May 2008

Venezuelan Economy Grows for 18th Consecutive Quarter
Posted: Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Venezuelan economy has registered its eighteenth quarter of uninterrupted economic growth, Planning and Development Minister Haiman El Troudi announced Thursday. Central Bank figures show an overall increase of Gross Domestic Product by 4.8 percent for the first quarter of 2008, however this is down from 8.8 percent in the same quarter last year.

Venezuela has enjoyed high economic growth for several years fuelled by skyrocketing oil prices and high public expenditures on social programs that benefit the country’s poor. However, Venezuela closed 2007 with 22.5% inflation, accompanied by a rapidly devaluation of the country’s currency, the bolivar, on the black-market.

Anti-inflationary policies introduced by the government have cut into consumer demand, causing the economy to decelerate.
Full Article : venezuelanalysis.com

Western Delusions
Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2008

¤ Spinning The IAEA Report on Iran's Nuclear Program
A new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report criticizing Iran's nuclear program was leaked via the Internet. Although slated to be made public in early June, US corporate media seized the opportunity to put a spin on the report's findings. The Real News Network's analyst Pepe Escobar provides his analysis of the day's headlines.

¤ Iraq War May Have Increased Energy Costs Worldwide by a Staggering $6 Trillion
The invasion of Iraq by Britain and the US has trebled the price of oil, according to a leading expert, costing the world a staggering $6 trillion in higher energy prices alone.
The oil economist Dr Mamdouh Salameh, who advises both the World Bank and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), told The Independent on Sunday that the price of oil would now be no more than $40 a barrel, less than a third of the record $135 a barrel reached last week, if it had not been for the Iraq war.

¤ Iran slams US for meddling in IAEA-Tehran talks
¤ German expert warns against potential US operations in Venezuela
¤ Amnesty International report assails U.S.

¤ Are You A Coward Like Me?
From time to time I receive from my friends in the Middle East, horrific photographs of the atrocities perpetrated on the Palestinians by the IDF. (Israel Defence Force)
Apparently these photographs are never ever distributed in the western media; they are in fact, censored.
Additionally, any essays or discussions about the Israel/Palestinian situation also never see the light of day in the Western media.
Why is that?

¤ PETITION! Lift Travel Restrictions on Palestinian Journalist
¤ Tutu Shocked by Palestinian Suffering
¤ Plan Mexico: Plan Colombia Heads for Mexico

¤ Insanity
President George Bush and his tag-along buddy John McCain are repeating almost word for word about Iran the pattern of lies and threats they used to justify the war against Iraq.
Our intelligence agencies have said that Iran gave up the pursuit of a nuclear weapon three years ago. President Bush makes speeches as if he's never heard of any intelligence agencies. That's what worries me about President Bush. His words very often defy and contradict reality.

¤ Oil: A Global Crisis
¤ Wake Up, America. We're Driving Toward Disaster.
¤ Bush 'Plans Iran Air Strike by August'
¤ McClellan First Noticed Bush's Habit of Lying during Campaign Flap over Cocaine Use
¤ Kids In America(n Torture Camps): Why Does the Media Cover Up War Crimes?
¤ The Power of Bone Stupid

¤ Opium for the Masses; Who is the Enemy in Afghanistan?
¤ War Immemorial Day – No Peace for Militarized U.S.

¤ America's Insane Cuba Policy
For nearly five decades, the United States has pursued a policy toward Cuba that could be described as incredibly stupid.
It could also be called childish, irresponsible and counterproductive - and, since the demise of the Soviet Union, even insane. Absent the threat of communist expansionism, the refusal by successive American presidents to engage with Cuba has not even a fig leaf's worth of rationale to cover its naked illogic. Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor on the island - and thus prolong his rule - the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions have accomplished precisely nothing.

¤ Corrections: In Which The New York Times Perpetuates the Myth It Created -– That George Bush Won Florida in 2000

¤ Where Is the Outrage?
Are we Americans truly savages or merely tone-deaf in matters of morality, and therefore more guilty of terminal indifference than venality? It's a question demanding an answer in response to the publication of the detailed 370-page report on U.S. complicity in torture, issued last week by the Justice Department's inspector general.
Because the report was widely cited in the media and easily accessed as a pdf file on the Internet, it is fair to assume that those of our citizens who remain ignorant of the extent of their government's commitment to torture as an official policy have made a choice not to be informed. A less appealing conclusion would be that they are aware of the heinous acts fully authorized by our president but conclude that such barbarism is not inconsistent with that American way of life that we celebrate.

¤ Bush Has Gotten Away with Thousands of Murders

¤ What's Really Driving the High Price of Oil?
What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it?
Don't rely on the White House-with Bush and Cheney marinated in oil-or the Congress-which has hearings that grill oil executives who know that nothing is going to happen on Capitol Hill either.

¤ Hillary's Assassination Politics
¤ Western Delusions
¤ Who is the Enemy in Afghanistan?

¤ ‘Al-Qaeda WMD Video' Was Nothing of the Sort
¤ ormer White House spokesman: Bush used 'propaganda' to sell war
¤ Families struggling as bills begin to bite
¤ Labour cash crisis could bankrupt party leaders

GM Foods the Problem, Not The Solution
Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008

¤ Junta agreement opens door to more Myanmar aid

¤ Texas seizure of polygamist-sect kids thrown out
In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's compound last month.
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

¤ Court rules Texas had no right to seize sect children
¤ Israel's "Free Press"? Broken pencils, broken bones and broken lives of reporters

¤ World Health Organization calls on Israel to lift Palestinian blockade
The World Health Organisation on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding that Israel lift its blockade of the occupied Palestinian territories, which is blamed for a shortage of medicines.
WHO members attending the organisation's annual assembly here urged Israel to "reverse its policies and measures that have led to the prevailing dire health conditions and severe food and fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip".

¤ Zimbabwe's political opposition deploys its own WMD claim

¤ Zimbabwe Watch

¤ How the US dream foundered in Iraq

¤ Bush's 'War Crimes' and Misdemeanors
Facing a tough reelection fight in 2004, George W. Bush expressed outrage over leaked photos showing U.S. military police at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison abusing detainees, who were paraded naked before female guards, threatened by attack dogs, chained in "stress positions" and forced to wear ladies underpants on their heads.

¤ Bush Visits the Messy World He Created
"...it is no wonder that the world into which George Bush comes will be wary of his presence and mistrustful of his words. Moderates have been weakened, extremists emboldened, Iran is threatening, and allies are feeling less secure. This, sadly, is the world George Bush has helped to create, and which he has visited for the last time as President."

¤ John McMurder Wants More War
¤ Where Are Those Iranian Weapons in Iraq?
¤ Chávez: US endangers South American union
¤ Spending On Iraq Poorly Tracked

¤ Mythmaking for the Next War
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had some 45,000 nuclear warheads. At the moment, Iran has none. But when Barack Obama said the obvious—that Iran does not pose the sort of threat the Soviet Union did—John McCain reacted as though his rival had offered to trade Fort Knox for a sack of magic beans.
"Such a statement betrays the depth of Sen. Obama's inexperience and reckless judgment," exclaimed McCain. "These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess."

¤ Iran mosque blast plotters admit Israeli, US links: report
¤ Report: Iraq to spend $3B on U.S. military gear
¤ U.S. airstrike kills 8 Iraqi civilians: police
¤ As Bush Policy Crumbles, Allies Pick Up the Pieces
¤ On Capitol Hill, much said, little changed on Iraq
¤ San Francisco Mayor Condemns Refusal to Marry Gays

¤ GM Foods the Problem, Not The Solution
The food crisis has prompted some looks towards genetically modified food production as a solution. That in turn has led to stronger warnings over the consequences of such food for health and the environment.
These concerns have been raised in Bonn again as more than 3,000 delegates from 147 countries met for the UN conference on biosafety. The conference has sought to ensure safe use of modern biotechnology.

¤ Rice Defends Post 9/11 Torture
¤ Living Large in America
¤ Ballots and Bullets

¤ War Abroad, Poverty at Home
The US Senate has voted $165 billion to fund Bush's wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq through next spring.
As the US is broke and deep in debt, every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed. American consumers are also broke and deep in debt. Their zero saving rate means every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed from foreigners.

¤ Does this really mark the end of New Labour?
The New Labour coalition of support has collapsed. To the left and to the right, voters are deserting the once-heaving big tent that propelled Labour to power and kept it there for more than a decade.
The Conservatives' overwhelming victory in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election is the latest, vivid sign of the new, formidably sized anti-Labour tent that is forming around the country. The local elections earlier this month and the ousting of Ken Livingstone as London Mayor were equally potent examples of the hostile anti-Government mood.

¤ PM isolated as ministers decide: 'Brown can't win'

Venezuela's Only Contacts with FARC were for Humanitarian Exchange Says Minister
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and Justice, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, told the press on Tuesday that President Hugo Chávez does not have any "direct relationship" with the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC). Meanwhile, the government of the United States demanded clarification of Venezuela's relationship with the insurgent group, which Colombia claims Chávez has financed.

The "only contacts" that Chávez had were at the request of the Colombian government for the sake of the peace process, the minister asserted, referring to the President Chávez's mediation of FARC hostage releases last year and early this year.
Full Article : venezuelanalysis.com

The Incredible Shrinking Superpower
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008

¤ Oil surpasses $135 a barrel on new supply concerns

¤ Paying for War at the Pump
What's it got to do with the price of gas? Would some reporter with access to the Republican presidential candidate please ask John McCain why he wants to continue President Bush's Mideast policy when it has proved so ruinous for American taxpayers? Because McCain is determined to ignore our economic meltdown and shift the debate to foreign policy, shouldn't he have to explain why an open-ended military presence in the Mideast will make us economically and militarily more secure when the opposite is clearly the case?

¤ Venezuela warns of hyper oil inflation
Following the discovery of a U.S. Navy fighter in Venezuelan airspace, President Hugo Chavez warned that oil prices could reach $500 a barrel were the United States to attack Venezuela.
The ever outspoken Chavez told Venezuelans that the country's state-run energy company PDSVA no longer would export oil to "anyone" in the event of a U.S. attack on South America's largest petroleum producer.

¤ The Incredible Shrinking Superpower
Worried about the high cost of filling up? President Bush is on the case. Last Friday he arrived in Riyadh to urge King Abdullah, the leader of the world's largest petroleum producer, Saudi Arabia, to put more oil on the market.
At the sun-bleached airport, Bush was greeted with the Gulf's signature mix of garish oil wealth and tinpot amateurism. A large retinue of royalty watched as a band played an off-key version of the U.S. national anthem. Bush walked through the cavernous air terminal to his motorcade and drove to the monarch's "farm" at al Janadriyah.

¤ US Holding 27,000 in Secret Overseas Prisons
¤ Cuba accuses envoy of terror link
¤ Miami, Cuba and the Presidential Campaign

¤ The CIA Is More Active Than Ever In Venezuela

¤ U.S. Military Bases in South America
Despite his record unpopularity, it would appear that President Bush wants to go out of office with a bang. Having failed to overthrow Hugo Chávez through an attempted coup, the White House now hopes to escalate pressure on Venezuela's President by other means.
On Saturday, a U.S. navy plane strayed into Venezuelan airspace. Venezuelan Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel said that the aircraft "practically flew over" the island of La Orchila - where Venezuela has a military base and President Hugo Chávez has a residence - and another island before turning back. U.S. officials claimed the plane had "navigational problems."

¤ Food prices to stay high despite record crops, says UN

¤ The Gothic Politics of Hillary Clinton
¤ China says death toll in quake more than 51,000

¤ Big John and the Scary, Scary Iran Threat

¤ Genocide in Iraq?

¤ Propagandists First, Journalists Second
Should the news media be patriotic? When a journalist uncovers a government secret, which comes first–national security or the public's right to know?
In the United States, reporters consider themselves Americans first, journalists second. That means consulting the government before going public with a state secret. "When I was at ABC," James Bamford told Time in 2006, "we always checked with the Administration in power when we thought we had something of concern, and there was usually some way to work it out."

¤ Bush's Endless Hypocrisy on Terror
¤ Did Humans Colonize the World by Boat?
¤ UN chief to meet Burma leader in effort to speed up delivery of aid
¤ UN chief goes to Myanmar to cajole junta over aid
¤ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy
¤ Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism – Is There a Link?
¤ House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

US confession: Weapons were not made in Iran after all
Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2008

¤ US confession: Weapons were not made in Iran after all
In a sharp reversal of its longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq, the US military has made an unprecedented albeit quiet confession: the weapons they had recently found in Iraq were not made in Iran at all.

¤ 'Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term'
An article in Tuesday's Jerusalem Post claims that US strikes on Iran are imminent.
"US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran in the upcoming months, before the end of his term, Army Radio quoted a senior official in Jerusalem as saying Tuesday," the Israeli newspaper reports.
However, the White House immediately denied the report this morning.

¤ White House denies Bush intending to attack Iran

¤ Big John McCain and the Scary, Scary Iran Threat

¤ White House stonewalls on its involvement in military analysts scandal
¤ Gates questions notion of useful U.S.-Iran talks
¤ In Presidential Memo, A New Designation for Classifying Information

¤ We'd Go Nuts
I wonder how we would react if 50,000 of us got killed in one whack, as apparently has happened in the China earthquake. Or, God forbid, 121,000, which is the high estimate for the number of dead in the Myanmar cyclone.
Judging from our reaction to the terror attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which claimed 3,000 lives, I suspect we would go nuts. Back in 2001, it became Terror Week on television, so that we got to see the damage endless numbers of times. Politicians were scrambling for flag pins and trying to remember the words of the national anthem. Hardly a family pet could be buried without the TV cameras and the mayor showing up.

¤ Bad Start to the Year of the Rat
¤ People Who Live in Glass Houses Shouldn't Stage an Olympic Protest
¤ Pot, meet Kettle.
¤ Deconstructing Bush's Speech to Arab Nations
¤ China says over 70,000 dead or missing from quake

Manufacturing a Food Crisis
Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008

¤ Behind the Rise in Prices: A Plan to Torpedo the Dollar

¤ Hillary Is White

¤ Propaganda and the Media
Once upon a time, it was widely believed that one of the greatest sins the U.S. government or its temporary political masters could commit was to turn a propaganda machine loose on the American people.
Congress viewed this so seriously that every appropriations bill passed since 1951 has contained language that says no public money "shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States" without the lawmakers' prior approval.
The Bush administration has been caught violating the propaganda ban before, notably in 2005 in the case of radio host Armstrong Williams, who was paid to endorse President Bush's No Child Left Behind law.

¤ Manufacturing a Food Crisis
When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one cause of skyrocketing prices, though speculation on biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US imports in the first place?

¤ That's What Saddam Said
The war is over on Sixth Street, where Sahar al-Jawari's family lives in a modest brick house. Dust has filled the shrapnel holes in concrete fences, stagnant water has pooled in the crater left by a roadside bomb, and the ash and the few charred chunks of the Iraqi police car that the bomb blew up are barely visible on the sidewalk.
But Jawari, 33, has little faith that her life is about to improve. Every night the wind carries the sounds of gunshots and occasional explosions from other parts of Baghdad, where the war still goes on. Every day is a struggle to get by in a city that gets only four hours of power and running water a day. Jawari is divorced and unemployed, but Iraq's weak government gives her no financial aid. Nor does it make her deadbeat ex-husband pay her child support to help raise her 12-year-old daughter, Roula.
"We have no money, no electricity, no water, no security, no future, nothing," Jawari says. "Maybe in 50 years it will get better."

¤ Billions of electronic-eating 'crazy rasberry ants' invade Texas

¤ With Friends Like These....
"Foreign billionaires financed Olmert in the party primaries, and they financed him in the general elections, in which he was assured of becoming Prime Minister. After being elected, he started Lebanon War II, with all its death and destruction. It can be said: American Jewish billionaires killed the soldiers and civilians, Israeli and Lebanese, who lost their lives in the war."

¤ President To Sacrifice Eating Chinese Food To Be In Solidarity With Quake Victims

¤ Want Cheaper Gas and Oil? End the Damned Wars!
Americans are in a panic over rising gas and heating oil prices, and with reason. For months, the price of a barrel of crude oil has been rising steadily, hitting a record $127 yesterday.
Analysts keep getting trotted out on TV and in print, attributing the dramatic price rise to everything from "peak oil" -- the idea that producing countries have reached their peak of productive capacity, and that the only direction for oil supplies looking forward is down, while demand continues to rise -- to increasing demand in China and India, to supply bottlenecks, to specific news events, like a pipeline break in Nigeria, or a closed refinery in California.

¤ The Din of Exploding Bombs and the Dense Fog of Corporate Propaganda
¤ How to rule the world after Bush
¤ The world's rubbish dump
¤ Robert Fisk: So just where does the madness end?

¤ Plan to oust Brown as MPs claim he has lost support
Backbench Labour critics of Gordon Brown plan to try to oust him by declaring he has lost the support of his MPs if he fails to revive his party's general election prospects.
But as the Prime Minister enters a crucial week in his increasingly embattled premiership, cabinet ministers are warning MPs not to foment a leadership crisis if Labour loses the parliamentary by-election in Crewe and Nantwich. They warn that blaming a defeat on Mr Brown will only stall the party's fightback.

¤ Bush to Arab nations: You're running out of oil
¤ China begins three days of mourning for quake victims

Lies of Aggression
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008

¤ Calculating the Real Costs
What does – and will – the invasion and occupation of Iraq really cost the people of this country?
Dollar figures are not hard to find. Even the low-ball figures are bad enough. And, as anyone who has taken on a multifaceted task of any sort knows, it will always cost much more, and take more time, than planned. Even if we triple or quadruple the worst-case estimates we've seen, we can still at least have some idea of what we may have to pay, now and in the future. And, of course, if enough people had the will to end the war, all Congress would have to do is cut off the funding, and eventually – if in the distant future – it would cease to extract our hard-earned money.

¤ A Few Good Soldiers

¤ Lies of Aggression
On May 15, the White House Moron, in a war-planning visit to Israel, justified the naked aggression he and Olmert are planning against Iran as the only alternative to "the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
But the White House Moron has the roles reversed. It is not Iran that is threatening war. It is Bush. It is not Bush who is appeasing. It is Iran.
Iran has not responded in kind to any of Bush's warlike moves and provocations. Iran has not sunk a single one of our sitting-duck ships and has not given the Iraqi insurgents any weapons that would easily turn the tide of war against the US.

¤ U.S. And Iraq Regime Holding 51,000 Iraqis Behind Bars, Most Illegally
¤ The Sacrificer: Bush Quit Golf Over Iraq War
¤ US Using Food Crisis To Boost Bio-Engineered Crops
¤ Back in the USSR
¤ The Tortured Law on Torture
¤ Solving the Oil Crisis
¤ Toxic Wombs
¤ The Face of Torture
¤ Failed War on Terrorism on Display
¤ Kiss American Security Goodbye
¤ Are There Just Too Many People in the World?

¤ Worried About the Price of Gas? End the Wars
Despite all the recent talk of soaring prices at the pump, political and economic pundits rarely mention the impact of war and political instability in the Middle East on the skyrocketing price of oil. There is strong evidence, however, that the heightened price of energy is a direct consequence of the destabilizing wars and geopolitical insecurity in the region.
These include not only the raging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the threat of a looming war against Iran. The record of soaring oil prices shows that anytime there is a renewed U.S. military threat against Iran, fuel prices move up several notches.

¤ Police Are 'Brainwashed' by Taser Maker; Psychologist Blames Instructions
¤ Why Mexican Justice is a Euphemism
¤ Beichuan: a vision of hell
¤ China: Quake death toll could reach 50,000
¤ US detainees drugged for deportation

U.S. drops charges against accused '20th hijacker'
Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2008

¤ Dozens killed in Indian market blasts
¤ '18,000 still buried' at heart of China earthquake
¤ Troops hike to quake-buried Chinese villages
¤ Frantic search for thousands trapped by Chinese quake

¤ Schools in the Bogus Age of Terror
Massacre. Suicide-bombing. Mass murder. Conspiracy. WMDs. They love those inflammatory words, don’t they? Not just adolescents, who use the words as adolescents would, without gauging their impact, but also law enforcement types, who should know better. The climate that makes chatter of school shootings so endemic can be attributed to the few deranged souls who think up mayhem fantasies in their miserable little journals and cyber-caves. But they’re not the only ones responsible.

¤ The Sadistic Side of Bush's War on Terror
¤ Another Pentagon Propaganda Show
¤ Is Who Becomes the Next President All That Matters?
¤ Spoiled Americans Fail the Green Test

¤ The Handy Reference Guide to Bush Disasters, Incompetencies, and Lies
The other day, as I was musing aloud about notion that George Bush is the worst president in U.S. history, an acquaintance interrupted, “What’s been so bad?” I stammered for a moment, unable to get my mind around such a large question. It was sort of like trying to summarize the mysteries of the universe: The topic is so big one doesn’t know where to start. So I decided to compile a handy reference guide to the failed policies, worst decisions, irrational practices and outrageous lies of the Bush administration.In compiling this list, I made the rule that it cannot be an inventory of policy differences between liberals and conservatives; it must differentiate between rational and irrational policies, between truth and lies, between successes and failures. In other words, this should not be a partisan list but an attempt to chronicle the failures, catastrophes and ruinous policies that are apparent to impartial observers.

¤ Why All of Our Efforts Won't Stop an Attack on Iran

¤ My brain hurts!
Have you noticed that, as the Bush presiduncey drags ever onward, the feeling that one's brain has totally turned to tapioca is now a 24/7 deal? And with good reason.
In the past two weeks, for instance, news stories have been written about a new Disneyland-esque theme park slated for Baghdad, the Pentagon backing a $5 billion swanky "Zone of Influence" in the Green Zone replete with luxury hotels and spas and the fact that all the foul names the U.S. has been lobbing at Islamic radicals are actually the highest compliments one can garner in the Muslim world.

¤ U.S. drops charges against accused '20th hijacker'
¤ Us-Backed Iraqi Forces Execute Man In The Street Video - Warning

¤ The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
here is direct evidence that President George W. Bush did not honorably lead this nation, but deliberately misled it into a war he wanted. Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public — lies that have cost the lives of more than 4,000 young American soldiers and close to $1 trillion.

¤ From The Credit Crunch To The Spectre Of Global Crisis
¤ Iran Plans to Sue US, Britain over Shiraz Blast

¤ Bush Authorizes New Covert Action against Iran Flashback
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

¤ Venezuela's Chavez to buy Chinese K-8 planes
¤ Chavez To Sign $2 Billion Worth Of Military Deals In Moscow

¤ Dollar, not supply, causes record oil - Iran offical
he weak U.S. dollar is the main reason behind oil prices rising to record levels, not demand or supply factors, an Iranian Oil Ministry official was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"We must be aware that it is not the price of crude oil that has risen but the dollar value that has weakened," said Mohammad Ali Khatibi, deputy director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company.

¤ Chavez criticizes Germany's Merkel

Mission accomplished?
Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2008

¤ Philadelphia Police Beating Caught on Video, Causes Controversy
¤ Sharpton: Philly Beating 'Worse Than Rodney King'

¤ U.S. is Promoting Secession in Bolivia, Repeating Venezuela Effort
Having avoided any meaningful coverage of Bolivia since the election of Evo Morales in December, 2005, the international media is now obliged to play catch up. Yesterday, the Andean nation of 9.1 million held a crucial vote which could pave the way for secession of the resource-rich Santa Cruz region.

¤ Venezuela Declares Solidarity with Bolivia's Government in Face of Separatist Effort
¤ Gas jumps above $3.67, oil passes $126 on Venezuela concerns

¤ Burma death toll 'could reach 1.5 million'
¤ Mother's Day in Ciudad Juarez

¤ Morales and the Red Ponchos
The Bolivian oligarchy has initiated its plan to balkanize the country. Traditionally, the oligarchy controlled the oil, natural gas, and the best farmland in Bolivia; and, for the most part, it has never indicated a desire to share the wealth with the nation's indigenous majority. That majority, 60 percent of the population, lives primarily in the Andean highlands of western Bolivia, although in recent decades, the Indians of those areas have begun moving down to the cities in search of jobs.

¤ Yet Another Feather in the Cap of Hugo Chavez?
An image flashes across the screen of pretty young women. They're dressed in red T-shirts, wave a red flag, and run towards the camera. A voice intones, "Let us all participate in the great party of hope! Change is coming!" The image then shifts to a dapper young man with glasses who is thronged by enthusiastic crowds.

¤ The Afghans of Gitmo

¤ Polarizing Bolivia
A vote for autonomy in Santa Cruz, Bolivia was passed by approximately 82% of voters on Sunday, May 4th. The vote endorses a move by Santa Cruz to, among other things, gain more control of gas reserves in the area and resist the central government's break up of large land holdings. Clashes during the vote in Santa Cruz left 35 injured. One man died from asphyxiation due to tear gas fired by police forces. The vote and conflict marks a new phase in the polarization of Bolivia, and a new challenge for the region.

¤ Team Clinton: Going Down Ugly
¤ Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.

¤ A Brief Exposé of a Fraudulent War
The "War on Terror" is a fraud and a façade, a mere label concocted and trumpeted by an Administration known for its signature dishonesty. The label conceals the Bush Administration's international crimes of unprovoked military aggression-the armed invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, two sovereign nations the Administration meant to attack from its first days in office.

¤ People Can Handle the Truth About War
¤ Why Big Media Needs Propaganda to Survive
¤ Global Poverty: More Big Business Is Not the Solution
¤ A Television Show That May Make You Sick
¤ Mission accomplished?
¤ At least 16 said dead in Missouri, Oklahoma tornadoes
¤ Neocons and the truth: Bitter enemies to the end

South Africa land reform in dire straits
Posted: Friday, May 9, 2008

SOUTH Africa's land reform programme is in dire straits and there is no chance of reaching a 2008 deadline to complete the restitution process, said a report released by a think tank.

The gloomy report issued by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) said the country's agriculture was under serious threat from the struggling land reform strategy.

"The future of South African commercial agriculture is now on the table," said CDE executive director Ann Bernstein in a statement.

"The economic viability of many rural regions of the country is under threat, which could lead to serious negative consequences for the broader economy and society."

At the onset of democracy in 1994, some 87 percent of agricultural land in the country was owned by whites, who make up less than 10 percent of the population.

Thirteen years later only four percent of land, or four million hectares (nearly 10 million acres), had been transferred to blacks, said the CDE.
Full Article : talkzimbabwe.com
Venezuela's oil reserves swell to 130 bln barrels
Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2008

Venezuela's proven crude oil reserves had swelled to 130 billion barrels as of late April, marking a rise of 30 billion from its prior estimate, energy and oil minister Rafael Ramirez said Thursday.
Full Article : breitbart.com

Junkie Nation
Posted: Wednesday, May 7, 2008

¤ 100,000 could be dead in Burma, diplomat says

¤ Aid agencies face battle to reach victims of the cyclone

¤ Obama-Clinton Hilarious Math Update
It's reached a point that everyone has known for months it had to reach, the point at which even people paid to do so cannot keep it going with a straight face. On Tuesday, Senator Barack Obama picked up approximately 99 new pledged delegates from North Carolina and Indiana, while Senator Hillary Clinton picked up about 85. The final count may move a delegate or two, but these numbers are close enough for the following calculation.
Obama now has 1,592 pledged delegates to Clinton's 1,419. There are 217 delegates remaining to be pledged. Of those 217, Clinton would need to win 196 to beat Obama, or a victory of 90 percent to 10 percent. That's about as likely as Dick Cheney hitting 50 percent approval.

¤ Amnesty Intl: Ethiopian troops commit atrocities in Somalia
In a new report, Amnesty International detailed chilling witness accounts of indiscriminate killings in the Horn of Africa country and called on the international community to stop the bloodshed.
Ethiopia's government said the report was unbalanced and "categorically wrong."
The London-based rights group said testimony it received suggested all parties to Somalia's conflict have committed war crimes. But it singled out Ethiopian troops, who are in the country to back Somalia's U.N.-sponsored government, for some of the worst violations.

¤ Insurgents say US airstrike hit Somalia; US denies report

¤ Large earthquake hits Japan
¤ Obama's Clarifying Win: The Fly on the Wall Is the Wall
¤ Why Media Fix on Wright and Ignore Hagee

¤ As Executions Resume, So Do Questions of Fairness
The release of the third death row inmate in six months in North Carolina last week is raising fresh questions about whether states are supplying capital-murder defendants with adequate counsel, even as an execution on Tuesday night in Georgia ended a seven-month national suspension.
In all three cases, North Carolina appeals courts found that evidence that would have favored the defendants was withheld from defense lawyers by prosecutors or investigators. In two of the cases, including that of Levon Jones, who was released on Friday after 14 years on death row, the courts said the defendants' lawyers had failed to mount an adequate defense. Nationwide, Mr. Jones's release was the sixth in a year.

¤ Junkie Nation
¤ High Oil Prices for Obama and Clinton
¤ Wright or Wrong: What's Going On?

¤ Iron Man and the Merchants of Death
The phrase Merchants of Death takes center stage in the movie Iron Man, which is a spectacular expose of a subject that dominates the American economic landscape but about which Americans have very little knowledge. The phrase and the movie deal with the odd juxtaposition of capitalism and war as found in the weapons industry. Here we have innovations and efficiency of the type we associate with the private commercial sector but serving ends that are the very opposite of capitalism. The industry serves war, not peace, depends on coercion, not human volition, and profits from destruction, not creation.

¤ Bush's Brain Speaks to Obama
¤ A Monument to Stupidity

¤ US Media Trivializes Campaign 2008

¤ What Is It with Men and Torture?
Back in 2005 James Wolcott wrote of torture: "Women may take part -- though I imagine it's rare, and under duress -- but only men could devise the intricate and cruel tortures and torture devices that have been inflicted over the centuries."
This is one generalization about women that feminists let slide. Lynndie England of Abu Ghraib fame was a blip on torture's radar screen and women would like to keep it that way. But what infuses men with the urge to torture?

¤ Oil jumps over $123 on drop in diesel, heating oil supplies

U.S. is Promoting Secession in Bolivia
Posted: Wednesday, May 7, 2008

May 6th 2008, by Nikolas Kozloff - CounterPunch

Having avoided any meaningful coverage of Bolivia since the election of Evo Morales in December, 2005, the international media is now obliged to play catch up. Yesterday, the Andean nation of 9.1 million held a crucial vote which could pave the way for secession of the resource-rich Santa Cruz region.

In a challenge to Morales' authority, more than 80% of voters approved a referendum which would allow more powers for Santa Cruz, an area which is responsible for about 30 percent of Bolivia's gross domestic product while making up about a quarter of the country's population. Morales, who rejected the autonomy vote as illegal, called on the opposition to engage in a dialogue with his government.
Full Article : venezuelanalysis.com

Self-determination is at root of conflict
Posted: Monday, May 5, 2008

¤ Poll results, Zimbabweans the winners
¤ Presidential candidates set for a run off election

¤ Self-determination is at root of conflict
With controversy in the western media about Zimbabwe, disputes about the outcome of March 29 voting for president, charges of against President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, and calls from opposition leaders for western intervention, Final Call interviewed Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United States, Machinvenyika Tobia Mapuranga to discuss the political situation in Zimbabwe and issues facing the country.

¤ Zimbabwe: More Than Complicity of Silence
Today Zimbabwe has taken a high profile place in corporate media headlines. Are we getting the truth this time and can we rely on the same progressives who broke through misinformation around Iraq to do the same for us again?

¤ Expressions of imperialism within Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Friday denounced the US and Britain for their interference in Zimbabwe's elections. At the same time, he decried the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), and its civil society partner, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), as being part of a US and British program to reverse the gains of Zimbabwe's national liberation struggle.

¤ Myanmar cyclone kills 10,000 people
The Myanmar government has said that the cyclone that struck the south-east Asian nation this weekend has killed 10,000 people.
The toll from Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Myanmar knocking out power and causing widespread flooding, might rise further as 4,000 people remain missing. Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless.

¤ Oil passes $120, gas prices slip more than a cent
¤ Why (?) The Wright Story Stuck...and will most likely continue to

¤ The Dummies' Guide to Stupid Leaders and Misleading Numbers
In case you didn't know, the loss of 20,000 American jobs in April is actually good news. You see, economists had predicted 73,000 jobs would be lost last month, so thank God we dodged that bullet, right?!
In fact, the unemployment rate fell to 5.0% from 5.1% in March. Therefore, the unemployment rate is going down!! Surely, a .1% drop in the unemployment rate means America's determined locomotive is chugging toward the dawn of a new economic renaissance...right?

¤ The Green Recession
Americans are feeling the pinch of stagflation. Going to the grocery store and to the gas station leaves consumers in a state of sticker-shock. Neighbors are losing their homes. Retailers, restaurants, and countless other businesses are closing their doors. Mass layoffs are being announced with alarming frequency. As inflation and joblessness spiral upward, the economy plunges to greater depths. Opinions abound as to why America's economic ship is taking on water. Just as certainly as John McCain has personally witnessed global warming, I have ascertained the cause of America's economic malaise. Indeed, in a moment of deep insight, I have discovered that our economy is sinking in direct proportion to the rise of the environmental movement. The greener Americans become, the further our economy falls.

¤ How to live without money

¤ The Pentagon vs. America
I recently heard from an anti-war student I met while I was speaking at a college in northern Vermont. The e-mail included the following query:
"I told you about how I wanted to build a career around social activism and making a difference. You told me that one of the most important things was to make myself reputable and give people a reason to listen to you. I think this is some of the best advice I've received. My issue however is that you mentioned joining the military as a way to do this and mentioned how that is how you fell into it. … We talked extensively about all of our criticisms of the military currently and our foreign policy. … What I don't understand is, how can you [advise] someone who wants to make a difference with the flawed system, to join that flawed system?"

¤ The Media, The Right and 1988: Endless Deja Vu
¤ Bush Admits He Approved Torture
¤ Rev. Wright, the CIA and the AIDS Thing

¤ The Fed Sinks the Dollar
Against the recommendations of most economists and even the Financial Times of London, the Federal Reserve Board yesterday cut its discount rate by yet another quarter-point, to just 2%. Ostensibly, the intention is to try and spur economic "recovery" – as if a cut in the interest rates would do this. At first glance this seems to reflect the Fed's ideology that manipulating the interest alone can expand or contract the economy – as if it is like a balloon, with its structure is pre-printed on it, to be inflated or deflated at will to control the level of activity.

¤ US teenagers ruthlessly kill homeless just because they are not humans
¤ Report: U.S. Not as 'Free' as Touted
¤ Iraq Says No Hard Evidence of Iran Support For Militia
¤ ocuments Confirm Psychologists Collaborated with "War on Terror" Torture Program
¤ Iraq hospital 'damaged by US raid'

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