Cheney pushing to legalise torture

emphasis is mine.

Vice President Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans.

The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors.


Its prisoners have "disappeared," like the victims of some dictatorships. The Justice Department and the White House are known to have approved harsh interrogation techniques for some of these people, including "waterboarding," or simulated drowning; mock execution; and the deliberate withholding of pain medication.


CIA personnel have been implicated in the deaths during interrogation of at least four Afghan and Iraqi detainees. Official investigations have indicated that some aberrant practices by Army personnel in Iraq originated with the CIA. Yet no CIA personnel have been held accountable for this record, and there has never been a public report on the agency's performance.

How can the American public continue to blindly go on with their daily lives as their silence indicates a complicity and agreement with their governments policies of abuse and repression?

The world can't wait any longer!

Just another wacky conspiracy, you say?

Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings

Let's see how the administration deals with their own pesky General Accounting Office now.

Spread the news on this one - people need to know.

As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.

The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.

I'm asking for your help...

... to preserve the some of the fruitful waters in the North Atlantic.

The Canadian government needs to know that while fishermen are out catching our dinner, we 'consumers' (gawd I hate using that word!) do care about, and want to ensure that the region's ecosystem is saved from destruction.









Sign the WWF petition to help save a region in our nation that is dangerously close to complete ecological collapse: The Grand Banks, off the shores of Newfoundland.

In this region, tonnes of marine life is being caught unintentionally, and dumped overboard dead or dying every year because of appalling fishing practices.

Among this "bycatch" are scores of endangered leatherback turtles, dolphins, porpoises, and ancient cold-water corals. As a result, the Grand Banks’ entire ecosystem is at risk.

Rosa Parks still has something to teach us

Rosa Parks individual action resulted in everyday freedoms being afforded to many. We take those freedoms for granted today, but the most important lesson she can teach us is that individuals CAN make a difference.


Civil disobedience is necessary behaviour when the representative government in a democratic nation no longer represents the citizens, nor acts democratically.

"People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true.
I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day.
I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42.
No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
Rosa Parks 1913 - 2005

Impeaching George Bush would be neither disobediant, nor illegal. All it takes is determined action through the systems laid out for just such a situation wherein the President of the United States is not fit to serve the office.


Now is such a time. It is long overdue and while citizens of the US allow him to remain in power, the world suffers.


Impeach GWB.


The picture and quote come via MickeyZ

The World Can't Wait!

Drive Out the Bush Regime!
Mobilize for November 2, 2005!


Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights. Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it. Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.


Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.


Your government suppresses the science that doesnÕt fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.


Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.


Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.


People look at all this and think of Hitler — and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.


Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.


There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.


There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

Brazilian deforestation 60% worse than we thought

Scientists from Brazil and the US say new research suggests deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has been underestimated by at least 60%

Mules in Pakistan providing relief to quake survivors

Nine days after the killer quake struck Kashmir and parts of northern Pakistan, the army mobilised its animal transport units (ATUs), or what's left of them, to reach inaccessible areas - sometimes without any human assistance.

I'm never happy to see creatures other than humans drafted to military service, but the current work of these so called 'beasts' of burden is most valuable and unique.

I hope they fare well.

Footage shows US troops burning bodies of 2 Taliban

The footage showed flames licking two charred corpses, their legs and arms outstretched, and a group of five US soldiers standing watching from a rocky ledge.


Footage showed two US soldiers reading two messages from a notebook that they said had earlier been broadcast.


"Attention Taliban you are cowardly dogs," read the first soldier, identified as psychological operations specialist Sergeant Jim Baker.


"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."


The other unidentified soldier read a second message, part of which said: "You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."

Is anyone suprised? I certainly am not. I'm quite certain that this is just one example of the sort of activity that psyop officers are specifically instructed to carry out.

The occupation is little more than an excercise in stripping away the dignity of citizens while the corporations strip away the resources of their countries.

18th of October....

On this date, NASA took this lovely picture:

These people were born:





















Chuck Berry




Pierre Elliott Trudeau




Lee Harvey Oswald




Wynton Marsalis








And I met a very special cat:

Couple killed after being branded witches

In Calcutta (I'm supposed to say 'Kolkata' now - can't make the switch - sorry!):

A tribal couple has been hacked to death in West Bengal by villagers who suspected them to be "witches" responsible for a wave of malarial fever in the area.

So while we talk of human rights and advancing equality in the world - some people are so woefully uneducated that they are acting like 17th century colonial puritans - their compatriots who live in the big city are busy taking your call about your car insurance.

Talk about a disparity.

Reports reaching here on Friday said 55-year-old Soli Oraon and his wife Mungri were branded witches by inhabitants of Darjeeling's Mill Bagan tea estate and killed Wednesday night.

They were held responsible for malaria and other diseases affecting slum dwellers in the locality.

On Wednesday night, some villagers dragged the elderly couple to a nearby jungle and killed them.

The couple had reportedly been living in the area for a long time and had been practicing witchcraft.

Witch hunting is common in many tribal dominated areas of West Bengal. In many cases, women are branded witches and killed by relatives for their property.

Another article on the same topic here (CNN), or an older report here (Indian source called Frontline).

Celebration in the midst of disaster

In spite of the terrible toll that the recent earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan & Afghanistan continues to take on all those in the region; the rich culture of India is unabated.

This week was Kali Durga Pooja for millions - a celebration of the Goddess Kali.

She is the Destroyer of Demons, allowing the natural balance of the world to be resumed.

Canadians right to privacy is being eroded

Paul Martin's government will be putting forward 'The Lawful Access Bill' next month. The bill will legislate that telecommunications companies be required build in the technology to enable wire taps in any future equipment upgrades .

Paul asks us to beleive him when he says:

"When the government brings forth this kind of legislation obviously the
question of civil rights is first and foremost in our minds and they will be
protected"

Meanwhile, our federal privacy commissioner has cold feet:

"We remain sceptical about the need for these potentially intrusive and
far-reaching measures."

Now I realise there are a lot a good number of distinctions remaining that differentiate us in Canada from our neighbours to the south; but gawd damn - I don't think most Canadians want a fear based administration as they have south of the all important 49th parallel; and I sure as hell don't need my rights diminished and diluted because the government can't afford the manpower to keep up with technological advances without doing so.

Apparently some police officers think that a good way to defray the costs of this legislation would be to tack another quarter onto our phone bills.

They want us to bend over and then pay them for it??

Really - get in touch with your local MP and express your outrage at this proposed legislation.

If you don't already know who your MP is, find them using your postal code here.

Tell them you don't want your tax dollars wasted on this legistlation that will do nothing to prevent criminal activity, and everything to ensure that Canadians right to privacy is undermined.

Do we recognise our similarities are greater than our differences?

This article by Deepak Chopra sums up my sentiments about the recent earthquake in Pakistan / Kashmir / Afghanistan.

Can citizens of the world respond as they should to yet another vastly devastating disaster?

Kashmir is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and my sorrow over it
has lasted most of my life. Pakistan and India contend over this mountain
paradise strictly to keep religious bigotry alive. Now that the region has
suffered a calamitous earthquake which has caused up to 30 times more deaths
than Katrina, the world should draw together.

Not just to bring relief but to recognize that members of our own family have
perished.
For decades we've heard about major earthquakes affecting the
region from eastern Turkey through Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. These are
among the most troubled spots on earth, and yet as much attention as we pay to
them politically, they are entirely ignored in other regards. Why is a
corruption scandal inside the Washington beltway more significant than massive
loss of life around the world?
It shouldn't be. World events are moving
quickly. Arab countries are no longer economically backward, yet as we see from
the pictures coming out of the disaster site, these overwhelmingly Muslim
victims live in primitive conditions as far from the wealth of Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia as the wealth of America. If the Muslim world hates colonialism and its
legacy, it's time for them to step up and provide an alternative. Arab relief
should be supplying hundreds of millions of dollars, not just to help out here,
but to build up the catastrophically backward towns and villages that fill this
whole region.
At the same time the Western powers should be standing beside
Arab nations as brothers in humanity. That we don't is due to religious and
post-colonial prejudices that are shameful. The time is coming soon when global
cooperation won't be a luxury but a necessity for our entire survival. We could
use this horrendous tragedy as the first step into a global future that crosses
the lines of nationalism, colonialism, and religion. What more fitting memorial
to our dead brothers and sisters?

Jehangir (the 5th Mughal Emperor) on Kashmir:

" If there is paradise anywhere on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here."

God

via Amsam.

I could agree with him...

...If he were referring to himself in the 3rd person...

"Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken
very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes multiply.
.....
Defeating a militant network is difficult because it thrives like
a
parasite on the suffering and frustration of others."

~ preznit arbusto in his speech today.

So - when will the fucking impeachment get underway?

We must protect freedom of speech in Canada

While B'nai brith is claiming

that the 2nd Annual Canada Palestine Film Festival, which opens today at
Winnipeg's prestigious Cinematheque theatre, is "about propaganda not art."

Winnipegers must be vigiliant for us all. They are at the vanguard of what is a plan to curb the rights of anyone who might choose to speak against Zionism. (Not to mention that there is a UN resolution against Israel that has been ignored for years now. )

In their press release, B'Nai Brith legal counsel David Matas repeats his annual
claim that "the very title of this year's festival, 'Occupation Will Still Be
Televised,' denotes an attitude that is a priori prejudicial and harmful to
Israel, and blatantly misrepresents the facts on the ground."

It's not a court hearing - it's a film festival.

Film-makers have a right to make documentaries or fiction.

Even when they don't agree with a particular political view, and even when they are Palestinian.

Happy Ramadan from Boeing & Bell Helicopter

"It descends from the heavens, ironically it unleashes hell"

Two of the many providers of military aircraft have accidentaly published this ad twice now.

They didn't intend to demonstrate how the attitudes of the military are so disgustingly racist that this is their idea of promotional advertising.

They just blurted it out.

Twice.

Is anyone buying this shit?

Some choice tidbits from Israeli history & present, etc...

Israeli aggression is rearing its ugly head again in very disingenuous circumstances. Sharon is displaying his terrible brand of duplicity at the expense of innocent lives.

I am reminded again that history has much to teach us about context, so I decided (with some consternation) to post this array of assorted facts, quotes & information that I put together elsewhere earlier this year...






A few links:



IDF Israeli death stats

Red Crescent Palestinian death stats

Remember the Children

If Americans knew




On Jews and their part in the deaths of Jews:





1. Ben Gurion informed a meeting of Labour Zionists in Great Britain in 1938:

“If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative.”

2. Chaim Weizmann reporting to the Zionist Congress in 1937 on his testimony before the Peel Commission in London, July 1937: Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, made this Zionist policy very explicit:

The hopes of Europe’s six million Jews are centered on emigration. I was asked: “Can you bring six million Jews to Palestine?” I replied, “No.” … From the depths of the tragedy I want to save … young people [for Palestine]. The old ones will pass. They will bear their fate or they will not. They are dust, economic and moral dust in a cruel world … Only the branch of the young shall survive. They have to accept it.

3. Salli Mayer:

“. . . what is happening in Poland are exaggerated stories. . . the way of the Ost Yuden. . .always asking for money.”

4.

“As is was everywhere else, in Bedzin, too, the basic difference between the observant individuals and the Zionist leaders and enlightened “intellectuals” of the city was graphically demonstrated. Practically all of the kapo officers were academicians – persons with degrees—who behaved like wild beasts and at times were more cruel than the Nazis. On the other hand, the observant Jews simultaneously increased their acts of kindness and mutual help”.

#3 & #4 are from this book site dedicated to informing the public at large about Torah Jews.

See p.58 of the book for details on the Swedish Zionists who requested that the Swedish gov’t REVOKE the law allowing 10,000+ Jews to claim refuge in 1939.






On more current affairs:





1. Ariel Sharon:

“Every time we do something, you [Shimon Peres] tell me America will do this and will do that… I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”

2. Ariel Sharon In an interview with General Ouze Merham, 1956:

“I don’t know something called International Principles. I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child’s existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I’ve killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do.”

3.

“A bellicose man who seemed to be chomping at the bit to start a war.”

–President Ronald Reagan describing then defense minister Ariel Sharon in his autobiography “An American Life,” chapter 58.





A few facts:




1. In September 1953, Sharon escorted Unit 101 in an attack on Bedouins in demilitarised Al Auja (a 145 square km juncture at the western Negev-Sinai frontier), killing an unknown number. Al-Auja was declared a demilitarized zone in the 1949 armistice between Egypt and Israel because it was a major invasion route along the Cairo-Beersheva-Jerusalem axis. (Factoid#1a – A close Israeli friend’s parents (Arab Jews) were given shelter by the Bedouin for years and were driven to living in Israel by jewish violence)

2. Major David Mofaz testifying at an Israeli military trial investigating the mistreatment of Arab townspeople at the hands of Israeli soldiers stated in 1982 that

“Israeli soldiers were given orders to harass and beat up Palestinian residents.”

Mofaz was certain these orders came from the top, from the Chief of Staff, and was himself “person-ally ordered to beat up Arabs by the West Bank military commander.” He stated further that

“the army had orders to harass the West Bank population, not just those involved in anti-Israeli demonstrations.”

The trial also heard evidence that then Defense Minister (now Minister of Trade), Ariel Sharon had not only encouraged Israeli soldiers to beat up school children but that, in giving instructions to the soldiers in the West Bank for dealing with the Arab protectors, he had told them to “cut off their testicles.” Sharon reportedly stated in these sessions that

“the only good Arab is a dead Arab.”

“By Way of Deception, Thou Shalt Make War” - Mossad motto

Gaza is being terrorized

Israel is now apparently creating sonic booms in the skies above Gaza to torment it's citizens. The bombing has continued for consecutive days. It goes on primarily during 'rush hours' and has caused children to be afraid to go to school. Pregnant women are going into stress-induced labour.

This is a crime.