Inevitable
Posted: March 4, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Child Murderers, Civilian Massacre, Israel Leave a comment
A single rifle bullet, another victim – but no hope of a doctor
First came an explosion in the street outside. Then the sound of a single rifle bullet slicing through the sky in a sharp crack and into the apartment directly above the home of Raed Abu Saif, the same apartment into which his young daughter Safa had just gone. It was Saturday afternoon, about 4pm.
Abu Saif hurried upstairs and found, lying on the floor of the front room, Safa, aged 12. There was a hole in her chest where the bullet had entered and a hole in her back where it had exited. It took her three hours to die.
Outside in the district of Zimmo Square, at the eastern edge of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, there was by now a heavy Israeli military presence, with tanks and troops and the sound of fighting raging. It was too dangerous for ambulances to reach the apartment and too dangerous for Abu Saif to head out on foot with his daughter. Instead, he fetched bandages, closed the wounds as best he could and held her in his arms as she bled.
“She said she was in pain, that she couldn’t breathe,” he said. “A few minutes before she died she told me to stop squeezing the wound, she couldn’t breathe. I was just touching her hair. Then I saw her eyes roll up. I felt her heart. It was not beating.”
From a piece of cloth the family fashioned a white flag, which Abu Saif’s mother carried. His wife, Samar, went with them out into the street carrying Safa’s corpse. An Israeli tank was parked a little way off and shone its lights at them. Twice the tank fired in the air over their heads, they said, until eventually they gave up and turned back for home to spend the night in the flat, the family and six other children and Safa.
Only yesterday morning did Abu Saif finally manage to cross safely out of the fighting and to a hospital morgue, where his daughter’s body was prepared for the funeral. But Safa’s mother and siblings were still in the house, surrounded by fighting and unable to join the mourners. The roofs of nearby buildings were still dotted with Israeli soldiers. It was from there the bullet that killed Safa was fired, the family believe.
A few questions;
- Q: does the IDF understand that when you fire indiscriminately into civilian buildings there are almost always innocent casualties?
- A: I think they know full well what they are doing.
- Q: are they infected with an American-style bloodlust?
- A: apparently they are.
- Q: does Israel live in a solipsistic fantasy world?
- A: the evidence would suggest it does.
- Q: do they really think that anyone believes they have anything other than the annihilation of the Palestinians as their goal?
- A: yes, they really do believe (see above).
Later on the article continues;
There is no doubt that many of the Palestinian dead were indeed militants, some involved in launching rockets towards Israeli towns. Several Hamas fighters were visible in Jabalia in their black fatigues, some armed, one carrying what appeared to be a detonator.
But the number of civilians, including children , among the dead and injured was inescapable.
The definition of inescapable from the Free Dictionary;
Impossible to escape or avoid; inevitable
One final question;
- Q: does the Guardian, like Israel, think that the massacre of civilians, including children, is impossible to escape or avoid?
- A: well, lets see now…
J.K.
Did A Man Really Walk On The Moon?
Posted: March 2, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: 911, Conspiracy, Lies, US 7 Comments
Oscar winner faces 9/11 backlash
“I think we’re lied to about a number of things,” the Paris-born 32-year-old is seen saying in French.
“We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned?” she asks. “There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours.
“It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [in New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed.”
The Twin Towers, she claims, were a “money sucker” that would have cost much more to modernise than to destroy.
The actress goes on to cast doubt on the Moon landing of 1969. “Did a man really walk on the moon?” she asks.
“I saw plenty of documentaries on it and I really wondered. In any case I don’t believe all they tell me.”
Seriously though, does anyone still believe the official Moon landing story? And as for November the 9th…
J.K.
Minorities
Posted: March 1, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Racist Penal System, US Leave a comment
One per cent of Americans now in jail
US prisons hit new high: 1 in 100 adults jailed
The report, published by the Pew Centre using data partly supplied by the US Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons, acknowledges that the increase in the incarceration rate coincides with steep declines in violent crime, but questions whether the correlation between the two phenomena is direct.
It says that nationwide there are now 1.6 million people in prisons, translating into one in every 99.1 adults. It has never been so high and can be traced back to a surge of prison sentences handed down through the 1990s, although the rate has continued to trend upward since 2000.
The findings also underline America’s position as the most prison-heavy country in the world, far outstripping China, which has the second highest rate of imprisonment as well as Russia, ranked third.
For minority groups the picture is especially bleak. One in every 36 Hispanic adults is currently behind bars, while the number for African American men is one in 15. More stunning is the rate of imprisonment for black men aged 20 to 34, where one out of every nine is now serving time.
Welcome to Prisonland.
J.K.
Under Investigation
Posted: March 1, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Abuse, Culture Of Violence, Genocide, US Leave a comment
US patrol shoots Iraqi civilian
The US troops in Iraq have shot dead a civilian who approached their patrol near the town of Miqdadiya, north of Baghdad, the military said.
One report quoting the military said it the man had a cast on his broken arm under his jacket, which troops had mistaken for an explosives vest.
He had ignored instructions to stop and a warning shot, the military said.
There have been a series of bomb attacks in the Muqdadiyah area, which the US has blamed on al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Iraqi police said the man was elderly, hard of hearing and suffering from mental disabilities, although the US military could not confirm this.
“There was nothing suspicious found on him but the incident is under investigation,” said military spokesman Maj Brad Leighton.
“It was a mistake… an unfortunate incident,” he added.
An American soldier makes a mistake and an innocent civilian dies. That’s a high price to pay for incompetence.
J.K.
The True Cost Of War
Posted: March 1, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Economy, US Leave a comment
This is not, then, pure neocon ideology at work, says Stiglitz: “Ideology of convenience is a better description.” It is an ideology illustrated even more clearly in another fact that Stiglitz can’t believe – that Bush put through tax cuts while going to war. In Stiglitz and Bilmes’s reading, this was downright underhand. Raising taxes, and resorting to the rhetoric of shared sacrifice used in the world wars, for example, would have made Americans more aware of exactly what the war was costing them, and would have provoked opposition sooner. The solution was to borrow the money, at interest of couple of hundred billion dollars a year, which, by 2017, will add up to another trillion dollars or so. This government will be gone in nine months; subsequent administrations, and generations, will have to pay it off.
At the same time, Stiglitz and Bilmes argue, the Federal Reserve colluded in this obfuscation, because it “kept interest rates lower than they otherwise might have been, and looked the other way as lending standards were lowered, thereby encouraging households to borrow more – and spend more.” Alan Greenspan, by this account, encouraged people to take on variable-rate mortgages, even as household savings rates went negative for the first time since the Depression. Individuals were taking on unprecedented debt at the same time as a long housing bubble made them feel wealthy (and less concerned with derring-do abroad) – a scenario echoed on this side of the Atlantic.
J.K.
Nakba
Posted: March 1, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Genocide, Israel Leave a comment
Israel’s warning: rocket fire from Gaza will result in a Palestinian ‘holocaust’
Israeli minister warns of Holocaust for Gaza if violence continues
Israel warns of invasion of Gaza
Dozens die in Israel-Gaza clashes
Israeli raids on Gaza kill 32
On one occasion, a house east of the Jabaliya refugee camp was struck – two children, a brother and sister, were killed.
Later, a 15-year-old girl and her 16-year-old sister were also killed.
In another attack, a mother was killed as she was preparing breakfast for her children, medical workers said.
“We are in the middle of a total war. We hear the rockets and the explosions everywhere… we cannot leave our homes,” a Jabaliya resident, Abu Alaa, told the AFP news agency.
“They’re shooting at everything that moves.”
Mother making breakfast for children; militant. Sisters (15 and 16 years old); militants. Children (brother and sister); militants.
An Israeli government minister warned yesterday that increasing rocket fire from Gaza would bring Palestinians a Shoah – the Hebrew word normally used to denote the Nazi Holocaust inflicted on Jews during the Second World War.
Mr Vilnai declared: “As the rocket fire grows, and the range increases – and they haven’t yet said the last word on this – they are bringing upon themselves a greater Shoah because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in air strikes or on the ground.”
Israel’s project nears it’s final phase; the final solution of the Palestinian problem. And the rest of the world watches.
J.K.
That’s Opposed To The Mission Of A University
Posted: February 26, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Bush, Censored Library, US 1 Comment
Row over Bush’s ‘censored’ library
While presidential libraries are usually seen as a coup for any university, bringing with them prestige and tourists, the Bush library has provoked anger among academics and religious leaders.
A number of academics at SMU and elsewhere in the US believe the war on Iraq and the president’s views on issues such as gay rights and torture made the university an unsuitable location.
Alarm has also been expressed over the independent institute that will fund research promoting Bush’s ideas and vision. Academics have also said that an executive order, signed by Bush, which gives presidents and their families more control over presidential papers, could result in material being censored.
Benjamin Hufbauer, an associate professor of art history at the University of Louisville, said the agreement at SMU was “totally different” to that of other universities hosting presidential libraries, reports the Inside Higher Ed website.
“Academics everywhere should be concerned about this. Clearly this goes against the idea of dispassionate inquiry, of looking at things on the basis of fact and merit. If it’s ideological, that’s opposed to the mission of a university,” Hufbauer said.
The Rev William McElvaney, a professor emeritus of preaching and worship at SMU’s theology school, added: “As long as that executive order is in place, it’s really a censored library. What self-respecting university would accept a censored library?”
The religious thinktank Ekklesia said some Christians believed Bush’s views were against church teachings, and reported that those opposed to the library would continue their fight in court.
The Rev Andrew J Weaver, a united Methodist pastor and SMU alumnus who has led a petition against the library plan, said: “SMU has signed something that is totally out of bounds, and it’s only a matter of going to court with them. It will be David vs Goliath, but David won the first time.”
Announcing the decision on Friday to house the centre at SMU, which counts the first lady Laura Bush among its alumni, the university’s president, R Gerald Turner, said it was a “great honour to be chosen as the site of this tremendous resource for historical research, dialogue and public programmes”.
The library will contain documents and artefacts from the Bush administration, while the museum will house permanent and travelling exhibitions. Both will be operated by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The institute will be run by the George W Bush Presidential Library Foundation. It will have its own board and at least one seat will be allocated to the university. Joint programmes may be run between SMU and the institute.
In a letter to the university, Bush said: “I look forward to the day when both the general public and scholars come and explore the important and challenging issues our nation has faced during my presidency – from economic and homeland security to fighting terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy.”
It must be such an honour for the Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
J.K.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Posted: February 26, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: American Culture, US 1 Comment
Obama camp claims smear over turban photograph
Clinton accused of smear over Obama picture
Robed Obama picture ignites row
With her back against the wall, Hillary Clinton has been accused of turning to the sort of smear tactics more commonly associated with Republicans, in an attempt to block her opponent Barack Obama from getting the Democratic nomination. Over the weekend her campaign allegedly circulated a photograph of Mr Obama wearing the turban and traditional dress of a Somali elder.
For the past year the Obama team has been fighting back against a whispering campaign that he is a dangerous Muslim. Mr Obama was born a Christian and attends a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago. Whoever is responsible for the release of the photograph, ahead of votes in Texas and Ohio next week, it appears to be an attempt to use rumour and innuendo to derail Mr Obama’s buoyant campaign.
Mr Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said: “On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world.”
Mr Obama’s foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, who worked on Bill Clinton’s National Security Policy staff, said the circulation of the photograph was divisive and suggested “that the customs and cultures of other parts of the world are worthy of ridicule or condemnation“.
The photograph was taken while the African-American candidate was on a five-country congressional visit to the continent in 2006. It would be innocuous enough if Mr Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, was not seeking to become the first black president of the US and if his middle name was not Hussein.
In recent days, Mrs Clinton’s attacks on Mr Obama have become more strident and shrill, as he has narrowed her lead in the polls. A Quinnipiac University poll out yesterday showed her leading in Ohio by an 11-point margin with 51 percent, whereas less two weeks ago she had held a 21-point lead.
“We’ve seen the tragic result of having a president who had neither the experience nor the wisdom to manage our foreign policy and safeguard our national security. We can’t let that happen again,” she said yesterday at a foreign policy speech in Washington.
Religion. Intolerance. Racism. Genocide. Culture. Murder. Rape. War. Farce. Tragedy. America.
J.K.
All Is Well With The World
Posted: February 26, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Oscars, Torturers, US, Warmongers Leave a comment
And the award for best dress goes to …
The Oscars Red Carpet
Oscar fashion: fabulous or faux pas?
Outside the Kodak Theatre, the Euro-crowd (Dior, Versace, Armani) will go head to head with the American natives (Calvin Klein, Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta). Here, the burning questions of the night will be answered: which fashion titan will manage to persuade Nicole Kidman to step out in its crystal-studded gown? What kind of pimp-cum-scarecrow get-up will Johnny Depp wear (and yet still manage to pull off)? And, of the actresses, who will look the most radiant, whose excessive thinness will spark health fears and who will look a bit awkwardly taller than her stocky actor hubby?
America is a force for good. They hate us for our freedom. Democracy is on the march. Capture and kill the terrorists. City upon a hill.
Etc.
J.K.
Good Apples In A Bad Barrel
Posted: February 26, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Guantanamo, Torture, US 1 Comment
Guantánamo guards suffer psychological trauma
The taunts of prisoners and the things his superiors required him to do to them had a severe psychological impact on Mr H. “He was called upon to bring detainees, enemy combatants, to certain places and to see that they were handcuffed in particularly painful and difficult positions, usually naked, in anticipation of their interrogation,” said Smith.
On occasion he was told to make prisoners kneel, naked and handcuffed, on sharp stones. To avoid interrogation the prisoners would often rub their wounds afterwards to make them worse so that they would be taken to hospital.
Some of the techniques used by interrogators resulted in detainees defecating, urinating, vomiting and screaming.
Mr H told Smith he felt profoundly guilty about his participation. “It was wrong what we did,” he said.
The prisoners also threatened Mr H. “They would tell him they had networks of people throughout the world,” said Smith. “If he did not take letters out and mail them then they would see to it that his family suffered the consequences.”
Another guard whom Smith treated described an incident in which a prisoner had hanged himself in his cell after partially knawing his own arm off. The prisoner lost a substantial amount of blood but was cut down by guards and survived.
Spare a thought for the real victims of America’s reign of terror.
J.K.
Economists And Sociopaths
Posted: February 24, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: American Intelligence, US Leave a comment
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
‘Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,’ concludes the Pentagon analysis. ‘Once again, warfare would define human life.’
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.
To be clear, the nuclear threats discussed will very likely be developed as a deterrent to American aggression. I have no doubt that in future the greatest threat to Europe, and the rest of the world, will come from the US, as they start waging wars to control food and water. We are, after all, talking about a country that would rather wage illegal wars of aggression, in order to control the energy resources of Middle Eastern countries, than address their dependency.
Once again American intelligence reveals itself to be flawed by applying it’s own cruel logic to the rest of the world.
J.K.
Eggs Benedict
Posted: February 23, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: CIA, Rendition Flights, Torture, UK 4 Comments
David Miliband’s statement
Miliband’s apology over ‘rendition’
Miliband admits US rendition flights stopped on UK soil
UK apology over rendition flights
Government admission on rendition a ‘huge embarrassment’, say critics
In full: CIA statement on renditions
Political fall-out from rendition
Extraordinary admissions
Embarrassed Miliband admits two US rendition flights refuelled on British soil
Official apology after CIA ‘torture’ jets used UK base
The British Government announced today that the United States recently provided information on rendition flights through Diego Garcia-a UK territory in the Indian Ocean-that contradicted earlier data from us.
Our government had told the British that there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace since 9/11. That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong.
In fact, on two different occasions in 2002, an American plane with a detainee aboard stopped briefly in Diego Garcia for refuelling.
Neither of those individuals was ever part of CIA’s high-value terrorist interrogation program. One was ultimately transferred to Guantanamo, and the other was returned to his home country.
These were rendition operations, nothing more. There has been speculation in the press over the years that CIA had a holding facility on Diego Garcia. That is false. There have also been allegations that we transport detainees for the purpose of torture. That, too, is false.
Torture is against our laws and our values. And, given our mission, CIA could have no interest in a process destined to produce bad intelligence.
In late 2007, CIA itself took a fresh look at records on rendition flights. This time, the examination revealed the two stops in Diego Garcia.
The refuelling, conducted more than five years ago, lasted just a short time. But it happened. That we found this mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention of the British Government, in no way changes or excuses the reality that we were in the wrong.
An important part of intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex, and uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to learn from them. In this case, the result of a flawed records search, we have done so.
The CIA employs Woody Allen to write statement on rendition. Turns out he’s got heartburn.
J.K.
Atrocious Episode
Posted: February 23, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Human Rights Abuses, Iraq, UK Leave a comment
British soldiers executed up to 20 Iraqi detainees, say witnesses
British soldiers accused of executing civilians
‘I heard the terrible sound of someone being choked’
Claim UK troops ‘executed’ Iraqis
Mr Abdelreza’s statement said: “I believed people were being killed. I have never heard anything like that sound ever before in my life.
“It shocked me and filled me with such terror.”
The lawyers say the five witnesses are labourers from Majar al-Kabir with “absolutely nothing” to do with the insurgent Mehdi army, who engaged British troops at the Battle of Danny Boy.
Showing images of corpses from the battle, Mr Day said: “The nature of a number of the injuries of the Iraqis would seem to us to be highly unusual in a battlefield.
“For example, quite how so many of the Iraqis sustained single gunshots to the head and from seemingly at close quarter, how did two of them end with their eyes gouged out, how did one have his penis cut off [and] some have torture wounds?”
“There is the clearest evidence available of systematic abuse and systematic failings at the very highest levels of politicians, the civil service and the military,” said Mr Shiner.
Mr Day was previously involved in legal action launched against the MoD over allegations by more than 200 Masai women in Kenya that they were raped by British soldiers in the 1970s.
What a wonderful world.
J.K.
The Water Cure
Posted: February 21, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: US 2 Comments
It sips its coffee and reads of its soldiers administering the “water cure” to rebels; of how water with handfuls of salt thrown in to make it more efficacious, is forced down the throats of the patients until their bodies become distended to the point of bursting; of how our soldiers then jump on the distended bodies to force the water out quickly so that the “treatment” can begin all over again. The American Public takes another sip of its coffee and remarks, “How very unpleasant!”
“But where is that vast national outburst of astounded horror which an old-fashioned America would have predicted at the reading of such news?” the World asked. “Is it lost somewhere in the 8,000 miles that divide us from the scenes of these abominations? Is it led astray by the darker skins of the alien race among which these abominations are perpetrated? Or is it rotted away by that inevitable demoralization which the wrong-doing of a great nation must inflict on the consciences of the least of its citizens?”
Responding to the verdict in the Glenn court-martial, Judge Advocate General Davis had suggested that the question it implicitly posed—how much was global power worth in other people’s pain?—was one no moral nation could legitimately ask. As the investigation of the water cure ended and the memory of faraway torture faded, Americans answered it with their silence.
And they are still answering it with their silence.
J.K.
The Rapemen Part Deux
Posted: February 21, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Japan, US Leave a comment
New US rape allegation in Okinawa
Another US military serviceman has been detained over an alleged sexual assault on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa.
In the latest of a string of incidents involving US troops, the man is accused of raping a Filipino woman at a hotel.
The alleged rape happened before a 24-hour curfew was imposed on US troops, their families and civilians working for the military on Okinawa.
In the last few days another soldier was found drunk asleep on a sofa in a house he had broken into, while another was arrested for drink-driving.
The military will be hoping that in time Japan’s national media will lose interest in the story.
America busily winning hearts and minds, even if it must be burglary…
Heckuva job boys.
J.K.
All The Lies That’s Fit To Print
Posted: February 21, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Journalism 1 Comment
From the Guardian, originally published on February the 2nd;
Remote-controlled explosives were strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome and detonated in coordinated attacks on two Friday morning markets in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 73 people and wounding nearly 150.
The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed the female bombers had Down’s syndrome and that the explosives were detonated by remote control, indicating they may not have been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped-up security measures.
The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said the bombings showed that al-Qaida has “found a different, deadly way” to try to destabilise Iraq.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said the bombings in Iraq proved al-Qaida is “the most brutal and bankrupt of movements” and would strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.
From the Guardian, originally published on February the 20th;
The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed.
Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, said soon after the attacks that photos of the women’s heads showed they had Down syndrome, but he did not offer any other proof.
A U.S. military spokesman for the Baghdad area, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, also said at the time that medical experts with his division had examined the photos and agreed the women probably suffered from the genetic disorder. “They were both females and they both looked like they had Down syndrome,” Stover said on Feb. 2.
A cell phone image of one of the heads viewed by The Associated Press was inconclusive.
There was speculation that the heads could have been distorted by the blast, leading police initially to believe they had Down syndrome.
On Wednesday, Smith backed away from the claim about Down syndrome while responding to a question concerning the psychiatric histories of the two bombers.
“Both had recently received psychiatric treatment for depression and/or schizophrenia. From what we know now there’s no indication that they had Down syndrome,” Smith said, citing records obtained by the military.
Smith also said one of the women was married but that neither had criminal backgrounds. He said it was not clear how they were linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, which the military has said was behind the bombing.
On the 2nd of February the Guardian published unsubstantiated claims as fact.
It seems the Berliner is closer to the Tabloid than the Broadsheet.
J.K.
Strategic Interests
Posted: February 21, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: George Bush Leave a comment
US ‘is not seeking African bases’
Mr Bush said the idea that he was currently visiting Africa looking for sites for US bases was “baloney”.
Mr Bush is on the second-to-last stop of a five-country Africa tour.
He said the new command, Africom, was to provide African states with military training and assistance so they could handle Africa’s problems better.
“It is a command structure that is aiming to help provide military assistance to African nations so African nations are more capable of dealing with Africa’s conflicts – like peacekeeping training,” he said.
Critics say Africom is designed to protect strategic American interests on the continent such as oil.
Africom is a benign command structure that will both ensure the security of strategic American interests, and teach American-style problem solving techniques to a continent that sorely needs them.
Huzzah!
J.K.
The Rapemen
Posted: February 20, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Japan, US 1 Comment
US marine held over Japan rape
US apology over ‘rape’ in Japan
Japan PM: Okinawa rape case ‘unforgivable’
Japan Focuses Anger on U.S. In Rape Arrest of a Marine
U.S. Marine arrested over rape in Japan’s Okinawa
U.S. Marine accused of girl’s rape
Curfew for US troops in Okinawa
US imposes rules on marines in Japan after alleged rape
The US military has imposed a curfew on its troops in Okinawa amid tensions over incidents involving service personnel, including an alleged rape.
Under the curfew, which began early on Wednesday, troops’ movements will be restricted to allow them a “period of reflection“, a military statement said.
Thousands of US troops are based in Okinawa, Japan’s southern-most island.
Many Okinawans dislike the US presence. The recent alleged rape of a teenager by a US marine has caused outrage.
In 1995 there were mass protests in Okinawa after US troops gang-raped a 12-year-old girl – an incident which raised concerns for the future of the US-Japan security alliance.
Last week, US Marine Staff Sgt Tyrone Hadnott was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in his car. He admits forcibly kissing her but denies rape.
Over the weekend, two more US troops were arrested for drink-driving and trespassing – causing Japan’s top government spokesman to accuse the US military of a lack of discipline.
“I only have one thing to express and that is our true anger,” Nobutaka Machimura said. “We demand serious self-reflection.”
Serious self-reflection isn’t going to do it I’m afraid. I suggest compulsory chemical castration for Americans traveling abroad.
Better to be safe…
J.K.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
Posted: February 20, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Israel Leave a comment
Israeli MP blames quakes on gays
An Israeli MP has blamed parliament’s tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently.
Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave “legitimacy to sodomy“.
Mr Benizri made his comments while addressing a committee of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, about the country’s readiness for earthquakes.
He called on lawmakers to stop “passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes“.
From the Urban Dictionary;
3. shlomo
This word combines the sentiments of “homo” with a dash of “shlong”. It is reserved for those who are such shlomos that the two words that comprise it are not descriptive enough.
Amy: I bought my boyfriend some earrings from Claire’s because they were having a sale.
Alysia: You are such a shlomo.
Shlomo Benizri is such a shlomo.
J.K.
Bearded Revolutionary Who Laughed In America’s Face
Posted: February 19, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: Fidel Castro Leave a comment
Castro steps down as Cuban leader
Fidel Castro resigns as president
Bearded revolutionary who laughed in America’s face
Weird and wonderful: the facts about Fidel Castro
Castro resigns as Cuban president
Castro: his last battle
Although the Cold War is frozen in the past, the era […] is not a closed chapter. More people across the Latin American sub-continent are looking to the Cuban leader for inspiration than ever before, as popular – and especially young – opinion swings against the United States. But the world’s most instantly recognisable leader, who has left his iconographic mark on history, is about to enter the Pantheon of memory.
Huzzah! It seems that, in the case of Cuba, the application of sanctions and exercising of patience does work after all!
J.K.
p.s. did I mention how much I love Jon Swift?
Paraplegic Tipping
Posted: February 18, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: US Leave a commentA new extreme sport is gripping America;
A Florida prison officer who dumped a paraplegic man out of his wheelchair in order to search him could be jailed after being charged with abuse of a disabled person.
Surveillance video footage showing the behaviour of Charlette Marshall-Jones, a sheriff’s deputy at the Hillsborough county detention centre in Tampa, caused national outrage when it was picked up by the news channels and posted on YouTube.
After repeatedly having asked Brian Sterner, 32, who has been paralysed from the waist down since a wrestling accident 13 years ago, to stand up to be searched, Deputy Marshall-Jones is shown tipping him on to the floor as if unloading a wheelbarrow. Other officers look on and one walks away smiling, as Mr Sterner is searched while still lying on the floor. Four officers, including Ms Marshall-Jones, have been suspended while the incident is investigated, and the deputy faces five years in jail if convicted of abuse. She was bailed at the weekend.
Mr Sterner, who drives a car fitted with hand pedals, had been arrested for a traffic offence. In a national television appearance, he said: “Hopefully, that’s what will come out of this, that this negative way of dealing with life and people will change.”
So far the first major event, broadcast primetime, has resulted in a 4 – 0 victory for the able-bodied. American wheelchair manufacturers are salivating as the demand for wheelchairs has skyrocketed in the last few days. Detractors are claiming that this new sport is little more than abuse, but their criticisms are being met with calls to “Shut the fuck up or we will kill you!”.
The American public’s imagination hasn’t been this excited since the glory days of the Hula Hoop, or at least since the first series of Rape an Ape resulted in a run on pet shops…
etc.
J.K.
Fat Pig The Third
Posted: February 17, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: US 2 CommentsThanks to David for the link.
J.K.
Fat Pig Part Deux
Posted: February 16, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: US 2 Comments
ABC2 has obtained new video of Baltimore police officer Salvatore Rivieri in action at the Inner Harbor. This time he confronts Billy Friebele, an artist from Washington D.C., who was videotaping at the Harbor last summer.
Friebele told ABC2 he was taping the reactions of passersby to a box he was moving with a remote controlled car. Officer Rivieri is seen on tape kicking the box off of the car and then kicking the car. The officer then orders Friebele to leave the area.
Rivieri is the same officer caught on a youtube video wrestling a 14 year old skate boarder to the ground. A spokesperson for the Baltimore Police Department declined to comment on this latest videotape. Officer Rivieri is suspended without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation of the incident with the skate boarder.
(from here)
J.K.
What Has America Ever Done For Darfur?
Posted: February 16, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: George Bush Leave a comment
In full: George W Bush’s BBC interview
Frei: Yesterday, Steven Spielberg – the Hollywood director – pulled out of the Beijing Olympics over Darfur. He said the Chinese aren’t doing enough to stop the killing in Darfur. Do you applaud his move?
Mr Bush: That’s up to him. I’m going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event. On the other hand, I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg so, I get to talk to President Hu Jintao. And I do remind him that he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur. There’s a lot of issues that I suspect people are gonna, you know, opine, about during the Olympics. I mean, you got the Dali Lama crowd. You’ve got global warming folks. You’ve got, you know, Darfur and… I am not gonna you know, go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way ’cause I do it all the time with the president. I mean. So, people are gonna be able to choose – pick and choose how they view the Olympics.
The Dali Lama crowd… The global warming folks…
What a prick.
J.K.
Justifying Torture
Posted: February 15, 2008 Filed under: News | Tags: George Bush Leave a comment
London bombs justify ‘torture’, says Bush
From an interview with the chimp;
But his most controversial remarks were over waterboarding. He told the BBC’s Matt Frei: “To the critics, I ask them this: when we, within the law, interrogate and get information that protects ourselves and possibly others in other nations to prevent attacks, which attack would they have hoped that we wouldn’t have prevented?
What? In english please you mentally challenged muppet-bot! This half-wit should be impeached for crimes against cogency alone.
“And so, the United States will act within the law. We’ll make sure professionals have the tools necessary to do their job within the law.”
Doubtless the tools include the rack, the iron maiden, cattle prods, the thumbscrew, the heretic’s fork, the Judas chair, etc.
He claimed the families of victims of the July 7 terror attacks in London would understand his position. “I suspect the families of those victims understand the nature of killers. What people gotta understand is that we’ll make decisions based upon law. We’re a nation of law.”
dem·a·gogue
n.
A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.
In the BBC interview, Bush was asked whether, given waterboarding and other alleged human rights abuses, he could claim the US still occupied the moral high ground. He replied: “Absolutely.”
He added: “We believe in human rights and human dignity. We believe in the human condition. We believe in freedom. And we’re willing to take the lead. We’re willing to ask nations to do hard things. We’re willing to accept responsibilities. And – yeah, no question in my mind, it’s a nation that’s a force for good.
“And history will judge the decisions made during this period of time as necessary decisions.”
More “history will judge” nonsense from the functional-illiterate-in-chief. As if the passage of time could ever mitigate the disaster that is his administration, or paint it in a more sympathetic light. Would you like to know how much of the present (the part of the present whose interests your decisions don’t serve, that actually respects human rights, and that don’t blindly worship authority) judges the decisions you have made? Would you even listen?
On Guantánamo Bay, where the US has held hundreds of prisoners for years without trial, he said he would “like it to be empty” but he was “comfortable with recognising this is still a dangerous world”.
He said: “There’s some people there that need to be tried. And there will be a trial. And they’ll have their day in court. Unlike what they did to other people.
“Now, there’s great concern about and I can understand this, that these people be given rights. They’re not willing to grant the same rights to others. They’ll murder. But, you gotta understand, they’re getting rights. And I’m comfortable with the decisions we’ve made.”
He is comfortable with the decisions they’ve made. He is a sociopath.
Commenting on at his legacy, he listed as pluses Afghanistan, Iraq and recognition of the right to Palestinians to their own state.
“You know, dealing with liberating 25 million in Afghanistan is part of what I hope people think of when they look at my presidency. Being the first president to propose a two-state solution on Israel and Palestine. I mean, there’s a lot of other issues. And I’m happy with Iraq.
“The … decision to move Saddam Hussein was right. And this democracy [in Iraq] is now taking root.
“And I’m confident that if America does not become isolationist – you know, and allow the terrorists to take back over, Iraq will succeed.”
The Bush-bot is happy with Iraq. Bless his feeble mind! He’s like a child who proudly reveals a stool to an adoring parent; “I made this!”. And he says this democracy thing is taking root in Iraq. That’s right; exiles are returning to Iraq in their droves.
Isn’t it obvious his legacy will be one of lies and genocide? His fabrications have resulted in the deaths of millions. He is a mass murderer. He is a terrorist. And to be perfectly frank, after the last 7 or 8 years, the rest of the world, I’m sure, would welcome an isolationist America. Because we are now very afraid of you America.
J.K.
The Inscription 