Thursday, October 09, 2003
Blood Diamonds
Ever wonder what "blood diamonds" are? They are diamonds that come from areas of the world where people are forced to mine them under deplorable conditions. One of the worst is Sierra Leone, where terrorist groups like the RUF, whose "calling card" is gruesome amputation, are funded by the diamond trade. Amnesty International has created an excellent flash animation about it that lays everything out in very plain terms.
Thanks to my lovely wife Lindsey for digging this up. And for other human rights issues, check out Witness.org.
posted by chris at 3:23 PM
Holy Fathers Condemn Holey Condoms
The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by AIDS not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to the HIV virus.
A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that they are untrue.
The church's claims are revealed in a BBC1 Panorama programme, Sex and the Holy City, to be broadcast on Sunday. The president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told the programme: "The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom.
Aaaarrrghh!! (Thanks Jay for the heading.)
posted by chris at 11:20 AM
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Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Quote of the week
"Democrats, beware of wolves in sheep's clothing," [Jesse] Jackson said to the few dozen Davis supporters who attended the rally. "Even if you're frustrated, a frustrated chicken should not vote for Col. Sanders."
As Jon Stewart said, it's like he's not even trying.
posted by chris at 8:45 PM
Pentagon sells bioterrorism supplies
The Pentagon has been selling surplus laboratory equipment that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons, according to a congressional investigation released yesterday.
Defence officials were called in to answer questions before a congressional inquiry about the sale of the army surplus, which included centrifuges, evaporators, bacteriological incubators, and protective suits to unknown customers in other countries, including Egypt and the Philippines, where terrorist groups have been known to operate.
The news is particularly embarrassing, coming only days after the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group claimed the discovery of similar equipment in Iraq was evidence that the Saddam Hussein regime had a covert weapons programme.
"The cheap, virtually unregulated availability of low-cost biological laboratory equipment poses a risk to national security," said Christopher Shays, the Republican congressman chairing the inquiry. "The department of defence should not be a discount shopping outlet for would-be bioterrorists."
Sold! To the man with the shifty eyes!
posted by chris at 10:28 AM
AIDS hits teenagers hard
AiDS has become a disease of teenagers and young adults, with half of all new infections occurring in 15 to 24-year-olds, according to a United Nations report released today.
Around the world, an estimated 6,000 young people every day - or one every 14 seconds - become infected with the disease, and the majority of them are young women, the study revealed.
The fastest spread of AIDS was in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 8.6 million young people are infected, followed by South Asia, where 1.1 million are infected, the report by the UN's Population Fund (UNFPA) said.
Story.
posted by chris at 10:25 AM
A new low
Because of all the rampant homosexual marriages going on lately - c'mon, you've been seeing it all over the news, haven't you? - President Bush felt it compulsory to proclaim October 12-18, 2003 as Marriage Protection Week.
Marriage is a sacred institution, and its protection is essential to the continued strength of our society. Marriage Protection Week provides an opportunity to focus our efforts on preserving the sanctity of marriage and on building strong and healthy marriages in America.
Yeah, let's look at those divorce numbers for heterosexual marriage, shall we?
Marriage is a union between a man and a woman, and my Administration is working to support the institution of marriage by helping couples build successful marriages and be good parents.
How ya gonna do that George? Counseling sessions at the White House?
To encourage marriage and promote the well-being of children, I have proposed a healthy marriage initiative to help couples develop the skills and knowledge to form and sustain healthy marriages. Research has shown that, on average, children raised in households headed by married parents fare better than children who grow up in other family structures.
I'm just guessing here, but I bet that "research" actually compared two parent households versus single parent households, not the vague category of "other family structures."
Through education and counseling programs, faith-based, community, and government organizations promote healthy marriages and a better quality of life for children. By supporting responsible child-rearing and strong families, my Administration is seeking to ensure that every child can grow up in a safe and loving home.
Becuase heterosexual marriages have done such a good job with that so far, what with all the child abuse and stuff.
We are also working to make sure that the Federal Government does not penalize marriage. My tax relief package eliminated the marriage penalty. And as part of the welfare reform package I have proposed, we will do away with the rules that have made it more difficult for married couples to move out of poverty.
It's not just rules, George. It's also things like spending money on war instead of social programs . . .
We must support the institution of marriage and help parents build stronger families. And we must continue our work to create a compassionate, welcoming society, where all people are treated with dignity and respect.
All people? Then what the hell is this "Marriage Protection Week" all about?? It doesn't seem very compassionate and welcoming.
During Marriage Protection Week, I call on all Americans to join me in expressing support for the institution of marriage with all its benefits to our people, our culture, and our society.
Benefits like stability, love, nurturing . . . I would say that's not the exclusive realm of heterosexual marriage.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week of October 12 through October 18, 2003, as Marriage Protection Week. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies.
I think we can use our imagination for those "appropriate ceremonies!"
posted by chris at 9:41 AM
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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Cooooool.
Passed down thru the dark ages by Tbogg. Check out your favorite site here.
posted by chris at 4:40 PM
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Monday, October 06, 2003
Or no jobs?
A warning by the U.S. Labor Department that it expects to revise down past employment data pours cold water on the view of some economists who believed the jobs market had been improving for some time, analysts said on Friday.
Statisticians at the Labor Department said they expect to revise down U.S. payroll employment by about 145,000 for the March 2003 reference month -- effectively showing even greater weakness in the sluggish labor market than previously thought.
The downward adjustment surprised Wall Street, which had been rife with speculation this week that Labor would adjust the figures up, bringing payrolls more in line with another survey which has shown a recent improvement in the job market.
Story.
And Billmon provides us with an apt quote:
For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it …. The fabulous statistics continued to pour out of the telescreen. - George Orwell, 1984.
posted by chris at 2:24 PM
Actually, Iraq can't pay for its own reconstruction
The Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials.
The task force, which was based at the Pentagon as part of the planning for the war, produced a book-length report that described the Iraqi oil industry as so badly damaged by a decade of trade embargoes that its production capacity had fallen by more than 25 percent, panel members have said.
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Now, as the Bush administration requests $20.3 billion from Congress for reconstruction next year, the chief reasons cited for the high price tag are sabotage of oil equipment — and the poor state of oil infrastructure already documented by the task force.
"The problem is this," L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, asserted at a Senate hearing two weeks ago: "The oil infrastructure was severely run down over the last 20 years, and partly because of sanctions over the last decade."
Similarly, Bush administration officials announced earlier this year that Iraq's oil revenues would be $20 billion to $30 billion a year, which added to the impression that the aftermath of the war would place a minimal burden on the United States. Mr. Bremer now estimates that Iraq's total oil revenues from the last half of 2003 to 2005 will amount to $35 billion, running at a rate of about $14 billion a year.
And what was everyone saying before the attack on Iraq?
On March 27, Mr. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, told the House Appropriations Committee that his "rough recollection" was that "The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years."
Testifying in the Senate that same day, Mr. Rumsfeld emphasized that "when it comes to reconstruction, before we turn to the American taxpayers we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government." He noted that the war's costs were not knowable, but he also said an important source of money for reconstruction would flow after the United States worked "with the Iraqi interim authority that will be established to tap Iraq's oil revenues."
At the outset of the war, the administration had asked Congress for $62 billion for Iraq, which included $1.7 billion for reconstruction and $489 million for oil-related repairs.
In a televised interview in late April, Andrew S. Natsios, head of the United States Agency for International Development, the group overseeing Iraq's reconstruction, said that amount was "it for the U.S." He said any other reconstruction money would come from elsewhere, including other countries and future "Iraqi oil revenues," which he predicted at "$20 billion a year."
Damn! These government issue calculators just don't work!
posted by chris at 11:25 AM
It ain't Camelot
An interesting piece in the LA Times on the Bush administration - it's not so much the lying as it is their rigid worldview, their refusal to even acknowledge facts, which has created so many problems.
The administration seems indifferent to data, impervious to competing viewpoints and ideas. Policy is not adjusted to facts; facts are adjusted to policy. The result is what may be the nation's first medieval presidency — one in which reality is ignored for the administration's own prevailing vision. And just as in medieval days, this willful ignorance can lead to terrible consequences.
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The difference between the current administration and its conservative forebears is that facts don't seem to matter at all. They don't even matter enough to reinterpret. Bush doesn't read the papers or watch the news, and Condoleezza Rice, his national security advisor, reportedly didn't read the National Intelligence Estimate, which is apparently why she missed the remarks casting doubt on claims that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium from Africa. (She reportedly read the document later.) And although Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hasn't disavowed reading or watching the news, he has publicly and proudly disavowed paying any attention to it. In this administration, everyone already knows the truth.
A more sinister aspect to this presidency's cavalier attitude toward facts is its effort to bend, twist and distort them when it apparently serves the administration's interests. Intelligence was exaggerated to justify the war in Iraq. Even if there were no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or of ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, the CIA was expected to substantiate the accusations. In a similar vein, the New Republic reported that Treasury Department economists had been demoted for providing objective analysis that would help define policy, as they had done in previous administrations. Now they provide fodder for policy already determined. Said one economist who had worked in the Clinton, Reagan and first Bush administrations, "They didn't worry about whether they agreed; we were encouraged to raise issues." Not anymore.
But the White House medievalists aren't just shading the facts. In actively denying or changing them, they are changing the basis on which government has traditionally been conducted: rationality. There is no respect for facts because there is no respect for empiricism. Instead, the Bush ideologues came to power smug in the security of their own worldview, part of which, frankly, seems to be the belief that it would be soft and unmanly to let facts alter their preconceptions. Like the church confronting Galileo, they aren't about to let reality destroy their cosmology, whether it is a bankrupt plan for pacifying an Iraq that was supposed to welcome us as liberators or a bankrupt fiscal plan that was supposed to jolt the economy to health.
posted by chris at 11:09 AM
White House takes control
The White House has ordered a major reorganization of American efforts to quell violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and to speed the reconstruction of both countries, according to senior administration officials.
The new effort includes the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. The decision to create the new group, five months after Mr. Bush declared the end of active combat in Iraq, appears part of an effort to assert more direct White House control over how Washington coordinates its efforts to fight terrorism, develop political structures and encourage economic development in the two countries.
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The creation of the group, according to several administration officials, grew out of Mr. Bush's frustration at the setbacks in Iraq and the absence of more visible progress in Afghanistan, at a moment when remnants of the Taliban appear to be newly active. It is the closest the White House has come to an admission that its plans for reconstruction in those countries have proved insufficient, and that it was unprepared for the guerrilla-style attacks that have become more frequent in Iraq. There have been more American deaths in Iraq since the end of active combat than during the six weeks it took to take control of the country.
"The president knows his legacy, and maybe his re-election, depends on getting this right," another administration official said. "This is as close as anyone will come to acknowledging that it's not working."
Somehow, I'm not reassured.
posted by chris at 11:03 AM
Payback time
The maker of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer software has turned the tables on the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a number of entertainment companies by suing them for copyright infringement.
Earlier this week, Sharman Networks Ltd., the company that distributes the Kazaa Media Desktop software, accused the RIAA and several entertainment companies of violating its copyrights by downloading an unauthorized version of the Kazaa file-sharing software and using it to hunt down the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of alleged music downloaders. Sharman Networks charges the RIAA and its representatives of using Kazaa Lite, a version of Kazaa not distributed by Sharman, to hunt down Kazaa users in order to file their own copyright claims against alleged file sharers.
Sharman Networks has been trying to stop the distribution of Kazaa Lite, said Alan Morris, Sharman's executive vice president. A representative of Media Defender Inc., a copyright-violation head-hunter that has worked with the RIAA, used Kazaa Lite to demonstrate what types of files were being shared at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, Morris said.
Don't squeeze the Sharman. Via August.
posted by chris at 10:58 AM
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