For the gonad-challenged male

JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank

This thing is for sale at Amazon. I've always wanted to sell something like this so I've even put it on my own Amazon account. You must buy one -- I get 5% commission which I will spend on promoting peace, I promise.

"The JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank is an open-ended custom-made, Star-Wars-oid personal tank that carries up to five people at 40mph over sand. It comes with a giant 400w stereo and a camera for recording the reactions of the people you drive past. Only 20 grand!"

I found it at techno\culture

Irish Blogmanac team member Nora thinks it would be great for Sandy Beach visitors who salivate at the thought of running over crabs. The ones in the Caravanserai of Corpulence about which I wrote on January 9 in Sandy Beach Almanac (Crabstock: I came upon a crab of God).

RRS feeds on My Yahoo!

RSS feeds on My yahoo!


I always recommend My Yahoo! to anyone who wants a start-up page. (For those to whom this word is a mystery, I simply mean the website that opens when you first click on the Internet Explorer icon, or whatever Web browser you use, when you connect to the Web.)

The beauty of My Yahoo! is that you can customize it very well and easily to have news, comics, a calculator, calendar and lots of other very useful features. Every day I use the Favorites list that I've built there. These are the pick of my Faves, many of which i use every day. Whenever I need them, I just click on the Explorer icon and up comes My Yahoo! with my bookmarks.

My Yahoo! has another feature I didn't know about till yesterday. As I explain at this page, you can add the headlines of Wilson's Blogmanac to your My Yahoo! quite easily. however, I didn't realise that once you do that, and then you will have an RSS module at the head of your page, if you click Edit you can add up to another 49 RSS feeds. I just hadn't been there, so I didn't know.

At the foot of Daily Planet News I have a list of links of news sources and RSS sources, if you want to do this; many progressive feeds, and even one for comics.

If you already have My Yahoo! and want Blogmanac headlines, simply click this link.

Wave Aid tsunami gig: $2 million

"It was the night a politican turned up at a rock concert – and the fans went wild.

"In a momentous musical tribute to the victims of Asia's tsunami disaster, Midnight Oil headlined the star-studded WaveAid concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground last night.

"Lead singer Peter Garrett, now the Labor member for Kingsford-Smith, relished the opportunity to perform, showing off his trademark antics including outstretched hand and manic dancing.

"Crowd members went berserk as the Oils belted out some of their biggest tunes in what was considered their farewell show.

"Garrett joked to the crowd of 48,000: 'I'm probably the only Labor MP who is singing in a band tonight.'"
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
More

Sharon Stone raises $1m for Africa bed nets

Actress Sharon Stone raised $1 million in five minutes from business tycoons at the Davos World Economic Forum Friday to fund bed nets to protect African children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes:

Responding to an appeal from Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa for immediate help, the movie star jumped up from the audience at a session on debt relief and challenged the assembled political and business leaders to pledge donations.

"I was particularly moved by President Mkapa and by his urgent need of today, so if you don't mind I'd like to offer my help and support to you, and I'd like to offer you $10,000 to help you buy some bed nets today.

"Would any one else like to be on a team with me and stand up and offer some money and help him as well?" the star of sultry thrillers such as "Basic Instinct" asked. A man next to her rose and pledged $50,000, prompting a stream of participants to stand and offer donations amid rising applause.

Reuters

A boob job in Argentina?

What did you do on your holiday?

Have you had a bypass in Bangalore?
Root canal in Bali?
A boob job in Argentina?
Knee surgery in Penang?

Background Briefing wants to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly of medical tourism. Surgery and dentistry at bargain prices (with the bonus of an exotic holiday) are the new market niche as health care services go global.

There's a form here

Bush payola scandal deepens

Third columnist admits being paid

"The Bush administration was confronted with fresh evidence of a far-reaching clandestine campaign to influence public opinion yesterday after a third conservative commentator admitted receiving payments for championing its policies.

Michael McManus, a newspaper columnist, was paid up to $10,000 (£5,300) to praise the administration's marriage initiative, which diverts funds from welfare to marital counselling, the Los Angeles Times reported."

Continue at The Guardian

Iraq: Coalition responsible for most civilian deaths

"More Iraqi civilians may have been killed by coalition forces and their allies than by insurgents, according to Iraqi government figures.

"The figures, which have been compiled by Iraq’s Ministry of Health, will be disclosed on the BBC’s Panorama programme tomorrow.

"They show coalition troops and Iraqi security forces were responsible for 60% of Iraqi civilian deaths in conflict-related violence in a six month period ...

"The BBC says that in an interview the US ambassador John Negroponte, prior to the release of the figures, said he believed the largest amount of civilian casualties were due to car bombings ...

"Panorama’s film, Exit Strategy, reported by John Simpson from Baghdad, is due to be shown at 10.15pm tomorrow on BBC 1."

Source

Note: The BBC page linked at CLG seems to have been removed. I'll be interested to watch the programme tomorrow (Sunday) evening.

Gitmo Aussie has case for compo: lawyer

"A serious victim of torture"

"An international human rights lawyer says former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has a strong case for compensation.

"Mr Habib arrived home in Sydney yesterday after more than three years in US detention.

"Although he has been released without facing any charges, the Federal Government says Mr Habib is still a person of concern.

"He will be monitored by ASIO and the police.

"The president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York, Michael Ratner, says Mr Habib's case for compensation is strong.

"'You have the United States keeping him for three years - in humane treatment, sending him to Egypt where he was tortured,' he said.

"'What we should be talking about here is how we vindicate his right as a serious victim of torture."

"But Mr Ratner says it is likely to be some time before Mr Habib is ready to pursue any claim.

"'These are frequently people who are really traumatised by what happened to them,' Mr Ratner said."
Source: ABC Oz

Flashback to when Australia first found out about Mr Habib's arrest, months earlier as the US Government did not inform the Australian Government.

Pictured: Welcome home: Tom Gleeson of Mount Druitt joins other supporters to sign a card for Mamdouh Habib at a ceremony in the western suburbs of Sydney. (Reuters)

Favourite blogs: AlterNet survey

Nora forwarded this email:

Greetings AlterNet readers,

We'd like your opinion! Please help us by filling out a short questionnaire about your relationship to blogs. Your opinion will help us decide what blogs to feature in our new book, Start Making Sense: Turning the Lessons of Election 2004 into Winning Progressive Politics, to be published by Chelsea Green in early Spring. The book is about the grassroots political movement that we all got a taste of in 2004 and how we can all participate in moving it forward.

Visit our survey and let us know your opinion!

Wikipes: A wiki for recipes

Wikipes was launched at New Year. I'm not much of a foodie myself but I know many people are, and this looks like a good initiative. They say:

"Wikipes is a community-contributed recipe database. In other words, we allow anyone to contribute recipes. Our feeling is that this will create a more diverse collection of unique and delicious recipes and in the long run you’ll be able to choose from a vast archive of drinks, appetizers, main dishes, desserts; the possibilities are endless!

"Wikipes is powered by Wiki technology ... using a modified DokuWiki software."

I don't see it plugged at Wikipedia, so I guess it's not part of its fast-growing stable of great free resources (Wikimedia Foundation), which now boasts Wikispecies.

Wikipedia Unusual Articles
Speaking of Wikipedia, the Unusual Articles page is a hoot.

Mad Cow Disease Found in French Goat

[What'll they call it now? ]

"Brussels (Reuters) - Mad cow disease has been found in a goat, the first time the brain-wasting affliction that ravaged European cattle herds and killed at least 100 people, has been diagnosed in another animal, the EU said on Friday ...

"Up until now, the risk of mad cow disease jumping species has focused on sheep not goats."

Source

The Invader's Descendant?

From Letters to the Irish Times:

Madam,
I object to the attempt to blacken the names of Dermot McMurrough and Strongbow by associating them with George Bush.
Yours, etc.,
Ronan Tierney, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

Source

Wouldn't you know? Bush's family invaded us

Well, apparently! This below from the Irish Times:

"Local historians and genealogists in Wexford have discovered evidence to suggest that President George W. Bush is a direct descendant of Strongbow, the nobleman who led the Norman invasion of Ireland.

"The president is also believed to be a direct descendant, through 30 generations, of Dermot McMorrough, the King of Leinster, reviled in many Irish history books as the man who betrayed his island for personal gain.

"During his first presidential election campaign in 2000, genealogists discovered a direct link between Mr Bush and prominent Norman families in medieval England.

"However, in the last month volunteers working on a tapestry of Ireland's Norman heritage discovered a further link with two of the most notorious figures in Irish history."

Source (subscription)

The Guardian: Scion of traitors and warlords: why Bush is coy about his Irish links

Excerpt: "Perhaps the most worrying question in New Ross is whether Mr Bush now has a claim on Leinster. 'Yes of course, he probably does', Ms Griffin Bernstorff said. 'But there are other families in the area who have a claim and neighbours and friends here would put up a pretty stiff fight'."
[Too right. Leinster is where I live! - N]

US radio staff suspended over tsunami song

The Guardian

Radio Station Apologizes Over Tsunami Slur

"New York (Reuters) - A New York radio station apologized on Monday for repeatedly airing a joke song that ridiculed victims of the recent tsunami in South Asia and used racial slurs, saying the piece was in poor taste.

"New York FM radio station WQHT, or HOT 97, ran the segment on its 'Miss Jones in the Morning' show. The piece used racial slurs to describe people swept away in the disaster, made jokes about child slavery and people watching their mothers die."

I'm curious why Reuters have put this in their Oddly Enough category (from which I quoted the story of the German who was arrested for being drunk in charge of lawnmower) and not in their ordinary news section.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *
One month after the tsunami ... floating a candle in the Indian Ocean:



Asian Tsunami Disaster Slideshow

Lugar clarifies USA's Iraq election

Senator Richard Lugar, the Republican chair of the US Foreign Relations Committee:

"Many have asked, what are the criteria on January 30th for success in this election, and I think Iraqis that I have visited with are quick to point out there really is no criteria [sic] or no set of metrics that work, aside from the fact that the election happened."
Source: ABC, January 27

Send big files; no email, no ads

Another great one from Baz 'I Make Geeks Look Like Newbies' le Tuff.

You Send It lets you send files up to one gigabyte without using email. What a godsend. I don't know if this is new, but it's new to me 'n' Baz. We've tried it and there don't seem to be any drawbacks like fees or ads.

"Only a matter of time," says the laconic le Tuff in that tone of voice he reserves for speaking of Internet shysters and the religious right.

UK: Home Secretary's proposal falls short of Law Lords ruling

News Release from Amnesty International:

"The United Kingdom (UK) authorities must release immediately all those detained under Part 4 of Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA) unless they are charged with a criminal offence and given a prompt and fair trial. Today's proposals from the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, fall short of the government's obligations under human rights law, Amnesty International said today.

"'The 12 people, charged under Part 4 of ATCSA, continue to be deprived of their liberty without being charged with any identifiable criminal offence. Today's statement by the UK Home Secretary may alleviate the conditions they are under, but it falls short of doing them justice', Nicola Duckworth, Head of Europe and Central Asia Programme at Amnesty International said.

"Charles Clarke said today that detaining foreign 'terror' suspects without trial will be replaced by restrictions on movement and communication, in some cases amounting to house arrest. He said that the UK government will be seeking to deport some of them. The proposed new measures will also apply to UK citizens.

"'The Home Secretary's proposal flies in the face of natural justice - the presumption of innocence, the right to challenge prosecutorial evidence, the right to fair trial', Nicola Duckworth said.

"Amnesty International expresses deep concern over the proposal that some of the detainees may be deported.

"'The UK government must adhere to its international obligations not to forcibly return anyone to any country where they may face serious human rights violations, including unfair trial, ill-treatment, torture, or execution'."
[Emphasis mine - N]

All AI documents on the UK

Cannabis-growing gran faces jail

"A granny faces jail after feeding her neighbours casseroles and cakes laced with cannabis ...

"Tabram, who was freed on bail, said: 'If they send me to jail I can finish my book — Grandma Eats Cannabis. If Jeffrey Archer can write a book in prison, so can I'."

The Sun

'Strine' declines as Aussies lose twang (?)

[Pip may well comment on this one when he gets up in the morning!]

"Strewth, mate, it's enough to make a dinky di bloke choke on his pot of XXXX. The Aussie accent is losing its distinctive 'ocker' twang.

"'Strine' is in decline as Australians soften the broad, stereotyped accent epitomised by the likes of the comedian Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin, a reptile-baiting television presenter known as the Crocodile Hunter ...

"According to researchers, a broad Australian accent developed as early as the 1830s. It became more pronounced as Australia moved away from its British origins during the latter half of the 20th century but is now softening.

"The newly evolved accent is neither British-sounding nor, to the relief of the many Australians who fret about the cultural dominance of the United States, veering towards American English."

Full text

Isolation, breakdowns and mysterious injections

"One of the four men who returned to Britain yesterday after three years in Guantánamo Bay allegedly suffered a series of mental breakdowns and was repeatedly injected with an unknown substance by his US captors.

"A lawyer for Feroz Abbasi made the allegations as he and three other Muslim men arrived in Britain aboard an RAF plane, only to be arrested by anti-terrorism officers who took them to a top security police station for questioning ...

"Intelligence officials suggested yesterday there was no evidence to suggest any of the four presented a security threat. They expected all four to be released quickly, but insisted that the length of detention was up to the police."

Full text

UK: Clarke backs down on detainees

"The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is expected to announce today that he will accept the law lords' ruling that the indefinite detention without trial of 12 terror suspects in Britain breaches human rights laws.

"The ruling, which came just before Christmas, struck at the heart of the emergency anti-terror legislation passed in the aftermath of September 11 by the former home secretary, David Blunkett ...

" ...it is expected that today's announcement will spell the eventual end of detention without trial for those incarcerated in Belmarsh and Woodhill under part four of the 2001 act ...

"The law lords' judgment was so damning of the anti-terror legislation that one of the panel, Lord Hoffman, went as far as saying: 'The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws like these'."

Full text:The Guardian

Google Video Search

As my friends and regular readers know, I haven't had a TV for years. No special reason, just a funny quirk I have about having a soul. I still believe that TV is watching other people have lives.

I've hardly watched TV since Lucy had Little Ricky. I've never even seen George W Bush in moving images, except for when I went to the movies to see Fahrenheit 9-11 last year. I know quite a bit about world current events and politics, but most of the politicians I've only seen on the Net in jpegs. I don't feel any the poorer for it; quite the contrary, in fact. I love the clarity of consciousness that starts to emerge after some years away from TV watching, and I keep up with news as well as anyone, I think. Trouble is, there are incredibly few people these days who I can talk to about it because so few have tried it. One drawback is that when I go to a movie, which is once or twice a year, I can't stomach all the blood and guts that my contemporaries seem to have become inured to. Some people think I should be embarrassed by that.

Be that as it may, if I did have a TV, I would use the new Google Video Search (now in beta), which seems to be the best-kept secret on the Net. It's also useful for someone like me. I typed in Rumsfeld and got all sorts of stuff. It's bloody amazing, and obviously has applications for TV material other than all the shite that made me take up life in the first place.

Leonardo's workshop discovered

"ROME (Reuters) - A forgotten workshop of Leonardo da Vinci, complete with 500-year-old frescos and a secret room to dissect human cadavers, has been discovered in Florence, Italy, researchers say.

"The find, announced on Tuesday, was made in part of the Santissima Annunziata convent, which let out rooms to artists centuries ago and where the likely muse of the Renaissance artist's masterwork, the Mona Lisa, may have worshipped.

"'It's a bit absurd to think that, in 2005, we have found the studio of one of history's greatest artists. But that is what has happened,' said Roberto Manescalchi, one of three researchers credited for this month's discovery.

"'The proof is on the walls.'"
Source: Reuters

Cetaceans and anthracotheres

Tee hee! I don't see much similarity between a hippo and a whale, but here's what they're saying:

Whale and hippo 'close cousins'

"A water-loving mammal that lived 50 to 60 million years ago was probably the 'missing link' between whales and hippos, according to a new analysis ...

"Jean-Renaud Boisserie, Michel Brunet and Fabrice Lehoreau found that the semi-aquatic ancestor of whales and hippos split into two groups: cetaceans and the anthracotheres.

"Cetaceans eventually spurned land, lost their legs and became fully aquatic.

"The pig-like anthracotheres, flourished over 40 million years and died out less than 2.5 million years ago. They left only one descendent, the hippopotamus.

"The study places whales firmly within the cloven-hoofed group of mammals known as Artiodactyla, which includes cows, pigs, sheep, antelopes, camels and giraffes."

Full text

Torture in Iraq Still Routine, Report Says

"BAGHDAD - Twenty months after Saddam Hussein's government was toppled and its torture chambers unlocked, Iraqis are again being routinely beaten, hung by their wrists and shocked with electrical wires, according to a report by a human rights organization.

"Iraqi police, jailers and intelligence agents, many of them holding the same jobs they had under Hussein, are 'committing systematic torture and other abuses' of detainees, Human Rights Watch said in a report to be released Tuesday.

"Legal safeguards are being ignored, political opponents are targeted for arrest, and the government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi 'appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights', the report concludes."

Continue at Truthout

World 'must learn from Holocaust'

Sadly I feel that Prince Harry's latest blunder in wearing a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party -- while amazing in light of his position, his education, and the number of advisors to whom he has access -- may be a reflection of the lack of awareness of the Holocaust among 20-year-olds today. If you disagree, please feel free to comment below.

"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the world to make sure evils such as those perpetrated in the Holocaust are never repeated ...

"The General Assembly gathered to mark the approaching 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in a special session ...

"Truly it has been said: 'all that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing'."

Full text

Google plans free Internet phone service

Read about it at Wikinews.

Virtual keyboard

Sounds like a neat idea if you have a laptop, Smartphone or PDA. "The virtual laser keyboard (VKB) works by using both infrared and laser technology to produce an invisible circuit and project a full-size virtual QWERTY keyboard on to any surface." Like a desk or table, I guess.

Where does Baz 'Virtue Keyboard' le Tuff find 'em?

Bush nominated 'worst actor'

From Baz ('Mr Maltin') le Tuff:

"President Bush and some of his advisers received worst-acting nominations for their appearances in news and archival footage in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which assails Bush for his actions surrounding the September 11 attacks.

"Bush was nominated for worst actor, while Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice got a nomination for worst supporting actress and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for worst supporting actor.

"Wilson said that while Fahrenheit 9/11 was a piece of anti-Bush propaganda, the president and his associates earned their Razzie nominations on their own.

"'It wasn't Mr. Moore's editing,' Wilson said. 'It's the raw footage of these people just making fools of themselves.'"
Source: CNN

Hotel California: Mystery solved

Heard an interview with Don Henley. It seems the Eagles don't have a clue what 'Hotel California' is about either. It's not about anything. Strike that one off the Unsolved Mysteries of Lyrics list.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

"Whether the issue is divorce, materialism, sexual promiscuity, racism, physical abuse in marriage, or neglect of a biblical worldview, the polling data point to widespread, blatant disobedience of clear biblical moral demands on the part of people who allegedly are evangelical, born-again Christians. The statistics are devastating."
Source: Christianity Today

Survey Finds Church-Going Americans Less Tolerant

Rabbie Burns birthplace in crisis

"This weekend, across the world, many celebrated the January 25 birthday of Scotland's national bard at countless Burns suppers. But his birthplace at Alloway in Ayrshire and the adjoining museum that houses many of his works are in crisis."
Source: Guardian

Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac

Eric Utne has a new book out: "Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac can help you connect to Nature and Her Rhythms wherever you are.

"Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac, a new publication from Utne magazine founder Eric Utne, is an urban version of the old farmer's almanacs, like Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack ..."
Source: Utne

Daily Planet News: One-stop newsagency

Hundreds of headline links constantly updating

Here's the list of newsfeeds all on one page at Daily Planet News. There's a bookmark link at the top of DPN and I think it is worth adding to Favorites if you like the idea of a one-stop newsagency. Enjoy.

Newsfeeds
Latest Blogmanac headlines
Latest Wilson's Almanac ezine editions
BBC News  News Front Page  UK Edition
BBC News  World  Asia-Pacific  UK Edition
NPR News: World
blogdex - the weblog diffusion index
Blogcritics
NPR News: Health & Science
Salon.com
NYT > International
Yahoo! News: World
Progressive Blog Alliance
Independent Media
Independent Media Oceania
ZNet
Moving Ideas
Alternative Religions
Yahoo! News: Oddly Enough
Wired News
MetaFilter
Electronic Iraq
Electronic Intifada
Permaculture
Development and related topics
BuzzFlash
del.icio.us
Common Dreams
Earth Times

Useful news and opinion links:
Planet Directory News & Newsfeeds
A-Changin' Times
Independent Media Center
Buzzflash
Guerrilla News Network
Zenzibar
Mother Jones news
Utne
AlterNet
Archaeology news
Information Clearing House
The Yellow Pages: current affairs and opinion
ABC (Australia) News Radio
Planet Ark environment news
Guardian World News finder
A-Infos anarchist news
Deoxy News (lots of alt. newsfeeds)
Environmental News Network
Corporate Watch
OneWorld.net
Inter Press Service
Peace News
Earth Liberation Front
Earth Times
Wren's Nest Pagan News
Google News

Daily Planet News Your feedback is welcome.

UK: Army faces new claims over Iraq brutality

"The army faces a fresh series of serious allegations of abuse against its forces in Iraq, The Observer has learnt. The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night that army prosecution lawyers have completed investigations into nine separate incidents involving British soldiers serving in Iraq and are now actively considering bringing charges on the back of their inquiries.

"Three of the cases concern incidents in which Iraqis were detained by British forces. Four involve the fatal shooting of Iraqis during military operations and two involve non-fatal injuries. A further 48 cases are still being investigated, while 77 cases have been examined and closed by army lawyers." [My emphasis - N]

Continue at The Observer

Are you ready for Burns Night?

"Robert Burns: poet and balladeer, Scotland's favourite son and champion of the common people. Each year on January 25, the great man's presumed birthday, Scots everywhere take time out to honour a national icon. Whether it's a full-blown Burns Supper or a quiet night of reading poetry, Burns Night is a night for all Scots."

[And for others who enjoy the fun!]

All you need here, including a step by step guide for a traditional Burns Supper and other useful links.

Only 11% Iraqi expats register to vote

Expat Iraqis wary of elections

"The head of Australia's Out of Country Voting Program for next weekend's Iraqi election says he understands that there is a high degree of scepticism about the process.

"Bernie Hogan says so far only about 11 per cent of the 1.2 million expatriate Iraqis eligible to vote have registered in the 14 countries where the program is operating.

"In Sydney and Melbourne, the registration period has been extended by two days in a bid to attract more voters."
Source: ABC Oz

Creative inauguration demos

Billionaires for Bush were at Emperor Shrub's ceremony, with their Inaugural Ball, and Code Pink

"... chapters from across the country organized a chilly welcome for attendees of the Gold and Boots Ball the night before the Coronation, greeting fur-and-heel-wearing, cowboy themed tuxedo couples and corporate gentry with Hallibacon, snout-wearing well-wishers, and stacks of cash with everyone's favorite Dick printed on them."

And

"One of the most fun and creative actions of the week might have been the Backbone Campaign's trip to the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington D.C. A huge spine wound its way to the national headquarters of the Democratic Party the day after the Unauguration, a special delivery that recieved no notice from the office-bound democrats. Activists from all over the country carried the spine, singing (to the tune of that Hip Bone song."

Reports at Indymedia US
Talking back to Bush
Inauguration demonstrations
Code Pink women dragged from ceremony
Generate your own billionaire name

Rumsfeld cancels trip due to war crimes accusations

"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cancelled a planned visit to Germany after a US human rights organisation asked German authorities to prosecute him for war crimes, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) has learned.

"Rumsfeld has informed the German government via the US embassy that he will not take part in the Munich Security Conference in February, conference head Horst Teltschik told dpa on Thursday."

Source

Leap of faith

Norway to kill 25% of its wolves

"The Norwegian government has decided to kill five of the country's grey wolves -- a quarter of the entire population ...

"WWF-Norway says two wolves have been shot already, one of them from a pack which has not been targeted and which it fears may now not manage to survive.

"Wolves are protected in Norway, and are listed as critically endangered, and WWF says many people oppose the cull."

Full text: BBC

US official confirms Allawi shot six dead

"A former Jordanian government minister has told The New Yorker that an American official confirmed to him that the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, executed six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station last year.

"The claim is in an extensive profile of Dr Allawi written for this week's issue of the magazine by an American journalist, Jon Lee Anderson, the author of The Fall of Baghdad and a regular Baghdad correspondent for The New Yorker.

"Writing about his research in Jordan in December, Anderson says: 'A well-known former government minister told me that an American official had confirmed that the killings took place, saying to him, "What a mess we're in - we got rid of one son of a bitch only to get another one"'.

"The New Yorker also revealed that Anderson was present during an interview conducted by the Herald's chief correspondent, Paul McGeough, in late June, with a man who said he witnessed the executions by Dr Allawi."

Full text from SMH

Link to our original post here last July

Daily Planet News update

I've redesigned the Daily Planet News page and hope that Almanac readers find it useful as a wide source of news.

Puritans: spoiling every party

Today I sent this letter to the Australian Democrats:

Any chance that I would ever again vote for the Australian Democrats has now been lost by this unnecessary, authoritarian policy of banning smoking in cars. I wish you'd focus your efforts on real policies.

Was it Carlyle who wrote that the Puritans didn't ban bear-baiting because of the suffering of the bears, but because of the happiness of the audience?

Weather magic charm

Remember on St Vincent's Day
If that the sun his beams display,
Be sure to mark his transient beam
Which through the window sheds a gleam;
For 'tis a token bright and clear,
Of prosperous weather all the year.

Traditional English proverb

Feast of St Vincent of Saragossa

(Early Witlow grass, Draba verna, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint)

A deacon of Saragossa, Vincent was martyred c. 304 during the Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians. He is patron saint of drunkards for no apparent reason. Vincent represents a Christianisation of the ancient Greek sun god Apollo, whose rites were performed at this time of year to bring warmth back to the frozen land. Consequently, St Vincent and his feast day are associated with fire, just as we noted on January 20 and 21 for the Eve and Night of St Agnes.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

Fireworks in Washington, despair around the world

Robin Cook, in The Guardian:

"Inauguration does not do justice to the exuberant celebrations of this week. Coronation would come closer. Washington ended yesterday with nine official balls. The night before George Bush gave a new spin to the phrase moveable feast by fitting in three separate banquets. He then expended as much ordnance in peppering the sky over the Capitol with fireworks as would get his occupation forces in Iraq through a whole 24 hours.

"The contrasts between this uninhibited triumphalism and the real world are as wide as the American continent...

"Not that Iraq was unusual in being left out of the script. There were no specifics about anything else, either. Instead, we were invited to drift along with a stream of generalities, untroubled by hard problems or real-world solutions. Freedom and liberty are universal values. The founding fathers of the US constitution, admirable though they may have been, do not hold patent rights over those concepts. They are embedded in the roots of the separate tradition of European social democracy and we must not let George Bush appropriate them to provide an ideological cover for his new imperialism.

"Nor should we accept the implicit assumption of Bush's muscular foreign policy that freedom can be delivered from 38,000ft through the bomb doors. One of the rare passages of the speech when Bush appeared animated by his own text, rather than engaged in formal recitation, was when he saluted the declaration of independence and the sounding of the liberty bell. But those were celebrations of freedom from foreign dominance -- not to put too fine a point on it, independence from the British. He needs to grasp that other nations are just as attached to freedom from foreign intervention, including domination by America.

"The president and his speechwriters have yet to confront the tension between their rhetoric about freedom, which is universally popular, and their practice of projecting US firepower, which is resented in equal measure. That explains why, on the very day when the president set forward his mission to bring liberty to the world, a poll revealed that a large majority of its inhabitants believe that he will actually make it more dangerous. The first indication of whether they are right to worry will be whether the Bush administration mediate their differences with Iran through the state department or through the US air force."

r.cook@guardian.co.uk

Full text

Athens chief fumes at US 'lewdness' claims

I did a Victor Meldrew on this one: "I don't BELIEVE it!". (One Foot in the Grave fans will identify.) And I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed by Angelopoulos.

"Athens (Reuters) - A clutch of complaints by U.S. viewers that the Athens Olympics opening ceremony featured lewd nudity has incensed the Games chief, who warned American regulators to back off from policing ancient Greek culture...

"Complaints focused on a parade of actors portraying naked statues. Among them were the Satyr and the nude Kouros male statues, both emblems of ancient Greece's golden age ...

"'As Americans surely are aware, there is great hostility in the world today to cultural domination in which a single value system created elsewhere diminishes and degrades local cultures', she [Gianna Angelopoulos] said in her commentary.

"'In this context, it is astonishingly unwise for an agency of the U.S. government to engage in an investigation that could label a presentation of the Greek origins of civilisation as unfit for television viewing'."

Full text

I smell wrong!

I always knew I had been unfairly attacked on the Isle of Skye by the midges. Nobody else in the party had to deal with the horrors that I had on my scalp and arms. Skye is beautiful but facing the midges takes a brave soul. Now I know why I was singled out by the vampires. The report below only mentions mosquitoes, but the scientist bloke I saw on the news definitely said "and other biting flies, such as midges". Of course there are major health implications in this news too, since mosquitoes spread malaria which causes approx 2 million deaths per year.

"LONDON — British researchers have found chemicals produced by the human body that repel mosquitoes, which could lead to a natural, odorless bug spray.

"Scientists have long known that some people are more tempting targets for mosquitoes than others ...

"The researchers found certain chemicals were more common in people who were less attractive to the mosquitoes. When they sprayed those chemicals on people who normally did attract mosquitoes, the insects were no longer interested."

Full text

Human Rights, Not Hollow Words

From Amnesty International: "An appeal to President George W. Bush on the occasion of his re-inauguration"

"Mr President,

"In your inaugural address four years ago, you promised to be a leader who would 'speak for greater justice'. Since then, a much repeated promise of your administration has been that the USA will adhere to fundamental principles of human dignity and the rule of law, including in the context of the 'war on terror' ...

"Of course, a government should not be assessed on its words alone, but also on its actions. For things may not be as officially described. As you yourself pointed out in your 26 June 2003 statement on torture, 'notorious human rights abusers ... have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors'.

"Your administration has as a matter of policy for more than three years denied international human rights monitors, including Amnesty International, access to detainees held by the USA in the 'war on terror', in addition to routinely denying detainees access to the courts, legal counsel and relatives. In addition, US personnel have staged deceptions in order to subvert basic human rights protections and the rule of law ...

"For Australian detainee Mamdouh Habib, the threat of transfer to Egypt became a reality. According to a motion filed in US federal court in November 2004, he was secretly transferred from Pakistan to Egypt with US agents involved and knowing that he would face torture. He spent six months in Egyptian custody where he was allegedly subjected to electric shocks, water torture, physical assaults, suspension from hooks, threats with dogs, and cruel prison conditions. He was subsequently transferred to Guantánamo in May 2002 and held without charge or trial there for more than two and a half years. A released detainee has alleged to Amnesty International that Mamdouh Habib was subjected to a regime of sleep deprivation in Guantánamo that left him with 'blood coming from both his nose and ears'."

[See Pip's remarks below about presumption of innocence. And all emphasis in above text is mine. - N]

Read the full text of the Amnesty letter [a blistering indictment of US policies + recommendations for change].

Now it's video blogging

News to me. Here's an example.

Love spells: Feast day of St Agnes of Rome
(Christmas rose, Helleborus niger flor albo, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint)

gnes was a girl who was martyred for her Christian faith in about 304 (traditionally January 21 of that year). She was martyred in Rome and was buried in the cemetery on the Via Nomentana, where a church was built in her honour, circa 350.

Love prognostications
John Keats in his poem Eve of St Agnes refers to certain love prognostications, but these are not for the eve (January 20), rather for tonight, the night of St Agnes. English antiquary John Aubrey wrote in Miscellanies of 1696 that on the night of St Agnes you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another. While saying a paternoster ('Our Father'), stick one of these pins in your sleeve, and you will dream of the person you will marry.

But kids, don’t try this at home if you’re already married ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

Habib's return delayed by US demand for shackles

What happened to the presumption of innocence in American law? Australian citizen Habib, unlucky enough to have been captured by the US, released without charge after more than 3 years in Gitmo hell, is still being treated like an animal by the Bush government:

"The repatriation of Mamdouh Habib from Guantanamo Bay to Australia is being delayed because of demands from the US that he be shackled on his flight home, and that his aircraft not fly through US airspace."

Source: SMH

Counter-Inaugural: J20 is here!

Keep up-to-date throughout the day:
by web: DC Indymedia
by radio: WPFW 89.3FM – Pacifica radio
by mobile phone: TXTMOB messaging

The convergence center is open from 6:00 AM to midnight today.

counter-inaugural 2005

Permaculture: Post-tsunami rehabilitation

"As the emergency response phase continues post-tsunami, it bears considering how coastal communities can reduce vulnerability for the future.
Ideas and strategies that have proven merit in coastal rehabilitation and protection need to be introduced early into any rehabilitation planning. Such initiatives are ideally seeded in the emergency response phase of disaster relief, otherwise the understandable impulse by both survivors and aid deliverers may be to replicate what previously existed before considering new appropriate patterns. The integrated approach also delivers the incalculable benefit of enabling an early sense of ownership by survivors in the rehabilitation process. "

Source: Permaculture Australia

Black Thursday

"The Idea Is Simple.
Just Like The President.

This January 20th:
- Call in sick to work
- Don't buy anything
...and write to your newspaper, your
senator and your representative 
to tell them why."

black-thursday.com



They're holding the president's ball!

Guestbook spammers

I have a guestbook (come and say g'day) and Tell J-9 has a guestbook. Tell J-9 is a webpage set up specifically to inform people like you and me about a relatively unknown, deadly form of breast cancer that is often misdiagnosed because it doesn't present with lumps.

So when guestbook spammers like sexybabes leave messages in books like Tell J-9's, my blood boils. Both books have had three in the past fortnight. Of course, the sites doing the spamming don't have any way of contacting them, as they're only there to show ads.

Imagine how you would feel if you were a woman wondering if she had terminal Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) and you clicked a link to a site showing naked women? One of the spammers was a blog which I tracked down as a member of Blogarama and was able to inform the administrators, but sometimes it feels like it's a losing battle against slimy spammers. How do these bastards sleep?

Tsunami toll "over 226,000"


"BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - The global death toll from the Asian tsunami has shot above 226,000 after Indonesia's Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of tens of thousands of people previously listed as missing."
Source: Yahoo! News

Is there a geek in the house?

The Blogmanac team is all pretty amateur with our RSS, and it doesn't seem to work any more (see button in sidebar). If you can advise, please leave a comment, thanks.

Food stamps instead of dole?

Australia: "A group of coalition MPs are reportedly preparing to push for the dole to be replaced by food stamps and utility credits at a Young Liberal and National Convention in Hobart on Sunday."
Source: The Age

I found it at What Rooly Happened, a fine Aussie blog, where Walter writes:

Here it is, gentle folk. After July 1 this year it'll be no holds barred in the tory sport of poor-bashing - it'll become L.A.W. Thanks, need I remind anyone, to the ALP and its perverted preferencing deals.

Ming the Comparatively Merciful

On this day in 1966 Australia's longest-serving prime minister, Sir Robert (‘Ming’) Menzies, resigned.

His nickname came both from the traditional pronunciation (‘Mingis’) of his Scottish surname and from a movie serials character, Ming the Merciless (pictured below). His other common nickname was ‘Pig Iron Bob’, because he arranged for the sale of Australian pig iron (smelted but fairly raw metal) to Japanese corporations, not long before WWII, something the left-wing unions never let him live down as Japan invaded Australia, with the loss of many lives.

No one on any side of politics would disagree that Menzies was a conservative through and through (even his demeanour appeared British-aristocratic), and the Liberal Party that he founded and headed for decades was and still is a misnamed conservative party. However, there was some true democratic liberalism in the Libs originally, long before the party’s swing to the extreme right under PM John Howard in the late-1990s.

Michael Pusey, a prominent progressive Sydney sociologist (and, I believe, the one who introduced the term ‘economic rationalism’ to Australian political discourse) is on record as having praised Pig Iron Bob for what were in their day progressive social policies. It might be that the groan you hear is not Little Johnny Howard delivering a heartless speech against the tinted people of Oz and the world, but Ming the Comparatively Merciful rolling in his grave.

Love Ming or hate him, all agree that his sharpness of mind and wit was remarkable. When an interjector once called from the floor of a meeting, “Menzies, what are ya gunna do about 'ousing?!”, Menzies immediately retorted dryly, “To begin with, I’ll put an aitch on it”. As a boy, I heard him launch an election campaign in the Hornsby (Sydney suburb) Town Hall. A woman from the audience heckled him: “Menzies, you’re a dirty little prawn!”

The corpulent patrician paused for half a moment then carefully replied, “Madam … I must object to that word … little”.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

Outposts of tyranny

Now that Condollleeezzzaa calls Iran an "outpost of tyranny", does that mean it's no longer on the axis?

I've always wondered why the Shrub named Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil". Why axis? The three countries have nothing to do with each other, unlike the Axis powers of WW II. Could his speechwriters be as historically challenged as he is?

Iran, although it has a horrible dictatorship, is an axis of nothing and an outpost of even less. And unlike the USA and half the countries of the world, it hasn't invaded another country in more than two centuries. Something Fearless Leader should ponder as he gears up for his own next invasion.

Blogger comes to our rescue!

Got the following email today and my faith in Blogger Support has been restored:

Hello,

We have increased the quota on your account so that you should no longer be running into the publishing limits on your blog. We apologize for the delay in getting this resolved and for any inconvenience that has been caused.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

Lawyers Cite Brain Damage as Execution Nears

"With California's first execution in three years scheduled for just after midnight on Wednesday, lawyers for the condemned killer are challenging the method and arguing that he is brain damaged ...

"In a separate legal battle, Mr. Beardslee's lawyers have asked the United States Supreme Court to declare his execution by lethal injection to be cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of his right to free speech. They argue one of the drugs he is to receive, a paralyzing agent, will make it impossible for him to cry out if in pain. Opponents of the death penalty, in a brief in Mr. Beardslee's case, say the drug also violates the First Amendment rights of witnesses to the execution by concealing any 'physical or verbal manifestations' of his pain."

Full text: New York Times

Amnesty: Take action against the death penalty

Bloodiest Year in Decade for News Media

"More news media staff were killed in 2004 than in any year at least since 1994, largely because of the extreme dangers involved in covering the Iraq conflict, according to records maintained by the International News Safety Institute.

"A total of 117 journalists and support staff such as drivers and translators were confirmed to have died gathering the news around the globe -- 42 of them in Iraq ... all but six of them Iraqis practising 'free' news gathering for the first time."

Source

URL for Seymour Hersch Iran article

Truthout got it posted nice and quickly:

The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon Can Now Do in Secret

Blogrrrrr

We are still having problems with Blogger, so activity is slow here, but please know that we're working on it. We can only go as fast as Blogger Support answers our emails, which is now weeks after we send them. But we'll try to post at least something each day until we're fixed. Thanks a lot.

US destruction at Babylon

"US led multinational forces in Iraq have ceased all earth moving projects at the archaeological site of Babylon in response to a Channel 4 News report.

"The statement comes after a broadcast on Friday’s Channel 4 News which showed that the US led forces had built a camp there, causing 'substantial damage' to one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures ...

"On Monday the British Museum will publish a report on what it says is irreparable damage to one of the seven wonders of the world. Channel 4 News international editor Lindsey Hilsum had exclusive access to the findings.

"Two and half thousand years ago King Nebuchadnezzar built the famous palace and hanging gardens, Saddam Hussein put his own palace there, now American and Polish forces have constructed a military camp in Babylon.

"According to John Curtis, author of the British Museum report: 'About 130,000 square metres of the surface of the site has been covered with gravel, in some cases compacted and sprayed with chemicals to stop dust'.

"The British Museum report say sand bags from outside contaminate the site, you can see how the pressure from heavy vehicles has pushed the gravel down so it’s irreparably mixed with ancient materials and ground yet to be excavated by archaeologists has been further contaminated by a leaky fuel depot.

"When American forces arrived in Babylon in April 2003, they saw the museum had been looted and said they wanted to protect the ancient site.

"Colonel James Coleman of the First Marine Expeditionary Force speaking in April 2003, said: 'We’re very interested in the historical perspective on the site and securing that for the future Iraqi people'... [Yeah, right. - N]

Full text here

Down the coast from here, a long way down (about 600 clicks), is Sydney's Manly Beach, said to be "Seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care". That was before miles were replaced with 'clicks'.

Like everywhere in Oz and in a lot of the world, the guys and gals like to surf in Manly, and at Sandy, and they owe it to the Big Kahuna.

On this day, January 15, 1915, the Big Kahuna (Duke Kahanamoku; 1890 - 1968), from Hawaii performed surfboard riding for the first time in Australia, at Freshwater Beach near Manly Beach. And on the same day, sixteen year-old Isabel Letham became Australia's first female board rider.

The birth of Aussie surfboard riding
Legendary surfer Duke Paoa Kahanamoku ("The Big Kahuna") was an Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion, in Australia for a competition swim at the Domain Baths. He toured Sydney's northern beaches and chose Freshwater Beach, near Manly, to show Sydneysiders the finer points of surfboard riding, a hitherto unknown sport in Australia.

The Duke made a board out of a piece of sugar pine provided by a surf club member. After some graceful acrobatics, he called for a volunteer from the crowd that had assembled on the sand, to join him in a display of tandem riding. Sixteen-year-old Isabel Letham rode with the Duke for three hours becoming the Australia's first female surfer, on the day the sport was first demonstrated in Australia.

Isabel Letham died on March 11, 1995. She left Australia for the US in 1918 to become a stunt woman in the movies, later teaching swimming and water ballet.
(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

Visit tropical Germany

Where to go if you're cold in Germany this month.

Cute little rhinoceros beetle who came to see me last night. More Sandy Beach critters and Nature in general at my new blog Sandy Beach Almanac http://sandybeachalmanac.blogspot.com

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

US has terminated search for WMD

[A story presented quietly, well after the presidential election. No shock and awe for this one.]

"Washington (Reuters): The U.S. force that scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction -- cited by President Bush as justification for war -- has abandoned its long and fruitless hunt, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

"The 1,700-strong Iraq Survey Group, responsible for the hunt, last month wrapped up physical searches for weapons of mass destruction, and it will now gather information to help U.S. forces in Iraq win a bloody guerrilla war, officials said."

Source

Gitmo Aussie release: torture, 3 years no charge

US to release Mamdouh Habib

"After being held for nearly three years [actually, more than 3 years, 3 months - PW] without charge in the United States prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Australian terrorist suspect, Mamdouh Habib, is about to walk free.

"The announcement by the Federal Government last night stunned lawyers for the two Australians held at the US detention facility in Cuba ...

"Mr Habib's release will leave David Hicks as the only Australian still detained at Guantanamo Bay, where he's facing a military trial ...

"But the release of Mamdouh Habib's given new hope to David Hicks's lawyer, Stephen Kenny.

"STEPHEN KENNY: That's fantastic news, unbelievable!

"IAN TOWNSEND: Mr Kenny says David Hicks should also be released immediately.

"STEPHEN KENNY: I think it's now untenable that David Hicks should continue to be detained in Guantanamo Bay.

"The Australian Government has consistently said he's committed no offence known to Australian law and no doubt that includes international war crimes that the Americans are purporting to try him under.

"And given that the British are likely to all be sent home without charge, I think it is now just untenable that he should continue to be detained in Guantanamo Bay."
Source

Now bring David Hicks home



Free at last! US shamed by torture tactics
"Mr Habib has been released not as a result of the Howard Government's intervention but because his imprisonment and torture have become an embarrassment to the US Administration. [..] The Free Hicks and Habib Campaign will continue until David Hicks is released and repatriated, and Guantanamo Bay is closed and all prisoners released."
Source: Indymedia

From Michael Moore: Some important news

Jan 7:
"Something historic happened Thursday. For the first time since 1877 a member of the House and a member of the Senate stood up together to object to a state's electoral college votes.

"This is the first step on a necessary road toward making sure that everyone is allowed to vote and that every vote is counted (something we did not see in 2000 or 2004) ..."
Source (thanx Star Light)

Jan 10

'Fahrenheit 9/11' People's Choice Best Movie of the Year
"Last night, at the People's Choice Awards, 'Fahrenheit 9/11' was named the Best Movie of the Year. It was a stunning moment for us. And, somewhere inside the Bush White House, someone there must have been stunned, too.

"21 million people voted in the People's Choice Awards. They chose our film over "Shrek 2," "Spiderman 2" and "The Incredibles." If we can beat that many superheroes, surely we can survive the next four years ...
"Thanks again, and now let's get on with the serious work at hand -- winning more awards! Hahahaha. Just kidding. We have an inauguration to attend, don't we?"
Source (thanx J-9)

Counter-Inaugural 2005 Be there or be square!

El Salvador-style 'death squads' to be used by US in Iraq

Information Clearing House:

"The Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.

"Under the so-called 'El Salvador option', Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders, even in Syria, where some are thought to shelter."

Continues here

Dear Mr. Gonzales

Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t:

"Dear Mr. Gonzales,

"You have been rewarded for your unflinching loyalty to George W. Bush with a nomination for Attorney General of the United States. As White House Counsel, you have walked in lockstep with the President. As Attorney General, you will be charged with representing all the people of the United States. Your performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday verified that you will continue to be a yes-man for Bush once you are confirmed.

"In the face of interrogation by members of the Committee, you waffled, equivocated, lied, feigned lack of memory, and even remained silent, in the face of the most probing questions. Your refusals to answer prompted Senator Patrick Leahy to say, 'Mr. Gonzales, I'd almost think that you'd served in the Senate, you've learned how to filibuster so well'.

"Even though the Department of Justice retracted the August 2002 torture memo, and replaced it with a new one on the eve of your confirmation hearing, you still refuse to denounce the old memo's narrow and illegal definition of torture. You permitted that definition to remain as government policy for 2 1/2 years, which enabled the torture of countless prisoners in U.S. custody.

"You continually evaded inquiries about your responsibility for drafting the now-repudiated memo by portraying yourself as a mere conduit for legal opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. This puzzled Senator Russ Feingold, who said, 'If you were my lawyer, I'd sure want to know your opinion about something like that'.

"Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told you, 'I think we've dramatically undermined the war effort by getting on the slippery slope in terms of playing cute with the law, because it's come back to bite us'. Indeed, 12 retired professional military leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces wrote to the Judiciary Committee, expressing 'deep concern' about your nomination because detention and interrogation operations which you appeared to have 'played a significant role in shaping' have 'undermined our intelligence gathering efforts, and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world'.

"When Senator Graham, an Air Force judge advocate, asked you if you agreed with a professional military lawyer's opinion that the August memo may have put our troops in jeopardy, you were tongue tied. You said nothing for several embarrassing seconds, until Senator Graham suggested you think it over and respond later.

"When Senator Richard Durbin asked 'Do you believe there are circumstances where other legal restrictions, like the War Crimes Act, would not apply to U.S. personnel?' you again sat mute for several seconds, and then asked to respond later.

"It is alarming, Mr. Gonzales, that a lawyer with your pedigree would be stumped into silence by these questions.

"You have taken the unprecedented step of advising the President that the Geneva Conventions have become 'obsolete'. You testified that since 'we are fighting a new type of enemy and a new type of war', you 'think it is appropriate to revisit whether or not Geneva should be revisited'. You admitted preliminary discussions are already underway.

"The 12 former military leaders wrote, 'Repeatedly in our past, the United States has confronted foes that, at the time they emerged, posed threats of a scope or nature unlike any we had previously faced. But we have been far more steadfast in the past in keeping faith with our national commitment to the rule of law'.

"Mr. Gonzales, you have concurred in, even commissioned, advice that led to the following:

Sodomy with a broomstick, chemical light, metal object

Severe beatings

Water boarding (simulated drowning)

Electric shock

Attaching electrodes to private parts

Forced masturbation

Pulling out fingernails

Pushing lit cigarettes into ears

Chaining hand and foot in fetal position without food or water

Forced standing on one leg in the sun

Feigned suffocation

Gagging with duct tape

Tormenting with loud music and strobe lights

Sleep deprivation

Hooding

Subjecting to freezing/sweltering temperatures

"Dietary manipulation"

Repeated, prolonged rectal exams

Hanging by arms from hooks

Permitting serious dog bites

Bending back fingers

Intense isolation for more than 3 months

Grabbing genitals

Severe burning

Stacking of naked prisoners in pyramids

Injecting with drugs

Leaving bullet in body of wounded prisoner

Taping naked prisoner to board

Shooting into containers with men inside

Keeping prisoners in small, outdoor cages

Pepper spraying in face

Forcing heads into toilets and flushing

Threatening live burial, drowning, electrocution, rape and death

Beating prisoners to death

Killing wounded prisoners

Throwing off bridge into river and drowning

Rape

Murder

"Saddam Hussein would be proud of you, Mr. Gonzales."

Continues here

[My emphasis and colouring above - N]

Who did USA warn about tsunami?

On the heels of my post of January 3, 'The generosity of the Bush government', in which I expressed the view that the USA administration must have known about the Indian Ocean tsunami right from the initial undersea earthquake event, comes this snippet from the end of Friday's fascinating Guardian article, 'US island base given warning':

"Professor Michel Chossudovsky of Ottawa University said the argument put forward by other experts that countries hit by the tsunami could not have been warned of the approaching waves because they had no sensors or special buoys in the Indian Ocean was a 'red herring'.

"Prof Chossudovsky, who helps run the centre for research on globalisation, added: 'We are not dealing with information based on ocean sensors. The emergency warning was transmitted in the immediate wake of the earthquake based on seismic data.' With modern communications, 'the information of an impending disaster could have been sent round the world in a matter of minutes, by email, by telephone, by fax, not to mention by satellite television', he said.

"He said the US military had advanced systems 'which enables [sic] it to monitor in a very precise way the movement of the seismic wave in real time'."
Source: The Guardian

[Thanks, J-9.]

Kaleidoscope

Almaniac kayla from California sent in this clever Flash-animated online kaleidoscope. The same artist gets weirder at a game called 'Christian'.

King of Karaoke

A cut-down version of an old article of mine, 'Kroakin' Rosie and the King of Karaoke' is published in the January '05 edition of Karaoke Scoop Ezine (requires free registration).

If you, too have ever been seriously humiliated by being forced by friends into singing in public, you might enjoy it. The full piece is found in the Articles Index at the Scriptorium.

Tsunami relief: Challenge to USA

OK, America, here's a challenge from your Aussie cousins. Australia has just pledged one billion dollars to tsunami relief in SE Asia, and more than $100 has been donated privately. Australia has one-seventeenth the population of the USA, whose government has, in response to foreign and domestic outrage, upped its offer to $450 million. Less than half the salary of the CEO of any US corporation such as Disney.

Now, even though US and Australian money will all end up being tied aid (ie, Western corporations will get the contracts, impose the rules, and superimpose inappropriate modes of agriculture and industry, etc), the money is urgently needed in the short term for people without food, water and shelter. So, how about it, Messrs Bush, Rumsfeld and Bowell? We'd all love to see the US match Australia with a pledge of $17 billion, which is the cost of two months illegal occupation of Iraq alone.

Now, Mr President, I know you're gonna say, "Hell, SE Asia is in the Aussies' region, not ours". Hey, that didn't seem to matter with Vietnam! Come on, Dubya, put your money where your mouth is ... you know, "The greatest country on earth" and all that jazz. People are people, even the tinted Mooslim ones.

"An earthquake that killed 31,000 people in the Iranian city of Bam exactly a year before the tsunamis brought $1.3 billion in promises of which only $22 million became reality."
Source: Annan wants tsunami aid pledges honoured

Toledo Blade on Tiger Force

Tiger Force was a commando unit of the United States Army, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), which fought in Vietnam, from May to November of 1967; as part of the Vietnam War.

The unit, consisting of 45 paratroopers, has since been accused of committing various warcrimes, including indiscriminate attack, mutilation, and torture. Some reports by former members of this unit state that the soldiers wore necklaces composed of human ears.

The Toledo Blade newspaper broke the story on Tiger Force: Read their online report.

Since the Blade story, the Army has re-opened the investigation, but has not been forthcoming with any additional information. The most recent status update was received by The Toledo Blade reporters on May 11, 2004, when Lt. Col. Pamela Hart stated she had been too busy responding to prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers in Iraq to check on the status of the Tiger Force case.

More at Veterans for Peace

Source: Wikipedia

Sandy Beach Almanac

I'm pleased to announce a sister blog to the Blogmanac. The Sandy Beach Almanac (http://sandybeachalmanac.blogspot.com/) is where I am logging daily observations of Nature and life from my cabin on Sandy Beach, on the South Pacific coast of Australia. Here are two snippets:

1) Yellow Mondays, blazing blue Sunday
... The cicadas make themselves known on these hot days, as well, and they're quite loud from the casuarina trees immediately behind the sand. Australia has about 220 of the 2,000-plus species of the world's large Cicadidae family.

Over generations, Australian children have bestowed names on some of the species. The most common and thus best known is the Green Grocer (Cyclochila australasiae). The Floury Baker (Abricta curvicosta) and the Black Prince (Psaltoda plaga) are less common – the latter especially so and their scarcity might help explain the dubious folklore of children that you can sell them to pharmacists for a tidy sum, and their wings will be ground up and used in important medicines. It might be that during the Gold Rush days of the 1850s, Chinese herbalists really did grind up Black Prince wings for their elixirs ...

2) One thousand, two hundred and eighty-five
... one of my paces is almost precisely four of my hand spans. As Nature would have it, my hand span is near as dammit to 25 centimetres, providing a handy metric rule. So my step is one metre and Sandy Beach I reckon to be 1.285 kilometres in length, at least around the arc of the delicious waterline that lapped around my ankles ...

Of course, I might have lost count and messed up the calculation. There were at least four moments along my surveying route that interrupted my concentration.

First of these was a remarkably proportioned, young, bikini-clad woman leading two small black dogs on a leash at some distance from me. I won't pretend it was the dogs that distracted me, although I don't like to see dogs on the beach, and it is against council regulations. I did find her easier to forgive than some others I've seen. I might have lost count then and as I pondered the grim reality that if she were 19, as I guessed, she was closer in age to my granddaughter than my daughter, and that God is quite uncaring in the apportionment of libido and age ...

As with the Blogmanac, there is a subscription box at Sandy Beach Almanac so interested readers can follow the cycles of the seasons with me as they turn. I look forward to seeing you there.

The sickness of the Bush Government

Outrageous proposals, coming from the administration of 4% of the world's population, a government that happens to have the military and financial clout to make such things happen. Illegal, disgraceful, and hypocritical in the extreme for a gang that preaches "democracy" and "our way of life" to other countries and cultures. I can only hope that the judiciary in the US, not to mention the peoples of the world, will not tolerate the ideas quoted below.

Long-Term Plan Sought For Terror Suspects

Washington Post, January 2:

"Administration officials are preparing long-range plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists whom they do not want to set free or turn over to courts in the United States or other countries, according to intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials.

"The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions, including for hundreds of people now in military and CIA custody whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts. The outcome of the review, which also involves the State Department, would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations." [My emphasis - N]

Continues here

PS A quote from Information Clearing House the other day: "A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -- Anon

The generosity of the Bush government

A little over a week ago I heard a fast-breaking radio bulletin: "There has been an 8.5 Richter earthquake just off the west coast of Aceh and it is believed 150 people have been killed by the resulting tsunami".

"More like 150,000," I muttered. (When you live alone for long enough you start to mutter to yourself.) Now, I'm just a shmendrick and I live in the boondocks of Australia and I have a little bedside clock radio someone gave me for Christmas. Not this Christmas, but one about 20 years ago. The clock doesn't work and neither do most of the buttons.

On the other hand, guys like Colin Powell, Dubya and the rest of the US cabal, who are certainly no shmendricks, have next to their beds an array of things called NASA, the CIA, the NOAA and, of course, our friends at Echelon. The cabal has satellites that can literally read any car licence plate and the headlines on a newspaper carried by anyone outdoors in any part of the world.

By the time this shmendrick in Sandy Beach took a wild guess about the enormity of the Indian Ocean crisis, these guys and their space age technology already had thousands of films and photos, a careful selection of which we have all now seen in the media. They had films and photos that showed the froth on the waves and the bodies and probably the terrified looks on their faces.

Some days later, the US administration, via Mr Powell (the 'dove' in the White House who oversaw the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in the first Gulf Invasion) announced the generous ofer of $15 million in tsunami relief. About half the price of a luxury yacht.

Under pressure of an international torrent of outrage, and a NY Times editorial entitled 'Are We Stingy? Yes.', Powell hastily increased it to $35 million, about half the cost of Dubya's inauguration party. It might be seen as generous, as the US government still needs to spend $8.3 billion per month ($270 million a day) in Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein, who is a very bad man and has Weapons of Mass Destruction as their satellites showed. And couldn't be captured any cheaper.

What a windfall the Asia crisis is for Amerika! Across 11 countries in South and South-East Asia, the US and its corporations now have with a stroke of a miserly pen what they couldn't win after years of Vietnam and the deaths of 2 million Vietnamese. They can just stroll into Sumatra, Sri Lanka or any damn place they please, and put their own price tags on the merchandise. "Hmm, nice beach. How much do you want for that? And that rainforest over there ... is that real teak? Would you take $50 an acre? Say, what about a nice little resort over on that island. We could put in a McDonald's next to a Levi's sweatshop."

Santa must have decided that the rest of the world got it completely wrong: the US was nice, not naughty in 2004.

The Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004

A fascinating read from truthout.org

Not the turtle bloke ... again!!

Email to Radio National (Australia)

December 18, 2004

Last night I was listening Radio National and that guy came on, the Native American man with the story about "it's turtle all the way down". I groaned. I had heard it three, four, or was it five times before. I had groaned upon hearing it for the third time, too. One repeat does not a groan make.

For a couple of years I have wondered why RN does so many repeats (and I know that over summer it will be worse). The number of programs, many of them fully an hour long, that I hear three or four times in a 48-hour period is really ridiculous. Over a longer period, say two months, I can hear the same program even more often.

Now, at 6:05PM Saturday, the news finishes and there's the damn turtle bloke again!! I swear I must have heard this long program six or seven times. I verbalise with him in unison as I cross the room to turn down the sound. Yes, I know I can turn RN off altogether, but there isn't much choice in the bush.

And I know that the government underfunds the ABC. I'm on your side and I'm a fan. But each time I hear the same story come on for the umpteenth time I ask myself "Why, O why can't the ABC pull something else out of the archives?"

Surely your listeners deserve a bit more respect even if you are broke. Why not play an old Goons Show or some old documentary? I can't be the only one that would rather hear a ten-year-old interview with Barry Humphries, or an antique doco on linguistics or housepainting, than the bloody turtle bloke for the seventh time. Why do we have to hear a wonderful (and I do mean wonderful, at first) LNL three or four times in two days when Mr Adams must have about a million in the can? Surely it can't cost more to play an archived one. Can it? Maybe you'd have to pay for someone to pull it off the shelf but how much could that be?

I have been meaning to write this letter since the fourth or fifth turtle bloke special, but this time it really got to me. I don't like him much anyway, so that's why I suppose. he sounds irate, like someone who's heard the same RN program three times on the same day.

My experience has been when writing letters to the ABC (often at the request of the presenters), that of about 20 or more emails, whether congratulatory, critical, asking for or offering information, only one has ever been replied to. So I don't expect a reply but if my comments could be forwarded to the Turtle Bloke And Other Endless Repeats Coordinator I would be most grateful. ;)

Sincerely, a devoted RN listener,

Pip Wilson



From: RN Enquiries To: Pip Wilson Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 2:34 PM Subject: Re: Not the turtle bloke again!!


Dear Pip,

Thanks for your email, and commiserations for having 'that turtle bloke' inflicted on you over and over! He is Thomas King, a Native American storyteller & academic, and his 5-part series of talks (aka the Massey Lectures, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has been featured this year on the Awaye! program. It is also currently being re-broadcast for Awaye!'s summer programs, as a result of it receiving such a wonderful response earlier in the year.

Each episode of Awaye! is originally broadcast on Fridays at 1pm, then repeated on Saturdays at both 2am and 6pm. We have found that, in general, listeners are very pleased to have the opportunity to listen to repeat airings of programs that they either can't listen to originally, or don't know are on, or ... just like to listen again anyway!. I'm sorry you keep striking the turtle bloke, though!

Regards, Kate Leavey RN Listener Enquiries


December 31

Thanks, Kate,

I had to laugh. Within 24 hours of my email to you, the same turtle episode was played again!! I didn't think that the ABC could top 6, 7 or was it 8 broadcasts of the same lecture in just a few weeks.

I'm thinking of setting it to music for performance as I have the lyric down pat.

Let's hear some programs from the ABC megavault, please! Radio National has, let's face it, become like barbershop mirrors, a few programs repeated ad infinitum, while sitting on a goldmine of unplayed material.

Having said that, I could listen to Mark Steele more than twice each lecture let's say 5 or 6 times max, OK? What a great find he is.

Happy New Year to you, all the team (especially the Lateline team of whom I am not worthy), and to the Turtle Bloke embedded in our brains.

Pip



Dear Kate,

Six PM, January 1, and for the third time even since your reply, this same turtle story by Thomas King is playing AGAIN. This is about the ninth time that I know of that this has been played in a matter of a few weeks. I can only wonder when RN will decide we've had enough.

Pip