"Isn't it funny how people say they'll never grow up to be their parents, then one day they look in the mirror and they're moving aircraft carriers into the Gulf region?"

Okay, okay, so it's The Onion. But still.

VoiceOfPeace.com. Inspired by the famous Israeli Voice of Peace pirate radio station.
Related :- the Offshore Radio Guide.

Refugees face starvation
In 1975, after the death of Franco, Spain withdrew from its Western Sahara colony. It was promptly annexed by Morocco against the wishes of (at least part of) the indigenous population, leading to a decades long guerilla war. During the course of this war, some 155,000 people fled to the borders with Algeria, which is where they're still living in refugee camps. These camps are wholly dependent on humanitarian aid provided via the UN world Food Programme, which is now struggling to get the funds needed to do so, according to a report from AllAfrica.

Since 1991 an UN sponsored ceasefire has been in effect between Morocco and Polisario Front and since then the UN has been trying to hld an referendum on the future of the Western Sahara. Read more about the history of the Western Sahara here.

Poll shows free speech support down
Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept. 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees...

The survey was performed by the (supposedly) non-partisan First Amendment Foundation. A PDF of the report, State of the First Amendment 2002, is available here.

Via Slashdot

Greenpeace finds American wanted for Bhopal tragedy. (Guardian)
'The former head of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, who faces homicide charges in India in connection with more than 14,000 deaths following leaks from the company's pesticides plant in Bhopal in 1984, has been tracked down to his luxury home in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York. '
'Mr Anderson was served with a copy of a warrant for his arrest by an environmental campaigner and moves are now under way to bring him to India to face trial.'

Bed art promotes 'safe sex'. (BBC) 'A young couple are to spend a week in bed in the window of a London art gallery to reinforce the importance of safe sexual practice in the fight against sexually transmitted disease. '

US presses Africa to take GM foods. (Guardian) 'The US was accused yesterday of putting intense pressure on United Nations organisations, the European Union and individual countries to support the export of GM food aid to six African countries facing severe hunger in the coming months. '

This page on water scarcity includes a 'world water shortage map' which graphically illustrates where these problems are occurring. The worst shortages are in the Middle East, parts of South Asia and China, and South Africa; this could prove to be an added complication in regions already affected by conflict.

Goya to Beijing. 'In the politically responsive spirit of Goya, internationally acclaimed contemporary artists have gathered together to remember the tragic events which took place in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, June 4, 1989. '
'The purpose of this exhibition is to commemorate the anniversary of this political struggle for democracy.'

Johannesburg: According to a report (Report in PDF format) to the World Summit on Sustainable Development now being held in Johannesburg, about 1.2 billion people have no access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion do not have adequate sanitation services. 6,000 children every day die because of lack of drinkable water, inadequate sanitation and bad hygiene.

Thanks to rapid population growth in the poorest countries, as well as laissez faire industrialisation, industrial as well as agricultural pollution threatens the drinkwater supply of millions of people. At the same time, water is rapidly becoming scarce in many places, partly due to growing use by industry and agriculture. As of now there's little check on wasteful use of water anywhere and in fact wasteful uses may even be subsidised (as I understand has been a problem in California).

Beyond this, the growing pressure on water resources (not just grondwater, but also rivers etc) by growing populations, industry and agriculture also threatens or harms entire ecosystems. Need I point out how the rich farming grounds of ancient Sumeria were ultimately destroyed by careless use of water?

Please read this report. Far more then oil, water is going to be the resource over which wars in the 21st century will be fought, if action isn't undertaken soon.

Searching for a hero: why America has turned to Winston Churchill. (Guardian)
'It is hardly surprising that President George Bush and the hawks in his administration invoke the memory of Sir Winston Churchill with ever growing fervour as they plead the historic necessity of a pre-emptive attack on Iraq. '

'In Britain the wartime prime minister's long public career is associated with many achievements, some of them admired, some remembered with anger or embarrassment. But to Americans, especially conservative Republicans, he symbolises unflinching opposition to appeasement, first to Hitler, then during the cold war to Soviet communism. '

'Never mind that the great man's record is a good deal more complex, and certainly more interesting than the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, seems to think. He was a social reactionary as well as a champion of liberty, a Victorian aristocrat and imperialist rebranded as a democratic orator in the cauldron of war ... '

The historians' view. Ben Pimlott, warden of Goldsmiths College, London; biographer of the Queen and Harold Wilson :-
"Churchill is the only Englishman any of them has ever heard of, with the possible exception of Shakespeare if they were hard-working at school. President [Lyndon] Johnson once compared Harold Wilson with Churchill. In fact, there is no comparison between Hitler and Saddam Hussein, who is not an expansionist within the region. Americans admire Churchill's brilliance, his language and oratory, his feline style. But Bush is a neanderthal with no knowledge of the world. Churchill had a great deal of knowledge. The key is being friendly to the United States. When the US feels beleaguered and has a friend in the British prime minister, the prime minister gets noticed a bit more."

Philip Ziegler, biographer of Lord Mountbatten, Harold Wilson and Edward VIII :- " ... Churchill is one of the very few non-Americans whom educated or half-educated Americans have been taught to revere. They also associate him with his Iron Curtain speech [in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946] and see it as Churchill's wake-up call for the democracies to oppose the perils of communism."

Peter Hennessy, professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London; author of Muddling Through, a History of British Government since 1945 :- " ... As for what Bush and Rumsfeld are doing, when you want to do something and need instant justification with brand recognition, you invoke Munich. Eden also invoked Munich at Suez, he said Nasser was Mussolini. It's not good enough; it just doesn't work; it's not on. It's lazy thinking."

Court refuses to reduce murder charge against Bhopal chief. (Guardian) 'A court in Bhopal, central India, refused yesterday to reduce the murder charge against Warren Anderson, the former chief executive of Union Carbide, for the gas leak from the company's pesticides plant in the city in 1984 which has killed thousands and maimed hundreds of thousands. '
'The chief judicial magistrate, Rameshar Kotha, asked for extradition proceedings to be started to bring Mr Anderson to court from the United States, although his precise whereabouts are unknown. '

Put thirst of poor communities first, demands Mandela. (Guardian) 'Nelson Mandela took the earth summit by the scruff of its neck yesterday, urging politicians to make access to clean water a basic human right and to put water and sanitation much higher up the political, economic and social agendas. '

According to BartCop, this happened recently in America because the woman was holding an anti-Bush sign.

I don't know about you folks, but those allegations make this American absolutely furious.

The "Girls" of Toulouse... Graffiti by Miss Van 01 | 02, FAFI, and KAT with the Hanky Panky Girls photographed by Bernard Tocheport.

Steve Bell cartoon archive in the Guardian. One of the most biting cartoonists in the British press; George Bush is a regular cartoonist. Readers of this blog may enjoy his work.

Jane Goodall Urges Loggers to Save African Forests

JaneGoodall.org

24 Ways Republicans Lie

Right on! (as we used to say way back when). And while we're at it, here is a letter I wrote to Paul Gigot, Editorial Page editor of the estimable Wall Street Journal concerning a column by one Melik Kaylan:

Dear Paul Gigot:
Though a liberal Democrat, I’ve been something of a fan of yours for many years. I thought the News Hour Friday political discussion went entirely flat after you left Mark Shields high & dry. // I have certain problems, though, with the column you recently ran by Melik Kaylan. Not only does she get her lede completely wrong—Dr. Johnson remarked on a dog walking on “two legs,” not, as she has it, on its “front legs,” the good doctor indicating an image of a dog dressed as a human and walking on its hind legs, a much more plausible scene and funnier that the illiterate version offered by your columnist; in any case, the entire tenor of Ms. Kaylan's piece is, quite simply, depraved. // Does the Wall Street Journal really want to go on record as calling for the bombing of the New York Times? And it is not only this statement of Coulter’s, but a long record of irresponsible hate-mongering that should make her anathema to real conservatives. She has also said that John Walker Lindh should be executed in order to “frighten liberals”—presumably by threatening them with death. I’m a liberal, I take this personally. I have no problem with principled statements of conservatism, but I ask you again, is this the sort of rhetoric with which the WSJ whishes to be associated? // Oh, you say—or your editorialist says—she’s a satirist, she’s only kidding. Please perform the following thought experiment: Imagine that James Carville or Paul Krugman had remarked to a reporter for, let’s say, The Nation, that his only regret was that Tim McVeigh hadn’t left that U-Haul in front of the Heritage Foundation. Can you imagine the hue and cry? We would be subjected to days of outraged commentary on the various news outlets. // Really, Mr. Gigot, an honorable man and a journalist who cared about the political discourse of his nation would publicly dissociate himself from the ravings of Ann Coulter. // I look forward to your response. // Professor Joseph Duemer

You, too, can write Mr. Gigot & ask him to dissociate himself from right-wing terrorist threats. If Ann Coulter had her way, American liberals would live under the sort of routine criminal harassment imposed by the Sharon government on Palestinian civilians.If Ann Coulter had her way guys like me would be in detention without access to a lawyer & without any expectation of due process. Ms. Coulter wraps herself in the flag & Ms. Kaylan adjusts her hem, but both are enemies of the Constitution. If this is Patriotism, I'll pass.

Target Iraq - Global Security.org - One stop war / anti-war portal

Military options, pros and cons of attack, anti-war sites, government, diplomatic, NGO links, military policy, breaking news, military targets, Iraq weather.

Useful :- BBC Online's religion and ethics news weblog. Views from many different perspectives, including naturally some on the Middle East.
Recently featured links include Chinese and Tibetans debate Dalai Lama's return, Does Islam promote violence? (a considered article on iviews.com), The bonds of friendship in a bitter war (Israeli and Palestinian teens in a Maine refuge), Through fire and water (Dresden's old synagogue, recently threatened by flooding), The ultimate sacrifice (the recent case of suttee in India).

Israel set on tragic path, says chief rabbi. (Guardian) 'Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, today delivers an unprecedentedly strong warning to Israel, arguing that the country is adopting a stance "incompatible" with the deepest ideals of Judaism, and that the current conflict with the Palestinians is "corrupting" Israeli culture. '

This: One tiny cut in the skin of empire; may there be a million more.

US citizens: Repeal the USA/Patriot Act.

The Rolling Stones: Cocksucker Blues by Rick "Ojo" McGrath. "...Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, commenting on Cocksucker Blues, called it 'definitely one of the best movies about rock and roll I've ever seen. It makes you think being a rock and roll star is one of the last things you'd ever want to do.' Amen to that. One has the feeling these guys are soldiers, waiting for the next battle, the next opportunity to feel alive."

Lenny Bruce audio. In these times, the old hipster is still tonic for what ails us.

War of the worlds - the speculations last year concerning the origins of the name, al-Qaida have not only failed to go away, they have provided Giles Foden with the meat for an intriguing essay in yesterday's Guardian:

I suppose I better give in and read the first Foundation trilogy, which I've managed to avoid up to now...I have to admit the idea doesn't thrill me. I always tended towards Ballard in my 70s scifi reading, such as it was.
It had struck me, as is pointed out in this article, that the same theory might apply equally to the Grundrisse, and it remains to be established whether OBL or his intellectual mentor, Abdullah Azzam, has read either one. Whatever ideological distaste - to put it very mildly - they may have for the motivations and outlooks of either Asimov or Marx is completely beside the point; I cannot believe that for all their steely-eyed puritanism, they lack a sense of irony. I mean, they're supposed to be "playas", right? How serious can you really be if you don't have a sense of irony? (via Matt Jones)

Contemporary Vietnamese political poster. [Translation: Each good person, each good act is a beautiful flower. We as a nation are a garden of beautiful flowers.]

It's frightening, really. The last two nights while trying to fall asleep I have been obsessively thinking about Ann Coulter. It's frightening, but not surprising, I suppose, since for the last several months I have been trying hard to ignore Ms. Coulter, who gives me the screaming creeps. But as any Freudian will tell you, repression will out. The proximate cause of my obsessive nocturnal visitations was a couple of remarks of the pundit reported this week pretty widely in the (left) alternative media. The first, to the effect that Timothy McVeigh should have bombed the New York Times building instead of a federal office building in Oklahoma, elicited general outrage & rightly so; but another remark really struck a nerve with me. It's a remark that has gone largely unremarked, if you will; but it is telling. Ann Coulter is apparently suffering from the delusion that she "speaks for the American people." She is quoted as making this claim in a piece in the right-wing rag the New York Observer. Here's a nasty little snippet, in which the Connecticut WASP is talking about NYC: ". . . 'we’re living in an insane asylum', Ms. Coulter said. She said she 'takes joy in liberal attacks. It’s like coffee. I mean, usually when I write up a column, I know what’s going to drive them crazy. I know when I’m baiting them, it’s so easy to bait them and they always bite. That is my signature style, to start with the wild, bald, McCarthyite overstatements—seemingly—and then back it up with methodical and laborious research. Taunting liberals is like having a pet that does tricks. Sit! Beg! Shake! Then they do it.' Ann Coulter is not a screeching reactionary? 'The American people don’t think so. I speak for them'."

I'd like to see the demographic data on who is buying Coulter's Slander. Somehow, I have the sense that it's not my neighbor Ed, who lives up the road & runs the General Store here in South Colton; & somehow I have the feeling that it's not the father of one of my students I met last night who, after dropping his kid off at my college, told me that he & his wife were going to "get the camper & go up to Blake Falls & do a little fishing." We had been talking about the Raquette River, on the banks of which both of us live. Does Ann Coulter, wearing a short black dress & sipping white wine in a snazzy NY bistro, speak for these guys? How long since she's been in a bass boat? Ed & my student's dad both may very well vote Republican, but Ed doesn't bat an eye when I walk into his store wearing my Ho Chi Minh t-shirt & dad didn't seem concerned to be dropping his kid off at a university, where, it's well-known, all the professors are card-carrying member of The Left. That's because Americans are at heart a tolerant people. Coulter's notion that she speaks for the American people is so ludicrous as to suggest a profound deficit in the realm of reality testing. That is to say, Ms. Coulter is a raving lunatic. Actually, Coulter gives most lunatics a bad name--most crazy people aren't vicious bitch-goddesses who call for the murder of people they don't like.

Fact is, Ann Coulter, child of privilege, born in Connecticut, who lives in New York City [to be read in the outraged voices of those cowboys in the salsa commercial], is a member of the Northeast media elite. She's just another one of the--I was going to say "clowns," but clowns are artists--one of the badly educated, solipsistic products of excessive affluence produced after the idealism of the sixties had died out. So, no, Ann, you don't speak for "real Americans." Ed & my students & their folks & my other neighbors on Mill Street, we're the real Americans. We have various & often conflicting political positions, but we get along with each other; we vote in our local elections, we go to work every day. We contribute our labor, physical & intellectual, to American society. Ann, what do you contribute? Despite your blonde good looks, it appears that you are a parasite within the body politic. You're a fucking alien, Ann. You make us real Americans sick with your lies. I had to worm a puppy the other day--man, he hated that medicine, but today he's romping around with a shiny coat & a good appetite. That puppy loves everybody, too. There were some worms in his gut that he shit out. They're dead.

Abu Nidal sows chaos from the grave. (Observer) 'As confessions go it was spectacular, but little remarked on outside of the specialist circles that monitor these things. Youssef Shaaban, aged 29, and a self-confessed member of Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council, was on trial for his life in a Beirut court for murdering a Jordanian diplomat when he stood up and insisted that he be heard. '

'Shaaban had a statement to make. To the surprise of those gathered in court, he claimed that six years before - in 1988 - he had been personally responsible for the bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people. '

'His claim was immediately dismissed, both by the judge and by the few who bothered to comment on the confession. ' [ ... ]

'But now Nidal is dead in Baghdad - shot four times in the head, according to the Iraqis, who also say he committed suicide. And once again Nidal is in the frame for Lockerbie, although former Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi is serving a life sentence for the attack. '

Divine Chocolate. Fair trade choccies; small-scale
cocoa growers in Ghana own a chocolate company in the
UK.

The Great Speckled Bird. 'Underground' newspaper from Atlanta, dating from the 1960's.
The Rock Art Museum.
Steal This Web Page. Guide to Abbie Hoffman.

Time
Travel to the Korean War. The website of
Kim Dong Gyu, a South Korean high school student, and
his friends.
'Our team, Synergy, took great pains to select a
topic for this entry. At first, we were hesitant to
base our entire project on the Korean War due to its
bleak nature, but after careful deliberation, we
realized that we had a mission to fulfill. Our
mission was to dig up the Korean War from the ashes
and stop it from fading away as "the forgotten war." ... '

Archie Loves Betty, Veronica, and the FBI
My favorite blog, Common-Place Book, writes, “Since 1954, the Comics Magazine Association of America has issued a Comics Code Authority Seal to comics submitted by publishers which meet the standards of the Comics Code. In practice, the Code was used as a tool of censorship, since it was nearly impossible to sell unapproved comics to newstands and mass merchandisers. With the rise of specialty comic book stores in the mid-80's, most publishers have opted out of the Comics Code.” The code was updated in 1971 and again in 1989. The 1989 version adds:

In general, recognizable national, social, political, cultural, ethnic and racial groups, religious institutions, law enforcement authorities will be portrayed in a positive light. These include the government on the national, state, and municiple levels, including all of its numerous departments, agencies and services; law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, the Secret Service, the CIA, etc.; the military, both United States and foreign; known religious organizations; ethnic advancement agencies; foreign leaders and representatives of other governments and national groups; and social groups identifiable by lifestyle, such as homosexuals, the economically disadvantaged, the economically privileged, the homeless, senior citizens, minors, etc.

CPB notes, “DC Comics and Archie are the publishers who still abide by the Code to portray the CIA, ethnic advancement agencies and the economically privileged in a positive light.”

Flashback :- Lockerbie was an impossible verdict.
'Lockerbie Trial Unfair'. Report on and evaluation of the Lockerbie trial by Dr. Hans Köchler, University Professor, international observer of the International Progress Organization nominated by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the basis of Security Council resolution 1192 (1998).

Aide says Nidal confessed to Lockerbie bombing. (Guardian Unlimited) 'The Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal admitted to a meeting of his most trusted colleagues that he was behind the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing and the culprits were not Libyans, it is claimed today in a leading Arabic newspaper. '
'In an interview with the London daily, Al-Hayat, a former colleague, Atef Abu Bakr, says Nidal made the confession to the inner circle of his revolutionary council some time before his death earlier this week. '
[ ... ]
'Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, has long maintained that Nidal was to blame, and not Libyans. Last night he said: "If true, this is a hugely important development. If he has said that no one else had anything to do with it, where does that leave Mr al-Megrahi? I believe the Libyans had nothing to do with it. This is one hell of a thing." '
'He said that the Foreign Office must now investigate Bakr's claims "as a matter of the utmost urgency". '

Symbol of a Profession: One Hundred Years of Nurses' Caps. 'The caps shown here are a selection from the 167 Mrs. Kay recently donated to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The Gloria Kay Nurses' Caps Collection is now the most comprehensive of its kind, dating from 1895 to 1983 and representing every province.'

akaKurdistan. 'This site, a borderless space, provides the opportunity to build a collective memory with a people who have no national archive.'

Sneaking up on America. A long bike ride from Miami to Seattle.
'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry,and narrow-mindedness.. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of people and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. - Mark Twain.'

Multimedia edition of Galileo's notes on motion. Courtesy of the
Institute and
Museum of the History of Science, Florence.


This Land Is Ours. A land reform campaign for
Britain.
'TLIO campaigns peacefully for access to the land, its
resources, and the decision-making processes affecting
them, for everyone, irrespective of race, gender or
age.' Of related interest :-
Rural Futures.


Hiroshima Peace Site.

War game was fixed to ensure American victory, claims general - on the face of it, a slightly alarming revelation, but who's to say for sure that Saddam won't be amenable to similar collusion when the real thing goes off, in return for safe passage to Sudan, or wherever? After all, he past record shows he's the kind of guy that Bush, Cheney and co. can do business with... (Guardian via Robot Wisdom)

Sharon Leong... Teen-Age Terror. From Works by Sharon Leong, The Queen of B-Paintings. "...If you're a fan of the old dramatic bad-girl pulp paperback covers, then Ms. Leong's art will quicken your pulse. Humorously sexy, lovingly cliche and dead on creatively genius, Ms. Leong's art will very soon be gracing museum walls." JT Leroy, Author (Sarah; The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things).

So you've been wondering how the EU equivalent of the DMCA, the EUCD, is taking shape? Wonder no more: Danny O'Brien has posted a summary at Stand, and the news isn't terriby good. But there's a handy step-by-step guide to what little we can do to resist the clampdown... (via Oblomovka)
ASIDE: apologies for mistakenly posting this here - it was intended for my own blog. Must... fix... bookmarklets...

Please put your hands together and welcome to this domain none other than proud blog voyeur Relton Dupiniot!

Is American Samizdat one of your favorite political blogs? Do you want to help stop Ann Coulter from co-opting the term 'samizdat' for her neocon allies? Then click here to vote for American Samizdat to be included among Eric Alterman's blog links. Thank you for your support!

Coca-Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to Target Union Leaders - Colombia Report

IRAQ LINKS

Index page for IAEA Iraq inspection reports
Cordesman describes CBRN scenario
The issue of disease in Bagdad - Declassified DIA document
Commercial satellites track suspected WMD facilities
Annan pressures Iraq on 600 Kuwaitis missing in war
Phyllis Bennis interview - Bombing Bagdad would be comparable to bombing LA
Blix: Invasion Talk Won't Get Inspectors Into Iraq
Directed-Energy Weapons (high-power microwave (HPM) technology) : Possible U.S. Use Against Iraq Could Threaten International Regimes
RFE/RL Iraq Report
Winds of Change Iraq Roundup - Bonus: Millenium Challenge 2002 replay and a Report from Sudan

Turn Yourself In and Get It Over With
Our governmental vigilance against hidden sources of potential terrorism is, as you know, expanding rapidly. It quite naturally includes the deepest suspicion directed toward those of you so dangerously misguided as to foolishly disagree with any of our activities. The thought of the United States of America continuing to tolerate so-called normal citizens who insist on harboring hurtful negative attitudes toward those holding the reins of power is clearly unacceptable. Such disagreement is shockingly counterproductive to a beleaguered government trying to rid itself of a few dangerous enemies while simultaneously taking over as much of the world's resources as possible. Because if you think this is easy to pull off without too many people noticing, you can think again.

Nissan accelerates fuel cell vehicle plans

The anthrax killer - thoughts from a linguist who helped catch the Unabomber

"Controversially, Prof Foster says the killer is likely to be highly patriotic individual who wanted to demonstrate that the US was badly prepared for an act of biological terrorism."

Was Millenium Challenge 2002 Rigged?

What do we do about our ex-generals who come up with unconventional tactics that might actually win?

Corporate vandals Coke and Pepsi deface majestic Himalayas

Geov Parrish sits down with Vandana Shiva

Get Informed : Get Mad : Fight for Justice

Are you Rapture Ready? Includes: Satan's Little Helpers -- "The liberal media who else could it be," a Prophetic Top Ten List and Your Final Final Final Warning . . . "This time we're serious."

(special preview to a new look for mister pants . . . will disappear soon, shhhh . . . )

The meaning to the recent Zilla craze . . .

Samizdatzilla?

Scott Ganz, warblogger, in the comments section at Warblogger Watch:

Why exactly do you people keep Menlo around? All he does is link external content. Whatever one might say about the rest of your writings, they at least required thought.

Face it. Menlo is a plagiarizing waste of space. Even if he links to the holy grail itself, he's still just pointing and expecting a pat on the back.

Whether or not what Menlo linked is funny, the fact remains that all he does is paste up links to other peoples' content. I've done more work pissing in this comments section than he's done all month.

Take a look at my page, and you'll note immediately that more than 2/3 of it is entirely, as Shuggie Otis would say, Aht Uh Mi Hed. . . . Since I, unlike the WBW crowd, am over 17 years of age, I've been to college. . . . Ohhh, so nobody's supposed to write anything. We're just supposed to link other people's work in a maddening mobius strip of hypertext? Anyone can post a link and say "go". It is one who writes, which includes everyone at WBW except Menlo, who at the very least puts something of themselves into their work. . . . If Menlo is the site's tech guru, then that's another story.

No comment.

Skinhead Markings... 01 | 02. "...Tattoos depicting scenes from Norse mythology on a neo-nazi skinhead, early 90s." From South-Africa Political Photographs at Raath.org. "...Photographs taken between 1988 and 1993 at political gatherings in Pretoria, South Africa, reflecting the ultra-nationalist zeitgeist."

The Nation presents: No Rush to War, a resource guide for those who don't believe that peace equals war.

U.S. Christian Zionists stage telethon in support of 'My People'

Tom Tomorrow is working with Michael Moore on an animated movie.

Also, I picked up this interesting tidbit from the Well with, unfortunately, no source attached: " . . . the reason Moore will be able to publish a book on the 2004 election in 2003 is that he had a 'deep throat' contact in the Bush camp and already knows how they'll rig the next election -- no more clumsy wipe-outs of 50,000 black Florida voters from the voter roles as 'felons' (followed by a news blackout by all major American media -- though not all British, for instance), no more ugly judicial coup d'etat. No, they've got something much simpler & more fool proof in mind this time, and Moore has the scoop!"

I was unpleasantly surprised tonite to see Bartcop rail so vociferously against Moore. Perhaps Bartcop has not seen this: Poll Analysis: Nader not responsible for Gore's loss, via Eliot Gelwan, the Indispensable.

But who will Bartcop the Bartcop? . . .

Conservatives praise Bush for opting out of U.N. Earth Summit

Blaming of the Shrew, by Richard Cohen

May I say something about Ann Coulter? She is a half-wit, a termagant, a dimwit, a blowhard, a worthless silicone nothing, physically ugly and could be likened to Eva Braun. As it happens,   these are all descriptions or characterizations Coulter uses for others in her book, "Slander." It ought to be called "Mirror." [more]

Free Culture - Lawrence Lessig

30-min. Flash slideshow - The current state of intellectual property and its ramifications on creativity and culture.

Artificial Vision Research - Wired

Technology that lets the blind see again.

Clandestine Radio - A World Guide

"Clandestine radio is a field encompassing journalism, diplomacy, and war. Created to disseminate propaganda, clandestine radio has played a major role in every conflict around the world. ClandestineRadio.com keeps the pulse on these fascinating radio stations and the groups who sponsor them."

Shortwave Radio Listening Resource Center

Malaria Vaccine Breakthrough

kimwalks.org - A Welfare Reform Blog

Dayton, Ohio blogger Kim Denmark has vowed to walk around the nation seeking support for those who have fallen victim to the nation's "failed" welfare system.

Northwest Tribes Fight to Keep Native Culture Alive

Bush's Conspiracy to Riot

After the Miami “Brooks Brothers Riot” – named after the protesters’ preppie clothing – no government action was taken beyond the police rescuing several Democrats who were surrounded and roughed up by the rioters. While no legal charges were filed against the Republicans, newly released documents show that at least a half dozen of the publicly identified rioters were paid by Bush’s recount committee. [more]

10 Years After the Coup in Russia
"They ordered tanks and troops into the capital. They isolated Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at his seaside villa and reportedly confiscated the key to the country's awe-inspiring nuclear arsenal. They laid the groundwork for ousting Gorbachev and reversing his liberal policies. What the 1991 coup plotters did not have was a clear plan of action, a set chain of command and the resolve to crush the spontaneous protests by tens of thousands of Muscovites." Lots of essays from The Moscow Times.

How Kwasi Setu, DC activist, Disappeared for 11 Months: "Environmental activist Kwasi Setu disappeared last year during a trip to the South. He managed to get word out that he had been kidnapped by sheriffs in Georgia who were holding him in jail without charging him. This is apparently normal treatment of black men by white sheriffs in Georgia, for Kwasi reported that the jail was full of men who had not been charged. They had not seen a magistrate, let alone a lawyer and a judge, and were being held without charge -- some for as long as 9 months!"

I was inordinately pleased last Saturday morning to hear that Ann Coulter was about to be interviewed by FAIR on Counterspin . . . the resulting exchange was a bit on the mind-boggling side. When confronted with a quote by herself that she apparently does not like, she calls it a "lie." Like when she allegedly told a Vietnam Vet that it was people like him that lost the war. When asked how the media can be so right-wing when she is plastered all over it, she mentions something incomprehensible about "not being taken out and shot yet." When given examples of the right-wing method of personal insults against political opponents, she either claims it was a mistake, calls it a "lie," or says she never heard of it. When Rush Limbaugh said, "Here is a picture of the White House dog," and showed a picture of Chelsea Clinton, this, according to Coulter, was a mistake. FAIR points out that this was done twice, was that also a mistake? I could go on and on, but I found her method of "polemics" highly disturbing, to say the least. Most disturbing, however, was her co-opting of the term "samizdat." She referred to the neocon media in America today as "what I call samizdat media." Perhaps I can refute her claim the next time I appear on television.

WHY WE MUST INVADE IRAQ RIGHT NOW!

Depressed about Student Loans?



The Brits appear more concerned about 20-somethings and floundering young people than their American counterparts. They acknowledge that replacing grants with debt has a downside: "Students who fear getting into debt are also more likely to suffer from depression."



(Cross-posted to MetaFilter.)
Any comments or experiences to share?

Linx to Pages of SRS-D / CRC

Nicaragua's president calls on lawmakers to strip ex-president of his immunity
Former President Arnoldo Alemán faces all kinds of corruption charges. I bet he never saw this coming from his own former vice-president. Their political party isn't happy either.

help fight terrorism

Tired of all that blood for oil? Roll up to your elected representative on your own home brewed biodiesel using any of these handy guides. (Goggles recommended. Diesel vehicle required.)

Seán Hillan... The Professionals, #2 (1989, photomontage). "...The street is High St. in Newry, where my mother's parents lived, and is prominent in my few early memories. The idea of both the red bus and the '45 wielding eejit appearing in it is both exciting and horrifying." From Photomontage by Seán Hillan. Fabulous scalpel-and-glue photomontages based on Hillan's own documentary photographs shot in northern Ireland, 1983-1993.

Two from the Quakers: Toppling Saddam Hussein: Troubling, Unanswered Questions and Alternatives to War Against Iraq.

Palestinian Malnutrition Found: Malnutrition and anemia have reached critical levels among Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip and are growing worse in the West Bank because of interruption of food supplies during the Palestinian uprising, according to a study commissioned by the US Agency for International Development and released here yesterday.

US Tries to Halt Rights Suit Against Exxon

The US is trying to quash a human rights lawsuit launched by Indonesian villagers against Exxon Mobil, claiming it could undermine the war on terrorism.

The State Department warned that the action alleging complicity in human rights abuses by the oil group could have a "potentially serious adverse impact" on US interests and the struggle against terrorism.

The lawsuit was filed last year by the International Labour Rights Fund on behalf of 11 villagers in the Indonesian province of Aceh. They claim Exxon Mobil, which operates a natural gas field in the province, paid and directed Indonesian security forces that carried out murder, torture and rape in the course of protecting the company's operations in the 1990s. [more]

"Law enforcement has the right to enforce the law of the land, but the First Amendment is also the law of the land, and right now those laws are coming into conflict," says Joyce Meskis. She ought to know. She helped write Protecting Customer Privacy in Bookstores, a pamphlet for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. She probably didn't realize that she would eventually be following her own advice...

Now put down that book and back away slowly, citizen.

The Plaster Casters of Chicago (Cynthia Plaster Caster, mid-'70s publicity shot). From Cynthia Plaster Caster. "...Hi, I'm Cynthia and I'm a recovering groupie. I make plaster casts of penises and breasts that are attached to rock stars and other talented earthlings."

Cruel and Usual
How some of American's best zoos get rid of their old, infirm, and unwanted animals

New Braunfels, Texas–Deep amid the weeds and trash alongside Interstate 35, rusty cages and flimsy wire enclosures hold what's left of a former roadside zoo: six primates, three or four New Guinea singing dogs, a few exotic birds, and several African meerkats. The saddest residents are two rare white-handed gibbons, small apes listed as an endangered species. But the male-female pair is imperiled for another reason. They are the neglected castoffs from one of the nation's top wildlife institutions, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y. [more]

USS Liberty Attack By Israel On The History Channel August 11th

From the USS LIBERTY Memorial site: "During the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab States, the American intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked for 75 minutes in international waters by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats. Thirty-four men died and 172 were wounded . . . The attack has been a matter of controversy ever since."

Man Criticizes Government, Story at Eleven: Of course, if we lived in the America that existed before we all became a bunch of pathetic bleating sheep, some "red blooded Americans" might actually show some concern that Americans are being hauled off as "material witnesses" and then upgraded to "enemy combatants" and locked up for the duration of the "war" (or the Apocalypse, whichever comes first).

F-16s Pursue UFO Near DC: "It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed," Rogers said. "This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I told my neighbor, 'I think those jets are chasing a UFO.' "

From the Washington Post, no less.

Camworld: "I just realized that one of the reasons 'the plan' to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq is public knowledge is that the Bush administration needs it to be public knowledge. The Bush administration plans to spend $396.1 billion on military operations and national defense in the 2003 fiscal year. The best way to spend this much money is to launch a large, senseless military campaign against another country. Instead of sending in a few small groups of highly-trained infiltrators and assassins to get the job done quickly (and in comparison, cheaply), Bush is rewarding the defense and military industries, which are also considered Big Business. It makes me ill to think that there might be such an hidden agenda and that the American public are being told that such a 'war' in Iraq is needed. By going public with the whole Iraq thing, the Bush administration gains enough of the support they need from the American public to spend so much money, even though not a single country has come out and said they will support the U.S. if they go through with the plan. [links via The One to Go]"

Invasion on autopilot
The Bush wars and public dissent -- then and now

This week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding hearings of George Junior's intent to invade Iraq again. Just like Daddy. Unlike 12 years ago, there is no compelling invasion of Kuwait (or fake incubator deaths) to spur global outrage (and alarm over oil supply). There is, in fact, no compelling reason of any sort to go to war against Iraq. The only recent development cited by the Bush Administration is the claim that Iraq is developing new "weapons of mass destruction." That claim that has consistently been considered patently absurd by the rest of the world, including a succession of United Nations officials charged with looking into such things. Several of the ones who've headed the "Food for Oil" program, or who've served as weapons inspectors in Iraq, have quit their jobs (and careers) and become full-time activists trying to counter White House propaganda (under both Clinton and Bush) and the steady, inexorable war drums of the past two years. [more]

Judge Orders Detainee Names Released
“The government must reveal the names of those held in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled Friday, rejecting claims terrorists could use the information to plot new crimes. The Justice Department has not justified a blanket policy of secrecy about more than 1,000 people picked up since the jetliner attacks, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled. She gave the government 15 days to provide the names.”

Turkey bans the death penalty, legalizes broadcast in Kurdish
Next stop, the European Union.

All that and perhaps the beginning of the end of Africa's ‘First World War'. Finally, some good news.

Punk in Los Angeles - 1977. Mark Vallen's Punk Rock Portraits. "...As an Artist I've always been interested in oppositional culture and the shock of the new, so when the Punk Rock movement hit Los Angeles in the 70's, I was enthralled. I immediately recognized the Punk scene as fertile ground for expressions of dissent and cultural insurrection, so I wasted no time in joining the ranks of the Blank Generation." Also... Punk Flyers from Los Angeles - circa 1977 and A visual survey of early Punk Rock Album Covers. From Art For A Change.

IRAQ BUILDS MASSIVE LOVE BOMB

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a briefing at the Pentagon today, head skeletor Donald Rumsfeld announced new U.S. intelligence sources reporting that Iraq is in the process of building a "massive love bomb," capable of instilling the entire North American continent with overwhelming feelings of unconditional love.

"And it just wouldn't know any bounds," explained Rumsfeld. "Christians loving Buddhists, Americans loving Canadians, rich people loving the homeless--it would destroy the American Way of Life as we know it."

"Love, love, love, all you need is love."

-- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

EPA Official Promises More Superfund Documents After Senator Complains

More evidence of the hostility of Cheney admin towards the concept of 'open government'--you know, that outdated hi-ideal right up there with affirmative action and free and fair elections . . .

Rwanda: Three Journalists Sentenced to "Preventative Detention"

FBI: Just 200 Hard-Core Al-Qaeda

"Al-Qaeda itself, we know, is less than 200," said an FBI official, referring to those who have sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

That figure -- far fewer than recent press reports have suggested are in the U. S. alone -- is based on evidence gathered by the FBI and CIA. It includes Al-Qaeda members who are now in custody at Guantanamo Bay.

"Everyone tries to tie everything into 9-11 and Al-Qaeda," said one of the two FBI officials interviewed Friday on condition of anonymity. "There was a recent report suggesting that Al-Qaeda is about 5,000 strong. It is nowhere near 5,000 strong." [more]

Link via Tom Tomorrow