Sheehan's numbers? Better than Bush's

"George W. Bush says that he's met with the families of a lot of fallen soldiers and that Cindy Sheehan "doesn't represent the view of a lot" of them. We have no way of knowing one way or another, of course: The meetings are closed to the press, so it's hard to know what family members have told the president, let alone what they actually think.

"But thanks to the wonders of modern polling, we do know what American families think more generally, and it turns out that Cindy Sheehan does indeed "represent the view" of a lot of them. In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a majority of Americans say they support what Cindy Sheehan is doing in Crawford.
The president can only dream about poll numbers like Sheehan's. While Americans support Cindy Sheehan's actions on Iraq by a margin of 53 to 42 percent, the latest AP-Ipsos Poll shows they disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq by a margin of 58 to 37 percent.

"Memo to the right: The demonization of Cindy Sheehan is working just about as well as the president's plan for Iraq. Perhaps it's time to reconsider both."
Salon

John Ralston Saul and The Collapse of Globalism

"MARK COLVIN: Whether you're for it or against it, globalisation has been one of the shaping forces on the world over the last decade or two.

"Now just when some of its apostles see it as being unstoppable, some historians and economists are suggesting that globalisation may not just have peaked but already be in retreat.

"One of them is the Canadian John Ralston Saul, a frequent visitor to Australia whose previous books include Voltaire's Bastards and The Doubter's Companion.

"He's here again and his new book is called The Collapse of Globalism.

"I asked John Ralston Saul this afternoon whether he believed the global pendulum would now swing back towards protectionism.

"JOHN RALSTON SAUL: Hard to know. Nothing in its extreme is particularly good and that, you know, so we've had two and half, three decades of a relatively absolute approach towards the role of economics and the types of economics, with people endlessly saying if you're not in favour of this, then you must be on the other side, you must be a protectionist or a nationalist or something.

"Well the outcome of the process is that since 1995 approximately, you’ve seen a very, very serious return of nationalism.

"You're seeing the return of the worst of populism. You're seeing suddenly in the last three years very serious returns of racism all around the world.

"You're seeing, out of nowhere, you know, the return of God to the tables of government all over the place. I mean in Christianity, in Islam, in Judaism, all over the place suddenly God's there in the most unexpected places.

"Three years ago nobody would have suspected that, you know, that He had that much time on his hands to, you know …"
ABC PM

Washington Post backs illegal war and occupation

"There is no cause for despair, or for abandoning the basic U.S. strategy in Iraq, which is to support the election of a permanent national government and train security forces capable of defending it with continuing help from American troops."
Washington Post Editorial, August 26, 2005

"This is an inventive proclivity of the Washington Post and many other corporate media outlets that are eager to advise the president on how to build a better war trap."
Triangulation for war

Mumia is still the issue

"In April 1999, a crowd of up 20,000 people marched trough downtown Philadelphia, celebrating the 45th birthday of one of the most famous prisoners in the world, the Black former radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, demanding loudly not only that "the evidence must be heard," but also, very conscious of what most everybody present believed the evidence would show, 'Free Mumia!'

"That Abu-Jamal would get a new trial that would finally get him off death row and home to his family seemed only a matter of time. During Abu-Jamal's various, often very public efforts during the 1990s to win justice in court the actual workings of the American system of criminal justice had been laid bare in such a glaring manner that victory in this particular case seemed within immediate reach.

"But then zoom forward a full six years.

"Even though still more evidence about the irregularities in his 1982 murder trial has come to the fore and even though there is overwhelming evidence that he was consciously and de-liberately framed for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer for which he was sentenced to die, Mumia Abu-Jamal continues to be in prison in Pennsylvania's State Cor-rectional Institute Greene.

"But yet, very many of those who filled the streets and signed petitions for him do not seem to care anymore. It almost seems as if the extraordinary importance of this case that once electri-fied millions and exemplified a crucial aspect of injustice and racism in the U.S.A. has mi-raculously faded away in the years since 1999. But actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Far from being resolved, the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is still one of the ugliest, and therefore most significant, examples of the multiple failures of U.S. criminal justice ..."
ZNet

Mumia Abu-Jamal in the Book of Days
Mumia Awareness Week

NSW Opposition leader resigns over racist slur

"A leading Australian politician has resigned after calling his opponent's Asian-born wife a 'mail order bride'.

"John Brogden stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales state after insulting the wife of former state premier Bob Carr.

"'I acted dishonourably and now is the time to act honourably,' he said.

"He admitted having had a few drinks to celebrate Mr Carr's recent departure as state leader before making the comments at a party thrown for the media.

"But he denied being drunk at the Australian Hotels Association event three weeks ago, at which he also pinched the bottom of a female journalist and propositioned another."
BBC News

'Dishonourable' behaviour forces Brogden to quit
Carr's wife shrugs off Brogden slur
NSW Premier unmoved by Brogden's downfall

Camp Casey news; National March on Washington

"Camp Casey-type vigils have been set up outside federal government building across the country. On August 17, an estimated 1000 candlelight vigils against the US war in Iraq took place around the country.

"Sheehan vowed to stay in Crawford until September 1, when she will follow Bush back to Washington. She will be joining tens of thousands of anti-war protesters in Washington on September 24.

"The September 24 protest action is being organised under the slogan “End the war on Iraq! Bring the troops home now!” For more information, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org or http://www.internationalanswer.org."
Green Left


"On August 19, the two major coalitions that have initiated the September 24 anti-war National March on Washington — United for Peace and Justice (UFP) and Act Now to End Racism and War (ANSWER) issued a statement announcing that they had agreed to hold a joint rally followed by a joint march.

Pro-Bush buffoons
"At the pro-Bush rally, there were some heated moments when two members of Protest Warrior, a group that frequently holds counter protests to anti-war rallies, walked in with a sign that read “Say No to War - Unless a Democrat is President.”

"Many Bush supporters only saw the top of the sign and believed the men were anti-war protesters, so they began shouting and chasing the pair out. One man tore up their signs.

"Later Saturday, a few Bush supporters went to the edge of the anti-war camp trying to remove some of the hundreds of white crosses bearing fallen soldiers’ names."
Irish Examiner

Meanwhile, the ignorant Conservative Voice disrespectfully asks, Was Camp Casey named after a terrorist?

Support for Cindy Grows, Opposition to the War Expands

Get the latest news on camp casey with Google Alerts

Iraq's missing nuclear scientists

"The Iraqi scientists from Saddam Hussein's nuclear and biological weapons programs posed a huge risk to international safety after Saddam's fall. So why did the Bush administration refuse to track down the scientists after the 2003 invasion of Iraq? Mother Jones reports that all but three of Saddam's top 200-some nuclear scientists are missing."
Mother Jones

I found it at the Wilson's Almanac Podcast Page.

Gideon Polya: Australian complicity in Iraq mortality

"Former Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Dr Gideon Polya researched and analysed avoidable global mass mortality. He also talks about the refusal of Anglo/American media to report avoidable mass mortality and other atrocities linked to Western activities:

Gideon Polya: "... an extraordinary feature of the post-war world has been the resolute refusal of Anglo-American media to report avoidable mass mortality and other atrocities linked to Western activities. Thus in 1943-44 a man-made, market-forces famine killed an estimated 4-million Hindu and Muslim Bengalis in British-ruled India, but most Australians will simply never have heard of this ‘forgotten holocaust’ ...

"The post-1950 avoidable mortality has been 1.3-billion for the world, 1-billion for the Third World and 0.5-billion for the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the Jewish Holocaust or the contemporaneous but ‘forgotten’ Bengal Famine in British-ruled India.

"... I have written widely on this matter and a Google search for ‘Gideon Polya’ will allow ready access to this information.

"For example, the post-1950 infant mortality in Asian and Pacific countries in which Australia has been involved militarily in that period totals 34-million.

"... US authorities have repeatedly stated that they do not keep records of civilian casualties. However as with the children overboard, the weapons of mass destruction and the torture of Iraqi prisoners, the truth eventually emerges.

"The latest UNICEF report in 2005 estimates that for the year 2003 the under-5 infant mortality was 110,000 in occupied Iraq, 292,000 in occupied Afghanistan and 1,000 in the invading and occupying country Australia (noting that these countries have populations of about 25-million, 24-million and 20-million respectively).

"... one can readily calculate that there have been about 0.4-million avoidable deaths in post-invasion Iraq.

"... I have calculated that the under-5 infant mortality was 1.2-million for Iraq since 1991; 0.2-million for Iraq since the 2003 invasion; and 0.9-million for Afghanistan since the 2001 [sic] invasion ...

"Jihadist violence has taken roughly about 5,000 Western civilian lives over the last 20 years, with most of the victims dying on 9/11 (about 3,000) and the remainder including murdered Israeli civilians and the victims of atrocities such as Madrid, Lockerbie and Bali.

"However this jihadist violence has had immensely bloodier consequences through the hysterically and dishonestly promoted War on Terror that has been associated with post-invasion avoidable deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan alone that total 1.6-million.

"The War on Terror has substantially helped to produce a post-9/11 extra profit for the US military-industrial complex of about $US500-billion ...

"Silence kills. Silence is complicity. Please inform everyone, discuss this with your associates and then act as responsible citizens. We cannot walk by on the other side."
Ockham's Razor

Listen in Real Media
Download MP3 [PCs: Right click + 'save target as', Macs: Ctrl + click]
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Google Gideon Polya
Gideon Polya links

Iraq on brink of meltdown

"A hundred thousand Iraqis across the country marched on Friday in support of a maverick Shi'ite cleric opposed to a draft constitution that U.S.-backed government leaders say will deliver a brighter future."
SouthNews

Gaza "withdrawal" a smoke-screen for occupation

"As the world's attention is turned toward the Israeli withdrawal of illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the Gaza Strip, a harsh, deadly and brutal military occupation continues throughout Palestine. While the future of the border crossings of the Gaza Strip, to Egypt and to other regions of occupied Palestine remains unclear , as Israel has refused to negotiate on these key issues, which will define if Gaza will remain a large, social and economically isolated prison.

"Also in the context of withdrawal from Gaza, Israeli settlers have severally escalated their attacks against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. This past week three Palestinians were killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank, who used weaponry belonging to the Israeli military. Throughout the West Bank, Israeli military occupation continues, settlement expansion continues and the construction of the internationally condemned Apartheid Wall is ongoing. The Palestinian struggle against occupation and for liberation also continues on a daily basis. Throughout the summer of 2005 demonstrations and direct actions against military occupation and the Apartheid Wall have taken place on a daily basis , as Palestinians struggle for basic survival.

"All Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank , like the ongoing construction of the Apartheid Wall is internationally recognized as illegal, confirmed by a 2004 ruling from the International Court of Justice , which was then adopted by a majority vote in the United Nations General Assembly . While throughout the world Palestinian refugees continue to demand their right of return to occupied Palestine, from which they were displaced through the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. In Lebanon hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugee continue to live in extreme poverty in refugee camps scattered throughout the country.

"For more information and background on the Gaza Withdrawal visit the Electronic Intifada and Indymedia Beirut"
IndyMedia

Abu Ghraib general lambasts Bush Administration

By Marjorie Cohn

I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will ... Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end.
Janis Karpinski, interview with Marjorie Cohn, August 3, 2005

"Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was in charge of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq when the now famous torture photographs were taken in fall of 2003. She was reprimanded and demoted to Colonel for her failure to properly supervise the prison guards. Karpinski is the highest ranking officer to be sanctioned for the mistreatment of prisoners. On August 3, 2005, I interviewed Janis Karpinski. In the most comprehensive public statement she has made to date, Karpinski deconstructs the entire United States military operation in Iraq with some astonishing revelations.

"When Karpinski got to Abu Ghraib, 'there was a completely different story than what we were being told in the United States. It was out of control. There weren't enough soldiers. Nobody had the right equipment. They were driving around in unarmored vehicles, some of them without doors ... So, knowing that they were ill-equipped and ill-prepared, they pushed them out anyway, because those two three-stars wanted their fifteen minutes of fame, I suppose.'

"Karpinski said that General Shinseki briefed Rumsfeld that 'he can't win this war, if they insist on invading Iraq, he can't win this war with less than 300,000 soldiers.' Rumsfeld reportedly ordered Shinseki to go back and find a way to do this with 125,000 to 130,000, but Shinseki came back and said they couldn't do the job with that number. 'What did Rumsfeld do?' Karpinski asked rhetorically. 'If you can't agree with me, I'm going to find somebody who can. He made Shinseki a lame duck, for all practical purposes, and brought in Schoomaker. And Schoomaker got it. He said, "Oh yes sir, we can do this with 125,000."'

"Karpinski says she did not know about the torture occurring in Cellblocks 1-A and 1-B at Abu Ghraib because it took place at night. She didn't live at Abu Ghraib, and nobody was permitted to travel at night due to the dangerous road conditions. The first she heard about the torture was on January 12, 2004 ..."
RadioNewsAmerica

China rise rewrites rule book

Australia: "BHP Billiton's stunning profit captured both the dramatic global impact of China and the particular benefits it bestows on Australia. BHPB's bonanza was very much Australia's bonanza.

"Striking was not just the sheer size of China's economic boom, and so its voracious appetite for raw material, revealed in the BHPB numbers. But also the speed with which it has erupted.

"Even just three years ago when BHPB was bedding down the first results from its merger, no one could have and no one indeed did anticipate the coming size and speed of the China impact.

"In 2002 group revenue was 'just' $US15 billion.

"In three years it's more than doubled, to $US32 billion ($42.2 billion). Profit has grown even faster - at the EBITDA level, from $US4.7 billion to $US11.4 billion.

"With China leapfrogging Japan to become the company's single biggest geographic customer. Japan! The country on which BHP - and Australia - had built prosperity, running back over nearly 40 years, caught and supplanted in just a few years.

"China benefits BHPB - a pretty good proxy for Australia more broadly - in two direct ways. Obviously, what it actually buys and the price it pays.
The most striking example is iron ore to feed its exploding steel industry. The volumes it buys have been rising exponentially and, after the latest price negotiations, it is going to pay 70 per cent more on every tonne of those higher volumes.

"The second benefit is less obvious but just as direct. The way Chinese demand is pushing up the price of all commodities. So BHPB, and Australia, gets the benefit on stuff it/we sell to someone else.

"The most striking example is oil and gas. It is Chinese demand that is the new kid on the block - since the late-1990s rising Chinese consumption has been the crucial "swing factor" between global demand and supply of oil and gas, but especially oil.

"Depending on which measure you use, China is somewhere between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the global economy; and even in population terms is only a little bit more than 20 per cent of the world. Yet, it has been driving one-third of the increased global demand for oil."
News.com.au

BHP profit 'may touch $11bn'
"Perth - With net profit shading US$10bn in the next year or so, BHP Billiton's (BHP) growth trajectory is leaving rivals in its wake.
Having struck a rich vein of iron ore, copper and oil prices, $11bn or more might be in reach for the global mining company if the China-driven commodities boom lingers for another 12 months, analysts believe."
Finance24.com

What's mined is yours
"COMPANY profit reports come and go but the $8.6 billion jackpot revealed by BHP Billiton on Wednesday was no run-of-the-mill result. Not only did it smash the Australian corporate profit record, it epitomised powerful forces at work in the economy, illustrating how the biggest commodity price boom in more than a century is boosting the economy.

"Access Economics estimates that a surge in prices for some of Australia's main mineral exports, fuelled by resource-hungry China, is pumping $40 billion a year extra into the economy, compared with 2003."
Sydney Morning Herald

Overall, it's boom time, China
Demand for Commodities Sends BHP Billiton Profits Soaring

Get the latest news on china with Google Alerts.

From the Cindy Sheehan camp

"... Deborah and I went to Crawford to confirm our gut suspicions about Cindy Sheehan, President Bush, this war, and the growing unrest of the American people. As usual, gut feelings don't lie. Cindy's description of her encounter with Bush in Tacoma in 2004, the one that prompted her ultimately to begin her vigil, was unsettling. As she told about that meeting, it was easy to envision the Bush strut she described - entering the room as though he were entering a party.

"Cindy's description of her meeting with Bush reminded me of the stage-managed 'Mission Accomplished' performance on an aircraft carrier on May 29, 2003. Even the Bush ranch struck me as a contrivance that perpetuates the sham. The then Texas governor had purchased the property only a few months before his election to the presidency, and it comes off as a gigantic movie prop. What you see on television is a stage set of old barns, equipment, and fencing nearly 10 miles away from the actual ranch.

"The idea that everyone who lives in Texas loves and supports ol' Dubya may also be a sham - or at least an overstatement. We met many Texans who see the president as an arrogant son who used his daddy's name and connections to get ahead.

"It seems to me that what Cindy Sheehan and the others mourning their war dead at Camp Casey are doing is bringing a visible accountability to bear on this administration's policies in Iraq. Their testimony is clear: America has gained nothing of value and lost much from this war. We have gained no security, no freedom, no fortune, no land, and no allies. Instead, we've gained death, dismemberment, increased national debt, more enemies, and more restrictions on our freedoms.

"President Bush could have defused this story on the first day Cindy arrived in Crawford. He could have embraced her, looked her in the eye, and honestly answered her question: 'What was the noble cause you keep claiming my son died for?'

"But perhaps he didn't because he didn't know himself."
Memphis Flyer

Robertson's call to murder Chavez "incites terrorism"

Venezuela's Ambassador to Washington D.C., Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, has issued a statement on US political figure Pat Robertson's call to murder Venezuela's democratically elected President Hugo Chávez:

Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera: We would like thank the American people for the support they have offered us in the wake of the Reverend Pat Robertson's call for the murder of our President, Hugo Chavez.

The messages of support have flooded our Embassy's electronic and voice mails.

We are very disappointed with Pat Robertson's statements over the Christian Broadcast Network. Mr. Robertson is of course no ordinary private citizen. He was a candidate for the GOP's Presidential nomination in 1992. The organization that Mr. Robertson leads ... the Christian Coalition ... claims nearly 2 million members and has a multi-million dollar a year budget. In 2000 it was credited with helping George W. Bush win the important South Carolina primary and catapulting him to the nomination of his party for President. Mr. Robertson has been one of this president's staunchest allies ... his statement demands the strongest condemnation by the White House.

Mr. Robertson's call that US government covert operatives murder President Hugo Chavez is a call to terrorism. His call that president Bush violently impose the outdated Monroe Doctrine on Venezuela is a call for American intervention in the sovereign affairs of our democratic country.

The United States may not permit its citizens to use its territory and airwaves to incite terrorism abroad and the murder of a democratically-elected President.

Venezuela demands that the US abide by international and domestic law and respect our country and its President.

Pat Robertson's statement must be condemned in the strongest terms by the Bush administration ... and we are concerned about the safety of our President"
VHeadline

US evangelist calls for assassination of Chavez
"Kill Chavez" call sparks row
Upset Americans e-mail Venezuelans
The Chavez Code: Cracking United States intervention in Venezuela

Make sure 'Gaza first' is not 'Gaza last'

RAMALLAH, West Bank. "As Palestinian factions vie for credit for Israel's disengagement from Gaza, many forget that the success really belongs to the ordinary men, women and children of Palestine who have remained in their homeland during 38 years of devastating occupation and clung to the belief in the justice of their cause. The disengagement is a direct result of their patience and resilience, and now the occupation has only one direction to go -- backward.

"Serious risks and challenges lie ahead, however. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has learned that there is a price to pay for oppressing and dispossessing the Palestinian people. But instead of embracing a negotiated peace based on international law, he has used limited tactical unilateral actions to deflect attention in other directions.

"His tactics have laid three main challenges in front of the Palestinian people ...

"Sharon's vision of bartering Gaza for East Jerusalem and vast and vital areas of the West Bank would destroy the dream of Palestinian statehood and replace it with a nightmare of isolated, impoverished cantons, similar to the bantustans that black South Africans rejected under apartheid. It could mean a third intifada ..."
ZNet

"I found myself sleeping in a grave-size space"

"I found myself sleeping in a grave-size space, defined by two walls touching both my head my and feet, and surrounded with human bodies touching me from both sides, in a way that hardly leaves any chance to move at all during the long ... long night, in a 12 square meters room stuffed with 35 people trying to sleep, and to hold themselves together in order not to fight ...

"The whole thing started when I went to the university to pay my tuition fees ..."
Electronic Iraq

The Global War on Error

"In a rhetorical shift last week, the Bush administration unveiled a new name for its worldwide war against an abstraction. The old moniker 'Global War on Terror' (or GWOT) has been exchanged for the new label, the 'Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism' (or G-SAVE). The results for America and the world, sadly, will be the same.

"This is not a case, as Shakespeare might have said, of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet. The United States is not engaged in a twilight struggle against a concept. The United States is fighting Al Qaeda, an organization with political and military goals, one that declared war on America in 1996 and attacked its homeland in 2001. Bin Laden's organization and its network of loosely affiliated cells and followers must be beaten back politically, diplomatically, ideologically - and militarily.

"But almost from the moment the Twin Towers fell, President Bush has mischaracterized the enemy we face and failed to grasp the nature of the conflict we must fight and win. On September 20, 2001, only nine days after the Al Qaeda attacks in the U.S., President Bush addressed a joint session of Congress and the nation. In his first and fullest articulation of the 'Way of Life' thesis, Bush explained:

Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

"This meaningless drumbeat from the White House hasn't stopped since. In June 2002, Bush stated that 'we use all the tools at our disposal to deal with these nations that hate America and hate our freedoms.' Dick Cheney put it simply last year, saying 'the terrorists hate our country, they hate our freedom, they hate everything we stand for in the world.'

"The Pentagon's own Defense Science Board on Strategic Communications, however, sees the struggle -- and our prospects for success -- much differently. In a report whose release was squelched until after the 2004 presidential campaign, the panel stated, 'Muslims do not hate our freedoms, but rather they hate our policies ...'"
PERRspectives

The theft of the 2004 Presidential Election

No Paper Trail Left Behind:
The Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election

By Dennis Loo, Ph.D.
Cal Poly Pomona
ddloo@csupomona.edu

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." (Through the Looking Glass)

"In order to believe that George Bush won the November 2, 2004 presidential election, you must also believe all of the following extremely improbable or outright impossible things.

"1) A big turnout and a highly energized and motivated electorate favored the GOP instead of the Democrats for the first time in history.

"2) Even though first-time voters, lapsed voters (those who didn’t vote in 2000), and undecideds went for John Kerry by big margins, and Bush lost people who voted for him in the cliffhanger 2000 election, Bush still received a 3.5 million vote surplus nationally.

"3) The fact that Bush far exceeded the 85% of registered Florida Republicans’ votes that he got in 2000, receiving in 2004 more than 100% of the registered Republican votes in 47 out of 67 Florida counties, 200% of registered Republicans in 15 counties, and over 300% of registered Republicans in 4 counties, merely shows Floridians’ enthusiasm for Bush. He managed to do this despite the fact that his share of the crossover votes by registered Democrats in Florida did not increase over 2000 and he lost ground among registered Independents, dropping 15 points.

"4) Florida’s reporting of more presidential votes (7.59 million) than actual number of people who voted (7.35 million), a surplus of 237,522 votes, does not indicate fraud.

"5) The fact that Bush got more votes than registered voters, and the fact that by stark contrast participation rates in many Democratic strongholds in Ohio and Florida fell to as low as 8%, do not indicate a rigged election ..."
Project Censored (long article)

Germany attacks US on Iran threat

"German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned the US to back away from the possibility of military action against Iran over its nuclear programme.

"His comments come a day after President Bush reiterated that force remained an option but only as a last resort.

"Iran has resumed what it says is a civilian nuclear research programme but which the West fears could be used to develop nuclear arms.

"Germany, France and the UK have led efforts to end the crisis peacefully."
BBC

UK human rights clash looming

"The British government's campaign against Islamists launched after the July 7 London bombings moved up a notch with the arrest and planned deportations of ten radicals, but human rights groups have also stepped up their criticism and lawyers are predicting a tough fight ahead.

"The government on Friday signaled that it may amend human rights law, if necessary, to compel judges to weigh national security against the rights of an individual fighting deportation.

"Police on Thursday arrested Abu Qatada, a controversial Jordanian cleric linked to al-Qaeda, and nine other foreigners who have not been named, but are reportedly all Algerians. Some had been in custody before but were released in March on judges' orders and were subsequently under virtual house arrest ..."
Crosswalk

The Great American Jobs Scam

"Lurking within the records of most cities and states in America there lies a scandal. A tax scandal. A jobs scandal. A corporate and political scandal.

"It's the Great American Jobs Scam: an intentionally constructed system that enables corporations to exact huge taxpayer subsidies by promising quality jobs - and then lets them fail to deliver. The other benefit often promised - higher tax revenues - often proves false or exaggerated as well.

"Take for example: New York City, which must hold the record for job blackmail, though it is hardly alone. One study of 80 companies that had received 'retention' subsidies from the Big Apple found that at least 39 had later announced major layoffs, or they had entered into large-scale mergers or put themselves up for sale - events that usually trigger mass layoffs. A detailed analysis of 10 subsidized companies found they had a total loss of more than 3,000 jobs ..."
CorpWatch

Loose Lips, Pink Slips: Fire Karl Rove

Loose Lips, Pink Slips: Fire Karl Rove
The media is beginning to report on the Karl Rove CIA-leak scandal again and you can help them stay focused on it. So far, MoveOn members have written over 35,000 letters-to-the-editor. Now, you can download and hang up this poster with the contest-winning slogan "Loose Lips, Pink Slips: Fire Karl Rove."

Sign the Petition » ~ Write A Letter-to-the-Editor »

Air An Ad » ~ Download A Poster » ~ MoveOn

What the Left can learn from Cindy Sheehan

"When is a lone woman enough to seriously challenge the media shield and public relations spin that effectively envelops the President of the United States? Let us say that it takes either a master of the ebbs and flows of the operations of our news media, or more hopefully, a determined woman and a confluence of events of horrible, improbable coincidence.

"As most readers are aware, Cindy Sheehan is a woman whose son died in Iraq, a war she supported at the time and has since come to question. As more and more evidence is made available regarding the ideological machinations that drove the war's timetable and the incompetence which submarined the post-war planning, Cindy has come to the same conclusion as many: the death of her son, and the poor prosecution of the war that put her son in harm's way, can be blamed on the Commander-in-Chief, one George W. Bush. And so, determined to meet with him to discuss her son a second time (the first meeting, shall we say, went poorly), she has camped outside of Bush's Crawford Ranch and demanded an audience with the President. So far, no audience has been forthcoming.

"The New York Times offers some of the details:"

Continue reading "What the Left can Learn from Cindy Sheehan"

China cracks down on churchgoers, activist says

"SHANGHAI, China -- Authorities recently detained more than 200 members and clergy of underground churches in several provinces, closed down a Shanghai church and harassed two U.S. tourists in a renewed campaign against unauthorized religious activity, a U.S.-based activist says."
Statesman

Good things happening in Venezuela

By Michael Parenti

"Even before I arrived in Venezuela for a recent visit, I encountered the great class divide in that country. On my connecting flight from Miami to Caracas, I found myself seated next to an exquisitely dressed Venezuelan woman. Judging from her prosperous aspect, I anticipated that she would take the first opportunity to hold forth against President Hugo Chavez. Unfortunately, I was right.

"Our conversation moved along famously until we got to the political struggle going on in Venezuela. 'Chavez,' she hissed, 'is terrible, terrible.' He is 'a liar.' He 'fools the people' and is 'ruining the country.'

"She owns an upscale women’s fashion company with links to prominent firms in the United States. When I asked how Chavez has hurt her business, she said, 'Not at all.' But many other businesses, she quickly added, have been irreparably damaged as has the whole economy. She went on denouncing Chavez in sweeping terms, warning me of the national disaster to come if this demon continued to have his way.

"Other critics I encountered in Venezuela shared this same mode of attack: weak on specifics, but strong in venom, voiced with all the ferocity of those who fear that their birthright (that is, their class advantage) is under siege because others below them on the social ladder are now getting a slightly larger slice of the pie.

"In Venezuela over 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Before Chavez, most of the poor had never seen a doctor or dentist. Their children never went to school, since they could not afford the annual fees. The neoliberal market 'adjustments' of the 1980s and 1990s only made things worse, cutting social spending and eliminating subsidies in consumer goods. Successive Administrations did nothing about the rampant corruption and nothing about the growing gap between rich and poor, the growing malnutrition and desperation.

Far from ruining the country, here are some of the good things the Chavez government has accomplished:

A land reform program designed to assist small farmers and the landless poor has been instituted—this past March a large landed estate owned by a British beef company was occupied by agrarian workers for farming purposes
Education is now free (right through to university level), causing a dramatic increase in grade school enrollment
The government has set up a marine conservation program and is taking steps to protect the land and fishing rights of indigenous peoples
Special banks now assist small enterprises, worker cooperatives, and farmers
Attempts to further privatize the state-run oil industry—80 percent of which is still publicly owned—have been halted and limits have been placed on foreign capital penetration
Chavez kicked out U.S. military advisors and prohibited overflights by U.S. military aircraft engaged in counterinsurgency in Colombia
“Bolivarian Circles” have been organized throughout the nation, neighborhood committees designed to activate citizens at the community level to assist in literacy, education, vaccination campaigns, and other public services
The government hires unemployed men, on a temporary basis, to repair streets and neglected drainage and water systems in poor neighborhoods ...

ZMagazine

'Raging Grannies' -- creative protest

"LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Five greying anti-war activists from a group dubbed the 'Raging Grannies' face possible jail time after demanding to be enlisted in the US Army to fight in Iraq, one of them said.

"The women, aged between 57 and 92, were charged with criminal trespass after turning up at an Armed Forces Recruiting Center in the western US state of Arizona demanding they be allowed to join the fighting ranks.

"'We're very serious about that, we really want to enlist,' 74-year-old 'Raging Granny' Betty Schroeder told AFP.

"We think it would be better if old people were killed at war than young ones,' the retired nurse, whose husband and two brothers were killed in battle in other wars, explained.

"Eight 'grannies,' including Schroeder, are accused of invading military territory by entering a military recruiting office in the city of Tucson on July 13 to sign up."
YahooNews

Peter Jennings on the Iraq War

By Lila Rajiva

"Media Research Center - 'the largest media watch-dog organization in America,' it touts itself - is a non-profit conservative outfit founded and run by L. Brent Bozell, a prominent conservative activist. Its website compiles lists of what it considers liberal bias in the media, among which it places Peter Jennings' allegedly anti-American commentary on the Iraq War. Two years after the War, though, that commentary looks more and more like accurate, responsible, and at times prescient reporting. It also undermines the self-exculpatory liberal consensus that Bush "lied us into war" by showing us just how much even broadcast journalists subject to all the particular commercial and government pressures of TV can manage to put on the air if they make the effort.

"Obviously Bush did lie, but just as obviously a number of journalists who now affect misused innocence not only did not question those lies but avidly went along with them. More than government propaganda, media self-censorship and opportunism has to be to blamed for the dismal non-coverage of the Iraq War in America.
"Jennings consistently put the focus where it should have been and not on sideshows served up for public distraction, to the everlasting shame of several leading print outlets, not to mention a tidy number of academic and government experts.

"Not bad for a high school drop out.

"Here are some selections that warranted conservative "cyber alerts," derogatory titles courtesy of MRC ..."
Common Dreams

Pinocchio's plight

One of the myriad problems with hyping, manipulating, distorting and fabricating intelligence in order to bolster your case for war is that in the future, your credibility will be badly damaged - possibly beyond repair. Practically speaking, it is a near-sighted and counterproductive exercise. A strategic blunder of sizable dimensions. Consider, for example, this not altogether insignificant contention by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:

'Weapons clearly, unambiguously from Iran have been found in Iraq,' he told a Pentagon briefing. "It's a big border. It's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to allow weapons of those types to cross the border." He did not provide further specifics.
Pentagon Briefing, August 9, 2005

" ... More on tattered credibility here."
Total Information Awareness

Play the free McCarthyism word game

Ever tried the McCarthyism word swap game? I do it all the time. It's easy, it's free, and you can become a McCarthyist in just a few easy moves!

Just find a current news item, replace the word 'terrorism', 'terrorist' or 'terror' with 'communism', or variants, and you get a good 50-years-ago time machine effect:

Secret communist courts considered
"Special courts sitting in secret for pre-trial hearings in terror (change it to communism) cases are being considered by the Home Office."
BBC

Try it yourself! Change 'terrorism' in Google News to 'communism' and travel back in time.

If you want to go back about one century, change 'terrorism' to 'anarchy or 'hun'.

It's fun and it's free. Play while we are still free too.

The failed “War on Terror”

By Ivan Eland

U.S. government officials, both politicians and career bureaucrats, always imply that a tradeoff exists between security and liberty and that we cannot have both. This view, however, depends on buying into key erroneous assumptions made by those same officials.

The Bush administration’s high-octane “war on terror” has undertaken an active and highly publicized agenda domestically and overseas to rid the world of “evildoers.” Unfortunately, after the September 11 attacks, the American public would have been freer and safer, both at home and when traveling and doing business abroad, if the administration’s security bureaucracies had taken a long vacation. In short, the administration’s activism—whether it be for ulterior motives, as in the invasion of Iraq, or to win public relations points with voters—ensures that Americans will see both their security and liberty eroded.

The administration’s strategy in the war on terror has been that the “best defense is a good offense.” Both domestically and overseas, this strategy involves casting a wide net in the quest for enemies. Abroad, instead of focusing finite government resources and attention on neutralizing al Qaeda, the perpetrator of the September 11 attacks, the administration used 9/11 as an excuse to threaten the nations of a make-believe “axis of evil,” invade one of them, and topple its leader, who had nothing to do with those attacks. In addition to the deaths of almost 2,000 U.S. forces and many more innocent Iraqis, the resulting quagmire in Iraq has acted both as a motivator and training ground for the swelling number of anti-U.S. jihadists worldwide, which hardly increases the security of Americans anywhere.

Had the administration really wanted to lessen anti-U.S. attacks, it should have realized that the only way to stop terrorism is to remove its underlying cause—U.S. foreign policy toward Arab and Islamic nations. Most Americans are unaware—or choose to ignore—their government’s profligate meddling in the affairs of those countries after World War II.

Poll after poll in Islamic countries indicate that their people admire U.S. freedoms—both political and economic—wealth, technology, and even culture, but hate U.S. foreign policy toward Islamic nations. In particular, by their own statements and writings, Islamist jihadists, such as Osama bin Laden, hate the United States for its military presence on Islamic lands and for its support of corrupt Arab governments and Israel.

After 9/11, to avoid stirring up even more hatred in the Islamic world, the administration should have pursued al Qaeda more aggressively and quietly and avoided occupying Islamic soil (Afghanistan and Iraq)—a lightning rod to the jihadists. For the long-term, the Bush administration should have realized that the end of the Cold War would have allowed the United States to follow a “more humble” and less interventionist foreign policy, as President Bush had promised during his first campaign in 2000.

At home, the administration has also acted offensively, supporting the draconian Patriot Act—and now its renewal—that has increased police powers across the board, rather than being confined to terrorism cases. Also, a military command was created that has just developed war plans to use within the borders of the United States. The plans apparently include secret scenarios being kept from the American public that would likely further militarize law enforcement and would seem to involve the imposition of martial law.

It is questionable whether these measures will actually either stop or increase the government’s ability to respond to a terrorist attack. What is less questionable is whether these constrictions of liberty—the foundation of our nation—would have been needed or enacted if the United States wasn’t rampaging around the world tilting at imagined security threats and stirring the hornets’ nest in the process.

Yet instead of toning down U.S. foreign policy and shrinking the bull’s eye painted on back of the American public, the administration has tried to assuage the public’s fears of losing their liberties by creating the toothless President’s Board on Safeguarding Americans’ Civil Liberties, a panel with few resources, no enforcement clout, and little presidential enthusiasm or backing. Even such window dressing to cover the needless loss of liberties would be unnecessary if the United States got rid of its outdated interventionist foreign policy, which is a relic of the Cold War.

Ivan Eland is a Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute, Director of the Institute’s Center on Peace & Liberty, and author of the books The Empire Has No Clothes, and Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy.

Reprinted with permission of independent.org

'The Treaty Wreckers', and death of Robin Cook

"In just a few months, Bush and Blair have destroyed the global restraint on nuclear weapons

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 2nd August 2005

"Saturday is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The nuclear powers are commemorating it in their own special way: by seeking to ensure that the experiment is repeated.

"As Robin Cook showed in his column last week, the British government appears to have decided to replace our Trident nuclear weapons, without consulting parliament or informing the public.(1) It could be worse than he thinks. He pointed out that the atomic weapons establishment at Aldermaston has been re-equipped to build a new generation of bombs. But when this news was first leaked in 2002, a spokesman for the plant insisted that the equipment was being installed not to replace Trident, but to construct either mini-nukes or warheads which could be used on cruise missiles ..."
George Monbiot

The Hiroshima anniversary has passed, and so has Robin Cook, the former UK Foreign Secretary who opposed Blair on Iraq. He died suddenly a few days ago.

World pays tribute to Robin Cook
ROBIN COOK 1946 - 2005: MOURNED IN EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD

New Democrats are being born on the front lines

"On Tuesday, seven Marines, six of them members of a sniper team, and all from Ohio, died in Iraq. The six snipers were ambushed outside a town called Haditha. The next day, 14 more Marines, also Ohio-based, died when the amphibious vehicle in which they were riding was destroyed by an improvised explosive device, not far from where the snipers died the day before. All were members of the Ohio-based 3d battalion, 25th Marines.

"Their deaths pushed the official total of men and women who have lost their lives in a war to which they should never have been sent to more than 1,800. That figure, horrible as it is, may be as bogus as the reasons given by Cheney and Bush for starting the war, given reports that it does not include wounded who died en route from Iraq to hospitals in Germany or after they arrive there.

"We know the administration has lied about the number of wounded, in that they do not include in that number men and women who have suffered combat-related mental breakdowns that required evacuation. Even so, the number of wounded is probably more than10 times the KIA figure."
Common Dreams

'Safety before liberty': a slogan to suspect

"From the newswire:

"Today's poll taken by Sydney Morning Herald with the headline: 'Safety before liberty' states that: "Having more security cameras in public places was the most popular protective initiative, supported by 87 per cent of respondents."

"Here in Nimbin with its recent CCTV cameras being installed, people are having very different thoughts about who protects whom and why. Generally people here hate to DOB IN, or photograph anyone without permission. Suspicion goes out largely against the Government and the authorities. People here are preparing CCTV campaigns to make something fancy, as NTV [Nimbin Television] with regular shows, and committed street performers and actors showing the way Hitler and Goebbels did it to the unsuspecting Germans."
[ Read more & discuss ~ Nimbin FM ~ Herald Poll ]
Sydney Indymedia

['Safety before liberty' ... a nice bit of Newspeak that will probably increase in usage by those who want liberty to decline. It's a clever slogan because it's hard for reasonable people to turn it round. Well done, modern George Orwells!]

Chevron paid troops after alleged killing

"Nigerian soldiers guarding Chevron oil rigs billed the company for $109.25 a day after they allegedly attacked two villages in the volatile country, killing four people and setting fire to homes.

"The company paid.

"The money was requested in a small invoice -- stamped with Chevron's logo and the name of its Nigerian subsidiary -- that surfaced this year as part of a lawsuit against the San Ramon oil giant. Residents of the Opia and Ikenyan villages are suing Chevron in San Francisco's federal court, trying to hold the firm responsible for the fatal attacks in 1999."
CorpWatch

Is another Hiroshima possible?

"The answer to the above question is clearly – and unfortunately – yes.

"In spite of the fact that more Americans are beginning to question the decision to drop an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our rulers are still determined to wield the nuclear stick. Today, on the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima war crime, we are confronted with the news that

"The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.' ..."
AntiWar.com

Japan remembers Hiroshima
Hiroshima marks 60th anniversary of atomic bomb

The Unfeeling President, by EL Doctorow

"I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.

"But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

"He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

"But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be ..."
East Hampton Star

Secrets and Lies in the 'Friendly Skies'

"Last Friday, the GAO issued a new report [PDF link] on Secure Flight. It's couched in friendly language, but it's not good:

During the course of our ongoing review of the Secure Flight program, we found that TSA did not fully disclose to the public its use of personal information in its fall 2004 privacy notices as required by the Privacy Act. In particular, the public was not made fully aware of, nor had the opportunity to comment on, TSA's use of personal information drawn from commercial sources to test aspects of the Secure Flight program. In September 2004 and November 2004, TSA issued privacy notices in the Federal Register that included descriptions of how such information would be used. However, these notices did not fully inform the public before testing began about the procedures that TSA and its contractors would follow for collecting, using, and storing commercial data. In addition, the scope of the data used during commercial data testing was not fully disclosed in the notices. Specifically, a TSA contractor, acting on behalf of the agency, collected more than 100 million commercial data records containing personal information such as name, date of birth, and telephone number without informing the public. As a result of TSA's actions, the public did not receive the full protections of the Privacy Act.

"Get that? The TSA violated federal law when it secretly expanded Secure Flight's use of commercial data about passengers. It also lied to Congress and the public about it.

"Much of this isn't new. Last month we learned that 'the federal agency in charge of aviation security revealed that it bought and is storing commercial data about some passengers -- even though officials said they wouldn't do it and Congress told them not to.'"

AlterNet

Bug fixed

Peter Cooper from FeedDigest is not only the hardest working man on the Net (OK, equal first), he's one of the easiest and nicest to deal with. The bug in the newsfeed in the right-hand column is fixed thanks to Peter's quick response.

The new-look Yellow Pages (and a bug)

A mix of shorter and longer political articles: hand picked from the best of the progressive Net

Yellow Pages used to publish full feature articles from our colleagues yellowtimes.org, which sadly died earlier this year.

Now, with a new web design, this blog is back. Its new purpose is to publish harder political material than that on the Blogmanac, which will still have an eye on the world but be relieved of some of the articles with a political edge. I hope you enjoy it and bookmark it. If you have an RSS reader, you will find plenty of great material coming here regularly. Thank you for dropping in and I hope to see you soon.

PS At time of writing there is a bug in the newsfeeds in the right-hand column. I'm working on it.

Poll: 63% think US too quick to go to war

"Some 63 percent of Americans say the charge that the United States has been too quick to go to war is justified and three-quarters worry about losing trust abroad and about the growing hatred of the United States in Muslim countries ..."
Source: SouthNews