disaster later this century, provides an opportunity for short-term economic growth too.
So why don't governments do this? I think it's because existing businesses, the ones who have bought the politicians, would lose even though the economy as a whole gains.
Americans must recognize that their current political system is corruption and that most congresscritters are working for the companies that pay them.
The UK is waking up to the fact that the London Olympics will not provide the public benefits that were used to sell the plan.
Holding the Olympic games is a government-subsidized boon for business. To sell the plan to the public, or the public's political representatives, the business interests and their political allies claim that the games will provide public benefits too. These claims are often based on distortions, such as counting benefits for a few as if they were benefits for the many.
Stimulating the economy with government spending is called for in bad times like these, but there are better and worse ways to do it: the money that is spent can buy a lot for the public, or just a little. Olympics spending may get the public more than military spending, but not as much as improved education, public transport, medical care, or renewable energy.
US citizens: sign Amnesty International's petition to close Guantanamo.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators and say to cut military spending deeply. Also sign this petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Muslim fanatics in northern Nigeria have launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Christians.
They also intend to oppress Muslims, along the lines of Iran and the Taliban.
Right-wing Israeli's pogroms are now aimed at Israeli peace activists as well as at Palestinians.
How Romney learned that bailouts are bad: a company he controlled got one in 2001, and he profited handsomely from that.
Uri Avnery believes Obama will stop Israel from attacking Iran, and thinks Israeli officials are talking about attacking Gaza because they need to attack someone or other.
A Bahraini student was arrested and tortured, apparently for talking to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
Bahrain's tyranny will not get less nasty as long as the US stands behind it.
Gazan prisoners in Israel are totally cut off from their families.
More Tibetan monks have burned themselves as a protest.
I wonder if there is any chance they could get to Beijing to do it.
The US media's obsession with presenting an image of balance lends half-validity to any lie or cover-up, not matter how flagrantly false.
Call on Obama to hold the banksters accountable for their crimes.
US citizens: support higher fuel economy standards for cars.
US citizens: call on the US to reject the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
Now that the government is required to decide yes or no within 60 days (less, by now), and since that's not enough time even to study the safety against leaks and spills, the decision must be no.
US citizens: tell your senators to support Feinstein's bill to end imprisonment without trial.
Estimate that Fukushima fallout caused 14,000 deaths in the US.
US citizens: call on the Department of the Interior not to approve Arctic undersea oil drilling.
Economic sanctions are crippling Iran's business and creating shortages.
Maybe this could result in an agreement and avoid the Israeli attack that Obama lacks the strength to veto. But I think Israel's hawkish government would rather have the war.
The first warden of the Guantanamo prison says it is an injustice and should be closed.
He also said that very few of the prisoners knew any information that the US needed.
The deficit-cutting plan, if not corrected, will leave US domestic spending less than it has been since 1930.
Military spending would be cut less, and would be more than 5)% of the federal budget.
I am not sure if military pensions and veterans' benefits are counted as military spending in this breakdown. Can someone check?
The US Ambassador to Iraq says that the prosecution of Vice President al-Hashemi is being carried out fairly.
Supposing that the Ambassador's statement is true (we can't take that for granted), what does it imply? I would not be surprised if al-Hashemi really did set up a death squad, but I would be surprised if no other Iraqi officials had done so. However, al-Maliki is not prosecuting them. Thus, both views of this situation might be correct: this might be a proper, honest investigation, and an anti-Sunni power grab, at the same time.
Reports of an internal dispute within Hamas' leadership between those that want to end violence and those that don't.
The UK government plans to keep intelligence information secret from court inquiries.
In recent years, the UK has been the only avenue for some of Bushbama's torture victims to seek justice. This is because US courts dismiss their cases when the torturer-state asks them to. If the UK changes its laws, none of the victims of the US or the UK will ever get justice, or even a hope of release from prison.
A suicide bombing in Damascus has boosted support for Assad.
I doubt Assad's men could have found anyone willing to carry out a false-flag suicide bombing. But they might have planted a bomb on someone and set it off by a radio signal.
Or it migth have been intended by dissidents to attack police. If so, this shows that suicide bombs, like drone bombs, kill noncombattants.
Republicans are now trying to destroy private sector unions in Indiana.
The ACLU is suing to overturn the Wisconsin voter ID law.
Voter ID laws are a favorite Republican tactic for stopping poor people, old people, students, and minority group members from voting.
The US and Israel plan joint missile-defense systems and exercizes.
The concern is that this will enable Israel to attack Iran and push the US into "defending" it.
Costa Rica formally abolished its army, but it is allowing the School of the Americans to effectively convert police into an army.
Pharmacists and doctors are on strike in Greece.
Several US news companies are planning to collude to make sites pay for links with excerpts.
This wouldn't affect stallman.org, because I don't copy whole paragraphs from articles into these political notes. However, I am against any attempt to narrow the bounds of fair use.
Honduran Priest Says Cops Tortured Him.
Behind those thugs stand the coup-installed Honduran government, and behind it the US government, without whose support the coup could not have happened.
Colombia's president Santos wants to shield soldiers from prosecution by transferring jurisdiction to the military.
Bahrain's lobbyists secretly helped write an opinion article in the Washington Times in favor of disregarding Bahrain's attacks on protesters.
Belarus, like Iran, demands Internet users identify themselves.
The government pretends that this is not effectively censorship. Belarus' tyrant is a shameless liar like Putin.
Chile's government plans to alter textbooks to stop mentioning Pinochet's dictatorship.
US citizens: call on the FCC to make broadcast stations say who paid for every political ad.
On the legal consequences of Sweden's recognition of Kopimi as a religion.
Everyone: call on Google to quit the US Chamber of Commerce in protest to its campaign for SOPA.
US citizens: call on Obama to hold the banksters accountable for fraud.
Israel must take positive notice of Hamas' move away from violence.
The Obama regime bullied Spain in December to pass the evil Ley Sinde.
Shame on Obama.
The UK is thinking of legalizing assisted suicide.
But it plans to exclude those who need this help the most — those whose condition won't kill them soon, and face decades of torture or forced inactivity.
The former "socialist" Spanish government, which gave Spain the Internet censorship law, was also planning to prevent EU fishing reforms designed to protect fish stocks.
This is because business lobbying successfully prevented increases in CAFE standards and gas taxes for a long time.
Obama says he can't stop Israel from attacking Iran.
Dubya did it, why can't Obama? Because Obama has caved in 110% to the Israeli hawks' lobby.
When Palestinians win court victories against "illegal" Israeli colonies, Israel doesn't remove them — rather, it moves them a short distance.
I put "illegal" in quotes because this refers to colonies built without approval of the Israeli government. All of Israel's colonies in the West Bank violate treaties that Israel has signed.
Texas punishes judges that are biased against execution, but not judges biased in favor.
This year's presidential election is a distraction from the central political issue: the 1% vs the 99%.
However, this distraction can throw up dangerous issues of its own, as the elites push to launch a war against Iran.
Never mind that there's no reason for war, no grounds to justify one, and the American people don't want it.
EPA regulations to clean up Chesapeake Bay are creating jobs too.
File-Sharing Recognized as Official Religion in Sweden.
I don't entirely understand the name "Kopimism". Sure, it starts with "copy", but where does the "m" after that come from? [Later: it seems they started with "kopimi" = "copy me".]
I decline to seriously endorse any church, but I do say, "sharing is good."
The Arab revolutions have punctured US pretenses to support democracy in the Arab world.
A whistleblower who worked on the smaller existing Keystone pipeline says that Bechtel and Transcanda cut costs at the expense of safety — and it shows, in oil spills.
If the larger Keystone XL pipeline is built, avoiding climate disaster will depend on the pipeline's leaking so badly that they shut it down.
Obama's Climate Betrayal.
Pakistan's Taliban made a separate peace with the government of Pakistan so it can help fight the US in Afghanistan.
Hamas is moderating its position, moving towards Fatah and acceptance of Israel. Should Israel respond by saying it wants war?
US citizens: pledge to support the ACLU in fighting Obama's imprisonment without trial law.
As many as half a million former Bush forces troops may have lasting injuries caused by the war in Iraq. That's comparable to the number of Iraqi dead, which is probably between half a million and one million.
Indian troops in Kashmir shot at protesters and killed a student.
The US is planning to free a few Taliban leaders from Guantanamo to try to get peace negotiations started.
This is a sensible practical step, but what about the other Guantanamo prisoners who the US acknowledges were not connected with the Taliban or al Qa'ida? Will they be kept in prison because they were never enemies?
Three myths about Obama's imprisonment-without-trial law.
California prisoners suspended their hunger strike in October when a state official promised a proposal for substantive changes in 60 days.
However, so far they have seen no proposal.
The incoming right-wing government has put the anti-sharing censorship Ley Sinde info effect.
This law was enacted by the previous "socialist" government.
The fact that the politicians use propaganda terms such as "intellectual property" and "piracy" to talk about it shows their hearts are in the wrong place.
Recently imprisoned Russian opposition leaders are in addition to thousands of other political prisoners.
Ron Paul combines some good ideas with a lot of crackpot ones.
Nonetheless, I think he does some good by bringing a message of respect for human rights and nonmilitarism into media that don't give progressives a chance to say two words. The point is not whether Paul is a good messenger, but whether he is better than none.
The government of Hungary is attacking human rights, and nobody can do anything.
The vague dimensions of imprisonment without trial in the US. (This law was signed by Obama; shame on him.)
Cuba will soon begin undersea oil drilling.
The US, for its own protection as well as humanitarian decency and the environment, should eliminate sanctions on anything that pertains to cleaning up oil spills.
In Israel, women's rights are linked to Arabs' rights.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force recommended prosecuting people as "terrorists" for making undercover videos of animal farms.
Boston has subpoena'd Twitter records of thousands of people.
The ACLU, representing one of the users, moved to quash the subpoena.
The ACLU does not know whether it succeeded. The judge refused to tell the ACLU the outcome, because it is "secret".
US secrecy has reached levels incompatible with justice or democracy.
Sony, Electronic Arts and Nintendo are trying to disguise their support for SOPA.
Sony and Nintendo make malicious products, which the Free Software Foundation has campaigns against.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have arrested theater founder Zakaria Zubeidi.
Clinton's "welfare reform" is now causing the disaster that progressives predicted at the time.
The disaster did not happen right away, because there were plenty of jobs in the late 1990s.
Omani journalists have been sentenced to prison for accusing a minister of crime and dishonesty.
Laws making it a crime to insult an official are a plague on many countries. There is no excuse for them.Chile's education minister has resigned.
President Pinera did not give him room to make any concessions to the protesting students.
Poaching of rhinoceros in South Africa is increasing despite great efforts to protect them.
It is driven by quack medicine. Laws against using rhinoceros horn would not be very effective, but an education program might do some good.
As for restoring the Sumatran rhino species in the wild through captive breeding, even if it succeeds in producing young, it would have no chance against current levels of poaching.
The UK's health minister colluded with Philip Morris to oppose smoking reduction policies.
Shaker Aamer faces another year in Guanatano, for no crime, and may die there.
All because of the moral cowardice of Obama and his men.
Digital cameras put unique identifying numbers into their photos.
I am glad that this enables some people to retrieve stolen cameras, and under a state that respected whistleblowers and human rights, the discussion would end there.
Ecuador has raised .1 million to delay oil extraction in the Yasuní National park.
To permanently leave the oil in the ground, Ecuador asks for 3.8 billion dollars — half of what it would get from extracting the oil. It seems fair to me that Ecuador asks the wealthy countries to match its own sacrifice.
Weapons Sales to Iraq Move Ahead Despite US Worries.
In Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Iran, militant Islamists have Israel to thank.
I disagree with the conclusion, though. Christian fundamentalists in the US and Islamic fundamentalists need each other as enemies, so they will never make peace.
The Chinese state proposes to imprison Ni Yalun for protesting, but its beating already left her crippled.
China has learned to use normal-sounding nonpolitical charges against dissidents such as Ai Weiwei. We see them in this case, but it has not been completely sanitized of obviously political charges.
The US is far more advanced: the mayor says he sent the thugs for your safety, and the thugs can cause lasting internal injury without an external mark.
Swedish journalists who snuck into the Ogaden have been sentenced to 11 years in prison in Ethiopia.
I disagree with the mother who said they should be punished onkly for entering Ethiopia illegally. Excluding journalists from an area, whether it be Ogaden or the vicinity of Liberty Park in New York, is a sign of evil intentions. To punish journalists for entering that area — regardless of what the nominal "crime" might be — only compounds the government's wrong.
Google should not get away with presenting Google+ as a "public space" while making private rules for it.
Obama has resisted linking the billion dollars a year given to the Egyptian military with respect for democracy.
The presence of Arab League visitors inspired 500,000 Syrians to protest.
Americans need to protest like this against the banksters and the 1% and the politicians that work for them.
A new "anti-terrorism" law in Argentina could be used against protesters.
Mossad chief: Iranian nuclear weapons do not threaten Israel's survival.
Afghan women depend on men to advocate women's rights because hardly anyone there will listen to a woman.
Chilean students ended 8 months of protests with only small gains. But they may start again in 2012.
Ten years later: the three most dangerous provisions of the PAT RIOT Act.
The many methods used to rig US elections.
I've already seen information about most of the methods of rigging listed here. I don't know about dishonesty in exit polling — if you can point me at the facts about that, I'd appreciate it.
It is too bad they ask people to organize on Facebook. I won't be doing that. If I can find another way to contact them, I will ask them to provide another way.
Two thirds of U.S. "Foreign Aid: is military aid for armies.
Human Rights Watch: Syria has transferred political prisoners to military sites so that Arab League visitors can't see them.
The US aimed a slap at the Afghan Press Center because it held a press conference with an official commission that criticized US night raids.
Obama has set up a global high-tech US death squad based on drones.
Drones are not fundamentally different from manned bombers or sniper rifles. Used in a war zone, they don't raise a special issue. However, using drones to kill people in other areas ought to be as controversial as sending manned bombers or snipers into those areas. Thus, the real significance of drones is that they have bypassed obstacles that used to restrain the US use of death squads. In effect, they have made it the general operation of a death squad acceptable, while all the details remain secret.
Israel pressures Gazans to turn informer in order to travel for medical treatment. Woe to whoever has no information to sell them.
Some Israeli Taliban leaders have got the same treatment usually reserved for Palestinians.
I have no doubt that some of these people merit imprisonment for crimes, but not this way.
At this point, Israel will either react against these practices, or abandon the idea of human rights entirely,
Congress Places Conditions on Military and Police Aid to Honduras.
This alone won't restrain the government installed by the US-backed coup as long as Obama still supports it.
Egypt's military rulers have raided a number of foreign-funded organizations that promote democracy or human rights.
Since some of these organizations are funded by the US government, it is not inconceivable that they might have some harmful purpose. But I doubt Egypt's generals would object to that.
It is interesting to compare this with Israel's plans to prohibit foreign funding for human rights organizations.
An Egyptian army officer writes about the army's attempt to stir up division in Egyptian society.
The UK will save money by moving heavily to renewable energy, once the damage caused by global heating is accounted for.
Greek parents are giving up the children they can't afford to support.
While this illustrates the depth of suffering that the banksters have imposed on Greece, it also shows that people should have fewer children.
After Hamas said it will fight only defensively, Israel is talking about attacking Gaza some day.
The Israeli hawks need Gaza as a dangerous enemy, so they can't allow peace to break out. If Hamas won't commit the necessary aggression, Israel must do it.
Bahrain: Last Night It Rained Tear Gas.
The suppression forces shot teargas into houses.
A private hospital company has invaded Massachusetts, shutting down hospitals, depriving patients, and trying to crush the nurses' pension agreement.
A progressive government would fine this company so badly that it would sell all these hospitals to someone else, even at a loss.
GoDaddy's policy of shutting down domains whenever anyone complains about them gives a foretaste of what SOPA would do.
It should be illegal to shut down a domain without a court order, and a permanent shutdown should require a criminal conviction of the domain owner.
The Japanese government hid information about the Fukushima meltdown as it was happening.
It also pretended that the danger from a tsunami was "unforeseen". when the truth is that designers rejected the concern when it was reported to them.
Governments disregarded other disaster predictions, too.
The most important protective measure is to prevent human population from growing by 80 million per year.
Those who condemn Bradley Manning, and his prosecution, are following the course of those who condemned Daniel Ellsberg and tried to prosecute him.
Some sweatshop jobs are moving from China back to the US.
In other words, "free trade"'s effect on the uS was to knock down wages and shaft everyone but the 1%.
Right-wing lies about renewable energy standards.
A proposed giant coal mine in Australia would drive the world into climate catastrophe.
Thousands of Israelis protested gender segregation, but the Israeli Taliban are ready to fight.
Comedian Louis CK sold recordings without DRM, and was amazed how much money he got.
A courageous court decision might eventually put the brakes on torture in Israel.
The Israeli court that allowed torture in "ticking time bomb" situations fell for a foolish misunderstanding of torture. It is not good for getting information. It is good for false confessions. If the person being tortured really is involved with the bomb, all he has to do is tell a lie that will stand up until the bomb explodes. And if he was arrested by mistake and knows nothing about the bomb, he will do the same thing.
Much of the danger of nuclear power plants exists because businesses cut corners on safety. And businesses will always do that, because otherwise nuclear power plants would not be profitable.
(I am not convinced they would be entirely safe even if businesses did not cut corners.)
Republicans and Democrats are preparing to destroy Medicare by privatizing the most profitable cream and letting the rest sink.
Why this plan would destroy Medicare.Kazakhstan's tyrant is torturing prisoners and suppressing press coverage of a violent riot. The same thing happens in the US.
How whaling continues, and how it is actually done.
That $335 Million Bank of America Settlement: The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly.
The Israeli Taliban have started harassing and threatening girls going to school.
The Unending Legacy of Torture
Texas will cancel a women's health program to spite Planned Parenthood. And to spite women, who are the ultimate targets of right-wing hatred.
An Egyptian court ruled that subjecting protesters to "virginity tests" was illegal. The victims may get compensation.
French journalist Florence Hartmann faces possible imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for publishing documents stating the reasoning of the judges.
Bangkok's vulnerability to floods, combined with incresed rain and sea level rise due to global heating, is leading some to talk of moving part of the city.
Karzai dropped his objections to a Taliban office in Qatar for peace negotiations.
However, his list of preconditions will prevent any negotiations, for now.
The CIA has nearly suspended drone attacks in Pakistan, but not 100%.
After the condemnation Iran received for planning execution by stoning, its government is considering hanging as a substitute.
I appreciate this statement also for condemning SOPA thoroughly and deeply, avoiding the usual fundamental concessions that grant legitimacy to the War on Sharing. Some other name registrars have criticized SOPA for its side effects but have taken pains to legitimize its unjust purpose. I could not endorse their statements.
One other little good thing that Positive Internet does, which I have reason to appreciate personally, is donate the hosting for stallman.org.
Why almost everything the TSA does is just security theater, not relevant for stopping terrorists attacks.The TSA's measures might stop poorly planned attacks, but it could achieve that just as well while harassing us far less. There is no need to confiscate cupcakes, for instance,while gaping security holes remain elsewhere.
Was security theater a plan to reassure Americans that later went awry? Maybe some had that intention, but I think there was a more subtle and fiendish plan.
There is one purpose for which security theater is supremely effective: making Americans afraid, so they will surrender freedom without resisting. For those in the state who hate our freedoms, this is the goal.
The messages repeated in our subway trains and buses, telling us to be
very afraid of bombs, are further evidence of this. Americans did not
need reassurance to continue taking buses and subway trains. We did
not demand that the government do something to protect us from
terrorists there. Thus, reassurance
as a motive doesn't fit.
Although I admire this lawyer's pro bono victory, I have to say it
would have been better if the article had avoided the misleading term
IP
. That term lumps together many laws that are totally different
in practice. The resulting confusion lends itself perfectly to
intimidation by vague threats.
SOPA would ban TOR as well as DNSSEC. And nobody can tell how much else.
It is probably unconstitutional, but we can't count on our current Supreme Court to value freedom of speech for human beings.
These articles have the flaw of using the propaganda term
intellectual property
. That doesn't make their substance invalid,but it spreads confusion needs to be counteracted by this paragraph.
The gay community of Minnesota has apologized to former Speaker Amy Koch. She told them that their campaign to legalize gay marriage would cheapen the concept of marriage. That must be why she had an affair with a staffer, outside her marriage.
I would not criticize Koch for having an affair, if it was for sincere love or sincere pleasure. I disagree with the idea that love, or sex, ought to be limited to one partner, and I think it is wrong for society to pressure people into making promises of monogamy that they cannot keep. It is only natural that some people will cave in to this pressure, then not carry through. The fault is in the pressure.
How David Gessner came to support the Cape Wind project.
Maybe it's not such a bad idea for us to see just where our energy
is coming from.
It is unfortunate that windmills kill some birds, even not enough to endanger them. Is anyone studying methods to warn birds away from windmills?
This sort of manipulation had been prevented by a SEC regulation, but in 2007 the SEC withdrew the crucial regulation.
The crisis resulted from the bursting of a bubble. The bubble was able to grow (and later burst) due to deregulation, including the repeal of the Glass-Stiegel law. The cause of this deregulation was the banksters' political power.
We must take back control over the US government from the banksters and the other rich people and corporations. We must restore democracy. Until we do, the US government is no more legitimate than King George.
The US government refuses to state its legal argument for killing Awlaqi, or the evidence it was based on.
This means, in effect, that Obama claims the right to assassinate anyone and never explain why.
Thousands of women protested in Cairo against the brutality of the military thugs.
Obama is taking US government secrecy to absurd new heights.
80,000 protested Putin's election-rigging in Moscow.
At least 70,000 domains have been moved away from GoDaddy, and the protest move continues.
(I wonder how many domains remain registered with GoDaddy.)However, punushing one SOPA supporter is not enough to eliminate corporate support for SOPA. Who else on the list can we punish?
Museum directors stood up to pressure to bury an old skeleton that demonstrates acromegaly.
In the US, the NAGPRA law which required museums to dispose of the indigenous skeletons in their collections was a blow to scientific research. And since it failed to block scientific study of the 8000-year-old skeleton of Kennewick man, some want to extend it to do so. Scientists should stop trying to justify or excuse this misguided requirement, and start criticizing it.
Canada's business-controlled government proposes to let the US control Canada's border, trade, food and privacy policies.
GoDaddy tells us it no longer supports SOPA. It tells Congress that it still supports SOPA.
Macy's dirty secret: selling gold obtained from mines that harm workers or the environment.
The Kimberly Process, intended to discourage trafficking in conflict
diamonds
, is falling apart.
Can anyone tell me the situation of blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, who started a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment?
Republicans want to make Americans take drug tests to get unemployment
benefits.
The argument for this is clearly invalid. If a person was laid off,
not fired, his drug use clearly didn't stop him from holding a job
before, so why wouldn't he be able to do it again. Republicans are
simply looking for every possible way to oppress someone.
Another inventive way to shaft the unemployed is to make each person
report five jobs he applied for each week.
When few jobs are available, it is pointless to make people bang their
heads against closed doors. It will have no effect on the number of
unemployed people that find jobs. It is just a way to deny benefits
to some of the unemployed.
US police are using drones for surveillance in ordinary criminal cases.
Maybe it was proper that a drone be used in the specific case described here. But you can be sure that police will misuse this power if nothing stops them. With newer, more capable drones, they will be able to watch and record everyone's movements, if nothing stops them.
Secrecy without sense: State Department Censors Cables Already Published by WikiLeaks.
US citizens: Tell Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Obama signed a bill requiring a decision on Keystone XL within 60 days. A rushed environmental impact investigation is no investigation at all.
The reason is it would effectively eliminate any hope of avoiding global heating catastrophe.
Police in China attacked protesters and tried to discourage press coverage.
Facebook in Europe may be required to discard some user data after a time, without sending it to the US.
This may reduce the harm that Facebook does, but is not even close to enough to make it ethically acceptable. Most of the criticisms reported in this site remain valid.
Censoring flu virus research to keep the information out of the hands of terrorists is likely to do more harm than good, because the biggest danger comes from nature.
I also point out that members of real Qa'ida-affiliated groups are probably smart enough to realize that an artificial epidemic would not limit itself to their enemies. It would spread around the world, and would kill the people they believe they are fighting for. The only terrorists likely to want to develop an epidemic disease are the naive Walter Mittys that get entrapped by the FBI, who couldn't do anything without FBI help and probably wouldn't even try.
Here's a list of companies and organizations that support SOPA.
It would be useful to contact the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the National Governors' Association (and your governor), the National Sheriff's Association (and the sheriff of your area), and the US Conference of Mayors (and your mayor).
The 60 Plus organization, Americans for Tax Reform, and Concerned Women for America must either be astroturf (phony) grass-roots organizations or real grass-roots organizations whose support has been purchased. (Remember how AT&T purchased the support of GLAAD and the NAACP for its merger with T-mobile?)
Can you find out which they are?
The US government is considering forcibly closing a Twitter account used by the Shabab militia in Somalia.
I detest the Shabab's Islamist policies, but Somalis might prefer them to the endless war that the US has imposed on Somalia or the "government" whose only support is foreign-imposed.
As long as they are not arranging crimes on Twitter they have a right to state their views.
Google and Facebook are being sued in India for presenting "religiously offensive" material.
Imprisoning people for what they say is tyranny, but freedom of speech is threatened around the world in supposedly "free" countries. In the US, investigating and criticizing agribusiness is called "terrorism" and punished by imprisonment. In the UK, speaking "racist insults" is punished by imprisonment. In France, some opinions about 20th century history will be punished by imprisonment. In India, books are banned; Taslima Nasrin's book "Shame", about oppression of Hindus in Bangladesh, was banned in West Bengal — and now ideas distasteful to any major religion are likely to be banned too.
Whether you like a work, or find it disgusting, please don't refer to it as "content".
The FBI considers investigations and protests at factory farms as "terrorism", and many other governments do this or propose to.
Taking and "rescuing" some animals might properly be called theft, but theft is not terrorism.
Republicans want to eliminate temporary hunting and fishing bans on federal land.
The Republican Party Principles:
Clinton is threatening economic warfare to stop an EU plan to make airlines pay for their carbon emissions.
Since the plan would affect US and European airlines alike, airlines in the US cannot claim it is unfair. What they object to can only be that making airlines pay for their pollution would tend to discourage flying.
When Clinton opposes this, she says that airline profits are more important than limiting global heating. She cannot help knowing this. She must be totally corrupt in her heart.
Russia followed the EU in banning import of Canadian harp seal fur.
I approve of the decision, but it hardly outweighs Putin's contempt
Turkey has arrested over 25 journalists for their writing. They are associated with the cause of Kurdish independence.
The accusation that these journalists' articles contain prearranged coded messages directing specific people to launch violent attacks is absurd. The BBC did that during World War II, but the method is obsolete today. It would be easier to create a Gmail account and mail the prearranged code phrase to some other Gmail account.
This absurd accusation shows that Turkey's government is lying.
Some imprisoned journalists in Turkey are accused of "membership in a terrorist organization". If a government can arbitrarily declare an organization "terrorist" and make membership in it a crime, that is evident tyranny.
Police thugs occupying US schools regularly use tasers and pepper spray on children, in addition to breaking their arms.
National security advisers to the Republican presidential candidates have ties to military and energy contractors companies that get billions in US government contracts.
Not surprisingly, they plan to spend more on these companies and take it out of poor Americans.
Christmas: Brought to You by Chinese Slave Labor.
I decided 40 years ago to stand aside from holidays whose main purpose is to make people buy things.
The prosecutors in Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing were unable to present evidence that Manning had hurt US national security.
The Justice Department blocked a South Carolina voter ID law.
It was obviously right to do this, but why haven't all the other voter ID laws been blocked? They are all designed to suppress votes by groups that typically vote Democrat.
Governor Haley promised to give poor voters a ride to the DMV, but refused to do it when someone actually tried to take her up on the offer.
The FDA abandoned a plan to block the practice of giving farm animals small amounts of antibiotics.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died in recent decades from the infections that cannot be treated because of the resistance stimulated by that practice.
Clearly this is the work of agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies, and shows how many Americans they are prepared to kill to avoid a decrease in income. But the real scandal is that our governmental system allows them to do this.
Eliminating the politcal power of business is the only way to restore legitimate government in the US.
Obama reached a prisoner-release deal with the Taliban, then let Karzai veto it.
Any plausible peace deal means Karzai will lose power, so he will veto any deal if he is permitted to.
The U.S. Double Standard on Elections in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Protests against government and business secrecy over the Fukushima meltdown have broken a social barrier to protest movements in Japan.
Mona Eltahawy describes how Egyptian police found her in a protest, broke her arms, and sexually assaulted her.
Boycott Go Daddy is still a good idea, even though it now says it doesn't support SOPA any longer.
But don't sign the pledge if that requires a Google+ account. It still requires users give their real names, and Internet communication services with such a policy need to be rejected.
Here's what GoDaddy actually stated.
It seems ready to support something similar to SOPA.
A Christmas message from billionaires to the rest of the US, saying effectively that the rest of the country means nothing to them. They regard it as prey.
2011 broke records for many kinds of weather disasters.
Sponsorship of art by big corporations is used to inject subtle propaganda — for instance, for strip mining.
"Piracy" and "intellectual property" are comparable examples in the computing field.
Pakistan rejected the US report on what happened when US airplanes attacked a Pakistani army base.
I find the US report basically credible, not based on any special information, but simply because the US had no plausible motive to knowingly attack Pakistani troops.
Chinese dissident Chen Wei was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
His trial was probably bogus too. However, what the US Congress advocates is worse: life imprisonment with no trial at all.
Call on Obama to declare a truce in Afghanistan for Grav-mass.
Occupy Wall Street takes on Congo's 'debt vultures'.
Fatah and Hamas have agreed to a unity government for Palestine.
Now that Hamas has agreed to cease military offensives, Israel will have only the most strained excuses for refusing to recognize this unity government. And the US will have no grounds for calling Hamas "terrorist".
However, since the US government is thoroughly submissive to the Israeli hawks, I expect it will support their policy no matter how absurd.
A US night raid, sent to arrest one of Karzai's drug-war officials, killed his wife.
At least the US apologized for that. Less prominent innocent victims are not even get recognized.
The fact that a goverment official was arrested in such a violent fashion is a sign of how bad the Karzai regime is.
I won't say arresting him was unjustified, since I'd expect any "counter-narcotics" official in Afghanistan to be receiving protection from drug traffickers. On the other hand, I doubt the arrest was motivated by a shocking discovery that he was on the take, since everyone probably knew that all along. Perhaps it was a dispute about what fraction to pay to some higher official.
Thus, the arrest reminds us of what we already know: the Karzai regime, which was imposed through a rigged election, is too corrupt to win a war, and too corrupt to deserve support.
US citizens: thank Obama for the new EPA regulations on toxic mercury emissions.
It's so rare that Obama does something good that thanking him makes sense.
In Obama's twisted American exceptionalism, crushing human rights is horrible except when the US does it.
Republicans in Congress censored C-SPAN.
Putin's latest tactic: tapping phones of opposition leaders and publishing edited recordings to make them look bad.
Indian companies are joining Chinese companies to buy up farmland in Africa to grow food for export.
Africans who face starvation because governments have kicked them off their land ought to use their last ounce of strength to fight. Even if they don't win, they can make this practice less attractive to the investors, and thus protect other potential victims.
Microwave body scanners have a high rate of false alarms, especially when using the software that hides what bodies look like.
I'd rather they use the microwave scanners without that software. If TSA employees can survive seeing me naked, I am sure it won't kill me. I am willing to go through a microwave scanner if asked; but when asked to go through an x-ray scanner I always say "No way -- feel me up!"
Most Americans drift on placidly as the TSA spreads its security theater into train and bus stations.
The purpose of this security theater is to focus American's attention on an unlikely danger (terrorists who inexplicably choose to bonb an Amtrak train rather than a New York City rush-hour subway train), and away from the big and real danger: the crushing of democracy and human rights by the US government.
No freedom of expression in the UK: prosecution for a "racial slur".
Meanwhile, France proposes to make it a crime to deny the genocide of the Armenians.
That too attacks basic human rights.
This issue is not about the treatment of Armenians in 1916. This is about freedom of expression in France today.
UK Uncut will sue the government for its sweetheart tax deal with Goldman Sachs.
100 Syrian soldiers tried to defect, but were cut down by other soldiers.
Argentina has foisted a ban on Falklands islands ships onto other countries in South America.
I have zero sympathy with this demand, which treats the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands as if they were mere adjuncts to the land, like the grass on it.
All the rest of the security council condemned the US for blocking peace by supporting Israel's colonization of the West Bank.
A new Israeli checkpoint separating Shu'fat refugee camp in Jerusalem from other Arab neighborhoods has a secret nasty purpose: to revoke the Jerusalem residence permits of the people who live in that camp.
182 countries (out of 193) in the UN General Assembly voted to support Palestine's right of self-determination.
Israel is considering a bill to imprison asylum seekers, and imprison anyone who gives an asylum seeker assistance (such as a glass of water).
I did not make this an urgent action note because it looks like the action is for Israelis only.
The US said it will attack Iran if it tries to build a nuclear weapon.
The UN must acknowledge that it brought cholera to Haiti, and pay compensation.
The CIA drone attacks in Pakistan have killed 60 people since September. The Obama regime has covered up the identities of 59 of them, as well as all other relevant information.
Human Rights Watch says the CIA must cease its drone attacks.
Iraq may be headed towards an authoritarian Shi'ite government and sectarian war.
If this is true, what I said recently, about Iraq's having enough democracy to make the Bush forces leave, would be incorrect. Iraq may once again be worse off than it was under Saddam Hussein.
Selling toxic sewage sludge under the name of "biosolids".
Spanish translation of Biopiracy article.
A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.
Egyptian government thugs attacked protesters with hatred.
It appears that they see Egyptians as the enemy and have dehumanized them.
We have seen the same attitude in New York City, Berkeley, Oakland and LA,
US citizens: tell the FCC to require TV stations to disclose information about who pays for ads and infomercials.
Occupy the Food Supply: to reduce corporate power, we must eliminate the giant agribusiness corporations.
Kazakhstan's tyrannical rulers say they will continue to shoot protesters.
Corruption in Birmingham, Alabama, has driven up water and sewer rates to the point where many poor people are being cut off.
If many people can't pay the rates, will they need to raise the rates even more? The end result of that path is obvious: everyone kicked off and no money coming in.
The bankruptcy must be used as an opportunity to void all the debt so that the rates can be lowered again.
The protest movement againt water-destroying mining in Peru is spreading despite its betrayal by President Humala.
Note that tyranny in Peru, with a few people deciding for everyone, did not start with the Spanish conquest. The Inca empire was just as tyrannical, even more narrowly regimented, and practiced human sacrifice too.
Poisoning your water is morally equivalent to shooting at you, so it isn't wrong to fight back using a gun. However, peaceful protests do less harm if they work.
Seattle high school students walked out to protest education cuts.
Facebook has been sued for putting users' faces in ads.
Unemployment is pushing large numbers of Americans into poverty.
2 million people started using food stamps in the first 9 months of 2011.
Outright lies used to support SOPA.
It makes me think of the way Putin lies to demonstrate that truth has no meaning.
Egyptian military thugs have attacked protesters for 4 days.
A protest at the World Bank in DC condemned its plans to help a mining company force its way to poison El Salvador's main water supply.
El Salvador should withdraw from CAFTA. In fact, why hasn't it?
Negotiations between the US and the Afgan Taliban are showing hope of success.
The US admitted that Afghan local police have committed crimes against civilians.
The Taliban do that too, but we their supporters so the fault does not fall on us.
Victoria's secret is child labor.
Obama is considering supporting the Robin Hood tax.
Geithner opposes this because he is "the bankers' man in DC".
Israel is considering declaring violent West Bank colonists as "terrorists".
A couple of comments are called for. First of all, lots of Palestinian youths are interrogated (i.e., brainwashed/tortured) and confess to something, but that doesn't mean they really did it, because torture extracts false confessions. It's wrong to do this to Palestinians and would be equally wrong to do it to Jews.
Second, the Israeli state created this monster by sponsoring the West Bank colonies in the first place.
Abdel Hakim Belhadj has sued the UK for handing him over for Gaddafi to torture.
The UK police have apologized to a photographer who they accused of terrorism for taking photos of a parade.
Christians in Leesberg, Virginia, are angry that other groups get to put up their own end-of-year displays, and it isn't limited to Christians any more.
Next year, would anyone in Leesberg like to put up a Grav-mass display?
Evidence that a radical Palestinian group was known to be responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103, and al-Megrahi was framed as part of political machinations.
North Dakota flood victims still await aid from the incapacitated US government.
The only things Republicans are willing to spend money on are weapons. Unfortunately you can't live in a weapon (unless perhaps it's a personnel carrier).
The National Academy of Engineering finds that major safety problems in undersea oil drilling have not been corrected.
In other words, nothing has been changed to prevent another Big Spill.
Tell Obama he should veto the NDAA (imprisonment without trial bill).
Blackwater's wanton violence in Iraq is now fully documented, aside from a few celebrated incidents. They shot Iraqi drivers on the slightest hint of an excuse, and lied afterwards.
Once, when the victim was an Iraqi judge, he was paid compensation for damage to his car. (His wounded leg apparently did not call for compensation.) But even he did not receive an apology.
Universal Music used the DMCA to censor a news show that covered its censorship of Universal's censorship of the Megaupload song.
Gingrich says he would arrest "activist judges" that stand up for civil liberties he considers "risky".
I wonder, would he have arrested the Supreme Court after the Citizens United decision?
The UK government plans to protect against bank-induced fiscal crises with a separation along the lines of the former Glass-Stiegel Act.
That law protected the US from bank-induced fiscal crises from the 30s to the 90s, when legislators corrupted by the banks eliminated the law. The new UK separation doesn't go quite as far, but might do the job.
The US congress remains so thoroughly under the control of the banksters that it has been unable to reestablish this crucial separation in any form.
However, in general the UK government continues to support the power of unregulated banks, which it unleashed on the world 25 years ago.
Hamas says it will use violence only to defend against attacks by Israel.
That means its position is now comparable with that of Israel, which also reserves the right to use violence when attacked.
US citizens: phone your senators' offices to oppose PIPA, the Senate version of the Internet blacklist bill. Also sign this petition.
SOPA would prohibit secure domain name lookup via DNSSEC.
However, let's not focus on the bad byproducts of SOPA. The worst thing about it is its purpose: to stop sharing. Shar
