Poor Nations Can Purchase Cheap Drugs Under Accord (NY Times) covers a recent accord passed by the WTO allowing poorer nations, particularly African ones, to purchase generic versions of needed drugs from non-approved vendors.

“Under the accord, poor countries will be able to import generic versions of expensive patented medicines, buying them from countries like India and Brazil without running afoul of trade laws protecting patent rights.”

You may recall a similar accord being tabled last year, but... [More]

Grand Theft Auto in the dock… (The Register) brings violent video games back to the fore in US news, since:

“…two teenagers − William and Joshua Buckner, 16 and 14 years old respectively − opened fire on vehicles on the Interstate 40 highway in Tennessee with a .22 calibre rifle, killing one person and injuring another severely.”

When caught, the clever little imps had a reason all ready: “…they were bored, and decided to mimick their favourite videogame − Grand Theft Auto”. Note their ages; they are more... [More]

That’s how Bush describes himself. That’s how his administration thinks of itself. They see it as justification for pretty much any action, as absolving them of any blame, as an excuse not to answer hard questions and as a reason to ignore all unbelievers who do not think the way they do.

We are at war. With us or against us. Shut up and sit down.

The attitude showed up in spades in Rice’s testimony this week, it’s apparent in every word Rumsfeld says and the President exhudes it while still... [More]

I just saw a piece of his daily press conference on CNN and, at first, he’s funny. He’s not funny in the way he thinks he’s funny, but funny in that he talks exactly like the people who make fun of him make him sound. The February 2nd, 2004 Doonesbury (pictured left) put the question of weapons of mass destruction into the Rumsfeld grinder and got:

An oft-quoted myth by a properly-trained American is that the US is too ‘good’ to other countries; we give too much aid/money/support/food/personnel to other countries in need, purely out of the goodness of our hearts. Report on U.S. foreign aid statistics (Kuro5hin) covers the actual amounts given by the US and compares it in absolute and relative (to total GDP) terms to other nations. It’s the ‘relative-to-GDP’ number that’s the most damning — the US ranks lowest of the 22 countries listed, which... [More]

Fast-Food Chains Get a Break Today (Washington Post) notes that

“[t]he Republican-controlled House on Wednesday voted to ban supersize lawsuits that blame the food industry for expanding waistlines and health problems, saying such cases could bankrupt fast-food chains and restaurants.”

I’m sorry, what? I can understand a dislike for specious lawsuits and disengenous plaintiffs claiming they should get a lot of money for ignoring health warnings from not only their own groaning, wheezing, farting, sedentary, and... [More]

In Fajulla recently, four Americans were burned to death. Their bodies (which were by this time charred beyond recognition) were dragged through the street and hung from a local bridge to cheers and dancing from a crowd of townspeople. Gruesome images jolt Americans (Canoe) talks about how torn the media was in deciding whether to air the gruesome footage. “White House press secretary Scott McClellan called for “responsible” media coverage of the murders Wednesday of four security contractors”. What... [More]

The other presidential candidate has written Equality Index Catalogues Economic Gap by Ralph Nader (Common Dreams), covering the recent release of the National Urban League on The State of Black America 2004. This list provides “a statistical measurement of the disparities which exist between African American and whites in economics, housing, education, social justice and civic engagement.”

There are some pretty significant differences between blacks and whites in America today, where whites still make up 69% of the population... [More] (US census)

I got a link the other day, showing a recent talk show hosted by Dennis Miller. It was an interview with author Eric Alterman. Alterman’s written a pretty well-researched book called “What Liberal Media?”, in which he points out the rather obvious fact that the mainstream media is far from liberal. For all his trouble, he somehow got on the Dennis Miller show.

In the video, the guy on the left (Alterman) is presenting cogent arguments and facts. The guy on the right (Miller) is making fun of... [More]

In a fantasy world where people read and form their own opinions instead of accepting their thoughts from corporations intent on making them better consumers, Bush wouldn’t be hard to beat. In this fantasy world, Bush gets as many votes as Nader will in the real world and Nader is a legitimate threat. John Kerry is ignored because he had the gall to think people were dumb enough to simply vote for ABB (Anybody But Bush), regardless of his platform.

Instead our choice is restricted to exactly... [More]

Nader brings on the ice age

So Nader’s running and there’s been a flood of anger from the left, curiously enough. It seems there’s a lot more people than I thought that believe that a democracy can only be properly represented as a two-party system. The Lone Ranger Of Righteousness (AlterNet) explains some of the current administration’s misdeeds:

“…That doesn’t even count global warming, which … now brings the potential for melting polar ice caps to shutting down the Gulf Stream and plunging Europe... [More]”

You know George Bush and his cabal are damaging the country and must be stopped no matter what. You’ve heard, recently, that Ralph Nader is an egomaniacal loose cannon, bent on America’s destruction. Let me explain why I think John Kerry is also a danger.

There’s a groundswell of activism and political interest these days in the States, mostly driven by Bush’s extreme policies and positions on pretty much everything. People are pissed. People are getting involved. People are trying to make a... [More]

Kerry: He’s Peaking, Already (CounterPunch) goes to the heart of the problem with every “viable” Democratic candidate:

“Kerry agrees with Bush about the tax cuts. He agrees with him about the Patriot Act. He agrees with him on trade. He agrees with him on the war. … Kerry voted for the Patriot Act and he voted for the ‘03 attack on Iraq.”

He’s a veteran of the war Bush skipped out on … but he objected to it afterwards. The sad thing is that objecting to the crime that was Vietnam will hurt him more than... [More]

President Bush has been on television a few times in the last few weeks, first giving his State of the Union address, then in a more recent interview on ‘Meet the Press’.

After the State of the Union (2004 edition), it was apparent that Bush was honing his laser-like focus on a new batch of enemies for this election year: gays, teenage-sex and steroids. It used to be unions, the poor, terrorists, communists, but, having vanquished all forms of evil abroad, he’s ready to fight domestic... [More]

Coming up tomorrow night is a State of the Union address by the Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America. Considering some of the humdingers thrown around last year, the state of the country this year and the fact that it’s an election year, this year’s should be the best ever!

To get ready, you can go the serious route or the hell-in-a-handbasket route.

The serious route is a single sheet of paper, a State of the Union Scorecard (TomPaine.com), in which the major issues facing our nation our... [More]

Here’s a question I found about George Bush’s penchant for vacations (Ask Yahoo!):

“How many vacation days has George W. Bush taken to date as president? …”

A fair question for a present sitting on top of the worst economy since the Great Depression, fighting wars in two countries (Afghanistan and Iraq, for those with shorter memories) and performing radical surgery on many of America’s most important laws and institutions (forming the largest government agency to oversee the ‘Homeland’ being one of the... [More]

Moveon.org campaign videos

Move On.Org is sponsoring an ad contest that has just wrapped up the first phase. They got over 1500 entries for a contest called Bush in 30 seconds, which solicits ads describing Bush’s achievements over the last 3 years. (Yeah, it’s only been 3 years; feels longer, doesn’t it?)

Voting for the main event is over, but you can still vote for the funniest, best youth ad (“Al Keyda” should be in the ‘funniest’ list, but “Bring it on” is the winner here, I thought) and best... [More]

The Daily Show brings us another great, totally straight-faced interview by Rob Corddry called Red Menace*. In this one, Rob interviews a dude who is completely earnest about boycotting movies with “communist” and “unpatriotic” Hollywood stars. There must be a tear in the eye of every rabid, right-wing radio or TV idealogue right when they see this guy (which they won’t because it’s on the horribly unpatriotic Daily Show).

He’s from an organization called PABAAH, which is a really cool acronym... [More]

The article Guilty of Being a Palestinian in Iraq by Kathy Kelly (Counterpunch) documents the plight of two Palestinians in Iraqi internment camps run by the US in the flowering democracy of Iraq.

1. Is there corroboration for this?
2. Where would it come from? CNN? Not likely.
3. How spun is this against the US?
4. What percentage true is it?
5. Is it any wonder Germany got so far as it did in WWII?
6. Why do we always ask “how could the German people not know?”
7. Japanese internment camps
8. If these were Iraqi soldiers doing this to... [More]

Threat level orange. Merry Christmas

U.S. Raises Threat Level to Orange (Newsday) announces that all may not be “Mission Accomplisheder” with the capture of Saddam (as the White House put it).

“The government on Sunday raised the national threat level to orange, the second-highest, saying attacks were possible during the holidays and that threat indicators are “perhaps greater now than at any point” since Sept. 11, 2001.”

I’m sure all of America’s fear- and world-weary travellers really appreciate the... [More]

Myth and Denial in the War Against Terrorism by William Blum (ZNet) write about the real causes of terrorism instead of the blithe “And the more you love freedom, the more likely it is you’ll be attacked. … they hate our democracy, our freedom, our wealth, our secular government … [people who] reject basic human values and hate the United States and everything for which it stands … ” claptrap issued forth from our estimable administration. One can dispute how ‘secular’ the US government is, but one can’t argue... [More]

Common Dreams is reporting in Wolfowitz: Iraq War Was About Oil that “at an Asian security summit in Singapore”, Paul Wolfowitz said:

“Let’s look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil.”

This is the same guy who was also quoted earlier this week as saying that, in the recent Iraq war, “for reasons that have a lot to do with the US government bureaucracy, we settled on the one... [More]”

“What possible justification could we have for going to war with Syria? Oh, I’m just kidding—go right ahead, I don’t care.”

Bombs Away, And Poor Pay by Jimmy Breslin, found on ZNet got me thinking about ways of convincing people without morals that the Bush administration is out of control. It’s quite obvious that a good percentage of the US population is willing to plunk down their hard-earned tax dollars without considering moral issues,... [More]

Congress has finally found something to do; US lawmakers lose patience over spam on the Register reports that:

“US lawmakers finally appear to be losing their patience over spam, with unsolicited e-mail now costing American business billions of dollars every year.”

Isn’t it great that as long as spam was just annoying everyone in the country and hampering our collective ability to make use of the Internet, it was fine to leave legislation out of it and accept spam as an unfortunate side-effect?... [More]

I’m reading The Clash of Fundamentalisms, by Tariq Ali, which includes some great references. One of them is by USMC General Smedley Butler, who served for 33 years in the Marine Corps and received 2 congressional medals of honor. His first book was called War as a Racket, which appears to be reproduced in its entirety at LexRex and HackVan. In a speech in 1933, he explains his position (the text is obtained from Smedley Butler on Interventionism:

“War is just a racket. A racket is best... [More]”

That title is disengenuous. Anyone who’s ever really read comic books knows that comic books have much better dialogue and much better plot than the cheap version of history being served us by this pathetic brigade of fools in charge of the largest weapons store on Earth.

If you didn’t even feel a little bit stupid being American watching Bush strutting around on the deck of that aircraft carrier to “close out the war”, in a flight suit no less, then you obviously weren’t paying attention.
... [More]

I’ve got all of the Bill Hicks albums. I think it would have been really cool to hear what Mr. Hicks had to say about the last two years in America. I think the eeriest part is that you can get an extremely good idea by listening to the albums he record a dozen years ago. You see, he was extremely critical of the first Bush administration, and Republicans and Right-to-lifers and the war in Iraq. Listen to (or read, some are available here at BillHicks.com) his material and you’ll be absolutely... [More]

“More people (4 million) tune in to The Daily Show in a given week than watched Fox news at the height of the war (3.3 million).”

It seems the Daily Show has more fans than I thought. The article rightly points out that it’s Stewart and his brilliant delivery that holds the show together. The reason it appeals is that he doesn’t take sides against policies, he takes sides against stupidity; against illogic; against doublespeak.

“Stewart’s on-air persona is that... [More]”

I was going to write an all gloom-and-doom article (to which I’m sure you’ve grown accustomed), but it seems the war suddenly got a lot easier and it’s become the cake-walk that Rummy and Shrub have been saying it was/would be all along. As US troops steam into Baghdad, meeting “ meeting surprisingly light resistance” (NY Times), does anyone else get a bad feeling? Maybe I’ve seen too many movies, but when it goes from ‘laying siege to Baghdad’ to ‘surprisingly little resistance’, either there’s... [More]

William Bennett (former drug czar) has taken time out of his busy schedule to write an article for FOX News entitled Why We Must Fight − and Now!. He presses the same line that Saddam is a monster and should be removed. Right there with you, Bill. The war is justified because it will liberate the people of Iraq. Bill, the US is about 0-for-50 on ‘liberating’ people and estabilishing democracies. Why should it be different this time?

“ The people of Iraq will soon know what Afghanis know. The... [More]”