Mark Drolette Updates His Plans For A March On D.C. - 'Twould appear I'm not the only American who's fed up with the political goings-on in our country today. Fancy that! My most recent article, "The march of the madder'n hells," calling for one million of us to march to both the White House and Capitol ... See... The March/Swarm Of The Madder'n Hells, Part II
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Martin LeFevre - Meditations - In the science fiction classic “2001, A Space Odyssey,” HAL, the all too human-like computer, malfunctions and becomes evil. It begs for the life of its higher functions as the sole surviving astronaut is erasing them. It’s a metaphor for the growing destructiveness of man and the dreaded death of the ego. See... Meditations: Breakthrough Beyond “Modern Humans”

Bernard Weiner Considers The Rove Plame Back Story - At long last, Plamegate -- the scandal surrounding the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson by two "senior administration officials" -- has exploded out of the D.C. beltway to become a major national news story. See... Rove Scandal Leading to Deeper White House Horrors
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Hurricane Emily Approaching Mexican Coast - Hurricane Emily is 36 hours away from landfall on the Gulf Coast, most probably close to the Mexico/Texas border ( See supercomputer forecast of landfall below ). The following image shows the most recent National Hurricane Warning Center forecast ... See... Supercomputer Weather: Emily's Landfall Imminent

Tarek Cherkaoui On Developments In Egyptian Politics - Tarek Cherkaoui writes that after decades of political stagnation in Egypt, there is a semblance of change in the Egyptian public arena thanks to the emergence of new actors on the political scene. Yet there are still many challenges ahead. See... Kifaya: The New Player in the Egyptian Politics

The Once Mighty American Eagle's Fall - Having long been an observer of history and having lived through much too much of it, I have fond memories of the time when the United States was seen as the savior of the world. Whenever despotism reared its ugly head, nations of the world looked to the United States of America to come to their aid, to free them of their oppressors, and to assist them in rebuilding their country. See... Mary Pitt: From Soaring Eagle To Sitting Duck

Why Australia Has Changed Its Detention Policy - On the 17th of June this year John Howard announced a softening of his government’s policies concerning the detention of asylum seekers and others in Australia’s Immigration Detention Centres . Before we all rush to congratulate the Australian Government for its sudden enlightenment, it might be worth considering the history which led to these changes. See... Indefinite Detention Across The Ditch – Oz's Gitmo

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Lyndon Hood's Guide To Election Lexicography - Having trouble sorting out the scandals from the storms-in-tea-cup? Have you been left drowning and helpless in waves of catch-all buzzwords and empty political rhetoric, and that even though actual campaigning hasn't started yet? See... Lyndon Hood: An Election-Year Glossary. ALSO: This week on Fighting Talk: a guest post from London, ruminations on national days and jailed journalists from Hamish, and lashings of random outpourings from Lyndon. See... Fighting Talk this Week: Taking on the World

Yasser Abu Moailek's Letter From Palestine - Palestinians have generally considered that talk of natural gas or similar minerals being found under the Gaza Strip was only for dreamers. However, a recent discovery of a large field of natural gas has gripped the imaginations of many Gazans. See... Good Gas Is Gaza's New Treasure

Russell Brown: Out Of The Mouths Of… - My 10 year-old hears a lot more than he usually lets on. Earlier this week, we were watching yet another TV item on the Zimbabwe cricket tour, and he piped up: "why can't the government just get on with it and intervene?" He said that, from the way ... See... Public Address 15/07/05 - Not Just Cricket

Suzan Mazur Explores The Mormon/Mason/ Diebold Nexus - Diebold, the Ohio computer election systems manufacturer, remains under a cloud regarding irregularities in its tabulation of the 2004 US presidential vote, which led to the reinstalling of George W. Bush. So it may be productive to explore what appears to be a significant Diebold-Mormon link, as well as observe how the Mormons are jockeying for a major political role in America. See... Suzan Mazur: Diebold & The Mormon Mason Handshake

Guest Opinion: Harry Potter vs The Warjocks - Harry awoke from a sound sleep, rubbed his eyes, and wondered if his dream was only a nightmare. He dreamt that, in a world of witches, warlocks and spells, a dark spell had been cast on two mighty nations. The people of America and England adored diversion, fast food filled with toxins, children's books and childish movies, cosmetic makeovers, brutish sports, mindless millionaires and vacuous celebrities. See... Harry Potter And the Princes of Darkness

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Monkey-Wrenching the Globalization Gang - I went to Bretton Woods, but all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Amazingly, it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ and it’s not full of holes. See... AZ: Monkey-Wrenching the Globalization Gand

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Bernard Weiner Puts GWB On A Couch - "We're under confidentiality here, right? You can't ever tell anyone what I say to you, doctor/patient relationship, yes?" "That's correct. Under normal circumstances, I cannot be forced to reveal anything you say to me. Only if you're about to do imminent harm to yourself or others am I allowed to break that vow of silence." See... Bernard Weiner: A Powerful Man Glimpses His Demons

Karl Rove, Judith Miller And The WMD Fairy - The only thing more evil, small-minded and treacherous than the Bush Administration's jailing Judith Miller for a crime the Bush Administration committed, is Judith Miller covering up her Bush Administration "source." See... Greg Palast: Mr. Rove And The Access Of Evil

No Right Turn On Greenhouse Emissions - The Press had a story this morning about our skyrocketing greenhouse emissions , based on the National Inventory Report . Overall emissions have grown 22% since 1990, with significant growth in both the transport and energy sectors. See... No Right Turn: Reducing Emissions

Construction Halted On A Hospital Where It Is REALLY Needed - Construction of a new surgical centre halted because of the violence in Iraq, President of Emergency USA Alberto Colombi M.D. M.P.H. said. His organization began building the centre next to the Al Husayin Hospital in Karbala, a Shiite city located 100 ... See... US-Iraq War Halts Emergency Hospital Construction

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Biff Guevara's inclusive coverage of NZ's 2005 General Election - Because we don't know the date of the election we know when it will be. That is - as it hasn't been called yet; it can only be late September. The question is whether taking the term to the very end has been a good or a bad tactic. There was some talk that it should have been called in January around the time of the John Tamihere kamikazi run into his own career. Force him to go and then call an election. Labour may well have romped home then. See... Biff Guevara: Election 2005

Gregory Fortuin Says Cricket Amounts To “Constructive Engagement” - “Never again must we allow the oppression of one group over another” said former President Nelson Mandela at his inauguration speech in May 1994. Was Madiba specifically referring to the oppressive Apartheid Regime and the dehumanization of those born with the wrong skin colour, or was the sage dreaming about a better world. I guess a bit of both. See... “Constructive Engagement” With A Despot

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BuzzFlash.Com Interviews Ambassador Joe Wilson - If there's a list of people who have fearlessly stood up for democracy, decency and the truth against the corrupt buzzsaw of the Bush Administration, Ambassador Joe Wilson is certainly at the top of the list. See... Buzzflash Interview: Ambassador Joe Wilson July 9

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Richard S. Ehrlich: Compassion On Holiday For Hmong - BANGKOK, Thailand -- About 6,500 ethnic Hmong, who illegally crossed the Mekong River into Thailand, suffered the death of a baby girl after Thai officials reportedly ordered people not to feed or help them. See... Thai Officials Order Hmong Refugees Abandoned

Marjorie Cohn: The Supreme Court Battle Begins - With the unexpected resignation of Sandra Day O'Connor, George Bush finds himself on the horns of a dilemma. After his 2000 campaign pledge to appoint justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Bush garnered the crucial support of right-wing evangelical Christians. Mobilizing in thousands of churches across the country, they provided the foot soldiers and the votes to elect and re-elect Bush. Their eyes were on the big prize - overturning Roe v. Wade, to stop the "holocaust" of abortion. The Supreme Court vacancy they've prepared for so long and hard has finally materialized, and the right-wing fundies are calling in their chits. See... Marjorie Cohn: Payback Time?
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Paul Buchanan On US Special Forces Losses - The downing of a US helicopter in Eastern Afghanistan with 16 Special Forces soldiers represents the single worst combat loss by the US in that country since the invasion of late 2001. The loss is made all the more grave when considering the investment that goes into the training and equipment of special forces troops—in this case 8 Navy SEALs and 8 Army Aviation special operators sent on a mission to rescue a four man SEAL reconnaissance squad lost after coming under fire in Kunar Province. See... Paul Buchanan: On Special Ops Military Investment

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Let The U.S. Supreme Court Battle Begin - What nobody seems to be noticing, though, is what may well be the real agenda of George W. Bush and those around him - neo-fascism. For this agenda, Alberto Gonzales is the perfect man. Although he testified that "I don't recall today whether I was in agreement with the analysis" on the meeting that led to the infamous 2002 torture memo that said "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions - [are necessary] in order to constitute torture," he actually chaired the committee that drafted it. See… Supreme Court - Possible "Fascist" Play
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Bill Berkowitz - William Greene's Angry Rapid Response Machine

Yasser Abu Moailek's Letter From Gaza - A car pulls off the road near an olive grove on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip. Alongside the road runs an electronic fence built by Israel to prevent infiltrations by Palestinian militants. On the other side Israeli military forces patrol it constantly. The car's headlights turn off. A few meters away shadows lurk among the trees. Figures leave the car and join them. They blend together for some 10 minutes. Then all are off their separate ways. The deal has been done. See... A Gaza Gun Deal Goes Down

Russell Brown On The Stoning Of Ashraf Choudhary - Having now seen the part of the 60 Minutes interview that got Labour's Muslim MP Ashraf Choudhary into trouble this week, I have to sympathise with him. He was not asked whether homosexuals and adulterers should be stoned to death; he was invited ... See... Public Address 06/07/05 - Gods And Devils

Rosalea Barker On Independence Day - The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. See... Stateside: What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July
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A Victim Of The Nazi’s Call’s Bush’s Brownshirts Out - There I was -- a bratty, independent kid, with a twisted sense of humor who enjoyed doing illegal things: Entrance into anyplace at all displaying the “No Dogs or Jews Allowed” signs was fun, even though it was clearly understood that – if discovered – neither dog nor Jew would ever be seen again, regardless of age. See... Doris Colmes: Morphing the Gestapo

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Hard News & More Is There! - So what exactly did yesterday's OECD report say about New Zealand's economic position and prospects. Depends who you ask. In the Dominion Post, Vernon Small's story leads thus: "The economy has won a strong report card from the OECD, which says New Zealand ... See... Public Address 05/07/05 - What People Think

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Russell Brown Reports From The Cake Tin - The Wellington Stadium is a marvellous place to watch rugby. It is an arena in a sense that other New Zealand grounds are not, in that its shape and symmetry have the effect of concentrating atmosphere... See... Public Address 04/07/05 - Glory Days
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Marjorie Cohn: Sacrificing America’s Youth - Like the recruiter trying to get the youth to enlist in the military, George Bush invoked the September 11 terrorist attacks in his June 28 speech - six times. Bush ended his address with a recruiting pitch: "I thank those of you who have re-enlisted in an hour when your country needs you. And to those watching tonight who are considering a military career, there is no higher calling than service in our armed forces." See... Marjorie Cohn: The Creeping Draft

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Some Inspiration To Take You To The Cake Tin Tomorrow - Scoop received a piece of visual wit today via email courtesy it seems of Adidas and the NZRFU. It shows the All Blacks taking on a pride of Lions. You can guess who comes off worse. In the spirit of tomorrow’s clash at the Cake Tin… enjoy… See... Scoop Images: Adidas’s All Blacks vs Lions

Meditations: Bush and Blair - Vultures at Gleneagles - What do war, poverty, and climate change have in common? Nothing, if Tony Blair has his way at Gleneagles. And because of that disconnect, failure by the Group of Eight (the richest countries in the world) to adequately address the most pressing concerns of humankind is a foregone conclusion. See... Martin LeFevre: Vultures at Gleneagles

Sam Smith On That Hillary Clinton Book - One only needs to read a chapter or two of Ed Klein's book on Hillary Clinton to understand the problem. It is written by - and in the style of - someone who has contributed to both Parade Magazine and Vanity Fair, two of the most unnecessary publications in the land. It is Walter Scott and Dominic Dunne go to Arkansas. See... The Real Problem With Ed Klein's Hillary Book
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Suzan Mazur On The Mason’s Mason - Frank Carlucci I - The life of Frank Carlucci I has largely escaped public scrutiny, possibly because he's grandfather to one of the knights of the political chessboard -- Carlyle Group’s Frank Carlucci III -- who is not known for being flashy. His talent for secrecy in the Masonic brotherhood, for example, for which he was rewarded with the highest honor: “sublime prince of the royal secret” was no doubt coded somewhere in the Y chromosome passed along to Frank Carlucci III, who has so far served as deputy director of the CIA, secretary of defense and national security adviser, among other trusted appointments. See... Suzan Mazur: Frank Carlucci I, "Sublime Prince"

Scoop Reader Opinion: Why Are Kiwi Kids Dying? - Why are New Zealand children dying of influenza B? I asked this question to Dr Sue Huang, virologist at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), last week. Dr Huang admitted that she ‘was puzzled’, and that the ESR had been unable ... See... Why Are NZ Children Dying Of Influenza B?

Jason Leopold: Yet Another Poacher Becomes Game Keeper - The audacity inside the Bush administration never ceases to amaze. The latest example of chutzpah from Bush and co. is the announcement that Joseph Kelliher, a former policy adviser with the Department of Energy who currently serves as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that controls the country's natural gas industry, hydroelectric projects, electric utilities, and oil pipelines and has played a critical role in the deregulation of those industries, will be named by the White House Thursday to chair FERC. See... Enron Policy Pimp To Be Named Chair of FERC

Ray McGovern On Bush’s Unconvincing Iraq Rhetoric - The editors of the New York Times this morning feign shock that in his speech at Fort Bragg yesterday evening President George W. Bush would "raise the bloody flag of 9/11 over and over again to justify a war in a country that had nothing whatsoever ... See... Ray McGovern: Stay the Crooked Course
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Bernard Weiner: 15 Reasons To Impeach Bush - Though my degrees are in government and international relations, I hadn't been part of the political arena in an activist way since "The Sixties" -- roughly the Civil Rights Movement late-'50s through the anti-Vietnam War mid-'70s. Instead, after years ... See... 15 Things About Bush&Co.: An Impeachment List

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The “Mainstream NZ” Debate Gets Up A Head Of Steam - On Morning Report yesterday, Don Brash declared that gay people are "clearly not mainstream New Zealanders … they're a very small minority." Pressed on whether they might reasonably aspire to be part of his "mainstream" he eventually quoth "I'm sure some of them absolutely are." And what, pray tell, are the others? See... Public Address 28/06/05 - Clever, Creepy
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US And UK Found Guilty Of War Crimes - Istanbul, Turkey - Today in Istanbul the jury was taken aback by witness testimony from Iraqi war victims and a US Air Force veteran. "Snipers hunt people in the streets. People attempting to go to health centers are shot at," testified Eman Kmammas, an Iraqi translator. "There are many crippled children. There are thousands of widows and orphans. There are no police for security and there are no courts. Even hospitals are occupied and bombed and burned." See... Iraq Tribunal: Is This What They Call Democracy?
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Guest Opinion: Remembering The Drowned Of SIEVX - On October 19, 2001 an unnamed fishing boat carrying over 400 refugees bound for Australia sank. 353 people just like us, 146 children, 142 women & 65 men, died under the Southern Cross. See... Mary Davies: Sievx - Titanic And A Tennis Court

Scoop Link: USA Resumes Plutonium Production - New York Times - The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 since the cold war, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. The substance, valued as a power source, is so radioactive ... See... Scoop Link: US To Resume Plutonium Production

Devil Found In Detail Of G8 Poverty Deal - Casual readers of the newspaper headlines could be forgiven for believing that the leaders of the richest and most powerful countries have had a miraculous change of heart. If the papers are to be believed, the key decades-long demand of the global justice movement — debt cancellation — had been agreed to, thanks to an unlikely alliance between Tony Blair’s British Labour government, leading aid agencies and pop “legends” Bob Geldof and Bono. However, the devil is in the details, as Green Left Weekly’s Norm Dixon discovers. See... Norm Dixon: ‘Africa Needs Justice Not Charity’
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Toni Solo - Toni Solo: "Debt" - Remaking Procrustes Bed

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Dave McArthur's Bonus Joules On The Dark Ages - Do I hear right? I turn the shower onto cold blast to check my senses are working OK. Have I just heard Don Brash, leader of the New Zealand National Party, the nation's top polling party, saying, &ldquot;Greens hate cars and electricity&rdquot;? If so, roll on the Dark Ages if he resumes complete control of the Treasury Benches again. See... Bonus Joules: Is EECA a Black Hole?

Rosalea Barker: Summer In San Francisco - Well, possums I'm thinking of you on your Monday morning at work Down Under where the autumn solstice has just passed and you're headed into the bowels of winter. For me it's a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, and I have to confess to being a bit summer-casual about writing something this week. See... Stateside: If You See Me Walking Down The Street

William Fisher: The Breast Of Justice Is Back - Well, I'm glad that's over! Victoria's Secret, Janet Jackson, and all the rest of us, can now breathe a huge sigh of relief. Drapes are out. Breasts are back. That was the big news from the Department of Justice over the weekend (though Justice seemed to want to keep it as quiet as possible). See... William Fisher: Our Titular Attorney General

Not The Hillary We've Come To Know - I've given the date of Orwell's words lest someone think they were written by a contemporary bearing the writer's name. Recent events surely qualify the United States to claim some sort of title from the Guinness Book of Records such as the world's largest moral and intellectual open sewer. See... John Chuckman: Drowning In Filth

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Are Kyoto Related Jokes In Danger Of Running Out?- I’m given to understand that all the jokes about marsh gas, Parliament and global warming were used up last century. Certainly, experts have suggested that the rate at which we are discovering new Kyoto-related comedy had been exceeded by the rate at which we used this humour as long ago as the 1990s. One day there may be no global warming jokes left for us to make. See... Hodgson’s Billion-Dollar Kyoto Punchline

Marjorie Cohn’s Bully Twins - George Bush and John Bolton have a symbiotic relationship. They need each other to nail shut the coffin of the United Nations, to make the world safe for US domination. See... Marjorie Cohn: Bush & Bolton - The Bully Twins

Not PC: Morally-blind Cricketers Head To Zimbabwe - If it's true as Martin Snedden says that New Zealand cricketers "unanimously agreed" to tour Zimbabwe then, sadly, that says little for New Zealand's leading cricketers. It's true as Snedden says that many of the countries on the cricket circuit are "volatile," but that doesn't even begin to describe the Zimbabwean situation. Not Cricket, RMA Reform, and Property Rights Death

Hard News Is Not Impressed With Telecom - The reflexive forgiveness of Telecom over this week's big jumbo outage has obscured some salient points. Although both cable breaks were to the north of Wellington, many people in the city were unable to send emails across town... See... Public Address 24/06/05 - It's Not Alright ...

Sonia Nettnin Talks To Iraqi Organised Labour (Part 2) - (Chicago) – Iraqi labor leaders Falah Awan and Amjad Ali Aljawhry spoke about the current state of Iraq and the challenges Iraqi workers face with an outdated labor code. See... Iraq Union Leaders Speak About Labor Movement (2) and Iraqi Union Leaders Speak About Occupation (1)

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Russell Brown & More From Public Address - If John Key wants to demonstrate that economist Peter Harris is wrong when he says National's tax and spending promises don't add up, he would seem better advised to do so by releasing the numbers than by impugning Harris's credibility. Wouldn't that settle the argument? Key told The Press that he couldn't reveal National's numbers: "It's a decision for the leader's office." In other words, a tactical decision to hold off the presentation of an alternative Budget for as long as possible. Until such time as National fronts with its numbers, it can hardly complain that others are unfairly speculating on them. See... Public Address 23/06/05 - The Money

Julie Webb-Pullman On The Halliburton Gitmo Cash Grab - Havana, Jun 22 (Prensa Latina) Flip, Flop, Flip - Rumsfeld, George W, and Cheney just can't get this Gitmo thing right. A couple of weeks ago, it was the best thing for getting the low-down on terrorism since sliced head, I mean bread. See... Kickback, Brown-nose and Rooting-in-the-trough

Steve Weissman On The Killing Of The Messengers - When truthout boss Marc Ash asked me earlier this year to look into the Pentagon's killing of journalists, I didn't know what to expect. Many reporters at the time believed that American soldiers were purposely targeting them. But, as I soon found, the crime was larger and more systemic.. See... Steve Weissman: Kill the Messenger, Hide the News & Dead Messengers – Four Part Series

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No Right Turn On Criminal Asset Forfeiture - The Government has finally introduced its long-anticipated asset forfeiture legislation to the House as the Criminal Proceeds and Instruments Bill. The bill allows the crown to seize assets from suspected criminals on a civil ("balance of probabilities") standard of proof. But the crown does not have to link the assets to any specific criminal activity; all it has to prove is that the target has engaged in "serious criminal activity" within the last seven years. See... Asset forfeiture: sacrificing justice

Russell Brown On Kyoto And Other Things - Don Brash is officially a global warming sceptic. He wants proof that climate change is happening and that it is driven by human activity. Perhaps he should do some more reading, and try and think past September... See... Public Address 22/06/05 - Bits And Pieces
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Scott Ritter On The War Against Iran - Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to the uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about the very process that led to war. See... Scott Ritter: The War With Iran Has Already Begun
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Peter Calder Defends His Anti-Che Guevara Stance - Several months have elapsed since the publication of two pieces on this page - one written by the Cuban ambassador to New Zealand, Miguel Ramirez Ramos, the other by a representative of two New Zealand-Cuba Friendship Societies, Malcolm McAllister - taking strong exception to assertions I made in the New Zealand Herald and Weekend Herald referring to historical events and present circumstances in Cuba. See... Peter Calder Defends His Che Guevara Writings

Catriona MacLennan On Elections For Animals - Voters have the opportunity to press for better treatment of animals in 2005 by making politicians aware that this is one of the issues which will determine how they cast their ballots. See... C. MacLennan: An Opportunity To Help The Animals

Sonia Nettnin Talks To Iraqi Organised Labour - (Chicago) – Falah Awan and Amjad Ali Aljawhry spoke about the effects of military occupation on Iraqi society and the country’s labor union movement. Awan is president of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI) and Aljawhry is representative of the FWCUI and the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI) for North America. Both workers’ organizations want independent, democratic unions free of government control. See... Iraqi Union Leaders Speak About Occupation (1)

Jason Leopold: Here We Go Again With The Lies - "We went to war because we were attacked," President Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. Yeah, by al-Qaeda not Iraq. For President Bush to say publicly that the United States attacked Iraq because of 9/11 is not only an outright lie but it's a disservice to the 1,700 men and women that died in combat in Iraq and thousands of other soldiers who were maimed believing they were fighting a war predicated on finding weapons of mass destruction. See... Someone Tell Bush Iraq Wasn't Responsible for 9/11

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Rosalea Barker: Father's Day In A Nation At War - Today, the United States celebrates Fathers Day. Some young men will never become fathers. Here is the story of one of them, in his own words, annotated by his father. I am grateful to Richard Linn for sharing this with me, and hope I have treated it with due respect. It explains so much about the complexities of this world we're living in that I urge you to read it all. See... Stateside With Rosalea: No Child Left Behind

Toni Solo: From Klaus Barbie To Posada Carriles - The political and economic problems afflicting the United States and its allies generate effects progressively more corrosive and self-destructive. From the bogus "war on terror" to fraudulent declarations on debt relief, they seem to flounder from one transparently desperate manouevre to the next. For the moment, poisoned by successive colonial interventions, their governments expect people to believe the absurd myth that they are defending "democracy" or the "homeland". See... Toni Solo: US Co-Dependency On Terror

Bill Berkowitz: The March Of The Horowistas - Before 9/11, David Horowitz attacked political correctness on college campuses across the country. These days, under the rubric of academic freedom, bands of Horowistas are waging a vigorous ground war against liberal academics. See... Bill Berkowitz: Campus Crusader

Richard S. Ehrlich On The Birthday Of Aung San Suu Kyi - BANGKOK, Thailand -- The world's most famous political prisoner, Burma's Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, will not be celebrating a happy birthday on Sunday (June 19) when she turns 60, because she is locked under house arrest. See... Richard Ehrlich: Aung San Suu Kyi's 60th Birthday

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Martin LeFevre Meditates On The Devil - “The greatest triumph of the devil in the modern age is convincing people he doesn’t exist.” I don’t remember the author of that memorable quote, but it encapsulates my problem with New Agers, sophisticated secularists, and run-of-the-mill rationalists. See... Martin LeFevre: The Devil is Man-made

It’s Not Only Foreigners Being Tortured By The US - (Chicago) – Human rights lawyer and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s Stop Torture Permanently Campaign Director Jennifer Harbury spoke about U.S. prisoners abroad and their experiences with abuse and torture. According to the UUSC web site, the organization initiated the STOP Campaign in 2004 “…in response to the human rights crisis created by the U.S. torture and abuse of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.” See... Sonia Nettnin: Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad
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Peter Cresswell In Defence Of Graham Kelly - Well , Graham Kelly is clearly no diplomat. And we might remember that as Labour Housing spokesman our present High Commissioner to Canada called for all State houses to be lifted up and turned north to face the sun. See... Breakfast, Chickens and Graham Kelly, Diplomat

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William Fisher On The Allure Of GITMO-By-The-Sea - Oppressed Christians: Looking for a five-star holiday? Have we got a deal for you! GITMO-By-The-Sea. Don't laugh, folks. Our Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could just be poised to become the country's hottest tourist destination for folks of faith. See... William Fisher: This Just In... GITMO-By-The-Sea

The Jackson Verdict: America As Neverland - As I watch the puerile, middle-aged miscreant walk away unscathed from one of the most media-hyped trials in the history of the nation, a particular word reverberates in my mind: collusion. The word which literally means co-illusion implies the sharing of an illusion, the silent, secret handshake between one party and another which condones the evil of one of them and thereby proliferates and exacerbates the evil. Once again, America has colluded in evil-a pattern now as old and familiar as our proverbial apple pie. See... Carolyn Baker: America As The Jackson Jury

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Daniel Estulin Takes A Look Inside Bilderberg 2005 - May 24, 2005—The annual secret meeting of the Bilderberg group determines many of the headlines and news developments you will read about in the coming months. But the Establishment media completely black it out. With the exception of half-a-dozen high-ranking members of the press who are sworn to secrecy, few have ever heard of the exclusive and secretive group called The Bilderbergers. See... The World In The Palm Of Their Hands (Part 1), (Part 2) & Bilderberg 2005: List Of Participants

No Right Turn Questions Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaf's NZ Visit - On Monday, the Prime Minister said in her press conference that she would not be raising the issue of women's rights with President Musharraf as she hadn't been briefed on the issue by MFAT and wasn't aware of "anything specific [she] should be raising". No Right Turn believes in Pakistan's case there are some very specific human and women's rights issues the New Zealand government should be raising, and in the strongest possible terms. See... No Right Turn: Some Guidance Re. Specific Abuses

Daniel Estulin Takes A Look Inside Bilderberg 2005 - May 24, 2005—The annual secret meeting of the Bilderberg group determines many of the headlines and news developments you will read about in the coming months. But the Establishment media completely black it out. With the exception of half-a-dozen high-ranking members of the press who are sworn to secrecy, few have ever heard of the exclusive and secretive group called The Bilderbergers. See... The World In The Palm Of Their Hands (Part 1), (Part 2) & Bilderberg 2005: List Of Participants

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Rosalea Barker Wants A Tamihere Doll - Would somebody please create a John Tamihere action figure and send it over here for me to take to work? I'd like it to say, "If you're thick enough to ask the question, you don't deserve an answer." And do that arm thing from the haka. See... Stateside with Rosalea Barker: Right On!

Russell Brown Assesses The Cut Of Winnie's Jib - I was driving on Saturday to buy Tze Ming lunch, by way of reward for that great post, listening to Winston Peters being interviewed at length on National Radio. I realised that what he almost always does is to characterise, rather than describe, his party's policies... See... Public Address 13/06/05 - Characters for the latest from Public Address

Solomons Govt. Hocks Off The National Art Gallery - Last Saturday morning's SIBC Talk Back Show said it all. 9 of 10 callers bitterly disagreed with Government's recent sale of the National Art Gallery to a foreign buyer. Callers gave strong reasons why the Art Gallery should have never been sold--great setting for local artists to show place their talents, convenient entertainment spot, prime land for future local investors to use, historical site, etc.--but their reasons were cast aside. People once again realise that our political elite have learnt little from the five years of Social Unrest. See... John Roughan: They Don't Listen!

Howard Dean Bites Republicans, Receives Rapturous Applause - If the leadership qualities of those in charge of the national Democratic Party could be squeezed into a shampoo bottle, the directions on the back of the bottle might read something like this: “Make tentative statement. Offer equivocation to avoid appearing adamant. Scramble for cover when colleague offers stinging critique of opposition. Stab colleague in back in public. Palpitate and fret, hem and haw. Lather, rinse, repeat.” See... William Rivers Pitt: Dean Was Right
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A Week Of It: Agenda Snafu, Benson-Pope & Much More - Last Saturday there was no need for a stiff coffee to assist waking up – one only had to tune in to Television One at 8:30am and watch the new ruthless Simon Dallow going at it hammer and tongs with National Party candidate Tau Henare. See... A Week Of It: Agenda, National Policy & Privilege
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Narconews.com Blogs A Revolution In Boliva - Kind readers, the battle of many armies and one death has reached its end. In these moments, several deputies are in the headquarters of the Supreme Court to invite the "new constitutional president," as Hormando Vaca Diez called him, to assume command ... See... Narconews: Bolivia Has a New President
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Bonus Joules: Not Just The Usual Suspects - Policy launch: Greens offer brighter thinking on energy. So reads the media release this week. Strange. Why does the world suddenly dim down and lose its sparkle? Have we suddenly blown a galactic fuse or something? Time to get the Energy Gobbledygook detector out to check things. See... Bonus Joules: Is EECA A Nuclear Reactor?

Enron Insider Seeks Govt. Funding For Latest Venture - The federal government may guarantee hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to help a former energy executive who publicly admitted he had no idea that the division he once ran cooked its books and who is now trying to secure funding for a new energy company he started with three ex-colleagues. See... Enron's White Seeks Govt. Energy Project Funding

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Richard S. Ehrlich: Do As US Says Not As US Does- BANGKOK, Thailand -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reportedly tried to sell F-16 warplanes, capable of firing Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs), to Thailand two days after he lashed out at China for upgrading its own ... See... Rumsfeld Seeks To Sell Advanced F-16s To Thailand

Michel Chossudovsky: War Games On Paper - A recent Report of the Homeland Security Council entitled Planning Scenarios describes in minute detail, the Bush administration's preparations in the case of a terrorist attack by an outside enemy called the Universal Adversary (UA). See... Preparedness against the "Universal Adversary"

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Amnesty Calls For Prosecutions Over US Torture - The editorial page of the St. Petersburg Times, under the direction of Philip Gailey,.hit Amnesty International (AI) and its secretary-general, Irene Khan, with several low blows in the May 27 editorial “American ‘gulag’?” One can only hope that this will bring to an end Gailey’s dreadful 14-year reign as editorial page editor. If that happens, I offer this advice to his successor: Don’t use the word “fabricates” in an editorial denouncing someone else unless (1) you know you are right, and (2) you don’t engage in the same offense yourself. See... Dennis Hans: St. Petersburg Times Slanders Amnesty
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Memories Of Chernobyl & Three Mile Island Fading - Twenty years after Chernobyl, the pro-nuclear lobby has decided that it's time to glue a happy face on nuclear power again. Simultaneous pro-nuclear public relations campaigns have plastered their briefs in the US and British media markets in the last couple of months. Time will tell whether they stick. See… Kelpie Wilson: Sellin' Nukes, Dissin' Wind

Jason Leopold: Pentagon Fesses Up To Koran Abuse - If you want to ensure that the media doesn't cover an important political story, send out a press release on a Friday, preferably at the end of the day. By the time reporters return on Monday, the story will be old news and will either be buried deep within a newspaper or not covered at all. See:.. When Is Someone Going To Toss Rumsfeld In A Cage?

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Kevin List's A Week Of It - In This Edition: - John Key – From State House to Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Man - ‘Classically Liberal’ Media Dream Team Not To Be - TV3 Distance Themselves From News-Generating Perk-Busting Internet Political Diarist - What Do Georgina Te Heu Heu and Tau Henare Think Of the National Party’s Latest Campaign? See... A Week Of It: Key, K(iwi)s & Coddington

Hon Simon Upton Writes About France's EU Referendum - In this issue: The aftermath of the French referendum on the European Constitution ; and Stuart McMillan explores the NZ/Australia security relationship in an address to the NZ Institute of International Affairs. See... Upton-On-Line 2/6/05: French Referendum Aftermath

America's Religious Right - Saints or Subversives (Part 5) - Death by stoning for atheists, adulterers, and practicing male homosexuals. And, oh yes, death to witches, Satanists, and those who commit blasphemy. Does this sound like a radical Islamist nightmare, a replay of Afghanistan under the Taliban? See... Steve Weissman: The Ayatollah of Holy Rollers

Sonia Nettnin Film Review: Waiting for Quds - “Waiting for Quds” chronicles the inspiring lives of a Muslim Palestinian man and an Israeli woman who fell in love, married and managed the birth of their first child while the man was a political prisoner in administrative detention. See... Sonia Nettnin Film Review: Waiting for Quds

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Mark Drolette Assesses PNAC's Star Wars Ambitions - As any politically-minded American should know, it's never a bad idea to regularly revisit the document that enumerates the core principles by which the American government operates. See... Mark Drolette: Spaced Cowboy's Space Cowboys

Greg Palast On The Watergate Revelations - I've been gagging all morning on the Washington Post's self-congratulatory preening about its glory days of the Watergate investigation. See... Greg Palast: Washington Post Still Sucks
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What Your Broker Doesn't Know Or Won't Tell You! - Right from the beginning, this book started changing my perception and beliefs on share trading. I found myself starting to get enthusiastic about the prospect of share trading. What brought this change was the author’s refreshingly simple philosophy and methodologies, giving me “hope” that maybe share trading isn’t out of the realms of the everyday person. See... Book Review: Exploding The Myths

Jesus Talks To The US Congress, Or Does He?- Author's note: I cannot attest to the absolute accuracy of the following transcripts, as the print was smudged with perspiration by the time I received them. It seems my confidential source, a congressional page, had to smuggle them out of the House Chamber in the bustier portion of his black vinyl cat suit. See... Holy Messiah Speaks To His Congressional Fan Club

Richard S. Ehrlich: Terror As A Tourist Commodity - BANGKOK, Thailand -- The Osama bin Laden cigarette lighter is adorned with his raised, chrome portrait, an embossed "9.11", sketches of the World Trade Center, an approaching airplane, and a big red splotch. See... Osama bin Laden & 9.11 Souvenirs In S.E. Asia

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Stateside America Remembers The Fallen - The last Monday in May is a federal holiday called Memorial Day. Its observance began not long after the Civil War to honour those who had died in battle. Today, it honours all the dead in all the wars that the US has ever been involved in. See… Stateside with Rosalea: Memorial Day 2005
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Dave McArthur's Bonus Joules – The Importance Of Words - Nightmare No 1: The sky is crashing on you. The earth is breaking open. Your house is chasing you down the street. Nightmare No 1: You are trapped in a metal coffin with windows hurling through a foreign land. A massive truck looms at you…. These are more than the stuff of mere bedtime nightmares this week in NZ. This was Reality News last week. See... Bonus Joules: EECA In A Vacuum

Martin LeFevre: A Great Valley Under Attack - To the pride and shame of Californians, “The Great Central Valley” is often described as the “most productive agricultural region in the world.” The pride is obvious, but the shame has to do with the fact that the Valley is being “developed” at an astonishing rate. The land is vanishing as quickly as the rainforests of South America. See... Martin LeFevre: Dig Your Own Well Daily

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Rosalea Barker Want's YOU To Go To Wairoa - Circus Barker for a day, I'm here to tell you not to miss the Inaugural Maori Film Festival in Wairoa on Queen's Birthday Weekend. Given that I never could figure out why Northland didn't have a thriving spaghetti Western film industry up there among the sand dunes, it's no surprise that I'm thrilled to see that at least one other region of the country is defining itself around the film industry. See... Stateside With Rosalea: Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

An Interview With The New US Anti-War Poster Child - Thom Hartmann here with you on AM 620 KPOJ in Portland and we're also going to record this and play it on our national program. Thanks so much, Mr. Galloway for being with us today. See... Thom Hartmann: IV with British MP George Galloway

The World Bank, International Aid and The Ghettoization of Palestine While George Bush had his first White House meeting with Mahmoud Abbas - a summit giving Bush a platform for his phony $200 million “aid” package - devastating new realities are being constructed in Palestine. The Apartheid Wall and accompanying infrastructure of Jewish-only bypass roads, military zones and settlements, are rapidly moving towards the permanent ghettoization of the Palestinian people. See… Jamal Juma: "Developing" Israeli Apartheid
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It's Not Just A Book That Has Been Desecrated - The reported desecration of the Quran by US guards at the infamous Guantanamo prison, as originally reported by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, was not - as it should’ve been - an opportunity for a thorough examination of US army practices, and thus human rights abuses, toward Muslim inmates in the numerous detention camps erected throughout the world. See... Muslim Lives are Desecrated, Not Just Their Book

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Kevin List Takes A Trip To Happy Valley - Due to it being a recess week at Parliament this week’s column is an Art ands gossip special. Last evening A Week of It visited Master Stonemason Carl Gifford and his amazing stone creations at 'Carlucci Land', where they put the happy in this slightly dank but beautiful part of Wellington – Happy Valley. See... A Week of It Art And Gossip Special

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Toni Solo Recalls U.S. Intelligence Tsar's Finest Hour - They recalled a 1983 encounter in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa with "a dreadful woman" who enthused about her visits to Nicaraguan Contra bases in Honduras and the great job those US funded terrorists were doing. The dreadful woman turned out to be death squad godfather John Negroponte's wife, Diana. See... Toni Solo: Taking Sides And Solidarity

William Fisher On The U.S PR Push In The Arab World - As the Muslim world continued to demonstrate its hostility to the U.S. on the heels of a Newsweek magazine article charging that a copy of the Koran was flushed down a toilet, America's premiere foreign policy organization issued a new report claiming that better communications could still win Muslim hearts and minds. See... Improving US Communications With Muslim World

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Who Was Responsible For Terrorist Attack On Casablanca May 17 2003? - Two years ago, bombings blasted Casablanca killing 45 people, including the 12 assailants. The targets included a hotel, two restaurants, and a cemetery. Tarek Cherkaoui examines the terror attack and considers who could have carried out this operation. See... Sirocco in the Kingdom of Morocco

Che Guevara Returns To Bolivia - In 1967, Che Guevara died at the hands of CIA-backed Bolivian soldiers while attempting to lead a guerrilla struggle in Bolivia. In the small town where his body was uncovered 30 years later, graffiti is scrawled declaring: “Che: Alive as they never wanted you to be.” See... Federico Fuentes: New Uprising In Bolivia
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Narconews - A Time of War in Bolivia
Narconews - Narconews: A Fast, Dramatic Day in La Paz

John Gideon: ES&S Rigs The Voting Technology Market - Refusing to demo its product to the largest market in the United States, reducing the commission paid to salespeople who sell the product, minimizing publicity about the product's successes, increasing the product price as the size of the contract increases ­ are these marketing techniques designed to take advantage of a business bonanza or are they evidence that ES&S is trying to decide where and whether Americans will be voting on paper? See... Does ES&S Really Want To Sell Automark Machines?

When The First Ladies Speak Up - "In the U.S., if there's a terrible report, people don't riot and kill other people. And you can't excuse what they did because of the mistake - you know, you can't blame it all on Newsweek," said Laura Bush at the start of her trip to prop up the world's sagging opinion of America.What can you say about so uninformed a statement? Could it just be dishonest? We all know the Newsweek story was not a rumor. See... John Chuckman: It Runs In The Family

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Sam Smith On Newsweek's Capitulation To The Spin Bulldozer - Reliable sources inform us that Newsweek will no longer be using reliable sources. Instead it will be relying on such unreliable sources as professional message manipulators, bureaucrats with their asses in hock, political appointees on their way up, legislators funded by corporate payola and such demonstrable masters of prevarication as our current president. See... Sam Smith: Newsweek Resigns From The Free Press
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Dave McArthur's Bonus Joules On EECA - A quick quiz to energize you: Quiz Q No 1: When did EECA last impact on your awareness? This year? Last year? 2003? 2002? 2001? Not this century? Hands up those who recall last noticing its existence in 2003 (and then back in 2001). Don’t worry. You are not alone. See... B. Joules: EECA's struggle to Save the Impossible

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Rosalea Barker Watches The Digital Strategy Webcast- Will somebody please tell the Minister for Information Technology that you don't actually have to type www. into a browser these days to get to a web address? It does not make you look hip to use "dub, dub, dub" when making a speech; it makes you look really, really daft. See... Stateside With Rosalea: The Mother of All Bells

Antony Wright: George Galloway's Welcome Home - George Galloway received a rapturous welcome this Wednesday at a Respect rally in central London, less than twenty four hours after his barnstorming performance in the US Senate. See... George Galloway Receives A Hero's Welcome Home
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Scoop Link: Seymour Hersh Update On Abu Ghraib - It's been over a year since I published a series of articles in the New Yorker outlining the abuses at Abu Ghraib. There have been at least 10 official military investigations since then - none of which has challenged the official Bush administration line that there was no high-level policy condoning or overlooking such abuse. See... Scoop Link: Seymour Hersh On Abu Ghraib Inquiries

Bill Berkowitz's Puts The Buzz In Buzzflash - As the deadline approached for naming its GOP Hypocrite of the Week for the Friday, May 13, edition of BuzzFlash.com, Editor Mark Karlin was faced with a daunting challenge. While some of the previous "winners" -- Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Karen Hughes and President Bush -- are all well-known political figures, this week's choices were a gaggle of relatively unknown GOP officials and surrogates involved in sexual shenanigans. See... Bill Berkowitz: Getting its Buzz On

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Wellington's Local Song Stars - Andrew Masseurs and I (Mathew Powell) have been selected as one of the top 5 from over 650 entries. We are the only Wellington based songwriting duo in the competition. We've been writing our own songs for 15 years (since our college days) and wrote our song "all I wanted" back in 1994! Since making the top five it's been pretty out of it! See... Wellington's Songstar Finalists Masseurs & Powell

Kevin List's A Week Of It - In this edition: Anonymous Hidesight Reader Seeks Help And Provokes A Witch-hunt - Media Matters – The Dangers Involved In Working For The Sunday Star Times- When is 'Off The Record' Actually 'On The Record'- Journo With Special Insight Into NZ's Political Processes On Job Market - What Has Happened To Budget Festivities? See... A Week of It: Nazis, Parties & Media Matters

Norman Mackay Image: Dawn Over Ohau- " I took this shot this morning at first light. Lovely colours with the mist rolling in over the lake and the sun just making its appearance."- Norm Mackay Lake Ohau See... Scoop Images: Dawn Over Ohau Autumn 2005

Narconews: The Latest Gas Rebellion In Bolivia - Today around 500 miners came down from El Alto. Led by Jaime Solares and the secretary general of the Bolivian Mineworkers Federation, Miguel Zuvieta, they again confronted the police just outside downtown La Paz. See... Narconews: Bolivian Miners Besiege Capital
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Mesa Accepts New Law as El Alto Defines Next Move
Vaca Díez Passes Hydrocarbons Law in Bolivia

Freepressed.Com Satire: Newsweek To Abandon It's Spine - MSM--Since its founding in 1933, the pages of Newsweek have been held together by a perfect combination of glue and staples. The binding method proved incredibly effective, ensuring that the pages would not be lost or shuffled in the wrong order. See... Newsweek To Remove Spines From Future Publications
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Greg Palast - Palast: Cowardice in Journalism Award for Newsweek
John Conyers - Push Back on the White House Newsweek Scam

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Graham Reid Discovers A Politician Who Deserved His Beating - A group of former schoolteachers has responded to allegations in Parliament by the deputy leader of the Act Party Mr Roderick White that Labour spokesperson for civic politeness Mr Phil Ryan had beaten him mercilessly when he had been a student in Mr Ryan's woodwork class in 1964. The spokesman for the former teachers at Routebourne High in Otago, Mr David Manners, said they were hardly surprised Mr White had been punished while in 3D Commercial. See... Public Address 18/05/05 - Right Hand Of Darkness

"…The Intelligence And Facts Were Being Fixed Around The Policy." That incriminating "smoking gun" memo proving the Bush and Blair Administrations pre-determined an invasion and occupation of Iraq long before the invasion occurred has apparently come and gone, barely noted in the American press, AWOL from editorial pages. See... Doug Giebel: A Nation Willingly Deceived
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Care For A Middle East Nuclear Holocaust? - Israel has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert. See... Link: Israel Plans Strike On Iranian Nuclear Plant. BACKGROUND: Chossudovsky: Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran

Sandor Lau Savages Winston Peters With Blunt Irony - I offer my warmest congratulations to the honourable member (of parliament) from Tauranga, Mr. Winston Peters, for recently bringing to light a great threat to Aotearoa’s image as a free, open and democratic society. See... Winston Peters & Weapons Of Mass Discrimination

Anne Else: Shades Of Reds Under The Bed - John Tamihere’s “trash-talk laddism” (as the Listener editor labelled it) was repulsive, but I didn’t take it seriously enough to respond in public. This is different. Last week Ian Wishart, Tamihere’s interviewer, and Sandra Paterson, who gets published in the New Zealand Herald, both wrote articles about how a woman called Kay Goodger and a pamphlet published in 1974, was, they claimed, linked to women in the Labour government. See... Letter from Elsewhere: Joe McCarthy Lives
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Carolyn Baker On The Fundy's 12 Step Programme - In recent article, I promised readers that I would address the mindset of the religious right as an addiction. In order to do so with accuracy and clarity, it is first necessary to define addiction and clarify the terms, Christian fundamentalism and Dominionism. See... The Religious Right (2): Pushing A Deadly Addiction & An Anti-American Terrorist Movement

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Rosalea Barker: The Town Bike, Part 3
- There's an ad running on TV here at the moment that features a white version of the black dog that lives at the White House. You know, one of those scotty terriers from the Black and White whiskey bottle. In the ad, the dog watches its master messing under the bonnet of a car, realizes something is wrong and runs inside to its mistress. Doggie is relieved to find that she's already at her computer, on-line to a cash advance website. See... Stateside: Unleashing The Hounds Of 7-Point Type

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Will Security Woes Erode Labour's Confidence - Paul Buchanan considers whether there is a slow cloud building on the horizon of Labour’s re-election. It has loomed larger for the last three years, although it has it origins in previous National governments. That cloud is called insecurity. There is a general unease in the air about security-related issues. Public apprehension is not so much about immediate security threats as it is about the government’s ability to plan for and deal with them. On that score, there is wide spread scepticism that transcends the normal boundaries of social uncertainty about the future. See... Lapses in Security Have Election Implications

Russell Brown Addresses The Benson Pope Tennis Ball Sadism Debate - I wouldn't put too much stock in Rodney Hide's apparent speedy withdrawal of his claims of historical classroom bullying against associate education minister David Benson Pope. I'd say the whole idea was to extract denials on multiple allegations ... See... Public Address 13/05/05 - Going Nuclear
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Dave McArthur Opines On Bulk Electricity Spin - Have you ever suddenly seen through a massive con? If you are like me, you don’t know whether to rage against the perpetrator, to be depressed by your ignorance or to laugh at your own gullibility. See... Bonus Joules: Confusion or Concussion?

Peter Cresswell Attributes Blair's Win To The War - This week, why PC is uncharacteristically celebrating a Labour victory, and unceremoniously plotting where New Zealand's political parties fit in the political spectrum. See... Not PC: Blair's Post-Election Blues Vs NZ Politics

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Graham Reid Addresses Another Hoax A hoax 111 call yesterday had police, emergency services, the Westpac helicopter and army units mobilised and rushed to an area of native bush 30 kilometre west of Dargaville. The anonymous caller -- who identified himself as Stephen Bainbridge, a 23-year old horticulture student from 27 Lone Pine Rd, New Plymouth -- alleged that a kauri tree had been illegally felled in the remote area of bush. "The prime minister's department was immediately informed of the hoax," said the Commissioner of Police Mr Robert Robertson, "and we were very pleased with the speed at which emergency services and Victim Support groups swung into action. See... Public Address 12/05/05 - Clear And Present Danger

Jay Shaft On The Suffering Of Iraq's Children - Since the U.S. invaded Iraq on 3/20/03 at least 50,000-100,000 civilians have been killed. A great majority of those casualties have been women and children. One of the purposes of the invasion was to “free and liberate” the Iraqi people. See... Jay Shaft: When Silence Becomes Betrayal

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Three Views On The King of Nepal's Coup - On Monday US Secretary of State for S. Asia Christina Rocca arrived in the capital of Kathmandu. She met with various leaders of the major parties, held a press conference, and dined with the King. See... Michael Van De Veer: 100 Days Of Fascism In Nepal
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Ernest Partridge: Last Chance for Civilization - Humanity is facing a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. The final depletion of petroleum reserves is likely within this century. Without this energy source, and with no alternative sources in place, the Earth could probably not support half of the present population of six billion souls. See... Ernest Partridge: Last Chance for Civilization

Bill Berkowitz On The Hijacking Of World Earth Day - On April 22nd, thousands of people in hundreds of communities throughout the U.S. celebrated the 35th anniversary of Earth Day. Originally started during the turbulent days of anti-Vietnam War protests through the initiative of Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day has devolved from a day of reflection about environmental issues to a series of amorphous and unfocused public celebrations, many of which are corporate sponsored. See... Earth Day 2005: Contrived Commercialized Co-Opted

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Sam Smith Ponders The Absence Of US Christian Moderates - The failure of Christian moderates to take on publicly religious extremists who claim the same Bible and theology sadly brings to mind the failure of liberals to take on Joseph McCarthy. See... Sam Smith: Where Are The Christian Moderates?

Steve Weissman Investigation Part IV: America's Religious Right - Rev. Tim LaHaye thinks deep thoughts. Co-author of the best-selling Left Behind and Babylon Rising novels, the 78-year-old evangelical probes the mind of God as revealed in Holy Scriptures. See... America's Religious Right (IV): Pie in the Sky

William Rivers Pitt Wonders What Went Wrong With The GOP? - I have trouble imagining what it must be like to be a Republican these days. The party of Lincoln and TR, the party of fiscal responsibility and small government, has become so profoundly separated from its roots that it is barely recognizable anymore. Millions of people who proudly call themselves Republican must, I think, be dealing with a quiet yet insistent voice within. Something, whispers that voice, has gone wrong. See... William Rivers Pitt: The Millstone

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Rosalea Barker Discovers The Future Of TV - I have seen the future of television, and it is PSP. I'm not talking about just the technical feasibility of broadcasting to, and receiving input from, a handheld device like Sony's Play Station Portable, but about programme content itself. See... Stateside with Rosalea: PSPTV

Abu Faraj al-Libbi? Never Heard Of Him - Even as Tim Russert solemnly announced on Meet the Press Sunday that the "Number three man" in the entire Al-Qaeda network was now under lock and key, the world edition of The Sunday Times quoted European intelligence as saying that Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not only NOT number three, he is not even a blip on the terrorist radar screen. See... Sheila Samples: We Are Very Good Drivers...

Ramzy Baroud On The Besieged Palestinian President - To the uncritical eye, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas looks like an ordinary statesman residing over an equally ordinary political reality. Nothing could be further from the truth. See... Ramzy Baroud: Abbas’ Terrible Dilemma

From The Hebrew: The Theft Of Trees - Over 100,000 trees have been removed. Some of these have turned up mysteriously in Israel, being sold for up to 25,000 shekels (A$7,500). For the Palestinians the trees have an enormous economic significance. An olive tree is not just a tree but often their major source of income. It is also has a cultural and spiritual meaning to the Palestinians, being also the family's wealth, often inherited from previous generations and destined to be for their offsprings. See... Sol Salbe: How To Turn The World Upside Down

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Kevin List: Nazis & Winston Peters Most Excellent Sources - A Week of It can but wonder at the marvelousness of Mr Peters sources, not only do they know more about what's happening with Iraqi Cabinet Ministers than the Immigration Service, but they also seem to know more about what is going on at McLeod and Associates than the firm's own consultant. A Week Of It: Smoking Nazi’s And Outing Iraqis

Dave McArthur Sees Some Lucidity Albeit Not In NZ's Media - “What does living in Lala land mean?” This question is put to me this week by a friend from India. I answer with a string of expressions: It means you are away with the fairies. Out of your tree. You don’t have your feet on the ground. You are out of touch with reality. You live in cloud cuckoo land. You are bit crazy, dotty nutty over-optimistic. I might have added that you are like many of New Zealand’s most prominent business and media people with regard to oil and gas. See... Bonus Joules: A Major Encounter

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Sam Smith: From A Little Plant Civil Rights Abuses Grow - The war on drugs was the first major test by the country's elite to see if Americans would willingly surrender their constitutional rights. It turned out that they would and so for the past twenty years invasions of civil liberties increased, America threw more and more of its young people into prison, while exploding drug war budgets did nothing to stem the growth of the drug industry. See... Sam Smith: Pot- The Sina Qua Non Of A Drug War

Book Review: Portfolio Investing Is Not Rocket Science - While property is still a favourite of New Zealand investors, author Cameron Watson believes it is important for investors to maintain a balanced portfolio of investments to complement their exposure to the property sector. To help those with little or no investing experience, Watson who is Head of Research at ABN AMRO Craig, has produced a book - Risk, Return and Reality - outlining the basic principles. See... Book Review: Risk, Return & Reality

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Images: A Wall Of Sand In The Saudi Kingdom - Look at these amazing photos of our recent sandstorm in Jeddah. I got those windows & doors sealed with towels at the edges, just in time! See... Scoop Images: Sandstorm In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Pacific Ecologist Assesses The Quantum Of Global Energy Resources - Peter North calculates how long the world’s energy supplies can continue to support the existing pattern of 2% pa increase in energy consumption. The figures suggest increasing energy consumption is unlikely to be sustainable for much longer. See... Pac. Ecologist: Global Energy – How much Remains?
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Robert Mann - Robert Mann: Euphoric Cornucopianism Mischievous

Michel Chossudovsky: Israel Poised To Bomb Iran - At the outset of Bush's second term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell. He hinted, in no uncertain terms, that Iran was "right at the top of the list" of the rogue enemies of America, and that Israel would, so to speak, "be doing the bombing for us", without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them "to do it". See... Chossudovsky: Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran

Charles Shaw: Regulated Resistance: Pt. 2 - Last February United for Peace and Justice, the largest representative coalition within the American "anti-war movement", emerged from their second annual Assembly with a 2005 "action plan" that effectively caged the "anti-war" debate exclusively within the Iraq conflict to achieve partisan ends on behalf of the pro-war Democratic Party and their Neoliberal corporate benefactors. See... UQ Wire: The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left

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Hard News From Russell Brown Is Here! - How clever of Metro magazine to stage a major power cut last night as a marketing device for its cover story on Auckland's ailing infrastructure. Or possibly not. Anyway, shortly before 7pm, the lights went out in Pt Chevalier, Grey Lynn, Westmere, ... See... Public Address 03/05/05 - Scoops And Blackouts

Bush Administration Getting Away With Torture - When the torture photographs began to emerge from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison one year ago, Bush said, "Those mistakes will be investigated, and people will be brought to justice." As fingers began to point up the chain-of-command, some prisoners were released and commanders were reassigned. Congress held hearings, investigations were undertaken, and some low-ranking soldiers were prosecuted. But those responsible for setting the policy that led to widespread and systemic torture of prisoners in United States custody remain uninvestigated and un-indicted. See... Cohn: Team Bush Goes Unpunished for Torture

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Images: Civil Unions Launched With Rainbow Parade - The parade for the first Public Civil Union celebrated outside the Wellington Town Hall, across Civic Square and the City-to-Sea Bridge, and around the lagoon at around 4.30pm yesterday, May Day. Images submitted by Dylan Packman. See... Scoop Images: Civil Unionists Celebrate May Day

Stateside: Where Rosalea Goes East - When I told friends that I was going to Boise, Idaho, the response I got was illuminating. "They're all survivalists up there." "White supremacist country. Beware." Coupled with my inkling that Boise (pronounced boys-ee) is the States' fun-time equivalent of Eketahuna, I didn't expect much as I set off on my trip last week. See... Stateside Images: Boise, Idaho

The Inside Oil From Molesworth & Featherston - Molesworth & Featherston comes to you delayed this week by the shortened ANZAC week, though it was a quiet week. The Reserve Bank held interest rates. We investigated how seriously to take reports of falling business confidence and list our top near-term concerns about our economy. We worry things aren’t going so well in the ANZAC relationship and we update media tattle. See... Molesworth & Featherston (Lobby Edition) – 29/4/05

If Synlait Is The Apex – Where Is Dairy Going? - Last week, Alex Sundakov argued that the arrival of Synlait – an ambitious new Canterbury dairy company – “closes the debate” on the 2001 reforms and “completes the evolution of the dairy sector”.
If Synlait’s birth is the industry’s apex, it has some serious problems. See... Tony Baldwin: NZ Dairy - Sylait The Saviour?

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Kevin List On The Immigration/News/Politics Nexus - NZ First leader Winston Peters looks set to cause a stir when Parliament resumes after a two-week recess. Mr Peters told A Week of It today that he would be naming under parliamentary privilege the refugee status claimant whom he alleges was a high ranking member of the Iraqi Baath Party and a former Government Minister under Saddam Hussein. See... A Week Of It: Saddam, Doone & Lynton Crosby

Keith Ng Interviews Film Maker Tony Sutorius - "Paper's for wimps," Toby said. He leans over the pool table, drafts a few paragraphs of the State of Union address in his shiny head, then sinks the next ball. "Now that's cool," I thought to myself in bed this morning, while drafting my big scoop in my head. It was pretty good, but then I fell asleep again and lost it. See.. Keith Ng: The West Wing Effect

Profiting From National Security & Corruption BANGKOK, Thailand -- Investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission into "foreign corrupt practices" by an American company selling airport bomb-detectors, and the alleged involvement of Thai officials, have created an uproar in Thailand. See... US Co. Involved In Thai Security Bribery Case

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"We Must Prepare to Invade Turkey Immediately!" - As we reflect on ANZAC day and give remembrance to the men who gave their lives on foreign fields, we must ask ourselves one question: Why haven't we given those Turks the lesson they deserve? It's been 90 years, already! See… Lyndon Hood: NZ Armed Forces Need New Challenge

Scoop's William Rivers Pitt Meets Scoop's Dhar Jamail - In this mean and meager time of pre-packaged, pre-processed, corporate-controlled infotainment that passes itself off as 'news, it is a rare and refreshing experience to see and hear a true journalist reporting the facts. See... William Rivers Pitt: Hostile Information. See also… Dahr Jamail On Scoop

Robert Mann On Why Ownership Matters - The spectacular twentieth century was convulsed repeatedly by wars over ownership. The first decade, known to us as the Edwardian period, was generally peaceful & prosperous in the British Empire and many other regions, but Communism got going in Russia and took advantage of WW1 to seize dictatorial power for fanatical atheists in that large industrial/peasant society. See... Robert Mann: Ownership Matters

Meditations: Two Ducks On A Log Clears A Cluttered Mind - Two mallards, a multi-colored male and a rather plain brown female (except for a dazzling blue chevron on her wings) drifted downstream. They were completely at home and at one with each other, communicating through subtle movements where to go and what to do. See... Martin LeFevre: A Persistent Meditative State

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Investigation: America's Religious Right Randall Terry claims he has mellowed, as most of us do with age. But, along with many of his fellow evangelicals, he remains aggressively committed to his goal of turning America into "a Christian nation." Appearing almost nightly last month on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC as the spokesman for the parents of the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo, the charismatic militant urged Florida’s Governor Jeb Bush to violate a court order and reinsert the feeding tube that had kept the poor woman in what her husband and doctors called "a persistent vegetative state" for nearly 15 years. See... Steve Weissman: A Deadly Culture of Life

Thousands Of Ozzie Camels To Be Culled - In Australia thousands of wild camels will be shot from helicopters. This was necessary in order to halt the explosive growth of the camel population, explained a government spokesperson. See... Australia: Cull Of 1000s Of Wild Camels Planned

Is It Possible To Change The System When You Are The System? - In February of this year, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) , a coalition of more than 800 peace and justice groups throughout the United States, held their second annual Assembly to hear and vote on proposals for a 2005 “action plan.” See... Charles Shaw: Regulated Resistance

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Between The Lines Interview's Terry Jones
- With Humor and Irony, A Founding Member of Monty Python Blasts Bush and Blair's War on Terror - Interview with Terry Jones, founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, conducted by Scott Harris See... Monty Python's Terry Jones Blasts Bush/Blair War

Ghandhi Would Not Be Impressed With SWAT - A client of mine uses "swat" operation when referring to a complex series of seemingly unrelated actions by a series of governmental agencies, including agencies of judicial, executive and legislative branches, often with the participation and assistance of private individual or corporate informants, to profit from the destruction, silencing, asset seizure or blackmail of an individual or company who is out of favor or has offended some individual or group in power. See... Anatomy Of A SWAT From A Lawyer’s Perspective

Scoop Image: Spotted Buzzing Above Wellington - The Boeing Vertol 107-II, owned and operated by Columbia Helicopters New Zealand Limited, has two rotors on top rather the more usual single rotor and tail blade. See... Scoop Image: Twin Rotor Chopper Over The Capital

UQ Wire: What Sibel Edmonds Won't Say - Former FBI contract translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and her attorneys were ordered removed from the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse so that a three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel could discuss her case in private with Bush administration lawyers. See... UQ Wire: S. Edmonds, 911, Drugs & Campaign Finance

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Kevin List's Had A Month Of It - It’s back, Scoop's 'A Week Of It' column, not by any popular demand but just for the sheer flippin' heck of it. Due to the soporific nature of the Parliamentary year this irregular Scoop column went away. It’s hard to type a column when one has fallen asleep at the keyboard. See... A Month of It – Late April Politics, News & Stuff

How The United States Is Able To Torture Political Prisoners- Paul Buchanan examines the revelations about torture of political prisoners held in US prisons in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Iraq. See... Buchanan: The Symmetry Between Torture & Terror
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Hon Simon Upton's Diaspora Edition Newsletter - In this issue: France discovers a new way of putting itself at the centre of Europe by threatening to derail the new European Constitution; the Father of the Constitution, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing plans his own apotheosis; and French farmers are given holidays paid for by the taxpayer. ... See... Upton-on-line: France’s Allergic Reaction To EC

MOTORNET: Karl Ferguson On Subaru's RS - How do you give an existing car that's generally well respected, but no longer the new kid on the block, a new lease of life? Simple really. Take the most popular model and put a bigger engine in it. See... MOTORNET: Old Dog, New Tricks

Bonus Joules Is Banned From The Welly. College Of Ed. - Banned from me old alma mater. Yes, no room on the Ship of Knowledge for me. Left sitting in the gutter in the cold outside the warm, cosy Home of Education. And they made it sound so wonderful: See... Bonus Joules: New Zealand Heroes
22 April 2005 |

Julie Webb-Pullman Gives The US A Human Rights Report Card - How does the United States measure up against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? This, the first of a two part series, assesses US performance in relation to Articles 1 to 15 of the UDHR. See... Julie Webb-Pullman: UDHR Report Card For US, Pt. 1

Martin LeFevre Meditates On Benedict XVI - So now we (the ‘we’ in this case is most problematic) have a new pope whose diffident exterior masks a doctrinaire interior. The Catholic Church could have embraced worldwide ecumenism. Instead it is, in Pope Benedict XVI, reasserting its medieval claim to ... See... Meditations (Spirituality): The Last Pope?
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Scoop Report: Mark Blumsky Faces Some V8 Bouncers - Mr Blumsky’s years in Local Government have seen him develop a fantastic front forward defensive technique to journalistic probity, and frustrated by Mr Blumsky’s beautiful technique in cracking loose questions to the ropes Scoop unleashed a barrage of bouncers to try to make things interesting. See... The Great (Scoop) V8 Debate With Mark Blumsky
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Jason Leopold: Alaskan Oil Drilling Threatens Disaster - It's true that thousands of caribou and other types of wildlife will be displaced if Washington D.C. lawmakers pass a measure to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. See... Opening ANWR to Dev. Could Lead To Disaster

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Lyndon Hood Ponders How Transpower Ended Up In The Caymans - CONFIDENTIAL ATTENTION: Chairman, Chief Executive Officer or Minister of State Owned Enterprises. Warmest greeting! I hope my message finds you to be in good health. My name is YOUR NAME HERE. I have a genuine business proposal that may be of interest ... See... How Transpower Ended Up In The Caymans

Guest Opinion: The Baker Carter Election Commission - So, Jimmy Carter and James Baker are sitting at a table, and Carter starts talking about the disastrous election of 2000 in Florida.... It sounds like the start of a joke. See... David Swanson: Half-Baked Baker Carter Commission. See also... John Conyers - First Baker-Carter Hearing

Book Review: Investing In Commercial Real Estate - The Commercial Real Estate Investor’s Guide gave me a clearer picture of the pros and cons of commercial versus residential property, their similarities and differences, the oddities of commercial property and the different types of commercial properties and their pros and cons. See... Review: Commercial Real Estate Investor’s Guide

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Pacific Ecologist – New Issue Out Now! - On 30 March, yet another study, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report highlights the global environmental crisis. The MA, conducted by 1,300 experts from 95 countries warns 60 percent of ecosystem services supporting life on Earth e.g fresh water, fisheries, air and water regulation, and regional climate are being degraded or used unsustainably. This adds to a stream of recent reports saying similar things. See... Pacific Ecologist Issue 10 – Late Summer 2005

Hard News Is There! - Surely, if God actually chose the Pope it would be much simpler. Just put everyone's name in a hat, and have an innocent child draw out the name of the next pontiff. If God wants an African Pope, or a Latin American one - or for that matter a female... See... Public Address 19/04/05 - Choice
19 April 2005 |

Owen McShane's Short Shrift For Peak Oil Theorists - I know many people get their kicks out of forecasting doom but a little balance is needed. The following piece from OpinionJournal.com spells out the real geopolitics and geo-economics of oil and what we should do about it. See... Scoop Feedback: The Peak Oil Mirage

Sonia Nettnin: Palestine Film Festival's Opening Night - Opening night of the 4th Annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival brought Professor Joseph Massad to the Gene Siskel Film Center where he shared his essay, “The Weapon of Culture: Cinema in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle,” forthcoming in Hamid Dabashi, editor, Palestinian Cinema, (London, Verso, 2005). See... Nettnin: Massad Lectures at Palestine Film Fest.
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Guest Opinion: The US National Election Reform Conference - As they slowly hack democracy to death, we’re as alone — we citizens — as we’ve ever been, protected only by the dust-covered clichés of the nation’s founding: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” It’s time to blow off the dust and start paying the price. See... Robert C. Koehler: The Silent Scream Of Numbers
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Stateside: Rosalea Barker On The Credit Card Caper - Those of you old enough to have seen the moon before it had footprints on it might recall a fun little song with the words: "What did Delaware, boys? What did Delaware?... She wore a brand New Jersey, that's what she did wear." See... Stateside: The Town Bike Of Wilmington, Delaware and Stateside: The Town Bike, Part 2

Sonia Nettnin At The Chicago Palestine Film Festival - The documentary “Women In Struggle,” explores the lives of four Palestinian women, ex-political detainees, who grew up in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. While military occupation shaped the course of their lives and it created economic, family, mental, and emotional hardships, the women made individual choices as well. See... Sonia Nettnin Film Review: Women in Struggle

Steve Weissman Investigates The Religious Right In America - Judge Roy Moore knows how to rally the troops, especially among right-wing Christian evangelicals. A devout Southern Baptist, he tells them what they want to hear, as he did in early 2002 to a gathering in Tennessee: See... The Religious Right (Pt. 2): Hang Ten and Fight!

Karen Hughes: The Woman To Sell America To The Middle East - She's smart, savvy and she can spin with the best of them. When revelations about George W. Bush's DUI surfaced in the final days of the 2000 presidential campaign, she ran interference for the startled candidate as well as any blocking back in professional football.
See... Bill Berkowitz: Tapping Karen Hughes
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Jonar Nader's New Book – 'Z' - The 'war on terror' is merely child's play. There will come a time when terrorists will declare real war, on each other, and you'll be forced to take sides. You've seen the horror that freedom-fighters can unleash. You've seen the devastation that demented terrorists can inflict. But could you combat the new breed of sophisticated terrorists who are intent on absolute power? Could you out-smart educated terrorists who seek retribution in the name of righteousness? Would you ever condone vigilante terrorists who commit the worst of acts for the purest of motives? See... New Book By Jonar Nader – What Would You Kill For?

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Scoop Report: Potluck and Sunshine for Ahmed Zaoui in Wellington -Kevin List writes that the last time Ahmed Zaoui flew on a plane, he got nabbed at the airport, whisked off to a jail cell and interviewed without a lawyer present by the Police and members of the NZ Security Intelligence Service. After that, life for Mr Zaoui didn’t improve much, he ended up in solitary confinement in Paremoremo, without even his beloved Koran for company. What followed was ten months of taunting from guards, the occasional spot of mindless brutality and only lawyers and politicians for company. See... Kevin List: Mr Zaoui Comes To Wellington

Bonus Joules: The Confusing World Of Modern "Energy Speak” - They say the darkest hour comes before the dawn. Well it sure has been dark of late. Maybe there are now glimmerings of dawn. This week the unbelievable happened and Don Brash announced they are going to alter their “mad” Electricity Reforms of the 1990s. See... Bonus Joules: Energy Babble

Tze Ming Mok & More At Public Address - The venerable Guardian caught stoking the fires of East-Asian thermonuclear war. New Zealand's top Bursary scholar not Chinese for the second year running. These are surely the end times. On the 'big scary China zombie-attack leaping from cupboard' ... See... Public Address 15/04/05 - End Of World And More

Brash Caught Somewhere Between Outrage And A Yawn - Don Brash has released National’s education policy to the outrage of all the people who need to be outraged, and to the applause of those like David Farrar and the Education Forum that you’d expect to applaud. The Libertarianz, caught between, have called it a ‘yawner.’ See... Not PC: Brash Has Still Got Education Wrong

Daniel Hopsicker: 9.11 Hijacker’s Flatmate’s Legend Uncovered - Crucial details in the biography of "Professor” Abdussattar Shaikh, the San Diego man called the "best chance to uncover the Sept. 11 plot before it happened” by the Joint Congressional 9.11 Intelligence Committee, are untrue, mis-leading, or false, a MadCowMorningNews investigation has discovered. See... UQ Wire: The Secret World Of 9.11

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Martin Lally: A Review V8 Car Race Proposal (revised) - ...the economic benefits to Wellington will be substantially less than $8.6m per year rather than the $22.9m repeatedly claimed in the Council‘s Proposal, both because of inappropriate definitions of benefits and through failure to allow for capacity constraints... See... A Review Of The Wellington V8 Car Race Proposal
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Molesworth and Featherston’s Latest Inside Oil - John Tamihere gets a reprieve for now, but we think he’s more or less done as a Labour MP now. Treasury tells ministers the economy has peaked, but doesn’t seem to have a care in the world about the current account monster in the closet. Our new aid ... See... Molesworth & Featherston (Lobby Edition) – 14/4/05

Hard News From Russell Brown & More Is Here! - Having kicked off the psychedelic revolution in 1954 with The Doors of Perception, a still-entrancing account of a maiden mescalin trip, Aldous Huxley subsequently fell out with Timothy Leary on the matter of who should really get access to this ... See... Public Address 14/04/05 - Drugs Special

Indira Singh - Heroic Wall St 9/11 Whistleblower - In this special report, Michael Kane recounts the personal story of JP Morgan IT professional, Indira Singh, a heroic 9/11 whistleblower who was fired, harrassed, and physically threatened for exposing the Saudi/terrorist-linked origins of one of the government's most pervasive software systems, and thereby offering the 9/11 Commission more truth than it ever wanted to know. - 911truth.org Editor See... UQ Wire: Journey of a Wall Street Whistleblower

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Hard News & More Is There! - And so, a political solution. Not so much the only solution as the only one that wasn't completely horrifying to contemplate. Really, would you rather be savaged by a dead sheep Don Brash, or face the very real possibility of your renegade MP ... See... Public Address 13/04/05 - Fear And Loathing

Marjorie Cohn: John Bolton At The Senate - John Bolton refused to come clean at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, playing down his contempt for the UN and for international law. See... Cohn: Senators Challenge Bolton on Contempt for UN Earlier: Marjorie Cohn: Bolton Nominated to Destroy UN

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Greg Palast: What’s Good For The Goose… - When the feds swoop down and cuff racketeers, they also load the vans with all the perp's ill-gotten gains: stacks of cash, BMWs, hideaway houses, whatever. Their associates have to cough up the goodies too -- lady friends must give up their diamond rocks. ... See... Palast: Give It Back, George - Wyly Coyotes' Loot

Public Address Is There! - To paraphrase John Lennon: life is what has been happening to other people while we've been busy making plans. We leave tomorrow for a fortnight in the States: a trip from SanFran to Seattle and back to visit the Boeing factories, maybe catch ... See... Public Address 12/04/05 - All Sorted

Between The Lines: The Nukes In Space - Threat of Global Nuclear Weapons Proliferation Met by U.S. Development of New Atomic Arms and Militarization of Space - Interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott, anti-nuclear activist and founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility, ... See... New Atomic Arms And The Militarization Of Space

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Will Algeria Really Seek Justice For Victims Of Brutal Regime?Ahmed Zaoui's lawyers are to appear before the New Zealand Supreme Court next week submitting that human rights ought to be considered during a review of a security risk certificate issued against him by the NZ Security Intelligence Service. But what is the situation back in Algeria? Is Algeria moving to address the crimes of a brutal regime that reigned throughout the 1990s? Is it really seeking justice for its murdered? Or is this merely a diversion? See... Tarek Cherkaoui: Is Algeria Facing Up To Ghosts of the Past?
ALSO, FULL COVERAGE: Ahmed Zaoui & Refugee Issues

Rosalea Barker On Her Sunny Sunday - With all this potting mix under my fingernails, I'm forced to observe--as an entry in my high school autograph book once did--that spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where da boidies iz! See... Stateside with Rosalea: Sunday, Sunny Sunday

Scoop Feedback: Re: BBC Use Of Fake News - In response to David Miller's article published on Scoop.co.nz on 24 March entitled 'BBC Say 'Fake Journalists' Will Not Be Used Again '. From Charles Foster, Controller BFBS Radio & Helen Williams, Controller BFBS TV See... Scoop Feedback: Regarding BBC Use Of Fake News

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Hard News & More Is There! - Time for a laugh, I think. The best thing to come out of the whole Tamihere shemozzle must surely be the excellent Hairy McLairy parody aired on Morning Report today after whizzing around the Internet this week... See... Public Address 08/04/05 - A Laugh Or Two

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Related: Kevin List Interviews Pita Sharples - Given the fact that John Tamihere has probably received about two million dollars worth of free advertising this week Scoop decided to quickly catch up with his main opponent in the electorate of Tamaki Makauru, the Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples. See... A short Dr Sharples IV on the weeks topical issues

Hard News & More Is There! - I'll put this up the front of the post to avoid confusing fanboys who have Googled their way here. My interview yesterday with Chris Knox, about the excellent new Toy Love retrospective Cuts, is archived here as a 10MB MP3... See... Public Address 07/04/05 - Labouring

Molesworth and Featherston – The Insiders Good Oil - John Tamihere’s comments about his colleagues, and the subsequent anguish, have not affected the data yet but Labour is up in our rolling poll of polls. That could be the reason National is importing help. We are arguing there won’t be an early election date, though. The campaign for across-the-board five percent wage settlements rolls on and the OECD wants to see more mothers working. See... Molesworth & Featherston (Lobby Edition) – 7/4/05

Steve Weissman Investigates America's Religious Right - When Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin boasted that his God was bigger than Islam's, many people demanded his scalp. But, as angry as his critics were, they dismissed what he said as little more than military machismo, political insensitivity, and bone-headed public relations. How could we possibly win Muslim hearts and minds when this highly decorated Crusader so callously belittled Allah? See... America's Religious Right - Saints or Subversives?

Charles Shaw On The Passing Of Saul Bellow - Day broke sharp and fast across Chicago this morning as the incendiary copper glow of a million sunbeams ignited an undulating sea of high-rise windows which coat the shore of Lake Michigan. Light spilled amply through one of these solitary windows into an old building in Hyde Park that Saul Bellow once called home. See... Saul Bellow: Eulogy From A Former Student...

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More Russell Brown On Schiavo Is Here!- Just a quickie today: the way the death of Terri Schiavo neatly segued into the death of the Pope has encouraged the US conservative right to go ahead and politicise the Pope to try and carry forward the momentum generated by the Schiavo debacle... See... Public Address 06/04/05 - Ethics And Ethnics MORE:

Good Returns Book Review: Finance For Couples - Linda Gough, an investment columnist in Australia, has written this book to help young couples (married, de facto and same-sex) to sort their finances and personal arrangements to give themselves security for the future. Although it is quite a slim book and easy to read, it covers a wide range of topics, from budgeting to taxes, wills and divorce. See... Book Review: The NZ Couples' Guide to Money

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Dave McArthur Gets Energy Wise Done At The Creek - “At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning”. So said the 45-member Board of the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report last week. The stats are impressive: 2,500 pages of assessment drawn up by 1300 researchers from 95 nations. See... Bonus Joules: Great Ideas

Sam Smith Isn't Buying The Media's John Paul Saintjob - An eight page slobbering special section in the NY Times, Cokie Roberts oozing from the Vatican, endless coverage on cable TV: not since the death of Ronald Reagan has the media so blatantly displayed its hypocritical indifference to objectivity when the occasion suits it. See... Sam Smith: Media Objectivity Embalmed With Pope

Marjorie Cohn Speculates On John Bolton's Real Mission At The UN - John Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations reminds me of what a US commander in charge of the destruction of Ben Tre city said during the Vietnam War, “We had to destroy the village to save it.” See... Marjorie Cohn: Bolton Nominated to Destroy UN

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Public Address Is There! - Ans Westra is one of this country's most enduring and remarkable documentary photographers. A Dutch immigrant, for nearly half a century she has been photographing New Zealanders and taking snapshots of the events that form our history... See... Public Address 04/04/05 - Four Great New Posts

New Loan Shark Net In Place From April 1st - New consumer laws which took effect on 1 April aim to provide better protection from unscrupulous credit practices. The reforms are well overdue. Existing consumer credit laws were out-of-date and confusing. See... Catriona MacLennan: Loan Sharks - Beware

Sonia Nettnin Film Review - The documentary “Until When…” delves into the lives of several Palestinian families who live in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, near Bethlehem. Through personal stories, people share their experiences with the occupation and how it affects their lives. See... Sonia Nettnin: Film Review: Until When…

The Rise of Black Propaganda and Dirty War Tactics (Again) - Washington’s efforts to discredit the Venezuelan Government have increased over the past few weeks. Tactics and strategies applied in prior years attempting to overthrow the Chávez administration through a coup d’etat, an illegal oil industry strike that crippled the Venezuelan economy and a constitutional recall referendum on Chávez’s mandate infused with illegal campaign contributions by the U.S. government to the Venezuelan opposition, all failed miserably. See... Eva Golinger: U.S. Aggression towards Venezuela

Kamala Sarup: The Plight Of Nepal’s Children - 14 years old Sunita Aryal said "Before the maoist war, we lived in Baglung. When the conflict broke out in October 1996, we took refuge in another area. Meanwhile we have a house in Baglung. But we cannot go there because there is hatred, and robbery is widespread. We'd like to go home. If we could, our problems would be partly resolved". See... Mass Death Of Thousands Of Nepali Children? MORE:

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National Security: Ought The “Guantanamo-isation” Of Zaoui's Experience Factor In A Risk Certificate Review? - Paul Buchanan writes that the NZ Supreme Court will soon hear arguments as to whether the Inspector General of the SIS must take into account Ahmed Zaoui’s human rights when considering the validity of the security risk certificate issued against him… There are simply too many legal balls to juggle for the government to make its case, particularly when it refuses to divulge the ostensibly secret information it holds against Mr. Zaoui. But that is the reason why the Supreme Court must allow the appeal and rule against considerations of human rights when the Inspector General makes his review of the security risk certificate issued against Mr. Zaoui. See... Of Security Risk Certificates and Human Rights

Hard News On Tamihere vs TV3 - I suppose no one can really yank the chain on John Tamihere - that's part of his thing - but his Parliamentary assault on TV3's Duncan Garner, and more especially the claim that 3 News shows political bias towards Rodney Hide, was fairly extraordinary. Being angry is one thing: alleging malign intent of a whole group of people is another. See... Public Address 01/04/05 - Doggin'

Will Pitt On The Scaredy President - When I went to New York City this past summer to cover the GOP convention, I remember being awed by the degree of security surrounding Madison Square Garden. There were fences to control the fences, fifty cops on every corner, none of whom knew what the others were telling people to do, a half-dozen passes of needed to get twenty feet in any direction, and that was before you even got inside the door. See... Will Pitt FYI: George W. Bush, the Frightened Man

Mark Bradley Takes Another Look At An Old Fable - One afternoon in late autumn, a grasshopper sat in the shade of a crabapple tree, stuffing his face with cracked wheat and watching in amusement as a tiny ant labored diligently to transport a sizable stash of grain, one kernel at a time, past the grasshopper's place of repose. See... Fristian Fables: The Ant & Grasshopper Revisited

Suzan Mazur On The Sharemarket/Oil Price Nexus - Opec's acting Secretary General Adnan Shihab-Eldin has called the high price of oil "unjustified." Former Opec master Zaki Yamani has re-emerged to say that $50-a-barrel oil is "unsustainable," and he's predicted another cycle like the late '70s/early ... See... Suzan Mazur: Pension Funds & The Price Of Oil

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Hard News On Tamihere vs TV3 - I suppose no one can really yank the chain on John Tamihere - that's part of his thing - but his Parliamentary assault on TV3's Duncan Garner, and more especially the claim that 3 News shows political bias towards Rodney Hide, was fairly extraordinary... See... Public Address 01/04/05 - Doggin'

Will Pitt On The Scaredy President - When I went to New York City this past summer to cover the GOP convention, I remember being awed by the degree of security surrounding Madison Square Garden. There were fences to control the fences, fifty cops on every corner, none of whom knew what the others were telling people to do, a half-dozen passes of needed to get twenty feet in any direction, and that was before you even got inside the door. See... Will Pitt FYI: George W. Bush, the Frightened Man

Mark Bradley Takes Another Look At An Old Fable - One afternoon in late autumn, a grasshopper sat in the shade of a crabapple tree, stuffing his face with cracked wheat and watching in amusement as a tiny ant labored diligently to transport a sizable stash of grain, one kernel at a time, past the grasshopper's place of repose. See... Fristian Fables: The Ant & Grasshopper Revisited

Suzan Mazur On The Sharemarket/Oil Price Nexus - Opec's acting Secretary General Adnan Shihab-Eldin has called the high price of oil "unjustified." Former Opec master Zaki Yamani has re-emerged to say that $50-a-barrel oil is "unsustainable," and he's predicted another cycle like the late '70s/early ... See... Suzan Mazur: Pension Funds & The Price Of Oil

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Hard News & More Is There! - Well, if you had the choice, wouldn't you put Rob Robinson up for a TV interview over George Hawkins? The Police Commissioner ("a civil servant!" hissed John Campbell) was clearly paying attention during media skills training, and handled an enjoyably ... See... Public Address 31/03/05 - Missing George

Sam Smith Remarks On The Digestion Of Ideas In DC - Upon reading the lead story in today's Washington Post the thought occurred that if I weren't a dissident journalist I'd make a hell of a member of the establishment. The thought quickly dissipated even though my futile arguments that the president ... See... Sam Smith: A Brief Encounter With The Normal

Dave McArthur’s Bonus Joules & NZ Wages - "Market forces determine pay rates." So reads the headlines in the Wellington Dominion Post (5 Feb 05). The local investment guru is pronouncing on why the average wage in New Zealand is lagging behind other indicators in an "expanding economy". See... Bonus Joules: First Impressions

Radha Basnyat On The Nepali Democracy Crisis - It was a good thing that career politicians who had looted the country were arrested and placed behind bars. Hopefully, they will get appropriate punishment. See... Radha Basnyat: Let Us Live In Peace MORE:

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Hard News & More Is There - David Cohen wrote an interesting column on the coverage of religious news and issues in last week's NBR. He's right: matters of the spirit generally get an even worse deal than matters of science in the papers, which is saying something... See... Public Address 24/03/05 - Expats And Moonbats

Marjorie Cohn On The Terri Schiavo Case - The nation's attention is riveted on the fate of one poor woman in a Florida hospice. Terri Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state, with no upper brain function, for 15 years. See... Marjorie Cohn: Whose Right to Life? MORE:

San Francisco Bay Guardian 9/11 Skepticism Cover Story - Sure, the people with the 9/11 conspiracy theories are a little odd. But not everything they're saying is entirely crazy. See... UQ Wire: SFBG Cover Story - We're All Paranoid MORE:

A Polygamist Turned Prosecutor Critiques Utah Justice - In spite of the abuse and corruption attributed to Mormon fundamentalism, the substance of which is published almost daily in Utah's newspapers, there is in Utah a well organized, impressive movement to decriminalize polygamy. See... Utah Prosecutors Are Soft On Polygamy

The Beeb Promises Not To Use Fake News Anymore - Responding to complaints about the use of 'fake journalists' paid for by the MoD, the BBC Controller of Editorial Policy, Stephen Whittle, has acknowledged that their use was 'not ideal' and 'will not happen again'. BBC Say 'Fake Journalists' Will Not Be Used Again

Harvey Wasserman: If Christ Returned Today - As we enter another Easter Season, it's become all too obvious that if Christ returns, those who hate in his name will slime him, then kill him. Christ was a long-haired peace activist who would have been sickened to his soul by the war in Iraq. See... If Jesus Returns, Karl Rove Will Kill Him

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Public Address - Public Address 23/03/05 - One Way Bernard Weiner - Bernard Weiner: Rove's Tricky Decoy Dump William Blum - William Blum: The Anti-Empire Report, No. 19 Edith Fletcher - Edith Fletcher: A Picture Of Indecent Exposure Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Security Of Life Angie Pratt - Bush Isn't Interested in Fixing Social Security Ivan Eland - Ivan Eland: Free Commerce vs. National Security Sam Smith - Sam Smith: Things To Do In The Bad Times (Updated) Mark Drolette - Drolette: The Fashionable Politics of Face-Spiting

William Rivers Pitt On The Terri Schiavo Case - The greatest strength of the Republican majority in Congress and their allies in the White House is their unfailing ability to say and do anything, no matter how hypocritical or brazen or wrong, in order to win. See... William Rivers Pitt: Dictators, Tyrants and Fools

Mike Ruppert Says Peak Oil Is Here - "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain See... The Fire Is No Longer On Its Way - It Has Begun. See also... Marshall Auerback: The Militarisation Of Oil

Am Johal: Hell In The Hebron Hills - Off the beaten path, you see the desert for miles from Hebron Hills on this September day. If it weren't for the military outposts, the barbed wire and the checkpoints, it would actually be quite peaceful here - a National Geographic spread waiting to happen. The goats are grazing nearby. Amidst the chaos and the hell, there's beauty here. See... Am Johal: Hell in Hebron - Hebron Hills

Harvey Wasserman: If Christ Returned Today - As we enter another Easter Season, it's become all too obvious that if Christ returns, those who hate in his name will slime him, then kill him. Christ was a long-haired peace activist who would have been sickened to his soul by the war in Iraq. See... If Jesus Returns, Karl Rove Will Kill Him

Hard News from Russell Brown Is Here! - So how was, ermmm, Licencegate for you? It won't be the story of the year, but the investigation on which TV3's Campbell Live based its debut programme was competent and at times even stylish. And at least there was an investigation, albeit one pinched ... See... Public Address 22/03/05 - Front Page Next Day and Public Address 21/03/05 - Going Live

Marjorie Cohn On Hotel Rwanda - As we walked out of Hotel Rwanda, my teenage son asked me, "So why did we go into Iraq, but not Rwanda?" This youngster was horrified that the United States not only sat on the sidelines during the genocide that killed 800,000 Rwandans in 1994, but then prevented the United Nations from acting to stop it. See... Marjorie Cohn: Getting Away with Murder

Fast Food, Family Values, The Christian Right & GW Bush - I know I'm late to the party, but last weekend I finally saw Morgan Spurlock's Academy Award-nominated film, Supersize Me. See… Super-Sized Food Industry Targets Families

Hard News & More Is There! - The rumour is that Campbell Live has a killer story lined up for its launch programme on TV3 tonight - which is, of course, exactly the sort of rumour you'd want to be circulating at this juncture... See... Public Address 21/03/05 - Going Live

Rosalea Barker: Urban Gardens & Machine Gunnery - It is the first day of spring, and today in Berkeley, California, there will be a memorial service for Karl Linn, a landscape architect who died at the age of 81 on February 3. See... Stateside: Karl R. Linn's Secret Garden

Ramzy Baroud: Baghdad Before & After - I visited Baghdad as a reporter a few years before the US invasion. There were posters and statues of the ousted President Saddam Hussein everywhere. But not one checkpoint. See... A Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Iraq Edition

Masalai i tokaut - PNG Forestry: Sold Into Slavery John Roughan - John Roughan: A Solomons Future Am Johal - Heroin Prescription Program Introduced in Canada Mark Drolette - The Benefits Of A Deep Message, Er, Massage Uri Avnery - Uri Avnery: Remember What? Remember How? Genevieve Cora Fraser - Arab Jews in Palestine Before Israel Ray McGovern - Ray McGovern: The Intelligence Made Me Do It John Chuckman -John Chuckman: Nightmare Vision Of North America Norman Solomon - Norman Solomon: Why Iraq Withdrawal Makes Sense Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Economic Impact of HIV/AIDS

Stateside: Where Rosalea Meets The Cable Guy - "Cable's new reality!" That's the breathy ad series a Very Big Cable Company is currently running here in the Bay Area in its fierce battle for market share. Suckered into it, I decide to sign up for a month's free cable internet, with no contract, and $35 a month after that if I decide to keep it. You gets what you pays for, I suppose. See... Stateside with Rosalea: Cableat Emptor

William Rivers Pitt: And That Was Yesterday - So...to recap: Neocon warlord Paul Wolfowitz will head the World Bank; The White House illegally puts out fake news reports, and the Justice Department does nothing; Another $81 billion of your money and mine is to be poured onto the Iraqi sand; The GOP majority in Congress is preparing to trash 200 years of Senate tradition in order to post a number of certifiably insane people to the bench; Kevin Martin, a conservative Christian activist for the GOP, will now chair the FCC; The Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve, one of the most ecologically pristine areas remaining to us, will be paved and drilled for its tiny amount of petroleum. And that was just yesterday. See... Will Pitt's FYI: The Darkness Drops Again

Greg Palast: The War Behind The War For Oil - The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed. See... Greg Palast: Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil

Good Returns Book Review: Rich Budget Wise, Dollar Rich - As many as 95 percent of New Zealanders have difficulty simply managing their money day to day; for most people the thought of having money to invest and create wealth is no more than a pipe dream. Budget Wise, Dollar Rich is a practical handbook designed to help readers take control of their personal finances – not a topic that most people choose to think about, let alone discuss or spend time working on. See... Book Review: Rich Budget Wise, Dollar Rich

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Good Returns Book Review: Rich Budget Wise, Dollar Rich - As many as 95 percent of New Zealanders have difficulty simply managing their money day to day; for most people the thought of having money to invest and create wealth is no more than a pipe dream. See... Book Review: Rich Budget Wise, Dollar Rich

Stateside: Where Rosalea Meets The Cable Guy - "Cable's new reality!" That's the breathy ad series a Very Big Cable Company is currently running here in the Bay Area in its fierce battle for market share. Suckered into it, I decide to sign up for a month's free cable internet, with no contract, and $35 a month after that if I decide to keep it. You gets what you pays for, I suppose. See... Stateside with Rosalea: Cableat Emptor

William Rivers Pitt: And That Was Yesterday - So...to recap: Neocon warlord Paul Wolfowitz will head the World Bank; The White House illegally puts out fake news reports, and the Justice Department does nothing; Another $81 billion of your money and mine is to be poured onto the Iraqi sand; The GOP majority in Congress is preparing to trash 200 years of Senate tradition in order to post a number of certifiably insane people to the bench; Kevin Martin, a conservative Christian activist for the GOP, will now chair the FCC; The Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve, one of the most ecologically pristine areas remaining to us, will be paved and drilled for its tiny amount of petroleum. And that was just yesterday. See... Will Pitt's FYI: The Darkness Drops Again

Greg Palast: The War Behind The War For Oil - The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed. See... Greg Palast: Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil

Molesworth and Featherston: Politics & Business - With its major review of New Zealand’s aid agency due, the OECD argues international aid can too often be a raw deal for both the recipient of aid and taxpayers who fund it. Their argument appears in full for the first time in Molesworth & Featherston. ... See... Molesworth & Featherston (Lobby Edition) – 17/3/05

Green Left Weekly: East Timor Ripoff Continues - ''We went to East Timor to help those people, and now we are slapping them in the face and stealing their oil.'' This is what Chip Henriss-Anderssen, a former major in the Australian military who served with the International Force for East Timor, told reporters on March 7. “We thought we were doing something decent. Now we have to ask the very real question of whether or not we went to East Timor to secure oil assets that aren’t ours.” See... Howard’s Attempted Bribery To Steal Timor Oil

Guest Opinion: No Longer the "Lone" Superpower - I recall forty years ago, when I was a new professor working in the field of Chinese and Japanese international relations, that Edwin O. Reischauer once commented, ''The great payoff from our victory of 1945 was a permanently disarmed Japan.'' Born in Japan and a Japanese historian at Harvard, Reischauer served as American ambassador to Tokyo in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Strange to say, since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and particularly under the administration of George W. Bush, the United States has been doing everything in its power to encourage and even accelerate Japanese rearmament. See... Chalmers Johnson: Coming to Terms with China

Bernard Weiner: The Message Bolton's Appointment Sends - Traditionally, a lame-duck president has a two-year window of opportunity to successfully push his foreign and domestic agenda. Karl Rove knows this well. See... Bush to UN, Screw You! - Bolton's Nomination

Russell Brown - Public Address 17/03/05 - Responses Robert Rabbin - America, Rejoice! Evelyn Pringle - Get Mercury Out Of Vaccines – NOW! SpinWatch.org - Andy Rowell: Remember Saro-Wiwa Green Left Weekly - Halliburton In Oz: Publicly Funded War Profiteer

Dog Biting Men: Tim Selwyn Goes To Court For Sedition - On 18 November an axe was lodged in the window of Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Sandringham Road electorate office. After an anonymous tip-off to a radio station, flyers were found on the corner of Ponsonby Road which purported to explain the attack. See... Dog Biting Men: Wedge Politics

Jim Peron On His 15 Minutes Of Fame - Andy Warhol once said everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. I don’t recommend it. See... 15 minutes of fame by Jim Peron MORE:

Martin LeFevre: A Surreal Contrast Found In The Hills - The verdant slopes beyond the gorge are adorned with thousands of brilliant orange poppies and deep blue lupines. The swollen creek is over a hundred meters directly below. It wends its way around dark volcanic rocks that look as if they just hardened from their molten state. Above, a procession of clouds of every shape skate across an azure sky. Meditations: A Stark Contrast

Scoop Feedback: Mormons And Mental Health - I am writing you with regard to the posting: Suzan Mazur: Bush And The Mormons. There are quite a few discrepancies and misleading statements in the above noted posting and I would like to address a few of those here. See... Scoop Feedback: Mormons & Mentally Ill Kids

Professor Jane Kelsey: What's Up In The Pacific - Dr Jane Kelsey, Action, Research and Education Network of Aotearoa (ARENA/NZ), Address to the International Coordinating Network WTO Preparatory Meeting, Hong Kong, February 2005 See... Updates On Developments In The Pacific

David Miller: Not The News - A Spinwatch investigation has revealed that journalists working for the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) have been commissioned to provide news reports to the BBC. See... David Miller: BBC Broadcast 'Fake' News Reports

William Fisher: The New Face Of US Public Diplomacy - The expected nomination of one of President Bush’s closest advisors to lead America’s public diplomacy efforts has been met with cautiously hopeful skepticism by some leaders in the U.S. foreign policy community. See... William Fisher: Whither Public Diplomacy?

Christopher Hitchens Joins The Ranks Of The Ohio Election Skeptics - No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry's, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines. See... Link: Christopher Hitchens - Ohio's Odd Numbers MORE USA COUP II COVERAGE:

Russell Brown - Public Address 15/03/05 - Leave The Chip Behind William Rivers Pitt - William Rivers Pitt: Exiting Iraq Ivan Eland - Morning in the Islamic World? William Fisher - Blogging In The Middle East Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: No Confrontation Please

Stateside: Where Rosalea Bids Dan Rather Farewell - Well, it's 6.30 pm Wednesday, 9 March, here in the Bay Area and CBS veteran reporter and editor Dan Rather has just said his last words from the anchor's chair. Last word, actually. ''Courage.'' And he wished it to all of us here in our homes, not just to people battling with the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters, or fighting far from home, or trying to stay alive in failing health and oppressive circumstances. See... Stateside With Rosalea: Courage

Ramzy Baroud: More ME Moral Duplicity - President Bush's stern warning urging Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon once again highlights the moral duplicity practiced by the US administration in its dealings with the Middle East affairs. Ramzy Baroud: Reining in Syria on Behalf of Israel

Steve Weissman Investigates Military Targetting Media In Iraq - Nik Gowing is no idiot. A top BBC news anchor and one of Britain's most respected journalists, the white-haired Gowing has warned repeatedly of precisely what Mr. Cheney did not want American newspapers even to consider. See... Dead Messengers: But What About Al-Jazeera? MORE: Investigation (1): Hearing What Eason Jordan Said Investigation (2):Army Failed to Probe Its Attack on Palestine Hotel Investigation (3):Targeting Media The American Way

Genevieve Cora Fraser: A Midnight Rant About Peace - When were you last in Palestine? I recently asked that question to a friend who was saying that if people are upbeat and focus on the positive about Israelis and Palestinian relations than things, by-golly, are just bound to improve. See... A Midnight Rant About Israel And Palestine

M. Shahid Alam: On Comparing Cats To Kids - Instead of comparing X across people in poor and rich countries, I am suggesting that we make these comparisons for people in poor countries and mammalian pets in rich countries. In other words, economists at the World Bank, IMF, WTO and OECD should devote some of their resources to tracking how the economies of poor countries – especially in Africa, Latin America and Asia – are faring relative to the economies of pets in the rich countries. See... M. S. Alam: Global Disparities - Of People And Pets

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Catherine Austin Fitts: Meditations on 9/11 Truth- A "limited hangout" is a partial confession, a mea culpa, if you will, that leaves the essence of a crime or covert reality hidden. Because it includes some small part of the truth, the limited hangout is irresistibly attractive to dissidents and political critics whose thirst for such truth makes them jump at the dangled scraps. Once the system's watchdogs are busy chewing on the limited hangout, the guilty players can go about their illegal business for a new round of unaccountable, semi-secret mayhem. See... Will The Real Economic Hit Men Please Stand Up?

Suzan Mazur: An Open Letter Re: Polygamy & Child Abuse - Last week you were cited in these pages Scoop: Rescind Utah's Statehood? for refusing to dismantle the polygamy cults in your respective states, flouting federal law as well as the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which has declared polygamy a human rights violation. On closer scrutiny it now appears that your ease in embracing such sexism and a disdain for human rights may be your way of fitting neatly into the Bush fascist agenda for America. Please advise otherwise. See... Suzan Mazur: Open Letter To AGs Of Utah & Arizona

Steve Weissman Investigates Military Targetting Media In Iraq - Mazen Dana lived a charmed life, or so it seemed. A Palestinian from the West Bank city of Hebron, he worked as a television cameraman for the British news agency Reuters and was one of their most experienced conflict journalists. See... Dead Messengers: Targeting Media The American Way Earlier: Investigation (1): Hearing What Eason Jordan Said Investigation (2):Army Failed to Probe Its Attack on Palestine Hotel

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Molesworth & Featherston's Lobby Edition - This week the wages campaign gets a new head of steam as the Reserve Bank steps in, Treasury has told Ministers growth will slow this year and there’s an update on house prices. We ask whether the dollar and the current account deficit are yet high enough to attract the attention of policy makers. You’re spending more time in your email inbox than you realise – but it’s good for business. In media tattle this week the Herald plans changes to its front page. See... Molesworth & Featherston (Lobby Edition) – 10/3/05

Steve Weissman Investigates Military Targetting Media In Iraq - As America's Third Infantry Division took control of Baghdad on the morning of April 8, 2003, an M1A1 Abrams tank stood in the middle of the Al-Jumhuriya Bridge, which spans the Tigris River. Over a mile away, on a balcony of the 17-story Palestine ... Army Failed to Probe Its Attack on Palestine Hotel Earlier: Investigation (1): Hearing What Eason Jordan Said

Karl Ferguson Takes A BMW To The Wairarapa - It was a beautifully sunny late December morning and traffic was unusually light on the Rimutaka Hill Road out of Wellington. The Holden Monaro coupe was taking full advantage of the situation, hunkered down in the bends as the big bore V8 worked ... See... MOTORNET: 1 Series Heats Up Hot Hatch Wars

Good Returns Book Review: Managing Property - As a landlord who has recently made the decision to take over the management of some of our properties, I found the information supplied in Working Landlord, Happy Tenants was invaluable. See... Book Review: Working Landlord, Happy Tenants

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Thieves Greed And Disputed Possession Thailand-Style BANGKOK, Thailand -- A murky tale of thieves, greed and disputed possession of a ruby-and-pearl-studded gold crown, which may have been worn by a Siamese king but now glistens in San Francisco, is a mystery worthy of Indiana Jones. See Richard S. Ehrlich's - The Indiana-Jones-Like Tale Of A Stolen Thai Crown The Scoop Editor - Super-Cylone Ingrid Heads For Queensland Coast

OTHER TOP COLUMNS:

Che Tibby Is Over There! - I don't think I ever realised how snobbish Melbournians were towards Brisbane until I spent a little time here. All in all it's not too bad a place really. What I had expected from seeing a few locals heading this way on the same flight from Cairns ... See... Public Address 08/03/05 - Critters

St Molesworth On Margaret Wilson In The Speaker's Chair - Top 10 ways Parliament will be different when Margaret Wilson is speaker. See... Molesworth: Top 10 Changes Under Margaret Wilson

Scoop Poll Watch: NBR Shows Labour Leads By 9 Points - Labour 43 National 34 NZ First 9 Greens 6 United Future 2.3 ACT 1.7 Maori 1.6 See... Scoop Poll Watch: NBR-Phillips Fox Poll 4.3.05

Ivan Eland On The End Of Child Executions In The US - The most important aspect of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of executing juveniles was its consideration of evolving international views of ''cruel and unusual punishment.'' See... Ending Death Penalty for Juveniles Is Not Enough MORE: - Marjorie Cohn - Marjorie Cohn: US Finally Outlaws Child Execution

Bolivia On Verge Of Yet Another Revolution - Acting Publisher Luis Gómez continues reporting today via the Narcosphere on developments in Bolivia, where a presidential resignation and massive mobilizations have nearly paralyzed the country. See... Bolivia At Stand-Still, Nation Awaits Resignation

William Fisher Uncovers The Bush Admin's Domestic War - Civil libertarians say America's 'war on terror' is eroding the constitutional freedoms of ordinary citizens. For example, the USA Patriot Act, hurriedly passed by Congress without debate in the weeks after the attacks of 9/11, gave the government sweeping ... See... William Fisher: America's 'Other' War. See also... William Fisher: Coming To A Church Near You

Harvey Wasserman On Senator Robert Byrd's Hitler Speech - The U.S. Senate's senior Constitutional scholar has correctly equated Bush with Hitler , and the usual attack dogs are howling. But they are wrong, and Americans must now face the harsh realities of an increasingly fascist and totalitarian GOP. See... Senator Byrd Is Correct To Equate Bush With Hitler

Steven Hass Discovers Much Wisdom In A T-Shirt Shop - I live and work in a city that hosts a major U.S. university. The demographics of all major universities being equal, this city is temporarily home to students and faculty from many different countries. See... Steven Hass: 'You're Too Smart To Be An American'

Genevieve Cora Fraser: Zack, Mel & The Passion Of Palestine - If memory serves me, Zack Sinclair and I shared time together in early September 2004. Zack is the 34 year old drifter, as some have described him, who showed up to pray with Mel Gibson, the director of The Passion of the Christ, at a Southern ... See... Mel Gibson's Stalker And The Passion Of Palestine. See also... Calls for US Investigation into Israeli Killings

William Rivers Pitt: Oil - On August 27, 1859, Edwin Drake's oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania struck a gusher, making him the man credited with drilling the first commercially successful oil well in America. In the time between then and now, the world has burned through about ... See... William Rivers Pitt: The Prophecy Of Oil

John Chuckman: Frankenstein's Monster Is Alive! - Doctor Frankenstein's frightful creature was assembled from the limbs of corpses collected in the dead of night. See... John Chuckman: The Creature Walks Among Us

W. David Jenkins III: Yeah Right - "Democracies have certain things in common. They have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition." - George W. Bush. See... W. D. Jenkins: Oh George – You Can’t Be Serious!

Ray McGovern On Intelligence Tsar John Negroponte - Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed as the first director of national intelligence. Never mind that he deliberately misled Congress about serious human rights abuses in Honduras where he was ambassador from 1981 to 1985. See... Who Now Will Read To The President In The Morning?

Kidd Millennium Cartoon: When Vlad Met George - Cartoon by kiddmillennium.com… See... Kidd Millennium Cartoon: Soul Mates

Ramzy Baroud: A Journalist In Jail In Spain - Al Jazeera’s correspondent Taysir Alouni is in a Madrid jail for no other reason than challenging the Western and distinctively the American narrative of the Third World. See... Ramzy Baroud: Taysir Doesn’t Deserve This

Kamala Sarup On A Path To Peace Through Education - If the leaders and the government of Nepal promote education and values that emphasize national and international identification rather than ethnic, religious, tribal or clan identification, then the ethnic, religious, tribal and clan conflicts will diminish, ... See... Will Social Transformation Reduce Conflict?

Tarek Cherkawi Writes Syrian Intelligence Most Likely Hariri Assassins - Tarek Cherkawi writes that as Rafiq Hariri's high-tech protection was useless it implies the perpetrators were professional, sophisticated. Eyewitness reports on Hariri’s death strongly suggest involvement by a major intelligence agency. See... Rafiq Hariri's Assassination - Syrial Killer?

Public Address Is There… -Exceeding well over? Russell Brown's Hard News If the Herald on Sunday can't find a better lead story than yesterday's, it should … try harder. Under the heading '$50,000 a day: the princely sum you're paying for Charles' NZ visit', the paper declared ... See... PUBLIC ADDRESS - Exceedingly!

Dave Crampton Explores The Plunketline Debacle - Sometimes parents with a new baby like to ring plunket line. This causes a few problems lately as plunket line has pretty much been swallowed up by health line, except the health line people think that mothers are neurotic when they ring and ask for help. See... Dave Crampton's Big News: Plunket Line Hassles

Evelyn Pringle Considers The Pros And Cons Of Pharmaceutical Profits - Dr Peter Rost has spent 20 years marketing pharmaceuticals. On Feb 16, 2005, he testified before a senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, in support of the reimportation of cheaper drugs from other countries. See... Profits - Sole Reason For Blocking Cheap Drugs

Rosalea Held The U.S' Education Holy Grail In Her Hand - Last Sunday, for a couple of hours, I was the proud possessor of the holy grail of the US education system: a GPA of 4. By the time my second course grade was added, I had slipped to 3.83--on account of the minus sign after that second A--but that's ...See... Stateside With Rosalea: My 4 by 3.83

ENDS

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