Website / newspaper / journal / web based media updates: Feb 29th - Mar 6th

by ec Mon Mar 01, 2004 21:08

He called Bush an Asshole yesterday.

by eeeekkkk Mon Mar 01, 2004 23:42

Oh I tell you they make a pair, Shifty, guilty, left hand men/pointmen combined. Why would you believe a word?

Both could be president yet! I mean Taoiseach!

by Grevious Angel Mon Mar 01, 2004 23:53

.

by redjade Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:11

Understanding the sociology of the Tipping Point could help in our activism, me thinks....

.........

THE LAW OF THE FEW
There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them. With an epidemic, a tiny majority of the people do the work. Once critical factor in epidemics is the nature of the messenger. Messengers make something spread.
Word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication.....
http://www.alpern.org/weblog/stories/2003/02/20/tippingPointPowerLawsLinkedAndWeblogs.html

by redjade Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:45

raqi Shiite Leader Seyyid Ali Al-Sistani yesterday warned that he would call for an intifada (uprising) if American soldiers stayed in Iraq after the handover of power on June 30, 2004. He also insisted that there should be a significant role for the Shiite in the future administration of the country, as they make up the majority of the population.

http://www.zaman.org/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20040221&hn=5613

by redjade Tue Mar 02, 2004 12:08

what took Chavez so long??!
---

The Venezuelan government has announced that it is going to cease all training of Venezuelan soldiers at the School of the Americas (now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the controversial US military combat training school for Latin American soldiers, based in Fort Benning, Georgia.

The official announcement was made by Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel in an address to the Venezuelan National Assembly on Thursday, February 26, 2004. In an earlier meeting with a delegation of U.S. human rights activists, Rangel stated that the SOA/WHISC is a training school for dictators, torturers and terrorists, and a country such as the U.S., which considers itself to be a democracy, should not have such a school on it's soil. During a visit of religious leaders from the United States in Venezuela in January, President Hugo Chavez also spoke out against the SOA as he stated: "This school (the SOA/WHISC) deformed the minds of many Latin American soldiers, who from there went on to become dictators." (El Nacional, January 19, 2004)

by redjade Tue Mar 02, 2004 13:54

Bell Globemedia, Bertelsmann,Cablevision, CHUM Limited, Clear Channel Communications, Coca-Cola Corporation, Comcast, Disney, Dow Jones, Gannett, General Electric, Grinner's Food Systems Limited, Hearst Corporation, Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation, Mitsubishi, News Corporation, New York Times Corporation, PepsiCo, Rogers Communications, SONY, Time Warner, Tribune Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, Vulcan Northwest, Washington Post Company, Wendy's International, Inc., Yum! Brands, Inc.

and more!

by redjade Tue Mar 02, 2004 15:31

Electronic Freedom Ireland have launched a logo competition to judge a winning design that visually identifies an organisation that defends against infringement on the civil liberties of computer and Internet users. EFI emulates EFF, with articulate positions concerning free speech online, electronic voting, email and sms spam, employee surveillance, user monitoring, and electronic data retention.

by worried Tue Mar 02, 2004 16:36

at least till we've done the post-mortem on the last. which is why extensive trouble has not been reported in other places the last week, which maybe for better or worse are still with the same governments they had a fortnight ago.
:-)

by redjade Tue Mar 02, 2004 18:25

Los Alamos scientists are using computer simulations to gain insight into the nature of Islamist terrorist organizations.

"Borrowing tools from the field of computational economics and sociology, we are developing agent-based models that simulate social networks and the spread of social grievances within those networks," wrote Edward P. MacKerrow in the latest issue of Los Alamos Science.

"Our computer-generated 'agents' are humanlike, endowed with personal attributes and allegiances that statistically match the demographics of a specified region and, like people, interact with one another and response to societal pressures."

"We can expose our agents to a variety of determinants -- new government policies, different media exposure, economic pressures, and others -- and quickly generate hundreds of new scenarios."

The goal is to develop "a detailed understanding of the sociodynamics of militant Islamic terrorism," MacKerrow wrote.

See "Understanding Why -- Dissecting Radical Islamist Terrorism with Agent-Based Simulation" by Edward P. MacKerrow, Los Alamos Science, Number 28, 2003 (1.5 MB PDF file):


http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/las28/why.pdf
For no good reason, the full text of the latest issue of Los Alamos Science is not available on the Los Alamos web site. But a copy may be found here:


http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/las28/index.html

by mick Tue Mar 02, 2004 19:33

GLOVES OFF
Aims to bring a heterodox (marxian )analysis to current political and economic issues and to become a vehicle for increasing economic literacy among activists , journalists ,union militants and other workers in struggle.
Gloves Off wants to foster,promote and host dialogues and debates between and among economists critical of capitalism and people in political movements for social justice. It also wants to reach out to journalists searching for new paradigms for reporting and understanding issues in the economy and in the news.

http://www.glovesoff.org

by redjade Wed Mar 03, 2004 10:55

The government has been accused of undermining the international criminal court in the Hague by bowing to American pressure for a new extradition treaty.

The British decision has caused dismay among rights groups. It means anyone extradited from the US to Britain will not be handed over to the international criminal court.

The UK recognises the court, but the US has refused to accept it and has put pressure on many countries to prevent anyone in the US being sent for trial there. The court tries those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

The Americans object to any of their armed forces serving throughout the world being hauled before the court. They have seized on a need to renegotiate the US/UK treaty to push their agenda of not recognising the court. Britain would be, critics claim, in breach of its agreement with the rest of the European Union if it followed the US line - but extradition law is a grey area.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1160029,00.html

by redjade Thu Mar 04, 2004 11:52

'' UMBRELLA.net is a project exploring transitory or ad-hoc networks and their potential for causing sudden, striking, and unexpected connections between people in public and urban space. The project focuses on the theme of "coincidence of need", or how shared, yet disconnected activities can be harnessed into collective experiences. UMBRELLA.net examines how the haphazard and unpredictable patterns of weather and crowd formation can act as an impetus to examine coincidence of need networks. In particular, when umbrellas are opened and closed in public space. The project will attempt to highlight these informal relationships by creating a system of ad-hoc network nodes that can spontaneously form and dissipate based on weather conditions. ''

by redjade Thu Mar 04, 2004 12:21

DoD Announces Draft Detainee Review Policy

The Department of Defense today released a draft administrative review process memorandum.  This draft memorandum would establish an administrative review process to reassess at least annually the need to continue to detain each enemy combatant in the control of the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

[....]

The draft administrative review process memorandum is available on DefenseLINK at http://www.dod.mil/news/mar2004/d20040303ar.pdf.  It is important to note that these procedures are not final.  Also, as the memorandum notes, many of the provisions must be subject to the need to protect national security.  Accordingly, the department anticipates that the procedures may become more robust over time. 

Those wishing to submit comments regarding the draft administrative review process memorandum should fax comments to the Office of General Counsel of the Department of Defense at (703) 614-6745.  The Department of Defense intends to finalize and publish the memorandum in a few weeks. 

by redjade Thu Mar 04, 2004 14:53

War Resisters League creates this leaflet each year after the President releases a proposed budget. The figures here are from a line-by-line analysis of projected figures in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2005. The percentages are federal funds, which do not include trust funds such as Social Security that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2004, goes only to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds (the so-called “Unified Budget”) began in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. The government presentation makes the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.

“Current military” spending adds together money allocated for the Dept. of Defense ($431 billion) plus the military portion from other parts of the budget. Spending on nuclear weapons (without their delivery systems) amounts to about 1% of the total budget. “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt. Analysts differ on how much of the debt stems from the military; other groups estimate 50% to 60%. We use 80% because we believe if there had been no military spending most (if not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated. The government willingly borrows for war, but finds nothing extra for crises in human needs.

link found at:
http://www.nonviolence.org/articles/000289.php

by Phuq Hedd Thu Mar 04, 2004 23:38

A computer scientist's perspective on e-voting as he experienced it. Counterpunch.

by redjade Fri Mar 05, 2004 02:26

Salthill Air Show 2004 email update. We have three new confirmed displays to add to the display line up....

The Irish Air Corps have confirmed their new Pilatus PC-9M trainer aircraft and a CASA CN235-100MP Persuader.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force have confirmed an Agusta Bell AB-412SP Rescue Helicopter.


The total confirmed list for the 2004 Air Show is now as follows:

Garda Air Support Unit (Aircraft to be confirmed)
St. Ivel Utterly Butterly Wing Walkers
Irish Air Corps Pilatus PC-9M
Irish Air Corps CASA CN235-100MP Persuader
Royal Netherlands Air Force Agusta Bell AB-412 SP

That's it for now, any more confirmations will be announced on the website and via this email news letter.

Regards,

Frank & The Salthill Air Show Team

by redjade Fri Mar 05, 2004 02:33

COMING TO GRIEF | By Hans Johnson

Like the breeze of late winter, a single word,
unspoken, has rippled through the recent funerals of
several U.S. service members returned from Iraq.
Families and military press officers have different
reasons for tight lips on the topic. But suicide
among Iraq war soldiers, 29 cases by recent count,
says volumes about drooping troop morale and raises
further doubts about how accurately the toll on
service members is being measured and how much more
they will bear.

by %-) - knocking on the doors of the dark sinister castle. Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:33

just ten. as many as the full complement of toes afforded a hobbit.
Now not everyone can provide one of these votes, there very special. Only members of the €uropean Parliament may offer one of these votes, and only _10_ (=TEN) more votes are now needed.

So if you know a M€P, get onto the telephone/fax today and convince them to give that extra vote on th 9th of March 2004 against the proposed new legislation on intellectual copyright.

you may find a full list of M€P's at;
http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep5/owa/p_meps2.repartition?ipid=0&ilg=EN&iorig=&imsg=
with their party / ideological allegiance.

This is a resent appeal from Causa Encantada, the former occupied social centre of Galizia, "casa encantada" (=enchanted house) which after eviction {c/f http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/07/274850.html } became something else "the enchanted cause". & so too it is.
"minds that communicate by machine, some by telepathy though a bit slow this is who we are"
NO to intellectual copyright!
NO to genetic copyright!

by pat c Fri Mar 05, 2004 16:06

Miners' strike marked around Britain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3535069.stm
(Many interesting links at above URL. pc)

The 20th anniversary of one of the UK's longest and most bitter industrial
disputes is being marked on Friday. The miners' strike, which began at
Cortonwood Colliery, South Yorkshire, on 5 March 1984, will be remembered in
a series of events across the UK. The dispute, which revolved around pit
closures, lasted a year and saw violent clashes on the picket lines.

by diy Fri Mar 05, 2004 16:25

miners pics:-
http://www.strike84.co.uk/gallery.htm
discussion thread in the London Evening Standard, on squatted social centre in North London, the assembly have now succesfully resisted eviction, (they want to go of their own accord at an agreed date) and have expanded their activity to the disused buildings just down the road.
http://ichat.thisislondon.co.uk/messageboards/threadnonInd.jsp?forum=18&thread=208478&msgModOn=Y&threadModOn=Y&modOveride=N

and the Forests of France:-
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/03/286438.html
need translators.

by redjade Fri Mar 05, 2004 16:49

retired Gen. Tommy Franks at a Chamber of Commerce banquet in Salina, Kansas, during which Franks said that when asked if the number of American lives lost in Iraq has been too high, he responds: "If it costs 500, that's OK, or 5000, OK, or 50,000, that's OK with me."

by redjade Fri Mar 05, 2004 17:03

Jay Garner has a lot to say. He honestly reveals one of the primary reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and no, it wasn't WMD, it wasn't because of a grave and growing threat, and sadly, it wasn't to liberate the Iraqi people from an evil dictator. Noting how establishing U.S. naval bases in the Philippines in the early 1900s allowed the United States to maintain a "great presence in the Pacific," Garner said, "To me that's what Iraq is for the next few decades. We ought to have something there ... that gives us great presence in the Middle East. I think that's going to be necessary." So that's what Iraq is for! The Spanish America War redux!

Spanish America War
http://www.spanamwar.com/

by gdy Fri Mar 05, 2004 20:08

Racicot was quoted as " Senator Kerry crossed a grave line when he dared to suggest the replacement of America 's commander-in- chief at a time when America is at war," while implying that Kerry was a traitorous renegade. Just to remind the snide Racicot, Kerry happens to be a war hero. He has the medals to prove it. The Army doesn't award Purple Hearts out for catching syphilis, in some Mexican whorehouse, while guarding the skies of Texas from VC infiltrators.
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/warpresident.html

by redjade Sat Mar 06, 2004 13:18

Fear of Iraq Collapse in Iran-Iraq War Motivated Reagan Administration Support;
U.S. Goals Were Access to Oil, Projection of Power, and Protection of Allies;
Rumsfeld Failed to Raise Chemical Weapons Issue in Personal Meeting with Saddam

by redjade Sat Mar 06, 2004 17:25

In an enlightening letter written to his son, Christopher, in
1943, Tolkien vented his frustration with government and the
industrial age, “My political opinions lean more and more to
anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control
not whiskered men with bombs)… There is only one bright spot and
that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting
factories and power stations.”

by redjade Sun Mar 07, 2004 01:20

Iraq has a new generation of missing men. But instead of ending up in mass graves or at the bottom of the Tigris River, as they often did during the rule of Saddam Hussein, they are detained somewhere in American jails.


Although the insurgency has cooled, with suicide attacks against civilians now eclipsing armed clashes with American troops, American forces are still conducting daily raids, bursting into homes and sweeping up families. More than 10,000 men and boys are in custody. According to a detainee database maintained by the military, the oldest prisoner is 75, the youngest 11.

[....]

Often they were led away in the middle of the night, with bags over their heads and no explanation. Many people have said that when they asked soldiers where their family members were being taken, they were told to shut up. A few hundred women have also been detained. And complicating the families' searches, there are several major prisons and hundreds of smaller jails and bases across Iraq.


"It took the Americans five minutes to take my son," said Fadil Abdulhamid. "It has taken me more than three weeks to find him."


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/07/international/middleeast/07DETA.html
username: salon
password: tabletalk

by redjade Sun Mar 07, 2004 02:01

A new study by the International Labour Office (ILO) says the benefits of eliminating child labour will be nearly seven times greater than the costs, or an estimated US$ 5.1 trillion in the developing and transitional economies, where most child labourers are found.

What is more, the study (Note 1), conducted by the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), says child labour - which involves one in every six children in the world - can be eliminated and replaced by universal education by the year 2020 at an estimated total cost of US$ 760 billion.

"What's good social policy is also good economic policy. Eliminating child labour will yield an enormous return on investment - and a priceless impact on the lives of children and families", says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.