Gordon Campbell: On The Shutdown Of The US Government By Tea Party Terrorists
Surely, isn’t it time for the Republican Party to be designated as a terrorist organisation? Their current shutdown of the federal government has been bad enough, but the jihad these fanatics have chosen to wage will shortly spill over into a conflict over the debt ceiling that threatens serious damage to the entire global economy. More>>

ALSO:

• Scoop Business - World Week Ahead: Shutdown impact widens - NZ dollar little changed as US budget stalemate continues
• TV3 Video - Banks jittery as debt ceiling deadline looms - Republicans launch shutdown counter attack

From The Hood: Pure Petroleume
But everybody’s all: open cast, Rena, deep sea well leaks / climate, Kyoto, warming over four degrees / we don’t care; we’re driving cadillacs in our dreams... More>>

ALSO:

• The Civilian Out-Link - Lorde’s ‘Pure Heroine’ riddled with bigotry, discovers bored psychology graduate
• Imperator Fish Out-Link - Is Lorde an anti-Semite too?
• YouTube Out-Link - Lorde - Royals -- Dave Dobbyn - Loyal -- mashup
• Werewolf Issue 42

Selpius Bobii: Papua Ablaze! The Need For A Touch Of Hearts
“In Syria hundreds of civilians are dead from a suspected attack with poison gas on Wednesday 21 August 2013 at a location close to the Syrian capital of Damascus. Meanwhile in Papua hundreds of thousands of Papuan citizens are also dead, having ... More>>

Julie Webb-Pullman: Gaza In Crisis Following Rafah, Tunnel Closures
The Gaza Strip is facing a humanitarian crisis, with such a critical shortage of gasoline that police have been ordered to transport students and workers to schools, universities and workplaces, the Ministry of the Interior has reported. More>>

Harvey Wasserman: Syria Is An Epic Victory For The SuperPower Of Peace
The United States is not now bombing Syria. Let’s savor that again: for the moment at least, the United States is not now bombing Syria. That alone qualifies as an epic, unprecedented victory for the SuperPower of Peace, the global movement to end ... More>>

Nava Thakuria: Election-Related Confusion Mounting In Bangladesh
Political crisis and confusion galore are mounting in Bangladesh over the next general election, which must be completed between October 25, 2013 and January 24, 2014. Before the fiver-year term of the present Awami League led coalition government is ... More>>

Amir Murtaza: Victim-Friendly Legal Mechanisms Required To Stop Rape
The brutal rape of five-year-old girl in Lahore, last week, has literally shocked the country, from the highest office to the ordinary citizen. The tragic incident has sparked a nationwide debate and outcry against the lack of safety mechanism for ... More>>

Ramzy Baroud: Tale Of Two Cities: Ramallah, Gaza And The Identity Crisis
The distance between Gaza and Ramallah in sheer miles is hardly significant. But in actuality, both cities represent two different political realities, with inescapable cultural and socioeconomic dimensions. More>>

Bridie Witton: The Living Wage Movement
In a land of milk and honey, paradoxically, the ability for families to meet their basic needs is becoming increasingly difficult. The long-held notion that New Zealand is a classless society where if you work hard, you can become anything, is quickly ... More>>

Franklin Lamb: US Soldiers Or Human Shields—Who Will Arrive First In Syria?
A sort of roller coaster atmosphere pervades Damascus these days, with both “good” and “bad” news rippling through the airwaves every quarter hour or so. Much of the population monitors it all closely. People listen; they read; they discuss their ... More>>

Richard S. Ehrlich: Sexual Violence Against Women Is Pervasive In Asia-Pacific
Sexual violence by men and teenagers raping and beating females, especially their wives, is 'pervasive' in the Asia-Pacific region, a United Nations survey reported on September 10. More>>

Steve Edwards: ‘In Terrorism We Trust’: A Tradition of the Anglo-American Brotherhood Since 1915
This article outlines long historical processes that have been shaped by an Anglo-American Brotherhood. It draws the connection between their clandestine efforts to destabilize Syria since 2011, and a well-established pattern of Anglo-American state-sponsored ... More>>

David Swanson: The Other Super Power Is Winning
It's not Russia. It's not al Qaeda. It's not Bashar al-Assad. The other super power is the people of the world -- and the people of, but not by or for, the United States. The world's people are protesting. More>>

Binoy Kampmark: The Flawed Analogy: Munich, Syria And Intervention
Historical analogies can be effective tools to command attention. They can also be grotesque fabrications and dangerous distortions. Each historical event has its own locale of development, its own forces, and distinctiveness. Analogy, for that reasons, ... More>>

Alexander Lowë: Russia: Sochi As The Battleground With Homophobia
Vladimir Putin is the ultimate populist but his once record approval ratings have been in steady decline in Russia. Like many aging and fading celebrities, he would stop at nothing to get back on top of the charts. And with unlimited PR resources ... More>>

David Swanson: This War Too Is A Lie
Some smart people thought, and perhaps some still think, that the 2003-2011 war on Iraq was unique in that it was promoted with the use of blatant lies. When I'd researched dozens of other wars and failed to find one that wasn't based on a foundation of ... More>>

A. Omundsen: 2013 RMA Reform Act Endangers Democracy And Environment
The Minister for the Environment, Amy Adams in August 2013 released the Government’s proposed changes to the principle planning legislation in NZ (the Resource Management Act 1991), following on from its release of a RMA Discussion Document titled ‘Improving ... More>>

Michael Collins: Senate Vote Gives Obama 60 Days To Attack Syria
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved a modified version of President Obama’s authorization to attack Syria on Tuesday, September 4. Remarkably, the resolution gives the president sixty days to attack Syria. More>>

Franklin Lamb: Which Americans Will Arrive First To Syria?
A sort of roller coaster atmosphere pervades Damascus these days with “good” and “bad” news rising and falling, often by the quarter hour. Much of the population is monitoring closely the news and quickly expressing their interpretations of the ... More>>

ALSO:

• David Swanson - A Modest Proposal for Syria

Ramzy Baroud: Oslo Still Matters: Abbas’s Village Leagues and Palestinian Silence
Suppose several armored vehicles belonging to a branch of the Palestinian Authority raided an Israeli border village at the eve of a new round of peace negotiations. One can picture PA President Mahmoud Abbas defending the killings, stating that the ... More>>

Julie Webb-Pullman: Egypt: Justice For Detainees In Putsch Prisons
Egypt’s Coup Crime Watch group holds putschist authorities responsible for all mistreatment and inhumane conditions political detainees suffer in their prisons. The Coup Crime Watch (CCW) group demanded the formation of a committee of elders ... More>>

William Blum: The Anti-Empire Report #120: Syria, Manning And Human Rights
Found at last! After searching for 10 years, the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have finally been found – in Syria! Secretary of State John Kerry: “There is no doubt that Saddam al-Assad has crossed the red line. … Sorry, did I just say ... More>>

David Swanson: Who The Missiles Will Hurt
Believe it or not -- after John McCain played video games on his phone during a hearing on bombing Syria, and Eleanor Holmes Norton said she'd only vote to bomb Syria out of loyalty to Obama -- there are decent people in the United States government who ... More>>

Ben Jealous: Gloucester's Rebellion: Another Lesson About Our Character
Three hundred years before a multiracial coalition stormed Washington's National Mall to demand equal rights and economic justice, the working men of Gloucester County, Va., made a stand of their own based on class, not race. More>>

Rene Wadlow: Syria : Chemical Weapons And Restraints In War
There was a recent political drawing in the International Herald Tribune which showed high piles of skulls with signs on them which said “Killed by Assads Machine Guns”, “Killed by Assads Tanks” and two men with UN on their coats saying “If they ... More>>

ALSO:

• Binoy Kampmark - Imposing Inevitability: Unilaterally Striking Syria
• Jim Miles - Syria: Canada once again flies the U.S. flag

Ramzy Baroud: The Politics Of Death: Human Lives Devalued In Middle East
How many Egyptians have been killed since the January 2011 revolt? My pursuit for exact figures has proven to be futile. Various sources suggest all sorts of numbers, some scrambled in such a way as to make a political point. More>>

Mairead Maguire: An Appeal Against Attacking Syria
Mairead Maguire, Nobel peace laureate, today appealed to the Rt. Hon. William Hague, British Foreign Minister, and M. Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister, to stop calling for military action against Syria which, she said, will only lead the Middle ... More>>

ALSO:

• David Swanson - Lying About Syria, and Lying Liars Who Lie About the Lying
• Talk Nation Radio - Jean Bricmont: Keep Humanitarian Imperialism Out of Syria
• Binoy Kampmark - Tilting Towards Syria: The Dangers of Intervention

Werewolf: From The Hood - Ars Tonga, Vita Brevis
I have a few ideas for a cultural performance that I think would express the essence of my own home country...
• Spy on a member of the audience. Be shocked and horrified at your behaviour when you get caught. Spy on the whole audience.
• Oh, and before that, drink a cup of tea. Get all indignant when the audience watches. More>>

ALSO:

• Werewolf issue 41

Ramzy Baroud: On Egypt’s Class-Struggle: Rabias Of The World Unite
'Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O light of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a slave ... More>>

Leslie Bravery: To The BBC – Please Allow Freedom Of Speech On Palestine
The British Broadcasting Corporation's silencing of Nigel Kennedy's voice is deplorable. Please ask the BBC to allow freedom speech – which is, after all, the cornerstone of democratic freedom. There is a growing, uncomfortably Orwellian feel to the BBC's ... More>>

Selpius Bobii: War Of Nerves Between Papuan Governor & Political Prisoners
This was the first time the Governor of Papua had visited the Abepura State Prison. The Governor Lukas Enembe together with the Provincial Secretary, the Chairperson of the Papuan People’s Consultative Assembly, the Implementation Officer of the ... More>>

Binoy Kampmark: Manning, Apology And An Onerous Fidelity
Promises, and more promises. First, of a punishment that would be over a century. Then, a reduction to a punishment less than a century. And then, sixty years incarceration with a hefty fine of $100 thousand., though this may well be trimmed to 25 years. More>>

ALSO:

• Binoy Kampmark - Whistleblowing: Snowden, Manning and Manifest Surveillance
• Sherwood Ross - Bradley Manning “Apologizes”
• David Swanson - Screaming in Bradley Manning's Trial

Gordon Campbell: On The Latest Events In Egypt
The bloody events in Egypt have a familiar ring. The “clearing” of long term encampments convened as a passive protest in defence of democracy... The army crackdown and clearance in Egypt 2013 sounds very, very reminiscent of the Tiananmen Square massacre, 1989. More>>

ALSO:

• Gordon Campbell - Gordon Campbell on Egypt, the F-35 and Nanny National
• NZ Govt - McCully condemns violence in Egypt
• Julie Webb-Pullman - Call to Wellingtonians to Condemn Ongoing Egyptian Massacre
• UN - Ban Condemns Use of Force against Protesters in Cairo
• Rabaa Al-Adaweya Field Hospital - Egypt: Violent Storming of Field Hospital by Armed Forces
• Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance - Massacre during Crackdown against Rabaa and Nahda Sit-Ins
• Ennahdha Party - Tunisia's Ennahdha Party Statement on Egypt Massacre
• Mohamed Al-Beltaji - Egypt: Freedom and Justice Leader Dr Mohammed Beltagy
• US State Department - Obama Cancels Military Exercise with Egypt Owing to Violence - Remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry on Egypt - US Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Egypt - U.S. Deplores Egyptian Violence and Return to Emergency Law
• Image Out-Link - Egypt Live Blog - Al Jazeera
• Martin Doyle - Martin Doyle cartoon: Hazem Al Beblawi
• TV3 Video - Egypt's official death toll rises - Egypt's death toll continues to rise - Egypt's conflict enters new phase after assaults - 2 journalists killed in Egypt turmoil - Police storm protest camps; 149 dead across Egypt - Egyptian troops move in on camps

Elsewhere:

• IFEX - Peaceful protesters defy authorities' lockdown in Bahrain

Ben Jealous: 'Stop And Frisk' - Unconstitutional Racial Profiling
'No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life.' Those words came from U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin in her fiery 195-page ruling on the NYPD's 'stop-and-frisk' program. More>>

Ramzy Baroud: The Un-Revolution: Yemen’s Mediocre Transition
Considering the off-putting reality, one fails to imagine a future scenario in which Yemen could avoid a full-fledged conflict or a civil war. It is true that much could be done to fend off against this bleak scenario such as sincere efforts towards reconciliation ... More>>