Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Sick Puppies"

John Chuckman, January 6, 2004

The title is not part of my usual vocabulary, but sometimes an expression fits so perfectly that it becomes irresistible. And so it is for the authors of a neo-con "manifesto" on foreign policy. The Gomer Pyle of American Presidents recently was presented with a plan to reorder much of the world, a plan intended to build on his remarkable achievements in Iraq and Afghanistan, spreading resentment and future mayhem against Americans across the world.

Have you ever noticed how many of those odd people, the American neo-cons, use the rhetoric of nineteenth century European radicals? You'd be hard put to count all the references to "revolutionary," "radical," and "manifesto" in the American Right's industrial-scale output of pamphlets and tracts. This practice may have started as a marketing gimmick, the catchy application of a term from an unexpected context, but this kind of language is far more revealing than its authors realize.

"Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Dies at 87"

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times, January 5, 2004

Michael Straight, the patrician former magazine publisher who described in a political memoir his lingering involvement with Soviet spies whom he had first met when they were all students at Cambridge University, died yesterday at home in Chicago. He was 87 and also had a home on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

nolympics writes:


Breakfast in Baghdad

I have been working for the Spanish film crew for about two weeks now, and usually I am due at work at seven in the morning. But that day, the 30th of
December, I had a call of 9:30, so I was looking forward to a leisurely breakfast and pot of tea in the hotel restaurant. All of the gang was there at different tables: the assorted activists, journalists, and human-rights hardcases that live in our hotel. Everyone was sleepy and cranky from lack of caffeine. I had just taken my first sip of tea.

And then WHOOM.

hydrarchist writes: This from Mute Magazine.

by Sebastian Hacher

Patagonia has a long history of colonial oppression. But the corporate conquistadors behind the current round of evictions are more renowned for their interest in worthy causes than their cut-throat approach to real estate, reports Sebastian Hacher

In the extreme south of Argentina lies Patagonia, a region which encompasses every imaginable climate and terrain from turquoise rivers and lakes to desert and glaciers. Below the 'Cordillera', the pristine snow capped mountain range of the southern Andes which separates Argentina and Chile, lies the flat and fertile expanse of the pampas on which sheep and cattle graze.

renegado writes

Ewa in Basra, 18.12.2003

Oil workers in Iraq's biggest and most profitable company the Southern Oil Company have refused American Occupation Administration slave-wages and created their own wage scale instead to be accepted on pain of mass energy sector strike. CPA forced to retreat and start paying workers more. Iraqi worker representatives from the country's energy sector met last week to discuss the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority)imposition of low wages upon public sector workers in the country.

The Battle for Hearts and Minds.

By Rob Eshelman

In the Iraqi town of Samarra, thick mud obscures the walkways leading into an immaculate gold-domed mosque and towering minaret in the town center. Iranian pilgrims walking through the busy market surrounding the place of worship have their worn leather shoes and long robes splattered with the wet paste of the city streets.

Samarra is also the site of new and aggressive US Army tactics that are similar to Israeli-style counterinsurgency. The methods involve house-to-house searches, curfews, neighborhood-wide closures, and retaliatory home demolitions. The US military says they are targeting resistance cells, however, the people of Sumarra say that it’s indiscriminate punishment and intimidation.

Prologue: Several weeks ago, myself and Prothap visited a school that wassupposed to be repaired by Bechtel, which they had not done any work on to speak of. The headmistress fixed me a cup of tea, and after I had finished drinking it, she read the tea leaves in the bottom of the cup. This is what she said they told: You will receive a Big Fish. In Iraq this means a fortune, a benefit, or a gift. But the gift will be shared. You will split it with someone else, someone whose name begins with an A. But you will receive the lion’s share of the benefit. I thanked her and told her I would keep an eye out for any such developments.

"Anti-War Protest Set for Republican Convention"

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A coalition of anti-war groups plan to greet
delegates to next summer's Republican National Convention with a massive
protest against U.S. foreign policy, hoping to keep the Iraqi war alive as
an issue in the 2004 election, organizers said on Tuesday.

The march could be one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history,
organizers said.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"U.S. Appeals Court OKs Some Medical Pot"

David Kravets, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- An appeals court ruled Tuesday that a federal law outlawing
marijuana does not apply to sick people who are allowed to smoke pot with a
doctor's recommendation.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a blow to the
federal government in its fight against medical marijuana. The Justice
Department has argued that state medical marijuana laws were trumped by
federal drug laws.

Utah Students Set New Fi-Fi Record: 82 Miles

Weber State University

Students at Weber State
University in Ogden, Utah, have broken the distance record for
communication via Wi-Fi, the wireless Internet technology. The students
established a wireless link at 2.4 gigahertz from a distance of 82 miles.
The previous record of 68 miles was held by a Polish company. Could the
feat open a whole new world of war driving, the hacker practice of driving
around to find and use unsecured Wi-Fi access points?