Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 22:40 - Category: Unfiled ;
Indictments in the CIA leak investigation case are expected to be handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday, bringing to a head a criminal inquiry that threatens to disrupt seriously President George W. Bush’s second term.
The Financial Times is not given to idle speculation. We’ll know who in a few hours. ‘Night all.
Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 21:30 - Category: Water ;
Environmental issues scarcely make the top of the news unless a disaster occurs, such as Hurricane Stan, or unless a homicide claims an activist, such as Parota Dam opponent Tomás Cruz Zamora.
So it is not surprising that the Mexican Coalition of Organizations for the Right to Water attracted little attention with its Oct. 11 debut.
But the minimal coverage belies the groundswell of interest in water issues that is building in the lead-up to the World Bank’s Fourth World Water Forum set for March in Mexico City. The 16 groups that recently founded the coalition will sponsor an alternative to the event, featuring a tribunal that will bring to task three cases of water mismanagement in the hemisphere.
The main concerns of the water activists are unfair distribution of water, privatization of water services, and lack of mechanisms guaranteeing public participation in water decisions.
This is a worldwide issue and struggle. Large corporations, aided and abetted by the World Bank, want to privatize water. Inevitably the price of water goes up and the quality goes down when public water is privatized. Access to clean, low cost water is a right. It shouldn’t be controlled by corporations who only care about making a profit.
Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 21:19 - Category: Climate change ;
Half of the world’s coral reefs may die within the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them from climate change, the World Conservation Union warns in a new report released today. Warming ocean temperatures are causing reefs to bleach and die, but Marine Protected Areas can.
Meanwhile, the arctic ice is melting at an alarming rate, and even those who used to pretend global warming wasn’t happeneing are now forced to. Question is, when will the US government take it seriously?
Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 09:10 - Category: Unfiled ;
"We will be searching for a bottom in gas prices in the next few weeks and based on where we have been, that bottom will look pretty good," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, an energy research company. But Kloza added a cautionary note: "The elements that contrived to send [gas prices] higher will be back and they will be back with some of their friends."
Notice how we now think $2.75 a gallon is really cheap… And "some of their friends" means increased demand and less supply.
Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 09:07 - Category: Anti-war ;
For the first time, a majority of Americans believe the Iraq war was the "wrong thing to do", according to a poll published in The Wall Street Journal.
2,000 US dead, and tens of thousands of Iraqis, mostly non-combatants, dead or maimed. More than ever, let’s get in the streets.
Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 08:39 - Category: Anti-war ;
A furious George Galloway today challenged US senators to charge him with perjury over claims that he solicited money from Saddam Hussein’s oil-for-food programme and lied about it under oath.
The US Senate inquiry into the Bethnal Green and Bow MP’s alleged involvement in the saga claims to have discovered $150,000 (£85,000) in Iraqi oil money in his estranged wife’s bank account.
Its chairman, the Republican senator Norm Coleman, says this means Mr Galloway lied under oath when giving evidence to the senate permanent sub-committee on investigations on May 17, when he offered a passionate defence against similar claims.
Today Mr Galloway repeated denials that he had ever received any oil cash, and told Mr Coleman to "put up or shut up" by either bringing a prosecution or dropping the allegations. The Respect MP accused Mr Coleman of orchestrating a "sneak revenge attack" motivated by a desire to avenge his "humiliation" at the hearing in May.
Contrast Galloway with the timid little churchmice called Democrats in Congress today.
Bob Morris @ Oct 25th 2005 08:37 - Category: Unfiled ;
Mrs Parks’ legacy
Mrs Parks died on 24 October 2005, aged 92.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said her legacy would never die.
"I am leaving this legacy to all of you," she said in 1988, "to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfilment of what our lives should be.
"Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace."
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