Noam Chomsky: WikiLeaks Cables Reveal "Profound Hatred for Democracy on the Part of Our Political Leadership"

Commenting on the revelations that several Arab leaders are urging the United States to attack Iran, Chomsky says, "latest polls show] Arab opinion holds that the major threat in the region is Israel, that’s 80 percent; the second threat is the United States, that’s 77 percent. Iran is listed as a threat by 10 percent," Chomsky says. "This may not be reported in the newspapers, but it’s certainly familiar to the Israeli and U.S. governments and the ambassadors. What this reveals is the profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership."

Image via Wikipedia

With regard to nuclear weapons, rather remarkably, a majority- in fact, 57–say that the region would have a positive effect in the region if Iran had nuclear weapons.

There was an election in January 2006 after the only free election in the Arab world- carefully monitored, recognized to be free- but it had a flaw. The wrong people won. Namely Hamas, which the U.S. did not want it and Israel did not want. Instantly, within days, the U.S. and Israel instituted harsh measures to punish the people of Gaza for voting the wrong way in a free election.

The next step was that they- the U.S. and Israel- sought to, along with the Palestinian Authority, try to carry out a military coup in Gaza to overthrow the elected government. This failed- Hamas beat back the coup attempt. That was July 2007. At that point, the siege gotmuch harsher. In between come in many acts of violence, shellings, invasions and so on and so forth. But basically, Israel claims that when the truce was established in the summer 2008, Israel’s reason for not observing it and withdrawing the siege was that there was an Israeli soldier- Gilad Shalit- who was captured at the border. International commentary regards this as a terrible crime. Well, whatever you think about it, capturing a soldier of an attacking army- and the army was attacking Gaza- capturing a soldier of an attacking army isn’t anywhere near the level of the crime of kidnapping civilians.

Image via WikipediaWe should understand- and the Pentagon Papers is another case in point- that one of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. In the Pentagon Papers, for example, there was one volume- the negotiations volume- which might have had a bearing on ongoing activities and Daniel Ellsberg withheld that. That came out a little bit later. If you look at the papers themselves, there are things Americans should have known that others did not want them to know. And as far as I can tell, from what I’ve seen here, pretty much the same is true. In fact, the current leaks are- what I’ve seen, at least- primarily interesting because of what they tell us about how the diplomatic service works.

JoNova

Solar Panel subsidies: A billions dollars to provide cheap electricity to wealthy households

In the end the government drew money from the population-at-large to help Chinese solar panel manufacturers, and to provide “cheap” electricity to 107,000 households in mostly medium-high wealth areas. It reduced Australia’s emissions by a piddling 0.015 per cent, at an exorbitant carbon price of $300/ton.

Carbon Credits reach their true value!

I can hardly let the demise of the Chicago Climate Exchange go by without a note.

Didn’t I point out that if carbon trading was a free market, nobody would pay a cent?

Well, hail the triumph of the free market.

Now we are not even allowed to doubt?

She thinks that because she can find parallels between Tobacco and Climate Skeptics, therefore skeptics are wrong about climate sensitivity due to a trace gas. Go figure why anyone struggles to analyze ice cores when they could have just done a Google search?

I can find remarkable parallels between Lysenko and modern climate science, but I don’t bother writing a book on it. If I want answers about the climate I look at the data from the planet, not data about personalities.

The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and FraudAnd those who are too fearful to do so**

Another Top International Scientist Jumps off Global Warming ‘Titanic’

Dr. Lucka Kajfež Bogataj left cold clear water between herself and her former UN shipmates by declaring that rising levels of airborne carbon dioxide probably don’t cause global temperatures to rise. The news scuppers hope for a change in fortune for the beleagured UN climate agency.
Their doomed ‘ship,’ the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been sailing on an ill wind ever since it was struck by that Climategate‘torpedo’ last year.
he Slovenian climate professor made the chilling announcement last month in an obscure foreign language journal that has only now been translated into English. The lambast came in the publicationDelo Polet (18/11/2010), translated into English as, “Inconvenient Truth.” Inside Bogataj publishes a paper entitled, “The more we know, the better. “

Ahoy! Beware More Icebergs in Colder Oceans

Concluding the nautical metaphor comes Argo*, the official world sea temperatures record (as much as 80% of the earth’s heat is held in the oceans). It seems our oceans are getting very cold according a survey from the world’s top 50 international laboratories—so perhaps we may see more icebergs forming to snare that rudderless IPCC ship?

Climate Deception Is A Crime Against Humanity?

Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres of the UN Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCC) said “Let me be clear - there is no magic bullet, no one climate agreement that will solve everything right now,” “To expect that is naive. However, I am certain the world can do this step by step, but only if we keep on walking firmly in the right direction, including at Cancun.” She is talking about stopping or controlling climate change. Clearly Ms. Figueres knows nothing about climate science or doesn’t want to know.

here is nothing to solve except how the world was deceived that humans are the sole cause of climate change and therefore it can be controlled. It’s a delusion of modern, technologically, and bureaucratically arrogant people. She should know the cost of the delusion that human CO2 is causing climate change has produced. How people are being subjected to serious social and economic harm that borders on atrocities. Maybe her degree in anthropology would help her resolve this and other resulting issues. Maybe she could explain how a group of people who falsified data, practiced inaccurate and inadequate science, convinced governments to introduce completely unnecessary and harmful policies, and fooled the Nobel Committee into giving them a Peace Prize. To call what they did a contribution to peace is an intellectual farce. But it is not a farce to consider that it appears to fit the definition ofCrimes against Humanity. Mass atrocities are organized crimes whose perpetrators need money, weapons, transportation, and other means to commit widespread and systematic violence against civilians. A country, commercial entity, or individual enables mass atrocities when it provides resources, goods, services, or other practical support to the perpetrator, and when this support is a critical ingredient in the commission of the atrocities.

Antarctic ice reveals trapped secrets of climate change

Set for its opening by Prince Charles on Friday, the gallery has been designed to outline the basics of climate science and explain why researchers believe human activity is now having a pronounced impact on weather patterns. "This gallery will show how scientists have acquired their knowledge about Earth's climate history – with our ice cores providing some of the most telling examples," says museum director Chris Rapley.

Air gets trapped by snow as it falls. Then more snow falls on top. Pressure builds up and snow is eventually converted into ice – with air bubbles trapped inside. The deeper you drill, the older the ice – and air bubbles – that you find. "If you drill several kilometres down you find samples that are almost a million years old," says Rapley. "That is why we think of ice cores as treasure troves of climate history."

DRUG TRAFFIC AND STATE IN MEXICO: THE HISTORY OF A CENTENARY ARRANGEMENT

A lot has been said about the historical link between drug traffic and the State in Mexico. Nevertheless, there have been few attempts dedicated to study this phenomenon in a rigorous way.

This link has been real, without a doubt, and goes beyond famous cases such as Mario Villanueva, the “narco” governor (currently imprisoned in the United States) or former antidrug czar General Gutiérrez Rebollo (imprisoned in Mexico). It has been, in order to synthesize, one more of the edges of the Mexican authoritarian regime under the PRI (Party of the Institutionalized Revolution), who held the presidency until 2000. It is, however, a problem that extends itself beyond the democratic transition of the country.

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The nexus between drug trafficking and State in Mexico is centennial and has followed a certain path. Nevertheless, it has lately undergone several important changes result from the economic globalization, the alterations in the world-wide drug market, and the peculiar process of Mexican democratization. To that situation we have to add the absence of a vision shared by all the political forces in the matter of security. At this point, we are all hostages of a punitive paradigm (imported from the United States) that reproduces what it tries to solve: the violence. This is where we are now.

Could Congress have prevented the BP mess? A report reveals that a law enacted after the Exxon Valdez to avoid future oil spills was deprived of cash by lawmakers.

The Fed and Foreclosures

They have pursued foreclosures in violation of borrowers' rights to due process, as revealed by the recent robo-signing scandal. And, despite having been bailed out for their mistakes, they have pursued their self-interest, not the public interest, when it comes to modifying bad loans. They have resisted reducing principal balances for troubled borrowers, for instance, because that could force them to take losses they would rather delay.

Now, despite mounting evidence of borrower mistreatment, the Federal Reserve has proposed a rule that would disable the most effective legal tool that borrowers have to fight foreclosures.