Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 11:43 - Category: Unfiled ;
Judge rules against partial-birth abortion law
A controversial ban on late-term, or partial-birth, abortions signed into law by President Bush late last year was ruled unconstitutional on Tuesday by a judge in the first federal court decision against the law.
Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 00:18 - Category: Unfiled ;
New Saudi attack ‘probable’
Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia warned today that another terrorist attack in the kingdom was “probable”
Oil price fear after Saudi attack
<The president of OPEC> has said he is worried by the weekend attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry as it has pledged to help calm prices.
Paying the price for incompetence
There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is in the throes of an insurgency aimed at toppling its monarchical regime. It may not be as serious as the insurgency in Iraq, but it is likely to get worse. The militants are ruthless and smart, and the Saudi security forces are not up to dealing with them. Neither is their boss, Prince Nayef, the interior minister.
Is the US up to the task? I mean, once you get past the bluster and macho strutting of the Bushies, what have they done to stop al Qaeda? Not much I can see, except foam at the mouth about evildoers, something which makes nifty soundbites but doesn’t actually solve anything.
The leadership of al Qaeda are hardly ignorant peasants. A LA Times Op-ed yesterday said “A recent BBC documentary interviewed Bin Laden’s school pals, who remembered his charm, elegance and intelligence — shocking many viewers who apparently didn’t want to hear such things.”
Prince Nayef has run the interior ministry for almost 30 years, on supposedly Islamic principles which include extracting confessions through torture and executing people for numerous offences other than murder - such as witchcraft, adultery, sodomy, highway robbery, sabotage, apostasy (renunciation of Islam) and “corruption on earth”.
Hmm, and just why is it the US supports the corrupt, brutal Saudi regime, as well as Burma and Uzbekistan, when those countries are run by thuggish governments which are as vicious as Saddam ever was, if not more so. The answer, of course, is oil. Those countries permit US oil companies to do business with them, thus their torture of political opponents and suppression of human rights are barely mentioned by the US. Which makes a hollow mockery of the Bushies pretending to have invaded Iraq for “freedom.”
The problem is not just the way Prince Nayef runs his ministry. As much as anyone in the kingdom, he is responsible for creating and perpetuating a climate in which Islamic militancy can flourish, for suppressing liberal voices that could play a vital role in challenging extremism.
He is also in charge of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice (the dreaded religious police) which, in the midst of the most serious security challenge the kingdom has ever faced, spends its time monitoring the length of people’s sleeves and the hairstyles of Saudi youths.
You can get five years in prison in Saudi Arabia for possession of a bible, compliments of the religious police. The religious fascism the US fears will form in Iraq already exists in Saudi Arabia.
By any standards, it is time for him to go. The trouble is, competence is not the main qualification for running the interior ministry. Because of his position in the royal pecking order, it is almost impossible to remove Prince Nayef without upsetting the delicate balance of factions within the ruling family. If he stays, though, it will be worse in the long run.
The choice for Saudis is a stark but simple one: tip Nayef overboard now, or sink with him later.
Ditto for Bush and the neocons. Here’s why -
Al-Qaeda winning: Asian analysts
The al-Qaeda network is winning the global war on terror, while Washington’s use of overwhelming force against Muslim extremists is creating a sea of hatred and is strategically flawed, Asian analysts said.
The director of Singapore’s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Barry Desker, said al-Qaeda remained resilient and the use of force could not eliminate terror threats.
“The response cannot be a military one. This is fundamentally a US error,” he said, adding that the US-led war on Iraq and subsequent occupation had driven Islamic militants to wage jihad, or holy war, against Washington.
Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 00:10 - Category: Unfiled ;
3rd of detainees who died were assaulted
More than a third of the prisoners who died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were shot, strangled or beaten by U.S. personnel before they died, according to death certificates and a high-ranking U.S. military official.
In other words, they were tortured to death.
Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 00:09 - Category: Unfiled ;
Upcoming Green party convention
There’s a storm brewing over convention rules at the upcoming Green nominating convention the end of June, with some wanting to force rules that block open discussion of issues. Peter Camejo, twice Green candidate for governor in California, opposes this.
Open letter from Peter Camejo
No convention of elected delegates rights can be limited from anything they wish to do by any rules set up prior to the convention. A democratic convention always has the right to suspend any rules. One of the most classical anti-democratic rules used by bureaucrats and Democrats in the labor movement is to not allow motions and votes from the floor. The goal of a convention should be to promote the wishes of the majority or in the case of Greens the best consensus that can be reached. Any rule that tries to block that passed by anyone prior to the convention can be and should be over ruled by the convention.
Everyone knows that our convention must decide between support for Nader or Kerry. Obviously most Kerry supporters prefer a more indirect approach such as the safe state strategy or whatever you want to call it. Some just call it not running at all which is another way to say vote Kerry. While some Greens would object to my description of the choice the fact is that three motions will dominate our discussion, run David Cobb for president, support Nader or run no one and endorse no one. Anything that blocks that discussion and honest vote is aimed at weakening democracy in the Green Party.
Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 00:09 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
The Day After Tomorrow
This disaster movie about global warming opened Memorial Day weekend to a huge box office. Among other things, this shows global warming is no longer a fringe issue. Like saying the Bushies lied about the reasons for the Iraq invasion, saying global warming is happening is no longer considered a fringe statement - the issue has moved front and center onto front pages worldwide.
Good! Go see the movie. It’s fun, even if the “science” in it is laughable at times and the plot sometimes schmaltzy. The special effects are amazing, I mean, hey, when else to you get to see NYC encased in ice and snow?
The Viridian movement is a net-based art design to focus attention on global warming. The mailing list is worldwide, and we’ve definitely done our part to get the word out. I am a proud member of the Viridian Curia, and our leader, the esteemed Pope-Emperor, noted sf author Bruce Sterling, commented in a recent newsletter.
You know what? It’s been six years since we started the Viridian Movement in 1998, and our basic issues are finally becoming loud, repeated, unbearably urgent, everyday, headline-grabbing issues.
Much more of this, and it’s going to be time for me to declare victory and move along to some less commonplace form of technosocial endeavor. I don’t like to repeat the publicly obvious == not my style. But it’s not like the Greenhouse problem is ever going away in my lifetime… So hey, maybe they’ll draft me and MAKE me do this!
Viridian Design (main site)
Viridian Repository (contest entries, I am webmaster)
Bob Morris @ Jun 1st 2004 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
Only pretty, what a pity
Bolivia’s entrant in next week’s Miss Universe pageant is facing calls to quit after she made what many thought was a ‘racist’ remark. Gabriela Oviedo, 21, caused a furor when she described herself as tall, white woman and not a short Indian peasant.
“Unfortunately, people that don’t know Bolivia very much think that we are all just Indian people…poor people and very short people and Indian people,” local media quoted her as saying.
“I am from the other side of the country…and we are tall and we are white people and we know English,” Oviedo said.
And your point is?
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