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Saturday, July 05, 2003 Bush's America States are feeling the crush as the economy remains in the slumps. To deal with the shortfall, [Nevada] is introducing a novel live entertainment tax of 10%, which will apply to the state's brothels, legal in 10 of Nevada's 17 counties. The state's many strip clubs would also have to pay the tax. Elsewhere, New York's police officers are leading the drive to plug a potential $4bn deficit in the city's budget, fining anyone they can for anything they can think of. One man was ticketed for sitting on a milk crate outside a shop; the citation was "unauthorized use of a crate". Alabama has been facing a deficit of $700m and now the governor, Bob Riley, a conservative Republican, has announced the biggest tax changes for 100 years. There are also budget crises in Oregon, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. In Connecticut, the Republican governor, John Rowland, is now running the state by executive order, making ad hoc decisions on which of the state's mounting bills get paid until a budget is agreed. But it is in California that the meltdown is most spectacular. The state has a deficit of $32bn and desperately needs to agree a new budget. More details here. posted by chris at 3:05 PM   Checks and Balances? The London Times has a short article discussing lawyers' objections to the recent US plans for trying Al-Queda suspects in a military trial at Guantanamo Bay. At the bottom of the article was a very interesting exchange: Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, has delegated to his deputy, the hawkish Paul Wolfowitz, the final decision on whether the prosecutions will proceed. “There are a lot of checks and balances in this system,” one Pentagon spokesman told The Times. Asked what those checks and balances were, the official cited the review of the President’s decision by Mr Wolfowitz. Asked if there were any other checks and balances other than that, the official replied: “No, sir.” posted by chris at 2:59 PM   ------------------ Wednesday, July 02, 2003 The eyes of the US are upon you The Pentagon is developing an urban surveillance system that would use computers and thousands of cameras to track, record and analyze the movement of every vehicle in a foreign city. Dubbed "Combat Zones That See," the project is designed to help the U.S. military protect troops and fight in cities overseas. Police, scientists and privacy experts say the unclassified technology could easily be adapted to spy on Americans. The project's centerpiece is groundbreaking computer software that is capable of automatically identifying vehicles by size, color, shape and license tag, or drivers and passengers by face. I just wanna know, where was all this new-fangled technology when the Iraqis where moving their WMD all over the country? Read on, just don't let that third sentence in the article scare you too much. Via Bob Harris on Tom Tomorrow's site. posted by chris at 11:12 PM   Outright bribery The United States is suspending military aid to about 35 countries in a dispute over an international war crimes tribunal. Overall, about $48 million in aid will be blocked, according to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Among the nations affected is Colombia, where some U.S. assistance for fighting drugs and terrorists could be in jeopardy. The aid cutoff is because the countries failed to meet a Tuesday deadline for exempting Americans from prosecution before the new U.N. international war crimes tribunal. In addition to Colombia, the following countries were declared ineligible to receive U.S. military assistance, according to a State Department announcement Tuesday night: Africa: Benin, Central African Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia. Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia. Western Hemisphere: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela Asia: Fiji, Samoa Because if the US doesn't get its way, it takes it's toys and goes home. posted by chris at 11:07 PM   ------------------ Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Good to know, part 2 Sperm samples could be stored in the kitchen cupboard instead of at sperm banks thanks to a new preservation technique that preserves sperm by drying it. Storing dried samples at room temperature, then reconstituting them with a drop of liquid does not seem to interfere with the sperm's ability to fertilise eggs, the meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard yesterday. Dr Imoedemhe said the process allows "patients to take responsibility for storing their sperm at home". Slow day at the ESHRE . . . posted by chris at 10:59 PM   Good to know Having sex while driving at 60mph down a motorway is not an offence in Germany. A court in Cologne fined a man who admitted he was having sex with a hitchhiker when he drove his car into a road sign, but only because he fled the scene. "The man was convicted of hit-and-run and sentenced to a fine of €600," (£418) a court spokesman, Jürgen Mannebeck, said on Tuesday. "It's hard to believe, but in fact no law was broken with the intercourse on the motorway. It's a situation law makers never thought about." Slow news day . . . posted by chris at 10:57 PM   It's the cheesiest! Kraft Foods, the world's biggest maker of processed foods, said yesterday it would shrink its ready-made meals and snacks to help combat the obesity epidemic. It is also concerned to stave off the mounting threat of lawsuits from overweight people. Fee-hungry lawyers who have become rich on tobacco lawsuits have begun to salivate over the US food industry. Kraft, controlled by Altria which also owns the cigarette maker Philip Morris, is sensitive to the threat. The company has annual worldwide sales of $30bn. As well as reducing the size of its portions for single-serve products, Kraft will cut the sugar, fat and calorie content in many foods. Nutritional labelling will be improved and vending machines in schools will offer healthier snacks. More. Not that I'm promoting Kraft foods here: they still produce processed foods full of stuff that's not really good for you. And less fat certainly doesn't mean no-fat. But I guess it's a start. Like McDonald's eliminating certain antibiotics from their meat, it's better than nothing. I am interested in the focus on lowering the portion size. That's one of the things I noticed when I returned from Ghana - portion sizes in the US, especially in restaurants, but also in store-bought foods, are huge. We have entirely too much food on our plates. Still, it seems like they're dodging a bullet here - trying to set up preventive measures so they can avoid a deluge of lawsuits for selling harmful products to the public. So it's not like Kraft has had an epiphany as to the effect processed foods can have on a hungry public. But that seems to be a good way to affect change - hit 'em where it hurts and attack the bottom line. posted by chris at 10:43 PM   Death from above The Pentagon is planning a new generation of weapons, including huge hypersonic drones and bombs dropped from space, that will allow the US to strike its enemies at lightning speed from its own territory. Over the next 25 years, the new technology would free the US from dependence on forward bases and the cooperation of regional allies, part of the drive towards self-suffi ciency spurred by the difficulties of gaining international cooperation for the invasion of Iraq. Story here. So what this does is: 1) further isolate the US in it's imperialistic goals of conquest by establishing a weaponry force so imposing that it maintains complete dominance over the globe (more so than now). No need for messy "coalitions" or going back and forth to the UN and dealing with all these "difficult" countries who have contrary views. With these weapons, the US can go it alone, smug and satisfied. (Does this also create another arms race? I can't help but think of that Itchy and Scratchy episode where Itchy and Scratchy keep pulling out bigger and bigger handguns til they shoot each other and blow up the world). 2)It also seems that this takes the humanity even further out of war than it is already. With advanced weaponry of this sort, humans are needed less and less on the battlefield. Some could argue that this is a good thing as it decreases American casulties. I agree with the goal of reducing American casulties, but what about civilians on the other side? By pushing a few buttons and keying in some codewords in a bunker in the middle of the US, it makes war that much easier to wage. You don't have to think about killing actual humans, just pushing the right buttons. To that effect, I'd like to share a little story I read in Adbusters. I'm unsure of the author, but it's an instructive piece: It so happens that a young man, usually a navy officer, accompanies the President wherever he goes. This young man has a black attache case which contains the codes that are needed to fire nuclear weapons. I can see the President at a staff meeting considering nuclear war as an abstract question. He might conclude, "On SIOP Plan One, the decision is affirmative. Communicate the Alpha line XYZ." Such jargon is what keeps what is involved at a distance. My suggestion, then, is quite simple. Put that needed code number in a little capsule and implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer. The volunteer will carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife as he accompanies the President. If ever the President wants to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he can do so is by first, with his own hands, killing one human being. "Bob," the President would say, "I'm sorry, but tens of millions must die." The President then would have to look at someone and realize what death is - what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet: it's reality brought home. When I suggested this to friends at the Pentagon, they said, "My God, that's terrible. Having to kill someone would distort the President's judgement. He might never push the button." posted by chris at 10:18 PM   ------------------ Monday, June 30, 2003 Now they're just asking for complicity Attorney General John Ashcroft called on the press and television today to dispel fears about the sweeping antiterrorism law known as the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which was enacted after the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Addressing two dozen editors, publishers, television executives and others, Mr. Ashcroft said, "We need the help of the news industry, the fourth estate, to inform citizens about the constitutional tools and methods being used in the war against terror. We need the media's help, for instance, in portraying accurately the U.S.A. Patriot Act." See, here's the thing: Despite the fanatical flag-waving the mass media was doing during the attack on Iraq, they're actually not supposed to be the government's public relations service. The media, if it's doing it's job, is given the task of reporting on and investigating the government, not simply being a mouthpiece for gov't propaganda. Of course, if you look at the reality of it, the same corporate interests that control the media also influence the gov't. So it's no suprise that Ashcroft would ask the media to do this. It's just insulting that it's this blatant. Thanks, Jason. posted by chris at 9:23 PM   Starbucks to begin sinister Phase Two of operation The title is a fake story from The Onion, but the reality is just as scary. From one coffee-bean store in 1971 (the outlet still in Pike Place Market), Starbucks now has 6,458, mostly in the U.S. and in all but one state (South Dakota) – so far. That number will click relentlessly upward, as steady as an atomic clock, advancing at least once every eight hours, three times every day, 23 times in a week, 100 times a month. By the end of this year, during which Starbucks expects a record $4 billion in coffee, tea, and merchandise sales, the company will have opened at least 1,200 new stores, similar to the number opened last year and the year before. That will reconfirm the Seattle corporation's place as No. 1 specialty coffee chain, accounting for close to half of the globe's 15,000 specialty coffee stores and doing its part to make the world an even more jittery place to live. "The success we have enjoyed as we have entered new international markets is a validation of the worldwide acceptance of the Starbucks brand," declares company public affairs director Audrey Lincoff, "and demonstrates that we are in the early days of our growth and development". Chairman Howard Schultz, who was out of the country last week and unavailable for comment, told Fortune magazine earlier this month, "Those who talk about saturation obviously don't understand our business strategy."(emphasis added) Creepy. And I'd like to enter this story into the public record as evidence, your honor. posted by chris at 6:53 PM   America - safer than ever! Turns out all the talk about the United States being safer since 9/11 is just that, talk. Two recent reports have been released that refute any claims that we are living in a safer America, despite what Bush may be telling potential voters. The Council for Foreign Relations sums it up nicely: Nearly two years after 9/11, the United States is drastically underfunding local emergency responders and remains dangerously unprepared to handle a catastrophic attack on American soil, particularly one involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-impact conventional weapons. If the nation does not take immediate steps to better identify and address the urgent needs of emergency responders, the next terrorist incident could be even more devastating than 9/11. And the Migration Policy Institute reports that all that rounding up of immigrants earlier this year didn't really have the desired effect that the Administration had hoped fo. Measures take by the U.S. administration against Arab and Muslim immigrants after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon have not only failed to protect U.S. security, but may have made it more vulnerable, according to a major report released here Thursday. ''Many of the policies that have been adopted in the wake of Sep. 11 are an attempt to use immigration as a proxy for anti-terrorism,'' said Vincent Cannistraro, a former senior counter-terrorism official in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who is on MPI's board of advisers and helped prepare the report. ''We haven't learned anything about pre-empting terrorism in America, but we have intimidated, antagonized and alienated many (minority) communities (which is) counter-productive to what the FBI and other agencies are trying to do,” he added at the report's release. posted by chris at 6:31 PM   ------------------ Sunday, June 29, 2003 True Patriotism The Fourth of July is coming up next week. This website has a flyer you can print out and distribute - one side is the American flag, the other side consists of quotes from our Founding Fathers about freedom, democracy, defense, and power. Print them out and poster them around your neighborhood. Via Tom Tomorrow. posted by chris at 11:13 AM   ------------------

    

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