Howard Zinn on The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism Watch: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2006/nov/video/dnB20061124a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=
Howard Zinn is one of the United States most celebrated historians. His classic work "A People's History of the United States" changed the way we look at history in America. First published a quarter of a century ago, the book has sold over a million copies and is a phenomenon in the world of publishing - selling more copies each successive year.
After serving as a bombardier in World War II, Howard Zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and peace activist. He was active in the civil rights movement and many of the struggles for social justice over the past 40 years.
He taught at Spelman College, the historically black college for women, and was fired for insubordination for standing up for the students. He was recently invited back to give the commencement address.
Howard Zinn has written numerous books and is professor emeritus at Boston University. He recently spoke in Madison, Wisconsin where he was receiving the Haven Center's Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship. We bring you his lecture, "The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism."
http://www.democracynow.org/
Marines report insurgency has a foothold in Anbar Marines report insurgency has a foothold in Anbar
Details of August memo more bleak than first thought
Nov. 27, 2006, 11:49PM
By DAFNA LINZER and THOMAS E. RICKS
Washington Post
WASHINGTON . The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaida's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report that set off debate in recent months about the military's mission in Anbar province.
The Marines recently filed an updated version of that assessment that stood by its conclusions and stated that as of mid-November, the problems in troubled Anbar province have not improved, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday. "The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" remain the same, the official said.
The Marines' August memo, a copy of which was shared with The Washington Post, is far more bleak than some officials suggested when they described it in late summer. The report describes Iraq's Sunni minority as "embroiled in a daily fight for survival," fearful of "pogroms" by the Shiite majority and increasingly dependent on al-Qaida in Iraq as its only hope against growing Iranian dominance across the capital.
True or not, the memo says, "from the Sunni perspective, their greatest fears have been realized: Iran controls Baghdad, and Anbaris have been marginalized." Moreover, most Sunnis now believe it would be unwise to count on or help U.S. forces because they are seen as likely to leave the country before imposing stability.
Between al-Qaida's violence, Iran's influence and an expected U.S. drawdown, "the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point" that U.S. and Iraqi troops "are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar," the assessment found.
The Post first reported on the memo's existence in September, as it was being circulated among military and national security officials. Several officials who read the report described its conclusions as grim.
But the contents have not previously been made public. Read as a complete assessment, it paints a stark portrait of a failed province and of the country's Sunnis . once dominant under Saddam Hussein . now desperate, fearful and impoverished. They have been increasingly abandoned by religious and political leaders who have been assassinated or who have fled to neighboring countries. And unlike Iraq's Shiite majority, or Kurdish groups in the north, the Sunnis are without oil and other natural resources. The report notes that illicit oil trading is providing millions of dollars to al-Qaida while "official profits appear to feed Shiite cronyism in Baghdad."
As a result, "the potential for economic revival appears to be nonexistent" in Anbar, the report says. The Iraqi government, dominated by Iranian-backed Shiites, has not paid salaries for Anbar officials and Iraqi forces stationed there. Anbar's resources and its ability to impose order are depicted as limited at best.
"Despite the success of the December elections, nearly all government institutions from the village to provincial levels have disintegrated or have been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by al-Qaida in Iraq," or a smattering of other insurgent groups, the report says.
The five-page report . written by Col. Peter Devlin, a senior and seasoned military intelligence officer with the Marine Expeditionary Force . is marked secret, for dissemination to U.S. and allied troops in Iraq only. It does not appear to have been made available to Iraqi national forces fighting alongside Americans.
Devlin wrote that attacks on civilians rose 57 percent between February and August of this year. "The steady rise in attacks from mid-2003 to 2006 indicates a clear failure to defeat the insurgency in al-Anbar."
Mixmag responds to the mainstream idea that "rave is back" After the huge interest in the popular media that rave is back (even though it never went away) Mixmag have responded to point out that it never went away.
Mixmag are almost as bad as the mainstream media anyway but it's not such a bad article:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/25/185174/misc_docs/mixmag.pdf
same old conflicts still going on? Whilst everyone's attention is on Iraq and Islam....
a Russian spy was poisoned in London by radioactive chemicals in a scenario which wouldn't have been out of place in the Cold War.... (this sort of thing happened in the 1980s)
a terrorist rushed into the Northern Ireland Assembly and tried to blow the place up because he was angry that NI was finally moving towards peace by letting groups into the Parliament that he did not agree with....
It seemed more like 1986 than 2006....
Middle England nimbys at their very worst… This sort of thing shames Britain.
All these people had plenty of money and resources; yet were so bitter and negative than rather than share their resources they would go to Court..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1954565,00.html
t had a ball and feet, but was it football?
Maev Kennedy
Thursday November 23, 2006
The Guardian
There was certainly a football, and four feet attached to one pair of 46-year-old and one pair of five-year-old legs. But whether what happened next was "football" has taken two years of legal argument, gone all the way to the high court, and run up the price of a small stadium in costs.
The dispute began when a father and son had kickabouts in the back garden. Unfortunately the pitch was the large private gardens shared by the residents of Elgin Crescent, a sweep of millionaires' houses in Kensington, some of the most expensive real estate in London.
Article continues
Some might be charmed that Christopher Fleming-Brown, a high-flying banker, found time to play ball with his son, when many of his peers keep track of their offspring by emails from the nanny.
However, as Paula Lawton, a neighbour in the crescent, saw it, he was turning the garden into "a public recreation ground", in clear breach of the 1863 Town Gardens Protection Act.
Last year, West London magistrates court dismissed the private prosecution, after consulting the Oxford Dictionary and ruling that since football was defined as "any number of forms of team game involving kicking a ball", Mr Fleming-Brown and his son did not qualify as teams, and therefore were not playing football. The magistrates also ruled the game did not constitute acts that might damage trees, shrubs and flowers, barred in a separate bylaw.
Ms Lawton yesterday challenged their ruling in the high court, where the case was heard by two senior judges, with Ian Glen QC representing Mr Fleming-Brown. The banker said later he needed such high-powered representation because if convicted he might have been barred from visiting the US on business.
Lord Justice Waller, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy, said the magistrates had taken too narrow a definition. "By any common-sensical, natural interpretation, the respondent and his son were playing football or a similar game."
However they refused to order a re-trial, saying it would be "inappropriate" - particularly since the bylaws have now been amended to allow parent and child ball games - and that Mr Fleming-Brown's acquittal should stand.
Ms Lawton, although greatly relieved when the judges ruled she would not have to pay the "harrowing" costs, was outraged. "Citizens of this country will be absolutely appalled," she said.
Motorists to give fingerprints
Quote:
Drivers who get stopped by the police could have their fingerprints taken at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people's identities.
The full story here
Baah - another infringement on our civil liberties...
Drowning in red tape? I came across this article about a new book and thought the subject warranted a poll :groucho:
The article is here
I have to say I like the dutch goverment's solution :weee:
Sueing Culture in America! Cant help but notice how this didn't happen during the Borat series in the UK but America seems to have gone nuts.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-13552541,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/10/film.boratlawsuit.ap/index.html
and theres probably more to come.
Assassination Assassination of Lebanese minister..
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,31200-waghorn_211106_2100,00.html
I wonder what impact this will have on the current situation in Lebanon..:hopeless:
Man ordered to remove solar panels
this is just down the road from me. crazy!!
David Forster has been ordered by Broadland District Council to take down solar panels from the Grade II listed building in Cawston.
A council is forcing an environmentalist to remove the solar panels from his house just weeks after local government pledged to promote the development of eco-friendly buildings.
David Forster, from Oulton Broad, installed the solar cells on the roof of the water tower he was converting back in 2005.
And because they were not visible from the road and did not alter the structure of the distinctive 10-sided Grade II listed building in Cawston, near Aylsham, he did not inform the council.
But when the documentary charting his mission of transforming the disused tower into a family home aired on Channel 5, council members saw what he had done.
Mr Forster said: "It genuinely didn't occur to me that I would need permission for the solar panels.
"It makes no difference to the view, they can only be seen from the air.
"Even then I've had all this information from them about going green, and they've been running these campaigns about conserving energy, so why object to this?"
As soon as he received the letter from Broadland District Council he appealed the decision, which has now been rejected.
And when an inspector visited the site to assess the situation, he did so without Mr Forster's knowledge.
Mr Forster said: "I understand the council's position. They are trying to protect a building.
"But I'm not destroying or ruining it I'm trying to balance history with the future.
"I think it's important to try and do our own little bit to help, which is proving difficult if the council is going to stand in our way."
He has worked out that by removing the £5,000 solar panels he will now emit almost three-quarters of a tonne of carbon into the atmosphere a year.
Earlier this month, council leaders agreed to work on a joint plan to consider how they could promote energy management and mobility and the development of eco-friendly buildings after they came under fire for failing to act more quickly on the issue.
And North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who has solar panels himself, has previously accused councils of "an unacceptable level of complacency" when it comes to energy saving.
A council spokesman said: "Broadland District Council was, in this instance, following Government guidelines and has refused permission because of the adverse impact on the listed building.
"We actively encourage Broadland residents to think about their energy use, but planning permission may be required for such equipment and we would therefore advise anyone considering installing such technology to contact the council's planning service before committing themselves."
Mr Forster said: "When are they going to start doing something? When water is lapping around our feet?"
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/
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