Top Scoops: Comment & Opinion Digest 29 Jan. 2007

Monday, 29 January 2007, 4:42 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:
Scoop Satire: National Leader Announces New Leader Prize
Mexico: Oaxaca's Repression Widens To Close Churches
Israel/Occupied Palestine: Remembering Palestine's Fallen Leader
Protest: 100s Of Thousands Of Americans Take To The Streets
American Coup: First Ohio Recount Criminals Convicted – Who's Next?
Law: Elizabeth de la Vega On The Latest Developments In Bush vs Rule Of Law
Armageddon: Iran And The Doomsday Clock
Plamegate: Jason Leopold – Saving Bush's Brain
MORE SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION:

Scoop Satire: National Leader Announces New Leader Prize

- Prime Minister Helen Clark welcomed with thinly-veiled enthusiasm today’s announcement of the formation of the Hillary Institute and of a prestigious international prize for outstanding leadership... It will be awarded to a person who displays great leadership in their chosen field. The Prime Minister also suggested that "perhaps an interest in mountaineering might be taken into account". See... Hood: PM Welcomes New Leadership Prize Hint Hint [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00331.htm

Mexico: Oaxaca's Repression Widens To Close Churches

- Oaxaqeño authorities have yet again demonstrated just how bereft they are of the most minimal observation of human rights. Only a week after attacking a peaceful march of a thousand people in Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, detaining several including minors, disappearing several more, and terrorising family members of about 20 prisoners into seeking refuge in the church housing the International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights (CCIODH), they have turned their attention to the churches themselves. See... Julie Webb-Pullman: Ulises Ruiz Turns to Religion [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00372.htm

Israel/Occupied Palestine: Remembering Palestine's Fallen Leader

- "IF ARAFAT were alive…" one hears this phrase increasingly often in conversations with Palestinians, and also with Israelis and foreigners. "If Arafat were alive, what's happening now in Gaza wouldn't be happening…" - "If Arafat were alive, we would have somebody to talk with…" - "If Arafat were alive, Islamic fundamentalism would not have won among the Palestinians and would have lost some force in the neighboring countries!" See... Uri Avnery: "If Arafat were Alive…" [1] MORE:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00370.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00367.htm

Protest: 100s Of Thousands Of Americans Take To The Streets

- Truthout.org Editor's Note: The New York Times article below states that "tens of thousands" attended the March on Washington, Saturday. For many years now, the United States Park Police and other government agencies have refused to estimate crowd sizes. The organizers of the March, United for Peace and Justice, estimated the crowd at 400,000. Our headline of "hundreds of thousands" comes down somewhere in between. See... 100s of 1000s of Protesters Converge on Capitol [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00369.htm

American Coup: First Ohio Recount Criminals Convicted – Who's Next?

- The first felony convictions of two Cleveland poll workers stemming from Ohio's stolen 2004 election confirm that the official recount in that contested vote was, in the words of county prosecutors, "rigged." The question now is whether further prosecutions will reach higher up in the ranks of officials who may have been involved in illegalities throughout the rest of the state. See... Convictions Confirm Ohio 2004 Recount Was Rigged [1] MORE:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00368.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00338.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00349.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00355.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00345.htm

Law: Elizabeth de la Vega On The Latest Developments In Bush vs Rule Of Law

- I hope I can be forgiven if animal images kept coming into my mind during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week. On the eve of the first such hearing to be held by the newly-elected Democratic majority, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent a letter to Committee Chairmen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) announcing that, henceforth, the President's Terrorist Surveillance Program would be conducted under the supervision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. See... Elizabeth de la Vega: Lying and Spying [1] LATEST BUSH ADMIN vs RULE OF LAW LINKS:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00348.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00356.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00365.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00364.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00357.htm
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00347.htm
[7] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00337.htm

Armageddon: Iran And The Doomsday Clock

- We cannot stop or slow the space/time/continuum that permeates our world and the universe, but we must, if we really care about the future and destiny of humanity, stop the time of human folly that is leading toward a black abyss. This was underscored this month when the hands on the famous “Doomsday Clock” of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) was moved forward from seven to five minutes before midnight. See... If Atomic Clock Strikes 12 – Midnight Is Forever [1] RELATED:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00363.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00350.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00362.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00361.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00336.htm

Plamegate: Jason Leopold – Saving Bush's Brain

-Karl Rove's criminal exposure in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson was so extensive that the White House feared it could cost Republicans the presidential election in 2004. So administration officials sacrificed one of their senior cabinet members and set him up to be the fall guy for the leak in order to protect Rove, "the lifeblood of the Republican party" and the White House's senior political adviser. See…Attorney - "Libby Sacrificed to Protect Rove" [1] RELATED:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00343.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00354.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00352.htm

MORE SCOOP COMMENT AND OPINION:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00373.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00371.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00344.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00366.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00358.htm
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00339.htm
[7] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00360.htm
[8] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00359.htm
[9] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00353.htm
[10] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00351.htm
[11] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00346.htm
[12] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00342.htm
[13] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00341.htm
[14] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00340.htm
[15] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00335.htm
[16] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0701/S00334.htm

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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