Revolution

"SO?"


... A Note from Michael Moore

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Dick Cheney's Error

It's Government By the People

By Mickey Edwards
Saturday, March 22, 2008; A13

"For at least six years, as I've become increasingly frustrated by the Bush administration's repeated betrayal of constitutional -- and conservative -- principles, I have defended Vice President Cheney, a man I've known for decades and with whom I served and made common cause in Congress. No longer.

"It is Cheney's all-too-revealing conversation this week with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz. On Wednesday, reminded of the public's disapproval of the war in Iraq, now five years old, the vice president shrugged off that fact (and thus, the people themselves) with a one-word answer: "So?"

"So," Mr. Vice President?

Policy, Cheney went on to say, should not be tailored to fit fluctuations in the public attitudes. If there is one thing public attitudes have not been doing, however, it is fluctuating: Resistance to the Bush administration's Iraq policy has been widespread, entrenched and consistent. Whether public opinion is right or wrong, it is not to be cavalierly dismissed."

"When the vice president dismisses public opposition to war with a simple "So?" he violates the single most important element in the American system of government: Here, the people rule."

Full
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102482_pf.html

My name is John Platt. I am a third generation Prince William Sound fisherman. My family has fished the Sound since the1930's.

Back in the early 1970's, the State of Alaska, the Federal Government, as well as a consortium of oil companies proposed putting the terminus of the Alaska pipeline in Valdez. The fisherman's union, including my father, opposed such action, which would ultimately put their livelihood at risk if an oil spill should ever occur. Their concerns were swept away with assurances that this would never happen. United States Senator Ted Stevens was quoted as saying, "Using the latest technologies, not one drop would ever touch the waters of Prince William Sound."

Unlike my forefathers, I had to purchase permits under the limited entry commercial fishery system established in the 1970's. I hold area E permits to fish salmon drift gillnet, salmon seine and herring sac roe seining.

While all the fisheries were adversely affected by the spill, the most profoundly affected continues to be herring. When the ExxonValdez oil spill took place, the herring fishers had been preparing for the spring season to commence. As a result of the spill, the fishery was closed and we were entrenched in months and months of crisis management. Over the next several years the herring fishery fluctuated and then in 1993 there was a complete and unprecedented crash. Since that time, the herring population has not recovered and the fishery has remains closed to this day. Our herring permits and our gear are not only useless, they are worthless.

Fishermen such as myself have lost the equity we built, which was also our means of creating a retirement. I still carry the original debt and loan payments to the Alaska Division of Investments compounding at two to three times the original amount. In order to avoid bankruptcy, I have entered into an agreement with the State requiring me to sell my seine boat and permits and relinquish my entire punitive settlement. In a best case scenario, where the award is upheld at $2.5 billion plus interest, I will meet the debt owed to the State but loose my remaining fishing assets. Any reduction of punitive damages will result in a shortfall which will likely make bankruptcy inevitable.

In 2007, the Prince William Sound Science Center published a scientific paper linking the ExxonValdez oil spill to the herring crash. Scientific studies indicate that exposure to relatively low concentrations of ExxonValdez oil can compromise adult herring's immune systems and make them susceptible to disease. However, at the time of the trial, not all of the damages were quantified. On September 20, 1991 the State of Alaska and the Federal Government arranged to settle out of court with Exxon for a figure close to a billion dollars for compensation for the environmental damage, restitution for injuries to the fish, wildlife and lands of the spill region. By settling with Exxon, the State and Federal Government eliminated any leverage the fishermen had.

Countless motions and almost twenty years later we have finally neared the conclusion of Exxon's efforts to evade its responsibility. However, the plaintiff's faith in the Government as well as the judicial system has been permanently eroded. In light of the United States Supreme Court perceived inclination to reduce the punitive damages, our hearts are heavy. With a further judgment reduction, total amounts in many peoples claims will not even scratch those monies owed to the State. It is frustrating to think that upon conclusion of this trial many of us will be going bankrupt, our lives ruined again in this endless nightmare.

Exxon's Deadly Legacy Lives on for Fishermen

By John Platt, AlterNet. Posted March 24, 2008.

Article Comments
http://www.alternet.org/story/80476/

Watchdog Group Names Top Corporate Abusers

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/24/7865/

Pakistan chief justice released

One of Pakistan's most senior judges has been released from house arrest on the instruction of the newly appointed prime minister.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A1A06C7B-3017-4098-B22A-098A7FB10436.htm

Winter Soldier Marches Again

Last weekend veterans gave eyewitness testimony about the horrors of
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Let's honor them by listening.

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate. Posted March 20, 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/80397/

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Archive Audio

http://www.warcomeshome.org/node

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WINTER SOLDIER 2008 (short film)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QolkuDjm8fM&eurl=http://www.defenselink.mil


(IMO) These Americans are true patriots and a credit to their nation.

They've helped me - maybe they can help you. The short film linked
above gives a small insight into perhaps one of the most momentous
displays of courage ever recorded.

I guess that in the end, we all make one fundamental choice in our lives -
to either walk alongside evil or choose another way - our way - the human way.

Perhaps one day we will all find ways of making peace with ourselves.


Hey, thanks for listening


respectfully,
Endy


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Oh, in case you missed it - the winner of the World Press Photo prize 2007
(declared Feb 2008)



AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - An image of an emotionally and physically spent
U.S. soldier in a bunker in Afghanistan by Britain's Tim Hetherington for
Vanity Fair magazine won the top World Press Photo prize for news
photography.

Judges described the photo as an image that shows "the exhaustion of a
man -- and the exhaustion of a nation," adding people everywhere were tiring
of the world's numerous conflicts.

"We're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line,"
said jury chairman Gary Knight, describing it as an "intelligent
photograph".

"It represents the exhaustion I have and you may also have with the
numerous conflicts in the world."

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0815678120080208

Bush calls fuse delivery a mistakeWTF?

Charles Goyette Interviews Joyce Lucey
March 26th, 2008

Joyce Lucey, surviving mother of an American soldier who killed himself after returning from Iraq,
tells the story of her son's life, military career, shell shock and death.

MP3 here

How much bravery does it take for a mother to speak so honestly and
eloquently about the suicide of her son?
It has been my honour to listen to her account.

respectfully,
Endy

The Return Of The Student's Unions




London, UK Meanwhile in the United States



Rutgers Students take to the road…

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11200

Okay, I think we could all do with a good laugh now and I promise you - you'll laugh.

Today, (28 March) while reading the 8.00 am Today programme news, the highly professional, much loved and respected Charlotte Green completely lost it.
Just before she talked about the 'earliest recorded voice' (recorded 9 April 1860) and played us a snippet, an unnamed person whispered in her ear that 'it sounds like a bee in a bottle."
After hearing the clip, Charlotte has to read the obituary of Abby Mann (giggling). When her colleague James Naughtie comes to the rescue and takes over, he has trouble holding it together himself…. as he talks about the situation in Basra.


listen

- I know you'll laugh. (Especially if you're a BBC radio 4 listener and missed it).

Honesty this human face of the BBC has done me a world of good - the best thing I've heard coming out of the radio for about 5 years. It will probably keep Abby Mann's name alive here for years to come. It is already being hailed as a classic piece in the history of British Broadcasting.

(Maybe you have to be British to really appreciate it, but in a strange way, it has actually raised people's spirits a bit here)

here in the UK they've turned the lights out at google

http://www.google.co.uk/

Earth Hour

http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/earthhour/

Yay!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Dead at 39; 40 Years Ago Today

I had heard King's last speech - in which he predicts his own death, but i'd never seen it.
Now it is on utube - along with his Vietnam speech.

"I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man,"

40 Years Ago Today: The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/81328/

I just watched this short piece of film about the man's death.

i didn't know he was having a pillow fight with his friends just before he was shot dead. During the film, a woman says "I don't think America should mourn Martin Luther King - I think America should mourn America."

I don't know about you, but today, watching this after reading about the fate of innocent families in Iraq being bombed by the US, i feel such a deep, and hopeless sadness for the world.

Progressive leaders meet - shame about 'Nazi' logo

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor (The Independent)
Saturday, 5 April 2008

David Miliband called on the Government last night to admit its failings and show more conviction to win back voters who have deserted Labour.

The Foreign Secretary's candid assessment, which echoed concerns expressed by Labour backbenchers, came at a gathering of centre-left leaders from around the world. The "progressive governance" conference on globalisation is being hosted for the first time by Gordon Brown, who rushed back to Britain from the Nato summit in Bucharest. The movement was launched by Bill Clinton and became closely associated with Tony Blair's "third way" philosophy.

Mr Brown won plaudits from his guests for his record on aid to Africa but there was an embarrassing hiccup before his arrival: the logo for today's summit of world leaders bore an uncanny resemblance to a Nazi swastika. Downing Street removed the logo from its website and ordered the designers to come up with a new one. "It would be totally wrong to read anything sinister into the intentions of the designers," said a No 10 spokeswoman.

MORE

Well, well, well - first Prince Harry in his Nazi uniform - then the Olympic logo now this

The Blue 'Progressive' swastika

??

Olympic spirit comes to Britain

By Jerome Taylor
Monday, 7 April 2008

If you were on the snowy streets of London yesterday and were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of an Olympic torchbearer carrying the sacred flame of Olympia, then count yourself lucky. Most spectators saw little more than a blur of fluorescent-yellow police jackets.

Officers were forced to surround Britain's 80 torchbearers, who did eventually include the Chinese ambassador, with a protection ring of Olympic proportions yesterday as they wound their way through the capital, flanked by thousands of angry protesters who had descended upon London to voice their fury at China's human rights record and Gordon Brown's decision to receive the flame in Downing Street.

An enormous security cordon that had something of the pantomime about it turned the relay into a public relations embarrassment for both the Chinese and British authorities, who have desperately tried to bill the 130-day global odyssey as a "journey of harmony". Until yesterday, they had largely managed to avoid widespread protests against China's human rights record.

At times the relay ground to a halt as officers were forced to tackle anyone committed enough to break through the barriers and take on the phalanx of heavies that surrounded every step the torchbearers took. By mid-afternoon, 35 people had been arrested - more than one for every mile of the route.

More


Police said there were about 500 people in Whitehall and about 2,000 gathered near the British Museum.

Pictures of the London relay were broadcast on China's state-controlled TV, but not of the protests and disruption.

Metropolitan Police Commander Jo Kaye denied officers had been heavy-handed with some protesters.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the prime minister's involvement was "wholly inappropriate" until China opened talks with the Dalai Lama.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7332942.stm

Australian leader Mr Rudd has said that his country will not allow Chinese Security to guard the torch on its journey. A wise choice, if you ask me.

At one point the torch had to change routes and was bundled onto a double decker bus - with the athlete riding upstairs with the torch to escape the mob .....



Carry on Regardless

The torch relay began its journey at the 1936 Berlin Olympics


Long history of Olympics protests
By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7334362.stm

Snow In England




Today shall not seal the past
Easter has faded and winds blow like a doom
I hear in London
the Olympic torch has been struck
knocked angry to the kerbed outrage
by a willing crowd
Solidarity with Tibet
The people have had enough

It seems that greed has overwhelmed the dream
to favour fools - our leaders
who worship only themselves
Carrying fire of destruction
into a world we no longer recognise
Can disregard for human rights
be cured by self-applause?
Hitler thought so

I walked out in the snow
Mournful the beauty held in silence
Fields hushed gentle, soft in the gloom
Pale and settled
Then I saw Iraq resurfacing
like buds unfurling much too soon
Ill-prepared for the cruel truth
Old man winter lingering stubborn

I am repentant in all I do
For the love snatched brutal
from a country's ornamented archways
and the written-off child's mind
that succumbs
Men who scream broken
clutching their mangled hearts
in bloody arms

Who we have loved
and who has been killed
Terrible, the loss of their desire
Gone ghosts in silence lay in tomb
The world has turned inside itself
to violence
But while it snows, friend
who knows the extent of our strength?





Endymion 2008

I have been following the efforts of Rose Gentle and Beverley Clarke to force an inquiry into the Iraq war on behalf of British soldiers and in memory of their sons.
Can't say as i'm surprised by the Lords rulings - but i'm sure that it will not end here - to the courts of Europe - to the Hague - whatever it takes and however long that has to be - someone somewhere will stand up and do the right thing, i hope.

Soldiers' mothers lose Iraq inquiry legal bid

PA
Wednesday, 9 April 2008

The mothers of two young soldiers killed in Iraq have lost their legal bid to force the Government to hold a public inquiry into Britain's involvement in the conflict.

A committee of nine Law Lords today dismissed an appeal by Beverley Clarke and Rose Gentle, whose lawyers argued that the Blair government breached its duty to the men and women of the armed forces by failing to ensure in advance that the invasion was lawful and justified.

At a hearing in the House of Lords in February, Rabinder Singh QC said: "That duty is owed to soldiers who are under the unique compulsory control of the State and have to obey orders.

"They have to put their lives in harm's way if necessary because their country demands it.

"There is what some people call a military covenant between the State and those who are literally prepared to put their lives at risk for the sake of their country."

The case was brought against Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defence Secretary Des Browne and Attorney General Baroness Scotland.

The mothers challenged a Court of Appeal ruling in December 2006 that the Government was not under an implied obligation to order an independent inquiry under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the "right to life".

They said the Government's promise of an inquiry "when the time is right" was not good enough.

Trooper David Clarke, from Littleworth, Staffordshire, was one of two soldiers who died in March 2003 in a "friendly fire" incident west of Basra.

Fusilier Gordon Gentle, from Glasgow, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, died in June 2004 in a roadside bomb attack on British vehicles in Basra.

At the centre of the argument over whether the decision to invade was lawful was the families' demand for an explanation as to how 13 pages of "equivocal" advice from the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, on 7 March 7 was reduced within 10 days to one page of completely unequivocal advice that an invasion would be legal.

Mrs Gentle said after the ruling that she was "bitterly disappointed".

Lawyers said afterwards that the House of Lords found unanimously that it was impossible to find a duty within Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to life - that required the type of inquiry sought.

They said that although Baroness Hale expressed serious reservations about the controversy of the decision to rely on Security Council resolution 678 from the first Gulf War, none of the other eight Law Lords expressed a view one way or the other.

The next step is for the families to decide whether to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, but they have yet to receive legal advice on that question.

Mrs Gentle said today: "I am bitterly disappointed. Only Baroness Hale - a woman - has had the decency to even consider how my family and I feel that Gordon was killed and we don't even have the comfort of knowing that he died fighting for a just cause.

"It is as if the other eight Law Lords have not been able to contemplate the feelings of my family and I.

"I will never accept that Gordon did die for a just cause and I will never stop fighting for those responsible to be held to account.

"I call upon the Prime Minister to do the right thing and hold the inquiry into the invasion and occupation of Iraq that he keeps promising us."

Phil Shiner, the families'solicitor, said: "The lords have taken a very narrow approach to this case.

"Even since the hearing in mid-February, there have been more damaging disclosures which all support our case that the invasion of Iraq did not have a shred of legality.

"It is common ground that my clients are entitled to an inquiry that has to look at the broad circumstances of the deaths, and that the inquests could not possibly look at the invasion question.

"The world would not have ended if the Lords had found that an independent inquiry did have to look at the legality of the military orders."

Alchemy (SF - )
by Endymion - April 2008


Sometimes I feel like I'm living in some freakish comic book nightmare, where everyone in positions of financial or political power (and some who aren't) are undergoing a slow alien brain transplant, secretly leaving them by stages, utterly devoid of their intelligence and humanity.

Or that, after accepting the earth is environmentally incapable of sustaining human life as we now know it, the all-powerful have decided (in their classically selfish and grandiose way) that their children's children will have a place above the waterline - perhaps even in space.

That they are already writing a new page in their bible. That the 'meek' shall (without access to space shuttles) inherit what's left of the earth, while they, the supreme rich, simply f*ck off out of it to go live amongst the stars, like gods.

That the earth's resources shall be farmed along the lines of a cosmic plantation, where the high table is first fed and everyone 'down there' works just for food, for their existence - the fruits of their labours going (under armed guard, of course) to supply Space Stations with the best of everything still available.

That men like George Bush, Tony Blair and Dick Cheney dream of their names being written down as the founding fathers of a New World. And in their dreams they see men who look just like them, sitting, drinking champagne and chatting about their collection of frozen animal sperm or the chances of ever reaching a new world, as they stare vacant and half sozzled, at a planet once lush and beautiful enough to be named paradise and now better known locally as 'hell on Earth'. Blitzed and ravaged by war, famine, water shortages, rising sea levels, disregard for human rights etc etc

Sometimes I feel that I'm living in a world where immortality and privilege is all that's on the minds of the rich, even as the rice shortage takes hold, as water becomes scarce.
That to save themselves, the super-elite need money - and plenty of it, so they fire up the engines on a global business racket that will earn them enough to get them what they want.
A green zone in space or some similar goal.

I feel like I could be living in some fantastical science fiction nightmare where our leaders are actually Anti-Peace, not Pro-Defence - as unbelievable and unforgivable as that would be. That they want war and promote it, even cause wars to erupt, because their business is weaponry, their livelihood is war and there's big bucks to be made in it.

That a great and terrible military/corporate machine, a co-op of fiscal lust that revolves fundamentally around industrial war and therefore, a continuation of hostilities, is destroying the very structure of our existence.
Not to mention, exterminating millions of innocent people in the process - turning lead into gold.

Other times I just lie back with my headphones to my ears and read some Iain Banks, or Hermann Hesse.
Look at the sky, sip a few beers and think…. 'I wonder if my shirts are dry yet?'




First things first, like






Endymion 2008

Court condemns Blair for halting Saudi arms inquiry

By Ben Russell and Nigel Morris
Friday, 11 April 2008

Tony Blair's government broke the law when it abandoned a fraud investigation into a multibillion-pound arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia, the High Court ruled yesterday.

Two senior judges condemned the Government's "abject" surrender to a "blatant" threat when the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) halted its inquiry into allegations that BAE had made secret payments to Saudi officials in order to secure a series of massive contracts. BAE has always denied any wrongdoing.

Calling on Gordon Brown to hold a public inquiry into the affair, jubilant campaigners demanded the fraud investigation into the £50bn Al-Yamamah deal to sell Tornado and Hawk jets to the Saudis be restarted.

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The no-holds-barred judgment sparked joy last night among the arms trade campaigners who had taken the case to the High Court.

Demanding that the SFO restart its investigation, Symon Hill, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade which brought the action with the pressure group Corner House, said: "We hope the SFO will reopen the inquiry and we call on Gordon Brown and his government not to stand in the way."

He added: "We are delighted. This judgment brings Britain a step closer to the day when BAE is no longer calling the shots. It has been clear from the start that the dropping of the investigation was about neither national security nor jobs. It was due to the influence of BAE and Saudi princes over the UK Government."

The judgment could require the SFO to reconsider its decision to call off the inquiry although the department is thought likely to appeal. An SFO spokeswoman said: "The SFO are carefully considering the implications of the judgment and the way forward. No further comment at this stage." Downing Street also declined to comment.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, demanded a full inquiry into the decision to abandon the SFO investigation and warned that the Government's decision had done "untold damage" to Britain's standing.

He said: "This investigation was blocked supposedly to protect our security, but it looks increasingly like it was done to protect BAE sales by appeasing the Saudi government.

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Leading article: A damning indictment of business and government

Friday, 11 April 2008

At last, some sound and principled sense has been spoken on the matter of the Serious Fraud Office, BAE Systems and the Saudi arms deal. Fortunately, this sound sense comes from the High Court, in its judgment on the SFO's decision to drop its corruption inquiry into the multi-billion pound contract. Unfortunately, it took the indignation of two campaign groups to bring the case at all. The ruling thoroughly vindicates them. It should also shame not only the SFO, but the Government of the day.

The judgment is as disturbing as it is excoriating. The court found that the Saudis - as was widely mooted at the time - had threatened to end diplomatic co-operation with Britain and call off a future contract for BAE to supply Eurofighter aircraft, if the SFO pursued its investigation. BAE, in arguments accepted by the then Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, had said that the inquiry would have seriously damaged UK-Saudi relations and so jeopardised national security.

The High Court replied with a lengthy written judgment which essentially dismisses this argument as rubbish. It said there was no proof at all that British national security would have been put at risk by anything the Saudis threatened to do. The purpose of the threat was simply designed "to prevent the SFO from pursuing the course of investigation he had chosen to adopt". In that, the judgment went on tersely, "it achieved its purpose".

It went on, in words that should be inscribed over the entrance to No 10 Downing Street: "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice."

More