Tierra Y Libertad

Crap-TA

2005-07-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

It seems CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) was passed recently. It was a bit of a stretch to pass, from what I've heard. The voting session had to be prolonged and holdout voters bribed to pass the bill.

I don't see how any good will come of this. Allegedly, it would help boost industry and agriculture by forbidding tarriffs. However, if NAFTA and Mexico have taught us anything, CAFTA will just be a means for rich corporations to outsource their plants to Central America and exploit the poor and desperate for their labor. The small farms in the area will likely be driven out of business or forced to lower their prices below a level that will make for a sustainable living. The farmers CAFTA is alleged to help will end up being the victims.

sports and culture

2005-07-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

There's something wrong with our sports culture when a T-Ball coach pays one of his players to injure a retarded kid so he won't have to play him in the game.

I mean, these kids are like 8. Now, there's nothing wrong with being a little competitive to teach the kids hard work and dedication, but what's more important for these kids is to be learning how to work together. Teamwork and compassion are things at least as important as ambition. No wonder so many people are cheating and using steroids these days. There isn't an emphasis on hardwork and self-sacrifice. The emphasis is on winning at all cost.

What's also sad is how this translates into other aspects of our culture, like business and the economy. Running a business isn't about offering a great product that benefits society so naturally it sells well. No, it's about running everyone down and hoarding all the resources. Let's stomp on the little guy. We might as well just buy out those small, family-run businesses. All we need is a wal-mart, gas stations, and shopping malls. Let's forget about culture; the small businesses that support families and bring life into the community. Let's tromp on the little guy so he doesn't hold us back. That doesn't sound much different from hitting a retard in the face with a baseball.

2005-07-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

I'm back after a pretty long hiatus. Here's something I started last night, a work in progress.

I'm not a bad looking guy, but I'm definitely a writer.

Sure, I mighy have my moments where my charm shines through, but most of the time I fail my words. I'm a pretty intelligent guy and I can think of plenty insightful, interesting things to say. But maybe I have too much to say. I never know where to start.

Here's my chance. A girl invites me to eat lunch at her table. She looks legendary. Confident and gorgeous, but sweet and intelligent. I decide that I'd be delighted to eat with her. Definitely, I'd say. Only that's not what I say.

"Delefinitely, I'd really like to eat lunch at door yable. Your table." This all rushes out of my mouth like the world was going to end in three seconds. I think it came through in time.

Man, why do I have to rush these things?
Damnit, I always smell like Chlorine.
While I'm thinking this, awkward silence.

So I follow her to her table and sit next to some of her friends. Some I've never seen before. Others that I've seen around. Two are people I've met before and have forgotten their names. They greet me, "Hey Kyle, good to see you." They use my name in every other sentence, as if to rub it in that I don't know their names. I'm horrible with names.

This is why I write. In a book, you can always go back if you happen to miss a few details the first time around. And to a book, it's never rude to ask a third or a fourth time. A book would understand your hearing loss and you wouldn't have to explain yourself so you won't come off as a prick.

Back at the table, she introduces me to one of her friends.
"Hey, this is my good friend..." Shit, I can never hear in this cafeteria.
"Hey, nice to meet you." I shake his hand.
"Nice to meet you, too. What did you say your name was?"
"Uh... Kyle... Umm..." It takes me a few moments to piece together what he said. A few moments of awkward silence.
"Akylum? That's a cool name. Is that African or something?" He's not being sarcastic.
"No, my name is Kyle." I feel like an idiot.

This is why I write.

So I start to eat with them pretty regularly. Between awkward periods of silence, I learn things about these people. Childhood stories. Details about their families. Their goals. Their girlfriends and boyfriends. They're great people.

I'm a good listener.
A focused eater.
And I still don't know that one guy's name.

This is why I write.

I also tend to have a hard time connecting with some people. You know those people. They always seem to be wearing a mask, some kind of disguise. They pretend to be fearles. They try to look pretty, as if it were the only thing that mattered. They mistreat the misfits so they look cool or rebellious. They act happy or depressed. Or they try to look dramatic. Whatever will make them feel like they stand out or fit in. Or feel invisible.

Sometimes we are those people. We all have some front to hide our feelings and never have to face rejection.

You never fail if you don't try.

She'll never be able to reject me if she never really gets to know me.

But then, she'll never really love you if you never let her get to know you.

It's a defense mechanism. You can try to reach out and connect with them. Find out who they really are. But these people don't want to be reached.

The worst thing in their minds is to be rejected for who they really are.

At least we have our own little world that we can fall back on. That's why I write.

2004-09-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

As much as I enjoy writing in this blog, I don't know if I have time for it anymore with school and swimming. Also, I feel like I'm taking myself too seriously. I mean, it's a good way to vent how I feel and keep track of current events, but I can't really do that too well anymore with school taking all my time. Besides, there are plenty of other places to get news and such.

Plus, I'm getting a bit fed up with internet blogs in general. As nice as it is to have people expressing themselves, I can't help but feel like it's a bunch of people competing for popularity. Plus, not many people read a lot of them, anyways. A few of my friends enjoy reading this stuff, and I guess total strangers come across it, but I don't feel like my stuff reaches a wide enough audience to justify all the time that goes into it.

On a side note, I'll still be contributing every now and then, but it won't be the same, at least for a while. I'll finish this later. I need sleep.

Athar's Response to Robert

2004-08-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

First, I'd like to apologize for this post, it's not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. While I was typing it up, my browser closed because of a Windows error. Ugh. That said, here we go...

It would be interesting to view the evidence the "leftist/activist media" had to conclude that Iraq possessed no WMD or was not seeking nuclear bomb-making materials, when even the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq could not conclude this.

Here you go. There are numerous arguments presented by Ritter (someone who was actually there), but the most important ones are that if they were to rebuild, it would be easily detectable, and that Iraq was destabilized, destroyed, and that the entire infrastructure would need to be rebuilt.

Iraq is a huge mess right now. Still, I hope that a stable democracy can eventually grow there. The benefits for the region and the world would be immense. I'm not holding my breath, however.

I agree; however, I am not idealistic (nor naive) enough to believe that Bush (or Kerry, or any American president) would care about actually stabilizing the region. The Muslim World needs to be reformed, definitely, but my hope is that that comes from Saudi Arabia...the Royal Family has pretty much whored out the holiest place in the Muslim World to the Corporate World.

Getting back to the subject of what will happen in Iraq, I think it's more likely that another puppet government is set up there, and the Iraqi people won't be much better off. They will just continue to be oppressed -- the only difference is that it will be because of corporate interest rather than the interests of one dictator.

My main gripe with the Iraq war is that I reject the notion of pre-emptive war. I have to quote Abraham Lincoln here:

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to sy he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us," but he will say to you, "Be silent; I see it, if you don't."
-- Abraham Lincoln, letter to William H. Herndon. February 15, 1848

what anarchism means to me

2004-08-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

It appears that some of our reader base (smart as ever) is confused about the anarchism definition in the corner. I really should explain the "anarchism: act-a-vision activism" thing in the corner. Its nominal definition is pretty vague and its usage in everyday language as "chaos" or something like it is bound to confuse people.

I'd consider myself an anarchist in more of the classical sense of the term (think Mikhail Bakunin). While anarchism could be considered an ideology that advocated the abolition of the state, I'm of the sort that believes it is much more than that. I probably most resemble the anarchists that have the libertarian-socialist ideals, but differ in certain areas. I believe in a more methodological approach to social change. I try my best not to let my ideals get in the way of things; I don't like to burn bridges with people, but on the same note I don't take shit from anyone. I believe that direct action is the most effective way to bring about change.

A lot of progress is hindered when people want to believe things that aren't true and subsequently, many efforts are wasted on bad analysis on all sides of issues. But, there are all kinds of things that lead to bad analysis that I won't really go into (like the absurd amount of specialization in certain fields, which leads to an abstract analysis of real life situations, and a kooky analysis that often has bad implications). So, for these reasons, I don't really belong to any particular doctrine or group of people, but I find the term "anarchist" the most fitting for who I am. I'm anti-capitalist in just about every sense of the word, but I like the work of Austrian Economists for its praxeological approach to economics.

Now I hope you can understand the act-a-vision activism I have up there. To me, it means that we see ways to make the world better and act upon this vision. Kind of cheesy, but whatever. I think it's more rational of an approach than a lot of the left offers. The typical socialist takes a while to get warmed up with all their commitees and whatnot. I'd prefer to just start working and do my job well enough that it catches on.

In response to Robert....

2004-08-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, uh, that was more rant-like than normal, I should elaborate.

I recall the Ritter interview where the inspectors concluded Iraq was free of WMDs (95% free?) I'm having trouble finding it. And I remember well the typical Z analysis: Iraq was devastated by years of harsh economic sanctions and could not afford to build weapons, also under tight scrutiny; the building of weapons claimed impossible. Of course, I don't know if I've seen a truly objective analysis of the war. Everyone seems to have their own agenda. I should probably take the Zinn/Chomsky/Solomon, etc articles on Znet with as much salt as I would an article from Fox News or something.

The point I was trying to get across was that there is a noticeable pattern in the media. The anti-war movement will denounce the claims of the administration responsible for the war and the mainstream media or whatever will denounce them as cooks. Then, something from the corporate media will come out and is now more "credible," but no one seems to care about it because they're all caught up in some new illusion proffered by an actor of another agenda. Indeed, it would be interesting to look at the evidence that led these people to this conclusion. And who knows what would have happened if the invastion didn't take place? You said that the 500 tons of yellow-cake was a "known quantity" and that efforts to process them into weapons of destruction "would have raised alarm bells". I'd have to agree. Any processing of that material would have been detected promptly and I'd bet money that there would have been more international cooperation in preventing something bad from happening.

Anyways, I think the more important thing is the logic that went into the conclusion. I believe in justice, so I believe in the whole "innocent until proven guilty" ordeal that seems to be losing popularity in our justice system. Most of the anti-war movement follows this logic. We were not offered credible evidence that there were WMDs and I think they're still having trouble finding it. In fact, I don't think the US has come through on any of the reasons that were given to legitimize the war. The WMD thing didn't go through. Democracy is pretty false. The first thing the appointed interim government did was declare marshall law and soon after, they reinstated capital punishment. The election likely won't take place until well after the latest date the UN requested. I believe the new rhetoric offered is political stability. Who knows where that's going? It's pure speculation from where I'm sitting in suburban Texas thousands of miles away from what's happening. As far as I can tell reading the news, the interim government is incapable of representing most of the population of Iraq with intense relations between different ethnic groups and will be incapable of resolving the turmoil right now. As long as so many distressed people are irritated by military occupation, government corruption, and are not understood by anyone in the West, I don't think any of the problems will go away. Hell, I'm so ignorant that I can barely tell what the problem is.

I'm not sure what you were trying to say in your response, but I'm pretty damn confused and angry, too. I wanna see what's going on, what really happened. Sorry about the lazy journalism, my resources are limited, I'm tired, confused, and I've got homework to do. In the meantime, I'd like to hear more from you. Thanks.

I know some of you read stuff like this like 2 years ago, but...

2004-08-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

The BBC put up an article about Iraq weapon's capabilities and the like. Essentially it says what the leftist/activist media had been saying since before the invasion of Iraq based on the whole WMD farce. I know it's been discredited for a while, but I guess it doesn't matter too much because there's always a new excuse. First WMDs, then democracy, now it's peace and stability or some shit like that. Pretty soon it will be "sustainable extraction of natural resources for optimal profiteering" judging by how easily manipulated most people are. Maybe Bush will let slip in his campaigns for improving the economy and creating jobs that he really plans to "accelerate the jobbery of America"? Maybe he'd get away with it? Fuck no.
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Just to let you know, school started this week and I'm going to be really busy for a while, especially when swimming starts up. This means around 2-4 updates a week from me as opposed to at least one a day like before. Sorry about that. However, I've added my good friend Athar to the team, which should make things pretty interesting. He'll be posting every now and then. If you really want to post some, just talk to me about it and I'll consider adding you to the team. We can't be much of a circle of solidarity with just one or two people. Word.

Did Allawi go to Yale, too?

2004-08-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

It seems like he has similar influences to his diplomacy. He's "getting tough" on other Arabs. This is like almost any US president and most leaders in the Western world for the past 50 years have acted and how the other dictators empowered by the West have acted in the past. He's accused Iran of "arming and encouraging" the militia and sending insurgents across the border. He restored the death penalty. There are signs that "[Allawi] fears losing his tenuous grip on the situation in Iraq." It's all horrible, but I can't help but feel like it fits the pattern here. They prop up a dictatorship that cators to the elite, doesn't care to represent the majority of the people, and they act surprised when there are problems with insurgents? Smells like bullshit to me.
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I don't need graphs and numbers to tell me the job market is still going to shit, but of course it doesn't hurt. Well, maybe seeing it does. It hurts a lot of people.

Antagonization of the Muslim World

2004-08-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

BBC: UK Muslims react to terror raids

Inayet Bunglawala, from the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: "This is the latest in a series of high-profile raids since 9/11 where a large group of mainly young Muslim men are arrested amongst massive nationwide publicity.

"More than 500 people have been arrested and yet less than 100 have been charged.

"There is now a growing bitterness in the Muslim community.

"It seems the vast majority of these people are arrested amid very high publicity and yet when they are released it does not attract the same publicity."

Fewer than one in five of the more than 500 people - most of them Muslim - arrested under terrorism laws since September 11, 2001 have been charged with a terrorist offence, according to government figures.

Mr Bunglawala added: "I think the police have a lot more to do in terms of working with the Muslim community and gaining their trust." [emphasis added]

As the Western world continues to throw the T word around when it comes to Muslims, the divide between the Western and Muslim worlds will only continue. The West must NOT antagonize the Muslim world, the West should strive to work WITH them instead of AGAINST them. And by "with them", I don't mean supporting corrupt dictatorships that concentrate wealth. I mean that they should actually try to win support of Muslims worldwide.

The Muslim world is in complete disarray right now, and angering and antagonizing an unstable group is never a smart thing. All it takes is a guy like a bin Laden trying to rally up support against the West to point out how the West treats the Muslim World...then the West will have to deal with over a billion people with anger in their hearts. Anytime there's a powerful emotion like anger directed from one group at another, logic and reason go out the window. When people are angry, of course they don't always make the best decisions. And when people form a group, mob-like mentalities take over. Bring those two together, and...

Whatever happened to Africa?

2004-07-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

I've been talking to a friend of mine, and we've come to the conclusion that Africa is largely ignored in the mainstream media. We hear some stories: mostly about AIDS (but not about things we need to hear about like the extortion of pharmaceutical companies, economic policies imposed by the West to prevent people from buying cheaper, generic drugs, etc.) and certain crises that have been neglected for so long that they can no longer be ignored by mainstream media. But even then, the issues aren't addressed like they should be, like Sudan.

Also, what does get through in the media tend to be the more profitable stories that are easily delivered and easily consumed. Africa has tons of crises with civil war and starving people being oppressed by despotic governments. Perhaps in today's world of entertainment, the countless stories of tragedy in Africa are just too hard to keep track of to the average viewer and get sucked into the memory hole?

I'd like to think it's not because the media is racist.

I know for certain that black people show up on camera. I know that's not the reason for the lack of coverage. As much as the rich elite might want to believe, Africans are not ghosts. So why does the West treat them like they don't exist?

2004-07-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

"Three suspected resistance fighters and two policemen were killed in a clash in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan bordering war-torn Chechnya, police officials said.
. . .
Separatists have been fighting pro-Moscow forces in Chechnya for most of the past decade. The current war began in October 1999 as an intended quick Russian military operation that has unexpectedly met by stiff Chechen resistance.

It has since dissolved into a guerrilla war that continues to claim lives on both sides of the conflict on a nearly daily basis." - Aljazeera

I feel bad for being so ignorant on the matter. I've known of war and death in the region, but nothing about the details. It's strange that this kind of violence and turmoil occurs on the streets every day in some places and goes largely unnoticed in our society, even in the days of advanced technology. No amount of technology makes up for bad journalism or a lack of compassion for people, even if they are total strangers. Really, the two must go hand in hand. Is that why Fisk and Pilger are so good? Is that why our school textbooks don't read like Zinn? Why must everything be a commodity? It makes the real world seem so fake. The mainstream media doesn't care about the people that make their stories happen, they're just selling copies.

2004-07-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

A plague of locusts threatens some parts of Africa:

"Without immediate attention to the plague of locusts, the FAO warned entire fields of maize, cassava and other staple regional crops would be destroyed.

An invasion by the voracious insects has already spread to 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres) of agricultural land in the Arab Maghreb nations of north Africa and the Sahel region to the south.

One tonne of locusts - a very small portion of an average swarm - eat as much food in one day as about 10 elephants or 25 camels or 2500 people."

This is a very serious situation and they need help immediately. The people in those countries are starving enough already. Hopefully international aid is underway. They need about 83 million dollars for the campaign to protect from the locusts, but the donations promised are well under what is needed.
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Wal-Mart has a frightening anti-union campaign.
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"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will project on Friday a record budget deficit expected to total between $425 billion and $450 billion for fiscal year 2004, government sources said.
...
A deficit topping $425 billion would be well above the shortfall of $374 billion in 2003, which was a record.
...

Bush has cited a recession and the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A stronger economy that has lifted tax revenues in recent months led to the downward revision in the budget deficit, administration officials said.

Richard Kogan of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities suggested the administration had overstated the deficit in February "so that it could produce a lower, more realistic deficit estimate later in the year and claim the drop proved its tax-cut policies were working."

Republicans are expected to tout the revised forecast as a sign of progress in reducing the budget gap."

This reminds me a lot of the Federalist and Hamiltonian economics, only exponentially more insane.

2004-07-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

No manual recounting for touch-screen voting? WTF? Florida was an extremely tight race in the 2000 presidential auction. In 15 counties in Florida, they will be using touch-screen voting machines that don't make printouts or paper trail of any kind, and are easily hacked, and there are all kinds of shady politics and shemes involved.

Plus, software instability alone is enough to reconsider the use of the machines without paper to keep track of votes. In 2002, South Carolina lost 436 votes to two machines in an election because of software trouble. When 537 votes in Florida determined the outcome between Bush and Gore, a mistake like that would be detrimental. Seriously, what the fuck?

more deforestation woes...

2004-07-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

I was reading up some more about the Amazon and noticed some more articles about factors that lead to further deforestation and realized how we've really gotten ourselves into quite a pickle. Fires in the Amazon are accelerating the rate of deforestation and contributing to higher temperatures, less rainfall, and even high levels of pollution. Also, with the burning of forests, the land becomes "savannized," unable to process as much CO and CO2 as before, thereby reducing the ecosystems that make our planet safe to breathe on. Some of the fires are natural and simply add balance to nature by allowing plants and animals to live later; it's just a natural part of the cylce. However, others are not started by humans and we simply cannot afford to destroy as much forest as we do because we're having enough trouble with greenhouse gases as it is. Have we no respect for Gaia?

what would Buddha do?

2004-07-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

A superhighway project in the Brazillian amazon could clear thousands of square kilometers of rainforest. The project is still under planning and consideration, but it if the Brazillian government gets its way. It will be built within four years, for the typical capitalist/mercantilist/imperialist bullshit reasoning governments and businesses are known for. It is supposed to bring in development and open trade to foreign investors in Europe and Asia. However, as Cícero Pereira da Silva Oliveira, who is the had of a union of workers in rural Trairão, said, "it will bring ruin to the region—more land grabbing, more drug trafficking. Total violence will arrive."

This on top of the environmental concerns:

"That would be a local disaster with global implications. During the 1990s, deforestation may have accounted for 10-20% of the carbon released into the atmosphere. Road development could deforest 30-40% of the Amazon by 2020, according to one estimate. But the paving of the BR–163 is supposed to be a different sort of roadworks, bringing growth that is ordered rather than chaotic, reducing social inequities rather than exacerbating them, preserving the Amazon rather than despoiling it." (from the article)

As the road is now, it has already brought trauma into the region. An indigenous tribe of people "was decimated by viruses brought by the settlers and expelled from its traditional territory" and the region of the highway has "the highest concentration of slave labour in the known world."

Let us try to stop this mess. Most governments have pledged their promise to pave the road, and it doesn't look like time is on our side either with deforestation accelerating, but I can bet that most people are with us in opposition to the destruction of our planet.

Something also needs to be done about the people of the region, though. The ardent advocates of the road project are involved in the Soya industry, which contributes to much of the deforestation and also employs few people. With other factors, the people in the forest are practically "condemned to poverty." Something needs to open up their lives to the rest of the world. There just has to be a better way.

sanctions are abominations

2004-07-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

SINCE early last year, black African rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan have been in revolt against the country's Arab-led government, over many long-standing grievances. To crush the uprising, the government has armed an Arab militia, the janjaweed, and instructed it to kill, rape and terrorise black civilians. As a result, the United Nations says Darfur is now suffering a worse humanitarian crisis than anywhere else in the world. It reckons that 30,000 people have already died and more than 1m have been forced to flee their homes, often ending up in disease-ridden refugee camps. The US Agency for International Development said recently that, without help, 1m people may die, and that 300,000 will probably die whatever is done.

In the past few weeks, the world’s powers have been increasing the pressure on the Sudanese government, threatening sanctions and even talking of sending troops. On Monday July 26th, the European Union’s foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, demanded that the UN pass a resolution threatening sanctions if Sudan’s government does not immediately take action to stop the conflict. Also on Monday, the 53-country African Union (AU) said it was trying to revive peace talks between the government and rebels, from which the rebels walked out last week. The AU is already sending a group of observers backed by around 300 troops, to monitor an oft-broken ceasefire between Darfur’s rebels and government forces. The UN is considering sending a peacekeeping force and, in the past few days, Britain, Australia and New Zealand have indicated their readiness to contribute troops. -The Economist

Something certainly needs to be done to stop the genocide in Sudan and similar measures need to be taken to protect the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle. However, I am irate that some people push for economic sanctions to get back at tyrants. The sanctions only hurt the people they are allegedly trying help by making the poor people even poorer and not really causing any harm to the oppressors. Just take a look at Iraq or Cuba, who were subject to economic sanctions. The sanctions were simply devastating to an already deprived and mistreated people.

Boston cops protesting the DNC!

2004-07-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

BOSTON (Reuters) - Demonstrators outside this year's Democratic National Convention will include the usual suspects -- peace activists, environmentalists and the like -- as well as some new faces: the police.

Disgruntled members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, who have been locked in a protracted labor dispute with the city, plan to hound and heckle Boston Mayor Tom Menino during the four-day convention that opens in one week.

Sounds pretty tight. Hopefully the NYC police will chime in and do their part for the Republican National Convention, too.
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Hmmm... Trickle-up economics?

Apparently the Washington Post did an analysis of the Bush Administration tax plan and found that the tax cuts on the wealthy put the burden on the poorer folk. Well, isn't it obvious? Now, there's supposed to be a second round of them, which would make the distribution of wealth even worse in the country. Apparently, even Bush realized that it was a dumb plan, but he doesn't really sound too smart when he says it.

According to a transcript, the president, George Bush, questioned the strategy. "Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again," he reportedly said. "Shouldn't we be giving money to the middle?"

You have to wonder who exactly these economists that they hire are and where they got their degrees. More importantly, you have to question who picks them in the first place. Obviously the people that are making economic decisions for their countries and the world wouldn't know decent economics if Joseph Stiglitz was biting them in the ass.

head of Gaza police kidnapped

2004-07-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

JERUSALEM, July 16 -- The top police officer in the Gaza Strip was kidnapped Friday by Palestinian gunmen, who paraded him through the streets of a refugee camp and accused him of stealing $22 million in public funds, Palestinian security officials and eyewitnesses said. The gunmen later released the officer unharmed and said the incident was intended to publicize his corruption. - Washington Post

Damn. The violence there seems to escalate every day. Also, I'm worried about how much the Israeli civilians are being indoctrinated by propaganda. About 80% of the Israeli's use television as their main source of news, but the coverage about those issues is definitely lacking. They will likely hear of the conflict, but not much of the political issues surrounding it. So, while it is reasonable to be aggravated by that kind of violence, there won't likely be rational discussion of the corruption that is taking place. Also, in the coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict they see on TV, " there is almost nothing on the news about the history or origins of the conflict and viewers are extraordinarily confused about this." So, no wonder the Israeli people are irrationally supporting what has become known as "Apartheid wall." They've been misled by the media about many things, among them that the Israel occupying Palestinian territories was actually the other way around. No wonder public opinion has changed from overwhelming opposition to the building of the wall to nearly 80% of Israeli citizens supporting it.

2004-07-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Clinton thinks North Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq right now (quite possibly true. Hell, Israel is probably a bigger threat to peace than Iraq). However, he's a big hypocrite with one of the worst human rights records in modern history, so I suppose I'd take his advice on foreign policy like I'd take advice about driving from a drunken man from the Renaissance that got sent to the future...

Essentially, his logic is that they pose a much greater threat to the security of the world, which might actually be true. However, he doesn't think that the doctrine of pre-emptive war would be effective here because, well, this country can actually defend itself and an invasion would likely piss them off and then North Korea might actually invade South Korea, making everything even worse. While he says the doctrine of preemtive war is "laudable in principle," he doesn't like it in practice. Well, that's a no-brainer. Any unnecessary military invention tends to escalate the violence. Obviously, invading a country with guns ablazing is a bad idea when it puts many civilians at risk in a politically unstable region that is devastated by years of economic sanctions. I'd think Clinton would have learned that after two terms of experience with similar interventions.

Anyways, I think this could be a tactic to bring attention away from the horrible things happening in Iraq with the US-appointed interim government. Democracy is looking pretty grim in Iraq when one of the first things the new government does is declare its right to martial law, the election will probably occur well after the latest date the UN said it could take place, and the interim prime minister is accused of shooting six suspected insurgents in a police station with a pistol.

2004-07-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Economist has an informative overview of the AIDS situation right now.

Basically, the people are beginning to get more funding from the politicians, but it's really only quieting some activist groups, not solving problems. A lot of woes are still political issues, like laws that restrict the distribution of cheaper generic drugs in certain countries, making it even harder for people to get AIDS/HIV care.

Notable problems:

"The first reason for this is that Congress requires at least one-third of the prevention money to be spent on programmes that focus on sexual abstinence. Practice has shown that such an approach does not work—at least it does not work without an equal or greater emphasis on the use of condoms. Condoms are included in the “ABC” (Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom) acronym that has been coined to describe this part of PEPFAR. But activists fear that the importance of condom use is being played down for religious reasons.

Nor are the activists pleased with the plan’s arrangements on antiviral drugs, which are supposed to reach 200,000 people by the end of this year and many more in future years. Those groups that have so far been awarded contracts under the plan have no choice but to deploy medicines approved by America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That might sound reasonable, but most such drugs are branded American products. Cheaper (foreign-made) generics are not permitted without FDA say-so, despite the fact that many have been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A third source of unhappiness is to be found in some of the countries where the cash is being spent. While recipient governments say they are grateful for the money, local officials—in Uganda and Rwanda, for example—complain privately that they have not been adequately consulted in the plan’s projects for their countries, and are worried these may not fit in with national strategies to fight the disease. This lack of consultation may be teething trouble. Randall Tobias, Mr Bush’s global AIDS co-ordinator (pictured above at the Bangkok conference), says it is PEPFAR’s intention to collaborate with local health ministries."

Essentially, while there is money being thrown at the issues, there is no real confrontation to the problem. Some tactics are offensive to other cultures or just plain stupid. Also, AIDS care in the United States is slow and underfuned (and we're among the wealthiest people in the world). There are nearly 60,000 people on the ADAP waiting list for AIDS care in the United States. So, imagine a place like Africa or Asia (1 in 4 new cases of HIV are from Asia) where AIDS is more widespread. Something is very wrong here.

Anarchism in Spain

2004-07-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

I just got my wisdom teeth pulled, so I'm not much in the mood for writing, but my friend Sean just finished up a huge article about Spanish Anarchism and posted it on Wikipedia. I'm going to have to read it, he's a bright kid. Definitely check it out if you're into that kind of thing.

On a different note, bad news for the environment. They're still going to build a waste site in Nevada despite it being illegal.

Wall is declared illegal, but Israel continues contruction....

2004-07-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

"The International Court of Justice has ruled that the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank is illegal and has demanded reparations for Palestinians affected by it. There will now be pressure for sanctions to make Israel stop building the barrier but its construction is likely to continue." - The Economist

It's a pretty informative article. I'd suggest reading it. It doesn't really help you understand much history, but there is some background and it should bring you up to date on what's happening.

Hopefully the UN declaring the wall illegal will be a step toward Palestinian liberation. However, it is unlikely because world court decisions like this are non-binding and pretty much useless for enforcing international law. I'm sure Israel will refuse to halt construction of their 390 mile wall, which consists of "concrete walls, barbed-wire fences, trenches and patrol roads." And there isn't likely to be much objection to Israel's refusal as actions taken against Israel would likely be vetoed by the United States or some other countries of the council with veto-power.

I'm thoroughly pissed about how things work in international courts now. I was hoping there would be justice, but I suppose that I should have simply referred to the history of US and others' military interventions since the Declaration of Human Rights and other international laws and treaties have been passed for ample confirmation that such declarations only serve to conceal the arbitrary rule of capitalist empires (i.e. corporations). There are no human rights in despotism.

silly machines. . .

2004-07-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

I've been having computer problems lately. Sorry about teh m4j0r lack of updates recently. I'm trying to get everything working and stuff, but I've got a three day meet this weekend, so it's going to be tough to get the updates in. In the meantime, I recommend you go look for your own media (or make some):

Infoshop this place is the shit for anarchists and stuff.
Indymedia this is the independent news source. tons of stuff from ordinary people all over the world.
These places have loads of news:
Reuters
Al Jazeera
Washington Post
NY Times
The Nation
The Economist (maybe a bit of capitalist edge at times, but good objective news)
Yahoo! News is good, but their AP section is best:
The Guardian
AlterNet

Blogs to check:
This Modern World is a neat little thing
http://www.tothebarricades.tk/ is sean's site. very good.
anti-war blog. not much more to it than that
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth

Ummm... I could put more, but I don't know if anyone has the time to read all of that stuff. Be sure to check it out. Woot! Taking back and improving our media one post at a time! (sounds odd when I just linked to a bunch of mass media/ corporate giants' sites, but there's nothing wrong with using a free resource)

2004-07-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

Sean pointed out a great review(critique) of F 9/11 by Robert Jensen. Basically it points out all the flaws in its argument. I think that the most fundamental problem of the movie is that it's more of a polemic than a real analysis. A lot of the flaws he points out in Bush are flaws that most presidents have had since WW2, and all of his answers to the problems seem to be to get Bush out of the White House. So, check out the article. Michael Moore got owned.

Sean also points out some irony in the movie's purpose. It's on its way to being the highest-grossing documentary of all time, but:
Unfortunately, while the movie is spreading information about Bush and Co.'s war profiteering exploits, it is may also end up filling the pockets of the Carlyle Group, one of the most infamous war profiteers with direct links to the Bush family. On Tuesday June 21, the previous owners of Loews Theatres in the United States agreed to sell the theatres to Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group and Spectrum Equity Investors for $2.0 billion"
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Hmm... Kerry picks Edwards for VP running mate. Interesting. I was hoping for Kucinich, but I hope for a lot of things that never end up happening. I guess it's a good tactic for the Democrats because he was pretty popular in the primaries and he's a Southerner, which could attract some votes in the South from the states that are generally more likely to vote Republican.
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By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei hopes to get Israel to begin talks on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having them or not, when he flies to the Jewish state on Tuesday.

Under its policy of "strategic ambiguity," Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear arms. But international experts believe Israel has from 100 to 200 warheads based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors have produced.

ElBaradei had wanted to get the Israelis to abandon their ambiguity policy, Western diplomats said, but Israel has made clear this is impossible at present.

"There are no signs of a policy change in Israel," said a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which ElBaradei heads.

The diplomat, who declined to be identified, said ElBaradei would not be pushing Israel to abandon the policy, which it has kept up for decades for fear of sparking a regional arms race.

But the diplomat said ElBaradei intended to "promote the concept of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East" in meetings with senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Israel is the only Middle East country not to have signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This keeps it exempt from opening up its nuclear program to U.N. inspectors.

During his visit, ElBaradei is to tour Israel's atomic facilities -- except for the reactor at the desert town of Dimona, where independent experts believe the Jewish state has produced plutonium.

Hopefully they will tighten up scrutiny of Israel. I'm tired of them getting off easy on their militarism. To the region, Israel is probably one of the biggest threats to peace but everyone kisses their asses because they're U.S. allies. Plus, people are afraid of criticizing Israeli policies because people like to throw around the word "anti-semite."
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I heard about the booing of Cheney at the Yankees game, but seeing this quote from David Letterman on Infoshop makes it that much more significant... and funny.

Dick Cheney was at the ball game last night. During the 7th inning they showed him on the jumbotron at Yankee Stadium and everyone started booing him. You know Dick Cheney has a temper. He went a little crazy and went around the stadium and grabbed everyone that booed him and then he ran them all around naked on a leash. -- David Letterman
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This are heating up "Four Palestinians and an Israeli army officer have been killed in exchanges of fire around the Ain Bait Ilma refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said.

The shooting occurred early on Tuesday during an attack by an elite wing of the Israeli occupation army on the camp. Three soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in the ensuing firefight.

Two of the four Palestinians were resistance fighters while the others were civilians, Palestinian security and hospital sources said... [they] were named as 52-year-old doctor Khalid Salah and his 15-year-old son Muhammad." - Aljazeera
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This is some pretty scary shit and a moving article.

Baghdad has confirmed that a US bombing raid on Falluja took place after consultation with the appointed interim government.

Hospital sources in the town said at least 12 people were killed and five more wounded, listing women and children as among the victims.

But interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi justified the decision to bomb on Tuesday, insisting that the two tonnes of explosive dropped had targeted a hide-out for alleged supporters of the fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The PM insisted the raid hit "terrorists" who "kill innocent Iraqis and destroy schools, police stations and hospitals with booby-trapped cars and jackets stuffed with explosives".

However, local residents did not accept the explanation.

"They talk about terrorists, but these are just families," said a man belonging to an angry crowd of locals who gathered at the lip of a large crater gouged by the blast.

The six bombs used in the air raid left little of the target. Many residents began to dig around the massive crater in search of more bodies following the attack.

Do I smell hypocrisy?

2004-07-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is expressing steadfast opposition to reviving the military draft despite the stress placed on America's all-volunteer force by large-scale operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I just can't imagine it," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week when asked under what circumstances it might be necessary to resume the draft.

"As a matter of fact, despite all the talk about the stress on the force, today we still are having very good results with respect to recruiting and retention. And we do not have a problem of attracting and retaining the people we need in the military," Rumsfeld said.

No problems attracting people they need in the military? You say that, but you have the involuntary recall to action of people that already served. That sounds to me like they're short on volunteers for service. At least we've got time to build up an opposition. Congress is reluctant to reinstate the draft during an election year and there's very little support right now on the bills proposing to bring it back.
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"We still believe, on America's 228th birthday, that freedom has the power to change the world," Bush said in remarks laced with references to God and the courageous character of the U.S. military.

"We are proud of our founders, but I know that the founders would be proud of America today," Bush said. "They would see a nation that is the world's foremost champion of liberty. They would see a nation which stands strong in the face of violent men."

Also, I think about what bush said at his speech about not being able to nogotiate with "terrorists."

"You can't talk sense to them. You can't negotiate with them. You cannot hope for the best with these people. We must be relentless and determined and do our duty."

Then, I think how much that sounds like one of those Islamic extremist terrorist guys that they talk about and am again reminded of how is words compare to horrible dictators like Francisco Franco (because the left like to compare him to Hitler and Franco... a lot).
Bush: "You are either with us, or against us."
Franco: "Those who are not with us are against us" (or something to that extent. I'm not going to bother looking it up. It's just a translation from Spanish anyways. I'm not even concerned because the comparison is made too often) Maybe it would be more orginal to go for something less overused like Ezra Pound's broadcasts to Italy. Someone also recommended Joseph DeMaistre and George Lincoln Rockwell.

Maybe something to look into? I enjoy a good critique of American policies, but I've seen to many Hilter/Third Reich or Franco/Fascism comparisons to really bother reading them. I mean, I'm an anarcha-feminist, so of course I enjoy reading good leftist literature, but a lot of it is really predictable and unorginal these days. If I can barely stand to listen to their crap, I doubt the moderates/ conservatives in power will take them seriously. Obviously it's a good thing that people are discussing and critiquing the government and stuff, but it doesn't do much good if you keep putting out the same crap all the time.

Honestly, if it didn't get through before, you should make your argument less cynical and more objective so more people will take it seriously. I really think that the leftist intelligentsia is too comfortable. It's like most of them live in a comfort bubble of wealth and have some kind of subcultural heirarchy that they do well in. It seems to me that most social change is coming from the result of poor and working class folks actually getting off their asses and doing stuff rather than this armchair/rich coffee house craptivism that seems to be dominating the left these days. Granted we need some intellectualalism to pump out criticism cure ignorance to help make social change, but something about the system just isn't working.

polio outbreaks in nigeria

2004-07-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Shit. This is bad news.

Nigerian children pay the price of polio vaccine ban as polio outbreak hits
03 Jul 2004
(Link)

An outbreak of polio has hit children in the Nigerian state of Kano. Kano is one of the muslim states that had boycotted the use of the polio vaccine. Many muslim states in Nigeria banned the polio vaccine because those in charge said the Americans were using the vaccines to make their population infertile. Many of them said the vaccine would also be used to spread AIDS in the region. Despite appeals from neighbouring countries to vaccinate its population, the conspiracy theorists in Nigeria got their way.

Now, as expected, polio is beginning to spread among children in the region. Now the local authorities are appealing for urgent assistance.

The World Health Organisation has sent a team to the area. The team has confirmed that the outbreak is polio.

It was only during the month of May this year that officials in Kano decided to resume vaccinations because the new batch came from Indonesia, a muslim country. Unfortunately, this massive delay is going to be paid for by scores of children, who could end up being crippled for life (as well as dying).

Polio is very rare in the world today. Vaccinations, which are done worldwide, have managed to nearly eradicate the disease. If the ‘wise’ men of those regions of Nigeria had decided to see sense a long time ago, polio would most probably not exist in Nigeria today. Why didn’t they ask for batches from muslim countries a year ago? Why did they wait so long? Everyone, the WHO, their neighbours, even their own population was begging them to see sense.

2004-07-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

NEW ORLEANS -- Nearly 200 former soldiers who live in Louisiana will be involuntarily recalled to active duty and could be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, military officials said.

Twenty-five former National Guard soldiers and 171 former Army members in Louisiana will be notified, some as early as Tuesday, that they are to report for active duty within 30 days, said Andrea Wales, spokeswoman for Army's Human Resources Command in St. Louis. -Associated Press.

I've mentioned the involuntary call to service before, but now that it's actually happening, it seems much worse. It's like we're that much closer to a draft.

Damn. Talk about the kind of news that will ruin your day.

2004-07-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has charged four soldiers, three of them with manslaughter, after the drowning of an Iraqi prisoner who was pushed off a bridge, while a senior general criticized U.S. military detention policies, officials said on Friday.

The soldiers, on patrol near the city of Samarra 60 miles north of Baghdad on Jan. 3, pushed two Iraqis off a bridge at nighttime into the Tigris River after picking up the men on a curfew violation, officials said. One Iraqi drowned, while the other got out of the river.

This is truly scary shit. I don't understand why our troops are so hostile to the civilians over there. It usually means extremely low morale, which would make sense because of all the factors like car bombings, the involuntary call to service, being lied to about the motives for being sent to war, etc.
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Interesting news at Reuters:
The pace of job growth has "slowed sharply in June" as less than half of the predicted number of jobs were created. In fact, the "manufacturing sector lost 11,000 jobs." Many predict a "leveling off in the pace of the economy" while the boom in number of jobs is a sign of lower corporate profits. Some say there are good signs of the economy getting better, but this might just be the aristocracy talking. One should remember that the actual quality of the job market has declined significantly with the boom in jobs. It was noticed that "that wages are not keeping up with the costs that people are facing" and the increase of jobs has actually caused the average workweek to get shorter, back to where it was in December. It's uncertain if the decline in growth will continue, but the changes seen so far have fallen short of greatness.

Also, for the first time in 4 years, "the U.S. central bank raised official interest rates a quarter percentage point on Wednesday."

GM is reported to have "double-digit declines in their U.S. sales during June, a drag on the economy not only because automakers are big employers but also major users of materials for manufacturing." The rise in energy prices is probably the most significant factor, especially considering the hike in gas prices recently.

Venezuala Watch

2004-07-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

My cousin sent me an article about crisis in Venezuela from the Nation. It appears as though the Venezualan wealthy and the US are supporting a coup to oust Hugo Chávez, who "is the best thing that has happened to Venezuela's poor in a very long time. His government has actually delivered on some of its promises, with improved literacy rates and more students getting school meals. Public spending has quadrupled on education and tripled on healthcare, and infant mortality has declined. The government is promoting one of the most ambitious land-reform programs seen in Latin America in decades." The economy has growing steadily during his rule, but there has been about a 4 decline of GDP that are likely the result of "oil strikes, a coup attempt and capital flight." The US-backed coup attempt in 2002 failed because millions rallied for Chávez. I'd link to the article, but it's only available to subscribers. I'll put up the whole thing in a comment if you want. The line breaks might mess up in there, so I could email it to you if you want it that badly.

2004-07-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

Yay! Let's all steal Michael Moore's movie! A Michael Moore bashing site posted a bootleg of F 9/11, and they're holding him to Michael Moore's word that he'd like his movie to be shared on the net. This is apparently what he thinks:
"I don’t agree with the copyright laws and I don’t have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people. As long as they’re not doing it to make a profit, you know, as long as they’re not trying to make a profit off my labor. I would oppose that."

So, if that's the case, let's all start downloading with BitTorrent. Hurry up, we need more bandwith so more people can download the movie and enjoy it. Hahaha! ;)

2004-07-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces shot and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy playing soccer in a Gaza refugee camp Thursday as tanks rolled in to search for tunnels used by militants, witnesses said.

"We were playing soccer when Israeli tanks ... started firing inside the camp and toward us," said Bashir Abu Jlidan, 18, a resident of Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.
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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people in white shirts poured onto the streets of Hong Kong on Thursday to challenge Beijing's refusal to allow them to elect their own leaders and to vent their frustration at Chinese rule.

Old people joined mothers carrying children in chanting "Return power to the people, fight for democracy" as they streamed for kilometers (miles) from a park to government offices in the heart of the city, waving green and black banners and carrying umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.

Hundreds were treated for heat exhaustion as temperatures soared to 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit).

"I am here to tell Beijing that we want democracy, we want to elect our own chief executive," said construction worker Chan Sum Kee, 54, who like many others was protesting for the first time.

The demonstration, on the seventh anniversary of the former British colony's return to China, gave Beijing a taste of what it fears most, a mass show of public dissent.

But pro-democracy activists were quick to stress that what Hong Kong people wanted was more freedom under Chinese rule.

"We are here today to fight for democracy," said veteran campaigner Martin Lee. "Not a single person here wants independence."

Protest is beautiful:

Keep in mind that all these people showed up in really hot and humid weather for the protest.

Note: the Chinese government is up to some dirty tricks to stifle dissent.
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The Economist has a good article that explains a lot about the prisoner ordeal at Guantanamo. I knew that the prisoners' rights tohabeass corpus had to do with some international treaties and stuff, but I didn't realize how much the US was pwn3dz0r3d. See, they thought the Eisentrager ruling gave them "limitless rights in handling foreign prisoners without interference from American courts," but that was only when the prisoners were given the charges to be filed against them. The people in Guantanamo hadn't been told what they were being charged of. So, the Supreme Court "rejected the Bush administrationÂs attempt to use the base to keep the men in a legal black hole. Guantanamo Bay, while leased to America in perpetuity, remains formally Cuban territory. But the court ruled that America is in effective control of the enclave, and that federal courts therefore have jurisdiction. Now, the detainees will be able to petition for habeas corpus, the right to be brought before a court to determine whether they have been lawfully detained." So, the prisoners are going to court and it's going to totally embarrass the administration, especially considering that a lot of the prisoners are from countries the US isn't at war with right now. That's what happens when you try to fuck with people's rights.

However, the court decisions didn't decide declare the guilt or innocence of the prisoners and only released them. Also, they "left open the possibility that American citizens could still be detained without full trials, perhaps being processed instead by military tribunals," which violates the Bill of Rights as far as I can tell.
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An Israeli helicopter fired 4 missiles at a Palistinian media building. Apparently the Israeli army hasn't done anything to prevent injuring journalists as "at least 10 journalists have been killed by Israeli troops since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in late August 2000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Information."-Aljazeera

2004-06-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time changing the look today. I'll have news tomorrow before noon, maybe midnight. I'll make the update extra good.

2004-06-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

"ISTANBUL, June 29 -- President Bush criticized unnamed U.S. allies in the Middle East for compromising with extremists and suppressing dissent and called on the Islamic world to move toward democracy as a way to safeguard the United States and reduce violence in the Middle East.

Speaking in front of a waterfront mosque, Bush said that leaders throughout the Middle East, "including some friends of the United States, must recognize the direction of the events of the day. Any nation that compromises with violent extremists only emboldens them and invites future violence.

"Suppressing dissent only increases radicalism. The long-term stability of any government depends on being open to change and responsive to citizens."

Bush did not specify which U.S. allies he was referring to, but an aide and outside experts said that Saudi Arabia was among them..." Washington Post

This sounds so like the Bush Administration. Well, any presidential administration from the last half of the 20th century, too. I detect a noticeable pattern. Start war with some foreign country, preferably full of non-white people in war-torn lands that contain an essential resource (bonus points if the country has a dictatorship and lies on an oil reserve). Then, we fuck all our ties with our allies, maybe experience some economic problems, hopefully profit from the plundering and smooth over any rough edges with US media (avoiding nation building or reconstruction) before the election, then repeat.

Right now, if the pattern holds true, the current administration would likely need some kind of distraction from all the post-war chaos that really doesn't go over too well with the media. So, they have to give them something tough to swallow or easy to choke on to keep them quiet concerning things like nation-building and democracy. So, he distracts them by pointing out faults in allies and praising countries that cooperate, like Turkey. However, I find irony in something in the article:

Bush called a democratic transformation of the Middle East "one of the great and difficult tasks of history."

"Nations in the region will have greater stability because governments will have greater legitimacy," he said. "And nations like Turkey and America will be safer, because a hopeful Middle East will no longer produce ideologies and movements that seek to kill our citizens."

If I remember correctly, Turkey was only an ally in the war and occupation because their government supported it even when an overwhelming majority of the people were opposed to it. So - let's try really hard to make some sense of this one here- he praises Turkey's support in the war and its democracy even though the support in the war was done very anti-democratically. I can't even come up with an abstract metaphor to help rationalize it. It's like enjoying a diet beverage with your cheeseburger and french fries because it's healthier than regular soda, only the diet soda is laced with chemicals that will make you sick and die sooner. Or something perhaps even more insane than that. Hell, the more I think about it, the less I understand it. That's how crazy it is.

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Atrocities continue in Sudan.

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The corporate bastards in NYC know peoplez gonna fuck some shit up at the RNC. Theyaz preppin.

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The Economist has an interesting article about the economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Their leader, who "wants to drive away his middle class and keep a frightened and starving peasantry in his thrall," is a total kook. He is also an African Hitler if I ever saw one.

sean says, "hes like im gonna give ya the claw!"

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The Army still defends its plans for the involuntary call to service that would "mobilize involuntarily 5,600 retired or discharged soldiers" from a pool of 111,000 people. It's like the draft for people that already got screwed by serving in the military.

Let Freedom Reign

2004-06-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sure just about everyone heard about Iraq being granted it's "sovereignty" two days ahead of what was previously scheduled, but I don't think the major media have held this under much scrutiny. Just what does sovereignty mean?

The handover is allegedly a "key path to democracy in Iraq," but the reign of the democracy only extends as far as the shackles of the occupier will allow it. Perhaps liberators intended to give Iraq more than democracy like the benefit of "the imposition of emergency laws, including curfews," and the privelige of "160,000 U.S.-led foreign troops" of which the new democracy will have no control over, probably for security reasons.

Damn, security must be nice for the Iraqis. I mean, they get the privelige of democracy and the security of being "barred from making long-term policy decisions" and the "interim government will not be able to amend the interim constitution." There is a law that " restricts certain candidates from running for office" for an even more secure democrracy. Also, the prime minister of the interim government is unsure of when it will be safe for the new election to be held, and that their elections may be "postponed until February or March," even though the United Nations said there was to be an election no later than January 31.

These privelidges are not only for the Iraqis, though. Western contractors were given " immunity from Iraqi law while performing their jobs in Iraq"

As Bush put it after Condoleeza Rice informed him of the handover, "Let freedom reign."

According to AP:

This is a historical day ... a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," said Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawer. "This is a day we are going to take our country back into the international forum.

However:

There was little initial public reaction to the near-secret transfer ceremony, which was broadcast on Iraqi and Arabic satellite television stations. There was no celebratory gunfire — which rattles through Baghdad when Iraq's national soccer team defeats foreign clubs. - AP

Indeed, Mr. President. Let freedom reign.

Good news about the Prison Industrial Complex?

2004-06-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said Wednesday that society should re-examine how it spends money and makes choices about who goes to prison, how long they stay and what happens when they get out.

He accepted the first copy of a report from the American Bar Association, which found that many get-tough approaches to crime don't work and some, such as mandatory minimum sentences for small-time drug offenders, are unfair and should be abolished.

Laws requiring mandatory minimum prison terms leave little room to consider differences among crimes and criminals, an ABA commission studying problems in the criminal justice system found. More people are behind bars for longer terms, but it is unclear whether the country is safer as a result, the ABA said." -- AP thru Infoshop.

Finally someone with some authority has realized that prisons aren't really an answer to most crime, and that the costs- which have gone up 400% between 1982 and 1999- aren't really worth it as we may not be safer. Kennedy said, "Society ought to ask itself how it's allocating its resources," and that "The phrase 'tough on crime' should not be a substitute for moral reflection," as the study found that the exponential incrase in spending on mass incarceration has had no notable positive impact on society, although there are notable negative socio-economic implications. The ABA's study found that the probability of someone being prisoned in their lifetime tripled from 1974 to 2001 and also made note of the inherent unfairness toward blacks and latinos. Hopefully this will go through and alleviate some of the pains of the (lack of) justic system in America. No more prisons.
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"WASHINGTON )— Secretary of State Colin Powell says Arab militias attacking and destroying villages in the Sudan is a "catastrophe." The State Department calls it "ethnic cleansing."

The Sudanese government has been turning a blind eye — or in some cases, even supporting the militias — while making it very difficult to get humanitarian aid to its suffering people.

Crops, cattle and irrigation systems have been destroyed and more than 1 million Africans there have become refugees. The Agency for International Development (search) says 350,000 people could die of disease and starvation over the next several months.

Powell, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a congressional delegation led by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., are headed to the Sudanese capital next week to try to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis.

Powell is the highest-ranking U.S. official to go there since the late 1970s. He said he wants to take a particular look at the Darfur (search) region in western Sudan, where hundreds of villages have been attacked by the militias. He also plans to tell Sudanese leaders to "let the aid flow freely." - Fox News.

Hopefully they do something right this time. At Amnesty you can help take action by "urging the Chad government to protect Sudanese refugees."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew much more slowly than previously thought in the first quarter and inflation was higher, a government report showed on Friday."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Apparently a nice dog prevented a killing spree in Toronto.
It looks like people just need a little love in their lives sometimes.

Edit: Damn, I need to stop writing these so late at night. I accidentally called the prison industrial complex the military industrial complex. How'd that slip through?

2004-06-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Wow. It seems like Bush is ahead in a certain poll conducted by Fox News. Granted, it was only 900 selected registered voters, but it is still frightening nonetheless. I suppose I could say that it's frightening that Kerry also has a big following. If I was old enough, I'd surely vote for the lesser of the two "weevils," but this is an opinion poll; I'm disappointed that Dennis Kucinich wasn't on there. I mean, come on. This is surely an example of the media fixing the election. ;)

Hmmm... here's what William Blum has to say about a similar poll:
"Bush-Kerry

Washington Post-ABC News poll, April 15-18:
Bush 48%, Kerry 43%, Nader 6%
45% rate "the war in Iraq" or "the US campaign against terrorism" as the single most important issue in their vote.
Once again, as Harry Truman said, "If you give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican, they will choose the Republican every time."
Unless Kerry offers an alternative to Bush's Iraq policy, he may be doomed. The only real alternative is to withdraw from Iraq, like Spain is doing. But if Kerry suddenly called for that his credibility would plummet.
Posted by William Blum at 12:13 PM."

I pretty much agree with what he says. I'd like to make note of the Fox News article, though. Of those polled, 75% of the Bush supporters supported him "strongly," while 53% of Kerry's backers support him strongly, 45% "only somewhat." I'd say that this is a pretty sure sign of a weakness on the democrats' side. I mean, the number of people backing their party is probably as strong as ever, but it seems like a lot of the Democratic supporters only support Kerry as a means to get Bush out of power, not as an ideal leader. I think it's a sign of the political process falling apart.

Clearly, people are feeling less loyal to the metaphorical abstractions -the jackass and the elephant- that allegedly embody certain political ideals. I sense that this means people are becoming more interested in the actual politcal processes as opposed to the ideologies and the people that represent them. This means an actual methodological approach to politics in this country and hopefully the collapse of partisan politics as we know it. Maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion, but history does tend to repeat itself(especially when it comes to the executive office), and elections like the ones we've been having have at typically led to at least a minor reform in parties, the creation of new parties, deaths of parties, and an overhaul of party politics. There are the Democrats, New Democrats, Republicans, New Repubilicans, Greens, Independents, Neo-liberal conservative Republican Fascists, Banana Republicans, Franco-furters, clandestine white supremicist Republicans and Democrats, wannabe Progressive Democrats, Republicans - that - pretend - to - care - about - the - democratic - process - in - things - like - campaign - finance - reform - but - really - just - want - to - hide - their - corruption (informally referred to as the John McCains), etc. (Please don't think that all of those are real.)

Anyways, people can argue about whether or not we live in a one-party or two-party system all they want, but I'm gonna settle this once and for all: To most of the politicians, it's all one big party (think record producers living it up with artists' money), and theyaz just doin' it fo' tha luv of tha $$$.

editor's note: some of the above may or may not be satire. just know this: the truth hurts.
and save the harsh criticism for another day. it's my birthday.

Politically motivated crimes seem to have politically motivated sentences....

2004-06-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about the unfariness of the criminal justice system in this country lately. Namely, with the politically motivated crimes receiving much harsher sentences. Granted, it seems reasonable to punish a man for burning other people's property, but giving him a sentence that is almost 3 times as long as rape or attempted murder for a property crime in which he was careful not to harm anyone is definitely unreasonable. Jim Luers' story is old news (still a pressing issue; he's been in prison for 4 years and has 18 to go), but it's still happening with activists all over, like the artist being accused of bioterrorism for an anti-war project and a slew of others.

Also, I just stumbled upon this frightening shit on Infoshop:

" Jeanne Lenzer

New York

A sweeping mental health initiative will be unveiled by President George W Bush in July. The plan promises to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," according to a March 2004 progress report entitled New Freedom Initiative (www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom/toc-2004.html). While some praise the plan's goals, others say it protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public.

Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April 2002 to conduct a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system." The commission issued its recommendations in July 2003. Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to develop an implementation plan based on those recommendations.

The president's commission found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children. According to the commission, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders." Schools, wrote the commission, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.
....
Dr Darrel Regier, director of research at the American Psychiatric Association (APA), lauded the president's initiative and the Texas project model saying, "What's nice about TMAP is that this is a logical plan based on efficacy data from clinical trials."

He said the association has called for increased funding for implementation of the overall plan.

But the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, sparked off controversy when Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, revealed that key officials with influence over the medication plan in his state received money and perks from drug companies with a stake in the medication algorithm (15 May, p1153). He was sacked this week for speaking to the BMJ and the New York Times.

The Texas project started in 1995 as an alliance of individuals from the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas, and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas. The project was funded by a Robert Wood Johnson grant—and by several drug companies."

I don't like this. I can smell through the bullshit public interest rhetoric. This project reeks of lost liberties and government spying, not too mention pork barelling. I think this calls for a big WTF?!?!!!!111one

Happy Anti-Fascist struggle day! :)

2004-06-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's right. Today is a holiday in Croatia honoring the struggle against fascism. Also, 179 years ago today, the British Parliament abolished feudalism and the seigneurial system. That's a pretty cool thing to celebrate. Who knows? Maybe someday we'll abolish neoliberalism and corporations? [!hope]*

In other news, the job market is still going to crap:

"The U.S. labour market -- while finally experiencing increases in job creation -- has also seen a dramatic drop in employment quality, with low-paying jobs elbowing aside higher-paying ones, CIBC World Markets said yesterday.

The brokerage's employment quality index -- which measures the overall tone of the market by looking at things such as compensation, job stability and the mix of full-time and part-time employment -- fell by eight points between 2001 and 2004, a decline CIBC called dramatic.

The slide occurred largely because of the "swapping of high-paying for low-paying jobs" with gains coming from traditionally lower-paying sectors like hospitality and education, while better-paying jobs in areas such as transportation, manufacturing and natural resources disappeared, CIBC said.

The brokerage also found that the average wage in sectors that gained jobs over the past three years was 30 per cent lower than the average wage in industries that lost jobs.
...
"The message is clear," CIBC World Markets economist Benjamin Tal said. "The vast majority of jobs that evaporated during the 'job-loss' recovery were high-quality jobs.""

Those are definitely surefire signs of the distribution of wealth being less equitable. There is a decline in decent paying jobs which is of course accompanied by the increase in low-paying jobs while the CEOs seem to be getting raises. Wait? Is that even news? It's been happening for a while now. Also, my friend showed me this cool graph the other day that basically shows how, even though the minimum wage has gone up recently, the value in actual dollars has been in steady decline or stagnation since 1978 due to inflation, and has in fact only increased by one penny since 1955.

P.S. Tomorrow marks the 13th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis in North America. That game pwns!

*mad homage to sean, by the way

"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned."-H.H.

2004-06-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updates for the past couple days. My internet was down Saturday night and all of Sunday as well as part of today.

As usual, there's a lot of horrible shit going down and the war seems to be getting worse, but I'd rather be hopeful right now. Here's something to think about:

"We humans have existed in our present form for about a hundred thousand years. I believe that if during this time the human mind had been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our overall population would have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates to me that love and compassion predominate in the world. And this is why unpleasant events are "news"; compassionate activities are so much a part of daily life that they are taken for granted and , therefore, largely ignored." -H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama

You said what now?

2004-06-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

"ASTANA, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that Iraq's Saddam Hussein planned to hit targets on U.S. soil, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Putin's remarks looked certain to help President Bush, but officials at the State Department expressed surprise, saying they knew of no such information from Russia.

Putin said Russian intelligence had been told on several occasions that Saddam's special forces were preparing to attack U.S. targets inside and outside the United States." - Reuters

Interesting revelation. I mean, Russia is a pretty respectable ally. I'm sure that our president - as intelligent as he is - would have most certainly informed at least the higher-ups that deal with national security of this information. And once that word got out, there would have been some kind of national emergency dealing with Iraq being an imminent threat. But apparently it's not very hard to prove me wrong. (from the same article by Raushan Nurshayeva)

""This information was passed on to our American colleagues," he said. He added, however, that Russian intelligence had no proof that Saddam's agents had been involved in any particular attack.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters he did not know anything about the information that Putin said Russia passed on. No such information was communicated from Russia through the State Department, he said.

"Everybody's scratching their heads," said one State Department official, who asked not to be named.

But the Kremlin leader's comments seemed certain to bolster Bush, whose campaign for re-election in November is under pressure from the Iraq crisis.

Bush has been on the defensive at home for insisting -- against the findings of an independent commission -- that Saddam had links with al Qaeda, the militant group behind the 2001 airline attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the U.S. war on terrorism.

Putin's remarks were all the more unusual since Russia had diplomatic relations with Saddam's Iraq and sided with France and Germany in opposing the invasion."

Well, isn't that just something special. I mean, soon after that, Iraq was alleged to possess stockpiles of WMDs and was labeled (although denied later) an imminent threat to the United States. Many people were skeptical of such claims. Wouldn't it make sense to pass on this information to a skeptical public for some assurance that the administration has its shit together?

Call me a skeptic, un-American terrorist, but I suspect that this is just another sign that the prez is desperate because his war and presidency is falling apart. It's a pretty clever scheme and damn, that election is getting pretty close.

2004-06-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

"Responding to the latest challenge to his policy in Iraq, Bush asserted that there were "numerous contacts" between Saddam and al Qaeda operatives that justified the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaida is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," the Republican president told reporters after meeting with his Cabinet." -Reuters

All this despite the reports by the 9-11 commission and most reasonable critiques of US foreign policy post 9/11.

I'm not sure what to do, but blaming people isn't going to stop suicide bombers from killing innocent people.

"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombers killed 41 people in two strikes on Iraq's fledgling security forces Thursday, stepping up a bloody drive to sabotage plans for U.S.-led occupation to give way to Iraqi rule on June 30."

And of course there's the 9/11 commission that determined that our air defense systems weren't prepared for the hi-jackings. I'm not sure how to take it. It seems to me that no matter how advanced our systems are -even if we had some fucking Death Star in orbit of above the continent- it wouldn't actually prevent people from attacking our country in the first place.

Okay, I need to pay attention to the spellchecker. It changed "Qaeda" to "Quaida." That's pretty stupid. I can understand not recongnizing the former, but why would it recommend the latter?

Secret arrests?

2004-06-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, I knew things were bad when the 2002 Justice Department memo to the CIA leaked and showed how the administration found ways around the Geneva Conventions to justify the use of torture on detainees and I didn't think things could have gotten worse, but apparently the State knows no limit to the obstruction of justice, as the Pentagon confirmed that Secretary of Defense Ronald Rumsfeld "ordered the secret detainment of an Iraqi prisoner, a condition in violation of the Geneva Convention." (Wikipedia)

Scary indeed. First the torture, then the secret arrests. The only thing left to do is start making people disappear.

2004-06-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the NBA Finals are over and Detroit won. People are shocked, "How did they beat the Lakers so easily?" Solidarity, motherfuckers. Solidarity.

Welcome.

2004-06-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is my blog where I'm going to talk about a lot of random things. My mind is a mob let loose when it comes to writing things, so it's hard for me to stay committed to writing in a certain style or with a limited range of content. Anyways, forget the introductions, I'll show you by example.

Right now the blog is called "Tierra Y Libertad" because I like it. It was the motto of Emiliano Zapata (it means Land and Liberty), a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution and an influence to a lot of indigenous civil rights movements in Mexico. For years he campaigned for the rights of the Indians of Morelos gain their land back from the hacendados who had stolen their land attacked their people(one group of hacendados burned down an entire village). However, the government hesitated to help the indigenous cause and the people could no longer stand the oppression of the hacendados, so Zapata led an armed force to take the land back for the Indians. It is a brutal history, but I feel the need to honor the courage of Zapata and the Indians who struggled persistently to defend their rights.

However, with that, we should remind ourselves the importance of non-violence in our struggles. Mad homage to passive resistence and civil disobedience (but to the Black Bloc, "un-arresting" is pretty damn cool).

"Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth."
The Dhammapada