charging the canvas

Saturday, August 03, 2002

L.A. takes another step toward a Blade Runner future
Police fed up with trash-filled alleys have unveiled the first of 11 special motion-sensor cameras they hope will deter illegal dumping and graffiti in southern Los Angeles.

A power-pole mounted camera in Watts is designed to snap a picture of - and audibly warn - anyone spotted loitering in a junk-filled alley, police said Wednesday.

The steel-encased camera, designed to withstand a bullet, plays a recorded warning that police hope will act as a deterrent: "Stop! This is the LAPD," the recording says. "We have just taken your photograph. We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave now." [u]
move along....move along

11:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Luis Inacio da Silva (Lula), the Workers' Party candidate, looks set to win the Brazilian presidency in October
Brazil's president Fernando Henriquez Cardoso is constitutionally ineligible for reelection. His centre-right coalition has been unable to find a scandal- free candidate to confront da Silva, the result of government corruption linked to neo-liberalism and the privatisation of public enterprises. The ruling coalition's first choice, Roseana Sarney, was forced to step aside when police seized a half million dollars in cash in her residence that allegedly came from a bankrupt private enterprise she helped set up with state funds. Now her replacement, Jose Serra, is embroiled in scandal because his political fundraiser stands accused of taking $15 million in bribes to help sell a multi-billion dollar state steel enterprise to a private consortium.

Da Silva has run unsuccessfully for president three times in the past as head of the Workers Party (PT), but today enjoys almost twice as much support as his nearest presidential contender in pre-election polls.

[...]

Concerned by a possible Workers Party presidential victory, major investment banks including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch started downgrading their ratings of Brazil in early May, touching off a financial crisis. The country's currency, the real, began to drop in value and the stock market plummeted.

The meddling of the investment banks has provoked strong reactions. "These banks have led the neo-liberal sacking of our country and now they are trying to scare people into perpetuating a political order that serves only their narrow interests," fumed Reinaldo Gonzalvez of the Economic Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Even the Financial Times labeled the banks' reactions a "mistake", noting that should da Silva become president, his economic policies would likely be moderate. In several Brazilian cities Workers Party governments "have proven to be good administrators", said the Financial Times. In the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul where the Workers Party has been in power for a decade, the government has improved social services while helping stimulate agricultural and industrial production, making the state one of Brazil's most prosperous. Some thirteen per cent of the state's production is publicly or cooperatively owned.
So will shrub declare war on South America under the guise of the DrugTerror War? Send in CIA assassins? If countries like Venezuela and Brazil make life better for the general populace and harder for the Corporatocracy, while the American economy sinks under the weight of its own denial and corruption . . . will shrub's ratings drop? [u]

11:13 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Bernard I. Koerner on how Big Pharma has created a huge market for its serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- by manufacturing disorders that anyone might think they have
Word of the hidden epidemic began spreading in spring last year. Local news reports around the United States reported that as many as 10 million Americans suffered from an unrecognised disease. Viewers were urged to watch for the symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, nausea, diarrhoea, and sweating, among others. Many of the segments featured soundbites from Sonja Burkett, a patient who had finally received treatment after two years trapped at home by the illness, and from Dr Jack Gorman, an esteemed psychiatrist at Columbia University.

The disease was generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), a condition that, according to the reports, left sufferers paralysed with irrational fears. Mental-health advocates called it "the forgotten illness". Print periodicals were awash with stories of young women plagued by worries over money and men. "Everything took 10 times more effort for me than it did for anyone else," one woman told the Chicago Tribune. "The thing about Gad is that worry can be a full-time job. So if you add that up with what I was doing, which was being a full-time achiever, I was exhausted, constantly exhausted."

The timing of the media frenzy was no accident. On April 16 2001, the US food and drug administration (FDA) had approved the antidepressant Paxil, made by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, for the treatment of Gad. But it was a little-known ailment; according to a 1989 study, as few as 1.2% of the US population merited the diagnosis in any given year. If GlaxoSmithKline hoped to capitalise on Paxil's new approval, it would have to raise Gad's profile. [u; the original article is in the July /August issue of Mother Jones]

2:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Rumsfeld tries to pawn off Iraq's use of American intelligence on defectors to Russia
According to Secretary Rumsfeld, "The Iraqis have benefited from American spies defecting to the Soviet Union or Russia and providing information as to how we do things, and then they proliferate that information on how another country can best achieve denial and deception and avoid having the location, precise location, actionable locations of things [i.e., weapons of mass destruction] known."

[...]

"The Iraqis are deceiving U.S. spy satellites and fooling Pentagon intelligence analysts thanks to techniques they learned from U.S. military intelligence officers during the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq," reported Tim Weiner, then of the Philadelphia Inquirer, back in 1991.
Can't get that old Cold Warrior boogie out of his head. It would be sad if it wasn't part of the parcel of self-denial and pro-war spin so common with shrub & co.

11:17 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

We can build her
Latona's voice is powerful but not particularly distinctive. Though she can belt out a song, she does not have, say, the gospel shadings of Whitney Houston or the five-octave range of Mariah Carey. Latona's voice is notable, however, in its ability to accommodate different genres. She could perform in a Broadway musical, make a Pepsi jingle work or shout-sing like a rock star. "With some artists, only one style fits them," says Diener, who is wearing a leather porkpie hat and is never far from his cellphone. "Fortunately, Amanda has the looks and the attitude to carry off many different ideas." His phone rings. "Some artists are resistant to ideas," Diener adds, checking the number of the incoming call. "Amanda is not resistant."

[...]

"I'm thinking there might be room now for a cool, young, beautiful girl in the spirit of Shania Twain," Diener says, as Latona leaves the studio to get some water. "Or even more rock, like Pat Benatar from the 80's. Will it help that Amanda's stunning? Absolutely. So will the right marketing campaign. But what's going to capture the audience is her first song. That defines everything. And it has to be a hit." Diener pauses. "If she misses," he continues, "with a singer like Amanda, who is not a self-contained artist who writes her own material, it's hard to get another opportunity." [NYT username: aflakete password: europhilia]

10:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

9/11 widows demand an independent probe -- why is there such opposition to this among politicians and the intelligence community?They're not going to be able to shut this down like OK City. [a]

10:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Buddy Bots will be your friend and sell you stuff
In a culture inundated with advertising, companies have discovered a new way to connect with consumers and make their messages stand out amid the din. They are using digital "buddies" to spread word of their products on the Internet.

The buddies are software applications also known as "bots." They're programmed to make friends and small talk, and they're eerily good at it. They take cues from a human acquaintance's questions and answers and search databases for conversational fodder. Bot-speak can be formulaic and stilted. It can also be witty, provocative and startlingly lifelike.

Buddies are not mere motor-mouths. The more elaborate ones have quirks, preferences, yearnings - virtual personalities.

[...]

Web-based buddies, on the other hand, make a direct, even intimate, connection with people. They allow companies to reach potential customers one on one, typically in the privacy of their homes. The marketing message need not be heavy- handed or obvious: It can be artfully insinuated into light badinage between buddies. [null device]

2:35 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Bill Gates swings his political dick around Peru, after news of the bill that would decree the use of open-source software in all government systems
Afraid that Peru may adopt a bill decreeing the use of open-source software in all government systems, Microsoft apparently enlisted the American ambassador in Lima to help try to convince the Peruvians to kill the legislation.

[...]

Bill Gates was in Peru recently, too, making a donation of $550,000 to the national school system. It seems unlikely that Gates would be contributing money to anything that cuts Microsoft out of the picture, Peruvian critics say.

Microsoft's investment in Peru is estimated at $50 million, and Gates flew south to personally make the donation to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, no doubt hoping it would help kill the bill. [null device]

2:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Nice piece on Portland's favorite daughters Sleater-Kinney and their new album One Beat
It's a sweltering July night, and Ordal-Odrane is at the Aladdin Theater in Southeast Portland, waiting to see her favorite band. For the 26th time. And she's far from the only victim snared by drummer Janet Weiss and guitarists Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. Ordal-Odrane is surrounded by mohawked punks, squealing pre-teens with Britney hair, butch women in neckties, patchwork thrift-store shoppers, suburbanish parents in sandals. There's even a gray-haired, grandmotherly type, sporting a black T-shirt emblazoned with the alarming demand SHOW ME YOUR RIFFS, eager as the rest to witness the Portland band some (specifically Greil Marcus, considered by many America's foremost rock critic) call The Greatest in the World.

2:17 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, August 02, 2002

After reading about the Taft-Hartley law in Dupont Dynasty, I'd have to agree with Ralph Nader that it should be scuttled
The political damage of Taft-Hartley was just as severe. In addition to starting an era of red- baiting within the American labor movement that led to harmful internal division (a now invalidated provision of Taft-Hartley required union leaders to sign anticommunist affidavits), the act sent a message to employers: it was OK to bust unions and deny workers their rights to collectively bargain.

In short, Taft-Hartley entrenched significant executive tyranny in the workplace, with ramifications that are more severe today than ever. Union membership is at historic 60-year lows, with only 10 percent of the private economy's workforce unionized. Employer violations of labor rights are routine, and illegal firings of union supporters in labor organizing drives are at epidemic levels.

11:16 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Not only did Italian police at the G8 summit last year use excessive force, now a policeman has confessed to planting evidence -- Molotov cocktails in the building where the protesters were sleeping
Amnesty International has condemned the lack of action by the government to bring the police to justice, pointing out that many incidents were caught on camera and were "undeniable". The organisation has accused the police of "arbitrary arrest and the use of torture and ill-treatment".

There have been allegations that the police were well warned about the presence of specific violent elements among protesters but that these warnings were repeatedly ignored, leading to speculation that this was to allow officers free rein for violence.

There are now at least 10 criminal investigations into what happened in Genoa.

Magistrates have notified about 80 officers that they are being investigated for alleged crimes committed during the school raid, the street protests and at the Bolzaneto detention centre where, Amnesty International claims, about 200 protesters were tortured.

11:05 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Under Construction

We're adding a custom commenting system today, so please bear with us. . .

11:45 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Another FBI agent comes forward with evidence of suppressed investigations into terrorist activity pre-9/11
The Weekly has learned that Chicago-based special agent Robert Wright has accused the agency of shutting down his 1998 criminal probe into alleged terrorist-training camps in Chicago and Kansas City. The apparent goal of the training camps, according to confidential documents obtained by the Weekly, was to recruit and train Palestinian-American youths, who would then slip into Israel. Recruits at these camps reportedly received weapons training and instruction in bomb- making techniques in the early 1990s. The bomb-making curriculum included the sort of explosives later used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. And government documents state that two trainees came from the Oklahoma City area.

[...]

Robert Wright's story is difficult to piece together because he is on government orders to remain silent. And by extension so are his attorneys when it comes to confidential information. Wright has written a book, but the agency won't let him publish it or even give it to anyone. All of this is in distinct contrast to the free speech and whistle-blower protections offered to Colleen Rowley, general counsel in the FBI Minneapolis office, who got her story out before the agency could silence her.

Wright, a 12-year bureau veteran, has followed proper channels, sending his book off for an internal review and asking for permission to respond to reporters' queries. Neither of those efforts panned out, and he has since sued the agency over this publication ban. The best he could do was a May 30 press conference in Washington, D.C., where he told curious reporters that he had a whopper of a tale to tell, if only he could. [a]

11:39 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sen Joseph Biden has become the Grumpy Lizard Warlord since 9/11. Now he's playing Godzilla Among the File-Sharers.
A few weeks later, Biden introduced a bill titled the "Anticounterfeiting Amendments of 2002." It originally targeted the kind of large-scale pirates who manufacture fake Windows holograms, but in a little-noticed move this month before being sent to the Senate floor, the proposed legislation was rewritten to encompass technology used in digital rights management.

Biden's new bill would make it a federal felony to try and trick certain types of devices into playing your music or running your computer program. Breaking this law--even if it's to share music by your own garage band--could land you in prison for up to five years. And that's not counting the civil penalties of up to $25,000 per offense.

11:15 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Funny item on frontline journalism -- and those who make-believe they're there
The cover line in Esquire magazine -- right above the picture of a scantily clad Hilary Swank -- was unambiguous: "Wil S. Hylton at Mazar- i-Sharif."

But Hylton's profile of an Air Force man who fought in Afghanistan didn't sit right with freelance journalist Robert Pelton, who had been traveling with the unit and knew that Hylton wasn't there. In an e-mail exchange with Esquire, Pelton assailed the headline, saying: "This is called l-y-i-n- g for you magazine types who don't seem to know the difference between fiction and non-fiction."

Articles Editor Andy Ward sent a diplomatic response explaining that Hylton interviewed the soldier (who was shown in combat uniform with headgear and night-vision goggles to shield his identity) for 10 hours. Hylton sent a terser note: "[Expletive] off, you little pansy."

Esquire spokesman Ed Tagliaferri says the word "at" may have been "misapplied," but that cover lines are a fine art. "They were attempting to convey that this was a compelling and immediate story," he says. "We think it's clear the reporter was not there and not attempting to portray that he was there." [u]

11:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

PastelNazis in action
The property values police here had just resolved a case of a flagrantly yellow house when they found themselves with another one, hiding in plain sight on Woedee Drive.

Two months ago, the El Dorado Hills Design Review Committee, which scrutinizes all things aesthetic in this fast-growing Sacramento suburb, had taken a homeowner to task for having a yellow house. The homeowner had applied for approval for a new roof, and the review committee, composed of five citizen volunteers, found upon inspection that the house was indeed yellow. That, like most other colors, was a no-no, they said, in the beige-tan-toned neighborhood.

[...]

"Paint color is usually not a big issue," said Wayne Lowery, manager of El Dorado Hills. "But yellow can be. A lot of it is a matter of where do you draw the line? Although yellow may be an O.K. color in some neighborhoods, if you allow yellow, then when a guy comes in and says he likes purple, where do you draw the line?" [NYT username: aflakete password: europhilia]

10:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mystery sidewalk spots in Camden NJ
Black blobs polka-dotting the streets and sidewalks of the Waterfront South area have some residents fearful for their health and worried the blobs might signal the end of their neighborhood.

The Department of Environmental Protection doesn't know what it is. Neither does the Camden County Health Department.

When lifelong resident Bonnie Sanders gives a tour of the neighborhood, an area more depressed than most in one of the country's poorest cities, she just points down.

The spots morph over a few days, Sanders explained. The fresh ones look like small oil spills - most of them round, most of them about 6 inches across. Though they look like liquid, they don't feel like it.

As they dry, the blobs get smaller, darker and look waxy. They end up about the size of a half-dollar and they're not easy to get off the sidewalks.

12:44 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Overview of shrub, 9/11 & the Saudis and why Iraq is the target
In Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for bin Laden, two French intelligence analysts, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, claim that the Clinton and Bush administrations impeded investigations of Bin Laden and his al Qaida terrorist group in order to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia and to maintain the stability of the oil market. "As the late John O'Neill told one of the authors [Brisard] of this book, 'All of the answers, all of the clues allowing us to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia.'"
In articles and interviews, Brisard has expanded on this statement, pronouncing the official story about bin Laden's exile from his native Saudi Arabia in 1994 and his frozen assets to be a canard. Not only did O'Neill and the F.B.I. have extensive information concerning the finances of bin Laden and al Qaida, but also Forbidden Truth documents the intricate connections between the bin Ladens, the Mahfouzes, the al Ahmoudis, and the Saudi royal family.

Although Brisard's interpretation of events has been disputed, the documentation of Forbidden Truth is impeccable. Clearly, the finances and fortunes of the Saudi oligarchs and the Bush family have been intertwined for many years.

[...]

The people behind the coup that installed George W. Bush in the presidency have no qualms about enforcing their agenda on the United States and the world. The attack on the World Trade Center would have been prevented had it not served the cabal's purpose: to replace the old Cold War enemy with a nebulous, shifting, implacable, hidden enemy who would unite the country behind wars of conquest anywhere in the world--in short, terrorism.

The cabal's efforts to link Iraq to terrorism or weapons of mass destruction have proved unavailing, so we'll probably be hearing more lies and more justifications for a war. Odd, isn't it, that nothing the Saudis do can provoke us, while Saddam Hussein's mere existence appears to be an affront to humankind and a spur to war.

12:09 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, August 01, 2002

Excellent overview of Venezuela's Chávez and all the reasons why he pisses off shrub & the Corporatocracy -- despite relatively conservative policies
Being an American in Venezuela is a total through-the-looking glass experience. The upper crust are the protestors, and the poor people and minorities are fiercely pro-government. The big companies give their employees the day off, with pay, whenever there is an anti- government march, and then spend carloads of cash to promote it ad nauseam. (Today, I am handed a flyer distributed by Visi�n Venezuela, a telecommunications network, that reads, "You don't march alone! VV invites you to march with us for your security... Together for Liberty!") Plus, the news channels blanket the airwaves with coverage hyping the demonstration, interspersed with commercials every 15 minutes or so flashing rousing images urging people to come out to protest on "once de julio" for a United and Free Venezuela.

As Alex Main, my contact in the Venezuelan government's press office, puts it, "This is probably what the United States would look like if Ralph Nader were ever elected president." Except in that case the backlash would probably be much worse, because Ch�vez's domestic policies are nowhere near as progressive as Nader's.

[...]

Ch�vez hasn't hesitated to criticize the U.S. government in his own right. Though he condemned the Trade Center attack and expressed sympathy for the U.S., he also condemned the bombing in Afghanistan, which he called "fighting terrorism with terrorism." To drive his point home, he showed pictures on Venezuelan television of Afghan civilians killed by bombs.

[...]

But this still doesn't explain the Venezuela-based opposition's beef. Ch�vez's domestic initiatives are much less provocative than his foreign policy. Many political scientists insist that he runs the country like a "moderate Social Democrat," for whom revolution is in practice mostly a colorful world to enliven speeches.

11:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

37 Congressmen/women asked to do polygraph by ~~American Gestapo~~ FBI re 9/11 leaks

shrub & the intelligence community close ranks.

I suggest a round robin creamed corn wrestling tourney, Intelligence vs Congress. I might even watch that. . .

11:38 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

A few weeks ago I saw how multinationals are buying water rights in poor countries and selling water back to citizens. Now I see it's happening right here in the good ol' USA.

4:05 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Diane Carman on the 19 million lbs. of tainted meat and why it'll probably happen again
If 19 million pounds of meat distributed to half of this country had been contaminated with a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria by terrorists, we'd go nuts. But when it's done by a Fortune 100 corporation, we continue to buy it and feed it to our kids.

[...]

The free market system has collapsed. While drought-stressed ranchers sell off herds for a fraction of their value, meat prices remain unmoved. Deliberately inadequate labeling thwarts consumers from making informed choices. Information about what country the animal is from or the packing plant that processed it is withheld, and measures to require those details repeatedly have been defeated in the legislature, at the urging of the meat industry.

They don't want us to know.

Then, to protect the corporation from litigation, we're reminded once again to be sure to cook the living, well, manure out of it.

They freely admit it's the only way we can be sure the product they're selling won't kill us. [Undernews]

3:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thrill-seeking New Yorkers pay to be "kidnapped"

I'll bet they did something like this in ancient Rome too.
A bizarre new service offering 'designer kidnapping' for thrill-seeking New Yorkers is dividing opinion across the city.

Brock Enright, a 25-year-old artist, has created a business where people pay him thousands of dollars a time to be violently abducted.

[...]

Each kidnap is different, to cater for the particular tastes of the individual.

Clients are mostly bound and gagged and taken away for a period of incarceration that lasts for hours, or even days.

"It's about stepping outside of yourself. I wanted to see what I could do," said Jason, a carpenter, in his mid-20s, who has gone through the kidnap experience three times already.

3:39 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hello?

Since day before yesterday I've only had 10 visitors, as opposed to around 60 last week in the same period. Wednesday and Thursday have been the high volume days lately.

Curious.

3:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Emperor's Privilege

According to Undernews, the process server who tried to serve Cheney with the Judicial Watch Halliburton complaint was threatened with arrest -- which in itself is a criminal act.

10:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Do the powers-that-be figure if they parade enough CEOs in chains on TV people will suddenly figure they can trust the rest?

10:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Apparently it's front page news that the US media is going to saturate the US media with 9/11 on 9/11You heard it here first.

10:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Economic meltdown in So America tests IMF/US hardline, policies
Several additional South American countries have been swept up in what is becoming the region's worst economic crisis in two decades, igniting fears of a replay of the Latin American financial collapses of the early 1980s.

The crisis, which analysts had hoped would be contained to Argentina's financial meltdown six months ago, has now spread to its neighbors Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. It has threatened to engulf other politically unstable economies in the region as well, including Bolivia and Venezuela, where analysts predict deep recessions for this year.
Stiglitz on how the IMF policies contributed to Argentina's crisis.

9:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

after midnight 1 August 2002

swamp cooler squeals a line
thin and hard to place

veiled by cloud
then roped and bound
smothered

should be a
baleful moontooth eye
menace locked frozen

but the mask empty
less foul than formed

12:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, July 31, 2002

What a piece of work this Harvey Pitt is

First he inspires zero confidence that he will do anything against the wishes of the corporatocracy his agency (the SEC) supposedly polices. (I love this guy who wrote this piece -- "pachydermatous" and "impudicity" in the same sentence! He's an accounting professor.)

But then what do you expect:
Bush wanted him to replace [former chairman] Arthur Levitt, who had annoyed the business community by sticking up for the average investor and particularly rankled the then "Big Five" accounting firms for his proposal that they should not be able to sell a client business consulting services if they were also auditing the firm's financial statements. Pitt led the attack on Levitt. [link]

Now he wants his position elevated to cabinet status -- and a higher salary!

11:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Stan Goff on slouching towards Colombia
While the U.S. government provides direct and indirect support to elements in Colombia that profit most from the drug trade, it has launched a tidal wave of disinformation attempting to portray Colombian guerrillas as drug traffickers. Even President Pastrana himself, also no friend of the Colombian insurgents, and former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Miles Frechette say there is no evidence to support such a charge.

The demonization of this 35-year-old popular insurgency is manufactured by the CIA and uncritically regurgitated by the U.S. mainstream press.

Guerrillas tax agricultural production, including coca. That's not drug trafficking. The increased production of coca by peasants has been decried by FARC leader Manuel Marulanda, who has long demanded that the government initiate a program for crop transition. [og]

10:42 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

TimeWarner feels flood victims' pain -- but demands $300 for damaged cable boxes

That's the way to build customer loyalty -- indentured servitude.

10:05 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Zimbabwe is balking at accepting GM corn from the US, despite a famine. Is this a ploy to introduce GM foods to Africa, which has resisted for obvious reasons?
Some biotechnology advocates are criticizing the Zimbabwean government for balking at the humanitarian assistance, saying President Robert Mugabe seems to care more about his political independence than his citizens' lives. About half of Zimbabwe's 12 million residents are on the verge of famine because of drought and political mismanagement, according to the United Nations. But other scientists and economists say the troubled African country has good reason to reject the engineered kernels. If some of the corn seeds are sown instead of eaten, the resulting plants will produce gene-altered pollen that will blow about and contaminate surrounding fields.

That could render much of the corn grown in Zimbabwe, a country that in most years is a major exporter, unshippable to countries in Europe and elsewhere that restrict imports of bioengineered food, because of environmental and health concerns. The United States could save lives and avert a potential ecological crisis by paying to have the corn kernels milled before they enter Zimbabwe, several specialists said this week.

But relief officials said U.S. food agencies typically do not cover milling expenses, which are estimated at $25 per metric ton, a significant expense for a nation so poor.

That response has fueled suspicion among some observers in the United States and Africa that Washington is using the food crisis to get American gene-altered products established in a corner of the world that has largely resisted them.

"The U.S. is using its power to impose its view that modified maize is not a danger," said Carol Thompson, a political economist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who has spent much of the past 10 years in Zimbabwe.

9:47 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Why more Congressmen don't get called up on ethics charges
In a tense, behind-the-scenes exchange, House GOP leaders last week pulled back from filing an ethics complaint against Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.)when Democrats threatened to retaliate by filing their own ethics charges against GOPlawmakers, including Majority Whip Tom DeLay (Texas).

[...]

The standoff over Kanjorski leaves in place the undeclared five-year truce over use of the ethics process that went into effect following the clashes over former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who was attacked by Democrats over the interlocking network of political nonprofits under his control. Gingrich eventually paid a $300,000 fine for providing false information to the ethics committee, but only after charges and countercharges had been filed against senior lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Congressional watchdog groups have complained bitterly about the ethics cease-fire, saying worthy cases have not received the scrutiny they deserve because of fears of retaliation.

"What's the use of opposition parties if they won't root out corruption in the other party?"asked Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project.

4:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Greg Palast on differing coup styles in Argentina and Venezuela
And so on 12 April the business leadership of Venezuela, backed by a few 'Spanish' generals, turned their guns on the Presidential Palace and kidnapped Ch�vez. Pedro Carmona, the chief of Fedecamaras, the nation's confederation of business and industry, declared himself President. This coup, one might say, was the ultimate in corporate lobbying.

[...]

Carmona, fresh from his fantasy inaugural, received a call from the head of a pro-Ch�vez paratroop regiment stationed in Maracay, outside the capital. To avoid bloodshed, Ch�vez had agreed to his own 'arrest' and removal by the putschists, but did not mention to the plotters that several hundred loyal troops had entered secret corridors under the Palace. Carmona, surrounded, could choose his method of death: bullets from the inside, rockets from above, or dismemberment by the encircling 'bricks and milk' crowd. Carmona took off his costume ribbons and surrendered.

[...]

Argentina accepted the World Bank's four-step economic medicine with fatal glee. Not that it had much choice. I have obtained the secret June 2001 'Country Assistance Strategy' progress report of the World Bank, ordering Argentina to pull out of its economic depression by increasing 'labour force flexibility'. This meant cutting works programmes, smashing union rules and slicing real wages. Contrast that with Ch�vez's first act after defeating the coup: announcing a 20-per-cent increase in the minimum wage. Ch�vez's protection of the economy by increasing the purchasing power of the lower-paid workers, rather than cutting wages, is anathema to the globalizers.

His Venezuela is the anti-Argentina, taking a path exactly opposite to the guidance given, and ultimately imposed, on Argentina by the World Bank and IMF.

9:48 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ruppert & Calandra on the Market
August 14, remains one of many possible "doomsdays" in the near future. That is the deadline by which all CEO's must either restate their corporate earnings or face criminal penalties. At that time it is possible that as much as another $1 trillion of shareholder equity might be wiped out. In addition, FTW has been monitoring reports of subpoena issuance to J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and other major banking institutions over criminal involvement with Enron. In addition, derivatives bubbles estimated at between $25 and $50 trillion held by these banks stand on the verge of collapse with either a further plunge in the Dow or a rise in the gold price that cannot be contained by the Gold Cabal and the Plunge Protection Team.

Last week, FTW received information from three credible and experienced sources that the Bank of America had made an urgent and secret appeal to the Federal Reserve for an emergency bailout.

3:48 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

RIAA site hacked

I'm sure this high traffic site really suffered, too.

I'm a daily visitor myself.

3:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Canada's "Sixties Scoop"
Last week, Mr Chretien's adopted son, Michel, who is now 33, was charged with sexual assault on an 18-year-old woman in the Arctic city of Yellowknife. He was convicted of a similar charge in 1992.

The case of the prime minister's son, who has acknowledged having drugs and alcohol problems, illustrates many of the long- standing troubles of Canada's native population, sometimes called first nations.

But, native activists say, it also illustrates the problems Canada's federal and provincial governments have created with some of their efforts to help.

In the 1960s and 70s, child welfare agencies were quick to remove native children and place them with white, middle-class families, sometimes far from native communities.

[...]

The issue of non-native Canadians adopting native children is also tied up in the legacy of the country's church-run residential schools for native people.

Until 1970, Canada allowed its churches to remove many native children from their homes and teach them in residential schools, where they were forbidden to speak their own languages and were often abused

3:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

New Scientology HQ in Clearwater FL

Kind of has a Reichstag look to it to me. [bb]

12:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, July 30, 2002

The Bohemian Grove gathering and world domination
It's an intensely secretive affair, and no media are allowed in. While no one outside the grove knows for sure who is attending this year's affair, past participants have included both George Bushes, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Caspar Weinberger, James Baker, Dick Cheney, Malcolm Forbes, Stephen Bechtel and a host of prominent CEOs and business leaders, most of them conservative, many of them from California, 99 percent of them white men.

The presence of so many powerful men meeting in secret has led some critics of the Bohos, as they are known, to speculate that more is going on here than a simple two-week romp in the woods. Some of the critics claim that important public-policy decisions are being made here in secret. Others point to the gathering's bizarre opening ceremony, in which a mock human sacrifice occurs, as evidence of occult activity. Still others say that the two-week sojourn merely provides cover for the rich and powerful to change back into their original form, a shape-shifting reptilian species that came from another planet thousands of years ago.

But while the charges of these various critics differ wildly, they have one thing in common. They all seem to agree that the men who meet here deep in the woods are involved in a vast conspiracy that has but one aim: global domination. [newsmakingnews]

10:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Florida slowly becoming atoll
Of 825 miles of sandy beach, roughly half are eroding; 328 miles - the distance from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale - are being eaten away to the point buildings and recreation are threatened. So valuable are the beaches that taxpayers fight back, pumping sand and money - at least $886 million since 1923 - onto the shores.

Pumping and trucking sand to rebuild eroding beaches will continue at even higher prices as near-shore supplies of sand dwindle

10:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

What a novel idea. . .
The Council on Foreign Relations suggests that just by "listening" to the rest of the world, instead of ignoring it, America might stand a much better chance of gaining more acceptance for its policy objectives. [link]
*sound of strenuously muffled laughter. sound of howling uncontrollable laughter from the floor*

9:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Bush raises work requirement for welfare, suggests 80-hour work week would "be good for productivity and turn this darn economy around"

Asks, "Who started this nonsense about child labor laws again?"

Polls show Americans split on whether it would be more fun to work for less pay or fight the good fight against the Saracens.

Growling noises overheard in secret bunker, Vice President demands more virgins' blood to appease Huitzilopochtli.

1:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, July 29, 2002

Toronto Sun columnist Eric Margolis on giving the military police powers
In the magisterial Roman Republic, father of all our western democracies, consular armies were forbidden by law to enter the city. The Romans realized over 2,400 years ago that soldiers had to be strictly kept out of politics. The Roman Republic died during the 1st century BC civil wars after military leaders Marius, Sulla and, later, Caesar, brought their armies into politics.

[...]

One need only look at the doleful history of Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Venezuela to see that when soldiers take over internal security, they inevitably end up taking over the government as well. When soldiers are allowed to police, they suddenly realize their latent power and go from being second-class citizens to cocks of the walk. Law quickly gives way before raw power.

[...]

Soldiers are trained to kill enemies, not to perform complex police duties that require professionalism, restraint and knowledge of the law. Long, painful experience around the world has repeatedly shown that once the military is brought in to "maintain order" or perform policing, it almost inevitably becomes corrupted, despotic and politicized. [og]

11:06 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The level of disconnect is so advanced here that I'm at a loss.
The Bush White House has decided to transform what was a temporary effort to rebut Taliban disinformation about the Afghan war into a permanent, fully staffed "Office of Global Communications" to coordinate the administration's foreign policy message and supervise America's image abroad, according to senior officials. [link]

"supervise America's image abroad"?

You're not selling a Chrysler, George. Try reading a history book, or putting yourself in the place of people experiencing your blithely unilateralist, bullying foreign policy moves.

Unbelievable.

10:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

I was just thinking this today. . .
Too many Americans believe invading Iraq is justified by 11 September, even as they accept that President Saddam had nothing to do with those attacks. The terrible truth is that the perpetrators of 11 September would want nothing more than a massive show of force by the Christian West against the Muslims of Iraq. For that reason alone, we should say no to war.

6:31 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Pretty good article on the extradition of Taliban and al Qaeda detainees to Arab states for interrogation -- and probably torture -- and whether it will work

10:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Israel, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia aren't the only Mid East states that are dangerously unstable. Iran is ripe for upheaval.

It does sound like the changes will come without outright revolution.

The impending American action in Iraq is a main reason the clerics can hold onto their power. . .

9:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

WITNESS
WITNESS empowers activists by handing them video cameras so they can document their experiences. Founded by Peter Gabriel, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation, WITNESS is one part human rights organization, one part documentary film producer and distributor. [From a Conscious Planet email]

9:25 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

If you like new fonts for free, fontomas has 10 new ones, starting year 2 finally.

9:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

I didn't realize how shaky Saudi Arabia is politically -- probably because they're doing a good job of keeping it out of the media, and it's in shrub's best interest too
Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror.

Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah.

At the same time, Whitehall officials are concerned that Abdullah could face a palace coup from elements within the royal family sympathetic to al-Qaeda.

[...]

Unrest in the east of the country rapidly escalated into nationwide protests against the royal family that were brutally suppressed by the police. The Observer has obtained secret video footage of the protests smuggled out of the country last week that shows hundreds of Saudis, including women, demonstrating in support of the Palestinians and opposition to the regime.

The Foreign Office believes that the failure of Abdullah's recent Middle East peace plan could have terminally undermined his position.
It's hard to know how shrub's foreign policy fits into this, or what connection he has to these factions, etc. Who's running this game anyway?

12:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Looks like my decision to become a librarian has come at a good time
Indeed, to paraphrase an author whose books are probably housed in every one of them, reports of the death of public libraries were greatly exaggerated. Cheap access to the Internet as well as to compact discs and DVDs have become a huge draw, and computers also have made using the library itself significantly easier, Mr. Freedman says.

As a result, about 1.7 billion items were checked out of America's 122,000 libraries in 1999, (the last year for which the figure is available), up 21 percent from 1990. And voters in 23 states passed referendums supporting libraries in 2001, including the approval of $46.4 million in Loudoun County, Va., and $40 million in Houston; New Mexico plans to ask voters for $35 million for libraries this fall.

Certainly, there are other reasons that libraries are on an upswing. Many of the new buildings and renovations also include construction of amphitheatres and rooms for community meetings, making the library the center of civic activity, especially in rural areas where it is often the only public building open every day. Library branches are also popping up in unexpected locations, such as the one on the second floor of a shopping mall in the border town of San Ysidro, Calif.
Now I just need to get the money for that MLS . . .

12:25 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Despite naysayers, Boeing's top secret Phantom Works section is investigating the 1992 anti-grav experiment of Yevgeny Podkletnov

Who knows. But scientists who say "negating gravity is impossible" are fools.

12:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, July 28, 2002

Even the military thinks declaring war on Iraq is a bad idea

So why does it seem inevitable? Who does it benefit? How much will it cost? How will the Mid East -- already pretty jittery -- not be dangerously destabilized as a result?

What will it distract us from?

10:31 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Enron had US intelligence agents spying on its employees
The fraud-racked Enron Corporation has had at least 20 CIA agents on the payroll in the last eight years. But while the Houston Chronicle reported the operatives as "former" CIA, a February 26, 2002 National Enquirer story quoted a top Washington insider familiar with several secret investigations into Enron, as reporting that they were given "leaves of absence without pay and put on the Enron payroll."

The source added that Enron?s CIA members used "info gleaned from a satellite project called 'Echelon,' which intercepted emails, phone calls and faxes with detailed business information," adding that "pure and simple, [taxpayer-funded] U.S. intelligence agents were involved in corporate espionage." Another Enquirer source with ties to the CIA revealed that "the cozy deal between Enron and the CIA allowed the 'on-loan' undercover operatives to return to the Agency's payroll before Enron's collapse."
There's some more good stuff on US intelligence connections to the financial world in the same article.

7:32 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Brits are the rudest tourists, followed by Russians and Canadians(!)

The top three are Germany, America and Japan -- also the richest I notice.

7:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

xymphora claims that at least two of the 9/11 hijackers used fake identities of men who are still alive -- and that these identities could only have been contructed with extensive access to Saudi and US databases

10:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Nice post by Steven Baum on the sorry state of Wired magazine

His Ethel the Blog is an old standby for followers of politically-oriented blogs, and it's always worth a look.

10:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Joseph Stiglitz will be on C-SPAN 2 today at 1:10PT and again at 3:35AM tomorrow morning discussing globalization

9:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ball of light chased by AF jets over Andrews AFB

No known terrorist connection . . . But it may be a "Ball of Evil" according to administration sources.

9:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"I truly in my heart believe that his training was such that if you can't control it, you kill it." -- the mother of Andrea Floyd, one of four wives killed by Special Forces soldiers last week in Fort Bragg. All served in Afghanistan.

12:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

charging the canvas

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