The Ratio

"It's not this abstract notion that happens over millions of years," deMenocal said. "The magnitude of what we're talking about greatly, greatly exceeds anything we've withstood in human history."

Contrast that with President Bush's chief science adviser, John H. Marburger III

There's no agreement on what it is that constitutes a dangerous climate change

Is the denial merely a public facade, a means to delay widespread panic, or is it self-denial?

Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming

What got me thinking about the recondite life rhythms of the planet, and not the 24-hour news cycle, was a recent conversation with a scientist named Thomas E. Lovejoy, who heads the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. When I first met Lovejoy nearly 20 years ago, he was trying to get journalists like me to pay attention to the changes in the climate and biological diversity of the Amazon. He is still trying, but he's beginning to wonder if it's too late.

Tags: Global Warming

Its the run up to another resource war and the propaganda is coming hot and heavy

...a nation filled with dread...

...he can’t wait for the apocalypse...

"Ahmadinejad is a village idiot leading us like donkeys into his big fight with America."

No doubt Ahmadinejad is a nutjob, pretty much like Bush, but this article is ludicrously, almost hilariously, slanted. Surely they could have found one Ahmadinejad supporter. He did just recently win an election.

Tags: Iran apocalypse

Tags: Peak Oil

Tags: Decay deindustrialization

Tags: Torture

One of the counter-insurgency tactics which the U.S. military has employed is to use reconnaissance drones, which hover in the air hunting for insurgents digging holes in the road to plant improvised explosive devices.

On several occasions U.S. troops have called in air strikes, but these have angered Sunni Arab leaders who say innocent civilians have been killed in the attacks.

Last week, an air strike on a Baiji house killed seven members of an Iraqi family. The U.S. military said aircraft bombed the building when three men were spotted going into it after digging a hole that troops suspected was for a bomb.

So it is US policy to bomb civilian areas on the basis of evidence collected from unmanned drones purporting to show people digging holes in a road. It is becoming harder and harder, for those who have been trying, to insist that our presence in Iraq does more good than harm.

See also: this, and this.

Tags: Iraq

PRESS ADVISORY; URGENT January 9, 2006


From: International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration

TRIBUNAL INDICTS BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

INDICTMENTS TO BE DELIVERED TO THE WHITE HOUSE ON TUESDAY JAN. 10th

When: 1:30 p.m. January 10, 2006 Where: The White House, Front Gate
www.bushcommission.org
Contact: Connie Julian 917-449-9064, or Janet Yip 212-941-8086, or e-mail: commission@nion.us

An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, in five separate areas, will be delivered to President Bush at the front gate of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th.

Named in the indictments are:
President of the United States George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, U.S. Army Major General Geoffrey Miller,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, et al.

The indictments will be delivered to the White House by:
Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, authors William Blum and Larry Everest, Code Pink, Mike Hersh (Progressive Democrats of America), Kevin Zeese (Director, Democracy Rising; candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland), Travis Morales (World Can?t Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime) and others TBA.

A press conference will follow delivery of indictments, which will also be delivered to the Department of Justice.

The indictments result from preparatory work and testimony presented in New York City in October 2005, before the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration which featured former UN envoy to Iraq Denis Halliday, Guantanamo prisoners? lawyer Michael Ratner, and former State Department officer Anne Wright. The Commission's second tribunal will be held at Riverside Church and the Columbia University Law School in New York, January 20-22. Witnesses will include Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former British ambassador Craig Murray, and former arms inspector Scott Ritter, among many more. The indictments allege illegal acts authorized by the Bush Administration in relation to:

1) Wars of Aggression, particular reference to Iraq and Afghanistan;
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention;
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, particular reference to distortion of science and obstruction of international efforts to stem global warming;
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, particular reference to the potentially genocidal effects of enforcing abstinence only, global gag rule, distortion of science, and restriction of generic drugs; and
5) Failure of Bush administration, despite foreknowledge, to protect life during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Appended to these indictments will be the demand for investigation of the war crimes of Tony Blair and George Bush submitted by prominent British citizens to the UN Secretary General and the UK Attorney General.
The commission was organized by the Not in Our Name Statement of Conscience and is endorsed by: Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, After Downing Street.Org and others, including Former Sen. James Abourezk, former British MP Tony Benn, authors Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and actor Edward Asner.

Charter, full indictments, standards for judgment, and audio and video coverage of the first session: http://www.bushcommission.org

Tags: War Crimes

A message from Campaign GENOA 2001-Greece

Dear friends,
Yesterday a press conference was organized by Stop the War
Coalition Greece with the support of GENOA 2001 and Pakistan Community of Greece
condemning the illegal detentions of 28 pakistanis
immigrants in Greece by secret services of UK and Greece.
During last July 28 pakistanis were kdinapped by greek and british secret agents
after the London bombings of 7th July.
The conference was organized at the Central offices of Greek General
Trade Unions of Workers with the following speakers:
-Pakistan immigrants kidnapped
Javied Aslam, president of Pakistan Community in Greece
Georghios-Alexandros Magkakis,ex-minister
Gregoris Fellonis,President Athens Labour Centre
Yianis Sifakakis,coordinator Stop War Coalition Greece
Petros Constantinou,coordinator Campaign Genova 2001-Greece
Giorgos Goudounas, Frangiskos Ragousis,lawyers of kidnapped

The Pakistanis described the kidnapping and bad treatment they had
at the hands of secret agents. They announced that at the same
period (late July) their relatives in Pakistan were also visited by
police and asked the same questions: "What are your relation with
London bombings of 7th of July!"
Lawyers insisted that “we cannot know if some others, maybe more
than 100, have already being “investigated or even sent ,who knows
where, maybe to Guantanamo!”
Both ministers responsible in Greece and UK, Giorgos Voulgarakis and
Jack Straw are denying allegations accusing Pakistanis for lies!
But the greek media today say that Pakistanis speak the truth. A big
newspaper on the front-page reports that the minister is under
pressure to resign.
Greek neoliberal government is moving to open escalation of support
for occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq:
- Last week through US military naval base Suda in Creta tanks
from Hungary were transferred by greek ships to Iraq!
- Greek officers have the control of Kambul’s airport and 2
greek soldiers were injured in battle in November.
They tried to cover the case of the 28 pakistanis that happened in
late July 2005 but after BBC reporting and greek media exposing the
names(!) of secret agents their lies have been exposed and they are
now under the pressure of antiwar and democratic movement in Greece.
Stop the War Coalition called a mass demonstration on 21 of January
with demand of resignation of Voulgarakis, legal punishment of all
involved in the illegal detentions. We demand the immediate retreat
of our troops from Afganistan and stop every support for occupying
forces in Iraq.
We expect that this demo can be co-organized from a large spectrum
of forces from trade unions, to political parties, antiglobalization
groups, antiracist and democratic liberties supporters.

--
Petros Constantinou
Campaign GENOA 2001-Greece

Tags: Greece