Image by Krug6 via FlickrGales, aftershocks shake quake-hit New Zealand city
Christchurch and a large surrounding area of rural towns and farms on South Island were struck by the magnitude 7.1 quake early on Saturday morning, bringing down power lines, ripping up roads, smashing water and sewage pipes, and wrecking building facades. There were no deaths and only a few injuries.
The Fate of Reader Blogs
I know there's been a lot of conversation here over the last week about the fate of the Reader Blogs section of TPMCafe. I've been touch and heartened by all the things people have said, most particularly how much many of you value the community that exists here. I've given this a lot of thought over the last week. And more importantly we've discussed the technical options open to us. The key, as I've said before, is that for several different overlapping reasons we cannot continue to run this version of the Reader Blogs. Mostly it's about cost. But it's a little more complicated than that because related to the cost issue is that the Reader Blogs section of TPMCafe is keeping us anchored in the 'community' installation of Movable Type. The makers of Movable Type are moving away from supporting MT for sites that operate at our scale, especially for ones that use the community features we do.
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Blogger Migration
TPM Cafe is ceasing to post new reader blog posts as of Friday. I didn't wait for further change, just made notes on where I was reposting and how I handled it. That means the TPM Cafe file is now at oldephartte(in training ) with many My Opera posts...my own re-archiving of past posts.
Washington Post: US Intelligence Agencies Outraged By Israeli Ops Here
Bravo to reporter Jeff Stein for even getting this story in the Washington Post which is the most pro-Likud major newspaper in America. (I am trying to avoid using the term "pro-Israel" in this context because I consider support for the Likud approach to be anything but pro-Israel).
Read the opening paragraph. You will want to read the rest.
Read the opening paragraph. You will want to read the rest.
The CIA took an internal poll not long ago about friendly foreign intelligence agencies. The question, mostly directed to employees of the clandestine service branch, was: Which are the best allies among friendly spy services, in terms of liaison with the CIA, and which are the worst? In other words, who acts like, well, friends?The Israeli right, and its enablers here, are out of control which only adds to the awe I feel for the brave Israelis of the left -- B'tselem, Machsom Watch, Rabbis For Human Rights, Peace Now, Gush Shalom, etc. -- who are fighting the paranoid right which is endangering Israel's existence by criminal actions like this.
"Israel came in dead last," a recently retired CIA official told me the other day.
Not only that, he added, throwing up his hands and rising from his chair, "the Israelis are number three, with China number one and Russia number two," in terms of how aggressive they are in their operations on U.S. soil.
Israel's undercover operations here, including missions to steal U.S. secrets, are hardly a secret at the FBI, CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. From time to time, in fact, the FBI has called Israeli officials on the carpet to complain about a particularly brazen effort to collect classified or other sensitive information, in particular U.S. technical and industrial secrets.
Gone Viral: Anti-Muslim Hate Even On Nutrition Websites ++ & Yale Joins The Rhetorical Pogrom
So I'm innocently trying to find an article about the advantages or disadvantages of reducing carbohydrates as a means of preventing diabetes. Nice break from politics.
I find this really interesting nutrition site, devoted to, what it calls, the "low carb lifestyle."
I'm reading along, checking out the video links too, and then, out of the blue, the nutrition doc who owns the site goes off about the Islamic Center in New York and posts a hate video about Muslims.
Then it's back to the advantages of protein over carbs, etc.
Note: I just stumbled on this. I wasn't looking for it, and I sure wish I hadn't found it. I've visited the site before and it's a pretty good one, for those interested in these food/diet controversies.
Note also: the site's proprietor, Johnny Moore, uses it not only to share information but to make money. He solicits donations, sells products, etc.
It is unusual, I think, for commercial interests to openly express hate for potential customers. (Right-wing sites do but, for so many of them, hate is the product. That is different).
Here it's just an afterthought. "Buy my product. By the way, I hate Muslims."
Sorry, Abe Foxman, this reminds me of the early stages of an historical epoch one is not allowed to use in analogies, when hatred for Jews was non-controversial and simply assumed.
Check it out. Scroll down to where the hate starts. You'll find it.
Also, read this piece by a Yale Law student on Yale's authorized Islamo-hate session. Cool. Why should the best and the brightest be deprived of the fun that seems to be animating so any of the worst and the dimmest.
I find this really interesting nutrition site, devoted to, what it calls, the "low carb lifestyle."
I'm reading along, checking out the video links too, and then, out of the blue, the nutrition doc who owns the site goes off about the Islamic Center in New York and posts a hate video about Muslims.
Then it's back to the advantages of protein over carbs, etc.
Note: I just stumbled on this. I wasn't looking for it, and I sure wish I hadn't found it. I've visited the site before and it's a pretty good one, for those interested in these food/diet controversies.
Note also: the site's proprietor, Johnny Moore, uses it not only to share information but to make money. He solicits donations, sells products, etc.
It is unusual, I think, for commercial interests to openly express hate for potential customers. (Right-wing sites do but, for so many of them, hate is the product. That is different).
Here it's just an afterthought. "Buy my product. By the way, I hate Muslims."
Sorry, Abe Foxman, this reminds me of the early stages of an historical epoch one is not allowed to use in analogies, when hatred for Jews was non-controversial and simply assumed.
Check it out. Scroll down to where the hate starts. You'll find it.
Also, read this piece by a Yale Law student on Yale's authorized Islamo-hate session. Cool. Why should the best and the brightest be deprived of the fun that seems to be animating so any of the worst and the dimmest.
Feds find last-minute fix for student loans
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100905/national/student_loans
The Canadian Federation of Students is upset. Issuing more loans on an ad-hoc basis does nothing to resolve the growing financial burden placed on students, and is only a temporary fix, says David Molenhuis, the association's national chair.
Ottawa Notebook - Globe & Mail
Image via Wikipediahttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/margaret-atwood-takes-on-fox-news-north/article1692853Margaret Atwood is criticizing Stephen Harper over what she sees as his dictatorial approach to regulating the airwaves.
The petition is being circulated by an online advocacy group called Avaaz. It is calling on Canadians to “Stop Fox News North.” More than 34,000 people has so far signed the petition, which says:
“Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it. His plan is to create a ‘Fox News North’ to mimic the kind of hate-filled propaganda with which Fox News has poisoned U.S. politics. The channel will be run by Harper’s former top aide and will be funded with money from our cable TV fees!”
It applauds “the CRTC’s refusal to allow a new ‘Fox News North’ channel to be funded from our cable fees.” The Prime Minister, the petition says, should “immediately stop all pressure on the CRTC on this matter.”
The Saudi Prince, The Mosque And Fox News
The parent company of Fox News shares a financial backer with the imam who is at the center of the firestorm. The second-largest holder of voting stock in News Corp. is Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king. And through his philanthropies, Waleed has given generously to initiatives pursued by the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf.
THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES: Aryan Nations - Christian Identity and Fascist Terror - Dec 23, 1998
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9812/msg00085.html
SPENDING A FORTUNE ON BELIEFS
Carl E. Story and R. Vincent Bertollini are using their ministry, The 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, to benefit America's Promise and the Aryan Nations.
Alberta worries about becoming racist haven - Mar 24 2009
http://www.canada.com/news/Alberta+worries+about+becoming+racist+haven/1420206/story.html
A Brief History of Anti-Migrant Hysteria in Canada
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/rocking-boat-brief-history-anti-migrant-hysteria-canada/4460
In November, 76 Tamil refugees escaped Sri Lanka on a rusty freighter. They arrived in Victoria, where they were met by RCMP and Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials, who promptly jailed them for three months on allegations of terrorism. It would be fully half a year before the CBSA would admit that it had never had any evidence.
The Conservatives have begun to create new rules to treat refugees who arrive by boat differently from others. Meanwhile, Paul Fromm, the infamous neo-Nazi, has been receiving uncritical coverage in mainstream media with his demands that the migrants be sent back.
Sri Lanka’s government has resisted all calls for impartial investigations into its alleged and ongoing war crimes. Accordingly, the ICG’s recommendations included this specific note for Canada:
11. Do not extradite LTTE suspects to Sri Lanka unless guarantees of humane treatment and fair trials are in place. Instead prosecute in domestic courts where possible and appropriate.
Canadian medics assess Pakistan relief needs
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/09/05/pakistan-flood-relief-cmat.html?ref=rss
The organization Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT) is deploying three people from across Canada. They boarded a plane at Toronto's Pearson airport for a flight to Karachi.
CMAT national chair Valerie Rzepka said the team will assess needs on the ground. Members will be bringing basic medical supplies with them and will buy things such as IV fluids and pharmaceuticals while in Pakistan.
"We are also preparing to send the field hospital if it's needed," she said.
( New example of 'pathetic.' )
Twitter Engagement: Some Lessons from AIDS.gov
http://blog.aids.gov/2010/08/twitter-engagement-some-lessons-from-aidsgov.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aids%2Fgov+%28Blog.AIDS.gov%29
Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist
Giving Access to Care for Those Veterans Who Need It Now: The Suicide Prevention Hotline
http://www1.va.gov/health/NewsFeatures/20100903a.asp
For her work in creating the suicide prevention hotline, Kemp was the recipient of the 2009 Federal Employee of the Year.
Just Don’t Call It a Nursing Home
http://www1.va.gov/health/NewsFeatures/20100826a.asp
Nobody at VA says ‘nursing home’ anymore; they are called Community Living Centers, where elderly Veterans will find employees taking a new approach to taking care of those men and women who served our country in the military.
Gordon Duff: Is Israel Running The Taliban?
http://inteltrends.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/gordon-duff-is-israel-running-the-taliban
Today, 43 Pakistanis were killed in a terror attack, killed for supporting Palestinians in Gaza. The signs had been there, the Wikileaks attempt to put responsibility for the Taliban on Veterans Today editor General Hamid Gul. This was debunked in a heartbeat. This attack was vicious and clearly the work of Israel. This was a terror attack meant as a message to the people of the world telling them that if they rally in support of those imprisoned in Gaza, they will be murdered.
Political Crisis in the Persian Gulf: Monarchy vs. Democracy in Bahrain
http://inteltrends.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/political-crisis-in-the-persian-gulf-monarchy-vs-democracy-in-bahrain
“The way the ongoing security campaign has been handled and the rights violations that accompanied it have in one week destroyed 10 years of progress in this country.”
– Sheikh Ali Salman, head of Bahrain’s main Shia opposition party, Al-Wefaq, 21 August 2010
A brutal crackdown on Shia Muslim civil right activists in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain is entering its third week. It not only threatens to undermine important upcoming parliamentary elections, but the widespread protests it has engendered may force the government to finally address the civic, political and human rights of the island’s long-oppressed Shia population.
To understand the root cause of the latest strife in the country’s long history of domestic unrest, one need only appreciate a simple, fundamental and incontrovertible demographic reality: the country’s overwhelming majority Shias are effectively subjected to the rule of an unelected Sunni monarchy – the Al-Khalifa family, led by the King of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. Notably, and as will be discussed, the security services employed by the government and tasked with suppressing internal dissent are composed nearly entirely of non-Bahraini Sunnis.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: Repetition of the Hackneyed and Fake Election
http://inteltrends.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/islamic-emirate-of-afghanistan-repetition-of-the-hackneyed-and-fake-election
The Americans are trying again to pave the way for some demagogues’ faces in the coming days to reach the corridor of the parliament – in an effort to give legitimacy to the occupying forces and the puppet Kabul administration. However, the short-list of the would-be winners has already been finalized in the American embassy in Kabul. They have selected characters that passed the America criteria. The invaders are confident enough that those selected will never ratify a resolution against American interests.
The Americans and the campaigners of the candidates know very well that conduct of transparent and open elections in a peaceful environ is out of the question in any area, district or province of the country.
Middle East loses Trillions as U.S. strikes record Arms Deals
http://world.mediamonitors.net/Headlines/Middle-East-loses-Trillions-as-U.S.-strikes-record-Arms-Deals
The Internet has provided the world with, if nothing else, instantaneous access to news and in-depth information previously available only to governments and think tanks. It has also allowed for the exchange of data and analyses between groups and individuals around the globe, in part by making one tongue, English, the language of the World Wide Web. It remains to be seen whether the keystroke is mightier than the sword.
An illustrative case in point is an August 29 report from China's Xinhua News Agency on a news article by Egypt's Middle East News Agency regarding a study conducted by the Strategic Foresight Group in India. The latter, a report published in a book entitled The Cost of Conflict in the Middle East, calculates that conflict in the area over the last 20 years has cost the nations and people of the region 12 trillion U.S. dollars.
The Indian report adds that the Middle East has recorded "a high record of military expenses in the past 20 years and is considered the most armed region in the world." [1]
"One conclusion is that individuals in most countries are half as rich as they would have been if peace had taken off in 1991.
"Incomes per head in Israel next year would be $44,241 with peace against a likely $23,304. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip they would be $2,427 instead of $1,220.
"For Iraq, income per head next year is projected at $2,375, one quarter of the $9,681 that would have been possible without the conflicts of the past two decades." [3]
Other sources estimate the overall rate of unemployment in the Middle East at 20-25 percent, with joblessness in nations like Lebanon and Yemen at 30 percent or more. This despite the fact that the region has achieved one of the more impressive successes in improving educational opportunities, measured by the amount of years students spend in school, in the world.
The Middle East requires comprehensive regional development, but instead is receiving billions of dollars worth of arms. The area's nations could be spending that sum on rural and urban infrastructure, dams and reservoirs, desalination and irrigation, forestation and fisheries, industry and agriculture, medicine and public health, housing and information technology, equitable integration of cities and villages, and repairing the ravages of past wars rather than on U.S. warplanes, attack helicopters and interceptor missiles.
An American news report of a year ago revealed that, according to a U.S.-based consultancy firm, several Middle Eastern nations are slated to spend over $100 billion on weapons in the upcoming five years. Most of those arms purchases - "unprecedented packages" - will be by Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the "core of this arms-buying spree will undoubtedly be the $20 billion U.S. package of weapons systems over 10 years for the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain." The expansion of American arms sales and military presence in the Persian Gulf targets Iran in the first place.
The same feature documented plans for the U.S. to supply Egypt with a $13 billion arms package and Israel with $30 billion in weaponry over ten years, the latter "a 25 percent increase over previous levels." [4]
France steps up military intervention in Sahel
http://inteltrends.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/france-steps-up-military-intervention-in-sahelThe declaration of a new “war on terror” is an ominous, reactionary event, whose basic social content is now well known. Intelligence services and special forces will be given free rein to use massive violence against ex-colonial regions, while the population of their home country is to be terrorised by constant warnings from the political establishment of possible attacks.
The military escalation in the Sahel under the banner of a “war on terror” is aimed at pursuing France’s strategic and commercial interests. The 2008 French white paper on defence, which outlined France’s global geo-strategy, identified the Sahel as one of four critical regions for French imperialism. The region is a key supplier of oil, minerals, and uranium.
Uranium is one critical interest for French imperialism in the region. France’s nuclear industry – which supplies 78 percent of the country’s electricity generating capacity and makes €3 billion in yearly profits from energy exports alone – relies on Niger for 25 percent of the 12,400 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate that it consumes yearly.
The world’s third-largest uranium producer, Niger is expected to increase its yearly uranium output from 3,500 to 10,500 metric tonnes. French state-owned nuclear company Areva has exploited these uranium reserves for 40 years. It mines the Arlit and Akouta deposits, which produced over 3,000 metric tonnes in 2008. Areva has invested €1.2 billion in the Imouraren deposit, which is expected to produce almost 5,000 metric tons per year for over 35 years.
French hegemony in the region is threatened by the growing influence of China. Beijing has emerged as a rival buyer of uranium in Niger, from the Azelik and Teguidda deposits. It has also paid $5 billion for the right to prospect for oil in the Agadem oilfield in eastern Niger. Africa Confidential writes, “China’s relatively new involvement vastly strengthens Niger’s power to bargain with France”.
paradox lost
The environmentalist’s paradox: we do better while the earth does worse
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-03-environmentalists-paradox-we-do-better-while-earth-does-worse Brad Plumer has a great post on why humanity seems to be doing relatively well even though the environment is falling apart. The same subject's been on my mind since I read a piece by Foreign Policy editor Charles Kenny a few days ago called "Best. Decade. Ever."The natural world, however, is going to sh*t. Species are dying off, the oceans are acidifying, forests are getting eaten by pine beetles, ice is melting, and plains are becoming deserts. Remember the study in Nature about "planetary boundaries" and how we've crossed a bunch of them?
So what explains the disparity? Why are people doing better even as ecosystems are doing worse?
That's the subject of a new paper in Bioscience called "Untangling the Environmentalist's Paradox: Why Is Human Well-being Increasing as Ecosystem Services Degrade?" Brad lists the researchers' four possible answers:
- Maybe humanity isn't really better off.
- Advances in food production are more important than anything else.
- Technology makes us less dependent on ecosystem services.
- The worst effects of ecosystem degradation are still yet to come.
http://mountainrunner.us/2010/08/iraq.html
As U.S. combat operations officially end this week and Washington's reconstruction effort winds up, Iraqis complain that America is leaving little behind to show for an investment that President Bush promised in 2003 would parallel the post- World War II Marshall Plan in its scope and accomplishments. …
A power plant in southern Baghdad is operating at 50% capacity because it wasn't designed to withstand Iraq's searing temperatures. …
Baban said the Iraqi government has taken on only 300 of the 1,500 reconstruction projects handed over so far by the U.S. The rest have been "put on the shelf," he said, because they are too shoddy to continue, aren't needed, or are incomplete and lack the documentation such as plans and contracts that the Iraqis would need to finish them. …
Horrifying environmental impact of non-Gulf shrimp
http://www.naturalnews.com/029672_Shrimp_environment.html
"Unfortunately much of the shrimp we eat are a cocktail of chemicals, harvested at the expense of one of the world's productive ecosystems," Richardson writes on Alternet.org. "Worse, guidelines for finding some kind of 'sustainable shrimp' are so far nonexistent."
AirDropper lets people put files into your Dropbox ... without signing up for Dropbox
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/09/04/airdropper-lets-people-put-files-into-your-dropbox-without-s
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