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ARCHIVES: Scoop Commentary 2005

ARCHIVES: Scoop Commentary 2005 - Beginning 2006


From: http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/commentary.html

Lucire's Publisher on the Role of the Media - I have a lot of sympathy right now for Arabs and Muslims who were offended by the publication of cartoons mocking Mohammed. It’s another example of media irresponsibility: as if the newspaper that published them, Jyllands-Posten, didn’t anticipate this reaction. As a media owner, I keep a careful eye on this sort of thing. When we ran a picture of Gov Schwarzenegger in one issue of Lucire, I made sure the Democrats had someone: we ran a photo of former governor, Gray Davis, in the same issue. See... What The Mohammed Cartoons Say About The West
ALSO:

  • Remi Kanazi: What Would Jesus Do?
  • Ramzy Baroud: Punishing Denmark: Taking on the Wrong Enemy
  • Tanveer Jafri: The Muslims & The Fatwa
  • Ray McGovern: Has the decsion on Iran Been Made? - What President George W. Bush, FOX news, and the Washington Times were saying about Iraq three years ago they are now saying about Iran. After Saturday's vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report Iran's suspicious nuclear activities to the UN Security Council, the president wasted no time in warning, "The world will not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons." See... Juggernaut Gathering Momentum, Headed for Iran
    ALSO:

  • 'Diplomacy' as a Launch Pad for Missiles To Iran
  • David Swanson: Iran And Venezuela Plan War On Israel
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    MORE COMMENTARY:

  • Mark Drolette: Beware Osama bin Saddam Hugo Chavez
  • BuzzFlash: Alberto Gonzales Should be Under Investigation
  • Jason Miller: The State of the Empire Address
  • David Swanson: Bring Regime Change Home
  • Jason Leopold: Fitzgerald Focuses on Missing White House Emails
  • Siddhi B. Ranjitkar: Nepal: Comments on King's Address to Nation
  • Chuckman: What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win?
  • Mary Pitt: This Presentation May Be Too Graphic
  • Norma Sherry: Whose Life is it Anyway?
  • Kamala Sarup: Worldwide Energy Needed for Globalization
  • Public Address 06/02/06 - The Cartoons
  • Public Address 07/02/06 - I Predict A Riot
  • New Book: More Leaked Memos, Freakier Bush - The Guardian is reporting that Bush told Blair "that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of 'flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours'. Mr Bush added: 'If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]'." See... Phony UN Airplanes to Provoke War

    Che Tibby Gets Distracted From Treaty Issues - Have pretty much just gotten home from a very interesting 'debate' at Te Papa. The topic was the Treaty of Waitangi, and as I'm sure you'll be aware it's something I think we should all take a positive interest in... Actually, walking home barely topped the experience of listening to Geoffrey Palmer and Joe Williams Talk about their respective vision of our social futures. See... Public Address 03/02/06 - Conquering dictatorship

    MORE COMMENTARY:

  • Ernest Partridge: A Moral Philosophy for Progressives
  • Daniel Patrick Welch: What an Idiot!
  • Sanjay Upadhya: Nepal's Year Of Clarity Without Conviction
  • G C Fraser: 40,000 Arab-Israelis to be Moved as Hamas Rises
  • Cindy
Sheehan with the Illegal ShirtState of the Union: Sheehan Arrested for Fashion-Related Crime - Cindy Sheehan lost her son in Bush's war. Tonight she accepted an invitation from Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey to attend Bush's State of the Union speech. She had told me earlier that she didn't want to go. But she ended up going. All day she had been wearing a t-shirt and a sweat shirt. When she unzipped the sweat shirt, revealing that the t-shirt displayed a count of US soldiers killed in Iraq, the Capitol Police lifted her out of her seat and hauled her off to jail. She was released over 3 hours later, charged with unlawful conduct, which carries a fine of $45. See... Sheehan Released After Arrest for Wearing Shirt
    ALSO:

  • Jason Leopold: A Night of Fear Mongering, Big Time
  • Public Address 02/02/06 - Results May Vary
  • EARLIER:
  • William Rivers Pitt: The State of the Union
  • Gore Vidal Delivers State of the Union
  • MORE COMMENTARY:

  • Christine Smith: Interview With Gore Vidal
  • Toni Solo: Education, neo-colonialism and self-determination
  • Sol Salbe: What can Israel and the Hamas learn from Ireland
  • Public Address 01/02/06 - Cheese
  • Jason Leopold: Bush Ignored 9/11 Warnings
  • Weiner: Reform the Democrats - Or a Third Party?
  • Parisian TreesUpton-on-Line Salute Auckland Tree Saviours - What is it that makes Paris such a stunning city to live in or mooch around? The cafés? The metro? The dreamily smooth footpaths tailor-made for roller-blading? Well, yes, all those things. But it’s also the trees and the boulevards wide enough to accommodate them. They stretch for kilometres – the plane trees are probably the most memorable, but flowering chestnuts, limes and a score of lesser species run them close. See... Upton-on-Line - Diaspora Edition

    Bernard Weiner Asks Why the GOP Wants Phone Taps, Bin Laden Tapes, Search Engine Records and No Al Gore - OK, let's try to puzzle out together some recent political events. The unifying thread will appear; it always does because it's always there, even if sometimes out of conscious reach. 1. Why would the Bush Administration deliberately break the law by engaging in electronic surveillance of Americans without getting the required court warrants? See... Bernard Weiner: Weaving the "Why?" Strands

    More Commentary:

  • Public Address 31/01/06 - Threats and stuff
  • Dale Mills: Australia: Has the police state arrived?
  • Patricia L Johnson: In Defense of Oil
  • Hartmann: Alito - It's the Constitution At Stake
  • Jerry Politex : Does BushCo Have Its Hand On Oscar?
  • Rosalea Barker: Reining cats and dogs
  • Who Will Tell the People?
  • GC Fraser: Stolen Youth Revisited
  • Poll Opponents Further Autocratic Designs on Nepal
  • Nepal - The Curfew: Pros and Cons
  • S B Ranjitkar: King, Opposition Showdown in Nepal
  • John Roughan: New Political Culture Forming?
  • Middle East: Uri Avnery on the Palestinian Elections - Like two very tired wrestlers who clasp each other, unable to separate, the Israeli and Palestinian societies are glued to each other. The Palestinian elections this week took place in the shadow of the Israeli elections. Who is Ehud Olmert? Has the Labor Party really changed? Will the next Israeli government really be prepared to negotiate? Which Palestinian leadership stands a better chance of liberating us from the occupation? The Israeli elections, in exactly two months, will take place in the shadow of the Palestinian elections. See... Uri Avnery: To Talk With Hamas
    ALSO:

  • Uri Avnery: Deja Vu
  • Debate: Roger Kerr Argues Why Scrapping Carbon Tax Is Good - The government’s decision to scrap the proposed carbon tax marks another (and more positive) phase in a sorry saga of policy making on climate change. Neither of the main political parties nor the public service comes out of it with credit. National’s minister for the environment Simon Upton was a leading evangelist on climate change in the 1990s. His enthusiasm for action ran far ahead of the scientific evidence and the economic case for governmental action to combat warming. He attacked the Business Roundtable for bringing distinguished scientist Richard Lindzen to New Zealand to balance up the scientific debate. See... Reality Breaks Through With Axing of Carbon Tax

    More Commentary:

  • Public Address 27/01/06 - Not Being Evil
  • Marc Alexander - Welcome to Soviet New Zealand
  • Douglas Mattern: Five Minutes to Save the World
  • Toni Solo: Poverty, consumerism and anti-imperialism
  • Julie Webb-Pullman: The Circus is Back in Town
  • Ernest Partridge: "Evidence? We Don’t Want Your Stinkin' Evidence!"
  • Crockett: GOP Scandals Spell Democratic Victories
  • Jason Miller: Why I Now Genuflect to Charles Krauthammer
  • Syed Atiq ul Hassan: Assimilation in Australia
  • Ramzy Baroud: Avoiding Iraq Fallout with Iran
  • Kamala Sarup: Geopolitical issues and the US Economy
  • Kamala Sarup: How You Cannot Fight the New Terrorists
  • William Rivers Pitt :Democrats: Get Up and Walk Out
  • Rock'n'Roll: Iggy Gladdens The Hearts Of Today's Fickle Youth - Vintage wine both improves with age, and also becomes inexorably rarer. Much the same is true of a set from Iggy and the Stooges, who have a collective age of approximately six thousand. Eschewing the traditional tactic of resorting to a best-of parade, Iggy Pop and his crew wisely stretched out their stage show to make the most of the rock ‘n roll spectacle. See... ET's Big Day Out Wrap Up

    Voting: Electoral Integrity Scrutinised In South Pacific - The United Nations Development Program out of Suva is seriously working on setting up a domestic monitors scheme to support our nation's March elections. In 2001, for instance, dozens of foreigners monitored our last election. They called it a free and fair one. Thailand Seeks Aung San Suu Kyi Release

    Astronomy: February Night Sky Excellent Viewing From New Zealand - February is a good month for viewing the planets. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible for the whole of the month. Only Mercury will not be seen in February. Mars will be visible for the first third of the night. At the start of the month it sets at 00:43 and at 23:37 by month’s end. Mars starts the month in the constellation of Aries, moving into Taurus on February 7. Its magnitude fades from 0.2 to 0.7 during the month. Saturn will be visible for the first three quarters of the night. At the start of February it sets at 06:11 and at 04:15 by month’s end. See... Brian Carter's February Night Sky

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Jay Shaft: In Memory of Specialist Doug Barber
  • Stateside: 21st Century Slavery
  • Public Address 17/01/06 - One More Time
  • US Politics: Al Gore Defends the Intent of the Framers of the Constitution - Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger. In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power. See... Al Gore: America's Constitution is in Grave Danger
    ALSO:

  • Buzzflash Editorial: Thankyou Al Gore
  • Michael Collins: Al Gore’s Devastating Indictment of President Bush
  • Sam Smith: Getting Reacquainted With Al Gore
  • William Rivers Pitt: The New Fascism
  • "Shallow Throat": Do Dems Have a Death-Wish?
  • AND:
  • Jason Leopold: NSA Spying Evolved Pre-9/11
  • FULL COVERAGE: The NSA Domestic Spying Scandal
  • Suzan Mazur: The Sotheby's Euphronios Tape - In the 1970s oil boom years, before Mu-ammar al-Gaddafi nationalized Bunker Hunt's oilfield and the silver market collapsed, he and brother Herbert amassed a quarter-ton of ancient coins and some astonishing pieces of ancient art. These were put up for sale in New York on June 19, 1990 to appease the Internal Revenue Service and the Hunts' various creditors, and raised more than $20 million. The Hunts bargained for a 60% commission over the benchmark figure on total sales. I had arranged for a private preview of the auction pieces with Sotheby's experts two weeks earlier, June 4, as part of my coverage for an article for The Economist magazine. Following are excerpts from my taped interview of that preview. See... Mazur: Sotheby's Pre-Auction Euphronios Transcript

    Russell Brown On Coddington's Reaquaintance With The Blogosphere - Deborah Coddington claims to have discovered the blogosphere last week, and she was shocked. Shocked. "Planet blogger is a sad, pathetic sphere," she lamented in her newspaper column. She's not entirely wrong, especially as regards the character of argument in many blog comments forums. But Coddington is hardly the blog virgin (still less the delicate little flower) she claims to be in her column. There See... Public Address 16/01/06 - Second-Time Blog Virgin & Public Address 13/01/06 - A Little Respect

    Jason Leopold: Illegal NSA Spying Began Earlier Than Thought - The National Security Agency advised President Bush in early 2001 that it had been eavesdropping on Americans during the course of its work monitoring suspected terrorists and foreigners believed to have ties to terrorist groups, according to a declassified document. The NSA's vast data-mining activities began shortly after Bush was sworn in as president and the document contradicts his assertion that the 9/11 attacks prompted him to take the unprecedented step of signing a secret executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor a select number of American citizens thought to have ties to terrorist groups. See... Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11. FOR MUCH MUCH MORE… Full Coverage: The NSA Domestic Spying Scandal

    Karl Ferguson Likes The Lines Of Peugeot's 206 GTI - Is the 206 GTI the best looking hot hatch of all time? In brilliant cherry red, and despite being more than a little long in the tooth, the little Peugeot looks stunning. Colour coded body mouldings, neat rear spoiler, front fog lights, 17” alloys and chrome exhausts all add to the picture of a sensational looking small car. See... MOTORNET: Peugeot Twins Turn On The Charm

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: We Are Not At War
  • Warren Throckmorton - Does Abortion Impact the Mental Health of Women?
  • John Roughan - Learning from the locals!
  • M. Shahid Alam - Real Men Go To Tehran

  • ISRAEL & PALESTINE:
  • Remi Kanazi - Remi Kanazi: The Next Path for Israel/Palestine
  • Uri Avnery - With Friends Like These…

  • UNITED STATES:
  • Doug Giebel - The Book Of Bush Bashlaw
  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Bush's New Multilateralism
  • Ray McGovern - Men Intoxicated with Power & Servile Courtiers
  • Sam Smith - Why You Want To Talk With Terrorists
  • Narconews - DEA Says It Will Investigate Agents in Colombia
  • Daniel Patrick Welch- Pants on Fire
  • Morton Mintz - Undernews: The Questions No One Has Asked Of Alito
  • Kelpie Wilson - Republican Gold-Diggers Hit Wall
  • David Swanson - War Lies And Journalistic Constipation

  • NEPAL:
  • Kamala Sarup - The Phases Of Woman & Threats and Democracy
  • Siddhi B. Ranjitkar - Nepal's China-Card
  • Narayan Prasad Mishra - Democracy, Election And Politics Of Boycott
  • Surendra R Devkota - Guest Opinion: Ruling by hypotheses in Nepal
  • Stephen Knight: Balancing Trade and Environment - Frustratingly, freeing up global trade also increases the risk of increasing rates of climate change and further reductions in global and local biodiversity. To avoid this risk, the three need to be tied together during decision-making. To a limited extent they are at a research and analysis level, such as with investment in sustainable farming. See... Trade, biodiversity and climate change

    Public Address: Christie of London - The thing about writing anything about London, is it's all been written before. Usually by people a lot smarter and more astute than me. Or should that be I? (Better sort that one out before me head to Oxford on Thursday.) But anyway, a few brief observations about the trip thus far... See... Public Address 12/01/06 - Dirty Ol' Town

    More Commentary

  • Mazur: Sotheby's Pre-Auction Euphronios Transcript
  • Narconews: Road Team Uncloaks Yucatán with Video & Reports
  • Spc. Doug Barber: PTSD - A Soldier's Personal War!
  • Ramzy Baroud: Politics of Chaos: Gaza’s Turmoil in Context

  • William Rivers Pitt contemplates the next war
    - The wires have been humming since before the New Year with reports that the Bush administration is planning an attack on Iran. "The Bush administration is preparing its NATO allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran in the New Year, according to German media reports, reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish media," reported UPI on December 30th. See... William Pitt: Attack on Iran - A Looming Folly

    Public Address - Being Che Tibby - I was given the sage gift of a copy of Being Pakeha Now for the festive season and took the time out to read it cover to cover. I thought this a wise idea as I've footnoted it several times. For anyone unaware of the book, it's referred to on the back cover as "a seminal book: the first serious analysis of what it means to be a non-Māori New Zealander." But, umm, without wanting to disrespect Michael King in any way, that summation of the book just doesn't add up. See... Public Address 10/01/06 - A Kingly Sum

    Scoop Full Coverage: The NSA Domestic Spying Scandal - A clandestine National Security Agency spy program code-named Echelon was likely responsible for tapping into the emails, telephone calls and facsimiles of thousands of average American citizens over the past four years in its effort to identify people suspected of communicating with al-Qaeda terrorists, according to half-a-dozen current and former intelligence officials from the NSA and FBI. See... Jason Leopold: The NSA Spy Engine - Echelon
    MORE ON THE NSA SPYING SCANDAL:

  • Michael Hammerschlag - Unpatriotic Spying
  • Fitrakis - Did The NSA Help Bush Hack The Vote?
  • Ray McGovern - Heck of a Job, Hayden!
  • Jason Leopold - NSA Destroyed Evidence of Domestic Spying
  • Jason Leopold - Bolton Testimony Revealed Domestic Spying
  • David Swanson- What Fate Awaits NSA Spying Whistleblower
  • EARLIER:
  • Jason Leopold - Bush-NSA Spying in Defiance of Congress, Court
  • Jason Leopold - Rice Authorized NSA To Spy On UNSC
  • William Rivers Pitt - Going Too Far
  • Marjorie Cohn - Marjorie Cohn: Big Brother Bush Is Listening
  • Doug Giebel - Impeaching President Bush: A Game Of Ambiguity
  • Norman Solomon - NSA Spied on UN Diplomats in Iraq Invasion Push
  • More Commentary

  • Trade, biodiversity and climate change
  • Stateside: The Five Most Useful Things of 2005
  • Greg Palast: No Child's Behind Left - The Test
  • Jason Leopold: Fitzgerald Maintains Focus on Rove
  • Bernard Weiner: Fear the Future & the Other F-Word
  • Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights
  • Most Popular Idea @ Out of Iraq Event? Impeachment
  • William Blum's Anti-Empire Report - January 9 2006
  • What Century Is This? The Conspiracy Timer
  • Jonathan Schwarz: Book Gives Vital Background to Downing Street Memo
  • Uri Avnery: Three Fingers, No Fist
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: On the Other Side of the Israeli Wall
  • Madhu Rana: Nepal - End Of Unilateral Ceasefire
  • Nepal: Polls Cannot Provide Enduring Solution
  • Between The Lines: Evo Morales' Election as Bolivia's President
  • narconews: Posada Carriles May Soon Hit The Streets
  • narconews: Mexico - Comandanta Ramona, 1959-2006, Presente!
  • Pacific Ecologist: Putting Global Warming In Perspective - Victoria University's PETER BARRETT compares Global warming with climate fluctuations in the geological past. Greenhouse gas emission rates from human activity have increased in the last few decades, and CO2 levels will soon be higher than at any time in the past 25 million years. If not reduced soon, temperatures will return our climate to where it was before humans existed and global sea level was 70m higher. Much greater effort is needed to reduce CO2 levels, to lessen stresses on global ecosystems and avoid the collapse of civilisation as we know it by the end of this century. See... What 3 Degrees of Global Warming Really Means & Pacific Ecologist issue 11 summer 2005/2006

    Maher Arar – The Story Of A Canadian Kidnapped And Tortured By The US- September 26, 2002 to October 5, 2003 The following is a chronology of events as told by Maher Arar, beginning with his arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on September 26, 2002, and ending with his October 5, 2003 release from Syrian prison... See... The Story of Maher Arar: Unfolding Police State

    MUCH MORE COMMENTARY

    NEW ZEALAND & GLOBAL:

  • Russell Brown Et Al. - See... Public Address 5 & 6/01/06 - Sick Of Ham Yet? , Public Address 04/01/06 - Queen St. 2: Die Harder & Public Address 03/01/06 - Exile On Queen Street
  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Me, Too! Me, Too!
  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: What Kind of Revolution?
  • John Roughan - Honiara: Customers Not Cattle! &Change the top and the bottom!
  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Cybermind or Awakened Mind?
  • Narconews - Pertierra: Posada Carriles May Soon Hit Streets
  • Between The Lines - IV: U.S. Can Do More to Stop Genocide in Darfur
  • IRAQ:

  • Dahr Jamail - US Propaganda vs. Iraqi Reality
  • Sheila Samples - Sheila Samples: You Can't Go Home Again...
  • David Swanson - Greed and Gall: Asking Iraq to Pay for Occupation
  • Cindy Sheehan - Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes
  • afterdowningstreet.org - Out of Iraq Events Planned Nationwide on Jan. 7th
  • ISRAEL & OCCUPIED PALESTINE:

  • Norman Solomon - See... Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Earth to Hillary & Dems. Supportive Of Imperialism
  • Remi Kanazi - Ready, Aim, Cease-fire
  • Ramzy Baroud - Ramzy Baroud: Abundance of Hope for New Year
  • Remi Kanazi - Political Hemorrhaging
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Egypt to Iraq - An Israeli Expansionism Discussion
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Palestinian Welcome Smashed Against Israeli Wall
  • UNITED STATES:

  • Bernard Weiner - 12 Political Insights: A Starter-Kit for 2006
  • Jason Miller - Send Your Cards to Tom Instead of George
  • David Swanson- A Peace Movement Demanding the Rule of Law
  • Cindy Sheehan - The Opposite of Good Is Apathy
  • William Fisher - Bush At Year-End
  • William Fisher - State Department's Mixed Messages
  • Marc Ash - I Have a Hammer
  • NEPAL:

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: A Tale of Two Pillars and Three Poles
  • Siddhi B. Ranjitkar - Independence of Judiciary in Nepal
  • Kamala Sarup - Peace A Chance To See
  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Peace - A Bridge to Bright Future
  • Whistleblower Blows Lid On Met Antiquities Intrigue - I first met Metropolitan Museum ancient Near East expert Oscar Muscarella in the late 1980s. I went to see him at his office to discuss some safety pins or "fibulas" which had turned up in a couple of tumuli in southwest Turkey along with other artifacts that Turkish archaeologists identified as Phrygian. The Phrygians -- King Midas's people -- were master craftsmen and the objects just found appeared to belong to a royal Phrygian family: a silver belt with a fibula-like catch, iron dagger with gold reliefs on the handle, two griffins from a bronze caldron, a fertility ring with phallus-shaped knobs, and statuettes - one of Anatolia's mother goddess Kybele in ivory and another in silver of a eunuch priest. The Met's controversial Greek and Roman chairman Dietrich von Bothmer told me he considered the statuettes "masterpieces" and "purely Phrygian." See... Antiquities Whistleblower Oscar White Muscarella . Earlier: Suzan Mazur: A Preview Of Bob Hecht's Memoirs

    Inside The US Voting Machine Controversy - Earlier this month Leon County, Florida Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho, invited computer experts to demonstrate the existence of a security flaw in Diebold optical scanners described in a report published on July 4, 2005. The test was repeated in December in order to refute specific denials by Diebold. In statements to two different election officials Diebold claimed it was not possible to alter the outcome of an election in such a way that the perpetrator would not need passwords and the tampering would not be noticed during normal canvassing procedures. Sancho set up the test environment on December 13, 2005 to prove these claims false. See... What’s All the Fuss About Diebold in FL & CA?
    RELATED:

  • Bob Fitrakis - Fake Voting Rights Activists Linked To White House
  • California Activists Call the Cops on Diebold
  • Kerry Won!!! Statistical Tools Everyone Can Use
  • MUCH MORE SCOOP NEW YEAR'S COMENTARY

    NEW ZEALAND:

  • Julie Webb-Pullman - Wananga - More Hot Suppers Before Bedtime

  • Public Address Columnists Public Address 30/12/05 - Still Standing (Just) & Public Address 29/12/05 - Years End
  • ISRAEL & PALESTINE:

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Resigning From The Democrats & The Zionist Agenda

  • Ramzy Baroud - Palestinian Politics brought to a Crossroad
  • IRAQ:

  • Michel Chossudovsky - The Anglo-American War of Terror: An Overview

  • Cindy Sheehan - The Year the Chickenhawks Will Go Home to Roost

  • David Swanson - Classified Intelligence Leaked to Make War Case

  • William Rivers Pitt - William Rivers Pitt: Silent Night

  • David Swanson - White Phosphorous: The U.S. Says It's Illegal

  • David Swanson - Bush Refuses FOIA Request on Pre-War Intelligence

  • Cindy Sheehan - Cindy Sheehan: Language of the Heart

  • David Swanson - Fog Facts

  • William Fisher - Iraq Reconstruction: State In, Pentagon Out
  • UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

  • Sheila Samples - Go To The Light!

  • UQ Wire - Sibel Edmonds - Call to Patriotic Duty

  • David Swanson - Can Cheney Save Bush's Presidency?

  • Marjorie Cohn - Clinton Jencks, Legendary Labor Organizer, Dies

  • Bill Berkowitz - The Mogul, The Movie And The Man On A Mission

  • Evelyn Pringle - Evelyn Pringle: Dan Olmsted - Autism's Dick Tracy

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: It Is SO About Class

  • Russ Wellen - UQ Wire: The Magic Man

  • Harvey Wasserman - Rejecting Arnold's Medieval Murder

  • Mary Pitt - The Great Medicare Maze

  • David Swanson - A Man Without a Country
  • GLOBAL:

  • Siv O'Neall - Empire of Shame - A Conversation with Jean Ziegler

  • Toni Solo - Bolivia - A New Weave For ALBA

  • Martin LeFevre - Reflections on the Tsunami

  • Narconews - A Very Paramilitary Christmas in Colombia

  • John Roughan - The Kemakeza Government: Before RAMSI and After!

  • William Fisher - Mr. Nour And Political Reform In Egypt

  • Narconews - Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos Coverage Begins
  • NEPAL:

  • Sashi Malla - Democracy? It’s The Elections Stupid!

  • Siddhi B. Ranjitkar - Fight To Finish

  • Chiranjibi B. - Ensuring Voting Rights of Nepali People

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Great Democracy Is Peace, Kamala Sarup: Culture of Non-violence for Children & Kamala Sarup: 2006 Expectation is Peace?

  • M.R. Josse - Straight shooting by Dr Giri

  • Bhupal Lamichhaney - Conflict and Political Inclusiveness in Nepal

  • Siddhi B. Ranjitkar - Siddhi B. Ranjitkar: Chihan Danda Carnage
  • CHRISTMAS COMMENTARY

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Merry Central East Oakland Christmas

  • Jeremy Rose - Barcelona’s Christmas Crapper Canned

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 23/12/05 - Merry Christmas

  • Remi Kanazi - Remi Kanazi: The War on Christmas

  • John Chuckman - And To All, A Good Night

  • Helen Clark's Final Press Conference - Transcript Of 19 Dec. Press Conf.

  • Maria C. Khoury - Oh Bethlehem! What Have They Done to You?
  • No Flies On Misinformation Maestro Dennis Hans - John Edwards began his widely discussed guest column for the Washington Post , titled “The Right Way in Iraq,” with these dramatic words: “I was wrong.” See... Dennis Hans: I Was Right

    White (Phosphorous) Christmas - Bodycount Iraq - George W. Bush, 12 December 2005: “How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say; 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We’ve lost about 2,140 of our own troops.” As the Occupation of Iraq is approaching three years, the mass murder of Iraqi civilians is not questioned, but normalised in Western conscience. President Bush reached the stage where he is able to make his own figure of Iraqi deaths, with no remorse or sadness. The war was not the result of “wrong intelligence”; the war was an illegal act of aggression, and a premeditated mass murder. ‘Democracy’ is used as a tool to manipulate the public and justify war crimes. See... Ghali Hassan: The Crimes of U.S. ‘Democracy’
    MORE:

  • Gabriele Zamparini Gabriele Zamparini: White (Phosphorous) Christmas
  • Jay Shaft IV With Vet - I’m Just Not The Same Person I Was Before Iraq
  • Dahr Jamail - Dahr Jamail: An Increasingly Aerial Occupation
  • Cynicism Over Bush / McCain Torture Concession - In deciding not to follow through on his threat to veto Sen. John McCain’s amendment against torture, Bush actually surrendered very little. Torture is still in the eyes of the beholders in the defense and intelligence communities. See... Bush Gesture to McCain: Less than Meets the Eye
    MORE:

  • Augustine Peterson - Bush Fools Americans Over McCain Ban On On Torture
  • Bernard Weiner - Those Secret Torture-Prisons: A Modest Proposal
  • William Fisher - Remembering Eleanor & the Human Rights Declaration
  • MORE COMMENT AND OPINION:

  • Uri Avnery - The Main Thing - to Have No Fear!

  • Bernard Weiner - The Would-Be Dictator

  • Third World Network - The Back Story To The WTO Hong Kong Declaration

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Marat-Sade Diplomacy Prevails Over Palestine

  • Remi Kanazi - Dishonest Brokers

  • Ramzy Baroud - US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media
  • L. Repscowt Advances A Curious Plame Gate Observation - The Associated Press recently released a story stating Bob Novak is confident that President Bush knows who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the press. Does President Bush know who leaked Valerie Plame’s name, or is President Bush the person that initially ... See... L. Repscowt: Is HE the leak?
    MORE PLAMEGATE:

  • Jason Leopold - Jason Leopold: The Case Against Karl Rove
  • Toni Solo: Made In Peru Asparagus Leaves Bronx Cold - In the first few days of December the United States marked emphatically another stage in its progressive imperial decline by frenetically and unexpectedly closing a bi-lateral "free trade" deal with Peru. Just a couple of weeks beforehand, Peru had joined Ecuador and Colombia in withdrawing from negotiations on a broad Andean regional trade treaty. Then, abruptly, early in December, Peru's negotiators were ordered to Washington. Outstanding differences were resolved and the negotiations declared successfully closed. Peru sold out its sovereignty to the United States for the sake of marginal benefits like increased asparagus exports. It was not so much a US victory as an unmistakeable sign of the Bush regime's failure to sustain credible leadership in the Americas. See… Varieties Of Imperial Decline

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown et al- Public Address 19/12/05 - Apes And Brains
  • John Roughan - Winning the Kwaso War!
  • Syed Atiq ul Hassan - Syed Atiq ul Hassan: Oz Needs Social Reform
  • Sol Salbe - Letters in the Australian Jewish News re Cronulla
  • Norman Solomon - At the Gates of San Quentin
  • William Fisher - Wink, Wink, Nod, Nod
  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen - New York Times - Danger Signs
  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: Time To Fish Or Cut Bait
  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Between The Dragon And The Peacock
  • Kamala Sarup - The Evolution of Nepal's Strategic Thought
  • Narconews - Bolivia Goes to the Polls
  • Narconews - Coca Growers' Nancy Obregón Arrested in Peru
  • Good Returns - Book Review: Climbing the Property Ladder
  • Scoop Image:
Russell Brown.Keith Ng's WTO and More! - Just a quick update from the Eastern Front. All my photos from Tuesday are up here, as well as some excellent shots from Sam Graham, a local journalism student. The past two days has been more of the same: Wheeling and dealing inside the conference, scuffling and swimming outside. Local media has been giving a lot of coverage to the proto-violence. And fair enough - it's not everyday that you have a week-long mini-riot in Hong Kong. See... Public Address 16/12/05 - Stories and Orcas .
    ALSO:

  • Public Address 15/12/05 - Various Amusements
  • Jason Miller: No, not in His name - How much damage will men like George Bush, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Sam Brownback, Ralph Reed, and Rick Santorum inflict before reason prevails and they are unmasked as the twisted, malevolent charlatans that they are? Fundamentalist Christians, adherents to a nauseating perversion of Christianity (conjured from their twisted imaginations and their distorted interpretations of the Bible) wield a significant amount of power in the United States, socially and politically. See... Jason Miller: The Iron Fist of Jesus

    Martin LeFevre on Facing Up to Torure - Some years ago I met an Argentine man who had been arrested during the 'Dirty War' in the 1970's and was slated to be tortured. His story is the most graphic example of the wrongful use of thought, as well as the potential for transcending thought, that I've ever heard. See... Meditations: A Tale of Torture

    Richard S. Ehrlich Inside China - Punk fashions, shopping malls and Mandarin-language rap are helping China create a sanitized, communist-controlled, parallel universe which mimics the outside world. The apparent goal is a nationwide cocoon displaying the West's popular archetypes, but cloned and manufactured locally, so Chinese will perceive their society as open and prosperous, and not be attracted to free speech, political parties and other taboos. See... Richard S. Ehrlich: Letter from Jinghong

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Australian Freedom of Speech and sedition laws
  • Ramzy Baroud: Bush’s New Strategy Hastens Defeat
  • The January Night Sky
  • Marc My Words - 16 December 2005
  • News: Pacific Airlines CEO Resigns
  • Lebanon: Bomb aims to silence independent media
  • PDA Report: London International Peace Conference
  • Reshuffling the Cabinet in Nepal
  • Nepal: Why I Support The King
  • Keith Rankin: Build the Cheap Road or the Right Road? - At long last the penultimate (Mt Roskill) leg of Auckland's southwestern motorway is underway. And the planning for the final (Avondale/Rosebank or Waterview) leg has intensified, with a view to completion well before the 2020 date that looked likely while John Banks was mayor. Sadly, Auckland will become entrapped in the same kind of problem that has plagued Wellington. See... Keith Rankin: Motorway Choices

    Scoop Image:
Russell Brown.Public Address: Media, Metics and More! - As some readers will doubtless be aware, I have a status amongst many members of the local right-wing blogosphere as the very symbol of Left Wing Liberal Evil. Given that I'm a director of two small companies and have an interest in another, I write for two business magazines (and am in fact the Magazine Publishers Association's - ahem - business columnist of the year) ... See... Public Address 14/12/05 - Left Wing Liberal Evil

    Cartoonists Not Amused by Layoffs - Black Ink Monday, a non-violent protest by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), is a response to the Tribune Company's recent elimination of editorial cartooning positions at several of its newspapers, as well as a commentary on newspapers everywhere who have lost sight of the value of having a staff editorial cartoonist. See... Black Ink Monday – Outsourcing News Editorial

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Harold Pinter - Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics
  • William Fisher - How Do Americans Feel About Torture?
  • Ray McGovern - Rice's Indefensible Brief; Cheney's Last Throes
  • John Chuckman - Torture And White Phosphorus
  • Public Address 12/12/05 - Scary
  • Jason Leopold - Leopold: For Rove, New Testimony, New Problems
  • Narconews - Tracking Bloody Footprints in the House of Death
  • Sam Smith - A Confederacy Of Doers
  • Uri Avnery - The Curse of the Gods
  • Sheila Samples - Cornered By The Truth
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Jesus Spoke Aramaic To The Children Of Israel

  • NEPAL:
  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Now It’s The Military’s Turn
  • Reagan Shrestha - Indian Encroachment Threatening Nepali Sovereignty
  • U Raj Misra - Nepal: Agreement with Rejected Maoists Terrorists?
  • Kamala Sarup - Why Poor Still Poor?
  • P. Kharel - Nepal: Prodigal Parties
  • David Swanson & Cindy Sheehan Are In The UK - Today, Cindy Sheehan and Scottish mothers who have lost their sons in Iraq held a rally outside the Scottish parliament, spoke at a cross-party meeting of Members of the Scottish Parliament, were welcomed to the City of Glasgow by the Lord Provost, and addressed an anti-war rally in Glasgow. This, plus the trips up to Scotland from London and back took Cindy and Andrew Burgin and me about 16 hours, so we're a wee bit knackered, but we're learning to speak the lingo – and I'm going to run out for fish and chips after posting this. See... David Swanson: Scotland - Stop the War! and Mayor of London Calls Bushies "A Gang of Thugs"

    Marc Alexander – Food Is Important - Food is an important part of a person's life.but so is personal choice and responsibility. The battle of the bulge begins anew! In the left corner we have the self-appointed campaigners for more government intrusions into our lives; their latest crusade is to curb the size and sales of certain foods deemed injurious to the waistlines of Kiwis. See... Marc My Words 9 December 2005

    Michel Chossudovsky: Iraq's Drive By Mercenaries - Security contractors of the so-called "Victory" Group of the British mercenary Firm Aegis Defense Services have committed the ultimate war crime: the indiscriminate killing of civilians as part of a "game", not a video game but a real game of shooting Iraqi civilians as a form of entertainment, as revealed in a "trophy video" posted on an Aegis employees website. There are in fact several video clips, which suggests that the practice is not an isolated event. See... British Mercenaries Shooting at Baghdad Motorists

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown Et Al. - Public Address. 9/12: 1 More to the Big Shiny Machine & Public Address 08/12/05 - American Taliban

  • No Right Turn - "Repugnant To Justice" (Not)

  • William Blum - William Blum's Anti-Empire Report - Dec. 6, 2005

  • Martin LeFevre When the State Murders Murderers

  • Green Left Weekly - Hurricane Havoc: Is Global Warming To Blame?

  • Sol Salbe - US Govt. Loses Key Court Test Of Patriot Act

  • UNITED STATES:
  • Bill Grigsby - Bill Grigsby: Even Meltdowns Generate Light

  • Ramzy Baroud - The Media is No Exception

  • William Rivers Pitt - Iraq and the Democrats

  • Douglas Mattern - The Rise Of Plutocracy & Corporate Rule

  • Mark Drolette - Yes, We’re A Peaceful Nation -- And Chimps Fly

  • Jason Leopold - Donald Rumsfeld's War

  • NEPAL:
  • Michael Putin - Nepal's Political Situation Requires Perspectives

  • Narconews - Canada's Amb. in Ecuador Helped Plan Haiti Coup

  • Raman Raj Misra - Strategy With Slogan Of Democracy: A Speculation

  • M.R. Josse - Indo-US Tango - Implications

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Women And AIDS-World AIDS Day
  • Suzan Mazur Researches The Background Of An Accused Antiquities Thief - Bob Hecht, the dean of antiquities dealers now on trial for trafficking stolen art, has apparently since his youth at Haverford College been single-minded in his passion for recapturing the glories of the ancient world. Much like late paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, who once told me over one of her macaroni and cheese casseroles at Olduvai Gorge, "I live totally in the past." See... Suzan Mazur: Bob Hecht, The Younger

    SandersResearch.com's Inside Track: View from Rwanda - Chris Black, since 2000, has been a lead counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda. From that perspective he has seen that Rwanda was not a situation in which the United States and its allies failed to act. On the contrary, it was an example of direct interference by the United States and its allies. Why? Three reasons: the US wished to replace the Hutu regime which did not want to cooperate with US aggression towards Mobutu in Zaire. Secondly, the US wants to reduce French influence in central Africa. The final US objective was and is control of the vast resources of the Congo. See... Chris Black: The Dallaire Genocide Fax

    Hopsicker Gets Inside The Latest GOP Bribery Scandal And Finds Drugs - San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes, a key figure in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery scandal—as well as the Justice Department investigation of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff—worked in Honduras during the 1980’s for a company accused by federal prosecutors of deep involvement in cocaine trafficking. Over the weekend the San Diego Union-Tribune, Cunningham’s hometown paper, reported that Brent Wilkes has a two decade long history of close links with the CIA. See... GOP Scandal Tied To Iran-Contra Drug Trafficking

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 07/12/05 - Double Shot
  • Fitrakis & Wasserman - Ohio GOP Plan Holiday Burial For US Democracy
  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Work In Progress Or Bargaining Chip?
  • Bernard Weiner - It's Time to Play Beat-the-Bully
  • Between The Lines - In Growing Numbers, Public Opposes Iraq War
  • Manuel Valenzuela - Keepers at the Gate
  • Dennis Hans: Insights On The Naming Of CIA Analysts - Bob Woodward is Valerie Plame. Granted, he has a few more lines in his face and a less captivating hairdo, but in one very important sense he is indeed she: Both have job classifications or titles, or perceived job titles, that have little to do with their actual work, and this has led to a great deal of confusion among the news media and citizenry. See... Dennis Hans: Bob Woodward is Valerie Plame…

    Sam Smith: Hillary Clinton's Israel Conundrum - SAM SMITH - History has a way of coming up with the wrong things at the wrong time. For example, just as Hillary Clinton is gearing up for her 2008 presidential run, increasing numbers of Democrats are diverging from her on Iraq. See... Sam Smith: The Democrats' Israeli Conundrum
    RELATED:

  • David Swanson - Progressive Primary Challenge to Hilary Launched
  • Ray McGovern Critiques The President's Latest Iraq Speech - He says "victory." But the bromide-heavy speech that President George W. Bush gave yesterday at the Naval Academy presents a clear strategy for quagmire and eventual disaster. See... Bush Speech Offers "Clear Strategy" For Disaster?

    Thomas Friedman in Striped Trousers, Silk Stockings and Garters - If Michael Ignatieff is anything, it's connected, and I do not mean just to the relatively small establishment of Canada, I mean connected to the shadowy godfathers of world empire. Ignatieff has a rich career in America where truly loyal service, whether by natural or adopted sons, is always handsomely rewarded. See... Canada's Prince Of Darkness, Michael Ignatieff

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Uri Avnery - The Giant's Daughter
  • Mary Pitt - The Shameful Blasphemy Of The Religious Right
  • Norma Sherry - What Have They Done To My Song?
  • Remi Kanazi - Tea for Two
  • Norman Solomon - US Media Dodging Air War in Iraq
  • William Rivers Pitt - Don't Let It Bring You Down
  • Jay Shaft IV - Iraq Vet: 'Iraq Took Away Our Innocence!'
  • William Fisher - The Unintended Consequences Of Fake News
  • Bill Berkowitz - Crony In The Bird Flu Seat
  • Jason Leopold - Criminal Trial On CA Energy Crisis May Start Soon
  • William Fisher - Katrina Red Tape
  • Narconews - Friedsky: Coca Cookies and Constitutional Dreams
  • William Fisher - The Price Of Payola News

  • NEPAL COMMENTARY:
  • Bhupal Lamichhaney - Nepal: Twelve Point Letter of Understanding!
  • P. Kharel - P. Kharel: Invitation To Instability
  • Kamala Sarup - K. Sarup: Are Human Rights And Peace Connected?
  • Jyoti - Maoists In Dilemma, Cease-Fire Ending
  • MalcontentX: PlameGate is the Wrong Scandal - Take the case of "outed" CIA agent Valerie Plame-Wilson, and the "crime" for which some senior members of the Bush Administration may be facing jail time. Of all the thoughtful observers I routinely scan across the internet, I have found only two that come close to the heart of the matter. One is a rather brief reflection from a somewhat anonymous observer (who has nevertheless proven his/herself to be consistently astute). The other comes from investigators Ralph Schoenmann and Mya Schoen, who have provided a meticulous and well-documented analysis (in audio format) upon which I will be relying somewhat for my analysis here ... See... MalcontentX: The PlameGate Affair is A Smokescreen

    Recep
Tayyip Erdogan No Right Turn Talks Turkey - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan touches down in Auckland tomorrow on the first state visit of a Turkish PM to New Zealand. I've been wondering what to say about this since I saw the government's press release on the visit last month. Turkey has a poor human rights record: according to the US State Department's 2004 country report on Human Rights Practices in Turkey, while the Turkish government "generally respected the human rights of its citizens" ... See... No Right Turn: Turkish PM Erdogan In Wellington
    ALSO:

  • No Right Turn: The Axis of Impunity
  • Public Address: Keith Ng on Hong Kong and Much, Much More - Hong Kong's 'Honkies' aren't really known as the ripping-some-mad-shit-up type. But they try. Around 100,000-200,000 of them took to the streets today in a massive demonstration to protest against plans by the Government to slow down democratic reforms in Hong Kong, perhaps indefinitely. Ahem. Except not quite so confrontational. It was more a... widely attended march "aimed at expressing discontentment over the government's package proposals for Hong Kong's constitutional development". See... Public Address 05/12/05 - Mentor As Anything
    ALSO

  • Public Address 01/12/05 - Living Together
  • Suzan Mazur on Sotheby's and Provenance - Proceedings resume December 5 in the trial of the dean of ancient art dealers -- Bob Hecht -- and former Getty museum antiquities curator Marion True. Will Sotheby's be called to answer questions about some of the items listed by Italian prosecutors as looted from Italy -- particularly the Euphronios pieces? The priceless Euphronios cup -- painted with the image of the fallen Trojan war hero Sarpedon -- is the earliest known work painted by the Athenian master, last seen intact publicly in New York in 1990 on the Sotheby's block ... See... Suzan Mazur: Sotheby's & The Signed Euphronios

    MORE COMMENTARY:

  • Marc My Words - 3 December 2005
  • Jason Leopold: Rove Running Out of Answers, Time
  • David Swanson: An International Peace Movement
  • Another Meaning of Israel’s Political ‘Earthquake’
  • William Fisher: Forum For The (Distant) Future
  • Narconews: Vicente Fox vs Hugo Chávez
  • Undernews Extract: Bush Al Jazeera Bombing Leak
  • U.S. And Iraqi People Say: Troops Out Now!
  • Spinwatch Congratulates Reuters For GM Corrections
  • William Rivers Pitt: Mystery Train
  • Martin LeFevre: Back in the USSR
  • Qantas & Air New Zealand – Guilty By Association
  • Alan
BollardRankin Delves into Bollard's Monetary Policy - The First Law of Holes says "stop digging". It applies, universally, to anyone who's in a hole. And Dr Alan Bollard, Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand certainly is in a hole. So are the rest of us, although most of us don't know it yet. It is a hole dug for us by the Reserve Bank, while the Government sits back and watches with increasing concern but no obvious sense of panic. See... Keith Rankin: Dr Bollard & the First Law of Holes
    ALSO:

  • Dr Bollard and the First Law of Holes - Addendum
  • Public Address on New Zealand Culture - Russell Brown writes: Somebody served me a long black without a crema last week. In Wellington. The café had everything else: nice décor, convivial company, Cafenet connectivity, that capital city buzz. But no crema. Certainly, I am a bit of a nut about this sort of thing. And Che Tibby Writes: Originally I was on the verge of a little rant about Treaty politics and the need to recognise that Māori do have a distinct place within New Zealand. If you're the sort of person who just plain doesn't like Māori, or thinks that Māori culture has no inherent value, then it's highly likely that you oppose recognition of Māori distinctiveness. See... Public Address 30/11/05 - Coffee And Culture

    No Right Turn: America Versus the ICC - One of the positive steps in international law in recent years has been the establishment of the International Criminal Court, a permanant standing court to try cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, since its inception, the court has been virulently opposed by the United States, which fears that its soldiers (and more importantly, its political leaders) might be held accountable for any atrocities they commit or order to be committed ... See... No Right Turn: The Axis of Impunity


    Mark Drolette: Costa Rica, Cows and Terror
    - Returning to America after a recent trip to Costa Rica, I could practically smell the fear in the Phoenix airport. Welcome to the Terrified States of America, folks. Kindly remove almost every item of clothing and check all common sense at the gate... Such is life for Americans these days as we have been told incessantly since 9/11 by George W. Bush and his fellow jackals that a citizen’s utmost patriotic duty, other than shopping, is to be very, very afraid. See... Cow Bombs In Costa Rica: Only A Matter Of Time?

    MORE COMMENTARY:

  • Doris Colmes: Ridin’ the Bus With Deborah
  • Kamala Sarup: Human Violence Has To Be Stopped
  • Santa Baby, Please Make These Wishes Come True
  • Jay Shaft: The Truth From Our Soldiers About Iraq
  • Bill Berkowitz: Vulnerable Venezuela
  • Mapping The Real Deal: Fed's Cancellation of M3
  • Nguyen Tuong VanTze Ming Mok on Nguyen Tuong Van and More - After defecting from the Communist Party, my grandfather worked the Golden Triangle with a fleet of trucks as an opium smuggler. When the family got to Singapore from Burma, the PAP tried to hire him as a political strategist - Nguyen Tuong Van's not so fucking lucky. My gong-gong's not the only big-time drug-dealer the Singapore Government has had dealings with. See... Public Address 28-29/11/05 - Call Of The Wild

    Casey SheehanCindy Sheehan counts her blessings - It was hard to feel blessed today as I sat at Casey's grave here in Vacaville, California. Sure, a lot of good things have happened in my sphere of influence this year, but the blessings are always hampered by the reason for the blessings. If Casey had not been killed in Iraq in George's imperialistic war for power and wealth, I wouldn't be on this path. I wish to God I weren't on this path. But I am, so here are the blessings I am thankful for this year. See... Cindy Sheehan: Blessings?
    ALSO:

  • Cindy Sheehan: Thanksgiving Letter to George
  • Brian Nicole's MMP Comments Raise Questions - Something has to be amiss when one of the centre right’s major strategists publishes a piece in a metropolitan daily newspaper, talking up the prospects of a fourth term of government for Helen Clark. Yes fourth term, not whether the current contrivance of a majority with Winston and Peter Dunne will last, but a real fair dinkum serious discussion about another term after this one. See... John Bishop: Praising Labour Won’t Help Right Win

    MORE COMMENTARY:

  • John Pilger: A News Revolution Has Begun
  • Jason Leopold: Fitzgerald Targets Rove Again
  • John Roughan: Solomons - Is It Time To Push The Panic Button?
  • Toni Solo: US v Latin America - No Neutral Corner
  • Ghali Hassan: Iraq - A Criminal Process
  • William Engdahl: Bird Flu & Chicken Factory Farms
  • Marjorie Cohn: Bush Game on Padilla May Backfire
  • Mary Pitt: Howard Deans' Fund Raising Woes
  • Ray McGovern: Will the US Seize the Opening for Troop Withdrawal
  • Evelyn Pringle: Pharma's Poisoned Generation
  • William Fisher: Dangerous Denial
  • David Swanson: A Congressman For Impeachment
  • Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid
  • Uri Avnery: Two Earthquakes
  • Fitrakis & Wasserman: Ohio's Diebold Debacle
  • Dipta Shah: The 12-Point Agenda – A Summary
  • Sanjay Upadhya: China’s ‘Nepal Card’?
  • Kamala Sarup: Sustainable Global Energy And Nepal
  • Agreement Between Political Parties And Terrorists
  • Hari Uprety: Nepal - Terrorists Can't Be Trusted
  • Martin LeFevre: A Realm Beyond Sorrow
  • Kamala Sarup: A Dialogue about Tolerance & Peace
  • Dave Crampton's Big News: The In- Work Payment
  • Stateside With Rosalea - Telly time
  • Stateside With Rosalea - F-words
  • Marc Alexander: Treasury, Taxes and Trivial Pursuit with Winston

  • Tze Ming on Cunliffe and Much More - A class act, our new Minister of Immigration. Some in the English-language communities already refer to him as 'Silent T'; perhaps his new Mandarin name shall be David ****liffe. Caught mocking Pansy Wong's accent during Parliamentary Question Time, by asking her to 'wead' a particular document, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe "later said his remark was accidental and did not know he had said it." Um... is this the manslaughter defense? See... Public Address 24/11/05 - Conduct Unbecoming
    ALSO:

  • Public Address 22/11/05 - Any Amount Of Erudition
  • Public Address 23/11/05 - Most Egregious Examples
  • Bush Looks Tired and Emotional to Bernard Weiner - I watched the newscast footage of Bush addressing an election-eve rally in Virginia a few weeks ago, and the guy looked and sounded somewhat inebriated, slurring his words, a goofy grin on his face, oversized mannerisms. I had read recent articles about Bush's inability to handle the enormous stress he's under these days (screaming and ranting at his aides), and the likelihood of his being on anti-depressants and/or hitting the bottle again, but just assumed those were sensationalist bloggers spreading some dirty fictions. See... Extreme Bush: The Good, Bad & Ugly

    Leopold: Miller Wasn't First to Get Plame Leak - Embattled Washington Post editor Bob Woodward provided an important clue that may help shed light on the identity of the person who told him in June 2003 that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA agent. In an interview with "Larry King Live" Monday night, Woodward said he realized that he was the first journalist to learn of Plame Wilson's covert CIA status when Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced the indictment last month of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff... See... Leopold: Woodward Provides Clues About His Source

    Dahr Jamail: White Phosphorous In Fallujah - Revisited - Nearly a year after they occurred, a few of the war crimes committed in Fallujah by members of the US military have gained the attention of some major media outlets (excluding, of course, any of the corporate media outlets in the US). See... Dahr Jamail: Fallujah Revisited
    MEANWHILE ¡­ Pentagon Admits To White Phosphorous Misinformation - US used white phosphorus in Iraq: Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 23:57 GMT BBC News - The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja. "It was used as an incendiary weapon ... See... Link: White Phosphorous Use As Weapon Confirmed
    AND ... Pentagon Has Called White Phosphorus a "Chemical Weapon" - An American Department of Defense document, declassified in 1995, refers to white phosphorus a chemical weapon. Washington has maintained that the use of white phosphorus weapons in the battle of Fallujah was not illegal, as it is not a chemical weapon. See... Pentagon Calls White Phosphorus "Chemical Weapon"

    MORE COMMENTARY:

  • Ramzy Baroud: Gaza Border Deal
  • Sol Salbe: A Dangerous Interim Period
  • Remi Kanazi: Bordering Autonomy
  • Narconews - The Pretense Of The Guatemalan ¡°Narco-State¡±
  • Pharma To Republicans - Time To Pay Up Again
  • William Rivers Pitt: Get Some
  • Jason Leopold: How Pre-War Iraq Intel Was Cooked
  • Party-Maoist Alliance: Alarming Political Cocktail
  • Where It Is A Crime To Be A Nepali
  • B. Lamichhaney: Nepal¡¯s High Price for Democray
  • Deep Raj Sanyal: Delhi Talks And Trappings
  • Kamala Sarup: Children, Nepal and the Year 2006
  • Patricia L Johnson: When Enough is Enough
  • Julie Webb-Pullman: Holidays on the Taxes of Evil
  • Lebanon's democracy celebrated on Independence Day
  • Blogwatch: BBC Misinformation and War Crimes

  • Audio: Herald's Fran O'Sullivan Says Goff/Clark Muddying Waters - NZ Herald's Fran O'Sullivan says Trade Minister Phil Goff and Prime Minister Helen Clark have been "muddying the waters" a little over what happened at APEC, events which have led to her being accused of treason by the Foreign Minister Winston Peters. Having spoken to NZPA's Ian Llewellyn about how the story came out that Alexander Downer had issued a "please explain" message with regards to Mr Peters, Ms O'Sullivan suggested Phil Goff might be being a bit disingenuous in suggesting that the information was routine. See... BFm Audio: O'Sullivan Says Winston Should Grow Up
    ALSO:

  • Scoop - Winston Peters Sticks By Herald Treason Allegation
  • Scoop - Winston Peters Accuses Fran O'Sullivan Of Treason
  • Winston Peters - Peters to attend CHOGM And Visit UK
  • Winston Peters - New Zealand First Annual Convention
  • SCOOP LINK: - Section 73 of the Crimes Act: Treason
  • Scoop Audio.Satire: Parliament Decries State Interference in World Cup Bid - Lyndon Hood writes: Parliament, meeting today for the first time after New Zealand's successful world cup bid, decried it as another example of Labour party political interference. Flexing its muscles against the minority Government, the house passed a motion condemning the Prime Minister's open support of the bid and the proposed large-scale state funding of the event. "This is just another case of Helen Clark trying to pick winners," said Rodney Hide, speaking to the motion. "The Rugby Union is a private organisation. Madam Speaker. This is nothing but corporate welfare!" See... Lyndon Hood: Political Interference in Rugby!

    David Slack and Graham Reid Are There - Well, that two months went far too quickly: from London to Berlin, then Paris and Bordeaux, a drive across to Uzes and on down through Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples to Sorrento where we picked up a car and drove down into the heel of the boot, back up the...See... Public Address 21/11/05 - Home Again

    Stateside: Where Rosalea Attends Diwali and Eid Festivals - I keep postponing writing about Diwali and Eid--Hindu and Muslim festivals celebrated at the same time a couple of weeks ago. The gist of my musings is that, while a much publicised and failed attempt to have Indians and Pakistanis meet peacefully at the demarkation line in Kashmir and pass on humanitarian aid to earthquake survivors was going on, in my workplace a fasting Pakistani girl was creating beautiful henna tattoos on the hands of my Indian boss in celebration of Diwali. See... Stateside With Rosalea: I, Immigrant

    Scoop Image:
Russell Brown.Russell Brown & More Are There! I've been a little surprised that no one today appears to have noted that when we host Rugby World Cup 2011, it will (failing some sort of coalition collapse) also be an election year. And that if the tournament dates are similar to those in Australia 2003 (where the final was held on November 22) both the campaign and polling day itself will fall in the midst of the whole extravaganza. That will be interesting. See... Public Address 17-18/11/05 - Rugby Will Be Winner

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Audio courtesy of L.A. Sound Posse - Audio: Robert Fisk Speaks On Middle East
  • Narconews.com - Ecuador Mobilizes Against Free Trade Agreement
  • Mary Pitt - The Economy Gap
  • Kamala Sarup - A Dialogue about Tolerance and Peace
  • Bob Fitrakis - Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy
  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations - Martin LeFevre: Disturbing Juxtaposition
  • Between The Lines - Push for False Pre-Iraq War Claims Accountability
  • Sol Salbe - Analysis - The Peretz Ascendancy
  • Ramzy Baroud - Blame It on Arafat
  • M.R. Josse - Nepal's diplomacy finally comes of age
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - It Takes an Empire to Bomb a Village, Hillary
  • David Swanson - Cindy's Day in Court
  • Evelyn Pringle - Bush Gang Swore Saddam Was Behind 9/11 In Lawsuit
  • Yuletide Planet-Viewing Bonanza - December is the month of the shortest nights for looking at the stars, but gives more time for daytime activities. Planets - December is a good month for viewing the planets. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible for the whole of the month, and Mercury for all but the first few days of the month. See... Brian Carter's The Night Sky

    Sheila Samples on why Iraq is no Turkey Shoot - Goodness gracious! Henny Penny! Since defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and vice president Dick Cheney teamed up to lead the charge to create a New World Order, the whole universe has become untidy. Very untidy. My friend Bernie says Dick and Rummy's big plan to take over the world by waging continuous war is kinda like baptizing a bobcat -- ain't gonna happen. See... Sheila Samples: Bobcats In A Brave, New World

    Scoop Image:
Russell Brown. Russell Brown & More Are There! - "Could you point out Che Tibby for me?" asked the nice woman from State Services. Over there, I said - the tall dude in the blue shirt. And by the way, you're the third person to ask me that in 10 minutes. Our Che, it would seem, has a cult following in the public sector. "He doesn't look like I thought he would," she said. No. We were all looking for a dude with dreadlocks the first time he hooked up with the rest of the PA crew in Auckland. But even in his respectable, post-PhD phase, there's still a whiff of eau de bogan about him. See... Public Address 16/11/05 - Communication Fatigue

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Syed Atiq ul Hassan - Making A New Australia

  • BuzzFlash.Com - Scott Ritter IV - "Why We're in Iraq"

  • Bernard Weiner - Solving the Media Puzzle - A Day in the Life

  • Narconews - Paramilitaries Remain Key Arm of Colombian Govt.
  • Imogen Prickett Reports On A Victory For African Women - Imogen Prickett is a New Zealander working with the UN in Liberia. Imogen writes: On a bustling street in central Monrovia, my favourite message of the presidential campaign is still scrawled on a wall; it reads “Ellen, She’s our Man”. See... Liberians Elect Africa’s First Woman Leader

    Suzan Mazur Profiles Accused Antiquities Looter Bob Hecht - We've seen little in the popular press about the secretive 86-year old Robert "Bob" Emmanuel Hecht, Jr., shaman of the antiquities trade, in between news of his trial this week in Rome for trafficking in stolen art and his sale of the Euphronios vase to the Metropolitan Museum for $1million over thirty years ago. And that's the way Hecht likes it. He prefers to operate under the radar. See... Suzan Mazur: The Provenance Of Bob Hecht

    Book Extract - America And The Making And Breaking Of Global Rules - In the 1940s the United States and Britain led efforts to replace a world of chaos and conict with a new, rules-based system. Although their views were not exactly identical—one had an empire to protect and the other did not, one had a constitutional order promoting individual rights and the other did not—they hoped to make the world a better place, free from fear or want. See... New Non-Fiction: "Lawless World" By Philippe Sands

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Paul Clearwater - The Eclipse Of The Spanish Sun
  • Keith Ng - Public Address 15/11/05 - Revolution In Maori Time
  • William Rivers Pitt - Aid and Comfort
  • Marjorie Cohn - Graham Amendment Invokes Constitutional Crisis
  • Kelpie Wilson - Pombo's Poison Pills
  • Russ Wellen - Nuclear Terrorism Goes Prime Time
  • Evelyn Pringle - Evelyn Pringle: Bush Team Has Good Reason To Worry
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Clinton & McCain Proud Supporters of Israel
  • William Fisher - Good News, Bad News
  • Narconews - Drug War Testimonies from Ecuador
  • John Pagani On The Smoldering Fires Of France - The odd English word 'curfew' comes from French, 'couvre-feu'. Literally 'smother fire'. Some form of curfew has been introduced in forty small towns and larger suburbs around France since the state of emergency was announced on Wednesday. Mostly the rules prevent under-18s from assembling late at night. See... Pagani: Embers Of Resentment Burn On In Paris & Earlier… John Pagani: A Kiwi Impression Of Paris Burning

    Bonus Joules Reflects On The Passing Of Rod Donald - Today is the funeral of Rod Donald, co leader of the NZ Green Party, profound patriot and outspoken advocate for the dispossessed and for Fair Trade. I have just heard his coffin will be taken to Christchurch cathedral in a bus. Trees are being planted the across the land in his memory. These are my thoughts on this day. See... Bonus Joules: The Cartoon Perfectimo

    Stateside: Where Rosalea Barker Plays Meet The Ambassador - Read the Meet the Ambassador page on the US Embassy's website, and if you do not have alarm bells ringing in your head about the buddy-buddy relationship of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rt Hon Winston Peters, and William P. McCormick, the newly appointed ambassador, then let me spell it out for you. See... Stateside With Rosalea: Fishy Whiff

    Jason Leopold: Karl Rove Remains In The Target Zone - News reports in recent weeks have suggested that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has narrowed his criminal inquiry into whether Rove purposely failed to tell the grand jury hearing evidence in the case that he spoke with Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003 and revealed the identity of the undercover CIA agent. But Fitzgerald hasn't resolved another important element in the case: what appears to be misleading statements Rove made to FBI investigators on Oct. 8, 2003, less than two weeks after the Justice Department announced that it had launched a criminal probe into Plame's outing, the attorneys said. See... Despite His Demeanor, Rove's Still a Target

    A New US Declaration Of Independence - The history of the present King of the United States [George II], and that of his predecessors [of the Royal Houses of Elephant and Donkey alike] dating back to the reign of King Richard of the Royal Family of Nixon, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations [by kings and their trusted advisors], all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Colonies and their Poor and Middle Class inhabitants. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. See... Jason Miller: A New Declaration Of Independence

    SAARC Leaders Meeting Exercises South Asian Commentators - Before he flew into Dhaka to attend the much-delayed summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned of the danger of failed states emerging in the region. Long before he left the Bangladeshi capital, Dr. Singh must have discovered the futility of India’s worry of having to bear the neighborhood’s burdens alone. See... South Asia 101: Democracy And Geopolitics
    MORE:

  • Kamala Sarup - Nepal Border & Regional Security Issues

  • Mohan Sharma - Indian Politics & Bhutanese Refugees
  • M.R. Josse - Nepal's Conflict And National Security
  • M.R. Josse - Curbing Terrorism, Restorating Peace And Democracy
  • P. Kharel - Terrorism Is Terrorism By Any Name
  • M.R. Josse - US Warning Sets Loose Cat Among Alliance Pigeons
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown & Ors. - Public Address 14/11/05 - Updatin'
  • John Roughan - The Dog Ate My Homework!
  • Bob Fitrakis - Green Fuel Replaces Gas – Gallon For Gallon
  • William Fisher - Why One Person Matters
  • Narconews - Guatamela's Antinarcotics Chief to Step Down

  • ISRAEL & OCCUPIED PALESTINE:
  • Uri Avnery - A Great Miracle
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: There Is No Palestine, Israelis Say
  • Sonia Nettnin - Coalition Voices Opposition to Sharon in Canada

  • UNITED STATES:
  • William Rivers Pitt - That Warm Feeling
  • David Swanson - David Swanson: Politically Strategic Impeachment
  • Senator John McCain - Torture's Terrible Toll
  • Evelyn Pringle - Bin Laden Sitting In A Cave Laughing
  • William Fisher - The Next Judy Miller?
  • Russell Brown & Much Much More Is There! - Thanks to Stephen Judd for directing me to the EFF translation of the Sony BMG End User License Agreement for its malware music CDs. Who knew that if you're declared bankrupt you have to erase all the music you've bought from your computer? Seriously... See... Public Address 11/11/05 - Five Post Frenzy & Public Address 10/11/05 - Mo French

    Ramzy Baroud On The Inimitable Rosa Lee Parks - What I find truly remarkable in Rosa Parks’ now legendary defiance is the simple forthrightness of her actions. Her death, at the age of 92, should be more than a sober reminder of the legacy of a legendary Civil Rights pioneer, but rather a reminder of an often forgotten lesson that meaningful change can be achieved if there are those willing to fight for it. See... Ramzy Baroud: Rosa Parks' Enduring Legacy. EARLIER: Stateside: Rosa Lee Parks - The Power of Many

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Positive Thinking is Negative Acting
  • Michael Hammerschlag - An Ounce Of Prevention
  • William Blum - Anti-Empire Report - Nov. 10, 2005
  • Mary Pitt - Bring Old Glory Home
  • Ghali Hassan - French Ghettos, Police Violence and Racism
  • Ray McGovern - Ray McGovern: CIA v. Cheney
  • Narconews - The Struggle for Coca Decriminalization in Bolivia
  • Ernest Partridge - The Sleeping Giant Stirs
  • Kamala Sarup - Environment in War in Nepal

  • US ELECTIONS:
  • Sam Smith - Undernews: U.S. Election News Roundup Nov. 2005
  • Fitrakis & Wasserman - What Kerry Definitely Said Re. '04 Stolen Election
  • Joe Baker - GAO Report Upholds Ohio Vote Fraud Claims
  • Russell Brown & Tze Ming Mok Are There! - One of the things I recall most strongly about the occasions I visited Paris is that they had three kinds of police - and all of them were pricks. You could be arrested if you were caught without ID, and my more romantic illusions about Paris parks were ... See... Public Address 06/11/05 - Worf Vs Tuvok

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • William Rivers Pitt - Yes, They Lied
  • Kelpie Wilson - Let Them Freeze in the Dark
  • Bernard Weiner - "Shallow Throat": Ratchet It Up, Take 'Em Down
  • Democracy Now - "Kerry Told Me He Now Thinks Election Was Stolen"
  • W. David Jenkins III - A Note to Harry from “Bullwinkle”
  • Guest Article - Julian King: Journalism PNG Style
  • Mitchel Cohen - People Of The Dome, Revisited
  • Eiffel Tower. John Pagani Writes On The Paris Riots - I'm a long way from the riots to date, bolted behind layers of security as Paris apartment dwellers are. And though I rented a car for this weekend, I don't have one parked on the street to be burned by the hordes. Last night, police say thirteen hundred cars were set alight. There was a feeling Saturday night would erupt into the worst night yet. There were battalions of police, hundreds have been arrested and yet the suburbs still burned and the riots spread, to the South of the city, to the centre and to other centres - Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nannies, Normandy. Cars, schools, businesses, shops are being attacked with molotov cocktails. See... John Pagani: A Kiwi Impression Of Paris Burning

    Scoop Image:
Russell Brown. HARD NEWS from Russell Brown & More - Red-robed figures, carrying a proclamation from the head of state, swooshed purposefully across Parliament Grounds today; past a bit of light traffic on Molesworth Street; past schoolkids walking in the opposite direction; past bronzed sunbathers and barefoot, ... See... Public Address 08/11/05 - Only In New Zealand

    Good Returns Book Review: Real Estate Cash - I liked this book right from the get go. Anyone whose mantra in relation to property is “to be the best at creating beautiful spaces for people to live in, invest in and enjoy” is – in my opinion – in the property investing market for a great reason. Real Estate Cash from Treasure and Trash begins with a small amount of history about the author, including her main sources of inspiration... See... Real Estate Cash from Treasure and Trash

    Bill Grigsby Analyses The Culture Of Lies At The White House - The neoconservative pundits are hard at work, attempting to convince their readers that ‘Plamegate’ is an isolated incident, hardly worth the cost of the newsprint. The ever-spry George Will leap-frogged effortlessly from Harriet Miers over indicted Scooter Libby to Samuel Alito. Charles Krauthammer ignored Libby’s indictment, instead navigating unfamiliar territory [for him] by attacking persons of intellectual integrity (in this case, Brent Scowcroft). See... Bill Grigsby: A Culture Of Lies

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - Euthanasia Promoter Faces Imprisonment In Cambodia

  • Marjorie Cohn - The President & His Vice: Torturers' Puppetmaster

  • David Swanson - Swanson: The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course

  • William Engdahl - Bird Flu: A Corporate Bonanza for the Biotech Ind.
  • Simon Upton's Upton-Online Diaspora Edition - In This Issue: A told-you-so commentary on the joyless world of MMP from former FPP supporter, Simon Upton; distinguished diasporan lawyer, Jeremy Waldron, boldly suggests that academics can disagree without being rednecks; upton-on-line apologises to Dr Elizabeth Rata for having been thoughtless enough to have damaged her reputation by commenting on her writing; Bill English paddles his own waka into the academic piranha pond; and Vaclav Smil says told-you-so in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. See... The Absolutely Foreseeable Consequences Of MMP

    Ex-Pat Kiwi Kirk MacGibbon Writes From NY - The election for Mayor of New York City has not set the world on fire. But the unmistakable smell of burning cash has been wafting over the city as the incumbent, billionaire Michael Bloomberg spares nothing in his bid to win a second term in a totally one-sided election campaign. He’s spent US$63 million so far, which is expected to reach US$100 million by election day (Nov 8), the same as he spent the first time around – so much for the power of incumbency. See... NY Politics: In America Goliath Always Beats David

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Scoop Reader Opinion - Why Not Appoint A Minister Of Silly Walks, As Well
  • Jehan Casinader - Behind NZ's Newsroom Doors
  • John Roughan - Movement But Little Change!
  • Lynn Landes - Scrap the "Secret" Ballot - Return to Open Voting

  • Israel & Occupied Palestine:
  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Ex-Car Thief Aims To Revive Business In Gaza
  • Uri Avnery - Peretz Is Not Peres

  • United States:
  • Evelyn Pringle - Bush Doing Corporate Bidding While On The Clock
  • Ray McGovern - Ray McGovern: Torture in Our Name
  • Bill Berkowitz - Bill Berkowitz: Bishops And Pawns
  • John Chuckman - Cartoon: The Iraq Mistake
  • Evelyn Pringle - Bush-Cheney 04 Campaign Slogan - Results Do Matter

  • Nepal:
  • Kamala Sarup - Conflict Higher in Developing World
  • M.R. Josse - Failed Politicians, In Nepal
  • Krishna Singh Bam - Nepal: Where The U.S. Can Make A Huge Difference
  • Russell Brown & The Assault On The NZHerald Paywall - Easily the most feedback from Public Address readers yesterday came in response to the statement from the 14 New Zealand Herald columnists unhappy about their work going behind the Herald website's "premium content" paywall... See... Public Address 04/11/05 - More On Premium Content & Public Address 03/11/05 - Premium Mushrooms

    William Rivers Pitt On The Lie That Won't Go Away - Harry Reid's so-called "stunt" on the Senate floor this past Tuesday - invoking Rule 21 to create a closed session, during which he demanded an investigation into how we were dragged to war in Iraq - brought the issue of the never-found weapons of mass destruction back into the daylight. It's about damned time. This ball of thorns is three years old now, and we have come nowhere near addressing its roots. See... William Rivers Pitt: It's Still There

    Suzan Mazur On A Couple Of Contested Antiquities - The antiquities trial which opens November 16 in Rome has put two of the ancient art world's biggest names in the hot seat -- former Getty museum curator Marion True and dealer Robert Hecht, an 86-year old department store-heir -- each charged with ... See... Suzan Mazur: Euphronios Ancient Art In Court

    Yes It Is Like Vietnam – Nixon Defence Sec On Iraq - America attacked Vietnam and Iraq "based on intelligence failures and possibly outright deception," according to former U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird, who blasted President Bush's "west Texas cowboy approach." See... Nixon US Def. Sec. Blasts Cowboy Approach To Iraq

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - Sonic Booms Used For Palestinian Punishment?

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Transforming Darkness Within

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: No More Muddling In The Middle

  • Nepal's King Should Take A Conciliatory Approach

  • Guest Opinion - Guest Opinion: Nepal - Yes, We Are Different !!

  • Remi Kanazi - Remi Kanazi: Dancing With Perseverance
  • Gregory Fortuin Talks Respect - I thank you for and admire your courage (or is it financial acumen) in not going for the “safe $15000 a pop professional” and opting for a colourful card-carrying member of what was once a banned so-called terrorist organisation to address your leadership dinner. Although we are no longer banned and everybody wants photo opportunities with Mandela, many still think the rest of us are a bunch of terrorists. See... G. Fortuin: I Wish To Be Respected, Not Tolerated

    Ernest Partridge Is Not A Bird-Flu Sceptic - Several leftish bloggers have published their doubts that the alleged avian flu menace is anything more than another Bushevik distraction. – and just in time to draw our attention away from Plamegate and the "Scooter" Libby indictments. See... Bird Flu Is Real – And You’re On Your Own
    EARLIER:

  • Scoop Link - : Fortune On Rumsfeld's Tamiflu $$$Mns

  • The Second Coming of Jesus Christ and Bird Flu

  • William Engdahl - Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?

  • Dr. Joseph Mercola - Rumsfeld To Profit From Bird Flu
  • Is Australia Locking Up & Deporting Kiwis? - "I'm a Kiwi who was a businessman in Australia. When I started writing this I was a detainee in Baxter Detention Centre. Baxter is notorious in Australia. For the benefit of those who may not yet be aware of Baxter, it's a purpose-built prison facility for Australia's Immigration Department. It's an isolated compound in arid and inhospitable country north of Adelaide." See... Eyewitness Account: The Kiwi Who Went To Baxter

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Rigourous Intuition - Blog Watch: The Left, The Right, And The Wrong

  • Narconews - Gómez: The Reappearance of the Nazis in Bolivia

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - Comfort Woman Continues Quest For Compensation

  • Narconews - Rodríguez Rearranges Bolivian Congress by Decree

  • John Chuckman - Cartoon: Judith Miller & Sulzberger

  • Ramzy Baroud - Rolling Back Syria

  • BuzzFlash.Com - Democrats in Senate Act as An Opposition Party
  • Bonus Joules Takes A Look At The New Cabinet - Normally I face with relative equanimity the possibility of meteors slamming into Earth or seismic events dis-embowelling its volcanic innards all over us or gigantic sunspots x-raying us or humans blowing up each other in humongous nuclear warfare or creating pandemics that wipe most of us out. I can accept the risks and carry on in the knowledge that my choice of activities can sustain our children and their children and their children... But the news that the Siberian tundra is melting really hauled me up in my tracks. It almost derailed my sense of positive activism. See... Bonus Joules: Holey Leaks!

    From The Scoop Mailbox – Readers Have Their Say - The following is a selection of feedback and other unsolicited email received by Scoop recently. The opinions they contain do not necessarily reflect those of Scoop. They do not appear in any precise order. See... Scoop Feedback: Bond Controversy Deepens

    The Public Address Great Blend Comes South To Welly - Folks, it's Great Blend Time again. Public Address stages the fourth Karajoz Great Blend on Sunday November 13 at the Hopetoun Alpha in Auckland. And boy, do we have something for you. Our star guest is Ashley Highfield, the BBC's Director of New Media and Technology... See... Public Address 02/11/05 - Let's Do It Again

    A CIA Assessment Of The Interweb's Value In Intel. Terms - Not only are open sources at times indistinguishable from secrets, but OSINT often surpasses classified information in value for following and analyzing intelligence issues. By value, I am thinking in terms of speed, quantity, quality, clarity, ease of use, and cost. Speed: When a crisis erupts in some distant part of the globe, in an area where established intelligence assets are thin, intelligence analysts and policymakers alike will often turn first to the television set and Internet. See... Guest Opinion: Why The CIA Reads The Internet

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Between The Lines - Media Spins 'Success' of Iraqi Troops in Bush War

  • Ramzy Baroud - Ramzy Baroud: The Palestinian Quest to Break Away

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - Back To The Old "Conceptzia"

  • Mark Drolette - Kissing Squids Feeding Squirrels & Getting Squewed

  • Sonia Nettnin - Emergency Life Support for Civilians in War Zones

  • Kamala Sarup - Delhi Bombing &Peace In South Asia

  • Kamala Sarup - Peace for Nepal - Opening the Way

  • Cindy Sheehan - The True Cost of War

  • Marjorie Cohn - Bush Taps "Scalia-Lite" to Replace O'Connor
  • Russell Brown On The Kiwi Debut of iTunes (& Much More) - This rumour comes to you entirely without warranty, but from a fairly good source. There will be a New Zealand iTunes store very early next year - perhaps even on January 1, 2006. I'm not sure exactly what the hold-up is, but presumably negotiations are ... See... Public Address 01/11/05 - Rumour And Fact

    Christiaan Briggs Considers Israel, Apartheid & Iran - The situation for Arabs in Israel & Palestine is “far worse” than that of the blacks in what was apartheid South Africa. This was Ronnie Kasrils’ response to the question of whether Israel could be compared to South Africa during its apartheid era. He offered this during a speech he gave at an international conference I attended on Palestine, Israel and International Law at the Institute of Education in London last weekend. See... Israel “Far Worse” Than Apartheid South Africa

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Larry Chin - Towards An Even More Dangerous Security Apparatus
  • W. David Jenkins - Behind The Mushroom Cloud
  • Bill Berkowitz - Wal-Marting Philanthropy
  • Narconews - Elections Postponed in Bolivia
  • Cindy Sheehan - Honoring the Fallen
  • Patricia Johnson - Tongue-Tied Or Timid?
  • Toni Solo - Varieties Of Aggression : Andean Trade Treaties
  • Ivan Eland - Iraq Policy Critics Come Out of the Woodwork Late
  • John Chuckman - Cartoon: Gimme All The Juice You've Got
  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: Global Spinning on Looms of Mortality
  • Remi Kanazi - Mapping Out Catastrophe
  • Rosalea Barker On The Passing Of Rosa Lee Parks - As I was trawling the Net looking for non-gaga information about the 92-year-old woman who will lie in honor in the US Capitol Rotunda today, I came across--then lost--a quote attributed to the lady herself regarding the state of affairs in Alabama at the time she refused to give up her seat on the bus. See... Stateside: Rosa Lee Parks - The Power of Many

    Fiona Rae & Damian Christie Are There! - As part of my general getting up to speed with the theft of a national icon, I decided to look into the story of the real Pania of the Reef. Typically there are variations, but here's the version I like best. It's an interesting tale, a hot woman who lives in the sea falls in love with Karitoki, a young rangatira. They get hitched and move in together, but the catch is - and there's always a catch with this sort of thing - she has to go back to the sea during the day, or she'll die. See…Public Address: Thank Heavens For True Stories

    Paul G. Buchanan Talks U.S. Psyops - The central tenet for war planners in countries with the ability to project force abroad is summarised in four words: stage, thrust, seize, and hold. The US proved remarkable in accomplishing the first three phases of the invasion of Iraq. See... Buchanan: Psyops in US Military Force Projection

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Bill Grigsby - Would You Like An FTA With That Order?
  • Greg Palast - Opec & The Economic Conquest Of Iraq
  • John Chuckman - Bushspeak - Dark And Garbled Words

  • Israel & Occupied Palestine
  • Uri Avnery - Abbas and the Lame Duck
  • M. Shahid Alam - Israel, Consequences of Uniqueness

  • US Vote Fraud
  • Bob Fitrakis - GAO Report Confirms Key Stolen Election Findings
  • Jim Oberg - How Has it Come to This?
  • Warren Stewart - Did You Erase Your Own Vote?

  • Nepal
  • Bhupal Lamichhaney - Leave No One Behind
  • Princess Shrestha - Maoists Pressure On The People
  • Bhuwan Sharma - Defeating Interference & Evil Intentions In Nepal
  • Scoop Image:
Russell Brown.Russell Brown: Groupthink Comedy - The National Party might have harnessed its talent, old and new and set out on a course of informed opposition to the new government, and the presentation of robust policy alternatives. Instead, it chose to make an appointment that makes it look like a comedy act. Yes, among the spokesmanships announced by Don Brash yesterday is Wayne Mapp on "Political Correctness Eradication". See... PUBLIC ADDRESS 27/10/05 – Groupthink Comedy

    Dalai Lama.Invitation For Dalai Lama To Lecture Scientists On Meditation Meets Opposition - Scoop Report: Austria – Marietta Gross writes that a planned lecture by the Dalai Lama to United States scientists in Washington has caused controversy among neurologists. U.S. neurobiologist Nancy Hayes said this week she cannot support a non-scientist giving a lecture on research results in front of scientists. See... Scientists Argue Over Planned Dalai Lama Lecture

    Howard Laws to Ban You from Criticising Australia - In the wake of terrorist threats against Melbourne and more bombings in Bali, the Australian government is attempting to pass draconian new anti-terrorism laws. The draft of the legislation had originally been kept secret, but last week it was leaked by ACT Chief Minister John Stanhope, who while approving it, believed that legislation with such an impact on civil liberties should be open to public scrutiny and debate. John Howard seems to regard this as practically treason. But fortunately he'll soon have the tools to combat this sort of betrayal of Australian values, because the legislation would modernise the law relating to sedition. See... No Right Turn: Sedition in Australia

    Mercury Out There… Brian Carter’s The Night Sky - In the Summer months with warmer nights, looking at the stars and planets becomes a pleasure, instead of a cold ordeal. Planets: November is a fairly good month for viewing the planets. Venus, Mars and Saturn will be visible for the whole of the month. Mercury will be visible for the first half of the month and Jupiter will be visible for the last half of the month. See... The November Night's Sky
    ALSO:

  • NZ, Australia Ready For Next Generation Telescope
  •  Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Thai PM Tells Islamic Conf. Official To Read Koran - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's Buddhist prime minister angrily told the Saudi Arabian-based Organization of Islamic Conference to "read the Koran" before criticizing his military crackdown in the south, where more than 1,000 people have died in the worst Islamist insurgency outside Iraq. See... Thai PM Tells Islamic Conf. Official To Read Koran


    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Sol Salbe - West Bank Shooting: Why It Pays To Read Hebrew

  • Martin LeFevre - Open Letter to Incoming President of Tanzania

  • Ramzy Baroud - Myths About Iraq Must Be Dispelled For War To End

  • Mark Drolette - The Law? Bushies Fart In Its General Direction

  • Ernest Partridge - The Illusion of Normality

  • Narconews - A Week of Drug War Summits in South America

  • Jason Miller - Surrender Is Not An Option

  • MR Josse - Nepal: Poll Boycott Will Be Political Hara-Kiri
  • Scoop Image:
Russell Brown. Hard News & More From Public Address - Having noted Paola Totaro's love letter to New Zealand this week, it seems only fair to also acknowledge Douglas Davis's unintentionally hilarious account for The Spectator of "visiting Auckland the other week" and finding it "even more dour and dull than I remember" from 30 years... See... Public Address 19/10/05 - Doing A Lot

    William Rivers Pitt Proposes Questions For Bush's Pitbull - Appointing a person with no judicial experience whatsoever to the Supreme Court is by no means an unprecedented act. Indeed, some of the most influential Justices ever to serve never wore the robe before assuming that high seat. See... William Pitt: Some Questions for Harriet Miers

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Marjorie Cohn - Continuing in His Defiance of the Law

  • Bernard Weiner - 'Good Night, and Good Luck' - McCarthy Rides Again

  • Steven A. Hass - Beginner's Guide To American Politics

  • Fitrakis & Wasserman - Why Can't The Left Face Stolen 04 & 08 Elections?
  • Scoop Image:
Russell Brown. Russell Brown & More From Public Address - There are some angry Greens over on Frogblog. In the heat of the moment, some of them seem inclined to turn on their leaders and go hostile on the Left: to do an Alliance, in other words. I don't think that would be too smart. On the face of it - and according to all the news reports - the Greens don't get a lot in hard terms. But they didn't ask for a lot. They made a virtue of going into negotiation without an array of bottom lines, and the agreement they now have, for no promise of support on confidence and supply (just a promise not to vote against the government), is the same one they had already negotiated in return for their active support of a Labour-led government. See... Public Address 18/10/05 - Anger Management

    Why Did SBS Bury This Doco. On Indonesian Military Terrorism? - This controversial SBS report which includes extracts from an interview with the former President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid, points to the involvement of the Indonesian Military Intelligence and Police in the 2002 Bali bombing. See... SBS Documentary: Inside Indonesia's War on Terror

    Barbara R. Rossing Talks Biblical Abuse - Professor Barbara R. Rossing is an associate professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. At the Chicago Sabeel Conference, she answered these questions: “How does the Bible apply to current political realities? How do we remain faithful to the meaning of texts as we apply them to contemporary events, and how do we recognize when we are manipulating scriptural sources to promote a political agenda?”See... Sonia Nettnin: Uses & Abuses of Biblical Prophecy

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • William Blum - William Blum's Anti-Empire Report - Oct. 17, 2005

  • Ram Bahadur - Ram Bahadur: Elections Will Solve Nepal Problems

  • Bhupal Lamichhaney - Bhupal Lamichhaney: Lots of Talk, Little Do!
  • Rosalea Barker On San Fran's Newest Talk Show Well, shave me legs and call me Nermal! Never did I think I'd see the day when a political operative uttered the word "Pshaw" on television. But such is the whacky world of KRON4's Sunday morning show "4 The Record" that the utterance looked entirely in place, even coming from the lips of a young blonde Republican in response to a comment by an old black Democrat. See... Stateside With Rosalea: Pshaw!

    Richard S. Ehrlich On Roman Polanski In Thailand - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Roman Polanski, who recently dodged possible extradition from England to America where he was convicted for illicit sex with a 13-year-old California girl, said he has "no problems" being arrested as a fugitive while traveling to other ... See... Polanski Not Worried About Thai Extradition Law

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Ending Time is the True Fountain of Youth

  • John Roughan - Decent Into Tribalism!

  • Uri Avnery - Uri Avnery: What Awaits Samira?

  • Stephen Crockett & Al Lawrence - Staying A Wrong Course

  • Princess Shrestha - Indian SSB Chase Nepali Families From Homeland

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: The Burning Question

  • Bahadur - Parties And Polls in Nepal

  • Narconews - U.S., Mexican Justice Officials Peddle "Trust"

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - Masked Troops Threw Stones At IDF

  • Narconews - Narconews: Friedsky & Mantilla - Bolivia & Ecuador

  • Remi Kanazi - Remi Kanazi: Opportunity Knocks
  • Impeachment Discussion Not A Waste Of Time - Swanson To Rhodes - You were talking today about our poll on impeachment, so Bob Fertik called in to speak with you. But you spent the whole conversation attacking the idea of impeachment, claiming that it couldn't succeed and would therefore make any Democrats who tried ... See... An Open Letter To Randi Rhodes On Impeachment & Poll: Americans Favor Impeachment If Bush Lied
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    Rep. Conyers - Members Call On Fitzgerald to Issue Status Report

    Barbara Sumner Burstyn On 21st Century Birthing - You’re in the last weeks of your pregnancy and the pressure is on; finish up at work, get the baby’s room ready and all that stuff you have to buy. Oh and draw up your labour party plan, complete with seating arrangements, menus and guest lists. The New York Times spotted it first. The headline ‘Move Over, Doc, the Guests Can't See the Baby,’ trumpeted the benefits and downsides of labour parties. “Like bridesmaids and pallbearers,” the article said, “invitees are marked as an honored group of intimates.” See... Birth, The Final Frontier Of Spectator Sport?

    Sam Smith: The Quiet Storm - Thomas Jefferson saw it coming. He warned, "From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. See... Sam Smith: Blowin' In The Wind Of Cultural Decay

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  • Daniel Patrick Welch - Try And Catch The Wind

  • Toni Solo - Nicaragua - A US Colony Again?

  • Robert Mann - Film Review: The World's Fastest Indian

  • Bill Berkowitz - Christian Right's piece of the 'Promised Land'

  • Cindy Sheehan - 1965

  • Sunny Edwards - Producers Rush to Appoint Daniel Craig as 007

  • John Spritzler - John Spritzler: What Will It Take to Win?"
  • You Said It! - The following is a selction of feedback and other unsolicited email received by Scoop recently. They do not appear in any precise order. See... Scoop Feedback: Brickbats, Bouquets, Tracts

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Russell Brown. Russell Brown et Ors. Are In The House - Looks like we might have a government, and pretty much on schedule: even if it does turn out to be at the cost of a superannuation windfall that might just be affordable now but certainly won't when the baby-boomers start clocking off. For all that some of us fume about Winston Peters, he can (unlike last time around) guarantee his own party's discipline. See... Public Address 13/10/05 - Ins And Outs

    Karl Ferguson Takes A Diesel Volvo SUV For A Spin - With the way fuel prices are going – around the $1.50 a litre mark last time I checked – trying to sell new, large SUV’s in New Zealand could be akin to promoting Iraqi tourism. In other words, very hard work. See... MOTORNET: New Engine = New Life For Solid Swede

    Martin LeFevre On Al Gore's Views Of America - Former Vice-President Al Gore gave a speech recently that ranged from cultural commentary to political philosophy to a prescription for saving American democracy . He covered everything except the real reason he lost to George W. Bush in 2000, and how it relates ... See... Al Gore Explains "America’s Alternate Universe"

    Christian Leaders Discuss The Occupation Of Palestine - Church delegates from five, Christian denominations discussed their church’s positions on Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian Occupied Territories and divestment. See... Church Delegates Address Occupation and Divestment & for earlier coverage of the conference… Sabeel 2005: Will Justice And Peace Embrace?

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  • Dr. Bikash Thapa - Nepali King Directs EC To Hold Democratic Election

  • Ramzy Baroud - Ramzy Baroud: Real Disengagement Plan Now at Work

  • Green Left Weekly - Bali Bombings: How Can Such Acts Be Stopped?

  • Syed Atiq ul Hassan - Earthquake: An Eye-Opening Disaster

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - But Do Jews Drive Out Arabs?
  • Bonus Joules On The Election Result - The votes are in and counted. The NZ Labour Party led by Helen Clark has the priority right to attempt to form a new government. The political options are being scoped. Around the world, oil continues to be pumped from the ground and rumours are it is increasingly sour. Where are we going to find the ideas that help keep life sweet for us? See.. Bonus Joules: The Holey Ozone Layer

    Cheney's Promise - Continuous Warfare for Decades to Come - Vice President Cheney in a recent speech to US military personnel has acknowledged that the war could go on for several decades. This statement, which reveals the Bush Administration's commitment to global warfare, was barely mentioned by the mainstream media. We are dealing with a "military roadmap". Iraq and Afghanistan are at the outset of the Bush administration's military adventure. See... Michel Chossudovsky: Cheney's War Without Borders

    Scoop Named Among Bernard Weiner's Media Heroes - A political and media onslaught is about to be unleashed with the indictments of a whole host of key White House officials (including you-know-who) caught up in the Plamegate coverup. See... Before the Deluge: Honoring Journalistic Heroes

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  • Russell Brown - Public Address 12/10/05 - Snot Fare

  • Mark Drolette - Funny, It Really Isn’t; Fascism, It Really Is

  • William Rivers Pitt - Ideological Prozac, American Style

  • Sari Gelzer - Reclaiming the American Civil Disobedience Legacy

  • Marjorie Cohn - Nobel Prize Slaps Bush Nuke Policy
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Russell Brown.Public Address: Brown On Turia, Tibby On English & Ng On Salient - I don't think this is what the Maori Party wanted before its first group of MPs are even seated. Its third-ranked list candidate Atareta Poananga has blasted its consultative hui process, describing it and co-leader Tariana Turia's glad-eye approach to National as "political suicide"... See... Public Address 11/10/05 - Salient Sells Out & More

    Sonia Nettnin Reports From A Chicago ME Peace Conference - Director and President of the Sabeel Center in Jerusalem, Rev. Canon Naim Ateek opened the 2005 Chicago Sabeel Conference at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. The theme for the conference, “Jerusalem: will justice and peace embrace?” focused on the struggles Palestinians face living under Israeli military occupation; and the ways in which Jews, Christians and Muslims can stand together for human rights and social justice. See... Sabeel 2005: Will Justice And Peace Embrace?

    (Satire) To Hang (Or Not To Hang) The GOP - "It's a well known fact that when your enemy is hanging himself, the best thing to do is stay out of the way and make sure he has enough rope. That's more or less our plan." But experts agree that the Democrats have a troubling history of giving their Republican counterparts so much rope that they are able to put their feet on the ground, walk away from the execution, and then use the rope to tie politically inept Democrats to their horses and drag them through town. See... Freepressed: Democrats Fiddle While GOP Burns

    Bill Berkowitz On Michael Moore's Next Move - As Moore prepares a new film on America's ailing health care industry, will it continue being open season on the 'scruffy guy in a baseball cap'? See... Bill Berkowitz: Michael Moore gets ready to roll

    Stephen de Tarczynski: Liberia Goes To The Polls - Liberia’s George Weah was crowned as FIFA’s World Footballer of the Year in 1995, the most prestigious individual award that a soccer player can achieve. Ten years later, Weah is running for President of the small West African nation of Liberia, ... See... George Weah: From Soccer Star to President?

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  • Good Returns - Book Review: Get Your Head Out Of The Sand

  • Ivan Eland - Cheney's Counterproductive Policy Toward Terrorist

  • Cindy Sheehan - I Have Arrived - I Am Home

  • Leuren Moret - Depleted Uranium Is WMD

  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Letter From Gaza

  • Scott Galindez - Remove All Torturers from

  • Between The Lines - Groups Campaign to End Veneration of Columbus Day

  • Between The Lines - Library Challenge to Patriot Act Gag Rule Appealed
  • CA Prof. Spills The Beans On The Dorak Mystery - The Dorak mystery flower has opened at last. Earlier this week in phone conversations I had with David Stronach, Professor of Near East Archaeology at the University of California - Berkeley, Stronach disclosed that Jimmie Mellaart invented Dorak. He called it a "dream-like epsidode". See... Suzan Mazur: The Dorak Affair's Final Chapter

    Stateside: Rosalea Barker Is The Virtual Spectator - According to a Today in History listing, on October 9, 1776, Spanish missionaries settled in what would become known as San Francisco. Two hundred and twenty-nine years later about a million people are out there enjoying the sunshine and watching the Blue Angels and the Red Bull aerobatic teams do their thing. Or they're over at the golf course watching Tiger et al do their thing. Or, if they're like me, they're sitting inside at their computer and watching all those things on the various websites streaming video of them. See... Stateside With Rosalea: It's All About Timing

    Masalai i tokaut Uncovers Forest Abuse In PNG - As we celebrate 30 years of Independence, it is timely that we examine the effective loss of sovereignty over an entire Province. In the last few years, Malaysian corporate giant Rimbunan Hijau has illegally seized control of almost the entire forests of Gulf Province. See... The Rape of Gulf Province - Independence Special

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  • Russell Brown & Ors.. - Public Address 10/10/05 - Signal To Noise

  • John Chuckman - Cartoon: The Genie In George's Bottle

  • Sheila Samples - A Horrid Reality...

  • Uri Avnery - Salaam or Salami

  • Jason Miller - We Can’t Let It Happen Here

  • Dr. Doug Rokke - Depleted Uranium, George Bush & Tony Blair

  • Bhupal Lamichhaney - Does Popular Movement Ensure Sustained Democracy?

  • Harvey Wasserman - Music Review: Bonnie Raitt's Soulful Masterpiece

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Revisiting The Past To Revitalize The Present

  • Kamala Sarup - Columbus Day Historical Perspectives

  • David Swanson - Dems Go After Bennett, Salem Radio Network, FCC
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Russell Brown. Russell Brown et Al are In The House - So the first person I see when I get into the New Zealand Music Awards is Ahmed Zaoui*. His is becoming, ironically, one of the more recognisable faces in New Zealand public life. I've never met him, so I bowl up and introduce myself to him, and to his lawyer.. See... Public Address 07/10/05 - Yes Prime Minister & Public Address 06/10/05 - Zaoui Sings

    Michel Chossudovsky: Soldiers With Syringes On The March - The threat of the avian flu pandemic is real. Until recently, national governments and the WHO have dismissed the seriousness of the crisis. The public has been misinformed. The issue has been barely mentioned by the media. See... US Martial Law And The Avian Flu Pandemic

    Harvey Wasserman Chimes In On Harriet Miers - An angry groundswell has risen against the appointment of George W. Bush’s personal attorney to the US Supreme Court. One key question must be asked: as a Justice, would she soon be asked to rule on a conspiracy conviction against her present boss? See... Will Miers Overturn Bush’s Conspiracy Conviction?
    MORE:

  • Marjorie Cohn - Harriet Miers - Bush's Pit Bull

  • Angie Pratt - If She Doesn't Answer the Questions Then Vote No

  • UQ Wire - Miers Briefed Bush on Bin Laden Memo

  • US Rep. John Conyers - Conyers Requests Nominee Harriet Miers Information
  • Giant Kiwi Supermodel on Rampage in New York - Elle Macpherson Intimates is turning heads with 14-storey high billboards in Queens, New York city. The two giant billboards, featuring stunning images from the latest Elle Macpherson Intimates campaign, were unveiled this month as part of the North American launch of the new campaign. See… United States Launch Takes Elle Macpherson Intimates Sky High

    Tom Delay On The Family Values Inherent In Monetary Cleansing - Sugarland, TX-- In his second indictment in as many weeks, Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay from Texas now faces up to 20 years in jail for money laundering if convicted. Rep. DeLay told reporters that regardless of what the criminal investigation uncovers, he was upholding sacred values passed down through generations of Mafia families when he filtered illegal campaign contributions through the Republican National Party. See... DeLay: "Money laundering is a family value."
    MORE:

  • Remi Kanazi - Tom DeLayed?

  • William Rivers Pitt - Hey, Hey, Woody Guthrie, I Wrote You a Song
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  • Martin LeFevre - Terrestrial & Extraterrestrial Intelligence

  • Mark Drolette - So The Country’s Screwed. What’re Ya Gonna Do?

  • Don Franks - Don Franks: The Baring Of The Green

  • Ernest Partridge - Ernest Partridge: While the Iron is Hot

  • Kelpie Wilson - Kelpie Wilson: Energy Hog Lessons

  • Ramzy Baroud - Ramzy Baroud: Bush's Choice, America or the Empire

  • Hari Bansha Dulal - Indian Expansionism: Harmful for Peace in SA
  • No Right Turn On The Prospects For Progress - Last Parliamentary term is seen as a high-water mark for progressive social legislation, with Acts such as the Civil Union Act, Relationships Act, and Prostitution Reform Act perceived as causing a conservative backlash against the government. See... No Right Turn: The Prospects For Progress

    It's Not Easy Being Green - Despite a well intentioned and highly publicized meeting, big business still finds the Green Party scary. By the way the media has portrayed this it seems like we are all supposed to be worried that the ‘anti-business Greens’ may well form part of the next government. On the contrary I would be more worried if big business and their lobbyists weren’t afraid of the Green agenda. See... Greens Shouldn’t Waste Time With Greed Merchants

    Cindy Sheehan On The Hearts & Minds Of Capitol Hill - The past week in DC found me in many offices of our elected officials: Senators, Congresspersons, pro-war, "anti-war," Democrat, Republican. With a few notable exceptions, all of our employees toed party lines. See... War-Hawk Republicans and Anti-War Democrats
    MORE ON THE DC MOBILISATION:

  • Bob Fitrakis - Military Grade Biological Bacteria At Peace Demo?

  • Freepressed (Satire) - Reporters stay home until un-newsworthy event ends & Counter-protesters contemplating smaller venue

  • Marjorie Cohn - Marjorie Cohn: Bush's Twin Masters

  • Marc Ash - From Camp Crawford To The Streets Of DC

  • Bob Fitrakis - Winds Of Change Blow Through DC, Bush Flees

  • Remi Kanazi - The Bells of Liberty (Poem)
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  • Ivan Eland - Time to Fire Karl Rove and Libby

  • Russell Brown & Ors. - Public Address 05/10/05 - Big Day

  • Remi Kanazi - Friday Night Lights: Game Time in Gaza

  • Jason Miller - Viewing Terrorism through a Different Lens

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Embrace Of Estrangement

  • Remi Kanazi - Remembering Edward Said

  • Between The Lines - Hunger Strike by Gitmo Detainees Enters 2nd Month

  • Kamala Sarup - Mahatma Gandhi's 136th Birthday Celebration
  • … On The Gathering War Clouds Over Iran - The recent Resolution of the IAEA is preparation for War. The voting pattern on the Resolution against Iran is significant. But what is even more significant - that people all over the world including in the anti-war movement in the United States are against the sanctions and war against Iran, as it is no longer possible to camouflage the real reasons for the war against countries which possess significant oil and gas reserves. See... Niloufer Bhagwat: US Prepares For War Against Iran & Mike Whitney: The Impending Cakewalk In Iran

    More On The Strange Case Of The Basra SAS Rescue Op. - Does anyone remember the shock with which the British public greeted the revelation four years ago that one of the members of the Real IRA unit whose bombing attack in Omagh on August 15, 1998 killed twenty-nine civilians had been a double agent, ... See... Were British SAS Soldiers Planting Bombs in Basra?. See also… Ghali Hassan: Iraq - Resort to Deception

    INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY:

  • Riverbend - Baghdad Burning: Constitution Conversations... & Baghdad Burning: Draft Constitution - Part II …

  • Sol Salbe - Translation: Civilians And The Period Of Calm

  • Alvaro Vargas Llosa - Leaders and Crises

  • Toni Solo - Nicaragua - From Sandino To Chavez

  • Narconews - Conroy: U.S. AG Briefed on House of Death Murders

  • Ray McGovern - Rogue Soldier or President? Scapegoating Small-Fry

  • Click here for more Scoop international comment

    How Much HGP Is There In NZ Beef? - Butchers dancing like Hari Krishna’s, senior citizens thrashing out hard rock, the Evers-Swindell twins smiling furiously, meat, especially red meat is hot right now. “New Zealanders are fond of their meat,” says Richard Umbers, managing director of supermarket chain Progressive Enterprises. And quality, he comments, is everything. See... Barbara Sumner Burstyn: Sexy Beef

    Bonus Joules Is Disappointed With The Election - My heart is not really in this blog as I start to write (Sunday 11 September 2005). I am watching my country take humans ever closer to war, chaos and misery. It is now less than a week to our elections and everyone is looking at the signposts around them and not realising the ground they stand on is moving. See... Bonus Joules: The Zone of Ozone

    MORE SCOOP KIWI COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown & Ors. - Public Address 04/10/05 - Memories And A New Motor & Public Address 03/10/05 - Special Friends

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Heeding The Call

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - Burma Rejects Tutu & Havel Remarks On Regime
  • More On The Strange Case Of The Disappearing Yortan Goddess - I've heard from a variety of figures in the antiquities world about the evidence I presented recently on these pages, which essentially cracks the case of one of the great art mysteries -- the whereabouts of the so-called priceless Dorak treasure. See... Dorak Diggers Weigh In On Anna & Royal Treasure & Mazur: Getting To The Bottom Of The Dorak Affair

    New Book: AMERICA'S "WAR ON TERRORISM" - In this new and expanded edition of Michel Chossudovsky's 2002 best seller, the author blows away the smokescreen put up by the mainstream media, that 9/11 was an attack on America by "Islamic terrorists". Through meticulous research, the author uncovers a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and the cover-up and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration. See... UQ Wire: Michel Chossudovsky's New 911 Book

    Scoop Has A Correspondent @ US Election Reform Summit - In this report: - Activist Attorney Paul Lehto Makes a Strong Case - VotersUnite.Org's Theisen Explains How Citizens have "Outsourced" the Voting and Tabulation Process to Corporations - A Huge Opportunity in New Mexico and Three Weeks to Raise the Money ... See... National Summit to Save Our (US) Elections – Day 1 & Cobb Will Not Run for 2008 Presidential Nomination

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  • Bernard Weiner - Arguments for an Impeachment Resolution

  • Jason Leopold - Bill Frist, The Former 2008 Presidential Candidate

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Enquiry is Social Meditation

  • Ivan Eland - U.S. Must Resign Itself to "Rogue" State Nukes

  • David Swanson - In Support of Weakness on National Security

  • Franklin Sanders - The Real Deal: Regarding The Price Of Milk

  • William Rivers Pitt - I Remember Democrats

  • John Chuckman - What The Gruesome Images Say

  • Between The Lines - Kevin Danaher: Opportunity for Progressive Change

  • Between The Lines - Oil Cos. Disaster Profiteering & Price Controls

  • Bhupal Lamichhaney - Looking For Answers For Nepal

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Turning The Sunni Key – And Fast

  • Narconews - The New Battle for Coca in Peru

  • William Rivers Pitt - Hey, Hey, Woody Guthrie, I Wrote You a Song

  • Remi Kanazi - Tom DeLayed?

  • Kamala Sarup - More Peace, More Tourism

  • Ramzy Baroud - Rhetoric and Reality of War

  • Kamala Sarup - US War Terrorism And Justification

  • Kamala Sarup - Communist Insurgency Linked To Terrorism

  • John Chuckman - Bush In A Bottle
  • Scoop Image:
Russell Brown. Public Address from Russell Brown Is In - Simon Pound conducted an excellent interview on The Wire with National Party historian Barry Gustafson, regarding the moderate pushback within the party: NATFORT and all that. Gustafson's view is that the ideas on Maori and immigrants that National took into this year's election were the work of the "radical right" and that true conservatives would be far more circumspect. See... PUBLIC ADDRESS - Traditional and Pragmatic

    Larry Ross Previews An Expose Doco. On NZ's Nuclear Guinea Pigs - In 1957 the UK goverment, with the collaboration of the NZ government, deliberately and knowingly exposed UK and NZ servicemen and their future descendants to nuclear radiation, resulting in disease, suffering, pain, genetic damage and eventual death. It's all in the article below and on Expose, TV1, Thursday Sept 22, 2005. See... NZ Soldiers - Treated As Nuclear Guinea Pigs

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  • Saubhagya Shah - Susta Sellouts & Other Vertigos

  • Remi Kanazi - Shattering Democracy: Sharon’s Plan for Palestine

  • Narconews - Giordano: Marcos' Six Month Tour of Mexico

  • M. Shahid Alam - Recognizing Israel - Or Selling Out

  • Riverbend - Baghdad Burning: Draft Constitution - Part I…

  • Alvaro Vargas Llosa - Millennium Flop

  • Ivan Eland - Democratic Hallucinations in Afghanistan and Iraq

  • Marjorie Cohn - No On Roberts

  • William Rivers Pitt - The Blood of the Righteous

  • Kamala Sarup - UN World Summit And Expectations
  • Barbara Sumner Burstyn Spots A (neo)Con On TV3 - Does anyone actually watch the TV shows they watch? Medical Investigation (TV3) for example. On the surface this drama looks like just another mildly entertaining medical show. But watch closely and you begin to see the creepy undertones of neoconservative ideology, with its concomitant fundamentalist Christianity, embedded in the storylines and characters. See... Barbara Sumner Burstyn: Prime Time Propaganda

    Rosalea Barker On Her New Job - As I mentioned last week, I've just started a new job. I forgot to add that at the end of my trek through the industrial wasteland, I get to walk along the edge of San Francisco Bay. This week at work, I got all the paperwork to fill out. I seem to recall that in New Zealand that would be a form signing up to have my pay put into a bank account, but nothing is that simple in the U.S. of A. See... Stateside With Rosalea: Filling Out The Paperwork

    A mouth that prays, a hand that kills— Arabian proverb - “How do you find a lion that has swallowed you?” asked Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, commenting on the moral dilemma posed by the “shadow,” his insightful term for the dark, hidden side of the human psyche. The answer to Jung’s questions is “you can’t find or see that lion”—not as long as you are inside the beast. And therein resides the essential dilemma of a group’s dark side or shadow: it is nearly impossible for those caught inside a group’s belief system to see their own dark side with any clarity or objectivity. See... John D. Goldhammer - The Fundamentalist Shadow of George W. Bush

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  • John Chuckman - Chuckman Cartoon: DC Prepares For Ophelia

  • Bernard Weiner - GOP Heavies Work the "O.J. Dodge" (Satire)
  • Immigration & The Election - This year, as with every election year, migration is a hot issue amongst politicians vying for the public’s vote. Like a repetitive tune stuck on replay, at election time we hear racist jibes being thrown at migrants and ethnic groups that do not fit so-called ‘mainstream NZ’. See... Migrant Effect - The Changing Face of NZ Voters and Immigration: Needed, A Policy For The 21st Century
    MORE ELECTION COMMENT:

  • Hard News & More - Public Address 13/09/03 - Numbers And Stuff

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  • Keith Rankin - 123 MMP

  • Anne Else - Brash in Charge - Here is the News

  • Anton Hughes - Guest Opinion: NZ & The World Police State

  • No Right Turn - National Can't Deliver

  • Russell Brown & Ors- Public Address 02 & 05/09/05 - Ugly As
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  • Kelpie Wilson - Kelpie Wilson: The Hapless Environmentalist

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  • Scoop Report Ends Up On Utah Attorney General's Desk! - Don’t think that the Internet news, Scoop or Counter Punch is not being read or getting passed around. On March 24, 2005, an article entitled, "Utah Prosecutors Are Soft On Polygamy," authored by Yours Truly, was published in Scoop, and within two weeks made it to the hands of the Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff without any help from me or Tapestry Against Polygamy. Mr. Shurleff called me in person and asked to see the bigamy file that I turned over to San Pete County Attorney Ross Blackham. See... Laissez-faire Polygamy Condoned In Utah

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  • Mark Drolette - Dear Fellow Citizens of the World

  • Ajay P. Nath - Peace And Stability in Nepal

  • Culture Jamming - Scoop Image: Sky News Reports The Truth?

  • Kamala Sarup - Terrorism Contributed Youth Unemployment

  • Narconews - FOIA Records Link U.S. Officials to Mass Murder
  • Stateside: Rosalea Barker Gets A New Job - I started a new job this week in what I thought was just an industrial wasteland at the southern end of San Francisco International Airport but which is, I am assured, a "tony burg." Burlingame is a one-hour BART ride away from home, and then a twenty-minute
    ... See... Stateside With Rosalea: Me And Tony Burg

    Jose Padilla Case Delivers Blow To The Land Of The Free -As if the official ineptitude of the Bush administration in the aftermath of Katrina and the callousness of the Bush family were not enough to digest, a U.S. Federal appeals court has just delivered a bombshell in the Jose Padilla case. See... Siddharth Varadarajan: Police State In America
    MORE:
    William Fisher - Today, Padilla. Tomorrow, Who?

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  • Evelyn Pringle - Iraqis To Bush - Where Did All Our Money Go?

  • Bill Grigsby - Back to BushCo Basics

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  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal - Truce Truculence

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  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Hebrew Songs Making A Comeback In Gaza

  • William Fisher - FBI And DHS Schizophrenia

  • William Fisher - The Price Of Secrecy

  • Narconews - Gómez & Friedsky: Bolivia on the Train of Life

  • David Swanson - The Popularity of Peace and Presidents

  • Ramzy Baroud - Israel's Successful Use Of The Art Of Realpolitik
  • Good Returns Reviews Bob Jones' Latest Tome - My Property World is the long-awaited sequel to Bob Jones' 1977 best-selling Jones on Property. Packed with wisdom and insightful thinking on the contemporary world of property investment by one of our best-known property investors, My Property World ... See... Book Review: Bob Jones - My Property World

    The New US Chief Justice Nominee's Justice Record - George W. Bush has nominated John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States. Bush lauded Roberts for his "goodwill and decency toward others." Yet Roberts' record reveals a callous disregard for the rights of people very much like the tens of thousands ... See... John Roberts: Uncompassionate Conservative

    A Flurry Of Opinion On The Peace Process In Nepal

  • Mohammad Zainal Abedin - Why India Is Blamed For All Debacles?

  • Sobia Nisar - Indian Insurgent Activities In Nepal

  • Kamala Sarup - Who Is Supporting Maoists?

  • Kamala Sarup - Independence And Sovereignty Of Nepal

  • Khagendra Thapa - Why Democracy did not Work in Nepal

  • Ram Shrestha - India's Mis-Guided Nepal Policy

  • Saubhagya Shah - Democracy and Crisis As the internal crisis

  • Netra Adhikari - Protect Peace - Defeat Terrorism in Nepal
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  • Remi Kanazi - Remi Kanazi: Courting Disaster

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  • Peter Hollings - UQ Wire: Iran Next, by way of Charleston?

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  • Narconews - Displaced Colombians Occupy Bogotá Neighborhood

  • Narconews - Al Giordano: Then Came the Humans
  • Jason Leopold On The Attack On Cindy Sheehan - Cindy Sheehan has been subjected to an unwarranted backlash by right-wing pundits because of her antiwar protests and some explosive statements she made about President Bush. Perhaps Sheehan, while mourning the death of her son, Casey, a U.S. soldier ... See... Jason Leopold: What's Eating Cindy Sheehan?
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    Sheila Samples: The Mothers Are Coming!

  • David Swanson -A Blog From Camp Casey, Crawford TX

  • Ramzy Baroud - The Power of The Ordinary

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  • Between The Lines - Between the Lines: Interview with Celeste Zappala
  • Russell Brown. Russell Brown On What The Internet Means For Libraries - An address by Public Address blogger, Scoop Columnist and media commentator Russell Brown to a libraries research conference in Wellington at the National Library, delivered Saturday September 3rd at 1.15pm. See... AUDIO: Russell Brown Address: "Information Entrepreneurs" See the full text of the address at: Public Address' Great New Zealand Argument

    Call For The President To Slow Down On The Supreme Court - The death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and the deaths of some 10,000 or more American citizens in New Orleans and Mississippi have come virtually at the same time. See... All Supreme Court Appointments Must Be Postponed

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: What Is Illumination?

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Maoists Ceasefire Is A Good Thing

  • Narconews - Giordano: Growing Up Zapatista

  • Ramzy Baroud - Pat Robertson Doesn’t Just Speak for Himself

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Sanjay Upadhya: Nepal - Contrived Candor

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: Inflicting Democracy
  • Stateside: Broken Levees In New Orleans - When I moved to this poor part of Oakland last year, one of the things I noticed first about it was the amount of subsidence and number of potholes in the streets. See... Stateside with Rosalea: When The Levee Breaks

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Keith Ng & Ors - Public Address 31/08/05 - Imagine!

  • Guest Opinion - Sione Palu: Unitec is a University Wannabe

  • Mark Drolette - Mark Drolette: But What About The Fish?

  • Evelyn Pringle - Halliburton Illegalities, Bush Busts Whistleblower

  • William Rivers Pitt - William Rivers Pitt: Here's the Funny Part

  • Narconews - Day One of Posada Carriles Hearing

  • Bob Fitrakis - Money Trail To Stolen 2004 Ohio Election Exposed

  • Bernard Weiner- UQ Wire: 20 Things We Now Know 4 Years After 9/11

  • Ivan Eland - Top Ten Reasons to “Undo” Iraq in Due Haste
  • Jay Shaft On The Forgotten Poor Of America- This series of articles is an outlet for the people who are living through an overwhelming crisis. They want to tell everyone how bad it really is, and how terrible their day-to-day living conditions have become. See... Jay Shaft: Voices of the Lost and Forgotten- Pt. 4

    Andy Song Images: North Harbour Vs Canterbury - North Harbour was unable to bring an end to Canterbury's year long winning streak in the NPC with a 23-23 draw at North Harbour Stadium with man-of-the-match Anthony Tuitavake scoring two tries. See... NPC Pictures: North Harbour Vs Canterbury 27/8


    Brown, Ming Mok, Slack, Reid & Tibby Address The Public - So the Maori Trustee Office enjoys a reprieve, apparently. In yesterday's Herald lead story, which was presumably based on somebody's actual statement, the trustee's office was one of those over which Don Brash's "knife" was said to be hovering... See... Public Address 30/08/05 - Five New Posts

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • UQ Wire - LA Times - Getting Agnostic About 9/11

  • Mary Pitt - Why

  • W. David Jenkins III - The Conservative Meltdown

  • R Taylor - My Solidarity To Nepal and Its People

  • Pralhad KC - Peace A Chance And Nepal
  • Suzan Mazur: The Mystery Of The Royal Treasure of Dorak - He's held out longer than Woodward, Bernstein & Deep Throat. But it's time British archaeologist James "Jimmie" Mellaart, now age 80 or so and in his golden years, finally fesses up to the whereabouts of the priceless "Royal Treasure of Dorak," which he first tantalized the world with by publishing drawings of the artifacts in the November 28, 1959 issue of The Illustrated London News, saying the pieces were from a clandestine dig in northwest Turkey. And after which the press clamored to see it. However, fabulous Dorak had by then apparently vanished, along with its owner, Anna Papastrati. See... Mazur: Getting To The Bottom Of The Dorak Affair

    Uri Avnery, Yasser Abu Moailek, Sol Salbe & M. Shahid Alam Talk Gaza - "Dear" in the most literal sense. At long last it must be spelled out, without hypocritical pity, without "if" and "but". We have paid billions of shekels in order to settle you in the Gaza Strip. See... Uri Avnery: Dear Settlers (And Others)

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - IDF Chief-Of-Staff Furious At Unnecessary Op.

  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Yasser Abu Moailek's Letter From Gaza

  • M. Shahid Alam - M. Shahid Alam: On Being Good Victims
  • No Right Turn BMR: Counting The Cost Of Mismanagement - Last year, the High Court entered a landmark judgement against the Department of Corrections, ruling that the department's Behaviour Management Regime (BMR) was unlawful and inhumane, and awarding compensation to five current and former inmates for their treatment. Since then, a further fourty inmates have filed claims - and the government has passed draconian legislation aimed at letting Corrections off the hook for its failure to abide by fundamental human rights standards. See... No Right Turn: Behaviour Miss-Management Regime

    Janis Karpinski – The General Who Took The Fall For Abu Ghraib - " I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will ... Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end." - Janis Karpinski, interview with Marjorie Cohn, August 3, 2005. See... Marjorie Cohn: An Interview With Janis Karpinski

    Chuckman & Shultz On The Call For Chavez's Assassination - The Rev. Pat Robertson’s call for the US to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez brought a rare, small burst of US attention to South American politics. However, as we describe below, Robertson’s comments are just the cap to months of spinning by the Bush White House about the dark political threat hanging over this continent where I live, and Bolivia specifically. Here is the story of -- George Bush and Bad Intelligence: The Sequel. See... The False Intelligence Game In South America
    MORE:

  • John Chuckman - Why Pat Robertson Isn't Treated As A Terrorist
  • Keith Rankin On The Struggle Of UNITEC - Two important stories this year have been Unitec's long struggle for recognition as a form of university, and the record high balance of payments deficit that New Zealand is now experiencing. See... Keith Rankin: Universities of Technology

    No Right Turn On The War Clouds Over Iran - Last week, in a scene strikingly reminiscent of the lead-up to America's current foreign policy disaster in Iraq, we saw President Bush blustering against Iran, threatening to use force unless that country ended its nuclear program. See... No Right Turn: Iran - No Military Solution

    The Strange Tale Of Selective Humidity Striking Clermont County OH. - The 2005 Hackett-Schmidt contest for Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District took place in the midst of ongoing concerns about the 2004 Presidential election. Ohio was ground zero for Election Day irregularities, controversies, and charges of election fraud. See... The Veteran Of Fallujah Defeated By OH's Humidity

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Reincarnation - Fact but not Truth?

  • Keith Ng & More - Public Address 25/08/05 - Doctors, Boffins, Asians

  • Mark Drolette - Withdrawing From A Dope Is A Bitch

  • Narconews - Giordano: Zapatistas Activate a New Kind of Bomb

  • Am Johal - Cry Me a River

  • Toni Solo - The Empire Against The Clock

  • Ernest Partridge - The Bombs in the Basement

  • Kamala Sarup - Peace Treaty And Peace In Nepal
  • What Is Really Behind This US/NZ Thaw In Security Relations? - Security Expert and Auckland University lecturer Paul Buchanan writes that election year politics has thrown new light on US-New Zealand relations: "Outgoing US ambassador Charles Swindell reiterated his concerns that recent years have seen a decline in the relationship, officially noted in the US shift from viewing New Zealand as an ally to (rather) that of “close friend,” and felt practically in the termination of the ANZUS military alliance." What has this thawing of US/NZ relations got to do with the elections and trade? See... Military Exercise + Spurious Trade Relationship
    ALSO:

  • Greens - Cosying up to US will increase terrorist threat
  • Jason Leopold On 9/11 & The Reasons For War - The disinformation campaign the White House launched last weekend should leave no doubt that the war in Iraq was hatched well before 9/11 and is part of a broader strategy to remake the entire Middle East into a so-called Pax Americana, a blueprint drafted by hardcore neoconservatives years ago that called for overthrowing Middle East dictators and installing U.S. approved governments in the region. See... Jason Leopold: President Bush's Big Secret
    RELATED:

  • Norman Solomon - Bush's Option to Escalate the War

  • Between The Lines - Shaping Public Opinion for Confrontation with Iran
  • Russell Brown. Hard News: Russell Brown On The Leader's Debate - I really wish this election hadn't turned into a bidding war. That it has means Labour is heading in a direction with which I'm not entirely comfortable, and National is making spending assumptions I seriously doubt it can meet... See... Public Address 23/08/05 - Whatever & Yesterday Public Address 22/08/05 - A Don Never Wears Shorts

    Ehrlich: Thai Massage Kingpin Turned Politician Refused US Visa - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's massage parlor tycoon-turned-politician said the American Embassy rejected his visa application, barring him from joining a Thai government trip to visit FBI, DEA and other U.S. officials. See... Massage Tycoon-Turned-Politician Refused US Visa

    Scoop's Rosalea Barker On The Passing Of David Lange - I've been pondering what it was that really changed under David Lange's government in the 1980s. From what I'm reading or gleaning from Internet video/audio originating in New Zealand, the two big things that the media is referring to are the nuclear-free ... See... Stateside With Rosalea: Mr Big Thumb-on-Nose

    Am Johal: Healing Ceremony For Canadian First Nation - In the small island community of Alert Bay near northern Vancouver Island, hundreds of residential school survivors from St. Michael's Residential school stood on the idyllic shoreline near the U'mista Cultural Centre around ten in the morning on Friday. It was misty as the fog rolled in and perched itself on the calm water. See... Alert Bay School Gathering Full of Emotions

    Cindy Sheehan. Everybody Weighs In On The Cindy Sheehan Break Through - The Washington Post today wondered out loud whether Cindy Sheehan might be a " catalyst for a muscular antiwar movement ." In translation, this is an assertion that Cindy Sheehan has already become an accepted reason for the corporate media to finally ... See... David Swanson: Sheehan Breakthroughs
    MORE ON CINDY SHEEHAN:

  • William Rivers Pitt - William Rivers Pitt: Desecration of the Dead

  • Marjorie Cohn - Marjorie Cohn: Why Bush Can't Answer Cindy

  • Mark Drolette - Mark Drolette: Real Americans Are Really Something

  • Doug Giebel - Doug Giebel: Ignore Cindy Sheehan

  • Greg Palast - Armstrong Bikes With President Over Sheehan Grave

  • Thom Hartmann - Jefferson Would Have Stood With Cindy Sheehan

  • Sheila Samples - The Revolution is NOW...
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Toni Solo - Ecuador: Sovereignty Takes One Step Backwards

  • Uri Avnery - A Miracle of Rare Device

  • UQ Wire - William Fisher - State Secrets?

  • Ivan Eland - Will Iraq’s Constitution Be Irrelevant?

  • Guest Opinion - Kola Odetola: Islam, Sex And The Western Left

  • John Spritzler - Howard Zinn's Unacceptable Regimes Critiqued

  • William Fisher - Diplomatic Assurances -- Worthless

  • John Chuckman - Cartoons: Bacchus, A Chimp And God

  • Evelyn Pringle - DC Protest - Why Are Atypical Drug Users Mad?

  • Evelyn Pringle - Aug 24 DC Protest - Activists Against TeenScreen

  • William Fisher - Jesus And The US Airforce (Again)

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: Deadly Sun Illuminates Israeli Blue Moon
  • John Roughan On The Latest Solomon's Report Card - SIDT's latest Report Card (No. 7) makes it clear that the Kemakeza Government continues to fail its people. In spite of millions of dollars of overseas aid-already a half billion dollars and still counting- a tremendous security blanket provided by RAMSI's ... See... John Roughan: Better But Still Failing!

    Martin LeFevre: The Twisting Of Religion - Just as the perversion of Mohammed’s teaching has produced bin Laden and the evil of Al Qeda, so too the perversion of Jesus’ teaching has produced George Bush and the evil of the US military machine. I cannot speak for Islam; Muslims will have to sort out for themselves where it went wrong. But I can speak to Christianity, which bears so little resemblance to the spirit, teachings, and mission of Jesus that I don’t know how anyone can call themselves a Christian. See... Martin LeFevre: Jesus Died for Nothing

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Stirling Newberry - Stirling Newberry: The Black Gold Window

  • Robert Higgs - What Does The Leaked Mea Culpa on Iraq Portend?

  • John Chuckman - John Chuckman: Diary Of A Madman

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: Revelations Of A Reformed Republican

  • Ramzy Baroud - Ramzy Baroud: The Disengagement That Isn’t

  • Bernard Weiner - Weiner: A Cancerous Tumor in the Body Politic

  • Toni Solo - Toni Solo: Making Excuses For Sid Snake
  • Russell Brown. HARD NEWS from Russell Brown - Small children howled as my car sprayed them with gravel on its headlong, desperate dash to Christchurch Airport. Their mothers held them tight, faces frozen in in rictuses of fear, and burly rugby players blanched and sobbed like silly little girls... See... Public Address 12/08: No Debate
    12 August 2005 |

    Cindy Sheehan. Sheila Samples Asks Why Wont Bush Meet Slain Soldier's Mum? - The incomparable Raw Story website is publishing a letter it acquired on Tuesday, Aug 9, from 16 Democratic Representatives (whose number has now burgeoned to 38) urging George Bush to meet with Cindy Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was slain in Iraq in 2002. Sheehan has been camped on Bush's doorstep since Saturday when she and a small group of supporters were forced to walk in a ditch struggling through knee-deep weeds as they made their way to Prairie Chapel, the Bush "ranch," a former pig farm in Crawford, Texas. See... The Revolution is NOW...

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Evelyn Pringle - DC Protest - What's Everybody Mad About?

  • Russ Wellen - Nuclear Innocence

  • 12 August 2005 |

  • Manuel Valenzuela - A Look Into the Mirror

  • William Rivers Pitt - Bush Is No Nixon
  • FNZ
Image: courtesy of Jason Dorday. Rt Hon. David
Lange. Scoop Feature: New Zealand's Statesman Passes Away - Memorial Feature On David Lange: Scoop co-editor Selwyn Manning reflects back on what this remarkable New Zealander meant to the people of South Auckland, what difference he made to NZ, and what it was like to be in his presence. See... Personal Reflections Of South Auckland's Statesman
    ALSO: Memorial service to celebrate David Lange Saturday ALSO Russell Brown Has Made Available David Lange's Oxford Debate Audio AND Full Coverage: David Lange Passes Away

    William Fisher On The Bolton Appointment - President Bush poked a thumb in the eye of Senate Democrats today by his recess appointment of John Bolton as America’s ambassador to the United Nations – and triggered wholly predictable responses from the foreign policy community. See... William Fisher: Big Apple Here I Come
    MORE:

  • John Chuckman - Cartoon: Poop & Scoop Bolton In NYC

  • William Rivers Pitt - Something to Choke On, Again

  • Mark G. Levey - UN Credentials Committee Can Reject Bolton
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Chuck Baldwin - Remembering The Lessons Of Germany's Past

  • Jim Traue & Ors - Public Address 03/08/05 - Standing Upright
  • Bush Says He Is Shocked & Then Does Nothing - After the grotesque torture photographs emerged from Abu Ghraib prison in April 2004, Bush said, "I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated." He vowed the incidents would be investigated and the perpetrators would "be taken care of." See... Cohn: Bush Defies Military, Congress on Torture
    MORE:

  • Robert Weiner - Prison Abuse Decisions Came from the Top
  • Ivan Eland Considers The Politics Of An Iraq Withdrawal- In Iraq, like everywhere else, if things don’t add up, it is safe to assume that politics is involved. Although the insurgency in recent months has worsened, Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, astonishingly claims that ... See... Ivan Eland: The Politics of Troop Withdrawal

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Sam Smith - The Mediacracy: How Journalism Went Bad

  • Narconews - 3rd Anniversary of Atenco's Machete Rebellion

  • William Fisher - Truth And Reconciliation In North Carolina

  • Between The Lines - FBI Surveillance of Progressive Activist Groups

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Sanjay Upadhya: Clarity Above The Cacophony

  • Steven A. Hass - Steven A. Hass: Roasting Some Real Weinies
  • Russell Brown & Paul Brislen Unimpressed With Telecom DSL Moves - Can anybody tell me some more about Telecom's decision to withdraw all its faster JetStream consumer plans - meaning that anyone who wants a 2Mbit service now faces a price rise from $79 a month to a "business" rate of between $249 and $299? See... Public Address 01/08/05 - A Cornucopia Of Comment

    Stateside: Where Rosalea Promises To Do Her Best - To all those readers who take the Boy Scouts of America and their Commander in Chief seriously: What follows is a parody, so you might want to leave before you get offended. And as a special bonus, here are the three key points of Bill Frist's amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill ... "Support Our Scouts Act of 2005." See... Stateside with Rosalea: Sending Out An SOS

    Meditations: Poisoned By A Nuclear Lie - It is the lie that began the long decline to America’s loss of its soul. The people are still fed, and still swallow, the propaganda that began 60 years ago, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were leveled. As Time magazine echoed for the umpteenth time this week: ... See... LeFevre: The Atomic Bombings and America’s Soul

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • John Roughan - Living In The 21st C. But Thinking In The 20tth!

  • Ramzy Baroud - Just Who's Emboldening Terrorism?

  • Fitrakis & Wasserman - Coingate, Voinovich, The Mob & The 2004 Election

  • Kamala Sarup - Learning From Sudan & Moving Forward

  • John Chuckman - The Dumbest Story Ever Written

  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen - Another Gross Distortion

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - The Dead Do Not Weep

  • Narconews - COHA Responds, Retracts Attack on Zapatistas
  • Polynesia Blue Air Deal Causes Concerns For South Pacific Governments - Pacific Insights' John Andrews writes that planned changes for Samoa’s air services have prompted a strategic rethink by airlines and governments in the South Pacific. The pending demise of Polynesian Airlines’ international jet operations in favour of Polynesian Blue, a recently announced joint venture between the Samoan government and Virgin Blue, means other airlines are eyeing consequent opportunities in the region. See... Cuts Cause Rethink Over Polynesia Blue Air Deal

    Rosalea Barker: Whazza Buzz? - I'm sure the story was so quirky it made it to the TV news Down Under--on Tuesday, a couple in Hazleton, Indiana, found out they had a quarter of a million house guests living in a beehive five foot tall and seven foot wide in their attic. See... Stateside with Rosalea : Whazza Buzz?

    Hard News From Russell Brown & More - My old friends Children's Hour are back together and playing a gig at the King's Arms tonight, to celebrate the release of Looking for the Sun, a collection of live recordings retrieved and fixed up by Rob Mayes of Failsafe Records... Public Address 29/7/5 - Stories Now Safe To Tell

    Kelpie Wilson On The Energy Bill From Hell - If anything merits drawing the filibuster sword out of its sheath, it is the energy bill that came out of a House/Senate conference this week. The world and America are at a critical juncture with regard to energy, and there is very little time left to change course. See... Kelpie Wilson: Kill the Bill

    Meanwhile In Nepal… - As democracy spurs, the monarchs in Nepal get up in arms, which is evidenced by two royal coups in past 50 years. The first royal coup of 1960 orchestrated by the king Mahendra father of present king not only lasted for thirty years but also resulted ... See... Politico-Economics Of Royal Coup In Nepal
    MORE:

  • Madan P. Khanal - Nepal - Discourse Of Defeatism?
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Peter Cresswell - Election Bribes, Power Greenouts & the Nat Pack

  • Bill Berkowitz - Deepening The Faith

  • Steve Weissman - Exploring the Mind of a Racist Killer

  • Evelyn Pringle - Autism - Cut The Crap

  • William Fisher - Saudi & Nigeria In The Crosshairs

  • Kamala Sarup - With No Justice, Terrorism Will Remain
  • Hard News from Russell Brown & Much More From Public Address - NOTE: This issue of Public Address via Scoop is a compendium of three days worth of material. Enjoy. See... Public Address 26-28/07/05 – A Triple Dose!

    Richard S. Ehrlich On A Victory For Aung San Suu Kyi - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Muted in her gloomy, lakeside mansion in Burma by a decade of depressing house arrest, the world's most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, scored a psychological victory when she helped force the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to ditch her country's military regime. See... Aung San Suu Kyi Victory Over The Burmese Junta

    Sonia Nettnin Reviews A Film On The Seige Of Fallujah - The documentary “Fallujah 2004,” chronicles the death and destruction within Fallujah caused by U.S. Forces in April 2003 and April 2004. Director Toshikuni DOI exposes the side of the U.S. war in Iraq that Americans do not see or hear in mainstream ... See... Sonia Nettnin Film Review: Fallujah 2004

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Christiaan Briggs - Last Straw: Labour Wins The Election

  • John Roughan - Development? It's A Journey!

  • Kamala Sarup - Poems Are About Experience

  • Simon Pound - When the smoke clears

  • Krishna Singh Bam - When Reason Obeys Itself

  • Ivan Eland - Rolling the Dice on India

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - The Golden Rule in Israel, Iraq, London & D.C.

  • Sonia Nettnin - Haiku: Rice in Middle East

  • Sonia Nettnin - 1st Labor For Palestine Conference
  • Bernard Weiner Takes A Peek At Karl Rove's Diary - Dear Diary: Oh shit! It's been one badddddddd week. But I think Scooter and I and the others probably can finesse our way out of indictments for the Plame leak. However, Fitzgerald -- one of our guys! -- must have forgotten who butters his U.S. Attorney's ... See... Inside Rove's Diary: How Do I Get Out of This One?

    Mark Drolette Attends A DSM House Party - I was heartened by the reaction a group of about fifty of us received the other day when, prior to attending a Downing Street Minutes (DSM) House Party, we all stood at a busy Sacramento intersection for an hour or so displaying signs and banners ... See... Getting Americans To Spend Minutes On The Minutes
    MORE:

  • Between The Lines - A White House Bent On Misleading Public Over Iraq

  • David Swanson - Young People Can Have an Impact In These Times
  • MORE SCOOP AMERICAN COMMENTARY:

  • William Rivers Pitt - Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

  • Martin LeFevre Meditations: The Portal of Sound

  • William Fisher - Karen Hughes Behind The Firewall

  • John Chuckman - Hitler's Shadow And The Coming Storm

  • Marjorie Cohn - The Roberts Court?

  • Stirling Newberry - Cathedrals of Resonance

  • Edith Fletcher - Roe vs. Wade is a Red Herring for Another Fish

  • Evelyn Pringle- TeenScreen Not A Pill Pusher – Honest

  • William Fisher - Bill O'Reilly In Drag

  • Between The Lines - A Bill That Would Prohibit Permanent US Iraq Bases

  • David Swanson - Nuclear Waste Dumps On Indian Land

  • Ernest Partridge - GOP Will Win In '06, Unless...
  • No Right Turn & Russell Brown On Work For The Dole - National looks set to try and revive the failed policies of the 1990's with a vengeance, with Judith Collins announcing that a National government would reintroduce work-for-the-dole . See... No Right Turn: Failed policies and Public Address 25/07/05 - Bombs And Big Brothers

    Chris Lewis Falls Victim To "Crab Bucket Mentality" - I'm enormously sad to learn that New Zealand Tennis have finally driven tennis ace Chris Lewis from New Zealand. Chris is a wonderful sportsman and a tremendous human being, and his departure for California leaves me angry at his treatment here at home. See... Peter Cresswell: Chris Lewis - Tall Poppy

    Tom Cruise's Role In The Valerie Plame Affair - A member of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s legal team confirmed that actor and covert CIA agent Tom Cruise blew the cover of undercover agency operative Valerie Plame Wilson. See... Dennis Hans: Super-spy Tom Cruise Outed Plame

  • William Rivers Pitt - Bush's Soviet State

  • Thom Hartmann - What Did Bush Know, And When Did He Know It?
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Greg Palast - China Floats, America Sinks

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Coming Over All Political

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal - Stealth of Nations

  • Narconews - Welcome Telesur: Notes on Media from Below

  • David Swanson - Downing Street Memo 3rd Anniversary

  • Toni Solo - Unicorn Hunting In Nicaragua

  • Narconews - Radio Free Venezuela?

  • Kamala Sarup - Sex Trafficking Increasing - No Sign Of Stopping

  • William Fisher - A Degree In Public Diplomacy
  • Marjorie Cohn Assesses The Supreme Court Nomination - Who leaked the name of John G. Roberts before Bush's official prime time revelation Tuesday night? My guess: Karl Rove. He had the most to gain from an early announcement. Rove knows the mainstream media has a very short attention span. What better way ... See... Marjorie Cohn: Mr. Roberts' Neighborhood

    Kelpie Wilson On The New Fuel - Food - It was one of those things that you can't quite believe is real. I was flipping through a magazine and saw an ad for a stove that burns corn kernels. For heat. Corn is food, not fuel, I thought, but the ad assured me that "Corn is replenished annually. ... See... Kelpie Wilson: The Tragic Abuse of Corn

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 21/07/04 - King Of The Zeitgeist

  • Bill Berkowitz - Horowitz's Battlefield Academia

  • Sonia Nettnin - Poem: Portrait of a Palestinian Woman

  • Krishna Singh Bam - Nepal: Yes, All Roads Lead To Delhi, But…

  • Harvey Wasserman - Debating William Westmoreland
  • No Right Turn On The G8 Outcome - The G8 has produced its final communique, promising to boost aid to Africa by US$50 billion and forgive some third world debt. But while this will make a real difference, overall it is disappointing. According to Make Poverty History, only 40% of that aid boost is actually new funding, the rest having already been announced. It also will not arrive until 2010. In the intervening five years, millions will die who could have been saved if the boost had been immediate. See... No Right Turn: G8 - Disappointing
    MORE G8 COMMENT:

  • John Pilger - G8 Will Not Ease Third World Poverty

  • The White HOuse - Bush & Blair Discuss Africa, Trade, Climate Change

  • Chossudovsky - Live 8 As Corporate Media Bonanza

  • For much more see... Full Coverage: G8 At Gleneagles (Part 1)

    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
    MORE:

  • Scoop Link: Wash. Post Downing St Memo Feature

  • Between The Lines - Corp. Media's Failure to Cover Downing St Memos

  • Mark Drolette - Mark Drolette: The March Of The Madder'n Hells

  • afterdowningstreet.org - Senators Letter on DSM to Intelligence Committee

  • For much much more see... Full Coverage: The Downing Street Memo - Part 4, 500,000+ Americans, 122 Reps. Seek DSM Answers , Part 2 & Part 1

    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
    MORE:

  • Ray McGovern - Why "White House v. Wilson/Plame" Matters

  • EARLIER:
  • Ivan Eland - A Roving Ethical Problem

  • BuzzFlash - The Martians Have Landed!

  • BuzzFlash - Ambassador Joe Wilson's Letter to the Senate

  • Time - Link: Matthew Cooper- "What I Told The Grand Jury"

  • Jason Leopold - Report Shows Rove May Have Lied to FBI, A Felony

  • Harvey Wasserman - Will Traitor Rove Follow Nixon's Fatal Footsteps?

  • Greg Palast - : Mr. Rove And The Access Of Evil

    The Madder’n Hells Are Deader’n Hell - My plan to inspire one million pissed-off Americans (the “madder’n hells”) to descend upon the U.S. Capitol on September 26, demand Congress hold hearings on the Downing Street Memos (DSM), and then attend said hearings while re-swarming the building daily, has met an early demise. See... Mark Drolette: Attempt To Save The Country Falls

    Baby Roasting Monk Caught Tricking Women Into Sex - BANGKOK, Thailand -- A defrocked Buddhist novice who roasted a baby to create a powerful ghost has been arrested for allegedly tricking women into giving him cash and sex during useless animist rituals, according to police and anti-corruption officials. See... Baby Roasting Monk Caught Tricking Women Into Sex

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Fighting Talk - Living Fast

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 20/07/05 - White Collared

  • Am Johal - The Battle for the West Bank and East Jerusalem

  • Michel Chossudovsky - War Crimes and the "Just War" Theory

  • Ernest Partridge - The Wayward Media

  • Madan P. Khanal - Nepal: Drifting In A Sea Of Doubts

  • Kamala Sarup - Terrorism Increasing - Leaders Are To Blame

  • Narconews - Weaver: Where Is Luis Posada Carriles?
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown & Ors - Public Address 19/07/05 - Sound And Light

  • Biff Guevara - B. Guevara: Divination & The Art of Being Winston

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Iraqi Children Want Peace

  • Seymour Hersh - Did Washington Try to Manipulate Iraq's Election?

  • Jim Mullins - Deceptions Longstanding and Growing

  • Narconews - Wagers & Risks in the Zapatistas' 6th Declaration

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Sanjay Upadhya: Nepal - The Realignment Race
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  • Keith Ng - Public Address 18/07/03 - Two Titanics

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside With Rosalea: Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • John Roughan - John Roughan: From Law Maker to Project Funder!

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - Iranian Ambassador Accuses Bush Of Interference

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Corruption Increases Terrorism

  • Narconews - Vivanco Attacks Telesur: The Airwaves Are Falling

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Abuse, What Abuse?

  • Narconews - Law Enforcer Indicted After Exposing Illegal Abuse

  • Narconews - Narconews: Bigwood - Mycoherbicide Redux
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Where Rosalea Gets Bloggy W'It

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations (Politics): War on the Human Spirit

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Women In Iraq War Continue Victims

  • Stirling Newberry - Stirling Newberry: Peak Olives

  • William Blum - The Anti-Empire Report July 14, 2005

  • Toni Solo - The Importance Of Haiti – Camille Chalmers

  • Bob Fitrakis - Voter Registrations Shredded in Hocking County OH?

  • Dave McArthur - Bonus Joules: White is Black
  • 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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  • Russell Brown & More - Public Address 14/07/05 - Various Informations

  • Krishna Singh Bam - Nepal: Searching For The Silent Majority

  • Norman Solomon - The Fake Optimism of Washington's Warriors

  • Evelyn Pringle - Evelyn Pringle: TeenScheme Sets The Record Wrong

  • Marjorie Cohn - Marjorie Cohn: No War Criminal for Supreme Court

  • Sam Smith - Sam Smith: Born Again Economics

  • Biff Guevara - Biff Guevara: Billboards, Billboards Everywhere...

  • David Swanson - Dragging the Media Down Downing Street

  • Good Returns - Review: How to Maximise your Property Portfolio
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Damien Christie - Public Address 13/07/5 - Death & Taxes

  • Madan P. Khanal - Nepal: Maoist-Khmer Rouge Comparisons

  • Bill Berkowitz - Berkowitz: Tony Perkins' Family Research Council

  • Kelpie Wilson - Kelpie Wilson: Energy Bill Heads to Conference

  • Between The Lines - Call to 'Stay the Course in Iraq' Echoes Vietnam

  • Between The Lines - Iraqi Union Activists Call for End of Occupation
  • Che Guevara,
courtesy of marxists.org. 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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  • John Roughan - John Roughan: More About SIG Than RAMSI!

  • Sheila Samples - Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?

  • Narconews - Del Castillo: Independent Media in Colombia

  • BuzzFlash - Killing America by Claiming Failure as Success

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Gitmo's Forgotten Soldier

  • Adam Keller - The Onions Were Needed in Bil'in and Tel-Aviv

  • Uri Avnery - The War of the Colors

  • Narconews - A US "Human Right" to Buy Venezuela Elections

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepalese Maoists: Caught In Their Own Craftiness
  • 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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  • Ramzy Baroud - Sharon’s Disengagement & Unlearned History Lessons

  • Norman Solomon - Beware the "War on Terror"

  • Narconews - Bolivia Balkanized - Aid to Haiti Coup Regime

  • Narconews - COHA Libels the Zapatistas

  • Kamala Sarup - Women Have Been Exploited & Authorities Are Silent
  • 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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  • Thom Hartmann - Supreme Court - Possible "Fascist" Play

  • Bill Berkowitz - William Greene's Angry Rapid Response Machine
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  • Paul Buchanan - On Special Ops Military Investment

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - G. Cora Fraser: Palestine's Tree of Life Is Dying

  • Narconews - Narconews: A Bouquet from George Sanchez

  • Evelyn Pringle - Tax Dollars Pay For Vaccine-Damaged Kids

  • Dave McArthur- Bonus Joules: When Is A Hole Not A Hole?
  • 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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  • Dan Hopsicker - UQ Wire: San Diego Witness Threat

  • Che Tibby - Public Address 7/7/05 - Right Ways Familiar Habits

  • Ramzy Baroud - Arab Media Reinvented Yet Unchanged

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: Portal to East Jerusalem

  • Kamala Sarup - After September 11, The World Has Changed

  • Madan P. Khanal - Democracy, Dissent And Demagoguery

  • Krishna Singh Bam - Bush Doctrine Faces Crucial Test In Nepal
  • 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
    MORE:
    Bill Berkowitz - William Greene's Angry Rapid Response Machine

    Gaza
Strip. 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
    MORE INDEPENDENCE DAY COMMENT:

  • Bernard Weiner - Rove, Supremes & A Silent Scream

  • Ernest Partridge - Hinges of History

  • Paul G. Buchanan - Cracks In The Façade

  • Kamala Sarup - US Independence Day
  • 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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  • William Fisher - The Plight of NGOs in Egypt

  • William Fisher - Charlie Wilson’s War

  • Ivan Eland - U.S. Govt. Should Stop Meddling in the Oil Market

  • Narconews - Conroy: Ex-DEA El Paso Chief Slams U.S. Attorney

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - Thai Beheadings Copycat Iraqi Slayings - Minister

  • Between The Lines - Giant September Anti-War Protests in Washington
  • 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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  • Anne Else - Letter from Elsewhere: A Right Old Family Fight

  • No Right Turn - F**k Iraq, Part IV

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Anything Good On TV?

  • Scoop Reader Op-ed - Career Of A Chemical

  • Narconews - Friedsky: Authentic Media from Below in Bolivia

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Miasma Of Maoist-Mainstream Alliance
  • 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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  • Scoop - Scoop Images: Russell Brown In Black & White

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 29/06/05 - A Very Big Day For Me
  • 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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  • Jack Dalton - More Talk As Veterans Continue to be Left Behind

  • Toni Solo - Bolanos, Chavez: A Tale Of Two Presidents

  • Patricia L Johnson - Defending and Advancing Liberty a.k.a. Deprivation

  • Kamala Sarup - Financial Reforms In Nepal

  • Mary Pitt - First Light

  • Bob Fitrakis - Open Letter to J. Tanner, Voting Section, U.S. DoJ

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - Shulamit Aloni: Holy insanity

  • Uri Avnery - Arik's Horror Show

  • John Chuckman - Cartoon: George Bush Grows Up

  • Narconews - Rovai - Scent of a Coup in Brazil

  • Stirling Newberry - The December Decision

  • William Fisher - Hoping For A Miracle

  • John Chuckman - Canada's Blessings, Including Gay Marriage

  • Narconews - Zapatistas Decl..: "How We Are Going to Do It"
  • 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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  • John Chuckman - Drowning In Filth
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  • Tze Ming Mok/David Slack - Public Address 01/07/05 - Go Team

  • William Rivers Pitt - The Supremacy of the Super-Citizen

  • Lynn N. Hargis - When China Owns Our Utilities

  • Vincent L. Guarisco - They Celebrated A Pipeline - We Mourned

  • narconews.com - Day 3 of Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance"

  • Kamala Sarup - 1000 Peace Women Organization Is Building Peace

  • Bill Berkowitz - How the Mighty Have Fallen

  • Madan Prasad Khanal - Nepal: The True Obstacle To Reconciliation
  • 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
    MORE:

  • William Rivers Pitt - The Bush Speech Drinking Game

  • David Swanson - Bush's Speech, Let's Count the Lies
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Ramzy Baroud - Washington’s Prospective Policy in the Middle East

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Making a Friend of Thought

  • Kamala Sarup - The Nepal China Economic Relationship
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Between The Lines - Patriot Act Expansion Jeopardizes US Constitution

  • Narconews - Day Two of Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance"

  • Harvey Wasserman - America's True Patriot Act

  • Krishna Singh Bam - Nepal’s Neighbors: A Study In Contrast

  • Narconews - Narconews: Welcome, Comrade Mary Anastasia O'Grady

  • William Fisher - Long Before Woodstein

  • Wasserman & Fitrakis - Dems Prove They're Unworthy
  • 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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  • No Right Turn - Don Brash & The Politics Of Division

  • Scoop - PM's Definition Of Mainstream Kiwi Wider Than Dr Brash's
  • 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?
    MORE:

  • World Tribunal on Iraq - Findings Of Jury of Conscience

  • Dahr Jamail: - World Tribunal for Iraq Testimony
  • 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’
    MORE:
    Toni Solo - Toni Solo: "Debt" - Remaking Procrustes Bed

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Ivan Eland - Negotiations with Iraqi Rebels Are a Good Start

  • Patricia L Johnson - Patricia L Johnson: Soul Searching Sole Contracts

  • Kamala Sarup - The Risk Of Terror Is Higher In Poverty

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Deepening Uncertainty Amid U.S. Dilemma
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • David Slack & Ors. - Public Address 27/06/05 - Hatchings

  • Ramzy Baroud - EU States Also Need To Deal with Israel

  • Uri Avnery - The Day After

  • Daniel Patrick Welch - Is Gotham Worth Saving?

  • Sheila Samples - The Fantastical World Of Studley McMuffin

  • Harvey Wasserman - Wasserman: What Matters About Rove Is He's Evil

  • Rosenfeld & Fitrakis - DNC 2004 Election Report

  • Kamala Sarup - Nepal: Fight Poverty to Eliminate Terrorism

  • Narconews - Weaver - Terrorist Posada *Is* U.S. Policy

  • Evelyn Pringle - Thimerosal & Autsim - Kirby's Evidence of Harm

  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Will Disengagement Turn Gaza Into A 'Big Jail'

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Capitol Kabuki

  • Narconews - Telzer: Investigate This... If They Let You
  • 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)

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Kelpie Wilson - Kelpie Wilson: Exponential Enrons Ahead

  • Sandeep Pradhan - Nepal: Managing A Merger With India

  • Bill Berkowitz -Bill Berkowitz: Black-bag jobs in the Heartland

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: No War, Peace Please

  • Narconews - Gary Webb's Dark Alliance Returns To The Internet

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: More Republican Double-Talk
  • 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

    
Holidaymakers at GITMO-By-The-Sea enjoy a free supervised
exercise regime 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Narconews - The False Narco-Smear Against the Zapatistas

  • Kamala Sarup - Peace Activism Failed?

  • UQ Wire - UQ Wire: Sibel Edmonds – An Appeal

  • UQ Wire - UQ Wire: Iran Denies Assisting Al Qaeda

  • Green Left Weekly - Bolivia: The Second Gas War

  • Kamala Sarup - Go To Nepal And Enjoy Its Beauty
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Stephen Knight - Kyoto Protocol Working
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Jason Leopold - Someone Tell Bush Iraq Wasn't Responsible for 9/11
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Bernard Weiner - Shallow Throat: Cornered Animals Are Dangerous

  • Rosemarie Jackowski - They Had a Coup d'etat and We Weren't Invited

  • Narconews - Terrorist Posada Caught by Authentic Journalists

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Belated Acknowledgment Of Key Contradiction

  • Jack Dalton - Jack Dalton: Something Evil This Way is Coming
  • Che Guevara,
courtesy of marxists.org. 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Keith Ng/Graham Reid - Public Address 21/06/05 - The Dance Of Secrets

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations (Politics): Et tu, EU?

  • John Roughan - John Roughan: Solomons' Spirit World!

  • Between The Lines - Military Spending Cuts Could Enhance Security

  • Between The Lines - Latino Youth Targeted as Recruitment Falls Short

  • Ivan Eland Americans Waking Up to the Failure of Iraq Policy

  • Jack Dalton - Jack Dalton: Suicides in the Ranks

  • Sheila Samples - Sheila Samples: A Matter Of Education...
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Mark Drolette - Mark Drolette: Dems forget first rule of C.Y.A.

  • Scoop Link - Salon: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Deadly Immunity

  • Ramzy Baroud - Ramzy Baroud: Shared Destiny, Shared Defiance

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Women Hate War

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: Death by Israeli Checkpoint

  • Evelyn Pringle - E. Pringle: TeenScreen Sets Up Shop In Illinois

  • Evelyn Pringle - Medicare Prescription Drug Bill - Countdown To '06

  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Yasser Abu Moailek: Anarchy looms in Gaza again
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Marjorie Cohn - Cohn: Bush Plays Politics with Guantanamo "Gulag"
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 17/06/05 - Grrr ...

  • Narconews - Bolivia Calm, Northern Mexico Under Siege

  • Kamala Sarup - Rape Increases, Where Is The Law?

  • Madan P. Khanal - Nepal: Clarity, More Than Condemnation, Needed
  • 
Holidaymakers at GITMO-By-The-Sea enjoy a free supervised
exercise regime 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Steve Weissman - Weissman: Dean, His Democrats, and Mr. Bush's War

  • Kamala Sarup - Maoists' Deaths And Extremism

  • John Chuckman - All Bush, All The Time, For The Rest Of Your Life

  • Gale Bullock - Gale Bullock: Weekend Reading On Realty Reality

  • Alun Fosta - Robbing Peter, And Now “Joe Kiwi,” To Pay Paul
  • 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

    Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Don’t Ignore Real Sovereignty Issue

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 15/06/05 - Hot!

  • Dahr Jamail - Dahr Jamail: State Sponsored Civil War

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations Awakening to the Sacred

  • William Fisher Bloody Sunday And Beyond

  • Between The Lines - Bolivia's Poor Indigenous Population Rises Up
  • 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
    MORE:

  • John Cory - We Love Howard Dean

  • Thom Hartmann - Dean Just Told Them The Truth
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - US Veteran Deported From Laos For Assisting Rebels

  • Chip Pitt - Democracy in Action?

  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen - The Law Suits Begin

  • Yasser Abu Moailek - Employed Women Find More Suitors In Gaza

  • Paul Levy - Roll On A Collective Awakening

  • Ramzy Baroud - France: No to Neo Liberalism

  • William Fisher - Hate Crime Grows

  • Kamala Sarup - HIV/AIDS Contributes to Instability

  • Uri Avnery - Three in a Bed
  • 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
    MORE POLITICAL COMMENT:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 10/06/05 - What Are They Smoking?
  • 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
    EARLIER:

  • Vaca Diez Steps Down, Bolivia's Congress Meeting

  • First Death in Bolivian Conflict

  • Narconews: The Bolivian Earthquake Continues

  • Zero Hour in Bolivia: What to Watch for Today

  • Thursday Brings a New Assault on Power in Bolivia

  • For much much more see... Full Coverage: Bolivia's June Revolution

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Mark Drolette - In A Land Of Sausage Brains, Suspect The Wurst

  • Iain Parker - Scoop Reader Opinion: Race Relations

  • Jack Dalton - Who's Got the Money? It Sure Isn't Veterans

  • Krishna Singh Bam - Nepal: Ominous Activism Across The Southern Border

  • Norma Sherry - Norma Sherry: Suffer the Little Children

  • Peter Cresswell - Peter Cresswell's 'Not-PC': Greens and Dreams

  • Kamala Sarup - UNHCR And Bhutanease Refugees?

  • John Chuckman - Cartoons: Fat America & Laura On Newsweek
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Steve Weissman - The Anti-Christ and I

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations (Politics): Iraq Comes to My Backyard

  • Dahr Jamail - Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches: Who Cares?

  • Sonia Nettnin - Iraq Museum’s DG Lectures about Antiquities
  • 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"

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Tze Ming Mok - Public Address 08/06/05 - Banana Battle

  • Bernard Weiner - Karl Rove's Diary: Escaping the Lame-Duck Trap

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Republicanism: How About A Real Public Debate?

  • Ernest Partridge - Ernest Partridge: The Fall of the House of Bush

  • Dave Crampton - Big News: The Right to Abortion Challenged

  • Bob Fitrakis - Bob Fitrakis: Deep Throats and Stolen Votes

  • Harvey Wasserman - Fundamentalist Attack On Church & State Separation

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: More Terrorists?

  • Ivan Eland - Economics Vital for Lasting Russian Freedom

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Gulag, Shmoolag

  • Bill Berkowitz - Bill Berkowitz: Paying To Play
  • SCOOP DOMESTIC COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 07/06/05 - Lounge Weekend

  • No Right Turn - Asylum for Chen Yonglin

  • Rosalea Barker - Stateside: Fat Pipe Mama

  • John Roughan - Strengthen The State BUT Build The Nation Too!
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Between The Lines - AI Call For Prosecutions Of Officials For Torture
  • 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?

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Ramzy Baroud - My Grandpa’s Right of Return

  • Marshall Auerback - "Bretton Woods II" - Monetary System or Excuse

  • Greg Palast - French Fried Friedman

  • Antony Wright - The New Great Game

  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen Top Pusher - Laurie Flynn

  • Between The Lines - Posada Carriles Case Exposes Bush Double Standard

  • Kamala Sarup - Nepali Peoples' Land Mines Deaths

  • Narconews - Hispanic Feds Seek Conroy Investigation

  • Bill Berkowitz - Laura-Palooza

  • Toni Solo - CAFTA - Some Like It Hot

  • Kamala Sarup - Winning A Peace

  • Kidd Millennium - Cartoon: Head's Up

  • William Fisher - Emmett Till And Others

  • Uri Avnery - The Bogeyman

  • Kelpie Wilson - Oil on Ice – Director Interview
  • 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

    American Taliban? 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Peter Cresswell - Dick Hubbard’s Meddling; Rodney on Property Rights

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 03/06/05 - Very Much On

  • Julie Webb-Pullman - Julie Webb-Pullman: Party Games For Terrorists

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Sanjay Upadhya: Crystal-gazing Through The Crisis

  • Norman Solomon - Norman Solomon: War Made Easy - Vietnam to Iraq

  • Kamala Sarup - Living Standard Increases Are Technologies

  • Narconews - In Defense Of Narco News Journalist Bill Conroy
  • 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

    Image
courtesy of the White House: Richard M Nixon. 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
    MORE:

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: A Watergate Perspective

  • Jason Leopold - Watergate Proves That Even Presidents Break Laws
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 02/06/05 - Perverse

  • Alun Fosta - Hewers Of Wood And Drawers Of Water

  • Green Left Weekly - Sarah Stephen: Mandatory Detention Must Go!

  • Marjorie Cohn- Enforcing US Human Rights Laws

  • William Rivers Pitt - Breaking - Water Remains Wet

  • Bernard Weiner - GOP Swept from Power in 2006

  • Toni Solo - CAFTA - Adios Made-in-the-USA ?

  • Madan P. Khanal - Dangerous Delegation Of American Diplomacy

  • W. David Jenkins - UQ Wire: Forget 9/11 - Just For a Minute

  • Narconews - A Suspenseful Wednesday in Bolivia

  • Evelyn Pringle - Vaccines Did & Do Cause Autism
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Ivan Eland - Ivan Eland: Avoid Threatening China Over Currency

  • Narconews - The People Take La Paz

  • Kamala Sarup - Protection Of Peace Through Education & Media

  • Narconews - U.S. Govt. Support for the Venezuelan Opposition

  • Marc Ash - Marc Ash: John Bolton Is Not a Moderate

  • Dipta Shah - Dipta Shah: Policies for Nepali Decision-Makers

  • David Swanson - Media Black Out Downing St Minutes
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Bev Conover - Memorial Day Should Be Renamed Mourning Day
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Scoop Link - Guardian(UK) - When The Wells Run Dry

  • Public Address - 31/05/05 - Good Times And Violence

  • Kamala Sarup - Poverty Eradication Through Media Is Possible?

  • Jean-Pierre Desmoulins - They Just Said, "NO!!"

  • Narconews - More Marches In Bolivia, Protests Widen
  • 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
    MORE VIEWS FROM THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES:

  • Uri Avnery - Uri Avnery: Buying Off The Settlers

  • Eldad Kisch - Notes From The Peace Camp
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • William Fisher - Progressive Islam - Not An Oxymoron

  • Ghali Hassan - Media Disinformation and the Iraqi Resistance

  • William Fisher - Why Rumsfeld Should Go

  • Narconews - Narconews: Zetas Burn Media's Script in Drugs War

  • John Roughan - John Roughan: Getting Rid Of Poverty!

  • Kamala Sarup - War Is Hateful But Is Peace Possible?

  • Norma Sherry - Norma Sherry: Is This All There Is?

  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen - Who Pays For Treatment & Drugs?

  • Narconews - After a Truce, More Mobilizations en Bolivia
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Bob Fitrakis - Illegal Hocking County Board Of Elections Member?

  • Molesworth and Featherston - (Lobby Edition) – 26/5/05

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - It's Israel's Racist Apartheid Wall, Stupid

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations (Spirituality): The Retreat Industry

  • William Rivers Pitt Exploit the Rift

  • Peter Cresswell - Not PC: Shania, Michael Cullen and Bad Law
  • 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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  • Russell Brown - Public Address 26/05/05 - Hot Shots

  • Narconews - Giordano: Customs Cops Visit Narconews' Conroy

  • Narconews - 2 Rebel Soldiers Worry Bolivian Social Movements

  • Kamala Sarup - Responsible Media and Peace Process

  • SpinWatch - David Miller & Gill Hubbard: Naming The Problem

  • Guest Opinion - American Militarism: Is The USA Addicted To War?

  • Guest Opinion - Democracy, Diplomacy And Destablization

  • Bob Fitrakis - Fitrakis: Fired OH Election Board Staffer Defiant
  • 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
    MORE:
    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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 25/05/05 - Foreign Kool

  • Ernest Partridge - What a Friend We Have in Jesus!

  • William Rivers Pitt - Take the Long Way Home

  • Marjorie Cohn - Marjorie Cohn: The Vietnam War is Over

  • Ivan Eland - The Harvest of Messianic Foreign Policy

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Peace Process Needed in Nepal
  • 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
    EARLIER:

  • Freepressed - Newsweek To Remove Spines From Future Publications

  • Greg Palast - Palast: Cowardice in Journalism Award for Newsweek

  • John Conyers - Push Back on the White House Newsweek Scam
  • 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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  • Russell Brown - Public Address 24/05/05 - You Had To Be There

  • Marjorie Cohn - Close Guantánamo Prison

  • Between The Lines - Jane Goodall IV: Endangered African Forest Areas

  • Kamala Sarup - Will Good Govt. Minimize Terrorism?

  • Steve Weissman - When Neo-Cons and Theo-Cons Meet at Armageddon

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Conundrum Of Closeness

  • Fitrakis & Wasserman - Attack On Election Board Whistleblower In Ohio

  • Sheila Samples - The Wrong Man...

  • Evelyn Pringle - Bush Texas 2 Step - TeenScreen & TAMP
  • 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
    MORE:

  • John Chuckman - A Breath Of Fresh Air Sweeps Into Hell

  • Will Pitt - Short Tales from Bizarro World

  • George Galloway - Complete Testimony of At US Senate
  • 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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  • Public Address - Public Address 23/05/05 - Strange Things

  • Sonia Nettnin - Jayyous Gate 25 Reopened

  • Leuren Moret - Berkeley 2002 Resolution Sweeps Through Canada

  • Mark Drolette - Is Fascism Really All That Bad?

  • Madan Prasad Khanal - Nepal - Fact And Fiction

  • Kamala Sarup - Economic Progress Requires Reconstruction

  • Ramzy Baroud - Battling the Windmills While Iraq Burns

  • John Roughan - Masks, Hoods And Threats Won't Do It

  • Scoop Link - 1 Trillion Missing - DoD Waste Under Fire

  • Bernard Weiner - The Secret "Percentages Agreement"

  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen Causes Suicide? How?

  • Stirling Newberry - Neo-Victorian America?
  • 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
    MORE:
    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
    MORE:
    Greg Palast - Palast: Cowardice in Journalism Award for Newsweek
    John Conyers - Push Back on the White House Newsweek Scam

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Two Kinds of Learning

  • Richard S. Ehrlich - Call For Info On Corrupt U.S. Bomb-Detector Deal

  • Mark Drolette - Not-So Endearing Enduring Military Bases In Iraq

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Israeli Isolation Wall Ensnares Jews

  • Kamala Sarup - With Love We Can Win The War

  • Spinwatch.org - David Miller: How To Spin The G8

  • Robert Higgs - Fear: The Foundation of Every Government's Power
  • 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
    MORE:

  • W. David Jenkins III - W. David Jenkins: Tools and Fools and Scapegoats

  • Media Intel. Coverage Reflects Imperial Presidency

  • For Much More coverage of the "Downing Street Memo" see Scoop's IRAQ WAR FEATURE

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Democracy Now - Interview: Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man

  • Bernard Weiner - Current Events For Dummies, May 2005 Edition

  • Bill Berkowitz - Tom Delay's Right Arm

  • Stirling Newberry - End The Cold War Economy

  • Kamala Sarup - Attacks In School Must Be Stopped

  • Guest Opinion - Nepal A Rare Opportunity To Strengthen Sovereignty

  • Ramzy Baroud - The Palestinian Uprising: A Force To Reckon With

  • narconews - New Protests In Bolivia - The Stage And Its Player

  • narconews - U.S. Air Force to Build More Counterdrug Sites
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Lou Garvey - Family break-up – a King Hit for Opposition?
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • John Roughan - John Roughan: Solomons A Fragile State?

  • Jim Shultz - Jim Shultz: Gas Issue Ignites Bolivia Once Again

  • Greg Palast - Greg Palast: Ecuador Gets Chavez'd

  • Jay Shaft - Jay Shaft: Concrete Is Cold And Hard At Night

  • Sam Smith - Sam Smith: New Headlines Every Fifteen Minutes

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Eco-Tourism - Making Nepal Unique
  • 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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  • Jason Leopold - BP Faces Fines Over Unreported Alaskan Oil Spills

  • Sonia Nettnin - Jayyous Gate 25 Closed to Palestinian Farmers

  • Mary Pitt - They Shoot Cats, Don't They

  • Surendra R Devkota - Bargain Between Guns And Democracy In Nepal

  • William Fisher - Whistleblower's Career Over

  • William Blum - Anti-Empire Report, No. 21, 13/5/05

  • Uri Avnery - Death of a Myth
  • Paul Buchanan 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
    MORE:

  • Scoop - David Benson-Pope Denies Tennis Ball Sadism
  • >
  • Govt. - Minister rejects allegation of assault
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Bill Berkowitz - Amway - 'Masters of deception'

  • Kamala Sarup - Governments Have Failed To Save Women's Lives

  • narconews - Anti-Drug War Demo in Argentina & Narco-Economics

  • David Bacon - CAFTA'S Vision - Privatization At Gunpoint
  • 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

    Click
to view Scoop's War Images coverage 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Is There Such a Thing as True Hope?

  • Charles Shaw - Full Spectrum Accountability

  • Norman Solomon - Political Bluster & The Filibuster

  • William Rivers Pitt - One of These Days

  • Carolyn Baker - An Anti-American Terrorist Movement

  • Green Left Weekly - A Detention System Out Of Control
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal - Mixed Message Of Moderation

  • Guest Opinion Opinion: Stop Equating Activism With Absolutism
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 11/05/05 - Top News!

  • Between The Lines - Bush vs Peace Movement - Lessons from Vietnam

  • Sam Smith - The GOP And Media Filibuster The Facts

  • Kamala Sarup - Marriage Is Still Causing Discrimination To Women

  • narconews - Sandinista Son & Iraq War Veteran Camilo Mejia

  • Jay Shaft - The Endless Funeral Procession
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Ivan Eland - Patriots Should Worry More about Freedom at Home

  • Public Address - 10/05/05 - Prophecies Of Doone

  • narconews.com - Narconews: Plan Colombia Aid & the Paramilitaries

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: The Downside Of The Internet
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 09/05/05 - It's A Gas

  • Uri Avnery - "Aren't You Ashamed?"

  • Green Left Weekly - US Rolls Out Red Carpet For Darfur’s Executioner

  • John Roughan - Guale Politicians Blew It!

  • Bill Berkowitz - The Minutemen And The Media

  • Bill Berkowitz - Deathbed Dollars

  • narconews.com - US Soldiers Selling Arms to Colombian Paramilitary
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 06/05/05 - Friday Flash

  • Molesworth and Featherston - (Lobby Edition) – 5/5/05

  • John Chuckman - The Peculiar State

  • Kamala Sarup - Impact of Terrorism on Press Freedom

  • William Fisher - The American Press - How Free?
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 05/05/05 - Oh Bovver

  • Glenn Peoples - Glenn Peoples: Greens Treat Students As Pawns

  • Mary Pitt - Tea With Aunt Tildie

  • Kamala Sarup - Govts And NGOs Fail To Address Sex Trafficking

  • Narconews - The Haiti Democracy Project Is Not So Democratic

  • John Chuckman - Canada's Emerging Politics Of Destruction

  • GLW - Iraq: Making A Killing - The Big Business Of War

  • 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?
    RELATED:
    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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Breakthroughs in Human Consciousness

  • William Rivers Pitt - Stand Up Next to a Mountain

  • Ivan Eland - Bush Bluster Exacerbates Nuclear Proliferation

  • Kamala Sarup - There Are No Reproductive Rights For Women

  • Between The Lines - US Industry Resists Fuel Efficiency Standards

  • SpinWatch.org - David Miller: UK Election Spin Mostly Underground

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Poem: Israel Rules

  • Bernard Weiner - Open Letter to U.S. Troops Serving in Iraq
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Am Johal - Am Johal: Oil And Palestine - The New Cold War

  • Greg Palast - Greg Palast: Ground Zero-Zero-Zero

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Cynicism Amid Competing Visions

  • Between The Lines U.S. Media Fails to Hold Govt. Accountable

  • Kamala Sarup - Beijing Conference Did Not Empower The Poor Women
  • 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?

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • William Rivers Pitt - Crawling King Snake Returns

  • Bob Fitrakis - The New Mack Daddys: Pimpin’ The Poor

  • John Chuckman - Cartoons: Blair

  • Fiona Rae & Keith Ng - Public Address 02/05/05 - Mysteries

  • narconews - Ecuador, Mexico to the OAS

  • John Roughan - John Roughan: Brush with Death!

  • Doug Giebel - Saving Jane Fonda: America Held Hostile

  • Bill Berkowitz - Bill Berkowitz: Schlussel Carves Up Marla Ruzicka

  • narconews - Mexican AG Resigns as Fox Backs Down

  • Mark Drolette - Mark Drolette: Star-Struck And Proud Of It

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Your Tax Dollars At Work

  • narconews - Colombia Proxy For Attack on Venezuela?

  • David Swanson - David Swanson: U.S. Out of Iraq Forum

  • Kamala Sarup - Armed Conflict Takes Several Forms On Women
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Sol Salbe - Savage Attack On Peaceful Palestinian-Israeli Demo

  • Peter Cresswell - Bush Right, Dover Wrong, Fighting Talk Wasn't

  • Public Address - Public Address 29/04/05 - Absolute Lashings!

  • Kamala Sarup - Will Social Transformation Reduce Conflict?

  • narconews.com - New State Dept. Warning on Mexican Border

  • Marietta Gross - US Guidelines for Embryonic Stem Cell Research
  • "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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • narconews.com - Marching Against The Desafuero In Mexico City

  • Bob Fitrakis - How Blackwell & Petro Saved Bush’s Brain

  • Kamala Sarup - A Nation At War & Human Trafficking

  • Green Left Weekly - Latin America In Revolt

  • David Swanson - Al Gore Attacks "Right-Wing Religious Zealotry"
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Public Address - Public Address 27/04/05 - Destiny's Child

  • Marjorie Cohn - Right to Choice under Nuke Attack

  • Marietta Gross - Indigenous DNA, Brain Scans, Marburg & Stem Cells

  • Bernard Weiner - The 2006 Election Is Happening Right Now

  • Between The Lines - Campaign To Abolish The Death Penalty

  • Bill Berkowitz - Crusader for a Christian nation

  • Angie Pratt - An Extremist By Any Other Name is Still Extremist

  • Ehrlich - Suffocation Inquiry - Senior Thai Officers Guilty

  • Kamala Sarup - War Threatens the Earth (World Earth Day special)

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Princes of Palestine - A Grim Fairytale

  • Eland - Evidence US May Be Losing Global War on Terror

  • Ernest Partridge - What Can We the People Do About Election Fraud?
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Mark Drolette - Even Two Boots Is Two Too

  • Evelyn Pringle - Bush-Backed Drug Marketing Schemes

  • William Rivers Pitt - Filibusted?

  • W. David Jenkins III - How Bad Do Things Have to Get?

  • Ramzy Baroud - US Middle East Policy: Heedless But Unequivocal

  • Stirling Newberry - Rove's Revolution: Bash, Break and Borrow

  • Sheila Samples - They Were Young Once, And Fit

  • Kamala Sarup - When Media Advocate Terrorism

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal: Denunciation Gives Way To Deliberation
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Cuban Govt - Guantánamo, A Moral And Legal Black Hole
  • 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?
    MORE:

  • Bill Berkowitz: Pope Benedict XVI's Questionable Qualifications
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Molesworth and Featherston - (Lobby Edition) – 21/4/05

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 22/04/05 – Jesus' Ipod

  • Peter Cresswell - Women & Nuclear Environmentalists

  • UQ Wire - Sibel Edmonds Case Roundup - Links

  • David Swanson - A Nation Is Not a Father or Mother, But Our Child

  • Douglas Mattern - From Earth To Space, There’s No Biz Like War Biz

  • Scoop Link - Scoop Link: Guardian - The End Of Oil Is Close

  • narconews.com - NarcoNews: Del Castillo - US Soldiers in Colombia
  • 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
    EARLIER:

  • Martin Lally - A Review Of The Wellington V8 Car Race Proposal

  • Scoop - Wellington Gets ‘Rarked Up’ By V8 Race & V8 Supporter Clueless About Race Deal Details
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Think Globally and Act Globally

  • Mary Pitt - An Epidemic Of Feelinglessness

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 21/04/05 - Leapfrogging

  • Bernard Weiner - What Does "Progress" Mean?

  • William Blum - Anti-Empire Report, April 19, 2005

  • Green Left Weekly - Venezuela: People's 2002 Coup Victory Commemorated
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Russell Brown - Public Address 20/04/05 - Fisking, Feminism, Etc.

  • John Chuckman - Chuckman Cartoon: American Nosferatu

  • Kamala Sarup - Small Arms Control Big Responsibility

  • William Rivers Pitt The Theocrats

  • BuzzFlash.Com - Buzzflash Interview: Riverbend
  • 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.
    MORE REVIEWS:

  • Sonia Nettnin Film Review: Women in Struggle
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Between The Lines - 2004 Presidential Election Legitimacy Investigated
  • MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Evelyn Pringle - Ken Kramer - Crusader For Kids Against TeenScreen

  • Ivan Eland - Reforming Homeland Security Department is Unlikely

  • Marjorie Cohn - Bully Bolton Threatens National Security

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Nepal - Perils Of International Ambivalence

  • Kamala Sarup - Don't Attack Schools

  • Bill Berkowitz - Homegrown Terrorists And Homeland Security

  • narconews.com - Narco News Turns Five

  • SpinWatch.org - New Labour Banish Victims Of Racism From Lancaster
  • 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
    MORE:

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: More Advice For Karen Hughes
  • 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?

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Public Address - Public Address 18/04/05 - Totally Real

  • Guest Opinion - The Carter-Baker Election Commission

  • narconews.com - Protests in Ecuador Against President Gutiérrez

  • narconews.com - U.N. in Haiti; African Palms & Terror in Colombia

  • Julie Webb-Pullman - Julie Webb-Pullman: Talking Turkey at UNCHR

  • Mark Drolette - Pointless Political Parlor Game, American-Style

  • Ramzy Baroud - Gaza - The Line Of Memory & Despair

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Civil Society And Peace

  • Khagendra Thapa - Why US Support For The King Of Nepal Is Important?
  • Scoop
Image: Ahmed Zaoui in Wellington. 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Martin LeFevre - Meditations: An Inquiry into Evil

  • Dog Skin Report - Sleepwalking To Disaster In Iran

  • GLW - US Students Kick Military Recruiters Off Campus

  • Sheila Samples - Pornographic Celebration Of Death

  • Kamala Sarup - Bhutanese Refugees And The Int’l Community
  • 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
    MORE:

  • Scoop - Wellington Gets ‘Rarked Up’ By V8 Race

  • Scoop - V8 Supporter Clueless About Race Deal Details

  • Marian Hobbs - V8 public meeting at Paramount Theatre
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • No Right Turn - No Right Turn: Gearing Up For Privatisation

  • Sonia Nettnin - See... Addameer Speakers Tour for Palestinian Prisoners

  • Jerzy Mankowski - View From Poland: Jeffrey Sachs' Millennium Plan

  • Ernest Partridge - Means, Motive, Opportunity

  • Kamala Sarup - Trafficking Of Women
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Evelyn Pringle - TeenScreen - Angel of Mercy or Pill-Pusher

  • Bill Berkowitz - Bill Berkowitz: Rehearsals For The Rapture

  • Ivan Eland - Ivan Eland: Coexisting with a Rising China?

  • Robert Higgs - Higgs: How Many Divisions Does the Pope Have?

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Pulling Nepal Back From The Precipice

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: Nickels And Dimes
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Sam Smith - Sam Smith: Seventh Day Agnostics Arise

  • Am Johal - Am Johal: Israel's Citizenship Law To Be Renewed

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Communism Or Terrorism?
  • Ahmed Zaoui -
Scoop Image by Kevin List. 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Ramzy Baroud - Palestinian Struggle - Reality vs. Rhetoric

  • Translation by Sol Salbe - IDF Breaks Ceasefire Kills 3 Youths Playing Soccer

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Israeli Belligerent Named As Refugee Commissioner

  • Norman Solomon - Beyond The Narrow Limits Of News Coverage

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Peace In Women's Terms
  • 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

    MORE SCOOP COMMENTARY:

  • Bill Berkowitz - Berkowitz: Viguerie's Army Attacks Social Security

  • William Fisher - William Fisher: Listen Up, Karen Hughes

  • narconews.com - Black Thursday '05: A Coup Begins Today in Mexico

  • Kamala Sarup - Nepal And Bangladesh, A Strong Relationship

  • Genevieve Cora Fraser - Israel Strategic Advantage & ME Center At Brandeis

  • Angie Pratt - It's Time For Democrats to Go On The Offensive

  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: India-Nepal Relations and Maoists

  • W. David Jenkins III - W. David Jenkins: God Must be Mad as Hell
  • 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:

  • Mary Pitt - Mary Pitt: Michael Shiavo - A Hero For This Time
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  • 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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  • Ivan Eland - Ivan Eland: Bureaucratic Buffet to Fix U.S. Intel.
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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:

  • Sanjay Upadhya - Monarchy And Modernization Not Mutually Exclusive
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  • truthout.org - Stirling Newberry: American Thermidor
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friends in  Auckland. 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

    John Tamihere. 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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  • Kelpie Wilson - Kelpie Wilson: Going Geo-Green
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  • John Tamihere. 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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  • Kelpie Wilson - Kelpie Wilson: Going Geo-Green
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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:

  • Sanjay Upadhya - SOS in the Himalayas
  • Kamala Sarup - To Prevent Internal Refugees Is To Prevent War
  • Kamala Sarup - Operating A Successful Democracy Is Not Easy
  • Richard Ehrlich - Nepal's Seeks US Help To Squash Maoist Rebellion
  • Kamala Sarup - Nepali People Can Live Peacefully
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  • Steve Weissman - If You Believe in Freedom, Step Aside
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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:

  • William Rivers Pitt - Dictators, Tyrants and Fools
  • Edith Fletcher - Edith Fletcher: A Picture Of Indecent Exposure
  • 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:

  • Steven Hass - UQ Wire: Religion And 9-11
  • 9/11 Truth Movement - UQ Wire: Letter To Transport Sec. Norman Mineta
  • 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

    TV3’s John
Campbell 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

  • Kidd Millennium - Kidd Millennium Cartoon: Expolosive Expose
  • Angie Pratt - Angie Pratt: Why the Democrats Have to Obstruct
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  • Between The Lines - Haitian Lavalas Party Crippled, Many Detained
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Campbell 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

    One Of The Late
Karl Linns 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

    The Fall Of
Baghdad 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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  • Russell Brown - Public Address 18/03/05 - The Expat Files 1
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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:

  • Jim Peron Interviewed On Peters Parlt. Allegations
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  • Public Address 10/03/05 - Yet Again
  • 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

  • St Molesworth - Top 10 ways Labour plans to lure young NZers back
  • Russell Brown - Public Address 16/03/05 - Good Lives
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  • Professor Jane Kelsey 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

    Condeleezza Rice and Karen Hughes<b> 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 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:

  • Lynn Landes - Paper Trails Aren't Good Enough, Count The Ballots
  • Link - Hackers May Have Won Bush Office: Kerry's Wife
  • 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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  • John Roughan - John Roughan: Mending Broken Relationships
  • Kidd Millennium - Cartoon: Let Them Eat Cake
  • Vincent L. Guarisco - Don't Fall Victim to America's Cash Crop: War
  • Blogwatch - Xymphora: Italian Journalist Wanted Dead By US
  • Robert Higgs - Robert Higgs: A Template for the U.S. War in Iraq
  • Bill Berkowitz - Bill Berkowitz: God, Government And Gingrich
  • Kamala Sarup - Kamala Sarup: Women Trafficking And Conflict
  • 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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  • Bill Grigsby - Bill Grigsby: Who Owns The Ownership Society?
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  • Mark Bradley - Mark W. Bradley: You Be The President!
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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

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  • 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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