Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 18:09 - Category: Unfiled ;
DC Police Chief accused of personally beating a non-protester
Government worker tells radio station WTOP that Chief Ramsey attacked his girlfriend who was bicycling to work. Check the charming manner of the chief during the interview.
What a thug.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 17:57 - Category: Unfiled ;
Huge anti-war demonstration in UK planned for Sat.
The largest anti-war protest in decades will happen tomorrow in London.
Check UK Indymedia for details and news as it happens.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 17:48 - Category: Unfiled ;
DC protests - sleazy police tactics. What a surprise.
KPFK reports that police in DC were deliberately arresting observers at the demonstrations. This included lawyers from National Lawyers Guild who were there as observers only, as well as other groups of lawyer-observers.
National Lawyers Guild lawyers are present at many protests. They are observers, not protesters.
For them to be arrested en masse at the start of the demonstrations shows a deliberate tactic on the part of police. And the same D.C. police who ordered this move are still facing lawsuits from their previous illegal treatment of demonstrators.
There’s no better way to radicalize people than arresting them illegally.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 10:51 - Category: Unfiled ;
It’s time to blogburst on Iraq!
A seriously good idea from Barry at Amptoons. Let’s use blogs to pump huge amounts of anti-Iraq war mail to Congress and the media on Oct. 7.
Let’s participate in a “blogburst” to generate letters to Congress and local newspapers opposing a unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq.
A “blogburst” is when many blogs write about the same subject on the same date, and link to a central index so that readers can easily find other participants. The idea behind this blogburst is for both bloggers and readers to write letters to Congress and newspapers on Monday, October 7th. You can read the details at http://www.amptoons.com/openletters/ .
One unique thing about this blogburst is that I’m encouraging blog readers to participate, and providing a space to publish their contributions.
Do it now!
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 10:34 - Category: Unfiled ;
Russia: no proof of Iraq-Bin Laden link
The Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, today rejected British and US attempts to link Iraq with the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Mr Ivanov said he remained unconvinced about the extent of President Saddam’s weapons programme and dismissed allegations tying Saddam to Osama bin Laden’s terror network.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 10:32 - Category: Unfiled ;
Huh?
Bush calls Saddam ‘the guy who tried to kill my dad’
What IS he talking about? Poppy Bush AKA King George the First, was in the U.S. during the entire Gulf War, and I don’t recall him receiving death threats from Saddam.
However, to further complicate things, it appears there are at least four Saddam’s.
A scientific study of 450 photographs of him <Saddam> has concluded that the Iraqi President has used at least three body doubles to make public appearances on his behalf since 1998.
Addendum. 9/28/02. From the article, there may have been an attempt on Poppy Bush
In his speech September 12 to the United Nations on Iraq, Bush mentioned the alleged plot to kill a former U.S. president but did not mention that it was his father. The alleged assassination attempt came when former President Bush visited Kuwait during the Clinton administration. The former president had orchestrated the U.S.-led coalition that pushed the Iraqi army from Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War.
However, if Dubya wants to go the war because of an alleged attempt on his father’s life a decade ago, then, well, he’s taking this too personally. Wars, and the deaths of thousands should not be fought because of a grudge.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 10:18 - Category: Unfiled ;
It turns out a widely-circulated picture of President Bush holding an upside down copy of America: A Patriotic Primer is just another urban legend, according to Barbara and David Mikkelson…. [Taegan Goddard's Political Wire]
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 00:25 - Category: Unfiled ;
World Bank / IMF protests planned for DC today
Brought to you by Anti-Capitalist Convergence, who plan to shut DC down today in a symbolic protest.
Their call to Action
We are calling for NON-COMPLIANCE with the system in the tradition of strikes -a stoppage of normal activity to protest objectionable conditions, a halting of our participation in the system. We are calling for RESISTANCE to force the system to shut down. Refuse to go to work or school on September 27, or stay on the job and give everything out for free, slow down production, stick a wrench in the gears! Be in the streets, reclaim public space, discuss your ideas!
Check in with DC Indymedia to see what’s happening on the streets, real-time, as it happens.
Police, protesters In D.C. prepare for day of disruption
Anti-capitalism activists envision slow-moving caravans on the Capital Beltway impeding this morning’s commute, bicyclists clogging downtown streets and thousands of demonstrators working together to generate as much inconvenience as they can for the District.
D.C. police see another possibility: If today’s protests, timed for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, turn violent or disruptive, jail cells will fill. “These people that are apprehended are going to miss several protests,” said Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, “because they’ll be behind bars.” <For driving too slow?>
The always perceptive Sam Smith at Progressive Review (based in DC) on the hidebound reaction of DC police brass - even before the event starts.
The capital’s top cops are talking about the upcoming IMF-World Bank more like Mike Tyson before a fight than like professional police officers in a democracy. Chief Charles Ramsey and US Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer (formerly Ramsey’s assistant) set a bad precedent with their law and constitution-battering approach to the April 2000 demonstrations including illegal raids and mass arrests - onsequences of which are still in court.
But this time Gainer even talked about getting an injunction against the protesters until someone at the US Attorney’s office apparently briefed him on the Constitution. Now he’s threatening to charge people who discommode the sidewalk under federal anti-racketeering statutes, which is like shooting a parking violator.
As we have pointed out, DC has a long history of handling demonstrations (including many much larger than predicted this weekend) with professionalism and respect. But the arrival of Ramsey and Gainer - right-wing cowboy cops from Chicago - have made the city a much nastier place in which to behave like an American. <Yet another sign the 60’s are coming back - thug cops from Chicago.>
The sycophantic local media have joined Ramsey and Gainer in circulating the proposition that exercising one’s democratic rights might somehow make it easier for terrorists to operate in the city. And above all, they never cease reminding people that the demonstrations may disrupt Washingtonians’ most sacred right - that of being tied up in morning traffic.
And how does the city’s finest intend to respond to this terrifying possiblity? By doing what the city does best: closing off streets, of course. Even at moments of extreme tension, the bureaucratic paradigm triumphs.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 00:12 - Category: Unfiled ;
Eco-disaster looms Lousiana
The Louisiana wetlands are vanishing. They used to be replenished by the flooding of the Mississippi. But, when they built the levees on the Mississippi, the flooding stopped. That meant all the soil and accumulated goo that used to build the wetlands no longer does
Guiding this inspection is biologist Bill Good who works with the state’s department of natural resources. He says every couple of years, Louisiana loses a chunk of land that is bigger than Manhattan.
“And,” Good notes, “if a foreign country came in and took that much of our real estate every year, that would be grounds for war.”
Among other things, wetlands protect New Orleans from hurricanes. Less wetlands means less protection from hurricanes, higher prices for the seafood that (used to) live in them, and probable higher prices for gas.
It also means land is sinking or being reclaimed by the ocean or rivers - land where people live and have businesses.
Enter a banker turned enviro
Milling <the banker> says, here’s what hit him: Banks like his have invested billions of dollars in businesses across the region. He points to the dots sprinkled across the map. He says you’ll find a Whitney National Bank in the heart of every one of those towns.
“You know this whole area is composed of ship-building yards, fabrication yards, gas-processing plants, chemical installations. “Those towns that are located up and down the various bayous and rivers form the cornerstone of wealth in south Louisiana.”
And on this map, those towns are surrounded by splotches of red and pink— which signifies that the wetlands around them are vanishing. Milling says the more he looked at the map, the more he realized that if the wetlands wash away, his bank’s investments could wash away. The state’s whole economy could be crippled.
“It has everything to do with whether or not Louisiana as we know it will survive in the future.”
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
Interactive map of how nations view Iraq war
There are way more countries opposed to an Iraq war than those that favor it.
Bob Morris @ Sep 27th 2002 00:03 - Category: Unfiled ;
Can global warming cause an ‘Ice Age’?
The Great Ocean Conveyor keeps the North Atlantic region habitable and warm. It brings warm water and warm weather North. Gradually it cools, sinks and flows back the the Equator. Global warming is melting the ice caps, and thus, is sending cold water into those same Northern regions. Too much of this, and the system could flip within a few short years, and stop working - something that has happened before.
If that happens, the Northern areas will grow much colder and the Equator regions much hotter.
This comprhensive explanation is brought to you by those alarmist eno-wackos at that fringe institution - The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Let’s hope they’re are wrong. I’m sure THEY hope they are wrong.
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