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Thursday, July 18, 2002
Words of wisdom From the July 17 edition of Undernews: "THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM is the political equivalent of a stock market bubble - hope, hubris and hyperbole parading as fact. We have learned nothing since September 11: we are more belligerent, jingoistic, imperialistic, and anti-Muslim than we were before. We have thus accentuated the very conditions that led to that disaster and are now fully invested in our own myopia. The price of this error could be enormous. The alternative is to dramatically change our policies and our way of speaking of them. There is no possibility of our politicians doing this willingly; hope lies in a broad, non-partisan, pro-democratic, pro-decency, pro-constitutional coalition of conscience. Those who profess to provide moral leadership and who enjoy access to the media could still accomplish this if they chose. But time is running out." - Sam Smith
You are not the boss of us "The United Nations, the European Union and Russia have rejected Washington's call to remove Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and questioned its decision to place security for Israelis above all other goals in the region." Apparently the rest of the world isn't in thrall to the Israeli goverment the way the United States is, and instead feels that Arafat's position as the democratically elected leader of his people counts for something. Imagine that. Read the BBC World story here.
Your papers, please, citizen "'United States courts have recognized for more than a century that honest citizens have the right to travel throughout America without government restrictions. Some people say that everything changed on 9/11, but patriots have stood by our Constitution through centuries of conflict and uncertainty. Any government that tracks its citizens' movements and associations, or restricts their travel using secret decrees, is violating that Constitution,' said Gilmore. 'With this case, I hope to redirect government anti-terrorism efforts away from intrusive yet useless measures such as ID checks, confiscation of tweezers, and database surveillance of every traveler's life.'" John Gilmore, a civil libertarian who maintains the excellent Cryptome repository of interesting information the government might rather you not read, has filed a suit in U.S. District Court which contends that the secret government rule which requires air travellers to show ID is unconstitutional. Read more about it here.
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
It was never meant to be this way "The founding principles of what we now proudly call the 'American free market system' flowered in an era of enormous bribes, massive legislative corruption, and the creation of great anti-competitive cartels. It was a time when the government, in a precursor to industrial policy, gave two railroad companies 21 million acres of free land. And it was also the time that American workers, who had once used commerce to free themselves from the economic and social straitjacket of the monarchy, found themselves servants of a new rigid hierarchy, that of the modern corporation." The above is part of an excellent excerpt from Sam Smith's SHADOWS OF HOPE. The excerpt discusses the history of corporations in the United States, which have gone from being our servants to being our masters, and it's well worth a read.
Of Bushes and burqas "Laura Bush asks us to "fight for the rights and dignity of women" in Afghanistan even as the government her husband heads works actively to suppress those rights, and suffocate that dignity, by its alliance with the same old Mujahadeen it sponsored in the 1980s. So don't expect Washington to help remove any burqas soon, and don't expect the women who eventually do so to feel anything but contempt for the Bushes." This article over at Counterpunch examines many of the myths about the women of Afghanistan somehow being better off now that the U.S. has "freed" them, and takes a look back at how the U.S. has consistently supported Afghan regimes that oppressed and brutalized women. It's a very interesting read.
Monday, July 15, 2002
In case you weren't sure your government was bought... "Right after voting yesterday morning to limit debate on legislation clamping down on corporate abuses, 16 Democratic senators flew on corporate jets from Washington to Nantucket, Mass., for a weekend retreat with 250 major campaign donors." I think that pretty much speaks for itself. Read the article here.
Welcome to your police state "The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups. The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report 'suspicious activity'." Your goverment wants your mailman, your plumber, the conductor on your train, and others to sign up to inform on you. To decide whether or not you're doing anything "suspicious," and if you are, to tell the government so they can put it in a secret file about you that can be widely shared within the law enforcement community. Don't you feel safer now? The article which talks about this is, of course, not from an American newspaper.
Bush not about to reform anything "The current crisis in American capitalism isn't just about the specific details — about tricky accounting, stock options, loans to executives, and so on. It's about the way the game has been rigged on behalf of insiders. And the Bush administration is full of such insiders. That's why President Bush cannot get away with merely rhetorical opposition to executive wrongdoers. To give the most extreme example (so far), how can we take his moralizing seriously when Thomas White — whose division of Enron generated $500 million in phony profits, and who sold $12 million in stock just before the company collapsed — is still secretary of the Army?" This column by Paul Krugman does a pretty good job of summing up why George W. Bush is probably the last man you want trying to deal with the excesses of capitalism. Of course, given the fact that most officials in the U.S. goverment are either insiders or bought (or both), little of any real impact would likely be done anyway.
Campaign finance reform and free speech "Over the years, the national political parties, as well as corporations, labor unions, and the interest groups they finance, have circumvented the spirit, if not the letter, of the campaign finance laws. The new Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, known as McCain-Feingold, seeks to restore integrity to this system." This interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times discusses the idea that restricting campaign financing somehow restricts free speech. Even though the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act doesn't go far enough, it is a step toward taking back control of our government from corporations and the wealthy, and it will hopefully survive the inevitable court challenges.
You want to attack Iraq from where? "American military planners are considering using bases in Jordan to stage air and commando operations against Iraq in the event the United States decides to attack Iraq, senior defense officials said today. But Jordan has not yet been consulted specifically about the possible use of its bases, and Jordanian officials have criticized such a plan." Basically, the U.S. government want to attack Iraq, and the plan they're hoping to use requires that they attack swiftly from as many sides as possible. Unfortunately for them, Iraq's neighbors don't want us to attack Iraq at all, much less do so from their countries. And remember, this is basically the same plan that the Joint Chiefs said would require at least 200,000 troops. Read the whole article here [registration required].
Casting out the moderates "Israel today [July 9] shut down the office here of Sari Nusseibeh, the leading voice of moderation among Palestinians, accusing him of undermining Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem by serving as an agent of Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority." The Israelis (and the American government) like to talk about how much better things would be if they could only deal with a moderate Palestinian, rather than Arafat, but apparently what they mean by "moderate" is someone who isn't as devoted to the causes of the Palestinain people as Dr. Nusseibeh is. Read the New York Times article here [registration required].
Congressman standing up to the RIAA "U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher, moving to strengthen 'fair use' provisions under federal copyright law, said he is introducing a bill that would essentially restrict the record industry from selling copy-protected CDs. He also said he would introduce a bill within the week that would update the U.S. Copyright Office's Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP), which he has criticized as being mired in outdated laws that tilt against Webcasters regarding royalties on streaming music." Congressman Boucher tends to be ahead of the curve on a lot of technology issues, and has a good grasp of things like fair use and privacy. Let's hope he wins this fight. Read the whole article here.
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