This is an excellent article: Dublin Riots: What Happened and Why

Push for Democracy Loses Some Energy

Rice bristled when asked if she was sending a signal that democracy had moved lower on the U.S. agenda. "I don't think that there can be any doubt that the United States remains strongly -- and I want to underline 'strongly' -- committed to democracy," she said. "We believe that people ought to be given a choice, and that when they are not given a choice, the pressures fill in unproductive ways."
...
In the Arab world, the impression left by Rice's trip -- which also included stops in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates -- was that she was on a mission to round up support to punish a series of U.S. enemies, such as Hamas, Iran and Syria. The campaign against Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, drew particular scorn because it was seen as hypocritical to want to punish a group that had achieved power through democratic elections. The United States and the European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

The skepticism in the region was reflected in the blunt questions posed to Rice by Arab journalists.

In Saudi Arabia, a female journalist, dressed head to toe in a black abaya , demanded: "How is it possible to harmonize the U.S. position as a nation supporting freedom of expression and the right of people to practice democracy with your effort to curb the will of Hamas?"

Egyptian Television's Mervat Mohsen also rattled off a series of tough questions. "American calls for democracy have unwittingly brought unprecedented support for the Muslim Brotherhood, but you're not happy with the Muslim Brotherhood in power," he said. "Is this some kind of designer's democracy then, Dr. Rice?"

First General Assembly of New York Metro Anarchist Alliance
New York City, March 4, 2006

Calling all anarchists, anti-authoritarians, grass-roots anti-capitalists, and fellow travellers!

The New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists is holding its very first General Assembly and you're invited.

Time: Saturday, March 4th, 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Place: Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (107 Suffolk Street, corner of Rivington Street), second floor.

NYMAA is a new anarchist organization that has been formed in response to the isolation, stagnation, and frustration felt by many anarchists and anti-authoritarians who live in the New York metropolitan area. We feel that in order for anarchism to truly spread and take root, anarchists need to band together for the purpose of initiating and nurturing a wide range of revolutionary projects. Our aim is to build a genuine culture of liberation and resistance that will ultimately be capable of rejecting the brutality of authoritarianism and domination.

As our organization is still in its infancy, the main function of this first General Assembly will be to bring people together in the same room in order to propose and begin concrete, coordinated anarchist activity through the formation of project-based working groups and geographically-based local unions. There will be ample time allotted for both casual socializing and facilitated discussion. Food and drink, as well as childcare, will be provided.

You can read more about NYMAA and familiarize yourself with its basic organizational structure (we strongly encourage this) at: http://www.anarco-nyc.net/nymaa.html

Proposals and other agenda items for the General Assembly are welcome. Please e-mail them along with any RSVPs (especially if you're bringing kids) to: nycfed-owner@lists.riseup.net

If you're unable to attend this General Assembly, we will be holding another one on April 8, so keep your eyes peeled for that announcement.

Blogger bares Rumsfeld's post 9/11 orders

Hours after a commercial plane struck the Pentagon on September 11 2001 the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by one of them.

"Hard to get good case. Need to move swiftly," the notes say. "Near term target needs - go massive - sweep it all up, things related and not."

The handwritten notes, with some parts blanked out, were declassified this month in response to a request by a law student and blogger, Thad Anderson, under the US Freedom of Information Act. Anderson has posted them on his blog at outragedmoderates.org.
...
Mr Wolfowitz, now the head of the World Bank, advocated regime change in Iraq before 2001. But, according to an account of the days after September 11 in Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack, a decision was taken to put off consideration of an attack on Iraq until after the Taliban had been toppled in Afghanistan.

But these notes confirm that Baghdad was in the Pentagon's sights almost as soon as the hijackers struck.

"Humiliation":

Nearly 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, the Human Rights First organisation has said ahead of publication of a new report.

At least 98 deaths occurred, with at least 34 of them suspected or confirmed homicides - deliberate or reckless killing - the group of US lawyers told BBC television on Tuesday.

Their dossier claims that 11 more deaths are deemed suspicious and that between eight and 12 prisoners were tortured to death.

Absurdity is now standard procedure:

Four actors who play al-Qaida suspects in a British movie that won a prestigious prize were detained by the police at Luton airport as they returned from the Berlin Film Festival and questioned under anti-terror laws, alongside two of the former terrorism suspects they play on screen.

But they're jealous of our freedom:

Number of U.S. prisoners serving life sentences with no parole for crimes they committed while juveniles: 2,225 [Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.)]
Number of prisoners serving such sentences in all other countries worldwide: 12

The great anarchist historian Paul Avrich has apparently passed away.

Pushing Middle Eastern democracy forward (into its grave):

The United States has asked the Palestinian Authority to return $50 million in US aid because Washington does not want a Hamas-led government to have the funds.

An overwhelming vote for reaction:

The Senate brushed aside an attempt to block renewal of the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act today, voting 96 to 3 against changes urged by Senator Russell D. Feingold, the act's most persistent critic.

"Civil liberties organisations expressed outrage yesterday after it was reported that the database of terrorist suspects kept by the US authorities now holds 325,000 names, a fourfold increase in two and a half years.

The list, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), includes different spellings of the same person's names as well as aliases, but the Washington Post quoted NCTC officials as saying that at least 200,000 individuals are on it. They said that "only a very, very small fraction" of that number were US citizens, but that insistence did little to defuse the reaction." (link)

Solidifying the dictatorship of simulacra:

The state House Committee on Universities, Community Colleges and Technology has approved a bill requiring public schools and universities around Arizona to hang an American flag in every classroom by July 1, 2007.

Um, wow.

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. -- Undercover sex is getting the OK from a Virginia sheriff.

Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith said he stands by the practice of allowing detectives to receive sexual services in the course of their investigations so they can catch suspects in the act.

Court documents show that four times last month, county detectives allowed women at a massage parlor to perform sex acts on them. In one case, a lawman left a $350 tip. Smith acknowledged the practice is not new.

Smith told The Washington Post that only unmarried detectives are allowed to do the under-the-covers work.

He said actual sex acts are needed to help win prostitution convictions.

"If I thought we could get the conviction without that, we wouldn't allow it," Smith told the newspaper. "If you want to make them, this has to be done."

He said most prostitutes are careful not to say anything incriminating, which makes sexual contact necessary

Several police officials and legal observers say the practice has been tried by other agencies across the country, but they knew of none that still permit sexual contact with suspects as part of prostitution investigations. But many police agencies across the country have banned sexual contact between investigators and suspects.

When police used similar tactics in the past in Montgomery County, Md., the charges ended up being dropped.

Brian Concannon Jr. - Chaos, Suppression and Fraud in the Haitian elections (if you can call them that)

... Mr. Preval did not run this year under the banner of the Fanmi Lavalas party, but with a brand-new party, Lespwa (Hope). Fanmi Lavalas boycotted the elections because the Interim Government of Haiti (IGH) refused to stop its persecution of the party, which included jailing dozens of political opponents, attacking anti-IGH protests and mounting murderous police raids in the poor neighborhoods that were the party’s strongholds.

But Preval’s victory was nonetheless delivered by the Lavalas base. Voters said as much to anyone who would listen as they waited to vote, afterwards, and in this week’s demonstrations. More tellingly, Preval won his landslide with almost no institutional support or even campaigning. The Espwa party is brand new, fielding candidates in barely half of the senatorial races. Preval received almost no formal endorsements, and did not even speak publicly until the last weeks of the campaign. He planned very few rallies, and many of these were cancelled after two events were violently attacked. But despite these handicaps, he won a landslide because the Lavalas base voted overwhelmingly for him (candidate Marc Bazin claimed the Lavalas mantle, but had the support of neither the party’s top leadership nor its base, and won less than 1% of the vote). ...

Doug Ireland - Kidnapped: Another Gay Iranian Torture Victim Speaks

As the Islamic Republic of Iran's lethal anti-gay pogrom -- the government's intense persecution of its own citizens for homosexuality, including the execution of at least a dozen young gay men -- proceeds at a terrifying pace, the victims of this oppression, despite great obstacles, continue to try to flee from the largest religious prison in the world to tell the story of the inhuman treatment they have suffered.

Someone send these people a dictionary with a post-it on the page with the entry for "democracy":

JERUSALEM, Feb. 13 — The United States and Israel are discussing ways to destabilize the Palestinian government so that newly elected Hamas officials will fail and elections will be called again, according to Israeli officials and Western diplomats.

The intention is to starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections to the point where, some months from now, its president, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election. The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement.

The officials also argue that a close look at the election results shows that Hamas won a smaller mandate than previously understood.

Okay, so they support democracy, and yet hijack democratically elected "governments" (under an illegal military occupation, even - so this is like crushing the weakest, most anemic, fradulent form of democracy imaginable, just think of what they'd do if real democracy broke loose, in which case of course they would not even exist), and give support to brutal dictatorships. "Democracy" means "obedient to the whims of the US and its allies."

With everything being this fucking obvious, how does the house of cards manage to stay up, despite whatever wobbling it may suffer?

New Abu Ghraib photos, which the American government is trying to prevent from being seen, can be seen here and here and here. Rush Limbaugh would no doubt compare them to normal incidents at frat parties of death, excessive bleeding, and burning holes into flesh.

George Bush does not care about black people:

Mobile homes worth hundreds of millions of dollars are deteriorating in a muddy field in Arkansas and may never be used to house victims of Hurricane Katrina because of a dispute over where to install them, federal officials acknowledged Monday.

Only about 2,700 of the 25,000 mobile homes ordered at a cost of $850 million have been installed, and at least 10,000 are sitting in Hope, Ark., according to documents and statements from Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. Though about 55,000 Louisiana families are still waiting for a manufactured housing unit, the mobile homes may never be used because FEMA regulations prohibit them from being installed in flood-prone coastal areas, federal officials said.

Jim Shultz on US threats to Bolivia:

According to today's New York Times, the Bush administration's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year includes a drastic 96% cut in US military aid to Bolivia. The Times reports this as a threat to Bolivia's new government and a great deal of the article is spent speculating about how the cut might provoke Bolivia's military leaders to do dangerous things: "But the cut holds the potential to anger Bolivia's powerful military establishment, which has been responsible for a long history of coups."

In fact, the threat should really be seen as a double victory for Bolivia.

Apocalypse Now:

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
...
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."

Oxford Research Group states what is unfortunately not obvious to all observers, even if its estimates of casualties are very conservative:

Thousands of military personnel and hundreds of civilians would be killed if the United States launched an air strike on Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear arms, a British think tank has said in a new report.

The report by the Oxford Research Group said on Monday that any bombing of Iran by US forces, or by their Israeli allies, would have to be part of a surprise attack that would inevitably catch many Iranians unprotected and could eventually lead to a lengthy confrontation involving many other countries in the region.

An attack could lead to the closure of the Gulf at the Straits of Hormuz and would probably have a substantial impact on oil prices, as well as spurring new attacks by Muslim radicals on Western interests, the report said.

You're not gonna believe this one:

Using cartoons, games and kid-friendly websites, the federal intelligence community is seeking to win the hearts and minds of America's children.

Move over, McGruff. The trench-coated canine mascot of the National Crime Prevention Council has some youthful competition in the battle for the hearts and minds of America's children. Now in virtual training on the website of the National Security Agency are the CryptoKids, the code-makers and code-breakers of America's future.

Liberation-a-go-go:

"Everyone dreamed of a better life after Saddam went. We wanted more electricity and a generally higher standard of living," Mutlaq said. "We are still shocked that none of our dreams came true. Nothing happened and some people even think life under Saddam was better."

The problem of electricity becomes more unbearable in summer, when temperatures soar to 120 for months. That forces many residents to sleep on their rooftops.

With electricity erratic at best, clean drinking water also has become rare. Even if the water is purified at treatment plants, lack of power often means water cannot be pumped to apartment dwellers.

The spirit of Goebbels lives on with Fox News:

GIBSON: The Patriot Act is up right now, too. I mean, they're squabbling about that this very second.

CROWLEY: Sure. But this particular plot involved great work by the CIA, not great work by the NSA. And so I think they wanted to create a kind of connectivity between this terror surveillance program and the plot in 2002 that doesn't exist.

GIBSON: Well, do you have a problem with that connectivity? I don't.

CROWLEY: Well, I mean, the two things are unrelated.

GIBSON: They're the same kind of thing. They may be a different color, but they're the same animal. This all illustrates why we want to be on our tippy toes with these guys.

[...]

GIBSON: Okay, it was the Library Tower. I await tonight's monologues. This is a gimme for the joke writers. But lest the point be forgotten, Khalid Sheik Mohammed is in a jail cell and others like him are also in cells or are dead. Part of the reason is we're so spooky with our high-tech spying toys. Connect the dots -- high-tech spying capabilities, terrorists foiled, controversy over the use of high-tech spying. This isn't hard to figure out, is it? I know the American people have.

So why is it certain politicians have not? Why do they keep screaming dot the I's, cross the T's, legal, legal, legal. And we'll tell you what legal is, by the way. Just remember, next time a terrorist plans to blow up the Liberty Tower in L.A., you want somebody on our side to be listening, don't you? Even more so if they are planning to blow up the Library Tower, which is also in L.A., evidently. That's "My Word."

And CNN is apparently now trying to boost its ratings by trying to take some of Fox's ignorant racist shithead market share by hiring known assholes Bill Bennett and Glenn Beck:

BENNETT: Here's the standard.

ZOGBY: Frankly, I think that the way this story is cast is the wrong double standard.

BENNETT: Here's the standard: Catholicism is as Catholicism does; Judaism is as Judaism does; and, by God, Islam is as Islam does. And what it's doing right now, I wouldn't want to be associated with.

ZOGBY: Well, as President Bush has said, correctly, hundreds of millions of believing Muslims do not -- do not -- practice these things, did not burn embassies.

BENNETT: Where are they? Where are they?

ZOGBY: Do not behead people.

BENNETT: Where are they?

ZOGBY: They, frankly, are insulted at the outrage committed against their prophet, number one. And, number two, they're watching this situation unfold with great fear, because their agenda is not the same as the agenda of those who are extreme in their own midst.

BENNETT: I wish they would speak out. I wish they would speak out and take to the streets, like these people do, when we see the beheading and beating of people.

Franco My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn

Whoever told you that being a “cool”, “trendy” europunk squatter in Barcelona was a barrel of laughs lied. It might be the middle of winter, but last Saturday morning (4th) the pigs in Barcelona turned up the heat, leaving in their wake an all-too-familiar tale of state violence, repression, mistruths and scapegoats.

Anti-globalization leader Jose Bove, the French farmer who became world famous after destroying a McDonalds "restaurant", was scheduled to open today's conference in New York City on the subject of global companies and global unions. Bove was slated to open the 9:30 AM session on a development agenda for the world's labour movement, but when the conference opened, organizers announced that yesterday, US authorities denied Bove entrance to the country and returned him to France.

The conference organizers -- mainly from Cornell University's school of industrial and labour relations -- spent several hours trying to persuade the American government to let Bove in, and even got the support of New York senator Hillary Clinton, but to no avail. Bove is now back in France.

However, thanks to the new communications technologies, Bove was able to address the conference using his cell phone.

This outrageous attempt to silence dissent -- no doubt at the behest of global corporations like Monsanto who detest Bove -- must be condemned by the entire labour movement.

[link]

From the Starbucks Workers Union:

February 10, 2006

Religious Discrimination

For the second time in as many months, Starbucks management has kicked SWU member Suley Ayala out of the workplace for wearing her modest Pentagram necklace. Ms. Ayala is a practicing Wiccan and as a religious observance never takes off the necklace. She wore the necklace at Starbucks without interruption for three years until the company started harassing her after she and a group of her co-workers went public as members of the Starbucks Workers Union on November 18, 2005. Since then various management officials have badgered her and sent her home for refusing to take off the necklace. Ms. Ayala is extremely distraught and understandably angry.

Management can't even get its story straight, sometimes saying no religious symbols are allowed and other times saying the necklace is too distracting. All the while, baristas wearing crosses of the same modest size have never been disciplined. Our opinion is that Starbucks is exploiting Suley's non-traditional religion to retaliate against her for union activity.

The Fight Back

As a mother of four working hard to make ends meet, being disrespected by the company and losing a day's earnings are the last things Ms. Ayala needs. We're asking people of good will from all religions or no religion at all to join our fight. An indigenous Ecuadorian, Suley has struggled hard to win material gains on the job for her family and she's not about to back down on her right to freely practice her
religion.

Last Tuesday after Suley was sent home following a lull in the harassment, a co-worker and fellow union member asked her for the necklace. Tomer Malchi, a
Jew, put the necklace on and he too was confronted by management. In a moving act, Mr. Malchi refused to take off the Pentagram in solidarity with his sister worker. He was ousted from the workplace. Since then SWU members and supporters have been leafleting in front of the store to get the word out about Starbucks' reprehensible conduct. Suley Ayala has filed a religious discrimination complaint against Starbucks with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, the government won't win this fight for us, grassroots action will. In response to the union's outrage, Starbucks has backed down a bit. Management now says that Ms. Ayala can wear a miniature version of the Pentagram. But that's not enough. Suley wore her Pentagram without incident for three years. Why should she be arbitrarily disciplined now that she is a union member? We demand that she be allowed to wear her original Pentagram and receive compensation for the days she was sent home early.

Take Action

Before we formed the Starbucks Workers Union, the tyrants at the company could treat us like servants and we had no recourse to fight back. No longer. We will not tolerate religious discrimination against any of our members whether Wiccan, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or atheist, or any other world view. Please take a stand with us for religious liberty in the workplace. Together we can create a
truly global labor movement.

Call Starbucks District Manager Kim Vetrano NOW and demand that Suley be allowed to freely observe her religion while at work and that she be compensated for the work hours she missed:

Phone: (646) 256-9929
E-Mail: kvetrano@starbucks.com
Fax: (917)591-8599

Stay Connected at www.starbucksunion.org

In solidarity,
Tomer

Please send a quick e-mail and help add another victory to the NYC Starbucks workers' fight for justice.

A spectrum of articles on the Hamas victory (i.e., I don't necessarily agree or disagree with any of them individually):

*Khalid Mish'al - We will not sell our people or principles for foreign aid
*Palestinian Parliamentary Elections: The Hamas Victory by Ilan Shalif (Anarchists Against The Wall)
*Donald MacIntyre - Fears for women after Hamas victory
*Erica Silverman - Virtually Democratic
*Gilbert Achca - First Reflections On The Electoral Victory Of Hamas
*Rifat Odeh Kassis - Palestinian Elections: Imposing a sense of normalcy on a highly abnormal situation
*Nathan J. Brown - Getting Real With Hamas
*http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4431.shtml
*Adam Hanieh - The End of a Political Fiction?
*Hamas Election Victory: A Vote for Clarity
*As'ad Abu Khalil (Angry Arab) - And What is Hamas? The Demise of the Fatah Movement
*Neve Gordon - Why Hamas Won: Israel Created the Conditions for Hamas's Success
*Yossi Beilin - The next political move

Update (2/13), here are a couple more:

*Joseph Massad - Hamas and the conditions of funding
*Saree Makdisi - Of "Racist" Ideologies and Nuclear Weapons: The Tempest Over the Hamas Charter (cf. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen - A Manifesto for Murder, which raises legitimate concerns but exagerrates the importance of 20 year old racist rhetoric (which of course is not irrelevant))

South America's largest squatted highrise building is under threat.

The "Prestes Maia", by far the largest squatted highrise building on the South American continent, is under threat of eviction. With its 468 families, accounting for more than 1600 previously homeless people, including children, elderly and disabled, the building will shortly be returned to its 'lawful' owner, Mr. Hamuche & Co., who in the last 15 years of 'ownership' accumulated a debt in municipal taxes of some 5 million reais (approx. 2.2 million dollars / 2.1 million euros), which is more than the building is worth. This enormous debt, together with long years of abandonment, should well justify (even according to law) a claim for the building to become public property by the local municipality, but nevertheless will be returned to its owner, putting hundreds of people back onto the streets.

The 468 families, united in the Downtown Roofless Movement (Movimento Sem Teto do Centro or MSTC) of São Paulo, have lived in the 22-storey highrise since 2002. The building had simply been closed down for years and left in deplorable condition, serving as shelter for rats and cockroaches, as is the case of many buildings in downtown São Paulo. The new residents cleaned out tonnes of rubbish and litter (200 trucks to be exact!), organized it, expelled drugs and other criminal bosses always there to take advantage, turning it into an exciting and lively human dwelling.

[link]


Sign the petition!

Mental disorders affect one third of Iraq vets

About 40,000 soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been found to show symptoms of mental health disorders, a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) representative said Friday.

In fact, a mental condition known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) --first recognized during the Vietnam era -- is being diagnosed frequently among troops returning from the Middle East, and the VA has had to adjust its treatments and infrastructure to accommodate this, as well as the changing face of the American soldier.
...
In addition, 14,000 of the veterans diagnosed with PTSD were also treated for drug dependencies -- although the mix of drugs differs somewhat from the Vietnam era -- and 11,000 were treated for depression.
...
A 2004 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, of nearly 6,000 Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan found that between 15 and 17 percent of Iraq conflict veterans and about 11 percent of veterans who served in Afghanistan suffered symptoms of mental disorders when they returned home. However, less than half of those affected sought care, in part because they feared they would be looked down on by their fellow soldiers and superior officers.

The agenda of Canada's newly elected Conservative Party: A Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans: Canada's 2006 Elections

The march of progress in Iraq:

The office of Iraq's most eminent cardiologist is padlocked. A handwritten sign is taped on his wooden door in the private clinic in Baghdad: Patients of Dr. Omar Kubasi should call him in Amman, Jordan.

In Amman, Kubasi, 63, spends his days sitting at a café with other professionals from Iraq.

Frustrated, he watches from afar as the medical education system he helped set up in his 36-year career slowly disintegrates.

His teaching doctors are fleeing in fear. Younger physicians are looking for other countries. Even patients are leaving, no longer confident in the care in Iraq.

Dongshigu, Shandong, China – Hundreds of angry farmers and peasants attacked the armed guards that were holding activist Chen Guangcheng under house arrest. The villagers mobilized themselves after news broke that Guangcheng's cousin, Chen Hua, had been beaten and detained by police while trying to visit him. Chen Guangcheng was born a blind peasant, but taught himself to be a lawyer that fought for the poor and disadvantaged.

He was first placed under house arrest last September in retaliation for bringing a class action lawsuit against the Shandong Provincial government, whose officials he claimed routinely ordered non-consensual abortions and forced sterilizations that were performed on poor women who had never given birth (Chinese law prohibits women from having more than one child). The lawsuit resulted in the firing of several prominent Shandong officials, but soon after, Guangcheng was arrested on charges that he had given "state secrets" to foreign journalists.

Mr. Chen spoke with reporters by telephone during the confrontation saying: "[The authorities] are a bunch of bandits...The grassroots civilians are awakened already so the only thing they [the authorities] can depend on is violence."

[bombs and shields]

January in Iraq:

My two cents about the cartoons (vis-a-vis free speech concerns, don't have time to discuss them in the context of international politics/sociology/etc.):

Seeing it solely as a free speech issue is culturally insensitive and a projection of Western concepts and understandings of what is and what is not objectionable onto cultures which think differently about these issues. Yet condemning the publication entirely, condemning an instance of free speech as such, is reactionary. We should try to imagine what the conservatives now calling for "free speech" would say if child pornography was printed in an American newspaper (or when they close down newspapers and bomb al-Jazeera offices!); indeed the taboo against images of Mohammed (and the more salient offense of depicting him as a terrorist) is far older and more deeply ingrained (while not universal - it is silly Orientalism to say, "Muslims get mad at so and so" as if all followers of Islam are homogenous). So if one were not to be hypocritical it would be necessary to call for absolute free speech. But even given absolute free speech, which alas exists nowhere: just because you have a right to say something doesn't mean that you should, or that you should be able to do so without being condemned. Not censored, but condemned. Racism and religious prejudice should be condemned, certainly.

Yay parentheses.

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency.

According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets -- corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers -- would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us -- from content providers to individual users -- would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

[read full article]

Someway, somehow, the internet is going to be much less free in the future, as much as we'd like to pretend it won't. I mean just look at the whole fileshare thing. Basically we all need to gain a high degree of computer literacy (god knows mine is lacking) to be prepared for cyber-guerilla warfare and liberatory networking.

Rape and coverup in the army:

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.
...
For example, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's top deputy in Iraq, saw "dehydration" listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003. Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, Karpinski stated. The official explanation for this was to protect the women's privacy rights.

Sanchez's attitude was: "The women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory," Karpinski quoted him as saying.
...
But most shameful is Sanchez's cover-up of the dehydration deaths of women that occurred in Iraq. Sanchez is no stranger to outrageous military orders. He was heavily involved in the torture scandal that surfaced at Abu Ghraib. Sanchez approved the use of unmuzzled dogs and the insertion of prisoners head first into sleeping bags, after which they were tied with an electrical cord, and their mouths were covered. At least one person died as the result of the sleeping bag technique. Karpinski charges that Sanchez attempted to hide the torture after the hideous photographs became public.

Sanchez reportedly plans to retire soon, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune earlier this month. But Rumsfeld recently considered elevating the three-star general to a four-star. The Tribune also reported that Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the Army's chief spokesman, said in an email message, "The Army leaders do have confidence in LTG Sanchez."

Union victories at NYC Union Square Starbucks
By Tomer Malchi - Industrial Worker, February 2006

On Friday Nov. 18, Starbucks workers at Union Square publicly declared their membership in the Starbucks Workers Union. Throughout the weekend workers showed their strength by refusing to take off union pins in the face of management attempting to enforce a no-pin policy. Our key demands were for guaranteed hours, a group meeting with management, and an end to anti-union discrimination.

District manager Kim Vetrano informed us three days after we went public that we could not wear our pins; although pins have been worn in the past, the policy was suddenly being enforced. Vetrano also insisted there would be no group meeting. We could have one-on-one meetings with managers, but not as a group.

In response to the denial of our demands and constant harassment over our union membership, we formed a picket line on Friday Nov. 25. With over 50 IWW members and supporters picketing throughout the day, we brought one of the busiest days of the year to a standstill. Our presence had a severe economic effect on the store. Managers were forced to give out free samples in order to get rid of all the milk. Store manager Mike Quintero told me that we were directly affecting his bonus.

In the past two months we have had several leaflets and many confrontation on the floor. Management has attempted to break the union, but a solid core of IWW members at Union Square have shown that we are not afraid. We have shown that as a union the company listens and our working lives improve.

On Dec. 15 Starbucks targeted one of our strongest Wobblies. Suley Ayala was told to take off her pentagram necklace, a symbol of her being Wicca. An assistant manager said that religious items can not be worn at work. Meanwhile we were forced to wear Christmas hats and listen to non-stop Christmas music.

Workers were sick and tired of the illegal anti-union activity and religious discrimination. Three union members walked off the floor and confronted our manager in the back room. This was to no avail and managers threatened to send people home. Management did change their reasoning, though. The problem was no longer that the necklace was a pentagram, but rather that it was now too big.

In response workers took direct action. Union members wore their own necklaces and refused to tuck them in or take them off. Still Suley was the only one targeted, and was sent home for wearing her pentagram for violation of Starbucks dress code. Meanwhile other workers were violating the unenforceable dress code in numerous ways without any repercussions.

We began leafleting. A flyer was passed out to customers telling people about the injustice Suley was facing. Aside from the religious discrimination, Suley was not being paid the correct wage. A mother of four and a Starbucks worker for three years, she has received some of the most unjust treatment from the company. When rehired in the beginning of 2005 her wage was brought down from $8.54 to starting pay of $8.25. According to Starbucks policy, if rehired within a year’s time a worker should be rehired at their previous wage rate. There was a clear mistake, and for the past year Suley’s voice was not heard. Leaflets with a picture of Suley and her kids were given to customers to let them know the situation behind the counter. We were spreading the truth about Starbucks and they wanted it to stop.

Our direct action in support of one another forced the company to give Suley back pay for the past year and adjust her wage. A clear victory for the union! In addition, Suley continues to wear her pentagram without any reaction. At Union Square we have been able to secure a minimum amount of hours for members, get better equipment and management is finally addressing the rodent and insect problem at the shop. As a union we have a voice at work.

Overall the IWW drive has forced Starbucks to improve working conditions across NYC. Most recently we have seen a 25-cent across the board raise for all NYC Starbucks workers. Since the union campaign started 18 months ago there have been three separate raises, which have increased starting salary from $7.75 to $8.75. In addition, the union has pressured Starbucks to change its employment practices and move towards an option of guaranteeing hours for Starbucks workers.

http://www.iww.org/en/node/2006

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