Canadians vow mass-mooning of US spy-blimp

from the boys and girls at boingboing. a good site to link to if you don't already.

70+ Canadians in Sarnia, Ontario have committed to dropping their pants and mooning a spy balloon that a US company is launching to surveil the border, including their town.

In a letter to the PM Thursday, Mike Bradley said the camera hovering over Port Huron, Mich. is scanning Sarnia's waterfront, which includes many homes, private businesses and government offices.

'Moon the Balloon' protest grows, mayor writes PM (Thanks, Gord!)

British Foreign Secretary: Clinton Threatened to Cut-Off Intelligence-Sharing if Torture Evidence is Disclosed

There's something very smelly in Denmark and it smells like war crimes.

by Glenn Greenwald

I've written several times before about the amazing quest of Binyam Mohamed -- a British resident released from Guantanamo in February, 2009 after seven years in captivity -- to compel public disclosure of information in the possession of the British Government proving he was tortured while in U.S.

read more

Obama’s empire

Major article on the extent of US military bases worldwide. Author Catherine Lutz is the author of Bases of Empire.

The 44th president of the United States was elected amid hopes that he would roll back his country’s global dominance. Today, he is commander-in-chief of an unprecedented network of military bases that is still expanding.

New Statesman - Obama’s empire

GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans

by F. William Engdahl

One of the great mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990’s in the USA and Argentina has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of GMO plants on humans or even rats. Now it has come to light the real reason. The GMO agribusiness companies like Monsanto, BASF, Pioneer, Syngenta and others prohibit independent research.

GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans

Monsanto, Dow stack up the genes

The prairies of North America will be planted next year with genetically engineered corn from Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences that will carry an unprecedented eight novel genes. Yet critics say the potential health and environmental risks have not been independently investigated, while US regulations do not require any such assessments.

• Any studies on safety and nutrition

  

  done by Monsanto and Dow do not have to be made public or shown to regulators, who are entitled only to a summary. Moreover, no independent studies can be done without the companies' permission.

• "It is illegal for a farmer to give researchers seeds to test without the companies' permission," he said.

  
  

Monsanto, Dow stack up the genes

Bombing for a Juster World?: The Problem With the "Responsibility to Protect"

... this flows out of a discussion on the idea that took place at the UN last week which somehow I ended up watching most of.

By JEAN BRICMONT - July 28, 2009

...{T]he main obstacle to the implementation of a genuine [Responsibility to Protect] are precisely the policies and the attitudes of the countries that are most enthusiastic about this doctrine, namely the Western countries, and in particular the US...[I]f a "new norm" is introduced, within the context of the current relationship of political and military forces, it will not save anyone anywhere, unless the United States sees fit to intervene, from its own perspective.

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Demystifying Iran

Beneath the fog of politics, according to a new documentary, Iran has a vibrant youth and art culture.

Demystifying Iran
Noor Iqbal

GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans

...That’s right. As a precondition to buy seeds, either to plant for crops or to use in research study, Monsanto and the gene giant companies must first sign an End User Agreement with the company. For the past decade, the period when the greatest proliferation of GMO seeds in agriculture has taken place, Monsanto, Pioneer (DuPont) and Syngenta require anyone buying their GMO seeds to sign an agreement that explicitly forbids that the seeds be used for any independent research.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans
Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:13:00 GMT

America The Great ... Police State

Image via Wikipedia By Gore Vidal

Let us accept the facts staring us in the face – that demonstrably we are no longer a republic. We are no longer governed by laws, only by armed men and force. This is just like the days of Billy the Kid. You have an armed man going down a dusty street and that is authority. And it has come to this for us.

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

If I were an American, I'd be dead

I decided to wade into the U.S. health care debate recently by making a diary entry on DailyKos, calling it "If I were an American, I'd be dead". It's a personal account of my experience with Canada's healthcare system for the benefit of our American friends. I'm not going to re-post the whole thing here - just wander over and read at your leisure.
If I were an American, I'd be dead
Jennifer Smith (runesmith@tarahill.com)

Leaders’ Summit on North American Relations Held in June

Unbeknownst to many, the Leaders’ Summit on North American Relations was held in Quebec in June of this year. It represents yet another facet of North American integration. This should not be confused with the upcoming North American Leaders’ Summit which is scheduled to take place in Mexico on August 9-10.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Leaders’ Summit on North American Relations Held in June
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:22:00 GMT

More mandatory minimums for drugs, more jail time for women

You may have received the message in the mail. With a stark photo of a needle next to an empty swing in a playground, the Tories play on fear. Their message seems simple and tempting. Getting tough is the way to deal with drugs.
Bill C-15 is their latest incarnation of this Tough on Crime approach.

read more

Open Nafta Now

Image via Wikipedia

Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. leaders should scrap their failed "Security and Prosperity Partnership" and begin overhauling the North American Free Trade agreement at an upcoming Guadalajara meeting.

Obama: Renegotiate NAFTA as You Promised

Merce Cunningham (April 16, 1919 - July 26, 2009)

Sad news today from the world of dance: Merce Cunningham, the great American modernist dancer and choreographer (and lifelong companion and collaborator of composer John Cage) died yesterday in New York City at the age of 90. Merce Cunningham Dance Company (official site) Merce Cunningham, Choreographer, Dies at 90 (New York Times obituary) Merce Cunningham on Charlie Rose (video)

Merce Cunningham (April 16, 1919 - July 26, 2009)

Israel's Foreign Minister: "We Need Allies Like Canada"

'nuff said

"Canada is so friendly that there was no need to convince or explain anything to anyone. We had amiable talks in a supportive atmosphere. We seriously discussed the problems existing in the world. We need allies like this in the international arena."

--Israel's [extreme right wing Foreign Minister] Avigdor Lieberman

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The Poet's Obligation

Exit wounds: - It is the poet's obligation, wrote Plato, to bear witness. With the official inquiry into Iraq imminent and the war in Afghanistan returning dead teenagers; Carol Duffy, recently elected UK Poet Laureate invited a range of her fellow poets to bear witness, each in their own way, to these matters of war.

The Poet's Obligation

"Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order:"

Image via Wikiped

A summery of F. William Engdahl's new book. Part 11.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

"Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order:" Part II
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:04:00 GMT

Catullus—Nothing Endures

some great Carl Orf music

Eis aiona! O res ridicula! Immensa stultitia. Nihil durare potest tempore perpetuo. Cum bene Sol nituit, redditur Oceano. Decrescit Phoebe, quam modo plena fuit, Venerum feritas saepe fit aura levia. Tempus amoris cubiculum non est… Sublata lucerna nulla est fides, perfida omnia sunt. O vos brutos, vos studidos, vos stolidos! . . .

Catullus—Nothing Endures
Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:52:36 GMT

Biowarfare Research: Lifting the Lid on America's ";28 Days Later"

Image via Wikipedia

The dystopian British sci-fi film 28 Days Later opens with animal rights activists breaking into the Cambridge Primate Research facility to free chimpanzees used in a secret weapons program.
Terrified by the intrusion, a scientist warns the raiders that the chimps are infected with a genetically-modified pathogen. Ignoring his admonition, the chimps are let loose from their cages and immediately attack everyone in sight, unleashing a plague of unimaginable proportions.
Despite the film's fanciful scenario (with animal rights' campaigners clearly focused in the cross-hairs) this grim, cautionary tale does contain a kernel of truth. Biowarfare Research: Lifting the Lid on America's "28 Days Later"

Living things glow with visible light

Japanese scientist have shown how the human body glows with visible light. The quantity of light emitted is 1000 times too dim for our eyes to see, but the researchers imaged the glow with special cameras. "Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light" (Thanks, Marina Gorbis!)

Political Interference Crippling Refugee Board: Former Chair

Thanks Peter Showler!

Jason Kenney's comments are bringing personal harm to refugee claimants and may have overstepped the legal line between politics and independent refugee decisions, say several immigration experts.

Political Interference Crippling Refugee Board: Former Chair

Argentina: Turning Around - An Interview with Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young

 

Argentina: Turning Around is an exciting film which captures the spirit of Argentina's grassroots response to economic meltdown. Drawing from...

Argentina: Turning Around

Latest from honduras- the usual suspects

From 'Democracy Today". The revolving (revolting) door of usual suspects at work behind the coup d'etat.

Mind the gap: Navigating Canada's EI system

With less than $600 left in the bank, the letter finally arrived. Opening the envelope in her one-bedroom apartment in north Toronto, Kendra read that her application for Employment Insurance (EI) had been denied: her two part-time jobs didn't add up to enough hours to qualify. "I was sad, but then I knew what my next option was: to apply for welfare," says Kendra softly, matter of fact.

read more

Apple iPhone worker kills himself

Workers building Apple iPods, “mostly young women from rural areas of China” labouring in, “15-hour shifts, were, “housed in dormitories from which outsiders are banned, and regularly pay about half their wages for room and board charges,” said a UK newspaper in 2006.

Apple iPhone worker kills himself

Who's got the acid?

Who's Got the Acid?These days, almost nobody.

By Ryan Grim



Who's got the acid? - By Ryan Grim - Slate Magazine

U.S. says no coup d'etat has taken place in Honduras. Big surprize.

The State Department finally concluded 3 weeks of ambiguity on its determination of whether or not a coup d'etat has taken place in Honduras. Despite the United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States and every Latin American nation clearly condemning the events as a coup d'etat, the United States government has today stated it doesn't consider a coup has taken place. The Obama administration joins only with the coup regime and its supporters (other coup leaders and/or executors of coups) in that determination.

DEPT OF STATE AGREES WITH COUP REGIME IN HONDURAS THAT "NO COUP D'ETAT" HAS TAKEN PLACE; SAYS SHOULD BE A LESSON TO ZELAYA NOT TO FOLLOW VENEZUELA
Eva Golinger (evagolinger@gmail.com)

INTERVIEW PROJECT

INTERVIEW PROJECT
something new by director David Lynch

Shared via AddThis

Bamboo Boom

It's not just for tiki torches anymore, but does this wood substitute really make for greener floors, clothing and other products?

Bamboo Boom: Is This Material for You?: Scientific American

ecosystems: inalienable and fundamental rights to exist?

A campaign is also underway in Europe for a UN Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights, which would attempt to enshrine such principles in international law, following the model of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sued by the forest: Should nature be able to take you to court?

A very scary PM:

You know, there's two schools in economics on this. One is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I'm in the latter category. I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes.

– Stephen Harper, July 10

This assertion, from an interview the Prime Minister gave The Globe and Mail after the G8 summit in Italy, is one of the most stunning, revealing and, frankly, ignorant statements ever made by a prime minister, let alone one who keeps purporting to be an economist, despite doing so many things that economists deplore.

A very scary PM: ‘I don’t believe that any taxes are good taxes’ - The Globe and Mail

Swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change

Technology is part of the solution to climate change. But only part. Techno-fixes like some of those in the Guardian's Manchester Report simply cannot deliver the carbon cuts science demands of us without being accompanied by drastic reductions in our consumption. That means radical economic and social transformation. Merely swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change.


Swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change

Washington & the Coup in Honduras: Here is the Evidence

Eva Gorlinger

• The Department of State had prior knowledge of the coup.
  
• The Department of State and the US Congress funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that participated in the coup.
  
• The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded, funded and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the coup and that continue to repress the people of Honduras by force.

Here is the Evidence

Canadan ignored rights at US jail

Canada's spy agency ignored human rights principles when questioning a teenage Canadian suspect held at the US military prison on Guantanamo Bay, a Canadian review panel has said.

feedback@aljazeera.net

US Lobbyists with Clinton Ties Hired to Defend Honduran Coup Regime

Worthwhile interviews on Democracy Today. Looks like the US is looking south again and it's not to it's liking. Over a week after the coup and the word hasn't passed the lips of anyone in Washington.

Supporters of the coup in Honduras have begun hiring advisers and lobbyists with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an attempt to strengthen support in Washington for the coup. A Honduran business group has hired lobbyist Lanny Davis, who served as White House counsel for President Bill Clinton. The coup government has also hired Bennet Ratcliff, a public relations specialist with ties to former President Bill Clinton. [includes rush transcript]

US Lobbyists with Clinton Ties Hired to Defend Honduran Coup Regime
mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)

UPDATES: 2 HONDURAS ACTIVISTS KILLED; VENEZUELAN JOURNALISTS EXPELLED; COUP LEADERS HIRE TOP DEMOCRAT LOBBYISTS TO JUSTIFY THEIR DE FACTO GOVERNMENT

 

Things are getting worse each day inside Honduras. Over the weekend, two well-known social leaders were assassinated by the coup forces. Roger Bados leader of the Bloque Popular & the National Resistance Front against the coup d'etat, was killed in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. Approximately at 8pm on Saturday evening, Bados was assassinated and killed immediately by three gun shots.

UPDATES:

Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination Alert

It's crucial to understand that these vaccines are experimental, untested, toxic and extremely dangerous to the human immune system. They contain squalene-based adjuvants that cause a host of annoying to life-threatening autoimmune diseases. They must be avoided, even if mandated. It's also known that vaccines don't protect against diseases they're designed to prevent and often cause them. They should be banned but proliferate anyway because they're so profitable, and if globally mandated to the greatest extent ever.

Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination Alert

The End Of Democracy And The End Of...The World

Latest article from Robin Mathews.

Failing democracy, globally, (and in Canada) parallels and connects with the potential environmental collapse of the planet.

Honduras recently began a move towards a real and effective democracy. The military – trained and equipped by the U.S.A. – stopped it…in order to protect the rapacious, oppressive, so-called “democracy” in place.
The U.S. president has muttered…things…and the coup regime remains because U.S. power in the world cannot have “Bolivarian (peaceful) revolutions” in Latin America delivering real democracy and a just redistribution of wealth, taking away the right to destroy people by Capitalist corporations.

The End Of Democracy And The End Of...The World

Canada Supports the Military Coup in Honduras

Image via Wikipedia

For the first time in decades, the world's eyes are on Honduras, a tiny country many Canadians know for those little stickers on exported bananas and the surplus of coffee it floods onto the global market each year. The world is less aware of the ongoing role that the Canadian government and Canadian mining companies play in pushing many Hondurans further into poverty.

Now that the world is watching, it's a good time to reveal these secrets.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Canada Supports the Military Coup in Honduras

The Steve Harper War on Climate Science

The government of Prime Minster Stephen Harper just appointed two "climate skeptics" with connections to the oil industry to important federal scientific bodies. The scientific community is appalled.



Mitchell Anderson | The Stephen Harper War on Climate Science

Getting Loaded in Tennessee

 

Believe it or not, Tennessee is relaxing its already liberal gun laws even more. Starting Tuesday, residents of the state will legally be able to go to bars and restaurants with loaded guns. Letting people get drunk in public places while they’re packing heat = a really really smart decision.

 

Read More

Photo-essays from around the world

Gaia Photos is "Your global team of local photojournalists," with contributions ranging from Nepal to Canada, and Mongolia to Texas. via The Press Photographer's Year 2009.

Photo-essays from around the world

Copyright laws threaten our online freedom

Image via Wikipedia

Article by the first Pirate Bay Party rep in the EU assembly.


For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Copyright laws threaten our online freedom

Washington is Playing a Deeper Game with China

Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, China, etc. A full dance card indeed. And some new NGOs you've never heard of. From laundry girl to millionaire and more.

Washington is Playing a Deeper Game with China
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:29:00 GMT

Democracy, Canadian-Style

By Bea Vongdouangchanh - The Hill Times

The [Canadian Council of Chief Executives] has played an influential role in the country's fiscal, taxation, trade, energy, environmental, competitiveness and corporate governance issues for decades. When the CCCE talks, the government listens..."I think they have almost absolute control and influence. Governments dance when they say, 'dance,' and they jump when they say, 'jump,'..."

read more

Happy Birthday, Nikolai Tesla!

 

This Studio 360 episode is a wonderful place to start in today's appreciation of "the father of electricity." (thanks, Jesse Thorn)

 

 Happy Birthday, Nikolai Tesla!

The US takes to the shadows in Iraq

American activities in Iraq now take place in the dark of night, so fewer Iraqis are likely to see that the United States withdrawal from the cities and towns is not total. What is emerging is the silhouette of a new American posture, and what it doesn't look like is an occupying power preparing to close up shop and head for home. - Michael Schwartz (Jul 10,'09)

The US takes to the shadows in Iraq

Niger Delta Standoff

Image by Terry Wha via Flickr

 

by Kia Mistilis

Behind fighter-planes and gunboats, Nigerian forces launched a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta on May 13, displacing 30,000 people and sparking a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of civilians fleeing destroyed villages are now trapped between armed resistance groups and the Nigerian military. These civilians are hiding in the bush without food, water, or medical supplies, let alone Internet access to alert the world of their plight, as Iranians are doing via Twitter.

read more

 

A little light on Sweden

"As Jonathan Power argues in an exclusive online essay for Prospect, Swedish culture and society really is distinct from the rest of Europe in a number of crucial ways. From sexual habits to foreign policy, Power’s adoptive home is a place where the “pursuit of equality goes deeper,” with consequences both good and bad. Swedes marry later, work harder, travel less and pay more tax than the rest of us. Quite possibly they are happier,too.

First Drafts - The Prospect magazine blog

Albert Hoffman, Steve Jobs and LSD

Image via Wikipedia

A year before his passing at the age of 102, LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann pens a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs (who had remarked publicly about his own use of the hallucinogenic as a creative factor) asking for Jobs' support for further research into the use of LSD in psychotherapy. In the remainder of the article, Ryan Grim touches briefly on the use of LSD by scientists and computer programmers who have transformed the world through novel discoveries and inventions.

Chain reaction
T

DAY 11: NEGOTIATION & MEETING TO TAKE PLACE THURSDAY IN COSTA RICA BETWEEN PRESIDENT ZELAYA & COUP LEADERS

Just a couple of quick updates today. Thousands of people are still in the streets of Tegucigalpa, protesting the coup government and calling for the unconditional return of President Zelaya. A variety of different non violent actions are being taken by protesters, including shutting down major roadways, striking and maintaining a popular resistance front to keep people unified against the coup government. There are reports of over 600 detentions by the armed forces of Zelaya supporters.

DAY 11:

Eva Golinger

Honduras, Washington, and Liberal-Left Grasping at Straws

By Paul Street - July 07, 2009

Obama is "implementing a U.S. foreign policy that in some ways...advances the interest of the American empire in a way the Republicans could only have dreamed of doing...What people...misunderstand about Barack Obama is that this is a man who is a brilliant supporter of empire - who has figured out a way to essentially trick a lot of people into believing they're supporting radical change, when in effect what they're doing is supporting a radical expansion of the U.S. empire."

read more

The Role of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the Honduran Coup

Image via Wikipedia

The International Republican Institute (IRI), considered the international branch of the U.S. Republican Party, and one of the four “core groups” of the congressionally created and funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), apparently knew of the coup d’etat in Honduras against President Zelaya well in advance. IRI is well known for its role in the April 2002 coup d’etat against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and its funding and strategic advising of the principal organizations involved in the ouster of President Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in 2004. In both cases, IRI funded and/or trained and advised political parties and groups that were implicated in the violent, undemocratic overthrow of democratically elected presidents.

The Role of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the Honduran Coup