Republic of Palau in hospital

So posting may be light this week, as it was yesterday (try non-existent).

Don't worry this is not an emergency visit: we knew she had to go into hospital for some much needed cleanup surgery to remove old scar tissue from earlier, long ago operations which lead to some nasty recurring health problems. She's been on the waiting list since last year, it's just the timing that was unexpected. She got a call yesterday whether she wanted the surgery *today*, as another patient had dropped out and the hospital had an operation room sitting empty otherwise.

Which forced a slight alteration of plans on our part, getting everything ready to go to hospital yesterday afternoon, me getting back from work, she packign her suitcases and all, but we made it to arrive at the hospital and being told ...nothing. Nobody knew anything other than that surgery was scheduled for today, the surgeon who was supposed to come round never came and we had to threaten with leaving before we got to speak to somebody who did know what was going on, by phone. Not the best start for an operation, no matter how safe it's supposed to be.

Anyway, Palau is supposed to go into operation now and may end up having to stay in hospital a week or so. If you want to cheer her up, leave get well wishes in the comments box or, if you're feeling generous, take a look at her Amazon UK wishlist.

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Posted 12:07 PM by Martin Wisse

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NEWSFLASH: "flopped" Kos book sells more than Reynolds

So Drudge claims that Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas' Crashing the Gate is a flop. Patrick Nielsen Hayden puts him right:

As of this morning (27 April 2006 --ed.), for Reynolds’ An Army of Davids (February 2006), Bookscan reports 1716 retail sales and 2609 “discount” sales, for a total of 4325.

As of this morning, for Armstrong and Kos’s Crashing the Gate (March 2006), Bookscan reports 2598 retail sales and 1804 “discount” sales, for a total of 4402.

In other words, despite the fact that it’s been available for four fewer weeks, Kos and Armstrong’s book has now clocked Bookscan sales in excess of Reynolds’. Notably, several hundred more full-price sales. This is leaving aside the fact that Kos and Armstrong’s book is currently at #40 on Amazon, whereas Reynolds’ is at #801.

Notice that while the difference in total sales between the Reynolds and the kos/Amstrong book is not that much, the latter relies much less on "discount" sales...

Read more about: rightwing lying

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Posted 9:10 AM by Martin Wisse

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Whatsa matter, can't handle a joke?

Let's see how these loonies react when the joke's on them!

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Posted 7:04 PM by Martin Wisse

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Childish losers

A spectre is haunting Congres --the spectre of socialist softball playoffs: [1].

Starting this week, hundreds of young Capitol Hill aides will indulge in an annual rite of spring here by changing out of their business suits and heading over to the National Mall to play in the Congressional Softball League. Amid all the partisan rancor of congressional politics, the softball league has for 37 years been a rare case of bipartisan civility, an opportunity for Democratic and Republican aides to sneak out of work a bit early and take the field in the name of the lawmaker, committee or federal agency they work for.

This year, the league will be missing something: a lot of the Republicans.

During the off-season, a group of Republican teams seceded from the league after accusing its Democratic commissioner, Gary Caruso, of running a socialist year-end playoff system that gives below-average teams an unfair chance to win the championship.

The league "is all about Softball Welfare -- aiding the weak by punishing the strong," the pitcher of one Republican team told Mr. Caruso in an email. "The commissioner has a long-standing policy of punishing success and rewarding failure. He's a Democrat. Waddya' expect?" read another email, from Gary Mahmoud, the coach of [no]Boehner[withoutViagra]Land, a team from the office of Republican Majority Leader John Boehner.

There's nothing so small or embarassing for these people not to throw a tantrum about, there's othing they won't cheat at to "win", as they cannot win anything without cheating or whining.

Losers.

[1] Credit: FlipYrWhig.

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Posted 2:34 PM by Martin Wisse

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The Ambassadors

Why all the pretend horror at US secret prisons and government-sponsored human trafficking? Lets face it, this is nothing new - it's not as though this kind of thing isn't happening to children in the USA every day, and you don't hear too many bleeding-heart wusssy liberals complaining. Why, it's character building! You might even grow up to be a US ambassador, or a one-star general, or Halliburton operative...

From Dissident Voice, via Jesus' General:

“You wouldn’t believe the terrible things that were done to me,” says Alexia Parks’ niece in An American Gulag. [1] But she continues: “I know now it was for my own good.” Thus ends Parks’ account of her struggle to help her niece after she was enrolled in several behavior modification schools. The similarity to the end of 1984 is striking: a previously headstrong individual returns from months of torture as merely a shell of their former self, having learned to love their tormentors. The difference is that Parks’ story is true.

Usual definitions of torture include the use of practices such as solitary confinement, non-medical application of psychiatric drugs, unprovoked beatings, starvation, and verbal abuse as means to change a person’s behavior. Many Americans are reluctant to support the use of these techniques even on criminals, much less teenagers with behavioral problems. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is being done on a large-scale basis as “tough-love” programs have become a booming industry. These programs come in several varieties, including boot camps, “therapeutic” boarding schools or academies, and wilderness programs. At the cost of several thousand dollars per month (up to $40,000/year), these schools supposedly provide a climate where troubled teens can continue their regular education while receiving treatments designed to improve their behavior.

In the philosophy of these schools, reform involves two goals: to break kids down through strict discipline and routine, then to build them back up through self-examination and therapy of various sorts. Usually, only the former is accomplished. So successful is the breaking down process that former inmates of these institutions often suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, even years after being freed. Ex-students call themselves, with good cause, “survivors”.

The Victims

A reasonable estimate is that at any given time, several thousand American teenagers are enrolled in such a program. Sometimes these teens are incorrigible delinquents, who commit petty crimes, do drugs, and make life miserable for their parents. Parents send them to “tough love” programs out of worry that the kid is jail-bound. But just as often, parents enroll their kids in these programs because of more banal worries -- that their kid has had premarital sex, experimented with alcohol and pot, or merely because the teen is defiant and talks back. One of the common factors is that teens sent to these programs seem to suffer disproportionately from ADD, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse problems.

I posted earlier about the US ambassador to Azerbaijan's recall for being involved in human trafficking. Interestingly enough, he's not the only Bush appointed ambasaasdor with a record in abusing human rights:

Ambassador de Sade By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet. Posted November 8, 2005.

Bush rewarded one of his loyalists with the ambassadorship to Italy -- despite his past as the founder of an cult-like teen rehab clinic.

Among our president's appointments of GOP activists to important posts, we've done worse than Melvin Sembler, the Ambassador to Italy who couldn't speak Italian. Unlike the FEMA chief, who had real responsibilities, Sembler sometimes found himself a fifth wheel around his own embassy. As the Washington Monthly has reported, the scandal that claimed Scooter Libby's job last month may have sprung from secret Rome meetings between neocons, an Iran-Contra figure and an Italian intelligence boss who later pushed phony WMD documents -- all behind Sembler's back.

Mel Sembler, former US Ambassador to Italy.

But where Melvin Sembler, 74, demands attention is as an object lesson in how cruelty can be redeemed by the transformative power of political donations. For 16 years, Sembler, with his wife Betty, directed the leading juvenile rehab business in America, STRAIGHT, Inc., before seeing it dismantled by a breathtaking array of institutional abuse claims by mid-1993. Just one of many survivors is Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent in Pennsylvania, who told The Montel Williams show this year about overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine, feces and menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she gnawed her cheek and spat blood at her overseers. "I refused to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse took years to overcome.

Read Whole Story

These are the people Bush chose for his government. There was no dissembling, they were clearly crooks and liars. Like Negroponte and his death-squad background, these people's records were clear as day for anyone who cared to look. The American public just couldn't be bothered, and nor could the media just like they can't be bothered now. Someone's child is being raped while I'm eating my cereal? Feh. Pass the sugar, what's on Fox?

Just why are they so bloody squeamish? Why are so many Americans loth to even discuss torture, acting as though it's just an embarassing social slip-up , not what it actually is, the basic negation of the humanity of anyone other than yourself?

Damn Americans, this is your country, these are your people, you put them there to do the things they're doing, you take them away. If you don't, you deserve everything you've got coming.

The Greek public greeted Condi Rice today with rocks and teargas. When will you start doing the same?

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Posted 4:43 PM by Republic of Palau

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No Justice

Tony Blair and Home Secretary Charles Clarke are making unprecedented direct attacks against journalists of two liberal newspapers who dared to criticise their piss-poor civil liberties record. I sense a smokescreen being put up - keep the rags busy - and funny how all this blows up, just as news about their biggest offence against civil liberties to date, the Jean-Charles De Menezes state-sponsored murder, comes out.

It seems to me that the biggest civil liberty there is is the right not to be executed without trial by deathsquads of armed paramilitaries acting on state orders.

Bumped over from Wisse Words, with no apologies for nepotism:

Sun 23 Apr 2006

Menezes killers not charged?

Or so The Sun alleges:

THE police officers who shot dead innocent suicide bomb suspect Jean Charles de Menezes at a Tube station last year will not face charges, according to a tabloid newspaper.

There is insufficient evidence of criminal offences in the shooting of the 27-year-old Brazilian at Stockwell Station, in south London, on July 22, according to a lawyer reviewing the case for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr De Menezes was shot in the head seven times by officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber in the wake of last July's London bombings.

The lawyer quoted in The Sun said: "Mistakes were made but they do not amount to criminal misconduct.

"The firearms officers were acting under orders. Those in charge of surveillance believed he was a suspect.

"There is no realistic prospect that they will be prosecuted."

In other news, it seems that Brian Paddick a Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner is being kicked off the force, for the crime of testifying against Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner:

Friends of Paddick said he had been offered the option of going on "gardening leave" for the next six months. This would last until November, when he has the option of retiring with a full police pension after 30 years’ service.

If agreed, the deal would mean Paddick spending half a year being paid £52,000 -- half his estimated £104,000 annual salary -- for doing nothing.

The Met has offered Paddick the alternative of taking a posting involving a "less visible position" that would mean him rarely visiting Scotland Yard. Colleagues say Paddick, who was on holiday last week, is now considering his options.

[...]

Earlier this year Paddick gave investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission a signed statement that appeared to contradict Blair’s account of the aftermath of the shooting.

Paddick testified that Moir Stewart, a key member of Blair’s private office, had been told just six hours after the shooting that police might have killed an innocent man.

Blair has maintained that the first he and his advisers knew of the error was 24 hours after the shooting.

It seems the coverup is in full effect. And it seems nobody is paying attention anymore, as I haven't seen either story mention on the usual blogs. Will the Metropolitan Police really get away with another murder?

Read more about: Jean Charles de Menezes, Menezes Killing, Menezes coverup, Brian Paddick, Metropolitan police, Ian Blair

Comments Trackback

Posted by Martin Wisse at 10:32AM PDT [ Permalink] End of post.

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Posted 11:29 AM by Republic of Palau

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Desert Island Derivatives

As the current series of Desert Island Discs has ended, and Little Miss Stranglingly-Tight-Knickers, Sue Lawley, has taken her cut-glass vowels elsewhere, there is a lack of a certain something on a Sunday mornings.

Thanks then, to Shakespeare's Sister for this handy replacement:

Question of the Day

posted by Shakespeare's Sister Friday, April 21, 2006 permalink Stranded on a desert island (with plenty of electronics) edition... You get to take with you one of each of the following:

~ album ~ book ~ film ~ complete television series

Which do you take? I take Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors, because, since it's new, I've heard it the least, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Harold and Maude, and Six Feet Under, because I haven't seen the last two seasons yet.

Me?

Album would be Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations, because I've been listening to it while gardening, and it's one of the few pieces of music my younger son and I are totally sympatico on. The book, either the collected Mapp & Lucia ( all human life is there) or Arthur Mee's Childrens' Encyclopaedia in all its colonial colour-plate glory. Film would be Koyanisqatsi. I could watch it over and over. TV series, I'm torn over whether to choose Blue Planet or the new series on BBC 2 of colour films from the late 1920's, The Lost World Of Frieze-Green. or at least that's what I'd choose this morning. Tomorrow it might be something else entirely - that's the fun of desert island games.

It wouldn't be a proper desert island game without a luxury to choose as well, so I'll add to the list

Mine would be an inexhaustible teapot, sugar bowl and milkjug. Unless I were to attempt to bail out the ocean with it, I fail to see it's utility as an esacpe vector. And it would cheer me up no end to have a cup of tea when needed.

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Posted 12:51 PM by Republic of Palau

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On Reading Will Hutton On a Lovely Spring Morning

His latest article: "Why the Euston group offers a new direction for the left ".

I'd hardly characterise a bunch of past- it think-tank wonks and booze=sozzled journos, whose current collective experience of real life barely extends beyond the pubs of Bloomsbury, ' as the left'.

Note to Mr Hutton - you don't do our thinking for us. Go back to sucking up to ministers.

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Posted 11:15 AM by Republic of Palau

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A Certain Style

Henry Porter has been standing in for The Observer's Andrew Rawnsley, and I wish it would remain so, as Rawnsley is dreadfully turgid. I understand he's well-regarded by the average political journalist, but boy, he's dull.

Porter on the other hand is an outspoken critic of Blair's dictatorial, anti-democratic tendencies and also of the quiet, almost covert way in which New Labour is cutting the heart out of what's left of the British legal system and making the state, in the person of the prime minister, all-powerful.

Blair, sensing a real threat from this angle of attack and knowing he is weak, obviously considers attack is the best form of defence (at least he's consistent) and has launched a PR offensive via a heavily-spun public email exchange with Porter in today's Observer.

There's not much new here; Blair merely drags out his tired old 'resolute-leader, law n'order, straight-kinda-guy' schtick one more time to get a headline, any headline, before the local elections, but buried in the spin and verbiage is this:

Plans are being drawn up for a super-strength variant of the anti-social behaviour order, for those suspected of involvement in organised crime such as drug smuggling or sex trafficking.

Suspects would be forbidden from associating with accomplices or visiting certain places on pain of jail, restricting their liberty in an unprecedented way. Such civil orders can be obtained with less proof than a court conviction.

(For a rundown on that bastard stepchild of legislation, the ASBO, and its pernicious effects, see here.)

I have my differences with the Labour party, heaven knows. I grew up with the party and the T&G union though I've since moved far to the left, largely due to advent of the Blairites. Some people I know and like, sort of, are still party members, despite being decent people and still describing themselves as socialists. What I don't understand is how they can, when their leader is right there, in their very own house organ, The Observer, making policy of the most tyrannical kind on the fly, as though the party didn't even exist and he were supreme leader.

The blogosphere talks a lot about the cognitive dissonance of Republicans, but what about that of Labourites? Theirs is necessarily even sharper - the Republicans never described themselves as a social justice party, as Labour did and still does. Republicans have only had to go further out, (way further) along a line of reasoning, whereas Labour members have had to do a complete 180 degree flip.

So what is it that keeps them in the party? Is it the cheap beer in the Labour Club? Or do party members think that this whole Blair/Iraq thing is all a horrible dream? That one morning they'll wake up in the shower a la Bobby Ewing and Honest John Smith will be back in charge? It's the only thing that can explain their continued ovine passivity in the face of such a perversion of Labour tradition as Blair has commiitted.

What will finally likely to turn the rank and file against Blair? Not the wrecked NHS, the illegal war, the cash for peerages, the generalised corruption, the constant lies and the fact he'd like to be Il Nuevo Capo Di Tutti Capi now Berlusconi's gone - no, it's that his wife, noted QC, judge and top earner Cherie Booth, billed the Labour election fund for 7,000 pounds (275 a day) for her personal hair stylist to accompany her on campaign 'duties'.

CHERIE BLAIR presented the cash-strapped Labour Party with a £7,700 bill for the services of her personal hair stylist during last year’s general election campaign.

As Labour struggled with outgoings so large that it had to resort to secret loans from millionaires to stay afloat, Mrs Blair made the party pay £275 a day for a month to keep her hair in shape. The invoice from André Suard, her hairdresser, is declared by Labour as an election expense in its annual statement of accounts for 2005 submitted to the Electoral Commission last month.

The Times understands that his invoice describes the services rendered to Labour’s election effort as “hair styling for Cherie Blair”. He charged a daily rate of £275 between April 6 and May 6, the day after her husband won Labour’s historic third term.

The disclosure caused fury last night in Labour’s ranks as the party tried to motivate its demoralised and shrinking membership to fight another difficult round of local elections in which it faces heavy losses. Peter Kilfoyle, a backbench MP and former party official, protested that the bill was twice the sum spent on his own election campaign in Liverpool Walton.

Mr Kilfoyle said: “This is a real problem. We are almost accepting by stealth a First Lady. We don’t have a First Lady in our constitution, whether the Labour Party constitution or the unwritten British constitution; £7,000 could have been spent on political campaigning. We spent about £3,500 on our election [in Liverpool Walton]. It would be a very healthy contribution in many seats.”

I've been an election agent and fundraiser, and the thought of having 7,000 quid to campaign with is my idea of heaven. The idea of having seven thousand to spend on my hair... I'm as vain as the next woman, but that's ridiculous. That it was wasted on the vanity of one overprivileged woman is understandably sickening to ordinary party members: that money represents who knows how many coffee mornings, bootsales, street collections and anguished pleas to union branches for funds, funds that won't be forthcoming again after this.

I doubt many Labour members earn over 275 a week after tax, let alone for a day. And it wasn't even worth it - her hairdresser should be ashamed, judging by the pictures. For that amount of money I'd at least expect a little style, a little elan, maybe some extensions - not the bog-standard, school-run, woman in a 4 x 4 in Waitrose car park, one-size-fits-all, brunette, lacquered helmet.

It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for Labour party supporters - almost but not quite, when one remembers that the left of the party warned them against Blair long ago and were purged from the party and the unions for their trouble. You reap what you sow, lie down with dogs get up with fleas - pick your own proverb.

Henry Porter is on BBC's Broadcasting House now, discussing the exchange with Blair, and this show is downloadable as a podcast here. Highly recommended.

Read More: Blair Civil Liberties UK Politics

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Posted 8:26 AM by Republic of Palau

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Big Pimpin' For The USA

Normal service is hereby resumed. I was actually back on Wednesday, but it's taken me a few days to catch up (damn it, why can't rhe news just stop for a little while?) and while being offline for a whole week is oddly liberating it's also quite disempowering. I'm not looking forward to being wireless-less in hospital, not at all. It's also going to take me some time to rectify the chaos that seems to have overtaken the household during my brief absence - it's almost as though while I was gone someone picked up the whole apartment, books, cats and all, shook it a bit and then put it back down again : everything seems adrift and covered and dust, nothing is in it's right place, and its' driving me nuts.

It's a bit pointless attempting to sum up the past week's events, so I'll defer to the many and various commenters and pundits at the blogroll for that. Besides I'm lazy, even though I'm posting at 6am. I'm actually up at this ungodly hour because I'm not feeling well, but one of the few benefits is I get to listen to the World Service news bulletins and pick up odd little snippets from obscure places. One such is this, which on other, less scandal-weary times might actually cause some outrage

US recalls ambassador to Azerbaijan
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department is recalling U.S. Ambassador Reno Harnish from Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani media is rife with speculation that Harnish is being recalled because of a burgeoning human smuggling scandal which came to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Moscow newspaper Trud newspaper reported on Thursday that FBI agents began interviews with embassy officials about the smuggling of Azerbaijani prostitutes into the United States and the issuing of visas.

As the investigation proceeded, Zarifa Dzhabieva, a former translator for the American embassy was found knifed to death in her own home. Whoever killed Dzhabieva ransacked her dwelling looking for something, even though none of the victim's valuables had been touched. Dzhabieva was under investigation for aiding and abetting the issuing of visas and forged documents to girls destined for the U.S. sex trade.

The head of the Public Relations Center for the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan Jonathan Henick said only, "The uncovering of the crime linked to the sale of Azerbaijani girls to the USA, and the punishment of the guilty parties merely shows the high level of American-Azerbaijani relations."

I note from Ambassador Hornish's bio that he was previously Chief of Mission at the U.S. Office in Pristina, Bosnia.

By a strange coincidence, at that time employees of US company Dyncorp in Biosnia were accused of allegedly using local children for sex. From Wikipedia ( with the usual caveats):

In 1999, a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit was filed by a whistleblower against DynCorp employees stationed in Bosnia, which found that "a few employees and one supervisor from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior and were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and participating in other immoral acts." DynCorp fired the whistleblower at first, but then eventually settled the case. The employees involved in the case were transferred out of the country. Some were later fired, although none were ever criminally prosecuted.

The company was allegedly involved in the sex trade while working in Bosnia. A DynCorp employee, Kathryn Bolkovac, was fired after revealing that Dyncorp employees had frequented brothels where women had been imprisoned. After filing a lawsuit against Dyncorp, Bolkovac won £110,000 in damages after a UK Tribunal determined that her firing was not reasonable.[1] Another Dyncorp employee, Ben Johnson, was also fired after revealing Dyncorp's involvement in forced-prostitution rings in Bosnia. [2] At least 13 DynCorp employees have been sent home from Bosnia -- and at least seven of them fired -- for purchasing women or participating in other prostitution-related activities. [3] Despite these actions, Dyncorp continues to receive more than $2 Billion dollars in Dept. of Defense contracts to provide "post-conflict police training" around the world. [4]

In Iraq, for example.

Sometimes it seems that sexual perversion, exploitation and corruprion follow the US government and its minions wherever they go.

Image info:

All images ©2003 Nigel Parry. Contact for reprint permission.
More information about this artist
Nigel Parry is a documentary photographer and web designer.
Websites: Nigel specialises in creating websites that can subsequently be maintained by clients. Clients include award-winning alternative media sites Electronic Iraq and The Electronic Intifada), non-profit organisations, art websites (including the Tilsner website), and musicians' websites (including The Cockburn Project)<
For more information, see nigelparry.net.

Read More: Azerbaijan Sex Trade US Foreign Policy

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Posted 6:12 AM by Republic of Palau

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The full glare of the media spotlight

Can get justice done, says Steve Gilliard:

It may seem like more noise, but without a national focus, justice can be denied. Since the earliest days of the Republic, crime has been news.

Without the good name and reputation of Duke on the line, do you think this would have made it this far? It certainly wouldn't have before the 1970's. There is a reason some cases merit national attention, despite your discomfort. Duke, one of the wealthiest schools in the US, has a good public reputation.

Now, 1 in 20 college women are raped. I think the ONLY reason this is news is because the woman accuser was older, with a family, and not a Duke student. If this had been a white Duke coed, the intimidation factor to keep her silent would have been intense, more than she could bear. A quiet withdrawal and a new school is what you can expect, if she just doesn't suffer in silence until she sees a shrink years later.

This is news because they couldn't isolate and pressure her, make her doubt what happened. The usual pressure rape victims can face when they know their attacker.

Isn't fair to the accuser? Without national attention and local support, the pressure would have been intense on the DA to drop the case. Rape cases are hard to prove, hard to get witnesses for, and everyone wants them to go away.

What national attention can do is level the playing field. Even a Da's office can be overwhelmed by rich kids and their lawyers. With press attention and public interest, the accuser is more likely to be heard.

One of the thing that drives me nuts about the left is the assumption that news kills other news. It doesn't. People think "wow, if there wasn't the Duke rape trial, people would care about Iran". It doesn't work like that and never has. Crime is newsworthy and always has been. The Lindburgh Kidnapping didn't stop people caring about Hitler, Bonnie and Clyde didn't stop people concerned about the New Deal, and when the dockworkers beat the crap out of the Nazis in the streets of New York, the Spanish Civil War still made the news.

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Posted 9:56 PM by Martin Wisse

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It would explain so much

Now this is from the Something Awful forums and it does reads as coming from a Grant Morrison comic or a Robert Anton Wilson novel, but be honest, would any of this surprise you if it was true?

Homeland security buys in bulk and at great premium millions of dollars of useless personal appliances from China, such as rice cookers, nose hair trimmers, massage wands, and heating pads, boxes them up, and buries them in railroad shipping containers in the Arizona desert for no reason whatsoever other than to spend its budget and prevent sub-agencies from getting the funds. I suspect that the money goes to a middleman in order to secretly siphon funds into foreign organizations which we can't support over the table, but this is just me trying to find a justification for this massive and intentional government waste.

Donald Rumsfeld needs to wear iced underwear because of some medical condition, and he has his secret service detail hold his spares. He was recently getting uncontrollable long-term erections and had to change up his medical treatments. The underwear and the erections is why he uses a standing desk, not because he is some super-man. He also wears nylon stockings, not because he's gay, but to control some vascular problem with his legs which causes him intense pain.

President Bush uses anti-depressant medication, a lot of it, at a stupendous dosage, and he is hiding it from the American public. This is the real reason he stopped drinking. Because of the dosage, he is also impotent.

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Posted 10:02 PM by Martin Wisse

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The Rubicon

Soon to blossom over Teheran if you continue to support Bush.

Teresa:

The biolab claim is only one in a series of claims about terrorists and Weapons of Mass Destruction, many of which later proved false, that were used as justification for the U.S. war on Iraq. They were also used to justify the Bush administration’s demand that within the United States they be allowed to exercise extraordinary and unprecedented power without commensurate accountability.

Someone has to declare a dividing line. I’m doing it. After this, there are three reasons to publicly support Bush, or to insist there must be an excuse for his actions:

1. You’re stupid.

2. You know there’s no excuse, but you’re too dishonest and unpatriotic to say so.

3. You’re bound by solemn oath to make a public show of supporting him (i.e., you’re in the military, and your job requires it).

What scares me is that the same kind of lies, the same kind of rhetoric that we saw in the runup to the war on Iraq we now see aimed at Iran. Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, is an immediate threat, is the world largest sponsor of terrorism, etc. And this time nuclear attacks are in the offering...

And don't think Bush and co are not nuts enough to use this, or that there will be decent people anywhere in the chain of command who will stop them. This time there's no Kissinger to warn army commanders against blindly obeying the president's orders...

In the meantime, imagine if Bush pulled it off and imagine the maelstrom the world would descend into. What better justification for cancelling the 2008 presidential elections. "We can't change leadership when we're at war" and all that...

So yeah, if you still support Bush out of your own free will, you are stupid or evil. There is no other choice.

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Posted 8:19 AM by Martin Wisse

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Don't Forget Me While I'm Gone...

I'm off home to visit my sons for Easter today , so there'll be very light to non-existent blogging from me for a week . Hopefully Martin will be able to take up the slack. I will post when and if I can get to an internet cafe, as neither of my sons has broadband. We'll have to do something about that. Right now my main precoccupation is whether No 1 son's flat will be clean enough to sleep in or whether I'll have to do a quick blitz first. Boys, eh - I think some cooking and cleaning lessons may be in order.

With a bit of luck and a following wind we'll be able to get tickets to the Eden Project, from whence I hope to bring back some cool plants, but my main shopping while away will be a couple of pairs of petite-sized jeans, something that's impossible get here in the land of dairy-fed Dutch giants. Dutch trousers are are huge in the hips, small in the waist and the legs are about 3 feet too long and trail behind me. .A bit awkward on a bike as they get into the chain. (Now I understand why Dutch women all wear their trousers half-mast.) Not only that they have this terrible tendency to overdecoration as Lindsay and Amanda can confirm - and I was always taught that sequins were for night-time only, that anything else is just tacky. I miss English clothes, they're much more elegant.

So that's petite jeans, teabags, Indian spices and more teabags. And more teabags. And decent shampoo. And a good haircut. Look out Marks & Spencers, Sainsbury's, New Look and Top Shop, here I come.

That's if they're still there, once mutually assured destruction breaks out. Oh well, if the apocalypse comes, at least I'll have cool hair, a decent cup of tea, and well-fitting jeans, and really, what more could one ask for during a nuclear holocaust?

Read More: Blogging Devon& Cornwall Eden Project

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Posted 11:24 AM by Republic of Palau

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Now That's A Real Hero

Activist was unlawfully killed in Israel, says inquest jury "April 6 2003. I have been shot at, gassed, chased by soldiers, had sound grenades thrown within metres of me, been hit by falling debris and been in the way of a 10-tonne D-9 that didn't stop. As we approached, I kept expecting a part of my body to be hit by an 'invisible' force and shot of pain. It took a huge amoung of will to continue. I wondered what it would be like to be shot, and strangely I wasn't too scared. It is strange to know that each night people are shot and killed for breaking military curfew, and in the darkness on the north west side there is an Israeli settlement and a few hundred metres away with military snipers in between and any one of the four of us could be being watched through a sniper's sights at this moment. The certainty is that they are watching, and it is in the decision of any one Israeli soldier or settler that my life depends. I know that I'd probably never know what hit me, but it's part of the job to be as visible as possible." Five days after he wrote these words, Tom Hurndall was shot by Israeli forces and later died.

Tom Herndall was just 22, the same age as my son is now, and it's hard to comprehend the sheer bravery it took to put himself in harm's way to protect children when he knew the Israeli Army'd kill him without a second thought. They did it to Rachel Corrie the same year. Around that time a friend of ours of the same age was in the Gaza trip on a similar humanitarian trip, and it's only sheer luck that he wasn't deliberately shot in the back or deliberately driven over by a bulldozer too.

What Tom Herndall and Rachel Corrie did, putting themselves in the line of fire to save innocent children, is the very essence of heroism. We need more like them. When baby-boomers complain about the lack of political engagement of today's young, those two names should be the first to be mentioned.

The onus is now on the British governmment to apply to extradite the Israeli officer who murdered Tom Herndall. But Blair is so far up the arse of Bush and the rabid Zionist Israeli lobby you can pretty much gurantee that that captain won't see the inside of a courtroom, let alone a prison cell. Still, at least the 'unlawful killing' verdict is a victory, of sorts, even if the murderer is still walking around free.

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Posted 1:03 PM by Republic of Palau

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The Grand Old Paedophilia Party

This is the party that wants to impose fundy Christian morality on women? I don't think so...

Via Armchair Subversive ( hat-tip to the News Blog), who has my entire admiration for having the stomach to wade through this cesspoool of filth, and who's done a bang-up ( if you'll excuse the expression in the context) job of collating reports of kiddy-fiddling rethugs from all over:

Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation. Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.

Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.

Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls. Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.

Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was charged with molesting his 9-year old step-daughter after including her in an anti-Gore television commercial.

Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.

Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl.

Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.

Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.

Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.

Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Republican president of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Russell Harding pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.

Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.

Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency.

Full story and links here.

Phew. That was sickening.

The list just goes on and on, and I get the distinct impression that this is just the tip of the iceberg. No wonder the fundian theological position is 'belief not works', because if this gang of morally turpitudinous child rapists were to be judged on their actions, not their words, we'd be lining them up for the scaffold right now.

Read more : Republicans Paedophilia Corruption Fundamentalist Christianity

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Posted 12:25 PM by Republic of Palau

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Naughty, Naughty, Mr. Mehlman...

Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 10, 4:55 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case.

Democrats plan to ask a federal judge Tuesday to order GOP and White House officials to answer questions about the phone jamming in a civil lawsuit alleging voter fraud.

Oh deary, deary me. Bang to rights. And it's very interesting to whose department within the WH the phone records led... step forward, confirmed bachelor, confirmed bigot and all-round loyal, useful Republican, Mr. Kenneth Mehlman.

The Democrats said in their civil case motion that they were entitled to know the purpose of the calls to government offices "at the time of the planning and implementation of the phone-jamming conspiracy ... and the timing of the phone calls made by Mr. Tobin on Election Day."

While national Republican officials have said they deplore such operations, the Republican National Committee said it paid for Tobin's defense because he is a longtime supporter and told officials he had committed no crime.

By Nov. 4, 2002, the Monday before the election, an Idaho firm was hired to make the hang-up calls. The Republican state chairman at the time, John Dowd, said in an interview he learned of the scheme that day and tried to stop it.

Dowd, who blamed an aide for devising the scheme without his knowledge, contended that the jamming began on Election Day despite his efforts. A police report confirmed the Manchester Professional Fire Fighters Association reported the hang-up calls began about 7:15 a.m. and continued for about two hours. The association was offering rides to the polls.

Virtually all the calls to the White House went to the same number, which currently rings inside the political affairs office. In 2002, White House political affairs was led by now-RNC chairman Ken Mehlman. The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned that phone number in 2002. (my emphasis)

Read whole story

Quick! Drop a nuke on Iran before the public notice! Elevate the terror alert ! Do something! USA No.1!

Read More: Voter Fraud Election Tampering Gerrymandering Republicans Mehlman

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Posted 11:08 AM by Republic of Palau

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One Down....

How many more is that to go? BBC is reporting that exit polls show Romano Prodi has beaten Berlusconi in the Italian general election... story is still developing... doesn't look good for Blair, does it? Or David Mills for that matter.

Read More: Italy Berlusconi Elections

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Posted 4:06 PM by Republic of Palau

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It's a Small, Small World

Really, you could just pick this post up wholesale, change the word 'Bush' to read 'Balkenende', 'Verdonk' or 'Blair', alter the word 'Republican' to 'VVD' or 'New Labour' and it would make equally perfect sense.

Bottle Of Blog definitely gets that immigration is is a class and economic issue, and that the race element is just thrown to muddy the waters of discussion and to rouse a bigoted political base:

Republicans have a huge problem. They've had it for years. But your "liberal" media absolutely refuses to explain it to you, The People. Republican politicians get their jobs from the racism and xenophobia, and paranoia the Gee Oh Pee actively creates when talking about all the darkies who are flooding across our borders, taking our jobs, fucking our pure white, Christian daughters, and sucking up our tax dollars without contributing a single thing! What's the Republican problem with this? The Republican problem is that Republicans are hiring these people--eleven million of them. And they'd like to hire more. Why would they like to hire more? So they can fire your Constitutionally protected, OSHA pampered, union organizing, vacation mongering, minimum wage insisting ass. That's the ugly hilarity of Republicans proposing an immigration bill. It's that simple. These are people who make careers out of encouraging you to hate wetbacks for stealing your jobs, when what they'd really like to do is legislate you out of your jobs. These are people who get their jobs from scaring the bejesus out of you about open borders, when what they really want to do is pave a giant highway across the border. And these are people who earn a living by whipping up your ugliest emotions at people who are getting something on your dime, when really, you're getting something on their dime--cheap food, cheap service, cheap whatever. And the cost is spread out to all of us. Who's really fucking the American People? The mostly Republican employers who hire these people. Eleven million people wouldn't risk rape, robbery and death crossing the border if there weren't a ton of jobs just waiting for them in America. Or if that fact weren't well, well known in their home countries. These companies, these industries--meat packing, agriculture, food service, Walmart--they rely on cheap, illegal labor to "pass" their savings on to you. And keep their shareholders happy and their management ridiculously wealthy.

Immigration is not a US issue, it's a worldwide issue, and will continue to be so as capitalism becomes increasingly global. What the boss class want is no borders for their money, but fortified national enclaves for themselves, with only as many poor people around as it takes to staff their factories, do their laundry and cleaning, and look after their children at the cheapest possible financial and social cost. This is true whatever country you look at, from the US to Singapore.

You can't close down a factory or industry in one country because it's economically convenient, move it to another where the wages bill is cheaper and then, expect the people who worked there to stay put and let their families starve, just so you aren't inconvenienced by annoying, poor brown people agitating for a decent living wage. Well you can, but be prepared for people to move where the work is. leghally or illegally. It's a matter of survival.

I wonder how many American and British expats here in the Netherlands would consider themselves to be immigrants. Not many, I shouldn't think - they're expats, they have nothing in common with those illegals - they know who immigrants are and immigrants are coloured, they're not white like them.

They should think again. Illegal immigrants are just like them. They came here to work. That old Thatcherite stalwart, Norman Tebbit, used to say that if you were unemployed, you should get on your bike and go where the work is, and that's all that immigrants, legal or not, are doing. There's a lot more common ground between them than most overprivileged corporate expats would be prepared to admit. - they're both there for the money - the only difference is that one group has the right paperwork and one doesn't .

Divide and rule has always been the prime tactic of capitalists against workers, and this immigration hooha is but a prime example. Natives and legal immigrants may come to believe they are part of an elite, thinking themselves secure in their positions, but in truth, like the rest of us they're only one or two paychecks from disaster themselves. From the humblest cleaner to the highest executive we're employees - we don't own the source of our labour, and our work only continues as long as the whim of the employer does. Anyone could wake up tomorrow and be fired or made redundant and have little recourse against it, or resources to fall back on, It'll then be a case of staying put or going elsewhere - but where?

Read More: Immigration EU USA Verdonk Tancredo

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Posted 2:51 PM by Republic of Palau

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A Gorilla In Our Midst

I was so affected by reading it on Saturday I couldn't blog a thing yesterday. I don't mind admitting this has me scared shitless, as Seymour Hersh has this awful tendency to be right. Deliberately I spent the day gardening yesterday, away from the news and the blogs, because I just can't stop thinking about what apocalyptic things are about to happen. I can't sleep and I'm so wound up I've given myself a banging tension headache. I just can't stop thinking about it.

We always knew in our hearts these evil fuckers would bring us to the brink of nuclear war, but having predictions come true doesn't make it any easier to bear. If Bushco do what they're planning, the Middle East - and then the world - will go up in flames. Theirs is not some vague future plan, or a wishlist - the US government has already committed an overt act of war against Iran by announcing they've already sent special forces in. The war against Iran is already underway - it's not whether a war happens, it's what weapons are used against the enemy.

One might hope that by Hersh having made their plans public, that the outrage of the military, the politicians and the populace would stop this insanity. But it won't. It didn't stop them in Iraq, and it won't stop them now. The only things that would would be assassination, mutiny or a military coup, (or perhaps all three) and let's face it, that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

The neocon roller coaster has been climbing the hill for quite a while now and it's about to crest and go roaring down the other side. The best result we can hope for from the inevitable crash ( and I use 'best' to mean 'least worst') is that a US war with Iran causes a worldwide Sunni/Shia conflict, in which case internecine conflict could well spread to Moslem communities in Europe, Asia and everywhere.

Alternatively, just a pre-emptive non-nuclear strike on Iran might cause Islamic religious movements to bond together against a common enemy and attack Israel, in which case a worldwide inter-religious war is almost inevitable as Israel's allies are pressured to respond in kind.

Some British military experts say that the WH has already moved into the operational planning stage for a nuclear strike, and that we're looking at about 5 months down the road for any such attack. But we just don't know - all bets are off with these insane people in charge. This time next week the Middle East could be a smoking hole, and the world's future could be incomprehensible.

It seems to me it's time for Tony Blair to step up. The invasion of Iraq and the subsequent chaos is on his shoulders and ours, equally with Bush and the US. if he's really serious about his legacy in history, here's his chance as to go down in the books as the man who brought us back from the brink of nuclear war.

Oh, what am I thinking - every single time there's been a matter of international law, of principle, of common humanity, when Blair could've spoken out to Bush, he's kept his mouth firmly shut. I can't see this being any different. Despite Condi's bag-carrier and infatuated courtier Jack Straw's protestations that reports of any US nuclear plans are 'nuts', Blair has been conspicuously quiet on the topic. Blair'd let us all be smoking heaps of slag before he'd put his future with the Carlyle Group in jeopardy. After all, he's got a nuclear bunker, and someone has to be around to pick up the pieces afterwards, don't they?

Funny, isn't it - there we were in the seventies and eighties, thinking it was the USSR that'd kill us all, and it was our allies all the time. Well, they do say most murders are committed not by a stranger, but by someone you know.

Read More: Iran Nuclear War Seymour Hersh George Bush Tony Blair.

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Posted 1:32 PM by Republic of Palau

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People Power

Sometimes we win. Va faire par un pompier, Chirac et De Villepin!. (Hope I remembered that right, it's the only French insult I can recall off the top of my head.)

French labour law to be scrapped - Chirac
10 April 2006 11:54

The office of the French President, Jacques Chirac, has said the controversial youth job contract, which has led to mass protests across the country, is to be scrapped.

The contract, proposed by the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, would have made it easier to hire and fire people under the age of 26.

Speaking at a televised news conference this morning, Mr de Villepin said he regretted that events had shown the contract could not be applied.

Read More: France EU Industrial Relations Strikes European Politics

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Posted 1:17 PM by Republic of Palau

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Jackboot Watch 3: High Times for the Quasi-Military

While the public attention has been diverted by the war on terror, in the background, quietly, another area of policing has grown exponentially - drug enforcement. The policing of drug use, production and commerce is where organised crime and terrorism legislation overlap and reinforce one another and the distinction between civil police and military action is all too frequently blurred or has disappeared completely. Federal and local law enforcement attempt to outdo each other in quasi-military gung-ho-ness, often to the detriment of the citizen and their civil rights.

Glenn Greenwald comprehensively catalogues the virtually unchecked internal militarism and the often summary justice meted out by drug law enforcement SWAT teams:

[...]

Indeed, with the advent of the war on plants, pills and powders, there has been an explosion in SWAT teams and no- knock drug raids around the country (why does Mount Orab, Ohio -- population 2,701 -- need its own 12-man SWAT team?). In the 1980s, there were about 3,000 annual SWAT team deployments each. Today, courtesy of the drug war, there are at least 40,000 a year.

These raids entail high risk of two serious dangers: officers understandably on edge ready to fire at the slightest provocation, and confused residents who may think their home is being invaded (some of whom may be legally or illegally armed). With the increase in the use of these tactics, therefore, comes an increase in the frequency of these kinds of stories:

8-year-old Xavier Bennett was accidentally shot to death by officers in a pre-dawn drug raid during a gunfight with one of Xavier's relatives.

11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda was killed by a shotgun blast to the back while following police orders and lying face down on the floor during a SWAT raid.

84-year-old, bed-ridden Annie Rae Dixon was in her room at the time of a drug raid. An officer kicked open her bedroom door and accidentally shot and killed her.

56 year-old Alberta Spruill died of a heart attack during a wrong- address drug raid. The same thing happened to the elderely, Reverend Accelyne Williams in a separate wrong-address raid.

23-year-old Anthon Diotaiuto was working two jobs to pay for the house he lived in with his mother. He died after he was shot 10 times during a raid on his house that yielded 2 ounces of marijuana.

46-year-old Willie Heard thought his home was being invaded and he grabbed his unloaded rifle to protect his wife and daughter. He was shot to death in front of them. The police had gone to the wrong address.

During a drug raid, smoke grenades started the house on fire. 21- year-old John Hirko was shot to death in the back trying to escape the burning building. (The city of Bethlehem, PA is paying an $8 million settlement to his family.)

20 year-old Jose Colon made the mistake of visiting a house targeted for a raid. He was standing outside when SWAT shot him in the head.

45 year-old Ismael Mena was killed in his home by police. They were at the wrong address.

65 year-old Mario Paz died when he was shot twice in the back in his bedroom during a drug raid.

Well, but we are war. During war, collateral damage and friendly fire are to be expected in harsh battle zones. But is this the America we want? A country where we engage in military-style invasions of citizens’ homes to prevent dried weeds and powders from being flushed?

[..]

The drug war and its odious arsenal are a danger to our society. They result in lost lives, police corruption, and a severe erosions of citizens' rights -- and familes destroyed by loved ones going to prison. Even if the drug war were considered a success (a truly absurd belief), it is surpassingly clear that the tools of prohibition are worse than the drugs prohibited. The Bush Administration’s expansion of the types and occasions for use of these weapons, while invoking and piggy-backing on terrorism as an excuse, is wholly unjustified; it is right for Feingold, and all of us, to just say no.

Read Whole Story

Tony Blair would like us in the UK to be in the same situation. A number of British police forces have already faced criticism and in some cases legal action, with over-zealous, military style drugs raids that have left innocent people wounded or dead.

The creation of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, often compared to the FBI, was announced on 9 February 2004 as one of the elements of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which also restricts protests and demonstrations in central London, and widens powers of arrest and the use of search warrants. Police powers will be much more sweeping:

Agency 'to target brutal crime'
Mr Blair outlined new powers to 'fight 21st Century crime'
Tony Blair says a new force will tackle the "brutal and sophisticated" criminal gangs of the 21st Century.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed Britain's FBI, will bring together more than 4,000 police, customs and immigration experts.

Soca "law enforcement officers", with new multiple powers, will target international drug and people traffickers and fraudsters.

All very laudable, I'm sure. We can all get behind the fact there're international criminals with multiple illegal interests who need to be apprehended and charged. But in the guise of being tough on crime those authoritarian ineffectuals, New Labour, have yet again expanded police powers beyond what is necessary to maintain order in a free society.

Mr Blair said the agency would exploit four important new powers:

Queen's evidence: Prosecutors will be able to offer statutory deals - immunity or reduced sentences - where, previously, deals were only informal

Financial reporting orders: Courts can make orders, of up to 20 years, forcing criminals to provide bank statements to ensure they have no crime-related earnings

Disclosure notices - Courts can force suspects to answer questions or provide documents or face imprisonment or fines. Limits the right to silence

Law enforcement officers: Soca officers will have the multiple powers of police, immigration and customs officers,

But what oversight is there? Is SOCA subject to PACE or the Independent Police Complaints Authority? From the SOCA FAQ's:

SOCA is subject to similar safeguards as police forces and other agencies. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) will handle complaints against any SOCA officer in England and Wales. In general terms, the IPCC will handle complaints against SOCA Officers in the same manner as complaints against Police Officers or officers of HMRC. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) will do so in Northern Ireland. In Scotland, this will be the responsibility of the Lord Advocate. There will also be a bespoke inspection regime for SOCA, provided through Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabularies (HMIC)

Unfortunately for anyone who wants to use these avenues of accountability, it seems SOCA is free from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act which tends to make any potential complaint against them moot - because if you can't get the information about an unjust action, how can you complain about it?

It remains to be seen how SOCA exercise their new amalgamated powers in practice, but I'm not hopeful, based on previous police history. The fact that immigration powers are included along with a commitment to focus 40% of SOCA resources on drugs would seem to open the door to all sorts of potential miscarriages of justice.

The US has a written constitution in which the rights of the citizen agisnt state intrusion are codified, and just look what happens there. We British don't. Will we soon be seeing more of this?

Read More : War on Drugs War on Terror SWAT SOCA

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Posted 11:46 AM by Republic of Palau

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Barack Obama: just another establishment suckup

From Counterpunch:

What kind of a signal is this? Here is Obama, endlessly hailed as the brightest rising star in the Democratic firmament, delivering (at a closely watched political dinner, with Lieberman's primary opponent, Ned Lamont, sitting in the crowd) a ringing endorsement to his "mentor", Lieberman, Bush's closest Democratic ally on the war in Iraq, and overall pretty much a symbol of everything that's been wrong with the Democratic Party for the past twenty years. What a slimy fellow Obama is, as befits a man symbolizing everything that will continue to be wrong with the Democratic Party for the next twenty years. Every time I look up he's doing something disgusting, like distancing himself from his fellow senator Dick Durbin for denouncing the torture center at Guantanamo, or cheerleading the nuke-Iran crowd.

[...]

There is some sort of slow motion, semi-mutiny going on in the Democratic Party in bits of the country at the moment, and much of its rather tepid steam comes from the antiwar movement, aghast at the complicity of so much of the Democratic leadership in the war. But set the tempo of this mutiny next to what has been happening in France or on the streets of Los Angeles, and like Swindell one feels numbness in one's guts. The peace movement hasn't got fire in its belly. If it had, Obama, the rising star, would have passed up the invitation to go pitch for Lieberman, and two-thirds of the crowd would have hissed him when he did. As things are, they gave the new star a big cheer, instead of treating him the way the folks in Lancashire did Condoleezza Rice.

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Posted 2:41 PM by Martin Wisse

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Spreading democracy to the Middle East

Apparantely involves cutting off all aid to the democratically elected government of Palestine, as Hamas is slightly too militant for Israel and the US/EU. The usual big denounciations of terrorism have been made and deamnds have been made for Hamas to recognise Israel, but in the meantime Israel's terrorist attacks on the Gazastrip and the West Bank continue with little disapproval, though the international football association FIFA has not been pleased with one of Israel's latest attacks, on a football pitch:

Jerome Champagne, FIFA deputy general secretary in charge of political issues, said it was a direct strike "without any reason" and that the soccer field was not being used by Palestinians as a missile launching pad, as Israel's ambassador to Switzerland had originally claimed.

"We have just asked for explanations," Champagne said in a telephone interview. "FIFA has been fighting for more than a century to make this game universal. To hit a football field is really the wrong signal."

[...]

No casualties were reported in the air strike, which reportedly left a large crater in the field. The Israel Defense Forces said there had not been any rocket fire from the soccer field, but that the air strike was part of an effort to deter possible attacks after an increase in rocket launches from Gaza.

Meanwhile, Chomsky puts it well by comparing the US (and the EU!)'s actions with some of Osama Bin Laden's rhetoric about how in a democracy people are responsible for their leaders' actions:

On the moral implications, the plans were reported on Feb. 14 in the front-page lead story in the New York Times. Two days earlier, the Times published a blistering review of Osama bin Laden's "morally outrageous" pronouncements, which reached the ultimate depth of depravity in 2002, with a message that put forth "the perverse claim that since the United States is a democracy, all citizens bear responsibility for its government's actions, and civilians are therefore fair targets." The reviewer, law professor Noah Feldman, is correct in describing this as ultimate depravity. The Feb. 14 story, and subsequent ones, have provided details on how the US and Israel have adopted Osama's "perverse claim," descending to ultimate depravity, and are proceeding to implement it. The announced plans are intended to impose suffering and starvation on Palestinian civilians because they voted the wrong way, and to ensure that others do not come to their relief (the goal of a trip to the Middle East by Condoleezza Rice, according to the Times). We may also note that this is nothing new. Osama's "perverse claim" has been official US policy for at least 45 years, often formulated in virtually his words.

The political implications are no less clear and significant. The mantra that all right-thinking people are supposed to chant is that the administration is guided by the President's "messianic mission" to bring democracy to the Middle East. Inspection reveals that the evidence for this belief scarcely goes beyond declarations of noble intent by the leadership, while counter-evidence is massive. We now can add more counter-evidence. The Bush administration refused to allow elections as long as Yasser Arafat was alive, because the wrong man would win. That was not kept secret, and Arafat's death was welcomed with joy because now the US could promote elections that could be expected to come out the right way. As the elections approached, and it became clear that the victory of the right man was not certain, Washington resorted to standard techniques of subversion: as reported in the national press, US aid was diverted to show pieces that could be used to bolster the image of the preferred candidate. When subversion failed, the US and Israel at once proceeded to undermine the elections, adopting Osama's doctrine (borrowed from traditional US rhetoric and practice).

Read More about: Israel Palestine conflict

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Posted 2:11 PM by Martin Wisse

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Pic of the Day

Imagine a sandal stamping on a simian face, forever....

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Posted 7:40 PM by Republic of Palau

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Jackboot Watch

Leander Pickett, a teacher's assistant at Englewood Elementary, said he was manhandled and handcuffed by two plain clothed Homeland Security officers in front of the school Tuesday for no reason at all.

"I would like to treat people the way I would want to be treated, and yesterday I wasn't treated that way," Pickett said.

Pickett has been working at Englewood for two years, and his principal and colleagues told Channel 4 they have never met a harder worker or nicer guy.

"He's well loved by everyone because he's willing to do anything to help children," said the Englewood Elementary Principal Gail Brinson.

However, Tuesday afternoon Pickett's niceness turned to anger, disappointment, and betrayal when, as Pickett was directing bus traffic, he said he was handcuffed and roughed up and humiliated by the very people that were supposed to protect him.

"I walked up to him and said, 'Sir, you need to move.' That's when he said 'I'm a police officer. I'm with Homeland Security ... I'll move it when I want to.' That's when he started grabbing me on my arm," Pickett said.

However, Homeland Security tells a different story.

The department said the only reason the officers were at the school was because they pulled over to look at a map.

The department also said it's looking into what happened, and that Pickett's version is wrong. It claims he was antagonizing the officers.

Several people were outside of the school, watching the incident take place, and those witnesses agree with Pickett's story.

"Mr. Pickett asked the guy blocking the bus loading zone to move, and the guy told him he would move his car when he got ready to move it," said Englewood coach Alton Jackson.

"At that point I intervened and I went up to the gentleman and said, 'Mr. Pickett is an employee here,' and they said that didn't matter," said Englewood media specialist, Terri Dreisonstok.

"'We're with Homeland Security,' and on and on they went, and pretty soon, before you know it, he's handcuffed and slammed against a car," Brinson said. "All the children are watching, they're all upset."

After about 30 minutes, the men released Pickett.

"The part that really upsets me is all these students were watching, and that and it isn't good," Jackson said.

Pickett said he plans to sue.

"You know you hear these stories everyday and say, 'This will never happen to me,' but yesterday it happened to me," Pickett said.

If this is Homeland Security, I think we ought to be a little afraid," Brinson said.

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Posted 11:09 AM by Republic of Palau

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First There Were Vanity Publishers...

Now there's vanity offices. Why ever would I want to pay 350 dollars a month for this, when I can get the same service in my own living room and not even have to leave the house?

theOffice, creating the ideal workplace for indie writers

I am in west Los Angeles today and dropped by theOffice, a community workspace serving the professional writing community of Santa Monica and surrounding areas. They have put a lot of thought and effort into creating an ideal creative work environment combining elements of a cafe, library, and Feng Shui garden into a place creative professionals feel inspired and focused.

Background information

The workspace was founded by writer and director Aleks Horvat in 2004 with charter members such as J.J. Abrams, Jim Uhls, and Mara Brock Akil. A wall-of-fame tracks successful works written in the space. Aleks was working out of cafes or at home, using uncomfortable chairs, and surrounded by noise and interruptions. theOffice was founded to create a quiet new space free of interruptions, surrounded by other like-minded individuals, and with access to everything they needed to be successful writers.

What is your ideal work environment? The working space here contains a 8-foot bonsai tree and river stones as the centerpiece of a round table and group work area. A bubbling brook creates ambient noise nearby. The edges of the room contain individual desks or you may wish to plop down on a more plush chair with a writing ledge. Since we're in sunny Santa Monica, you can also sit outside on the deck and enjoy the mild weather. I chose a seat on the edge of the room but in a group work environment sitting around the bonsai seems ideal.

Every seat has power, an ethernet jack, and ambient WiFi. You can sit in an Aeron chair, wear Bose noise-reducing headphones, and focus on your work. A common library supplies the latest newspapers, trade magazines, industry directories, and reference books. Tea, coffee, water, and espresso drinks are available. The environment is focused on quiet: you must set your cell phone on vibrate, and take any conversations outside. It's located near San Vicente Boulevard and 26th Street in Santa Monica, between two country clubs and near the target market of writers in their 30s and 40s. The surrounding area contains a few small restaurants and shops to provide good food and entertaining work breaks.

Read whole thing

I dunno. Seems to me that this enterprise(though well done for spotting a niche), is all surface, aimed at wannabe's who like the idea of being a writer in public. "Look at me, with my Bose headphones and Aeron chair!, I'm here, I'm a writer!" Certainly I don't know anyone who'd pay 350 dollars a month for the privilege, even if they had it spare, which most writers don't. The fact that it's located between two country clubs tells you all you need to know about their target audience.

My own feeling is that if you write you have to write like you have to breathe, and the background is irrelevant. I write with cats and the radio and coffee and cigarettes and the occasional joint. Other people around, showing off, would drive me nuts, cool equipment and bonsai trees notwithstanding and I suspect I'm not the only one. Writers can be very misanthropic.

YMMV, and I'd be interested to know how. Where and how do you write, if you do?

Read More: Blogging Bloggers Blogs Business

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Posted 8:31 AM by Republic of Palau

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Speaking Truth To Power

I have no idea who Harry Taylor is, but he's a brave man. That I should have to call him brave, merely for exercising his constitutional right as a citizen to speak his mind to one of his paid representatives, speaks volumes about how perilously close to the precipice of a dictatorship the US has come (Not that we in the UK are any better off).

From Think Progress (video also at Crooks & Liars):

VIDEO:

Bush Event Goes Off Script

This morning in Charlotte, a Bush PR event on the war on terror went off-script when a man named Harry Taylor took the microphone. Watch the video:

“‘I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration,’ Taylor said, standing in a balcony seat and looking down at Bush on stage. ‘And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself.’”

Read below for the full exchange:

Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are –

THE PRESIDENT: I’m not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what’s your question?

Q Okay, I don’t have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I — in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and –

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec — let him speak.

Q And I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

THE PRESIDENT: It is, yes. (Applause.)

Q And I know that this doesn’t come welcome to most of the people in this room, but I do appreciate that.

[...]

Read whole thing

I'll bet Bush had one almighty hissy fit after that event. No-one is to gainsay the king.

Before the next event, Republican Bush party loyalists should take a leaf out of the Tom DeLay playbook, and make sure there're enough deniably plausible party thugs around to, oops, shut the likes of Harry Taylor and any annoying old women up.

I haven't read the DeLay playbook, obviously, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it bore a resemblance to these directions for political meetings:

1. Before the meeting, the speaker should be informed of the local political situation.
2. The meeting chair, with a witness, should assume control from the host.
3. Meeting protection should be assured either by a sufficient number of local or neighboring S.A. men, or by request to the police. The latter is particularly important in the case of meetings that may turn violent, for the riot damage act requires it. The state's responsibilities begin only when damages exceed 400 marks.
4. It has proven advantageous in certain meetings and in certain places to have a part of the S.A. in civilian dress scattered throughout the room in order to deal with expected troublemakers.

That's from Stark's translated pamphlet, Moderne politische Propaganda (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher Nachf., 1930) . Read it and you can clearly see the antecedents of Republican political strategy.

Eerily appropriate, when Bush's own family, in the person of Prescott Bush, made a such a big contribution to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.

Read More: Bush DeLay Republicans Fascism Censorship Propaganda

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Posted 7:17 PM by Republic of Palau

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