Vermillion True

Happy Birthday to a Red Man in a White Man's Jail

2007-09-12T14:00:00.000+01:00

Today is Leonard Peltier's 63rd birthday.

He's been in prison in the US for over 30 years.

This is his story, 'Incident at Oglala', produced and narrated by Robert Redford.

Incident at Oglala Part 1

Incident at Oglala Part 2

A Message from Leonard Peltier:

Greetings My Relatives,

You know I was just thinking there should be a degree one could receive for having expertise on doing prison time. I think I would be called Professor Peltier, PhD. with 30 years tenure. A friend of mine said once, PhD where he is from stands for post hole digger. I think I would at this time, embrace being a post hole digger, although I don't relish the thought of fencing anything in after being fenced in myself for 30+ years.

On being imprisoned, I want to touch on that subject a bit. There are some who have voiced their opinion in one way or another, that I should give up after all these years of trying to win my freedom. Aside from the oppressors who put me here, some of them are people who were at times, part of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; others, on the fringes. My answer, to put it in a simple, colloquial phrase, that anyone can understand, .it ain't gonna happen! There are many reasons, both physical and mental, spiritual and social. The number one reason is that there aren't any women in here. That should cover the social. Eh!

Another reason, is that the struggle is not just about me. It's about life on earth, the struggle to survive, the onslaught of destructive technology, wealth mongering, by those who see the common man as nothing more than expendable beings to further their personal quest for power and affluence. I am here because, as a common man, along with other common men, I chose to try to stop the exploitation of my people. I know the Creator sent other common men at other times and other places and to other races to do the same. I am honored to be among common men. I know they tried to cause us to separate from alliances by color, religion, and geographic locale but our struggle is the same. It's against people taking more than they need. In my culture it is taught that you should not take more than you need. In Christianity, Buddhism, and Zen, as well as most other spiritual teachings, it is taught that gluttony is a sin. Violation of this teaching is the reason for global warming, and the reason for world wars, including the war in Iraq at this time.

Because of people who always seek to take more than they need, my people have suffered greatly. They are the poorest of the poor yet most still cling to the original teachings. They have fought for several generations for the exploitation of our land, illegal occupation of our land, unjust treatment in the U.S. judicial system, and most of all, government lies and liars that have led the American people to believe all this exploitation and violation of treaties is in their best interest. I watch TV from time to time, and I notice there are those who try to make the wars like a war between religions. I tell you my relatives, it is only a ruse to get young men to die for those who crave wealth and power over the common man.

If the many denominations of religions would stand together as one against the violation that jeopardizes life itself, it would make a major difference throughout the world. Today, more than any other time in history, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I may, by now, have written more than you care to read. But, from where I sit myself, it's the best I can do. The Defense Committee that bears my name struggles to help enlighten people of events and needs of people in jeopardy. I don't use the word struggle lightly. Aside from trying to raise money for attorneys and office expenses, etc., we raise money for food and clothing for needy people on reservations in urban areas. In my world, the poor are common. I am honored to be one of them, to represent them from time to time, though it be from afar. We as Native People look to the Creator's greatest manifestation for teachings, Mother Earth and her system of nature, along with personal visions, from time to time. In that, we see grass though encased in concrete, pushing its way through the cracks. We see the trees and water break down the structures of man that imprison them. We see everywhere, all life trying to follow the original instruction given by the Creator. If I were a blade of grass, I would grow out of here. If I were water, I would flow away from here. If I were a ray of light, I would bounce off these walls and be gone. However, I am not and unless I, at some future time, receive my freedom that was unjustly taken in the same manner as was the freedom of so many Native People before me. I can only leave here through my paintings, written words, and some other forms of communication that are sometimes available. I am in my 60's now. If I end up spending all my days here, and my last breath rides on the wind, and the moisture of my body flows to the sea, and the elements of my being make the grass grow and the trees flourish, make no mistake they can kill my body but they can't kill me. I am a common man.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee will continue working on my behalf and towards my freedom unless you the supporters tell me to close down the Defense Committee. Having said all this, I wish to ask you, if you can in any way help us, meaning the Defense Committee, send any donation to:

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
3800 N. Mesa
A2
El Paso, Texas 79902
USA

Please do so, it is a common cause. If my case stands as it is, no common person has real freedom. Only the illusion until you have something the oppressors want. Back to being a post hole digger.. I'd rather be a free post hole digger than Professor Leonard Peltier, PhD.

May the Creator bless you with all you need.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, who never gave up,

All my relations,

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier's address:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Lewisburg PA
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg PA 17837
USA

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
Email: info@leonardpeltier.net
Website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
Phone: 570-524-0749

International Peltier Forum website:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee in Ireland:
http://lpdctexas.blogspot.com/2007/09/update-on-september-12-2007-activities.html

Online Petition for Executive Clemency:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm
(Click here to see the list of VIP signatories.)

The Shock Doctrine

2007-09-10T08:15:00.001+01:00

Laureates Against Blackmail

2007-06-27T19:35:00.000+01:00

Nobel Peace Laureates Oppose Iraqi Oil Law Imposition

The Laureates' statement is as follows:

"In support of the people of Iraq, we the undersigned Nobel Peace Prize Laureates state our opposition to the Iraq Oil Law. We also oppose the decision of the United States government to require that the Iraq government pass the Oil Law as a condition of continued reconstruction aid in legislation passed on May 24, 2007. A law with the potential to so radically transform the basic economic security of the people of Iraq should not be forced on Iraq while it is under occupation and in such a weak negotiating position vis-à-vis both the U.S. government and foreign oil corporations. The Iraq Oil Law could benefit foreign oil companies at the expense of the Iraqi people, deny the Iraqi people economic security, create greater instability, and move the country further away from peace. The U.S. government should leave the matter of how Iraq will address the future of its oil system to the Iraqi people to be dealt with at a time when they are free from occupation and more able to engage in truly democratic decision-making. It is immoral and illegal to use war and invasion as mechanisms for robbing a people of their vital natural resources."

Source: Institute for Public Accuracy.

Tony's Parting Gift

2007-06-23T11:50:00.000+01:00

Arguing for Britain, but obviously not for Britons, T Blair gains his point in discussions on the new European Constitution.

The Guardian reports:

"On Britain's central demand not to be subject to a European charter of fundamental rights which can be enforced by the European court of justice, the government won an extra "protocol" denying the court the right to get involved in British litigation, according to sources."

And a sly extra treat from Tone (also from The Guardian):

"He said the agreement sealed at the end of his last European Council summit in Brussels secured all of Britain's key demands and means the treaty will not require a referendum in the UK."

You know, like, "Trust me."

Image: detail from WWII poster.

Blair Bliar Blah Blah Blairrrghh...

2007-06-20T10:23:00.000+01:00

Two speeches for the history books.

Probably one of the dirtiest speeches in UK history, Blair's speech on terrorism and civil liberty: timesonline

A commenter points out what we would have hoped our Leader would have known:
"You can't use a bad means for a good end. Basic rule of moral philosophy."

The biggest lie in the speech:

"This extremism can be defeated. But it will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it; it cannot be negotiated with; pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it; and only by confronting it, the methods and the ideas, will we win."

And Blair's speech to the House of Commons on September 14th, 2001: The Guardian

He starts:

"Mr Speaker, I am grateful that you agreed to the recall of parliament to debate the hideous and foul events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that took place on Tuesday 11 September.
I thought it particularly important in view of the fact that these attacks were not just attacks upon people and buildings; nor even merely upon the USA; these were attacks on the basic democratic values in which we all believe so passionately and on the civilised world. It is therefore right that parliament, the fount of our own democracy, makes its democratic voice heard."

"But let us unite in agreeing this: what happened in the United States on Tuesday was an act of wickedness for which there can never be justification."

Boo the Warmonger

2007-06-16T21:33:00.000+01:00

"27 June Warmonger Out!

Tony Blair will quit Downing St on the morning of 27 June. We all recall those stage-managed images of him entering through rapt crowds waving union jacks. Well, it is time for the reverse image as we boo the old warmonger out. I do hope you will join me there. Blair's leaving will be covered worldwide and it is a great opportunity to get our point across. It was Blair's support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon, against the whole background of the war in Iraq, that led the Labour MPs to boot Blair out. We should remind the World why he has to go."

From Craig Murray's blog

The Iron Triangle

2007-06-15T21:36:00.000+01:00

The confluence of the military, big business and politics.

See how it works. An interesting video about the Carlyle Group; about G Bush senior's business interests and his son's political influence; and about the financial benefit of war.

Exposed: The Carlyle Group

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And the nominee for new head of the World Bank:

A 'policy wonk with sharp elbows'

Robert Zoellick is nominated by Bush Jr as successor to Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank.

"Described by former colleagues as a policy wonk with sharp elbows, Mr Zoellick's background means he is familiar with the rigours of international diplomacy. Before his official jobs under Mr Bush, he served as a protege of James Baker, a long-time confident of the Bush family. Mr Zoellick helped run two presidential election campaigns and served in the administration of Mr Bush's father."

Source: The Guardian

US loves Israel, not UN

2007-06-14T08:13:00.000+01:00

From The Guardian:

'American support for Israel has hindered international efforts to broker a peace deal in the Middle East, according to a hard-hitting confidential report from the outgoing UN Middle East envoy.

Alvaro de Soto, who stepped down last month after 25 years at the UN, has exposed the American pressure that he argues has damaged the impartiality of the UN's peace making efforts.

In Mr de Soto's "End of Mission Report", which the Guardian has obtained, he delivers a devastating criticism of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community.

The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia - has often failed to hold Israel to its obligations under the Road Map, the current framework for peace talks, he argues.

Over the past two years, the Quartet has gradually lost its impartiality. "The fact is that even-handedness has been pummelled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007," he writes.

He blames overwhelming influence exerted by the US and an "ensuing tendency toward self-censorship" within the UN when it comes to criticism of Israel.

"At almost every juncture a premium is put on good relations with the US and improving the UN's relationship with Israel. I have no problem with either goal but I do have a problem with self-delusion," he writes. "Forgetting our ability to influence the Palestinian scene in the hope that it keeps open doors to Israel is to trade our Ace for a Joker."'

'Mr de Soto speaks of his frustration in the job, not least that he was refused permission to meet the Hamas and Syrian governments in Damascus. "At best I have been the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process in name only, and since the election of Hamas, I have been the secretary-general's personal representative to the Palestinian Authority for about 10 minutes in two phone calls and one handshake," he writes.

He stepped down in May at the end of his two-year contract and left the UN. The "tipping-point" for his departure came after the new UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said future meetings with a Palestinian prime minister would depend on the actions of his government.'

The Sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

2007-06-07T19:05:00.000+01:00

"Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups, are demanding that the US government accounts for the whereabouts of 39 people whom they believe have been held at secret CIA prisons since the attacks of September 11 2001."

"The list also includes a number of children, including the two young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The two boys have not been seen by family members since they were detained in Pakistan almost five years ago during a raid in search of their father."

"The report... expresses concern over the fate of Yusuf al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid, the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They were taken into custody, aged nine and seven, in September 2002, during an attempt to capture their father. A former detainee says that he saw them in March the following year, around the time their father was captured, in a secret prison where the guards tormented them with insects.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano dismissed the report, telling Reuters news agency that the agency acts in 'strict accord with American law', and that its counter-terrorist initiatives are 'subject to careful review and oversight'. He added: 'The United States does not conduct or condone torture.'"

From The Guardian

Each Step So Small

2007-05-28T22:52:00.000+01:00

"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security...

To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop.

Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted.'... Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow... Suddenly it all comes down, all at once... You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair."

German professor describing the arrival of Nazism in Europe to American journalist Milton Mayer.

From a comment by pilot to an article entitled Fascism and America in todays's UK Guardian.

"Marijuana as wonder drug"

2007-05-14T08:20:00.000+01:00

Dr Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School, writing in the Boston Globe, asks why we need proof of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

He argues that there is insufficient financial incentive for the drug companies to go through the expense of testing and approval of herbal cannabis - because they can't patent it.

"First, there is no question about its safety. It has been used for thousands of years by millions of people with no reported deaths and very little evidence of significant toxicity. Similarly, no doubleblind studies are needed to prove marijuana's efficacy.

Countless clinicians and patients the world around who have had experience with the medicinal use of cannabis have observed that it often provides better relief with fewer serious side effects than conventionally prescribed medicines. To impose this regulatory protocol on herbal marijuana is tantamount to making the same demand of aspirin, which was accepted as a medicine more than 60 years before the advent of the doubleblind controlled study. Many years of experience have shown us that aspirin has many uses and limited toxicity, yet today it could not be marshaled through the FDA approval process. The patent has long since expired, and with it the incentive to underwrite the substantial cost of this modern seal of approval."

Dr Grinspoon's thesis is also available as a pdf:
On the future of cannabis as medicine.

Sadism in the New World Order

2007-04-25T12:06:00.000+01:00

From an article in The Nation:

"[Lt. Col Stuart] Couch, a prosecutor at Guantínamo, inadvertently witnessed other prisoners being tortured, but he was denied access to the man he was prosecuting, who suddenly began telling his captors what they wanted to hear after being subjected to the "varsity program." That's the nickname for the Special Interrogation Plan which then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized."

"Aside from the beatings, water-boarding, stress positions and sexual degradation that have been the norm at Guantínamo, Slahi [a detainee] was taunted with details of his mother's incarceration and rape in an elaborate hoax by an officer who claimed to be representing the White House."

[The 9/11 Commission reported, "We were told our requests might disrupt the sensitive interrogation process."] "That "sensitive interrogation" in the case of Slahi, according to Senate testimony of Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, assigned by the Pentagon to investigate conditions at Guantínamo, was conducted by an interrogation chief who the general concluded "was a rogue guy," a "zealot" who "essentially was having a ball."

Aside from the sadistic example being set by the United States for the world, the other cost is that torture does not produce credible intelligence results or legally recognized convictions of the guilty, even employing the sorry military tribunal standard accepted by the US Supreme Court."

"The point, once again, is not to get at the truth about 9/11 but rather to make George Bush look vigilant, despite the facts, in fighting his phony war on terrorism."

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A quote from UK Chancellor Gordon Brown makes an interesting footnote to the above:

The chancellor sidestepped the criticisms on defence policy, but admitted that more action on poverty was needed by the UK and world leaders. The UK, he promised, would continue to take a lead. "As human beings, we can't be fully happy when we know so many are sad. We can't feast while others starve. We can't be fully at ease while others are suffering," he said.

Article: Scottish churches say Brown is squandering money on war

Naomi Wolf's 10 steps to fascism

2007-04-24T09:18:00.000+01:00

In today's UK Guardian, Naomi Wolf shows how we are treading the same footsteps as the fascist states of the last century.

Fascist America in 10 easy steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Note:
Naomi Wolf writes of America. If you're in the UK or Australia, you should take a good look in your own backyard, for you too are treading the same steps.

Beware. Allowing such matters to pass unchecked is how we've arrived at totalitarianism previously. Read the history. Check the comparisons for yourself.
Read William L Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. (Written by an American journalist working in Germany at the time.)

"it's not the lies that count but the muddying"

Vacationing on the Axis of Evil

2007-04-09T23:50:00.000+01:00

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler takes a holiday in Iran.

Story: UK Observer

Play dirty tricks; people get hurt

2007-04-03T10:16:00.000+01:00

Today's The Independent, UK newspaper, reports that the 15 UK captives held in Iran were seized in retaliation to an attempt by the US to kidnap two senior Iranian security officers.

Story: The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis

Good Friday Iran Attack Plan

2007-03-26T22:15:00.000+01:00

Webster Tarpley reports on a pronouncement from Russian military experts that an attack by US forces on Iran is planned for April 6.

"The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly 'Argumenty Nedeli.' Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories."

"Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features in a March 21 interview: 'I have no doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against Iran.' Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as an informal advisor to Putin, is currently the Vice President of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical Sciences.

Ivashov attributed decisive importance to the decision of the Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives to remove language from the just-passed Iraq supplemental military appropriations bill which would have demanded that Bush come to Congress before launching an attack on Iran. Ivashov pointed out that the language was eliminated under pressure from AIPAC, the lobbing group representing the Israeli extreme right, and of Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni."

Souce: rense.com

Lex Luthor Talks

2007-03-17T22:32:00.000Z

You've probably seen the list of 31 confessions by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

He also made a statement:

"In what I have written here I am not making myself out to be a hero when I say I am responsible for this or that. But you are a military man. You know very well the language of war. So, when I'm talking about these things I'm not saying I didn't do it. I did it, but this is the language of war.

If America wants to invade Iraq they will not send roses or kisses for Saddam, they will send a bombardment. This is the way I want it. If I'm fighting for anybody I admit to them I'm an enemy of America. For sure, I'm an enemy of America. Usama bin Laden, he did his best press conference in the American media. Mr John Miller, he did it when he made a declaration against Jihad, against America. He talked about the American military presence in the Arabian peninsula and aiding Israel, and many things. So when we made war against America, we were jackals fighting in the night.

I consider, myself, that what you are doing is a religious thing, as you consider us fundamentalist. So, both following our religion, we consider that we and George Washington are doing the same thing. As you consider George Washington a hero, Muslims, many of them, consider Usama bin Laden a hero. He is doing the same thing. He is just fighting. For he needs his independence. Even we think, not me only, many Muslims, that al Qaida or the Taliban are doing what they're doing because they've been oppressed by America. This is the feeling of the prophet.

So when we say we're an enemy combatant, that's right. We are. But I'm asking you again to be fair with many detainees who are not enemy combatants. Because many of them have been unjustly arrested. Many, not one or two or three: because the definition you wrote, even in my case, was not fair. I was in the first Jihad, against Russia, so I must be an enemy of Russia. But America supported me in this because I was their ally when I was fighting Russia. I'm doing the same job. I'm fighting. I was fighting Russia then, now I'm fighting America.

So many people who have been in Afghanistan don't live there. They stay there, but they don't have anything to do with the Taliban or al Qaida. They have been there since the Russian time and they cannot go back to their home and their corrupted government. They stayed there, and when America invaded the Afghan parliament, they were arrested. They had never been with the Taliban or the others. So many people consider them as enemies, but they are not. Because the definition is very wide, people came after October 2001, when America invaded Afghanistan. They just arrived in Afghanistan because they heard their enemy was there. They didn't know what al Qaida or Usama bin Laden or the Taliban meant. They didn't care about these things. They heard there was an enemy in Afghanistan and they just arrived. As they heard the first time, when Russia invaded Afghanistan. When they came back, they fought. They didn't know what was going on and that the Taliban was in government. You even consider me Taliban, even the president of a whole government. Many people joined the Taliban because they were in government. When Karzai came they joined him. They joined whatever people were joining; they didn't know what was going on. So many Taliban become fighters, and fight, just because that's what people are doing.

The government is the Taliban, though from then until now the CIA don't have an exact definition of who is the Taliban, or who is al Qaida. Your Tribunal now is discussing whether he is an enemy or not, and that is one of your tasks.

So this is why you find many Afghani people, Pakistanis even, who don't know what's going on; they just hear there's fighting and they help the Muslims in Afghanistan. Then what? There are some infidels who came here and they have to help them. But then there weren't any intending to do anything against America. The Taliban, between themselves, said Afghanistan would never again be against the 9/11 operation. The seniors in the Taliban rejected what al Qaida were doing. Many in the Taliban rejected what they were doing. Even many Taliban did not agree about why we were in Afghanistan. Some of them had been with us. Never in their life, before America invaded them, did the Taliban intend to do anything against America. They had never been with al Qaida. It does not mean that we are here as Americans now. They gave political asylum for many: for Chinese oppositionists, or North Korean, but that does not mean they are the same towards many of the Taliban. Because they hold us as they do al Qaida, it does not mean we are together.

So this is why I'm asking you to be fair with many Afghanis and Pakistanis, and many Arabs, who have been in Afghanistan. Many of them have been held unjustly. The strange thing is, the Sunni government sent some spies to assassinate UBL, then we arrested them and sent them to Afghanistan, to the Taliban. The Taliban put them in prison. The Americans came and arrested them as enemy combatants. They brought them here. So, even if they are my enemy, it's not fair for them to be there with me. This is what I'm saying, the way of war, you know, very well, in any country waging war against their enemy, the language of war is killing. A man and a woman stay together in a marriage because of the kids, children. But if you and I, two nations, are in a war together, the others are victims. This is the way of the language.

You know 40 million people were killed in World War One; ten million killed in World War Two. You know that two million four hundred thousand were killed in the Korean War. So this is the language of war.

Any people who, when Usama bin Laden says I'm waging war because of such and such a reason, know he's declared it. But when you said I'm a terrorist, I think it is deceiving people. Terrorist, enemy combatant; all these definitions, as CIA you can make up whatever you want. Now, you told me when I asked about the witnesses, I'm not convinced that this related to the matter; it is up to you. Maybe I'm convinced, but you are the head and he [gesturing to Personal Representative] is not responsible, because you are head of the committee. So, finally, it's your war, but the problem is there are no definitions of many words. Certainly many people will be oppressed, because, in war, for sure, there will be victims. When I said I'm not happy that three thousand have been killed in America, I feel sorry even. I don't like to kill children; the kids.

Islam would never give me the green light to kill people. Killing, for Christianity, Judaism and Islam is prohibited. But there are exceptions to the rule when you are killing people in Iraq. You said we have to do it. We don't like Saddam. But this is the way to deal with Saddam. The same thing as you are saying, the same language as you use, I use.

When you are invading two-thirds of Mexico, you call your war manifest destiny. It is up to you to call it what you want. But the other side are calling you oppressors. If it were George Washington now; if we were living in the Revolutionary War and the British were arresting George Washington, for sure, they would consider him an enemy combatant. But Americans, they consider him a hero. In any revolutionary war it will be as it was for George Washington and the British.

So we are considered to be American army bases, which we have been from the seventies in Iraq. Also in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. This is a kind of invasion: but I'm not here to convince you. It is so, or not; but mostly my speech is to ask you to be fair with people. I don't have anything to say like that I'm not an enemy. This is why the language of any war in the world is killing. I mean the language of war is victims. I don't like to kill people. I feel very sorry kids have been killed in 9/11. What can I do? This is the language. Sometimes, I hope for a great awakening between Americans to stop their foreign policy in our land. I know that American people have been torturing us from the 70s. [REDACTED] I know they are talking about human rights. And I know it is against the American Constitution, against American laws. But they said with every law they have exceptions, "it's your bad luck, you have been part of an exception to our laws." They've got to have something to convince me we're talking the same language. But we are saying we have Sharia law, and we have the Koran. What is enemy combatant in my language?

(KSM through translator) Allah forbids you not, with regards to those who fight you not for your faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them. For Allah loves those who are just. There is one more sentence. Allah only forbids you, with regards to those who fight you for your faith and drive you out of your homes and support others in driving you out, from turning to them for friendship and protection. It is such as turn to them in these circumstances that do wrong.

(KSM again) So for whatever deed we do we ask about it in the Koran or Hadith. We are not making up laws for ourselves. When we need a religious Fatwa, we have to go back to see what the scholars said. To see whether they say yes or no. Killing is prohibited in all that you call the people of the book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You know the Ten Commandments very well. The Ten Commandments are shared between all of us. We are all serving one God. Then you know 'do not kill' very well. But there's also war language; we have language for war. You have to kill. But you have to care whether you're intentionally or unintentionally targeting: I have, and I'm not at the Pentagon. I consider it is the right way. If I target now, when we target in the USA, we choose military targets, economical and political. So the war's central victims are mostly economic targets.

If now, the Americans know UBL is in a certain house, they don't care about his kids and his kin, they will just bombard it. They will kill all of them; and they did it. They killed the wife of Dr Ayman Zawahiri and his two daughters and his son in one bombardment. They received a report that that was his house. He wasn't there. They killed them. They arrested my kids intentionally. They are kids. They were under arrest for four months; they had been abused. So, for me, I have patience. I know I'm not to talk about what's happened to me. The Americans have human rights. So, enemy combatant, itself, it's a flexible word. So I think God knows that many who have been arrested, they have been unjustly arrested.

Otherwise, as the military throughout history knows very well, war will never stop. War started from Adam, when Cain killed Abel, up to today. It's never going to stop killing people. This is the way of the language. Americans started the Revolutionary War, then they started the Mexican, then the Spanish War; then World War One, World War Two. You read the history. You know you're never going to stop war. This is life. But who is an enemy combatant and who is not? Finally, I finish my statement. I'm asking you to be fair with other people."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Statement at Trial.

Goodbye, serfs, your time is up

2007-03-15T11:08:00.000Z

Meet the Elite - Nicholas Rockefeller, KMA

You are looking, serfs, at your superior.

If you are a "serf", you are not important. You are to be chipped, a slave.

Aaron Russo gives details of a conversation with Nicholas Rockefeller, in which Rockefeller tells about the 9/11 event, the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq, eleven months before 9/11.

Read article, see video summary at infowars.com.

See full video interview of Aaron Russo by Alex Jones at GoogleVideo.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Aaron Russo says,
"Silence is golden, but when it comes to your freedom it's yellow."

Alex Jones says to Aaron Russo,
"I want to thank you for what you're doing for my family."

What do you say?

'Excellent' for Some, Tragic for Others

2007-02-22T10:00:00.000Z

"BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms manufacturer, increased annual profits by more than a third to over £1bn last year, driven in part by booming US business from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"BAE hailed the performance of its expanded US operations as 'excellent'."

Source: The Guardian.

The Bait and Switch

2007-02-21T22:27:00.000Z

"On the night of 9-11 (Australian time), wife and I sat up until dawn, channel surfing - watching, listening. All the local TV stations had their satellite links hooked up.

So much of what we saw and heard that night simply disappeared over the next couple of days. Disappeared - expunged from the official narrative. Gone! I can't believe we have such teeny attention spans and such short memories. Was no-one paying attention? We noticed the bait and switch over the next couple of days as the official conspiracy theory solidified, based on some papers said to be found in a car."

From a comment to a Guardian Online article knocking critics of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory.

A Major Problem, Ethical and Moral

2007-02-19T21:50:00.000Z

The UK's Daily Mail reviews the video Loose Change:
An explosion of disbelief - fresh doubts over 9/11

One of the comments to that article was this:

"I watched this film and I must say it leaves a strange taste in one's mouth. If what they claim is true then we all have a lot to answer for by jumping in with him. I hope and pray that it is not true and that even President G.W Bush was not that stupid. If it is true, however, and he has been taking us all for a ride all this time then we have a major problem on ethical and moral grounds here in the West which we will never get out of. How then will we justify the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the passing of the Patriot Act in the US and the erosion of our Civil Liberties in this country that we all meekly accepted as a price for our 'security'? I pray that all this is not true."

That's why we need to be sure it's not true.

Here's the video: Loose Change.

If you watched the BBC programme about 9/11 last night, then you should also check out the comments about it on the programme's web page.

The Magic Crater

2007-02-15T11:29:00.000Z

"Five feet deep and twenty-two feet in diameter, the crater served as proof that the weapon was detonated underground rather than on the surface. The only way any explosive can cause a crater is if it is first dropped from an aircraft and penetrates sub-surface before exploding, or if it is physically positioned sub-surface in advance."

"Politicians and 'experts' alike had less of a problem than they originally thought with the crater. The helpful media folk simply refrained from showing it on television or in the newspapers, and the brainwashed public soon forgot about the crater altogether."

Bali 2002.

American Enterprise Institute will Bomb Iran

2007-02-10T10:17:00.000Z

Yes, using American and allied forces the AEI will bomb Iran.

From Today's UK Guardian:

'One of the main driving forces behind war, apart from the vice-president's office, is the AEI, headquarters of the neo-conservatives. A member of the AEI coined the slogan "axis of evil" that originally lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea. Its influence on the White House appeared to be in decline last year amid endless bad news from Iraq, for which it had been a cheerleader. But in the face of opposition from Congress, the Pentagon and state department, Mr Bush opted last month for an AEI plan to send more troops to Iraq. Will he support calls from within the AEI for a strike on Iran?'

Among the most vocal supporters of a strike on Iran at the AEI, the second most important Israeli lobby in Washington, is Joshua Muravchik. He wrote an LA Times article subtitled, "WE MUST bomb Iran".

Profile of Joshua Muravchik

'Muravchik has been associated with a string of hawkish pressure groups supporting President George W. Bush's war on terrorism and interventionist policies in the Middle East. He signed multiple letters published by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) advocating a broadened antiterror fight; he supported the creation in 2002 of the Coalition for Democracy in Iran, a group spearheaded by Michael Ledeen and Morris Amitay that advocates regime change in Iran; he was an advisory board member of the now-defunct Committee for the Liberation of Iraq; he is associated with the hawkish, pro-Israel think tanks, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs; he joined a plank of other neocons in forming a revived version of the Cold War Committee on the Present Danger; and he and a group of neoconservatives serve as “international sponsors” of the Cambridge, England-based Henry Jackson Society, an organization that promotes a “forward strategy” aimed at assisting democratization across the globe.'

The Henry Jackson Society

'The list of signatories to the HJS statement of principles also contains surprises. The list consists largely of elite UK policy-makers from both the left and right, including close associates of both Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While most of the names might be unfamiliar to people in the United States, one name stands out: Irwin Stelzer. Identified on the statement of principles as the director of economic policy studies at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute, Stelzer is a long-standing associate of the neoconservative political faction in the United States whose close connection to right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch has helped foster rumors about his ability to influence high-level British politicians, including Tony Blair (see “It's Crazy to Think that I'd Threaten Blair,” The Guardian, October 17, 2004).'

Profile of Irwin Stelzer

'Perhaps better known in Britain—where one broadsheet calls him “Rupert Murdoch's representative on Earth”—than in the United States, Irwin Stelzer is an economist at the Washington-based Hudson Institute (New Statesman, August 6, 2001). He is also a long-standing cadre of the neoconservative political faction. A close friend of Murdoch's and a frequent writer for many of the right-wing media mogul's newspapers, Stelzer has long been regarded in the United Kingdom as Murdoch's messenger to elite British policy-makers, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, with whom Stelzer maintains close contact.

Stelzer's relationship with Murdoch (and assiduous habit of promoting Murdoch's News Corporation-line on domestic and foreign policy) has made Stelzer few friends among liberal elites in the United Kingdom. In a 2004 expose about Stelzer, the Guardian quoted former EU commissioner Chris Patten: “I wouldn't sup with Irwin Stelzer if I had a spoon a yard long” (Guardian, October 17, 2004). The Guardian added: “But there are two men who do regularly sup with the patrician New Yorker: Blair and Gordon Brown … It is therefore unsurprising that, in the eyes of liberal conspiracy theorists, when Murdoch says jump and the prime minister jumps, it is Stelzer wielding the cattle prod.”

According to the Guardian, “a brutal example” of the purported influence wielded by Stelzer was the dramatic turnaround in Blair's stance vis-à-vis a referendum on the EU constitution. Blair, who initially supported pushing through UK support for the constitution without subjecting it to a public referendum, made an about-face on the issue shortly after Stelzer made a personal visit to the prime minister in early 2004. Reported the Guardian: “Political commentators were in no doubt: Stelzer had threatened Blair with an ultimatum that, unless he let the people decide, the Eurosceptic Murdoch would order the Sun and the Times to withdraw their support and back the Tories at next year's general election.”'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The American Enterprise Institute and their funding:

Major funders:

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
Originally the Allen-Bradley Company, it was sold in 1985 to Rockwell International, a leading defense and aerospace conglomerate.

John M. Olin Foundation
The New York-based John M. Olin Foundation grew out of a family manufacturing business in chemicals and munitions. It funds nationally influential right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution and Peace. It also gives large sums of money to promote conservative programs in the country's most prestigious colleges and universities.

Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation
This foundation is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune. At one time, its largest single holding was stock in Gulf Oil Corporation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Murdochian involvement:

9/11: What Did Rupert Murdoch Know?

The article mentions the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen.
This is it - The Lone Gunmen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

An interesting point on the war:

'One Iranian news agency with a correspondent in Irbil says five US helicopters were used to land troops on the roof of the Iranian consulate.

It reports that a number of vehicles cordoned off the streets around the building, while US soldiers warned the occupants in three different languages that they should surrender or be killed.

This is the most serious action yet. Isn't it a definitive act of war for one country to storm the consulate of another, threaten to kill them if they do not surrender, and then detain six consulate officers?'

(My emboldening)

Conscription for WWIII

2007-02-09T08:30:00.000Z

I found this conscription notice on the website of Arthur Lane, a writer and Far East veteran of WWII.

NOTIFICATION OF COMPULSORY ENLISTMENT

Under the Emergency Powers Act (1939) as amended by the Defence Act 1978), you are hereby notified that you are required to place yourself on standby for possible compulsory military service in the American Conflict. You may shortly be ordered to depart for the Middle East where you will join either the 3rd Battalion The Queen's Own Suicidal Conscripts or the 2nd Foot and Mouth. The regulars are too busy driving Green Goddesses to be there themselves.

Due to the recent rundown of the Navy and the refusal of P&O to lend us any of their liners, because of the deplorable state in which they were returned after the Falklands adventure, it will be necessary for you to make your own way to the combat zone. H.M. Government have been able to negotiate a 20% discount on one way trips with Virgin Airlines and you are strongly urged to take advantage of this offer (Ryan Air also do a nice little £9.99 trip). Because of cutbacks in Government expenditure in recent years it will be necessary for you to provide yourself with the following equipment as soon as possible:

Combat Jacket
Trousers (preferably khaki - but please no denim)
Tin helmet
Boots (or a pair of sturdy trainers)
Gas mask
Map of the combat zone (the Ordinance Survey 1:2800 Outdoor Leisure Map of Iraq will do)
Rifle
Ammunition (preferably to suit previous item)
Suntan oil

If you are in a position to afford it, we would like you to buy a tank (Vickers Defence of Banbury are currently offering all new conscripts a 0% finance deal on all X registration Chieftains, but hurry, as offer is only available whilst stocks last).

We would like to reassure you that in the unlikely event of anything going wrong, you will receive a free burial in the graveyard of your choice, and your next of kin will be entitled to the new War Widows pension of £1.75 per calendar month, index-linked but subject to means testing, and fully repayable should our side eventually lose.

There may be little time for formal military training before your departure and so we advise that you hire videos of the following films and try and pick up a few tips as you watch:

The Guns of Navarrone
Kelly's Heroes
A Bridge too far
The Longest Day
Apocalypse Now
The Matrix
Blazing Saddles
The Desert Song
Mary Poppins
We do not recommend that you watch Khartoum.

To mentally prepare yourself for your mission try reading the works of Wilfred Owen or Rupert Brookes. This should give you some idea of what may be involved.

Yours faithfully,

G Hoon, Ministry of Defence

A Bush-Blair Production
Sponsored by Mars, The Official snack of World War III

Hurrah, the Butter is All Gone!

2007-02-08T11:49:00.000Z

A piece of Dadaist satire exposing the absurdity of Nazi rhetoric. The picture refers to Hermann Goering's remarks on the merits of food shortage; in a speech he had explained: "Iron has always made a country strong, butter and lard only make people fat."

Photomontage by John Heartfield, 1935.
Image and text from Art and Propaganda by Toby Clark (Everyman Art Library).

Satirists
The world needs you now.

Cigarette Lighter of Mass Destruction

2007-01-29T09:10:00.000Z

This video shows life in Iraq before the US invasion. It was filmed two weeks before "Shock and Awe" - Iraq street scenes.

What has been done to Iraq was done in the name of all of us in the English-speaking world. We voted for the perpetrators; we have allowed them to continue their destructive bullying actions. We sit self-satisfied on our greedy arses and watch it happening, careful not to strain our brains in questioning the truth of it all. Lazy, ignorant, careless shams of civilized people we are.

"look up at the sky"

2007-01-27T21:17:00.000Z

A comment seen on the Google Video page, Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut.

Anonymous
12-Jan-2007

notice nobody looks around anymore, everyone has there heads down,,,,,,,,,,in the wild when animals dont look around and check there environemnt they are devoured

we need to get positive individual and smart and start looking around again look up at the sky for example.

'Pick up another ukulele!'

2007-01-27T10:13:00.000Z

There's a useful expression with a nice bit of philosophy in it in this interview of Peter O'Toole by Gaby Wood in last Sunday's Observer:

"Reminiscing about his mentor, the renegade actor-film-maker Kenneth Griffith who died just six months ago, O'Toole tells me about an episode that cemented their friendship. In the mid-1950s, Griffith and O'Toole shared a dressing room in Manchester with George Formby. Formby, they found, kept two ukuleles, tuned to different keys, and they asked him if one was a spare. 'No,' said Formby, 'I find it very difficult to change key, so I don't bother. I just pick up another ukulele.' The phrase became a favourite - whenever anything would go wrong, they'd say: 'pick up another ukulele!' and roar with laughter, as if that were the solution to every problem in life. Even now, wheezing with pleasure in the telling, O'Toole gives the impression that his survival instinct is so strong he won't ever really disappear; he'll just shift into another key."

George Formby plays When I'm Cleaning Windows. (It sold over a million copies, in the days of wind-up gramophones.)

More George Formby songs and film clips at MySpace.

Bio of George Formby.

Cannabis now Top Cash Crop in US

2006-12-19T10:46:00.000Z

A new report, Marijuana Production in the US, by DrugScience.org shows that Marijuana is now the biggest cash crop grown in the US, exceeding traditional harvests such as wheat, corn and soy beans.

Output in the US has grown tenfold in the last 25 years, partly prompted by tougher border controls after 9/11.

Source: Guardian Online.

Beware of Bad Losers

2006-12-10T18:42:00.000Z

What is George worried about?

Is he protecting his backside? A few paragraphs, entitled “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies”, in the 591-page John W Warner Defense Authorization Act 2006 (a $526 billion defense bill) make it easier for the President to declare Martial Law.

From CQ.com -

"The thrust of it seems to be about giving the federal government a far stronger hand in coordinating responses to Katrina-like disasters.

But on closer inspection, its language also alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president’s power to deploy troops within the United States.

That law has long allowed the president to mobilize troops only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

But the amended law takes the cuffs off.

Specifically, the new language adds “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident” to the list of conditions permitting the President to take over local authority — particularly “if domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order.”

Since the administration broadened what constitutes “conspiracy” in its definition of enemy combatants — anyone who “has purposely and materially supported hostilities against the United States,” in the language of the Military Commissions Act (PL 109-366) — critics say it’s a formula for executive branch mischief."

The new law "represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors . . .to the federal government.”

Who Controls America?

2006-12-10T17:33:00.000Z

Is it James Baker or is it Israel?

The Iraq Study Group have presented their proposals. Bush isn't buying them. Baker represents Big Oil and Big Industry, so if George isn't listening to him who is he listening to?

See Baker vs. "The Lobby"

What about the Democrats?

As the article points out, we'll be fairly sure who's pulling their strings when we see their reaction to the report.

Some comments on the 'Baker vs. The Lobby' article -

Watch closely for signs that Israel wants the troops moved from Iraq to Iran. Once that happens we can end the question of who wags the tail of the US dog. Prepare for another false flag attack since US citizens can't muster any enthusiasm for the war in Iraq, nor a new one in Iran. They can only justify another war with another false flag. Since WW II, false flags have been the mechanism for feeding the military industrial complex.
Just follow the money.
stetchedmind 12.09.06 - 10:52 pm

Don't trust Baker and the "old guard". ISG is a smoke screen to buy time while "they" set up the "emergency" which will necessitate martial law.
Remember - the current obession with Betrayal.
Yes, Its This Serious 12.09.06 - 9:29 pm

What Ahmadinejad really said

2006-12-09T14:18:00.000Z

We all know, all around the world, the terrible intolerant things President Ahmadinejad has said because we read it in the paper or heard it on the news.

But before they get to us, his words have to be translated.

And there's the rub.

See: Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust?

Moral:
Don't trust the mainstream media's translations from Middle Eastern languages - particularly when the message appears provocative.

Drugs, Murder and Cover-up in America

2006-12-03T10:41:00.000Z

"The US media have virtually ignored this story."

A chilling tale is reported in today's UK Observer of drug trafficking, murder and betrayal - known about and allowed by US government agencies.

"But Ice [Immigration and Customs Executive] and its allies in the DoJ were covering up their actions, helped by the US media - aside from the Dallas Morning News, not one major newspaper or TV network has covered the story."

"'If Congress and the media start to look at this properly, they will be horrified,' Sandy Gonzalez says. 'It needs a special prosecutor, as with the case of Valerie Plame [the CIA agent whose name was leaked to the media when her diplomat husband criticised Bush over Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction]. But Valerie is a nice-looking white person and the victims here are brown. Nobody gives a shit.'"

A story of the 'House of Death', mass graves, quicklime to dissolve the flesh of victims, 'carne asada' (barbecue) code for 'execution', drug dealing, spies, betrayal and "cover-up stretching from the wild Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush". (see Observer story)

Nationwide Police Blitz on Cannabis Farms

2006-11-16T22:35:00.000Z

Operation Keymer was set up to target cannabis factories across the UK, focusing particularly on 'skunk' varieties. See Sunday's Observer.

Some of the raids which come up on a Google search on "cannabis farm" (where reported the discovery is mainly because of smell):
Yorshire in June
Bradford in July
Northumberland in August
Pic of WPC at Northumbria farm
Newcastle in September
Rochdale in September
Staffordshire in October
Middleton in October
Wythenshawe in October
St Helens in October
Aberystwyth in October
Aldershot in October (pay to read)
Preston in November

The Bust
Here's a Google video showing a cannabis farm bust in Salford -
Cannabis farm bust (5 minute video)

What's it all about?
Stoned Free Guide to Growing Cannabis (36 minute video)

'Stoned in Suburbia'
For some delightful relief from all that hassle above, here's a lovely film with mature stoners, including Howard Marks and George Melly, a lady who bakes cannabis, leek and potato pie for her and her friends, and another who spent a week's holiday in the Rif mountains - Stoned in Suburbia (43 minute video)

'And some wad eat that want it'

2006-11-16T18:17:00.000Z

Whilst those who should be guiding the world play their greedy, dirty, deceitful games dealing death and destruction with 'shock and awe', and equally greedy people grab as much as they can get of the spoils, one child dies every five seconds of hunger.

There are 850 million chronically hungry people on the planet, and the number is growing by four million each year. Hunger kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Wot u havin 4 dinna tonite?

Source and photos: World Food Day

"Some ha'e meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we ha'e meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit."
The Selkirk Grace, Robert Burns

Matchstalk Men

2006-11-16T17:17:00.000Z

This slideshow with audio shows what happened when a group of teenagers in hoodies tried to get in to The Lowry Gallery in Salford, UK - Sunday afternoon at the Lowry

For my own amusement, I looked up the words of the UK No 1 chart hit from 1978, Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs, by Brian and Michael - these are them:

He painted Salford's smoky tops
On cardboard boxes from the shops
And parts of Ancoats where I used to play.
I'm sure he once walked down our street,
'Cos he painted kids who had nowt on their feet,
The clothes they wore had all seen better days.

Now they said his works of art were dull,
No room, old lad, the walls are full,
But Lowry didn't care much anyway.
They said he just paints cats and dogs
And matchstalk men in boots and clogs,
And Lowry said "That's just the way they'll stay."

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,
He painted kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs,
Now he takes his brush and he waits
Outside them factory gates
To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs.

Now canvas and brushes were wearing thin
When London started calling him
To come on down and wear the old flat cap.
They said "Tell us all about your ways
And all about them Salford days,
Is it true you`re just an ordinary chap?"

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,
He painted kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs,
Now he takes his brush and he waits
Outside them factory gates
To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs.

Now Lowry's hung upon the wall
Beside the greatest of them all,
And even the Mona Lisa takes a bow.
This tired old man with hair like snow
Told Northern folk "It's time to go,"
The fever came and the good Lord mopped his brow.

And he left us matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,
He left us kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs,
Now he takes his brush and he waits
Outside them pearly gates
To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs.

Source: andyjpartridge.co.uk

'We'

2006-11-05T17:16:00.000Z

'We' is a free documentary produced by an anonymous student in New Zealand. It was released for free on the Internet and first appeared at an Australian web site called resist.com.au.

The webmaster of resist.com.au received the film anonymously in the mail one day with a simple note that read:

"Feel free to pass this on to others who you know will be interested in its relatively unique content and perspectives (either by copying this DVD, dubbing to VHS, by dissemination through internet download, holding private screenings etc). Using the technology of this information age you have the freedom to be as imaginative as you like in the different ways which you can choose to make this accessible to others."

'We' features Arundhati Roy making her 'Come September' speech, and a soundtrack with music by:
Curve, Massive Attack, Dead Can Dance, Amon Tobin, Faithless, Boards of Canada, Love and Rockets, Nine Inch Nails, Lush, Telepop, Placebo, and others.

See the video on Google Video: We, featuring Arundhati Roy.

Or choose another way of viewing and read all about the video at: weroy.org.

"This is an unusual kind of underground production. An anonymous sympathiser has edited a video recording of Roy’s speech over 64 minutes, interspersing an impressive array of archival footage to illustrate themes and specific historical events. Contemporary music overlaid throughout the piece shifts the mood and quickens the pace. The result is a visual essay rather than a traditional documentary, perfectly suited to its creator’s intentions, which is to spread the anti-imperialist, social justice politics of Arundhati Roy everywhere." (from weroy.org)

Cognitive Dissonance

2006-11-02T10:23:00.000Z

To keep your mind open, first be aware of how closed it may be.

Cognitive dissonance: writer James Atherton calls it "a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation. It therefore occurs when there is a need to accommodate new ideas, and it may be necessary for it develop so that we become 'open' to them." It's that queasy feeling that rises often in your gut online and screams, "I DON'T BELIEVE THAT!"

It's what happens "if someone is called upon to learn something that contradicts what they already think and know - particularly if they are committed to that prior knowledge - they are likely to resist the new learning. Even Carl Rogers recognized this. Accommodation is more difficult than Assimilation, in Piaget's terms," writes Atherton.

"And - counter-intuitively, perhaps - if learning something has been difficult, uncomfortable, or even humiliating enough, people are less likely to concede that the content of what has been learned is useless, pointless or valueless. To do so would be to admit that one has been 'had,' or 'conned'."

From prisonplanet.com.

Selective Exposure Prevents Dissonance

Festinger [investigator of cognitive dissonance] claimed that people avoid information that is likely to increase dissonance. Not only do we tend to select reading material and television programs that are consistent with our existing beliefs, we usually choose to be with people who are like us. By taking care to "stick with our own kind," we can maintain the relative comfort of the status quo. Like-minded people buffer us from ideas that could cause discomfort. In that sense, the process of making friends is an example of selecting our own propaganda.

Postdecision Dissonance

According to Festinger, close-call decisions can generate huge amounts of internal tension after the decision has been made. Three conditions heighten postdecision dissonance: (1) the more important the issue, (2) the longer an individual delays in choosing between two equally attractive options, and (3) the greater the difficulty involved in reversing the decision once it's been made, then the more the person will agonize over whether he or she has made the right choice. Sometimes referred to as "morning-after" doubts, the misgivings or second thoughts that plague us after a tough choice motivate us to seek reassuring information and social support for our decision.

From afirstlook.com.

Zap Iran - then what?

2006-10-29T12:13:00.000Z

Suppose someone does something very daft - in a global sense - anytime soon. What would be the repercussions?

This two-part article by a retired brigadier general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, former chief of their Intelligence Service, lays out the likely scenario -

Part 1: Striking The US where It Hurts
Part 2: The Assassin's Mace

Propaganda of the Desperate

2006-10-27T18:44:00.000+01:00

Fear... and terror. If you're afraid enough you will comply (though if you do, there'll be some more fear along soon to make you comply some more).

This terrible enemy could strike at any moment, and it's YOU he's aiming at. He's coming into your homeland and he's purchased some suitcase bombs. All that has happened so far is nothing to what you will see next. Unless you vote for the Party.

No, it's not a Marvel Comics episode featuring supervillain Mikhail Rasputin working for the Dark Beast, it's a Republican election campaign video - complete with clicking tock... heartbeats... and explosion -

Vote Republican or Die!

This is the text from the video, which is displayed with photos of OBL, Zarkawi, etc:

"What is yet to come will be even greater."

"With God's permission we call on everyone who believes in God... to comply with His will to kill the Americans."
kill the Americans
They will not come to their senses unless the attacks fall on their heads and until the battle has moved inside America."
inside America
"We sent people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other central Asian states, and they negotiated. And we purchased some suitcase bombs."
suitcase bombs
"Our message is clear - what you saw in New York and Washington and what you are seeing in Afghanistan and Iraq, all these are nothing compared to what you will see next."
nothing compared to what you will see next
"What is yet to come will be even greater"
These are the stakes. Vote November 7th.

How to drive the message home: Invoke 9/11.
This is a call to Americans to monitor the vote: Video the Vote 2006.

We've been here before -

1930s Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda, from der Sturmer -

"They will attempt to fight Germany until it bends to their will or is forced to its knees. They will stop at nothing. They will lie and slander, and continually attempt to incite the whole world against Germany."

From “A Cockroach Cannot Give Birth to a Butterfly” and Other Messages of Hate Propaganda".

FREE HUGS

2006-10-27T13:06:00.000+01:00

If you're old enough to remember that 'love and peace' feeling from the 'flower power', 'make love not war' days before big business grabbed us by the long hair and flung us shorn and greedy into the 21st century, then you'll love this video (a true story) and its superb soundtrack, 'All the Same' by Sick Puppies.

Juan Mann: One Love

(... tears to my eyes)

Open-Minded but Also Skeptical

2006-10-26T20:32:00.001+01:00

From Oregon Mail Tribune
October 24th article:

'Ken Becker is a bright, educated and progressive fellow who normally scoffs at conspiracy theories.

But the Talent resident isn't scoffing at those who believe the truth has yet to be told about the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Becker, 52, is the founder of "9/11 Truth Now," an independent grassroots group demanding an independent criminal investigation into 9/11.

"I'm open-minded but I'm also skeptical — I'm not a conspiracy theorist," said the married father of two. "I have a family. I have my own business. I'm an Eagle Scout.

"But 9/11 raised so many questions that have never been answered by our government," he added. "I don't know what happened. But I do know we need to find out."

The group is sponsoring the Oregon premiere of "9/11: The Myth and The Reality," a documentary film that will be shown Saturday evening in the performing arts center at Crater High School in Central Point.'

'"It felt early on that we were putting our lives on the line for even taking about it," he added. "These questions are now accepted by an increasing number of people. We're a long ways from total acceptance. But people are having their doubts now (about the official explanation)."

Becker said the local group has about a dozen people in its core with roughly 150 on its e-mail list. He said those who question the official 9/11 explanation can no longer be written off as so many conspiracy kooks.

"Only 16 percent of Americans think the Bush administration is telling the truth about 9/11," Becker said, citing a recent New York Times-CBS poll. "That's huge."

There is also a growing disenchantment with mainstream media's exploration of the issues, he said,

"I've always thought we live in a democracy and that news is news," he said, noting he no longer feels that way.

"There is a whole lot of information our press doesn't cover," he added. "So we are becoming our own media. For-profit journalism has come at the expense of truth."'

You can watch Dr David Ray Griffin's "9/11: The Myth and the Reality" on Google Video.

To read a transcript or download an mp3: click here.

"Reading makes a country great!"

About The New York Times/CBS News poll

L'expérience de Milgram

2006-10-21T17:18:00.000+01:00

The Milgram experiment shows how far most people will go in causing pain to another when instructed to do so by someone in authority. (Over 60% will do as instructed; over 90% if there is a colleague with them who complies fully.)

Reading of the violence done to captives over the years, both by criminals and the military, I conclude that the only safe thing is to do everything possible to avoid giving them power over you in the first place. Once they have that power, they are free to vent their anger, their frustrations, their plain meanness and murderousness, on you.

It is critical that we understand the implications of Milgram's findings to current times. In the name of 'anti-terror', security forces are being increased and restrictive laws enacted, with martial law contingencies and talk of internment camps. That means more people with more power over us.

This video shows a participant undergoing the experiment:
L'expérience de Milgram.

The experiment explained in Wikipedia:

"In response to a newspaper ad offering $4.50 for one hour's work, an individual turns up to take part in a psychology experiment investigating memory and learning. He is introduced to a stern looking experimenter in a white coat and a rather pleasant and friendly co-subject. The experimenter explains that the experiment will look into the role of punishment in learning, and that one will be the 'teacher' and one will be the 'learner'. Lots are drawn to determine roles, and it is decided that the individual who answered the ad will become the 'teacher'.

The learner is taken to a room and strapped in a chair and an electrode is placed on his arm. The teacher is taken to an adjoining room and instructed to read a series of questions. If the learner gets the answer correct, then they move on to the next word. If the answer is incorrect, the teacher must administer a shock to the learner.

The generator has 30 switches, each labeled with a voltage from 15 up to 450 volts, rated from 'slight shock' to 'danger: severe shock'. The final two switches are labeled 'XXX'. The teacher must increase the shock each time the learner misses a word in the list. In fact, the learner is an actor and does not actually receive a shock."

More on the Milgram experiment:
A lesson in depravity, peer pressure, and the power of authority.

Milgram wrote, in the article "The Perils of Obedience":

"The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation."

"One theoretical interpretation of this behavior holds that all people harbor deeply aggressive instincts continually pressing for expression, and that the experiment provides institutional justification for the release of these impulses. According to this view, if a person is placed in a situation in which he has complete power over another individual, whom he may punish as much as he likes, all that is sadistic and bestial in man comes to the fore."

"This is, perhaps, the most fundamental lesson of our study: ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority."

One of the goals of the experiments was to see if ordinary Americans would obey immoral orders, as many Germans had done during the Nazi period.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Postscript (from Wikipedia):

"Six years later (during the height of the Vietnam War), one of the participants in the experiment sent correspondence to Milgram, explaining why he was 'glad' to have been involved despite the apparent levels of stress:
'While I was a subject [participant] in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority. ... To permit myself to be drafted with the understanding that I am submitting to authority's demand to do something very wrong would make me frightened of myself. ... I am fully prepared to go to jail if I am not granted Conscientious Objector status. Indeed, it is the only course I could take to be faithful to what I believe. My only hope is that members of my board act equally according to their conscience...'"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update, Nov 18, 2006: Google Video appear to have removed the video showing the actual Milgram experiment. There is, though, this one of a Twilight Zone episode. This, apart from the beginning and ends of the episode, is a fairly accurate portrayal of Milgram's experiment:
The Twilight Zone - Milgram's Experiment

'The Long Screwdriver'

2006-10-20T20:56:00.000+01:00

The management of Operation Iraqi Freedom

'The long screwdiver' was how Paul Bremer described the control of operations in Iraq from the Pentagon, in a critical year over 2003/04.

You can see the startling errors of the occupation in this excellent Frontline video: The Lost Year In Iraq.
(You can judge the level of Bremer's success by his difficulty in finding a way to leave Iraq without getting killed.)

'Sovereignty Lite' in Iraq

"Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set."
See: Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil.

You can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink

With training, uniforms and humiliation you can make a new Iraqi army, but you can't make the soldiers think like American soldiers.
See this short video from the Guardian: Iraq: The Real Story.

"Like with the Proverbial Frog"

2006-10-20T10:06:00.000+01:00

Extract from The Anti-Empire Report.
Some things you need to know before the world ends,
by William Blum.

"Three billion years from amoebas to Homeland Security

'The Department of Homeland Security would like to remind passengers that you may not take any liquids onto the plane.
This includes ice cream, as the ice cream will melt and turn into a liquid.'

This was actually heard by one of my readers at the Atlanta Airport recently; he laughed out loud. He informs me that he didn't know what was more bizarre, that such an announcement was made or that he was the only person that he could see who reacted to its absurdity.

This is the way it is with societies of people. Like with the proverbial frog who submits to being boiled to death in a pot of water if the water is heated very gradually, people submit to one heightened absurdity and indignation after another if they're subjected to them at a gradual enough rate. That's one of the most common threads one finds in the personal stories of Germans living in the Third Reich.

This airport story is actually an example of an absurdity within an absurdity. Since the 'bomb made from liquids and gels' story was foisted upon the public, several chemists and other experts have pointed out the technical near-impossibility of manufacturing such a bomb in a moving airplane, if for no other reason than the necessity of spending at least an hour or two in the airplane bathroom." (see earlier post: Getting 'through the Cookery without Starting a Fire in the Lavvie')

"Britain now No 1 al-Qaida target - anti-terror chiefs"

2006-10-19T10:46:00.000+01:00

That's the headline to this article in today's Guardian. Can you believe it? This is the same 5-year old propaganda and the media are still reporting it like good little lambs.

The instigators of this propaganda are now treating us like a bunch of absolute fools, Britons. Wake up. This is just the old scare stuff peddled over again. But beware, those who produced this press report could well be up to something themselves. (Are Visor Consultants running a mock attack in your area? When's Rudy Giuliani next visiting the UK? These are some of the questions we could be asking in order to avoid a 'coincidence'. Info: Guiliani and Visor Consultants)

The sub-head is "Officials say group sees July 7 attacks as 'just the beginning' of UK campaign". But on April 9th 2006, we were informed "Al-Qaeda not linked, says government".

A challenge: Name one person in the world who's been charged for carrying out 'al-Qaeda' work. And don't say Moussaoui - look at this short video. And don't say bin Laden, either. FBI says, “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”. (Source: teamliberty.net)

For all the cries of 'sleeper cells', where has there been one? Bush was gonna hunt them down - 60 or more 'sleeper cells' over America. How many were there? - NONE. See video: Power of Nightmares, part three.

Sharpen up, research and shout it, there's something going on. And whatever it is, it'll mean new, more restrictive laws and 'security measures'.

Our liberty is at stake.

Whilst you're thinking about it, you might like to add this into the mix. It's a report of a remark by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair about internment camps. Now worry.

Image: Poster from WWI

The Martial Law Precaution

2006-10-19T09:53:00.000+01:00

Back in mid 2001, when none of us were thinking of terrorist attacks on the USA, troops were being trained for the "coming conquest of America under martial law".

On September 7th 2001, George and Jeb Bush signed orders preparing for martial law in Florida. And on September 11th, George signed an order giving the Florida Department of Law Enforcement "The authority to direct all state, regional and local governmental agencies, including law enforcement agencies,..."

Now, in such a scenario, wouldn't you wait in the classroom until you knew it was all clear to come out?

The training of the troops: Gold Digest

The signing of the orders: WorldNet Daily

Spotting the Rotters

2006-10-18T21:59:00.000+01:00

Here's some tips on sorting out the truth from the lies in the official reports of what's been happening on our planet over the past many years.

From an article by Dr Peter Dale Scott at the Centre for Research on Globalization.

...using the 9/11 Report as evidence – evidence of what is being suppressed. We can use it in this way because some parts of the Report are accurate and reliable. This base line of reliability helps define other parts of the Report which are misleading, and in a few places I believe dead wrong. These relevant omissions and deceptions should be taken as clues as to what is being suppressed, and where the hidden truth lies.

I shall talk of the Report’s occasional resistance to the truth. Let me give an easy and incontrovertible analogy from the Warren Report. The Warren Report got many things right; but it also minimized the links between Jack Ruby and organized crime. This resistance was a clue that Ruby in fact was crime-related and that this was important.

We find similar symptomatic resistance in the 9/11 Report.

1) Here is an easy example: the identity of the hijackers. The FBI had distributed a list naming 18 of the 19 alleged hijackers by 10 AM on 9/11. Within two weeks the identities of at least six of the hijackers were unclear; as men in Arab countries with the same names and histories, and in some cases the same photographs, were protesting that they were alive and innocent. In response to these protests, FBI Director Robert Mueller soon acknowledged that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers was in doubt. But there is no discussion of this problem in the detailed treatment of the alleged hijackers in the 9/11 Commission Report.

2) WTC-7. This is obviously a big area of doubt, as you have just heard. The Report’s solution was not to mention WTC-7 at all. And yet Kean and Hamilton, the 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs, have the nerve to claim in their new book that after the Report “those believing conspiracy theories now had to rely solely on imagination, their theories having been disproved by facts.” In other words, they are still covering up that there was a cover up.

Inevitable War

2006-10-17T13:14:00.000+01:00

Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter:

“The path that the United States is currently embarked on regarding Iran is a path that will inevitably lead to war. Such a course of action will make even the historical mistake we made in Iraq pale by comparison.”

Scott Ritter on "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change” at Democracy Now!

Habeus Corpus

2006-10-16T07:28:00.000+01:00

United States Constitution
Article One, Section Nine:

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

(This Latin phrase literally means 'produce the body'. It is an ancient English legal concept that empowers judges to order imprisoned persons to be brought into court to determine if they are being legally held.)

Bush's new terror law protects detainees from blatant abuses during questioning, such as rape, torture and "cruel and inhuman" treatment, but does not require that any of them be granted legal counsel. Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts. Bush said the process is "fair, lawful and necessary."

The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

Source: MSNBC

Keith Olbermann's comments:
Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”

Iraq's Oppressors are Now the Oppressed

2006-10-13T17:27:00.000+01:00

In their former dominant position, the Sunnis in Iraq controlled the government, the economy and the military. Now, the tables are turned, and their existence is threatened by the Shia backlash.

This article provides an excellent background to the internecine killing in Iraq: The Civil War Myth.

Extract:

"In 2003, the apparatus of Sunni domination, was taken apart. Sunni Arabs no longer held nearly all the senior military, police and government jobs. The Sunni Arab secret police force(s) were disbanded, as was the army. For the first time in over three centuries, the Sunni Arabs of Baghdad were not in charge, and they did not like it. They have been resisting this change in status ever since. But in the last three years, things have only gotten worse for the Sunni Arabs. The new government (dominated by Kurds and Shia Arabs, who are 80 percent of the population) has created an army and police force. So not only are the Sunni Arabs outnumbered, but they are confronted with an army and police force controlled by their enemies.

And it gets worse, because the Sunni Arab dictatorship got worse as time went on. The last 10-15 years of Saddam's rule were particularly horrible for the Kurds and Shia Arabs. There were massacres and constant terror from Saddam's secret police. So not only are the Sunni Arabs now outnumbered, and facing over a quarter million soldiers and police they do not control, they are also on the receiving end of revenge attacks by millions of enraged Kurds and Shia Arabs.

This is not the recipe for civil war, it's the prelude to massacre and mass expulsion. Of the Sunni Arabs. In Iraq, everyone is aware of this, but too many foreigners, including many who should know better, just don't get it."

A 21st Century Hero - Supernanny

2006-10-05T10:58:00.000+01:00

The most valuable skills in all human society are currently being shown on UK and US TV in the programme 'Supernanny'.

Supernanny, Jo Frost, is an extremely skillful corrector of children's bad behaviour. Her special tool is the 'naughty seat', where children must sit for a minute for each year of their age when they have behaved badly; then apologise properly to get a good hug. The 'naughty seat' is not all though, she also understands the psychology of children and their place in the family. Children are not to be shouted at or spoken to in anger.

The change in the families over the course of the programme is amazing to behold. At the start you see parents with drawn, sad faces, whose relationship has worn thin, and who are barely able to cope with their wildly-behaved children. At the end of the programme there is a happy family. You see it in the mother's face: relaxed and attractive. You see it in the father: he's in love with his partner again and helpful. And the children are happy, well-behaved and play together.

Now, if all families could have the benefit of Jo Frost's skills and power, think what a society we'd have. Happy families: happy people.

Supernanny Café

UK: Supernanny on Channel 4
USA: Supernanny on ABC

Doors Slam Shut

2006-10-01T13:18:00.000+01:00

Death and Cover-Up in the UK

"Every time we ask a question, the door slams shut."

"The true scale of Britain's hospital superbug problems emerged today as a leading hospital trust admitted that a 'hypervirulent' infection had claimed the lives of at least 49 patients - and possibly as many as 78 people - in the space of nine months.

The superbug Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), which can cause severe illness and death in patients who have undergone surgery, appears to be at unprecedented levels."

"Sylvia Greaves died in Leicester Royal Infirmary in May after being admitted with leg ulcers. Her children discovered that she had caught the superbug only after it was given as a cause of death on the death certificate.

Her son, Barry Calow, told a local newspaper that the family was horrified to find their mother had been treated on an open ward and no special precautions had been taken. 'We just want to know why this happened,' he said. 'Every time we ask a question, the door slams shut.'"

Source: The Observer.

That's the sort of country the UK has become - people die, you ask a question and 'the door slams shut'.

Billions of pounds spent on killing people illegally in other countries whilst inncocents at home continue to die because of dirty wards and shortage of beds.

Ask a question about why we're at war at all: answer, 'terrorism'. Based on what? answer, '9/11 and 7/7'. Ask a question about the 7/7 bombings - the door slams shut. In the USA, the grieving families after 9/11 ask questions - the door slams shut. Do we know the truth about either? NO WE DON'T!

Meanwhile, innocent people at home and abroad are still dying.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Death and Incompetence in the UK

Whilst those billions are spent on a spurious war, increased security and anti-terrorist policing, measures for the real safety of innocent people at home continue to be neglected.

"Angelika... should have been attending her final mass today before returning home to Poland tomorrow. Instead police were last night expected to confirm that the body found in the grounds of the church on Friday night was that of the 23-year-old."

"Last night police were still trying to trace convicted sex offender Peter Tobin. The 60-year-old, who had worked as a handyman at the church for the past six weeks, was the last person to be seen with Angelika. Police questioned him on Monday night about her disappearance, but he gave them a false name, age and address before disappearing the following day."

"In 1994 Tobin was jailed for 14 years for a vicious sexual attack on two 14-year-old girls. He had held the two teenagers at knifepoint in his Hampshire flat, forced them to ingest sedatives and then raped one of them while she was partially conscious. Tobin began sexually assaulting the second girl and only stopped after he was interrupted by his six-year-old son, who was at home at the time."

"On Tobin's release, he was supposed to be being monitored by parole officials and his local social services. It is understood Tobin moved to Paisley in December 2004. He should have informed police and the Parole Board about any change of address."

"Yesterday afternoon the police refused to disclose any more details, other than that forensic examinations were continuing at the church. They also renewed their appeal to Tobin, urging him to come forward."

Source: The Observer

Day of Mass Resistance

2006-09-30T17:40:00.000+01:00

A US campaign to drive out the Bush regime is holding a Day of Mass Resistance on October 5th: no school, no work.

Here's a list of the events organised throughout America on that day - The World Can't Wait.

Keep an Eye on Your Neighbour

2006-09-30T13:47:00.000+01:00

How to help the police in spotting cannabis farms -

"According to the police, hundreds of Britain's homes have been transformed into secret 'cannabis factories'. Criminal gangs are refitting ordinary suburban residences in order to cultivate a powerful and lucrative form of cannabis known as 'skunk', which is associated with depression, anxiety and being very, very high*.

In an attempt to combat the problem, police are asking suburbanites to keep an eye out for pot-growing neighbours. But how can you tell if next door has been transformed into a skunk farm?"

Here's how, read: Do you have a pot farm next door?

* Depression? - never. Anxiety? - best avoided. Very, very high? - no complaints.
Criminal gangs? - see World Drug Report below, "a vast army of small growers".

-------------------------------------------------------------------

4% of Humanity Stoned

The following day's Guardian carried this story:

The UNODC 2006 World Drug Report report systematically undermines the logic of treating cannabis cultivation and consumption as serious problems.

"Telling us that cannabis is a relatively harmless and inexpensive intoxicant, the report presents statistics that the drug is grown and consumed everywhere and in very impressive quantities. Based on public polling data from 134 countries, the report explains that an estimated 4% of humanity enjoys the planet's most popular illicit drug. Given the understandable reluctance of respondents in many societies to answer pollsters' questions about their illicit drug use, the survey's findings are probably too conservative. Even so, 4% of humanity is 162 million people - a number equivalent to the entire population of the UK, Germany and Sweden. In a style akin to what's what in the cannabis world we hear that it is relatively inexpensive in Kazakhstan, where 'as much as 400,000 hectares of cannabis grow wild'. 'Swaziland is known for producing high-quality cannabis,' according to the report, while, 'Malawi is ... world renowned for the quality of its cannabis.'

With the UNODC, providing evidence that an inexpensive and harmless recreational drug continues to be consumed by at least one in 25 people on the planet, and that it is supplied by a vast army of small growers with economic activity of an enormous scale, one would think that even the most gung-ho politician would realise that cannabis prohibition is a failed policy."

Here's the report: World Drug Report (it's quite thick).

A Real-Life American Beauty

2006-09-30T10:46:00.000+01:00

You will undoubtedly have seen the superb film, 'American Beauty'. You will probably remember the too-extreme anti-gay Colonel next door.

Here's a real-life character, Dr Paul Cameron, on whom the Colonel's part could have been modelled -
The Daily Show's Jason Jones On Gays in the Military.

We promised we wouldn't forget

2006-09-28T18:24:00.000+01:00

If you're not well up on the tactics of the Nazis in 1930s Germany, this 1947 film will get you up to date, make you aware, and perhaps help save us from going through it all again -
Don't Be a Sucker (17 minutes)

The 'Truth' Can Be Painful

2006-09-28T14:18:00.000+01:00

The stun belt in the courtroom.

Zacarias Moussaoui is the only person so far charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks.

This short MSNBC video report discusses Moussaoui's sudden and surprising confession: The only 911 Trial is a hoax.

Having Your Chip Turned Off

2006-09-23T17:53:00.000+01:00

Even deeper into the rabbit hole...

Under the blanket of fear we are moving towards a society of 'chipped' people.

First, chips in our driving licences, then passports/ID cards, then inside our bodies.
In a cashless society, if your chip is turned off you can't buy food, you can't pay your bills and you can't leave*. You will have somewhere to go though - apparently there are internment camps currently being built all over America**.

That's just a small part of the frightening information revealed by Aaron Russo, talking about his new film 'America: Freedom to Fascism', in this excellent video interview.

* More about the implanted chip: IBM, Verichip and the Fourth Reich.
** FEMA camp(?), Beech Grove. (The portent of this video is very scary.)

Following the White Rabbit

2006-09-22T15:35:00.000+01:00

Take the blue pill	Take the red pill

Believe whatever you want to believe	See how deep the rabbit hole goes

Looking down the barrel of a Smoking Gun

2006-09-19T10:54:00.000+01:00

9/11 experts debunked. A new 9/11 video, released 15th September 2006, answers the 'explanations' put out by the experts who have tried to debunk 'Loose Change'.

The new video: 9/11 Mysteries.

The images above, taken from the film, show:

At left. A 'shape charge'. This is how explosive is fastened around a steel girder to cut it through. The angled cut is used so that the cut girder will slide down.

At right: Part of a core column left standing after the collapse of the WTC. The hardened once-liquid metal is a symptom of thermite use.

If you don't think it was possible for anyone to have been able to set up such a system of explosives, you'd better watch the video.

'An Orwellian Pantomime'

2006-09-17T11:42:00.001+01:00

In the style of 'Loose Change', which shows the 9/11 cover up, a video has just been released which examines the London Bombings of 7/7/05 - 'Ludicrous Diversion'.

The video also highlights the 'Inquiries Act 2005', which means that enquiries are controlled by the very people they should be investigating. It has been described as 'the Public Enquiries Cover-Up Bill'. Here's how it goes -

Inquiries Act 2005

4. Appointment of inquiry panel

(1) Each member of an inquiry panel is to be appointed by the Minister by an instrument in writing.

(2) The instrument appointing the chairman must state that the inquiry is to be held under this Act.

(3) Before appointing a member to the inquiry panel (otherwise than as chairman) the Minister must consult the person he has appointed, or proposes to appoint, as chairman.

To see how this works in practice, take a look at the Report of the Official Account of the Bombings in London on 7th July 2005.

Of course, if you watched the video on the previous post, '9/11: Press for Truth', you'll already have seen how this kind of inquiry works in practice.

Extracting the Urine

2006-09-17T09:25:00.000+01:00

Watch how the relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks get stuffed by their government in their attempt to have an honest enquiry into 9/11 - an enquiry headed by Philip Zelikow, Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, Bush's close confederate and the planner of the Iraq war strategy.

See how Bush and Cheney insist on testifying together, not under oath, and in secret with only Zelikow and one other member of the commission, who was selected by Bush and Cheney. Where I come from, we call this 'taking the piss'.

Watch the video: 9/11: Press for Truth

An "outrageous and dishonest" Report

2006-09-14T23:04:00.000+01:00

In today's Washington Post:

"UN inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document 'outrageous and dishonest' and offering evidence to refute its central claims.

Officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the report contained some 'erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements'."

"'This is like prewar Iraq all over again,' said David Albright, a former nuclear inspector who is president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. 'You have an Iranian nuclear threat that is spun up, using bad information that's cherry-picked and a report that trashes the inspectors.'"

An American Jew in Israel

2006-09-14T12:17:00.000+01:00

Jack Bernstein's 1985 book gives no sources for confirmation. Nonetheless, it is written from the heart by someone with personal experience, and has much bearing on current world events.

Read online:
The Life of an American Jew in Racist Marxist Israel

Lebensraum

Apartheid in Israel. How Israel makes its land grab secure.
A video you won't see on mainstream TV: The Iron Wall
(It's important to understand the difference between Zionism and Judaism as explained by Jack Bernstein above.)

George Galloway

This is that clip, which you may have seen, of Galloway demonstrating how to handle a Sky News interviewer:
On Google Video
On YouTube

Another Inconvenient Truth

2006-09-13T09:44:00.000+01:00

Al Gore's film on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, receives a glowing review in today's UK Guardian.

Commenting on the review, an Australian says:

"Excellent article. It is great to see this sort of appreciation from journalists - something we do not have enough of here in Australia. The main broadsheet, The Australia (owned by R. Murdoch), has been voraciously cynical of Al Gore's Film. Each day it has opinion pieces deriding and outright denying the science presented in the documentary."

I must admit, the first time I heard that Al Gore had made a film called An Inconvenient Truth, I thought for sure it must be about all the unanswered questions around 9/11 and the enormity of the danger facing the world if the Bush cabal did engineer the atrocity to suit their agenda.

Inconvenient truths, along with their counterpart, convenient lies, feature strongly in today's information marketplace. With major international publishers and media owners tailoring facts to suit their politics most of us are denied the truth.

Without truth, how can there be democracy?
Without truth, how can you know who you're voting for or what you're voting on?

Loose Change Debated

2006-09-12T13:21:00.000+01:00

The video 'Loose Change' is proving popular, with 10 million downloads setting it for the first blockbuster of the internet.

In order to counteract the film's contentions, the US magazine 'Popular Mechanics' has published a timely book (just before 5th anniversary of 9/11) which attempts to debunk Loose Change.

Here's a debate between the producers of Loose Change and the editors of Popular Mechanics on Democracy Now.

NB: Popular Mechanics is a Hearst publication.
William Randolph Hearst:
"You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war." (Spanish-American War, 1898)

Some of the reporting of Hearst's newspapers during his 1930's crusade against marijuana and Mexicans:

"Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days - Hashish goads users to bloodlust."

"Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim's life in Los Angeles?... THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES - that is a matter of cold record."

David Ray Griffin in London to Speak on 9/11

2006-09-09T08:00:00.000+01:00

From today's Guardian:

"Two days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks, David Ray Griffin, emeritus professor of philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont graduate university, and author of The New Pearl Harbor and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, will ask his audience: 'Was 9/11 an inside job?'

The theories as to what happened on that day, when almost 3,000 people were killed, differ but their unifying theme is that a neo-conservative cabal within the US government staged the events as a pretext to wage wars, become a dominant force in the world and establish "the new American century". The attacks, it is said, were not carried out by al-Qaida terrorists but were a 'false flag' event used to justify invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq."

If you can't make it to London's Conway Hall to hear him tonight, you can hear him here on Google Video.

Iran next?

2006-09-02T21:12:00.000+01:00

Some valuable reading on the background to the current situation with Iran:

Calculating the Risk of War in Iran

Some more recent, and more worrying, reading on the US admin's mindset concerning Iran:

The Pentagon's 'Second 911'

And some of the interests and connections involved:

Behind the Plan to Bomb Iran

Expulsion for Cannabis Use Unlawful, UK High Court Rules

2006-09-01T08:05:00.000+01:00

Birmingham city council was ruled as acting unlawfully in upholding the decision of a Birmingham school to expel two pupils for using cannabis.

Government guidelines suggest that pupils should not normally be expelled for minor drug offences.

Source: Guardian Online

What the government guidelines for schools are, I cannot find.
I searched for ten minutes then gave up.

'The Century of the Self'

2006-08-31T17:45:00.000+01:00

A superb four-part documentary on the history of propaganda.

"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis, writer and producer of the series.

Available to view on Google Video (you'll have to download the Google Video player, but it's worth it):
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four

More Adam Curtis documentaries:
The Mayfair Set (This site, theDossier, is a major resource for video and audio documentaries)
The Power of Nightmares

A biography and interview with Adam Curtis

Adam Curtis used his BAFTA speech last year to criticise the media's sensationalisation of the supposed ricin terrorists.
The Guardian story
Prison Planet's view
The ricin case timeline

Are the UK Terrorist Suspects Guilty of Thought Crime?

2006-08-23T16:00:00.000+01:00

Entrapment in the UK?

"From what is typical in terrorist scares, it is likely that the individuals arrested in the UK August 10 are guilty of what George Orwell, in 1984, called 'thoughtcrimes'. That is to say, they haven't actually DONE anything. At most, they've THOUGHT about doing something the government would label 'terrorism'. Perhaps not even very serious thoughts, perhaps just venting their anger at the exceptionally violent role played by the UK and the US in the Mideast and thinking out loud how nice it would be to throw some of that violence back in the face of Blair and Bush. And then, the fatal moment for them that ruins their lives forever ... their angry words are heard by the wrong person, who reports them to the authorities. (In the Manhattan flood case the formidable, dangerous 'terrorists' made mention on an Internet chat room about blowing something up.)

Soon a government agent provocateur appears, infiltrates the group, and then actually encourages the individuals to think and talk further about terrorist acts, to develop real plans instead of youthful fantasizing, and even provides the individuals with some of the actual means for carrying out these terrorist acts, like explosive material and technical know-how, money and transportation, whatever is needed to advance the plot. It's known as 'entrapment', and it's supposed to be illegal, it's supposed to be a powerful defense for the accused, but the authorities get away with it all the time; and the accused get put away for very long stretches. And because of the role played by the agent provocateur, we may never know whether any of the accused, on their own, would have gone much further, if at all, like actually making a bomb, or, in the present case, even making transatlantic flight reservations since many of the accused reportedly did not even have passports. Government infiltrating and monitoring is one thing; encouragement, pushing the plot forward, and scaring the public to make political capital from it is quite something else."

From Empire Burlesque.

For a view of the wider picture; to understand where this is all heading, listen to this very credible man, David Ray Griffin, a philosopher-theologian: 911 and the American Empire

Getting 'through the Cookery without Starting a Fire in the Lavvie'

2006-08-21T13:53:00.000+01:00

I came across a page on theregister.co.uk on the impossibility of terrorising the world/UK with peroxide bombs made in airplanes.

From the site:

"Don't forget to bring several frozen gel-packs (preferably in a Styrofoam chiller deceptively marked "perishable foods"), a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You're going to need them.

Easy does it

Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips to avoid drawing attention. Once your kit is in place, put a beaker containing the peroxide/acetone mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding the acid, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you'll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you'll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else.

After a few hours - assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven't overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities - you'll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two."

Just think, on the basis of this rubbish proposition from the authorities, hundreds of UK Muslims are being subjected to raids and searches. So, it's an excuse, it's not about a bomb that couldn't be made at all. For what then? You'd better start researching quick, the truth is still out there but the propaganda is everywhere.

Did Someone You Know Fight in WWII?

2006-08-18T13:51:00.000+01:00

Well, remember what they fought for - and against.

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"

2006-08-18T13:21:00.000+01:00

I just watched this video of Donna Marsh O'Connor, mother of a 9/11 victim, and it put me in tears.

"A time comes when silence is betrayal."
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

The Enabling Acts

2006-08-18T11:37:00.000+01:00

The American Constitution is now the Bush Constitution. He has taken upon himself the power to decide whether any law, existing or new, is constitutional.

Bush administration spokesmen told a Boston Globe reporter that 'the president will faithfully execute the law in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.'

"But the words 'in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution' are the catch, legal scholars say, because Bush is according himself the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution. And he is quietly exercising that authority to a degree that is unprecedented in US history.

Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation's sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.

Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files 'signing statements' - official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register."

In just five years, Bush has filed more than 750 signing statements, by far a record for any president.

"The Constitution grants Congress the power to create armies, to declare war, to make rules for captured enemies, and 'to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.' But, citing his role as commander in chief, Bush says he can ignore any act of Congress that seeks to regulate the military."

"Many of the laws Bush has challenged involve national security, where it is almost impossible to verify what the government is doing."

'The Enabling Act' was officially called 'Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich'. Its passing in March 1933 meant the end of democracy in Germany and the establishment of legal dictatorship. (The 'distress' had been secretly caused by the Nazis to create a crisis atmosphere.)
"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...", Hitler told the Reichstag.
Source: History Place.

Level of Terror Threat still on 'Alleged'

2006-08-17T10:46:00.000+01:00

After a year of investigation and a week of presumably very intensive interrogation of suspects and searching of property we are still on 'alleged' - everywhere, in the press, on TV and radio, no one will say 'plot', only 'alleged plot'.

On his blog, Craig Murray gives some points to bear in mind:

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb.
None had bought a plane ticket.
Many did not even have passports.

And without bombs, airline tickets, and in many cases passports, a jury would not be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that these people intended to go through with suicide bombings.

A Woman's World

2006-08-16T22:20:00.000+01:00

An articulate lady voices her thoughts on Islamic fundamentalism.

Suspended Disbelief

2006-08-16T12:14:00.000+01:00

We can get into all sorts of worry states with our imagination. And the more conflicting information we have, the harder it is to sort it all out.

There's so much confusion around at the moment that it's difficult to know where to turn.

So, I thought, how about going back to basics and applying common sense. Cut out all that we've been fed, all the fear and emotion, and see what's left.

Here's my first thought:

It's really confusing that the London bombers are described as such nice normal men by their family, neighbours and friends.

The men described in Times Online.
One year later: no clues yet.

(In the Times Online article describing the bombers, the only bad thing said about any of them is this:

"He also gave a fascinating hint of his own smouldering political anger and dissent. As a Beeston resident, he expressed his discontent with the community’s squalor, saying he believed it would be many years before regeneration cash would transform the area."

Does that sound like "a fascinating hint of his own smouldering political anger and dissent"?)

Watch 'Loose Change'

2006-08-15T07:54:00.000+01:00

I said it below, I say it again, watch 'Loose Change' (Second Edition - Recut) then think again about what's happening in the world today.

It's about 9/11 - the very reason for the 'war on terror': but it's about what actually happened and all the questions that need answering.

The video is available with French subtitles or with Chinese subtitles.

What's it all about? See Armed Madhouse.

For a criticism of this documentary, visit the 9-11 Research Companion to Loose Change 2nd Edition where they aim to "foster an understanding that, despite its many errors, the film raises questions that urgently demand serious scrutiny".
Also see the video and audio presentations of: The Citizens Commission on 911.
Yet more here: Best (and worst) movies about Peak Oil, 9/11 and the War on Terror - including the excellent documentary series screened by the BBC called 'The Power of Nightmares'.

After seeing Loose Change, you may like to see a video supporting the official explanation of the collapse of the Twin Towers:

BBC Horizon – The Fall of the World Trade Center

You may note that they are careful not to show those shots of the whole towers with the progressive explosions cascading down the building: they crop in to the top only, or show a long-distance shot.
They do not mention the collapse of Building 7, which is the biggest mystery of the day - but then, the official 9/11 Commission didn't bother with it either.
They claim no fire service could have dealt with the fire, yet a senior fire officer had already called through his estimation of the problem and his proposed solution.
They do not discuss the explosions noted by firemen and recorded by others.

Their conclusion, though, is important: the safety of high-rise buildings is in doubt.

Israel - the Stalking Horse

2006-08-14T08:02:00.000+01:00

This article by Seymour Hersh, posted in today's New Yorker, discusses the pre-planning by Israel, with American cooperation, of the attacks on Lebanon.

It's all reminiscent of the Nazi attack on Poland in September 1939, which was also apparently provoked by a border incident (known to be fabricated in the case of the Nazis).

Why the continuing use of the word 'alleged'?

We had an announcement on the radio this morning by John Reid, UK Home Secretary, that the security level was being taken down one notch from 'critical' to 'severe'; 'imminent' to 'highly likely'. Weirdly, he still talks of the 'alleged terror plan'. Surely, someone in his position, at this stage in the proceedings, doesn't need to be protecting himself by using the word 'alleged'.

If he knew there was a plot he wouldn't need to keep saying 'alleged'; he'd just say 'plot' or 'terrorists' or 'suspects', whatever. So it must be that he/they doesn't know if there was a plot.

If suspects have been surveyed for 12 months, then an operation carried out, then surely it must be known whether or not there was a plot.

'A synthetic ruse ?

The Spirit of Abe

2006-08-13T10:51:00.000+01:00

"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors."

Abraham Lincoln, from speech at Edwardsville, September 11, 1858
(I took this quote from a comment by James to The Scotsman newspaper)
More at: Abraham Lincoln on Preserving Liberty

Hypocrite's Guide to Forgetting

2006-07-23T09:19:00.000+01:00

1. Wear a poppy for Remembrance Day.
2. Be silent for two minutes.
3. Carry on as before.

Photo: www.dreamstime.com

In Search of the Golden Proof

2006-07-11T11:32:00.000+01:00

With the current cannabinoid evil being psychosis (having lost its claim to murder, rape and insanity), I've been anticipating that hordes of thirsty researchers will have been digging for the golden proof, and then finding fame and fortune.

I've checked daily over the past year and found no new proofs reported.

Well, they're still digging. Though at a different angle this time.

The Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology has published the findings of researchers seeking to prove that cannabis use is a gateway to subsequent use of other drugs such as heroin.

What they actually claim their research proves is: "Adolescent Cannabis Exposure Alters Opiate Intake and Opioid Limbic Neuronal Populations in Adult Rats".

This is how it's done:

Adolescent Cannabis Exposure
"The rats were exposed to THC... In order to mimic the intermittent use seen in teenagers, the drug was given once every third day; this resulted in a total of eight injections. One week after the last injection, heroin self-administration (outlined below) was initiated in one set of animals and brains were taken in another group of rats for post-mortem studies."

Intravenous Heroin Self-Administration
"The animals were first trained to self-administer intravenous infusions of 15 g/kg heroin. After 6 days, the dose of heroin was increased to 30 g/kg/infusion and the rats received one priming infusion at the start of the following 1–4 sessions, until they started to press on their own."

"None of the rats acquired self-administration at the heroin dose of 15 g/kg/infusion during the time period studied. When the dose was increased to 30 g/kg/infusion and in combination with modest autoshaping (one drug prime and food restriction), all animals acquired self-administration behavior."

I think the key phrase here is 'modest autoshaping'.
(ie, if at first you don't succeed, then modestly autoshape)

These researchers do have a way with words. It reminds me of the New Zealand study on cannabis use and psychosis (sited as reference by the rat students above) where they measure psychosis in the tidiest way imaginable:

"Confirmatory factor analysis of the item set has shown previously that the items formed a unidimensional scale reflecting the extent of psychotic symptomatology."

Meaning, as I wrote in a previous post, that they'd already proven that all the psychotic symptoms they'd listed are equal in weight, and together make up the full range of symptoms. Nice work if you can get it.

Where is the proof that is so eagerly sought? The proof that will allow so many desperate 'decent' citizens to relieve their frustration with: "I knew it! I was right all the time about those lazy, good-for-nuthin' layabout hippie types. A spell in the army would sort them out."

Pass me a rat and a scalpel, please.

In Charge of the Pain Button

2006-07-10T09:56:00.000+01:00

The numb and fusty husks who run this world will have things their way. We put them in charge but the power gets to them and they inflate to become as grand as their title.

In Germany

In May last year the German Federal Administrative Court ruled that certificates of exemption can be issued for the therapeutic use of cannabis.

On 5 July this year the Federal Institute for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products sent identical letters to applicants seeking permission to use cannabis for medicinal purposes. In the time-honoured manner of state officials they are being as awkward as possible. For example, they demand the storage of cannabis in a safe or in rooms made of reinforced concrete, and a certificate documenting the patient’s experience in the handling of narcotics.

In America

In the USA, the saga grinds on (giving, at the same time, another lesson in the strange contrary mechanics of today's abstract and perhaps non-existent ideal - our battlecry - 'democracy').

On 28 June, The House of Representatives voted to continue to allow federal prosecution of patients who use cannabis for medical purposes in states with laws that permit it. By a 259-163 vote, the House again turned down an amendment that would have blocked the Justice Department from prosecuting people in the 11 states with such medical marijuana laws.

The arrogance (and ignorance, too, I strongly declare) of these, our public servants, trying with all their wimpish might to hold back the forces of change and enlightenment, is laughable - if you're not in pain.

Source: IACM-Bulletin of 9 July 2006

Schoolboy Sulks from the Dutch Right Wing

2006-06-24T21:30:00.000+01:00

Remember that Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner who came up late last year over misinformation given to a German newspaper?

He's in the press again. According to the UK Guardian, he had reluctantly agreed to allow large-scale farming of cannabis on a pilot project (to supply the coffeeshops, rather than have them buy it on the black market as they currently have to).

But on Thursday he told MPs that if they wanted to allow cultivation, "then you need a different kind of justice minister".

"It's not fair. I won't! I won't! I won't! I don't want to play anymore! We never play the games I want to play. Mo - o - o - o - m, tell them!"

Medical Tourism

2006-06-24T19:34:00.000+01:00

If you live in the UK and, like me, you and your family fear getting ill after the hospital horror stories you've heard (I live in an area where the NHS policies of New Labour have been in full and frightening effect for a few years), or you're on reduced tooth care because local dentists have closed their doors to non-subscribers, you'll be relieved to know about the possibilities opened up by medical tourism.

I heard someone on the radio this morning saying he travels to Hungary for his dental treatment - he even goes for his check-ups.

So I had a look round. Here's something to think about for a start - the MRSA virus comparisons:

Country	Percentage of MRSA in 2002
Greece	48.6%
United Kingdom	44.5%
Germany	27.2%
Spain	23.5%
Belgium	19.2%
Czech Republic	6.2%
Netherlands	1.0%
Sweden	0.7%

There are a lot of clinics open to medical tourism throughout the EU, also India.

The treatmentabroad.net site gives details of clinics all over:
for surgery and for dentistry. There's also a form where you can get a quote.

medical-services-network.co.uk have a clinic in Germany with English-speaking staff.

medical-treatment-overseas.co.uk are a clinic in Malta (with prices shown).

medicaltreatmentabroad.com have a clinic in India with many UK-trained staff where you "get the best possible medical attention in the world at par with what you would get in U.K./U.S.A. at a low cost of less than half the expenses in U.K." Prices are shown on the website and they're all-inclusive packages - including airfare, hospital treatment, medicine, operation costs, prostheses (if required) and all follow up treatment.

themedicaltouristcompany.com arrange for treatment in India. Their site has a comparative price guide (though they don't include flight costs).

Treatment abroad on the NHS

If you're already waiting for treatment in the UK, then you may be eligible for NHS funding. UK patients forced to wait longer than they should for NHS treatment are entitled to reclaim the cost of being treated in Europe, the European Court of Justice has ruled.
There's a BBC article about it, also a Q&A page

Medical treatment on holiday in the EU

The E111 form for medical treatment whilst holidaying in the EU is now replaced by the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)

The EHIC entitles EU citizens to reduced-cost, sometimes free, medical treatment that becomes necessary while you’re in a European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland. That's these countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus (but not Northern Cyprus), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

Best idea of all - combine treatment with a holiday in a beautiful sunny country - relax and heal faster.

The 'Department in Chaos' Prepares for Attack

2006-06-07T10:55:00.000+01:00

Hello, Clubbers. Nanny wants you.

Those who enjoy a smoke and a pill with their clubbing, not to mention a wrap of something else, had best watch out. Nanny's after their toys again.

"You will do as you are told."

When you're losing a war and you're pig-headed, what you do is try even harder with the tactics that have already failed. Visualise the aggressive knight in the Monty Python film who, after he'd lost everything except his head, still threatened to bite his opponent.

Under new plans shortly to be debated, the Home Office will propose that if you are caught with five ecstasy tablets or 5g (1/5oz) of cannabis you will be prosecuted as a dealer and thus eligible for 14 years imprisonment.

The Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, whose previous advice has been followed by Home Secretaries, has suggested that the cannabis threshold should be 28gm (1oz) and ectstasy 20 tablets (2g). They warned that the new levels proposed by government were so low that they were likely to cause policing problems.

The Home Secretary has also announced a crackdown on British cannabis farms and a public education campaign to stress both the harm and the illegal status of the drug.

The education campaign should start with members of parliament and the media and should stress both the false propaganda and manipulated research which the public has been fed for the past eighty years.

New lower levels of 2g for possession of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine are also proposed. No change to speed at 14g, so Nanny won't be sending you to bed early.

My nanny says: "It's time those in authority - all over the world - grew up and stopped behaving like spoilt kids who try to get their way by bullying and tantrums."

Governance without Slapstick

2006-05-30T11:51:00.000+01:00

A paper with a purpose

I thought this a lovely paragraph from a Max Hastings article in today's UK Guardian:

"Whatever happens in the months ahead, the circumstances of Blair's departure will be at best undignified, at worst humiliating. Whatever Gordon Brown does on inheriting the mantle, he will find himself in the position of an aged Broadway star summoned to London to revive the fortunes of a flagging musical - deprived even of its custard-pie turn with the announcement that John Prescott is 'resting', as he surely soon will be."

The article, with the incredible title 'Poise and style, wisdom and wit - yes, Cameron has left me starstruck', follows its sycophantic title, and is summed up by a commenter, DiogenesAX:

"The Guardian prints this because in olden times you needed something to wipe your arse on in your outside loo."

The Primitive Awakened

2006-05-10T22:16:00.000+01:00

The subject of invasion of privacy versus public safety unleashes some xenophobic reactions in this blog post about a police search in Amsterdam last November.

The post starts with a video of the stop-and-search. The most shocking aspect is not the video itself, but the enraged hostility of many commenters towards the blogger - an American they assume is a tourist, in a time when the US administration has made itself unpopular.

The comments give a worrying picture of the potential for disintegration of our behaviour towards one another as security measures tighten up our lives.

We are primitives still. Ripe material for Leaders to mould.

Doing Something Forbidden

2006-05-07T11:13:00.000+01:00

Want to taste forbidden fruits whilst you still have the chance, but maybe feel too nervous to try? Here's a comment posted on Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory. Four people from Germany travel to Amsterdam and try cannabis for the first time; though only one of the four enjoys the experience.

Michael from Germany. Sent 6 Apr 2005.
"We took a trip to Amsterdam in order to "once in our lives do something forbidden". Since no one of us smokes, we had to go for some "sweets". We found this shop [Chocolata] and the girl (quite a sweet one) behind the counter was quite helpful and friendly. We bought some slices of the "Hash-Cake" and some "Bon bons". I had a piece of the cake and my friends had half a piece of cake and one of the Hash Bon Bons. The girl had told us that it would take about an hour to hit. And we were stupid enough to run around the city and visit a steak house. We almost believed that nothing at all would happen. When suddenly one by one we started to feel the effect. We sat there and couldn't stop giggling and felt sort of dizzy. Can't remember having laughed that much and hard for a long time. Still some of my friends didn't like the trip at all and felt really uncomfortable with it. But this was mostly due to the fact that we were sitting in a foreign country in a steak house and felt sort of embarrassed. All in all 3 out of the 4 of us will probably not try hash again. I must admit I rather liked it! It was in fact yummy and really did the trick. Would definitely try it again. Still I am just one of four. If you really wanna try this for the first time, please be sure to have at least one sober person with a clear mind next to you. Also try going back to your hotel room before you eat the sweets or just stay at your coffeeshop for about the next 4 hours."

Thanks to Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory and Michael from Germany for permission to reproduce the comment.

What is it like?

A staunch non-smoker for most of his life, an American describes his time in Amsterdam:

"One of the first and most surprising observations I had about marijuana is that it wasn't at all like I imagined it would be. Somehow, although I had no experience with it, I had developed my own ideas about what it would be like: I sort of figured it would be like watching a really strange movie, or having a bizarre dream. However, it isn't like that at all. It's more like you're IN the movie, or the bizarre dream. It's not a passive experience; instead, it changes the way you perceive things.

Attempting to describe what it's like is actually rather difficult. It's like trying to look at something that moves out of sight whenever you look it its direction. Marijuana does not make things look different, or sound different, or taste different... and yet, it does. You tend to notice things you'd never noticed before. You appreciate more fully details that you'd otherwise have skipped. But they are nonetheless no different than they were before you got stoned."

After meeting many people who use cannabis, he concludes:

"Which leads me to the most surprising lesson of all, and the thing that conservatives will have the hardest time accepting. The shocking truth about marijuana is, that for many Americans, it's a Family Value. Those of you who've never tried it will not be able to comprehend this, but I now am able to see that this really is true, and why. You see, contrary to the lies, pot doesn't make you crazy or violent. Fact is, it makes you relaxed and sociable. It puts you in a very good frame of mind for spending leisure time with other people. It's a bonding activity. It's something you do with someone else, an experience you share. It promotes togetherness."

"This place is like Disneyland for grown-ups!"

"This analogy came up over and over again during our stay. In a city as magical and entertaining, and clean and beautiful as Amsterdam, it was hard for it not to. As the week progressed, we heard people say it over and over again: "This place is like Disneyland for grown-ups!"

He describes The Bulldog Palace Coffeeshop:

"Imagine a typical American bar. It's three steps down from street level, and even though it's daylight outside, it's dim and smoky inside. You go in, and you take a seat at the bar.

Now, imagine you look up at the signs behind the bar and the first thing you notice is a sign that says "Drinks required - No Alcohol." What kind of bar is this? It looks basically like any normal bar... but no alcohol? If there's no beer or booze, what is there?

As a non-drinker, I've never liked bars. The floor is always sticky, the counter has beer spilled on it, and the people there are getting drunk and rambunctious as they watch the football game on TV. Nothing about that picture is appealing to me. Yet it's a popular setting all across America and the world.

This, however, was a bar that I really enjoyed spending time in. For the first time in my life, I've been able to see the appeal of a cozy neighborhood spot such as this."

A safe city

The Internet Guide to Amsterdam says:

"Amsterdam is a safe city, and there is nothing to fear from walking in any part of the city. Even in the red-light district around the Oude Kerk, there are always lots of tourists wandering around."

For information and comments on coffeeshops and a superb hotel booking service, visit Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory.

Photo: Hotel Doelen reflection © 2006 R deCinabre

UK: 1st in Europe, 2nd in the World

2006-04-29T00:44:00.000+01:00

The availability and use of ecstasy is increasing steadily despite a fivefold increase in police seizures, according to an important new study, covering the years 1994 to 2003.

Young Britons are still by far the leading consumers of MDMA (ecstasy) in Europe and the second largest worldwide, after Australia. An estimated 750,000 regular users consume about 26 million tablets a year (considered probably an underestimate).

If you or yours are into ecstasy, then the study is a worthwhile and sensible read.

Why do they do it?

If you don't know why people want to take ecstasy, here's some extracts from The MDMA Experience at mdma.net (a very extensive and intensive resource):

"Taking MDMA induces an amazing feeling of closeness and connectedness to one's fellow human beings. MDMA triggers intense emotional release beyond the bounds of everyday experience. The drug also enhances the felt intensity of the senses - most exquisitely perhaps the sense of touch. The body-image looks and feels wonderful. Other people look and feel wonderful too. Minutes after dropping a pill, a lifetime of Judaeo-Christian guilt, shame or disgust at the flesh melts away to oblivion."

"When MDMA is taken outdoors, the natural world seems vibrant and awe-inspiring, perhaps even enchanted. The experience of colour is gorgeously intensified. On MDMA, Dr Shulgin [a Californian chemist] reported how mountains he'd observed many times before appeared to be so beautiful that he could barely stand looking at them."

"MDMA is sensuous and sensual in its effects without being distinctively pro-sexual. Although once dubbed 'lover's speed', MDMA is proverbially more of a hugdrug than a lovedrug: 'I kissed someone I was in love with and almost felt as if I was going to pass out from the intensity, recalls one American clubber.'"

"On pure MDMA, subjects feel at peace with themselves and the world. They discover an enhanced sense of self-worth, self-forgiveness and complete self-acceptance. Cynical thoughts and negative feelings disappear. Aspects of life normally too sensitive to talk about can be explored freely. Heightened feeling allows long-forgotten and repressed emotional memories from childhood to be retrieved with unusual ease. In some settings, painful, highly-charged and even hitherto unmentionable problems may be discussed with (rose-tinted) candour. On MDMA, a lifetime of accumulated psychological barriers and defence-mechanisms go down, somehow magicked out of existence with a pill. Anger, irritability and ingrained fear dissolve; the hostile amygdala is subdued, if only for a few hours. Ecstasy users tell each other affectionately what beautiful people they are; and they do so from the depths of their hearts."

And all the above is in addition to the strong experience of music and the urge to dance. Read about a rave night in Seattle in this recent Seattle Times article; about pink diamonds, pink hearts, candy kisses, candy ravers, 'light shows' and 'P.L.U.R.' (peace, love, unity and respect).

Yes, ecstasy should be a very beautiful feeling.
But I'll say this:

If you're under, say 18, then you should be aware that the general advice given is that, as your body and brain are still physically developing, it's riskier for you to introduce chemicals into your system. I don't know enough about that, but it seems reasonable advice. In any case, when you're inexperienced in handling potentially problematical states, it's wise to act with caution (this I do know!).
READ what happened to Mary Ann Leneghan - important!

Parents: It's happening out there like you can't imagine: or change. You'd best get knowledgeable - ie, replace ignorance with real information. And, if you can possibly do it, you need to connect with how your parents reacted to your behaviour/lifestyle when you were young: and then remember how you felt about it at the time. But most of us become too pig-headed, prejudiced and reactionary to permit ourselves to feel back that far.

If you can understand what your children are doing and why, without being pig-headed or censorious, maybe they will talk to you about it. Though you may not love what you hear, at least you'll know.
READ what happened to Mary Ann Leneghan - important!

Governments: I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that your insistence in the way of prohibition, on Drug Wars, Drug Tsars and the paraphernalia of battle, makes casualties of the public. And despite many billions of pounds, dollars, whatever, of the public's money being spent, your war is not being won.

So-called 'drug abuse' is a public health, not a criminal, issue. Its criminality is, anyway, an enticement. A senior member of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs remarks on the dangerous Crystal meth: "Moving it [up] could have the perverse effect of making it a more desirable product for users and so stimulate demand." Holland has proven over many years that accepting drug use reduces public demand. And, of course, its current criminality makes it very, very profitable - and potentially dangerous.
READ what happened to Mary Ann Leneghan - important!

Most of the drug users you would criminalise are using them from free choice: not to go against the law, but to have the experience. The fact of the illegality of such drug use is balanced against the right to choose to have the drug experience. Most free thinking people would believe they have the right to choose: also, that an authoritian government, which uses distorted and inflated arguments to achieve its ends, is out of touch; and clearly is not in control.

We choose our experiences. We go on holiday to pleasant places; we travel; we dine and drink out; we seek to place ourselves outside our ordinary everyday. We take risks to have thrills: on mountains; on rapids; on microlites, racing cars and motorbikes; at the end of bunjee ropes; on and under the sea. To me, it's all about the same basic thing: brain chemicals squirting enjoyably. Get yours as it suits you best. But know what you're doing - whatever it is.

Manufacturers and dealers: Get your act together and stop cheating people with shit. You've got a ready market of good-timers; don't be arseholes. Read the study paper noted above: 100mg is the required dose. Play the game - clean.
READ what happened to Mary Ann Leneghan - important!

READ what happened to Adrian "the bitch set me up" Thomas and his five fellow torturers, rapists and murderers.

Image: Om Eye God! © 2006 R deCinabre

At the Crossroads

2006-04-25T11:54:00.000+01:00

When you don't know whether to go up or down, it's time for a radical rethink.

We seem to be getting closer to a rational approach to dealing with drugs: the need for truth is becoming unavoidable. But, inevitably, when you're trying to clear away the old rubbish you will stumble upon sticky bits.

Heads you lose, tails you don't win

Testimony given before a government committee on the UK drugs classification system achieved this anomaly:

Magic mushrooms shouldn't be in class A, the same as heroin; but if we move 'shrooms' down to a lower class it might encourage use.

Crystal meth is listed as class B, though it's highly addictive and dangerous; but to move it up to class A would make it desirable for users and so stimulate demand.

What a dilemma: whether to reveal the truth or manipulate it.
Old habits die hard.

Image 2006 R deCinabre. Use freely.

Give It Some!

2006-04-21T23:09:00.000+01:00

If you enjoy a bit of bovver after the boozer, then the UK is the place for you. Leave your pot and your peace pipe at home and get out and give some aggro. The streets are safer for you: policing is down and the priority is low.

This is the Government position:

"Enforcement of legislation on drunk and disorderly behaviour has dropped sharply over the last 10 years. This reflects not only falling priority but also, crucially, the sheer practicalities of policing large numbers of drunk people. Arresting some one for drunk and disorderly behaviour and taking them to the custody suite can take two hours or more – during which the officer is effectively off the streets."

From a March 2005 report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies, titled 'Alcohol-related Crime and Disorder'.

"Alcohol-related crime and drunken offenders place a huge burden on the police and other public services:

- from approximately 10.30pm to 3.00am the majority of arrests are for alcohol-related offences

- there is the potential for routine incidents of public nuisance to escalate to more serious, especially violent, offences

- dealing with intoxicated offenders can be difficult and time consuming. For example, they may have to be kept in cells long enough to sober up; while they are there the police have a duty of care and have to ensure the offender does not come to harm by choking on their own vomit. The offender may have to be checked every 15 minutes. Medical attention may be necessary. Female offenders need female police officers to attend certain procedures who may have to be taken off other duties.

- intoxicated prisoners can be disruptive, uncooperative and may present severe hygiene problems, urinating or defecating in their clothing during or after arrest."

'Going back to the blanket'

2006-04-16T01:31:00.000+01:00

"As I lay on the blanket I thought about my school days and all I had learned.

I could talk like a gentleman, read, write, and cipher. I could name all the states of the Union, with the capitals, repeat the names of all the books of the Bible, one hundred verses of Scripture, sing more than two dozen hymns, debate, shout football yells, swing my partners, and tell dirty stories by the hour. It was important that I had learned how to get along with the white man.

But my experience had taught me that I had a Hopi Spirit Guide, whom I must follow if I wish to live and I want to become a real Hopi again, to sing the old songs and to feel free to make love without the fear of sin or rawhide."

Sun Chief, Hopi

American policy to assimilate Native Americans included removing the young from their family and tribal influences and placing them in special schools, where they were not allowed to speak their own language on fear of punishment.

"When Indian children drop out of school, stumble in learning English or withdraw into themselves, teachers call it 'going back to the blanket'."*

Not just in the USA; Canada too

On his blog, a young Canadian Inuit man writes about what he learnt of the Residential school system in Canada which operated between 1892 and 1996. He says, "some things I heard at that meeting made me want to tear my skin off with my bare hands."

Speaking any native languages was severely punished, sometimes by children having their tongues stuck to frozen fences, getting strapped, locked in a closet and/or ridiculed.

The method was complete separation from the family and culture for up to ten years or more, thus ensuring that the children would not know their own people, culture, languages and law.

He concludes:

"We are human beings; we have the fundamental right to justice. The truth must be known."

Sources:
*Our Brother's Keeper: The Indian in White America, Edgar S Cahn, Editor.
Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the Pacific Northwest.
Education and the American Indian.

Image © 2006 R deCinabre

Major UK Newspapers Scam Public in Drugs Deception Scandal

2006-04-13T11:32:00.000+01:00

Next time you pay good money for a newspaper that promises a sensational story, be careful you're not being ripped off. In fact, you'd be better off if you bought a comic; then you'd know for sure it was a piece of fiction.

Newspaper-selling clichés recently used to bait customers:

In The Times:

Cocaine floods the playground
Use of the addictive drug by children doubles in a year.

In The Telegraph:

Pupils' use of cocaine doubles
One in five secondary pupils takes illegal drugs and the use of cocaine among schoolchildren has doubled in a year, one of the biggest Government surveys of its kind said yesterday.

In The Daily Mirror:

Cocaine for kids doubles
Cocaine use among children has doubled over the past year, according to Government figures.

The manipulation of the figures, by which these attractive headlines were forged, is exposed on the blog Bad Science.
Yet again, the devil is in the statistics and the over-eager press.

(If you've got the time, and your brain's up for it, there's an interesting discussion running through the comments (119 to date) to the Bad Science article, mainly concerning 'null hypothesis significance testing'. It's an eye-opener on statistical vagaries and confusion.)

Memo: 'Data mining is a dangerous profession'.

Image: www.istockphoto.com.

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Apparently, The Sun and The Guardian also carried the fabricated story: but a search in The Guardian on 'cocaine' does not find theirs online, even though it was headed: 'cocaine use doubles amongst school pupils’.

Maybe they hid it in embarrassment when they printed the Bad Science story verbatim, with its intro line: "'Cocaine floods the playground,' roared the front page of the Times last Friday."

Winston Smith is alive and well and working at The Guardian.

America's Bear Butte

2006-04-10T23:23:00.000+01:00

A "ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing"

Up to 60 different Native American tribes travel to the sacred Bear Butte in the Black Hills of South Dakota to fast and pray.

Two drag racing strips, a biker bar*, a convenience store, campgrounds, and housing developments have been constructed there. Now a group of businessmen has received an $825,000 grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to build a rifle shooting range within a few miles of Bear Butte.

A lawsuit to stop this encroachment has been filed by six tribes. The Black Hills is a Native American's sacred ground and a 'white-man's' mountain resort. On the Black Hills Resorts site you can read about the 1983 case of Fools Crow v Gullet, where Native Americans tried to stop intrusion into their sacred grounds. (Result: they lost, of course.)

Nothing new

The U.S. government initially tried to prevent settlement of the Black Hills, having signed the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie, which promised 60 million acres of the Black Hills "for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupancy of the Sioux".

Settlers respected the 1851 Treaty and accepted the fact that the Black Hills were sacred — until gold was discovered. Then they clamoured for access, and the government tried to force the Lakota (Sioux) to sell their remaining land (by then reduced to 20 million acres). This didn't work, so Congress enacted a new treaty in 1877 which seized the land, resulting in war and defeat for the Lakota.

A federal judge, reviewing the case in the 1970s, commented:

"A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability, be found in our history."

Sources:
Sacred Land Film Project.
Manataka American Indian Council.
Bear Butte International Alliance.

* This is from the biker bar website, the Broken Spoke Saloon, 'the world's biggest biker bar', where new facilities are planned:

"Outside of the Broken Spoke Saloon, Sturgis County Line Amphitheater, Builder’s Bar, Schoolhouse and the Mexican Cantina, we want to leave the rest of this beautiful property untouched! So sit back with a cold one while watching a Bear Butte Sunset! It doesn’t get better than that."

(He originally planned to call his campground 'Sacred Ground' and build an 80 foot statue to honor American Indians!)

Construction has already started with grass being stripped from the base of Bear Butte.

On April 5th, boston.com news published this:

"Despite strong opposition from Indian groups hoping to prevent further encroachment on the mountain, Meade County authorities on Tuesday unanimously approved a beer license for a campground, biker bar and concert area."

The Dictator-spirit

2006-04-07T16:32:00.000+01:00

These are extracts from a Guardian article by Jenni Russell:

Tony Blair's administration is removing the safeguards that protect all of us from the whims of a government and the intrusions of a powerful state. It is engaged in a ferocious power-grab.

The government is briskly and fundamentally reshaping the relationship of the individual to the state, of the Lords to the Commons, and of MPs to ministers.

The ID cards bill will allow the authorities unprecedented surveillance of our lives, and the power to curtail our ordinary activities by withdrawing that card.

The legislative and regulatory reform bill, now entering its final stages, will let ministers alter laws by order, rather than having to argue their case in parliament.

Then this weekend brought another shocking government proposal to increase its own power and weaken the restraints upon it. The government intends to drastically curtail the powers of the Lords. In future peers will have to pass any legislation that the government deems important, whether it was in the manifesto or not. They will effectively be neutered.

Two comments (from many) on the article:

Chenrezig:

"Is it just me or do these things have an eery parallel to Bush' America? It seems that he and Bush are up to the same thing as decribed by Jenni: seizing power and undermining real democracy. I would be curious to know what's going on in other European countries, whether there is a similiar movement by the political elites. I don't live in the UK anymore and I'm unfortunately starting to feel that that's a good thing. Boy, what a horrible thing to have to say."

anticant:

"In the 1930s E.M. Forster wrote: 'We are menaced by something much more insidious [than Fascism or Communism] – by what I might call ‘Fabio-Fascism’, by the dictator-spirit working quietly away behind the façade of constitutional forms. Fabio-Fascism is what I am afraid of, for it is the traditional method by which liberty has been attacked in England.' While the Blair brigade is bossy but probably basically benign, the same may not be true of its successor governments in twenty, or even ten, years’ time. As Forster said, 'As soon as people have power they go crooked and sometimes dotty as well, because the possession of power lifts them into a region where normal honesty never pays.'"

The Continuing Rape of the NHS

2006-04-07T13:10:00.000+01:00

The UK National Health Service seems about to descend into freefall.

Through their complete incompetence in money management several NHS Trusts are losing millions. Job losses announced in England over the past five weeks amount to more than 6,000, and could go as high as 20,000. That means the laying off of a huge number of doctors and nurses.

The NHS Trusts are worried about money.
The unions are worried about job losses.
Who's worried about the patients?

Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, insists that patient care will not be affected:

"Patients should be reassured by the determination of clinicians and management to maintain the best care for patients."

What a scenario: the health service stripped and a bloody flu epidemic in the wings.

Is there hope?

Commenting on the Worcestershire redundancies, the trust chairman, Michael O'Riordan, said:

"It's not in anyone's interests for us to stagger from one crisis to another. We will never be able to rid ourselves of the financial baggage. If there was an easy way out, we would have taken it by now. Hard times are ahead. People can fight against us, or they can fight with us and support us as we strive to secure the future of their hospitals."

What the fuck is that about?
Be honest: it's just more bullshit, isn't it?

If you would like to see how his Health Authority goes about its business, here's a report on their earlier money-saving methods.
(ie, the ones that got them into this mess)

Soft Soap

2006-04-07T10:49:00.002+01:00

This is from today's UK Guardian, from a report on the finding in Scotland of a swan infected with bird flu.

"There were recriminations during the day from local people at the speed with which the authorities had removed and tested the contaminated carcass, which was seen moving with the tide in the village's small harbour for days. It was not until Thursday last week that the partially eaten remains were removed by the Scottish authorities for tests.

Tina Briscoe, a university researcher who raised the alarm after spotting the dead bird, said: 'It was reported in the evening to Defra and they collected the bird around lunchtime, about 12.30 or so, the following day. I would have expected a quicker reaction, particularly because in the tidal water it could have been washed away or cats could have picked on it.'

Charles Milne, Scotland's chief vet, defended the speed with which the dead bird had been tested. 'There were a series of laboratory procedures that needed to be gone through,' he said."

The Guardian printed that. They have accepted the chief vet's statement and printed it as if it were a rational answer to the question of the delay in getting the bird out of the water for inspection.

And so we go on. Events occur; officials respond with some insufficient cover-up; our robotic press report it; and we accept it.
Fools we are.