Chomsky: Under Nuremburg Bush a War Criminal

Top US General in Mid East says we're Headed for WW3

Army General John Abizaid compared the rise of militant ideologies, such as the force driving Al Qaida, to the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

"If we don't have guts enough to confront this ideology today, we'll go through World War Three tomorrow," Abizaid said in a speech titled The Long War, at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge.

Listen to The Osama Show by Paulo Ribeiro here!

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The Osama Show is the Funniest Podcast Ever

Gotta Subscribe to it!
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Israeli killings pass unnoticed

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority seven months ago, despite the low number of Israelis killed by Palestinians during that time.

Palestinians, already subject to occupation by the Israeli military, have been killed at a rate of 26 Palestinians for every Israeli killed since Hamas took power on March 29, 2006.

Since July that ratio has risen to 76 Palestinians for every Israeli.

Though the mainstream media still reports on a "conflict" between "two sides", over the past seven months it has simply been a slaughter.

The Arab League has criticised the United States for blocking a UN Security Council resolution that sought to condemn Israeli actions in the Gaza Stri

The US used its veto to halt the draft resolution, sponsored by the Gulf state of Qatar, that criticised the Israeli tank shelling of a home in Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in which seven children and four women were killed as they slept.

Amr Musa, the Arab League secretary general, said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the US move and said: "This veto will only increase anger."

Now that Rumsfeld is gone, let's remember this future war criminal in his cuter moments

Why the Neocon Movement Is Dead

In one of the largest, "throw the bums out" elections, ever, Republicans have lost control of the House & Senate. Harper's Conservatives need to reinvent themselves or they too, will get a thumpin. If they don't change the playbook their message will fall on deaf ears.

For the last 30 years the staple of conservative attacks has been "they will tax & spend". In the last 15 years or so they added "they are morally corrupt". A heap of scandals and shocking revelations later, it becomes clear that no political party can claim to be morally superior and the Liberals have a better track record over the last 20 years of running the economy.

People won't believe the same lines anymore. Not unless there's substance to it.

If neocons want to survive they have to make a few changes that can best be summed up as: become libertarians. At least it's a consistent fluid belief system. Not what they have now: an unholy alliance of economic conservatives, libertarians, & the religious right. First thing: drop the religious right. Religion and politics don't mix. People increasingly regard their religious belief system as deeply personal and not public. Too many issues religion interjects into politics are wedge issues. I don't buy that you are more moral than me because you go to Church. And with all the sex scandals that have taken the high and mighty down from their towers, the public's not willing to trust someone who makes a point of showing how holy they are.

If Stephen Harper doesn't accept gay marriage he will not win. The public doesn't want to go over the issue because frankly, there are more important issues out there, so accept that gays can marry and move on. And don't try to make it into some kind of "civil union" - gays want the same rights and the majority of the public agrees.

But the achilles heel for conservatives has to be the environment. Conservatives are in danger of being seen as backwards buffoons for denying the overwhelming science surrounding climate change. Harper: the science is in. We must reduce human carbon emissions, develop an energy strategy, decrease our consumption of fossil fuels now. The weather is fucked up and anyone can tell you that. More people have asthma & weird breathing disorders than ever. Commercial fisheries will collapse in 50 years or less and your government people know it. You need to have a real policy. Like what you did with the GST. You lowered the tax. Now all you gotta do is lower the pollution.

What you need to do is make a Madonna esque transformation. Drop the ideologue. Don the pragmatist. All the great leaders in history knew about that. The only bad thing they can call you for that is a waffler but these days that gets a lot more cred, than staying the course, which sounds a lot like how Einstein defined insanity.

Maybe the Conservatives can develop a policy that harnesses the power of the profit motive, like the suggestion in the US to take impoverished areas and designate them "enterprise zones", tax havens to seek investment for development & employment. (If only someone ever enacted this idea we might know if it can succeed but alas, just another platitude). Environmentalists will support a clear plan to hit specific goals (short term & long term, like in... Kyoto, for example).

Support Kyoto and get the US to do the same. The economy won't collapse. In fact, it will be saved from an impending global depression if we don't get off fossil fuels that are running out, killing our air & water, & fuelling wars & regimes all over the place.

If the conservatives can find a way to address these key issues, they might have a future. There's a guy in Canadian politics who has at times demonstrated the right balance of pragmatism and principle, and whether you like him or not, he's someone the conservatives can learn the most from. His name: Jack Layton.
Too bad he can't get elected.
More on this later.

Cheney to spend Election Day hunting

Vice President Dick Cheney is going on his first hunting trip since accidentally shooting his companion earlier this year.

Cheney will work at the White House on Monday morning and then head to South Dakota to spend several days at a private hunting lodge near Pierre, his press secretary said. He will be accompanied by his daughter, Mary, and his political director, Mel Raines, who will help him keep track of the election returns.

Musharraf proposes mechanism to reconcile Muslims, non-Muslims

President General Pervez Musharraf on Monday proposed the establishment of an international dispute mechanism to resolve the political issues of the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

President Musharraf proposed this at the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) and urged the United States and the European Union (EU) to play active roles in solving the lingering Palestine issue, which is negatively affecting world peace.

“The Palestine issue has become the core issue of the Muslim world and has led to war in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Musharraf addressing the second WIEF on Monday on the topic of ‘Challenges for Muslim Leadership in a Globalised World’. The president stressed the need for resolution of the Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan issues as imperative to world peace, which, in turn, would guarantee economic development in the world.

Musharraf also stressed the importance of Muslim countries empowering women – both politically and economically – in their efforts to develop.

He said it was easy to tackle terrorism, but very difficult weed out the roots of extremism, adding that that extremism could be curtailed by resolving the Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan issues.

The president also requested the EU to step forward and play an active role in resolving the political issues of the Muslim World.

Musharraf said that to solve its problems, the Muslim Ummah would have to adopt a path of enlightened moderation.

“We need to inform the world about the reality of Islam,” he told the meeting, adding, “Semiliterate clerics who hold sway over the masses (have contributed) to the rise of extremism in the Muslim world as opposed to moderation. This is the unfortunate reality because this is the critical malaise which spawns terrorism.” President Musharraf also called for an Islamic Economic Union and Islamic Fund to develop the economies of poor Muslim countries and also called for the restructuring of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Islamic Development Bank.

More

Toddler gets travel ban, arrest warrant

A two-year-old boy was briefly banned from boarding a Turkey-bound flight in the United Arab Emirates after his name appeared on a list of wanted suspects, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Emirates Today said the boy's passport details, including the date of birth, matched those in an arrest warrant. The reason for the mix-up was not known.
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AUSTRALIA might be facing the worst drought in one thousand years

Speaking at the conclusion of an emergency water summit in Canberra, South Australian Premier Mike Rann said that experts from the Murray Darling Basin Commission feared that the drought may be even worse than a one-in-one-hundred-year event.

Prime Minister John Howard said the assessment was sobering, but added it was an observation at the end of a formal report rather than a scientific conclusion.

But premiers were adamant that the figure had been raised and it pointed again to the urgency of dealing with global warming.

The meeting decided that contingency planning would begin to secure drinking water if there were insufficient autumn rains in 2007.

More

All indications point to a return of Ortega

Preliminary results give Daniel Ortega about 40 percent of the vote, which is enough to defeat four other candidates and avoid a runoff. Election watchdogs also see victory for the man who has run in every presidential election since losing office 16 years ago. But no one is conceding defeat.

The U-S is also holding off. But Washington is threatening to cut aid to Nicaragua if Ortega returns.
Ortega insists he's changed from the days when he was a Marxist fighting a U-S-backed insurgency. Now 60 and balding, Ortega's fiery rhetoric was toned down. He's even promising to keep good relations with the White House.

Despite call, Rumsfeld will stay

An editorial in a family of newspapers read largely by a military audience calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation is more likely to result in his digging into his office rather than leaving it. "Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go," states the editorial that appeared Monday in the Army Times.
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Hamas and Fatah Leaders in Government Talks

Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya failed Monday in their efforts to finalize a deal on a national unity government but planned to try again on Tuesday, aides said.

In another development, Israel began withdrawing tanks and other armored vehicles late Monday night from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli forces entered the town six days ago to halt Palestinian rocket fire and clashed daily with Palestinian militants.

It was not clear if all or just some of the Israeli forces were leaving, and the Israeli military did not immediately comment.
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Just in Time for Holiday Season: Tie Domi on How to Decorate a Table

Harper Promises to Not Tax Income Trusts and Rick Mercer Explains Why Canadians Pay Taxes

Harper Lied. Again.



At Least Rick Mercer Tells it Like It Really Is

Bush fakes Spanish

Ex-defence adviser attacks Bush

A key US proponent of the invasion of Iraq has now said that devastating dysfunction has turned US policy in the country into a "disaster".

Richard Perle, a former defence adviser to the Bush administration, told US magazine Vanity Fair the president was responsible for the failure.

Mr Perle's comments come just three days before the US mid-term elections.

The neo-conservative said in hindsight he probably would not have advocated the invasion of Iraq.

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Microcredit campaign launches new goal of reaching 175 million of world's poorest by 2015

Three weeks after a Bangladeshi economist won the Nobel Peace Prize for revolutionizing banking for the poor, his followers said Wednesday they're determined to help 175 million people living on less than US$1 a day get small loans by the end of 2015.

Organizers of the Microcredit Summit Campaign had intended to reach its initial goal of 100 million people by last December, but fell short by about 18 million.

Still, 82 million people have recieved the loans since the campaign was launched in 1997. And that credit — to purchase basics such as a cow for milk or a mobile phone to sell calls — has improved the lives of 410 million family members, said Campaign director Sam Daley-Harris.

An estimated 1 billion of the planet's people live on less than a dollar a day; another 3 billion are believed to subsist on $2 (€1.57) a day, or half the world's population.

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Harper Stands up EU Summit to Avoid Critcism Over Lack of Environmental Policy

Harper was supposed to take part in a Canada-EU summit in Finland at the end of November, but cancelled out, citing the need to stay close to home because of his government's fragile minority status.

EU officials are upset that Harper won't attend the summit even though he'll already be in the region, The Globe and Mail reports.

Critics suggest Harper backed out in order to avoid tough criticism he would have faced at the summit.

European leaders are upset with the Harper government for abandoning goals set under the Kyoto Protocol in favour of their controversial new Clean Air Act.

The Conservative legislation sets no short term targets for reducing emissions.

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Fisheries on the Brink of Collapse, Canada Won't Ban Bottom-Trawling

Canada's fisheries minister agrees with the authors of an international study that found world fish stocks are threatened with extinction.

However, Loyola Hearn insists Canada should not be pressured into signing on to an all-out ban on bottom-trawling, which environmentalists say causes ruin to fish habitat.

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World ozone meeting spares US big cuts on banned pesticide

Nations working to save the earth's protective ozone layer agreed yesterday to let the United States use thousands of tons of the pest-killing chemical methyl bromide. The decision applies to methyl bromide use for 2008 on American crops such as strawberries, peppers, and tomatoes. "This agreement is bad news for the ozone layer and bad news for our health," said David Doniger, climate policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He linked the decision to additional cancer and illness caused by radiation that comes through the hole in the ozone layer.

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Former Head Of World Bank Identifies Costs of Climate Change

Sir Nicholas Stern was commissioned to write a landmark report on climate change, amid growing fears about the human and economic cost of global warming. Stern, an internationally regarded economist, spent more than a year examining the complex problem. The conclusions: climate change is fundamentally altering the planet; the risks of inaction are high; and time is running out.

Out of this enormously complex report comes a simple conclusion: human activity has raised the amount of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

Stern uses the standard scientific measure to show how the amount has risen from 280 parts per million (ppm) before the industrial revolution to 430ppm now. The gas traps heat and has caused the Earth to warm by more than half a degree, with a further half degree at least to come over the next few decades.

If carbon emissions continue as they are, the level will reach 550ppm by 2050 or sooner. Scientists believe this will drive global average temperatures to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It could also release natural stocks of carbon from the soil or permafrost, making the situation worse.

Summary

Carbon emissions have already increased global temperatures by more than 0,5 degrees Celsius.

With no action to cut greenhouse gases, we will warm the planet another two to three degrees Celsius within 50 years.

Temperature rise will transform the physical geography of the planet and the way we live.

Floods, disease, storms and water shortages will become more frequent.

The poorest countries will suffer earliest and most.

The effects of climate change could cost the world 5% to 20% of GDP.

Action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the worst of global warming would cost 1% of GDP.

With no action, each ton of carbon dioxide will cause at least $85 of damage.

Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere should be limited to the equivalent of 450 to 550 parts per million.

Action should include carbon pricing, new technology and robust international agreements.

More Read the Stern Review on the economics of climate change

Ocean study predicts the collapse of all seafood fisheries by 2050

All species of wild seafood will collapse within 50 years, according to a new study by an international team of ecologists and economists. Writing in the Nov. 3 issue of the journal Science, the researchers conclude that the loss of marine biodiversity worldwide is profoundly reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants and rebound from stresses, such as climate change and overfishing.

"Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood," said study co-author Stephen Palumbi, professor of biological sciences at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station.

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Sandinistas' Ortega poised for comeback

Nearly three decades after coming to power behind the barrel of a gun, Washington's Cold War-era nemesis Daniel Ortega has joined hands with former battlefield enemies, changed his campaign colors from revolutionary red to peace-loving pink, and could be on the verge of an electoral comeback.

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The Founding Fathers of The US would have opposed the Iraq war

James Madison, the principal architect of the U.S. Constitution, noted in 1795:

“Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies. From these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, debts and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the dominion of the few.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

Similarly in 1821, John Quincy Adams stated the following about America:

“She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.... [America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty.”

Didn't you always know those preachy homophobic types were really just repressed all along?

In the US, there's another sex scandal involving someone from the "moral values" camp. His name is Reverend Ted Haggard and he just resigned as President of the organisation that represents evangelical Christians. He is a vocal proponent of "intelligent design" and a vocal opponent of gay rights. Now there are charges of hypocrisy that recall the Mark Foley scandal, as it is revealed the Rev was buying sex and crystal meth from a hot muscular "sensual massage" guy that puts ads in the back of weeklies.

In this clip from Jesus Camp, the documentary, The Rev lays out the angry christian law on gays, and adds some oddly prophetic and ironic comments at the end.

We should make gay bashers watch gay porn for hours on end, so they could get over their squeamishness and realise, it's a not a fuckin big deal, just a different combo of sticks and holes, and maybe they should be doing things like Jesus did, like showing love, feeding the hungry, offering comfort, healing the sick, promoting charitable works, and not preaching hate.

Horror or Whore:Witch is more Halloween

When did Halloween stop being about horror and start being about whore.

Its a comment I overhead a woman zombie say to her vampire friend on a bus last Halloween. We were crawling down a Granville Street packed with Vampy babes, with so much skin I felt like I was in the adult section. Dont get me wrong, eye candy can be a pleasant distraction on the bus. But its weird when the kiddies emulate these salacious costumes.

A friends 14 year old sister got a fake id to buy a sexy costume from the adult film+toy store. She said the lineup at each store on Granville ran down the sidewalk.

I wonder if this is something new. Is Halloween English North Americas Mardi Gras (Carnival). It seems like every womans costume is a sexy something, a sexy devil, a sexy witch, etc.

What I always liked about Halloween was that it allowed everyones inner freak to revel in an assumed identity fed by high doses of sugar. Halloween has always allowed plenty of room for sexy. The realm of vampires and monsters and many of the Halloweeny things could be sexy, one need only look at Pulp Magazine Covers of Old Comics to see how the image of sex lends itself to macabre and exotic haunted stories.

There are only a few general exceptions to the all halloween costumes are sexy rule. One is the zombie. The zombie is the truly asexual creature of Halloween and one of the more horrific. But the pure ghoulishness of zombies is not as fun as sexy costumes.

The ideal way to describe the tone of Halloween costumes for adults is a balance between the sexy camp of Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Horror of Evil Dead.

I have also noticed with this costume trend, that every other woman looks like Betty Page and there is nothing evil about that. Happy Halloween.

Something you cant wear on your t shirt at the airport

ماهر عرار‎

Harpers a Staller and a Phuckhead

Stephen Harper is being a fuckhead.
He is deliberately playing this stupid little game with the electorate. The government doesn't support but must take a stance on certain important issues (the environment, universal health care, aboriginal rights, etc). Harper's Clean Air Act is bullshit & everyone knows it - the timetable is loose and vague and long, and effectively stalls any improvement on minimizing human generated carbon. The legislation lacks a clear outline of how the 50 year goals are to be achieved. Harper needs to stop stalling & do something other than figure out more ways to cut taxes in top income brackets.
Canadians want to go back to the Kyoto Protocols, which is still the most clearly articulated international effort. Prime Minister Harper if he wished to form another government, should cease his unholy alliance with Christian extremists, purge the party of the most dogmatic Straussian neo-cons & propose more legislation that his own pollsters show are in line with what Canadians value (Health Care, Education, Safety, Not going to War, Child Poverty, etc.) Otherwise he may go the way that the Republicans appear to be going. Harper needs to stop copying Bush or roll over to face a reinvigorated we are everything to everyone Liberal party.
A meet is taking place between Harper and NDP leader E Jack Layton. Maybe something good will come of it, maybe Harper will turn around and offer something more substantial than that kind of dogmatic drivel churned out by the Smarmy & Smug Calgary Conservative Thinktanker Types, weaselly idiots who speak in sloganisms like Ezra Levant, or like mega-asshole and Iraq invasion defender David Frum, (who will go down in history as contributing greatly to the destablisation of the world and proliferation of weaponry by coming up with dangerous phrases for Bush like, Axis of Evil.)
The Canadian voters did not elect the board of The Western Standard, a right wing pundit driven publication. Harper! Stop fuckin around, this is serious. Our environmental problems require immediate & in some cases, drastic changes, new technologies, etc or else climate change may create conditions we are not suited to, or in other words, we go extinct.

Speaking of the US, even as October US deaths in Iraq top 100, and with most Americans now opposed to what has amounted to a totally futile effort and utter waste of resources, this Congressional midterm election has been so far anything but boring. Bush is trying to continue his ad hominem jingoistic scare tactic attack method saying America loses if Democrats win. Much like that other Bullshit phrase youre either with us or against us and lets not forget if you are against the war you are helping the terrorists.

Meanwhile, Maher Arar, a Canadian ilegally deported to Syria then tortured (in secret prisions contracted by the CIA & US military), still has not recieved an apology. Not from Canada. Not from the US. I doubt the US will do it. Hubris. Remember what George Bush 1 said in response to a question on whether the US should apologize for accidentally shooting down Iran Air Flight 655, in which all 290 passengers died. He said this: "I will never apologize for the United States, ever. I don't care what the facts are."

In Mexico, Oaxaca, the standoff between protestors and police forces grows more violent.
What the hell is going on with Mexico.

Eat turmeric & curry. Science shows it helps prevent inflamation, especially arthritis. Traditional Asian medicine has used Turmeric to treat inflammatory disorders for hundreds of years.

See how fast the US can blow billions fighting in Iraq

Taxpayers in United States will pay $378.0 billion for the cost of war in Iraq. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

• 107,796,841 People with Health Care or

• 6,435,412 Elementary School Teachers or

• 51,873,199 Head Start Places for Children or

• 161,204,628 Children with Health Care or

• 2,940,426 Affordable Housing Units or

• 38,024 New Elementary Schools or

• 62,398,244 Scholarships for University Students or

• 6,562,500 Music and Arts Teachers or

• 8,458,741 Public Safety Officers or

• 391,327,406 Homes with Renewable Electricity or

• 5,681,007 Port Container Inspectors

'Bring our troops home': Thousands turn out to support soldiers, denounce mission

Under the slogan "Support our troops, bring 'em home," as many as 500 demonstrators marched and hollered through the streets of downtown Ottawa yesterday, ending up at Parliament Hill to protest the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan and ask that the troops be pulled out immediately.

The Ottawa protest was one of many across Canada organized by the Student Coalition Against War, in which thousands demonstrated in a national day of action. Across the country, protests were held in 37 cities by antiwar groups, including the student coalition.

A total of 42 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed since the Canadian military deployed to Afghanistan in early 2002.

The protests came a day after a new poll conducted for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute found that 55 per cent of Canadians support "conventional combat missions" as long as the cause is just and progress is being made. The survey revealed that Canadians, although divided, were willing to send troops on dangerous missions as long as they believed in the military's goals.

Despite being passionate in their opposition to the mission by chanting things like "health care, day care, anything but warfare," and "not in our name," those who gathered made it clear they are in support of the troops.

Police storm Mexico's embattled Oaxaca

OAXACA, Mexico -- For months, outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to quell protests and violence in this city, opting instead to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff.

But after the deaths of an American and two local residents in protests on Friday, Fox sent in thousands of federal police who launched the first major offensive Sunday to end five months of unrest in a city that was once one of Mexico's top tourist attractions.

Armed with assault rifles and riot shields, the police stormed in, bypassing barricades, touching off fierce street battles and eventually taking back control of the city centre from protesters who had held it since May.

A human rights worker said a 15-year-old protester was killed but authorities did not immediately confirm his death.

As night fell, police seized control of city's central square, where the protests had been headquartered. Explosions could be heard regularly in outlying districts, as vehicles burned and demonstrators set off powerful fireworks.

Protesters said they had tried to contact the Interior Department late Sunday to negotiate, but were unable to reach anyone.

They also said electricity was cut to the radio station being used to transmit information to demonstrators.

Protest spokesman Roberto Garcia said 50 of their supporters had been arrested and police were searching houses, looking for leaders of the unrest. Human rights worker Jesica Sanchez said the 15-year-old boy was killed when he was hit by a tear-gas canister.

Earlier, as helicopters roared overhead, officers in black helmets entered the city from several sides, reinforced by armoured vehicles, trucks mounted with high-pressure water cannons and bulldozers. They marched up to a final metal barrier blocking the city centre, but pulled back as protesters armed with sticks attacked them from behind, hurling burning tires. The air filled with black smoke and tear gas.

Some demonstrators used syringes to pierce their arms and legs, then paint signs in their own blood decrying the police.

Protesters readied bottles filled with gasoline and other homemade bombs, but did not use them against police.

"I think their strategy isn't working," said protest leader Hugo Pacheco, who was leading a group against a column of police holding a position three blocks from the city centre. "I don't think this has worked for them because the people, we, the people, are right."

What began more than five months ago as a teacher's strike in this colonial southern Mexican city of roughly 275,000 spiralled into chaos as anarchists, students and Indian groups seized the central plaza and barricaded streets throughout the city to demand the ouster of Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Protesters accused Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election and using thugs to kill or crush political opponents. They say his resignation is not negotiable and they won't return home without it. The violence has driven tourists from one of Mexico's most popular destinations, forcing hotels and restaurants to close their doors.

Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector: Iraq War “Total Failure”

Meanwhile, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has issued some of his harshest criticism to date of the Iraq war. In an interview with a Danish newspaper this week, Blix calls the war “a pure failure.” Blix says although Saddam Hussein would still be in power had the US not invaded, “what we have gotten is undoubtedly worse.”

Rumsfeld to Media, War Critics: “Back Off”

Amidst rising criticism from Republican ranks and a deepening split with Iraqi leaders, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has issued a new message to critics of the Iraq war – “back off.” At a Pentagon briefing Thursday, Rumsfeld told reporters: "This is complicated stuff. It's difficult. We're looking out into the future. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty. So you ought to just back off, take a look at it, relax, [and] understand that it's complicated… but it will get worked out," he said. Rumsfeld’s comments come as increasing numbers of Republicans are calling for his dismissal. On Wednesday, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine said President Bush should have accepted Rumsfeld’s resignation when it was first offered. Republican Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio and Congressmember Anne Northup of Kentucky also called for Rumsfeld’s replacement this week. Northup said: "You cannot afford to lose the numbers we are losing now and just keep slugging away."

TV, film actors asked to take 25% pay cut

ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, said in a news release today that actor Gordon Pinsent, a member of the union's bargaining team, walked out of a meeting with film and television producers on Monday.

"Canadian producers told revered Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent and all Canadian performers that they deserve a 25 per cent pay cut, no residuals and worse working conditions," the union said in a statement.

"So Pinsent, at the front table of ACTRA's bargaining team, walked out of the talks on Monday."

(story cont'd)

Good news for civil rights: New Jersey court says gay couples have same rights as straight couples

PHILADELPHIA - New Jersey's high court stopped just short of legalizing gay marriage Wednesday, ruling that same-sex couples deserve the same rights as heterosexual ones, but punting the specifics to the Legislature.

Lawmakers have six months to expand the definition of marriage to include gay and lesbian couples or to come up with another term that carries the same weight.

The ruling resembles a 1999 Vermont Supreme Court decision that resulted in "civil unions" for same-sex couples. The Vermont court allowed lawmakers to reserve the term "marriage for the union of one man and one woman, but it required legislators to give gay and lesbian couples the same rights as married couples.

"Although we cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists in this state, the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our state constitution," Justice Barry T. Albin wrote for the New Jersey Supreme Court's majority.

Justice minister to review changes to anti-terrorism law

The federal government will review a court ruling that struck down part of the Anti-Terrorism Act and then see if an appeal is necessary, Justice Minister Vic Toews says.

Toews wants to study the Oct. 24 ruling, which he acknowledged "fundamentally" changes the definition of terrorism under the Criminal Code. Whereas terrorism once meant an act of public intimidation that was specifically fuelled by political, religious or ideological purposes, the motivation may no longer matter.

Critics say the decision to strike out the part of the law which deals with an accused's political, religious or ideological motivation may actually make the prosecution's job easier.

Liberal Derek Lee believes the clause including motivation should stay, or else the net would be cast too wide.

"A bunch of fishermen on their fishing boat trying to protect their fishing territory could in fact offend the anti-terror provisions of the code," he argued.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Douglas Rutherford severed the clause in the law dealing with ideological, religious or political motivation for illegal acts in the case against Mohammed Mohmin Khawaja, charged in connection with alleged involvement in a suspected bomb plot in Britain.

Rutherford found that the legal definition of terrorist activity explicitly tied terrorism to criminal activity motivated by beliefs, and infringed on key freedoms guaranteed in the Charter of Rights.

RCMP disputes Arar testimony???

Wayne Easter, the former solicitor-general who presided during the Arar ordeal, appeared to contradict earlier testimony from RCMP head Giuliano Zacardelli today when he answered questions at a commons committee.

“I was not informed that the RCMP had provided inaccurate information to the U.S.,” Easter told the MPs.

Easter said the issue was never raised with him by his American counterpart Attorney General John Ashcroft. Presumably when American investigators learned they had false information on Arar, Ashcroft would have been briefed on that information, Easter said, and he believes Ashcroft would have shared that with him.

“Attorney General Ashcroft…would have undoubtedly raised that point with me,” Easter said.
Asked whether he would have acted differently had he known earlier that Arar had no terrorist links, Easter said he didn’t want to answer hypothetical questions.

The committee is planning to recall Zacardelli to clarify his initial testimony and he will likely be asked about the contradictions provided today by his former political boss.

Canada Declares Afghan Hezb-i-Islami A Terrorist Group

OTTAWA, October 25, 2006 -- Canada has officially declared the Hezb-i-Islami party headed by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to be a terrorist organization. A written statement from Canadian Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said Hezb-i-Islami has joined forces with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, knowingly engages in terrorism, and seeks the overthrow of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The official designation as a terrorist group allows Canadian authorities to seize any assets of Hezb-i-Islami in Canada and prosecute anyone in Canada who knowingly helps it.

Canada won't be a 'dumping ground' for sex offenders, says Ontario Premier

TORONTO and OTTAWA -- Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty lashed out yesterday at a U.S. judge for using Canada as a "dumping ground" for a convicted sex offender.

Mr. McGuinty urged the federal government to try to overturn an unusual punishment that will allow a teacher convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old student to return to Fort Erie, Ont., where he lives with his wife and three children.

Under a plea bargain approved Monday by a New York State court, Malcolm Watson, 35, a U.S. citizen, will spend three years on probation in Canada and enter the United States only to report to his probation officer.

In Ottawa, Rob Nicholson, Tory government house leader, expressed frustration that opposition parties are moving slowly in passing a host of justice bills, including one that would raise the age of sexual consent across Canada to 16.

"As the member of Parliament for Niagara Falls and Fort Erie, I was infuriated to see an American court decision deporting an individual, an American citizen, back to my constituency, a 35-year-old individual who was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old," he said.

"In Canada, unless that person was in a position of responsibility or trust, that would be perfectly legal. So this is another example of where a bill like C-22, the bill to raise the age of consent for sex in this country to 16, should get the co-operation of all members of Parliament."

Quote of the Day: Gore Vidal quotes one of the Founding Fathers

Politicians in Washington of all stripes, whatever the occasion, love to quote the Founding Fathers. But there's one quote you'll never hear. It's from James Madison. He said:

"Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies. From these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, debts and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

Facts about Child Poverty in our Shrinking World

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.

The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.

“Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”

ccording to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year.

Costs for Iraq war pass 330 billion dollars!!!!

Check out the link.

Protest Staged at NOAA Over Global Warming

In Maryland, the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was the scene of a protest yesterday over the Bush administration’s handling of global warming. Two protesters occupied a ledge above the building’s front entrance and unfurled a banner reading: “Bush Let NOAA Tell the Truth.” Other protesters on the ground blocked and occupied the building's main entrance. The demonstrators accused the agency of ignoring and actively suppressing science that details the threat of global warming.

Blix Criticizes U.S. For Refusing to Sign Nuke Test Ban Treaty

Former UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix said Monday that the world needs to make clear to North Korea that they are not trying to overthrow the regime as they try to persuade North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons.

• Hans Blix: "It might be more useful to say: "Look here, we are not out for regime change here, that is for the Korean people and for you to do. But the world is very concerned if you move on with the nuclear weapons. And we the outside world are willing to try to create conditions where you don't need them. We can give you assurances, on paper, that you will not be attacked from the outside, and that we will not try to change your regime."

Hans Blix also criticized the United States for promoting a double-standard.

• Hans Blix: "Of course we all regret and even the Security Council condemns the tests, but we must remember then that they are condemned for doing something the US and other countries are reserving themselves the right to do. The United States has refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. They keep test-ban test-areas open in the United States, so here is someone telling Korea, 'you must not do that, but we of course might do so in the future.'”

U.S. Drops to #53 on World Press Freedom Index List

Reporters Without Borders has released its fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index and it shows the level of press freedom in the United States continues to fall. In 2002 the U.S. was rated as having the seventeenth freest press – now it is ranked fifty-third. Reporters Without Borders criticized the Bush administration for using the so-called war on terrorism to crack down on press freedoms. The report also criticized the United States for jailing journalists at home and abroad. Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf remains in a San Francisco jail for refusing to hand over video to the police. Al Jazeera camerman Sami Al Haj has been locked up at Guantanamo for over four years. Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held in Iraq since April. Neither Al Haj or Hussein have ever faced charges. Reporters Without Borders found that the nations with the freest press were Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands. North Korea was rated as the worst upholder of press freedom.

Increased chaos in Iraq, Bush changes course

On Monday Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said “We're on the verge of chaos, and the current plan is not working.”
The White House has been vague about how it is going to alter its Iraq policy but press secretary Tony Snow says that the president will no longer say he wants to “stay the course.”

65 Active Duty Soldiers Call for End of Iraq Occupation

The Bush administration is facing new opposition to the war in Iraq from within the U.S. military. For the first time since the invasion, a group of 65 active duty service members are formally asking Congress to end the U.S. occupation and bring the troops home. The soldiers are filing Appeals for Redress to members of Congress. Under the Military Whistle-Blower Protection Act active-duty troops can file and send a protected communication to a member of Congress regarding any subject without reprisal. One of the soldiers is Marine Sgt. Liam Madden of Rockingham Vermont who served in Iraq for seven months last year. He told a Vermont newspaper, "The war is being paid for by American people and they're not seeing any benefit from it, and neither are the Iraqi people. It doesn't make sense to me." The soldiers plan to publicly announce their campaign on Wednesday. Sgt. Liam Madden said they hope to collect two thousand appeals for redress and send them to Congress on Jan. 15 -- Martin Luther King Day.

NOW interview with Noam Chomsky

Noam discusses US foreign Policy in the run up to the election, Chavez, and news from the UN.
"Why is there a prolonged applause [when Hugo Chavez spoke at the U.N. last week]? Maybe it's because of the substance of what he said ... that the U.S. is a leading threat to peace in the world. That's not controversial."
Listen here.

Stop Genocide Now

Western pressure fails to move Sudan

Khartoum, expells UN envoy Jan Pronk because of comments made by Mr Pronk on his blog, janpronk.nl. A “somewhat bemused” Mr Pronk has been recalled to New York for talks with Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, and will not return to Sudan.

The decision to order Mr Pronk out of the country raises the stakes sharply in the long-running dispute with the world body over the crisis in the vast western province, where an estimated 200,000 have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes in 3½ years of government-supported mayhem.

Darfur rebels go on attack as all-out war looms

HAROUN Abdullah Kabir stepped from one bloodied corpse to another on the parched battlefield. He searched the soldiers' decomposing faces for an aquiline nose, fair complexion or fine, straight hair: telltale Arab features.

Instead Kabir, a field commander of the Darfur rebels fighting the Arab-dominated Sudanese Government, found among the fallen only the dark-skinned faces of southern Sudanese and Darfurians. He looked away in disgust...

Nobel for micro credit

The selection of Muhammad Yunus as this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize puts a long-overdue stamp of international recognition on a century-old global movement to fight poverty by making credit available to very poor people to let them trade and barter their way up the economic ladder with dignity.

Over the past three decades, Yunus, a university economist, accomplished the seemingly impossible in his native Bangladesh by organizing very poor villagers into five-member credit circles and extending microcredit - creative loans of less than $309 on average - to do things like build a house, get a fishing boat, buy farm tools or pay for goods sold door to door.

There's no collateral behind the loans: personal ties between circle members creates pressure to repay loans.

Yunus' organization, the Grameen Bank (Grameen means "village" in Bengali) has loaned more than $5.7 billion to more than 6 million poor people - 97% of them women - and inspired similar projects around the world.

Austrian Removes 'Sexist' Urinals

(AP) An Austrian businessman announced Thursday that he would get rid of urinals shaped like a woman's mouth from a public toilet near Vienna's national opera, after facing pressure from politicians who demanded their removal.

The urinals, which are located in the "Opera Toilet," a lavishly decorated public restroom, feature thick, lipsticked lips, a set of teeth and a bright red tongue.

"We think that it's tasteless, misogynistic and offensive," Marianne Lackner, media spokeswoman for the Vienna Department of Women's Affairs told The Associated Press.

No news is good news: A Reminder of the Conservative No Show

A nail in the coffin of women's equality?

Funding to women's organizations and other equality-seeking groups was begun in the Trudeau era with the philosophy that government should support those who would otherwise have little voice at the federal level.

by Judy Rebick
October 16, 2006

In early October, the federal government announced dramatic changes to Status of Women Canada that will, in effect, eliminate federal funding to feminist organizations in Canada. Combined with the removal of the Court Challenges Program, these changes will end the era of Canadian democracy that recognized the need for state funding to marginalized groups. The Harper government has taken us one more step toward U.S.-style “democracy” where only the powerful have access to government.

The administrative cuts to Status of Women have received the most attention in the media but the changes to the government agency's mandate are much more significant. The word “equality” has been eliminated from the agency's mandate replaced by the word “participation.” In addition, funding for lobbying and research, exactly what the agency always funded, is no longer permitted.

The First Casualty of War is Grammar: 5 Years Later

Terry Jones (of Monty Python), "The First Casualty of War is Grammar" (source)

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WHAT really alarms me about President Bush's "war on terrorism" is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? It's rather like bombing murder.

Imagine if Bush had said: "We're going to bomb murder wherever it lurks. We are going to seek out the murderers and the would-be murderers, and bomb any government that harbours murderers."

It's hard for abstract nouns to surrender. In fact it's very hard for abstract nouns to do anything at all of their own volition - even trained philologists can't negotiate with them. It's difficult to find their hide-outs, useless to try to cut off their supplies.

The bitter semantic truth is that you can't win against these sort of words - unless, I suppose, you get them thrown out of the Oxford English Dictionary. That would show 'em. Admittedly, the Second World War was fought against fascism.

But that particular abstract noun was cunningly hiding behind the very real Nazi government. We simply had to defeat Germany to win. In President Bush's war, there is no such solution. Saying "We will destroy terrorism" is about as meaningful as saying: "We shall annihilate mockery."

Moreover, in its current usage, terrorism cannot be committed by a country. When America bombed a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory under the impression that it was a chemical weapons establishment, that was stupid. But it was not an act of terrorism because the US Government did it officially. And it apologised for it.

That's very important: no self-respecting terrorist ever apologises. It's one of the few things that distinguishes legitimate governments from terrorists. So, it was difficult for President Bush to know whom to bomb after the World Trade Centre outrage.

If Bermuda had done it, then it would have been simple: he could have bombed the Bahamas. It must have been really irritating that the people who perpetrated such a horrendous catastrophe were not a nation.

What's more, terrorists - unlike a country - won't keep still in one place so you can bomb them. They have this annoying habit of moving around, sometimes even going abroad. It's all very un-American (apart from the training, that is).

On top of all this, you have no idea who the terrorists are. It's in their nature not to be known until they've committed their particular act of terrorism. Otherwise, they're just plain old Tim McVeigh who lives next door, or that nice Mr Atta who's taking flying lessons.

So, let's forget the abstract noun. Let's rename this conflict the "war on terrorists"; that sounds a bit more concrete. But, actually, the semantics get even more obscure. What exactly does President Bush mean by terrorists? He hasn't defined the term, so we'll have to try to work out what he means from his actions.

Judging by those actions, the terrorists all live together in "camps" in Afghanistan. Presumably, they spend the evenings playing the guitar and eating chow around the campfire. In these "camps", the terrorists also engage in "training" and stockpiling weapons, which we can obliterate with our cluster bombs and missiles.

Nobody seems to have told the President that the horrors of September were perpetrated with little more than a couple of dozen box-cutters. I suppose the US could bomb all the stockpiles of box-cutters in the world, but I have a sneaking feeling that it's still not going to eradicate terrorists.

Besides, I thought the terrorists who crashed those planes into the World Trade Centre were living in Florida and New Jersey. I thought the al-Qa'eda network was operating in 64 countries, including America and many European states - which even President Bush might prefer not to bomb.

But no: the President, Congress, Tony Blair and pretty well the entire House of Commons are convinced that terrorists live in Afghanistan. And what is meant by: "We mustn't give in to the terrorists"? We gave in to them the moment the first bombs fell on Afghanistan.

The instigators of September 11 must have been popping the corks on their non-alcoholic champagne. They had successfully provoked America into attacking yet another poor country it didn't previously know much about, thereby creating revulsion throughout the Arab world and ensuring support for the Islamic fundamentalists.

Words have become devalued, some have changed their meaning, and the philologists can only shake their heads. The first casualty of war is grammar.