Holiday leave

25Aug07

A message to all my hundreds of thousands of adoring readers: I’m off to Austria on Saturday, and I won’t be back for a week. I won’t have access to a computer while I’m there (which is a good thing, really), so it means you’ll have to live without my expert analyses until I return. [...]

Filed under: Cool Stuff   |  4 Comments
Tags: Uncategorized

The War On Democracy

23Aug07

John Pilger’s latest film. It’s a good’un!

(h/t)

Filed under: Latin America, US, Venezuela, Videos   |  2 Comments
Tags: Democracy, International & Foreign Policy

An anti-war establishment?

22Aug07

As the situation in Iraq deteriorates ever further, opposition to the occupation within the U.S. establishment is growing. Last year, the Iraq Study Group concluded that the occupation is a disaster for U.S. interests and recommended a gradual withdrawal of “combat troops”, but which nevertheless effectively “guarantee[d] us at least another 3-5 years in Iraq”. [...]

Filed under: Iraq, News and politics, US   |  6 Comments
Tags: Democracy, International & Foreign Policy, War

American democracy

16Aug07

From the Political Compass:

Who says there’s no real choice?
(via)

Filed under: US   |  2 Comments
Tags: Democracy

Climate Campers 1 – 0 Cops

16Aug07

‘ave it!

You can keep up to date with the latest goings on at the Heathrow Climate Camp at Indymedia. After it was revealed that police would use anti-terrorism powers to “deal robustly” with these peaceful protestors, this has become as much a protest for democracy and political freedom as it is [...]

Filed under: Activism, News and politics, UK   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: climate camp, climate change, Democracy, Environment

Loony Watch

15Aug07

Check out U.S. Presidential no-hoper Rudy Giuliani’s recent piece in Foreign Affairs. After equating the U.S. with “the international system” and, indeed, “[c]ivilisation itself”, he continues,
“The problem there is not the lack of statehood but corrupt and unaccountable governance. The Palestinian people need decent governance first, as a prerequisite for statehood. Too much emphasis has [...]

Filed under: Iran, Israeli / Palestinian, News and politics, US   |  5 Comments
Tags: Binyamin Netanyahu, International & Foreign Policy, loonies, Rudy Giuliani

Study of media coverage of last year’s Lebanon war

13Aug07

Have a look at this recent study analysing how the Lebanon war was portrayed by 14 English-language media sources (see below). The main findings:
- “An overwhelming majority of articles (55%) explicitly blamed Hezbollah for starting or causing the war. Only 11 percent of the articles blamed Israel, and 9 percent blamed both sides equally. Interestingly, [...]

Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian, Lebanon, Media, News and politics, UK, US   |  3 Comments
Tags: Hizbullah, Lebanon, Media, US, War

Big up the anarchists

11Aug07

Those of you who responded to Anarchists Against The Wall’s recent request for donations can sleep happily knowing you’ve contributed to stuff like this:
‘Thirty Palestinian and Anarchists Against the Wall activists damaged the separation fence near Hebron Saturday afternoon.
The activists managed to cut 30 meters of the barbed wire and electric fence before security forces [...]

Filed under: Activism, Israeli / Palestinian, News and politics   |  1 Comment
Tags: Anarchism

Massacre in East Timor – A Case Study in U.S. Foreign Policy

11Aug07

A discussion of the Indonesian genocide in East Timor, featuring Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Allan Nairn, Benedict Anderson, Prof. Henry Steiner and Larry Dinger (some guy from the State Department).
From 1992.

If you’re not familiar with the background to this, check out John Pilger’s searing documentary, Death of a Nation.

Filed under: US, Videos, West Papua   |  4 Comments
Tags: Alan Nairn, Amy Goodman, East Timor, Human Rights, International & Foreign Policy, Noam Chomsky

A New Hope?

09Aug07

There is much buzz surrounding the latest U.S./Israeli ‘peace push’. As a Ha’aretz editorial put it,
“empty words about a “diplomatic horizon” and barren meetings between representatives of the parties are giving way to genuine diplomatic processes and practical plans for solving the conflict.”
Certainly, the Israeli government has taken steps recently that, on the face of [...]

Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian, News and politics, US   |  17 Comments
Tags: "peace process"