"major media players, such as CNN and the BBC, rely too heavily on official occupation authority sources at the expense of Iraqi opinion.

So much so that the line between objective journalism and partiality is often blurred."

NO SHIT SHERLOCK

good girl!

"coalition reports: majority of eye-rak-i populous still alive!"

Break for News - Your Independent News Source I wish it was in Japan...

COUP D'ETAT: The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the CIA on June 3rd and 4th

Bush, Cheney Indictments in Blame Case Looming, by Michael C. Ruppert, additional reporting by Wayne Madsen from Washington, on FromTheWilderness.com

JUNE 8, - Why did DCI George Tenet suddenly resign on June 3rd, only to be followed a day later by James Pavitt, the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations (DDO)?

The real reasons, contrary to the saturation spin being put out by major news outlets, have nothing to do with Tenet's role as taking the fall for alleged 9/11 and Iraqi intelligence "failures" before the upcoming presidential election.

Both resignations, perhaps soon to be followed by resignations from Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, are about the imminent and extremely messy demise of George W. Bush and his Neocon administration in a coup d'etat being executed by the Central Intelligence Agency. The coup, in the planning for at least two years, has apparently become an urgent priority as a number of deepening crises threaten a global meltdown.

bizzare and interesting

Shell's Kitchen

Despite Prime Sinister Blair telling the G8 that climate change is one of the biggest issues. Britain, scared of the threat of fuel protests over the increasing cost of oil, has been putting pressure on OPEC to increase oil production. However, once again the true cost of oil measured in massive environmental degradation for those living near extraction sites, has once again been underlined by a new report from Friends of the Earth. The report on Shell, has chronicled how “substantial levels of crude oil” have been found in mangrove forests and lakes in Nigeria, oil spillages have occurred close to communities and contaminated their water pumps, and has never been cleaned up. “We saw pipes clearly corroded and spilling. They were all over the place,” said Brian Shaad, FoE’s parliamentary campaigner. “Communities repeatedly say their grievances are dealt with by security forces rather than the company itself”.

A leaked section of the report alleges that Shell failed to act on promises made by former chairman Philip Watts, to clean up the South African Petroleum Refinery, the largest crude oil plant in the country.

It claims Sapref, jointly owned by Shell and BP, dumps 19 tonnes of sulphur dioxide a day into the air, six times the amount emitted by modern refineries.

In 1995, 9 environmental activists campaigning against the environmental destruction of the Niger Delta by Shell Oil, were executed for their activities, Shell said the verdict was not its concern, and Watts later stated that he was “quite proud” of Shell’s activities in Nigeria (SchNEWS 49). This from a company whose greenwash adverts gush “our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people define who we are”. (says it all really).

Recently the United Nations has been trying to pass laws that would try to keep corporations in order (SchNEWS 453).Of course, these attempts to legislate against disregard for human life in the name of profits, have been opposed by business lobby groups such as the International Chamber of Commerce, backed by, surprise surprise, Shell.

Shell admits fuelling corruption

Oil giant Shell has admitted it inadvertently fed conflict, poverty and corruption through its oil activities in Nigeria. But a Shell spokesman said the group did not agree with independent experts that the unrest may force it to leave.

Nigeria contributes to about 10% of Shell's global production and is home to some of its most promising reserves. Shell says it has been difficult to operate with integrity in areas of conflict like Nigeria.

"Government and local communities must take the lead," said Emmanuel Etomi, Shell's community development manager in Nigeria. "As part of an industry inadvertently contributing to the problem we are prepared to help," he said.

Differing views

In 2003, Shell commissioned an independent report in order to help it better understand how its activities are affected by, and inadvertently contribute to, conflict. That report was written by "three internationally known conflict resolution experts" and its conclusions fed into Shell's newly published 2003 People and The Environment report on its Nigerian operations, written by Mr Etomi.

Shell has declined to publish the independent report.

Mr Etomi says their fieldwork highlighted how conflict makes it difficult for it to operate safely and with integrity and "how we sometimes feed conflict by the way we award contracts, gain access to land, and deal with community representatives". The three experts warned that Shell could eventually be forced to withdraw from the West African country if violence in the Niger Delta escalates, London-based Shell spokesman Simon Buerk acknowledged.

'Serious conflict'

"It does say that. That is the view of the report's authors. It is not a view that we agree with," Mr Buerk told BBC News Online. "But of course there is serious conflict in parts of the Delta and this has the potential to get worse if no action is taken," he said. Shell's view is that "government and local communities must take the lead in ending conflict but we are also determined to help," he added. Shell is supporting the creation of a working group made up of Nigerian and international experts, and representatives of local communities, to explore ways to stem the conflict.

In 2003, Shell contributed $54.5m to the government-backed Niger Delta Development Commission as well as $30m on its own community development programme. However Mr Etomi said the Commission had "made slow progress". Mr Buerk said Shell does not tolerate corruption, and has global rules in place making this clear to staff. Shell Nigeria has rolled out "13 big rules" to govern all community spending and tighten internal controls.

Shell relies on Nigerian oil and gas for about 10% of current production and about a third of the recent reserves downgrade was in Nigeria. Shell's image has been badly damaged in recent years and despite efforts it is still seen by many as a company that damages the environment and supports corrupt regimes.

Action

A class action suit is being prepared over coming months which will accuse the company of supporting military operations in the Niger Delta more than 10 years ago. It has been charged with being too slow in cleaning up oil spills by NGOs and other international campaigners. In a statement relating to that issue, Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Chris Finlayson said: "We recognise that our development activities in the past have been less than perfect."

Story from BBC NEWS 11/06/2004

Exposed: BP, its pipeline, and an environmental timebomb

By Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent, The Independent, 26 June 2004

The safety of a controversial oil pipeline being built by one of Britain's largest companies has been jeopardised by cost-cutting, incompetence and shoddy workmanship by contractors, whistleblowers have reported.

Former senior workers have revealed a catalogue of failures they say could lead to a major oil leak that would devastate one of the world's most environmentally sensitive areas. A dossier including their evidence, seen by The Independent, indicates BP's contractors and sub-contractors are cutting corners to get the job completed on time.

The whistleblowers, qualified professionals, say BP made a major mistake in handing control of the section of the 1,000-mile pipeline through Turkey to a government-owned company, Botas, on a fixed-price contract. The full line runs from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

more

christian sex morality - history of western impotence

legitimation of sex within christian construct seemingly near-impossible, even within marital institution where sex is permitted for reproductive purposes only and regarded as a "necessary evil".

as augustine says:

"What friend of wisdom and holy joys, who, being married, but knowing, as the apostle says, "how to possess his vessel in santification and honor, not in the disease of desire, as the Gentiles who know not God," would not prefer, if this were possible, to beget children without this lust, so that in this function of begetting offspring the members created for this purpose should not be stimulated by the heat of lust, but should be actuated by his volition, in the same way as his other members serve him for their respective ends?"

from city of god, book 14, CHAP. 16. "OF THE EVIL OF LUST, A WORD WHICH, THOUGH APPLICABLE TO MANY VICES, IS SPECIALLY APPROPRIATED TO SEXUAL UNCLEANNESS"

Aufheben: (past tense: hob auf; past participle: aufgehoben; noun: Aufhebung)

"There is no adequate English equivalent to the German word Aufheben. In German it can mean "to pick up", "to raise", "to keep", "to preserve", but also "to end", "to abolish", "to annul". Hegel exploited this duality of meaning to describe the dialectical process whereby a higher form of thought or being supersedes a lower form, while at the same time "preserving" its "moments of truth"."

Over/Spun This is a great blog, check it out. Some wonderful links, lots of television segments that are a mirror of many of our text pages regarding the current U.S. admin...

An urgent inquiry was launched in Cyprus last night after an undercover police operation exposed a group of up to 100 tourists, including Britons, taking part in what was described a mass orgy aboard a cruise ship off the island.

authoritarian identification

* "Australian schools must have a functioning flagpole if they are to qualify for extra educational funding, Prime Minister John Howard has said.

[...]

Mr Howard also said he "wouldn't mind" the national anthem being sung in schools, although that was not a requirement."


* lacanian analysis of nationalism

"Jacques Lacan's 'mirror stage,' wherein the construction of the ego is seen in terms of reflection in a mirror, would seem to be a valid theoretical model of the nationalist epistemology. Lacan posits an identification between the child and the reflection; the ego is seen as created out of the desire to completely identify with the reflection. To the inchoate child, the reflection is fixed, stable and coherent. Lacan sees the genesis of the ego as fictive, constantly attempting to identify with this image.
Lacan calls this process the mirror stage, and sees it as part of the Imaginary order of identification the image of a subject being captated by a reflection, which is both idealized and at the same time frozen is a paradigm for the identificatory processes of nationalism. The captation of the child by his reflection is an analogue of the captation of a people by their nationalist mirror-image. The dual nature of the scopic field between an ethnie and the projection of their identity is central to nationalism; that there is no third party in this scopic bijection is another cogent factor as the identification is mutually fulfilling, there is no room for anything or anyone else."

some new tech to appropriate

invisibility cloak: "a Japanese inventor unveiled a new invisibility cloak using a material made of thousands of tiny beads called "retro-reflectum."

teleportation machine: "Scientists have performed successful teleportation on atoms for the first time, the journal Nature reports."

"I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure me out," George Bush once said. "I'm just not into psychobabble."

"Justin Frank, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, argues that [George Bush's] inclination to see the world in black-and-white, good-versus-evil terms, and his tendency to repeat favourite words and phrases under pressure, are not simply politics as usual, but classic symptoms of untreated alcoholism."

radikal liberal: "es sind ja alle so nett"

und hier noch assistent am lehrstuhl für politische philosophie mit einer übersicht des liberalen selbstverständnisses.

"Ich liebe nicht alle, sondern jeden" - Madonna mit dem Kind, heidnische Heilige, die Schleswig-Holsteinische Venus, die große Amouröse, Dirne, Sirene, Vollweib, femme fatale, die tolle Gräfin, Skandalgräfin, Humoristin, die Dame von Welt, Königin der Bohème, Virtuosin des Lebens und der Geselligkeit, die Schwabinger Chronistin, die Inkarnation der erotischen Rebellion.

Vor allem die Art und Weise, wie sie - gerade als Frau - ihren recht abenteuerlichen und individuellen Lebensstil kultivierte, ist auch heute noch faszinierend. Sie war darin äußerst radikal und überzeugend souverän. Reventlow theoretisierte nicht so sehr über die "freie Liebe", sondern lebte sie. Als Frau war sie für die Bohèmiens das Idealbild einer "freien Frau". Sie verkörperte für viele widersprüchliche Eigenschaften wie Selbstbewußtsein und sexuelle Unbefangenheit, mütterliche Fürsorglichkeit und Selbständigkeit harmonisch in sich vereint.

Erich Mühsam bezeichnete sie als den "innerlich freiesten und natürlichsten Menschen, dem ich begegnet bin". Und an anderer Stelle bewundert er ihre "zur Genialität gesteigerte Fähigkeit..., Glück zu genießen".

Im folgenden will ich das Leben und Denken von Franziska zu Reventlow etwas ausführlicher darstellen, da sie eine der bedeutesten, schillernsten und komplexesten Frauengestalten um die Jahrhundertwende war und deshalb auch große Beachtung finden soll.

Interessant ist auch, daß sie als Jugendliche von den Werken des Philosophen Friedrich Nietzsche und des norwegischen Dramatikers Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) tief beeindruckt war. Gerade Ibsen ist mit seinen Dramen ein Meister in der Aufdeckung der bürgerlichen Lebenslügen, der ehelichen Doppelmoral und der Frauenrechte. Und auch von Nietzsches Philosophie war Reventlow begeistert, der bei ihr wie ein Erdbeben gewirkt habe. So wurde z.B. Nietzsches Immoralismus im Namen des Lebens bei Reventlow ein Immoralismus im Namen der "freien Liebe", was sie als tiefste Lebensbejahung begriff.

"Das Christentum hat statt deßen die Einehe und – die Prostituzion geschaffen. Leztere ist ein Beweis dafür, daß die Ehe eine mangelhafte Einrichtung ist. In einem Teil der Frauen sucht man von Jugend auf durch die christlich-moralische Erziehung das Geschlechtsempfinden abzutöten oder man verweist sie auf die Ehe mit der Behauptung, daß die Frau überhaupt monogam veranlagt sei. Gleichzeitig richtet man die Prostituzion ein, zwingt also den andern Teil der Frauen poligam zu sein, damit den Männern geholfen werde, für die wiederum die Ehe unausreichend ist. Der Geschlechtstrieb und seine Befriedigung überhaupt wird als ein notwendiges Uebel hingestelt, dem so oder so abgeholfen oder gesteuert werden müße. [..] So geht mir doch mit der Behauptung, die Frau sei monogam! - weil ihr sie dazu bringt, ja! Weil ihr sie Pflicht und Entsagung lehrt, wo ihr sie Freude und Verlangen lehren solltet. Weil ihr kein Schönheitsgefühl im Leibe habt. Was ist denn ästhetischer und im wahren Sinne moralischer: wenn ihr euere blühenden Mädchen zu abgestorbenen Gespenstern macht und euere Söhne in Bordell schickt, oder wenn ihr sie sich miteinander in der Schönheit ihres Lebens freuen laßt."

Genocide in Sudan DARFUR´S FRIENDS

(It is a NGO that fights for the peace and against the dictatorships)

HELP! HELP! HELP!

Give us your hand, our race is your human race

This is an open letter, directed to all the leaders of democratic governments, humanitarian organizations and all the good people of the human society.

We would like to remind that:

A PART FROM IRAQ AND PALESTINE THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLES SUFFERING, BUT SILENTLY, BECAUSE THEIR HANGMEN NEITHER PHOTOGRAPH THEIR VICTIMS NOR ALLOW ANY JOURNALIST TO ENTER THE ZONE, BECAUSE THEY ARE COMMITTING AN ETHNIC CLEANSING. The regime of the dictator Omar Al-Bashir uses religion to remain in power, it accuses its opponents of being enemies of Islam but in reality it is a hypocritical, racist and criminal regime which supports the Arab fascist militias ( their motto is the Arabic blood) that is trying to eliminate the indigenous Darfur tribes and arabize (make the area be of people of arab descent only) all the zones of the region, I mean arabization and not islamization, because all the Darfur indigenous tribes are Moslems.

The African tribes ZAGAWA, FUR, MASSALIT... of Darfur (Sudan) have already buried more than 30.000 dead (the majority of them were children, women and disabled) (1), more than 600.000 are exiled in the Neighboring countries (2) and more than 2.000.000 of them made homeless(3), because the arab militia "Janjaweed" which gets support from the racist dictator, Omar Al-Bashir, regime has burnt 60 % of their villages (according to the UNO) (4). In addition, the army constantly bombards their huts and together with the Arab militia attack the unarmed civilian population, kidnap and rape women and children. Do you need more reasons to support them, listen to their weeping and feel their grieves?

What could be done before it is too late?

The Darfur´s Friends Association does not believe in military intervention to solve Darfur's problem, since it harms, even more, those who live in extreme misery and would also harms the rest of the innocent Sudanese. Nevertheless, we propose the following:

1. More international humanitarian agencies are needed in Darfur because the civil population displeased inside and the refugees outside the country need to be helped swiftly, since many people are dying of hanger and diseases, moreover the rainy season has arrived. Due to the bad road conditions in the Country and in the Darfur region in particular, and sometimes without any roads at all, it is and will be very difficult to communicate with the displaced peoples.

The racist and dictatorial regime of Omar Al-Bashir not only doesn’t do anything to help the displaced and the refugees of Darfur, but rather puts obstacles to prevent the humanitarian organizations from entering the zone (5). Therefore, this shows the negligence and the indifference of the dictator and its government with regard to Darfur. This is nothing but a confirmation of the reality we have been trying to make known to the world, namely, that the government of Sudan is directly responsible of all the continual atrocities being committed against the people of Darfur.

While the whole world media support the people of Darfur, the television of the regime of the dictator Omar Al-Bashir which can be tuned in here is dedicated to praising the dictator and launches false images on the Sudanese reality and waste time in recitals of Arabic poems, singing and dancing and fills the rest of time with Egyptian movies and other celebrations; meanwhile one of the major catastrophes on earth and the major current genocide in the world are precisely taking place in this country (in Darfur).

Nevertheless, the dictator focuses the attention on the richest Sudanese people and reproduces "thousand and one night tales " in the public television to entertain those who have TV, dish, cars...(people of the northern Sudan), isn’t this attitude of the dictatorial regime of Sudan hypocritically obscene? Besides, they constantly say "brothers" to the south because this is only happening after the signature of the "peace" agreement between the dictator and Dr. John Garang, the leader of the southern guerrilla (SPLM/A).

2. Darfur should be declared exclusion zone for the aviation of Omar Al-Bashir’s regime (as it was in the Iraqi Kurdistan zone) in order to protect the civilians and prevent further genocide against the people.

3. The UN and the countries who export arms to Sudan should declare a weapons embargo against the regime but NOT a commercial embargo so as not to harm the Sudanese population like what happened in Irak and Libya for several years.

4. The accounts of the dictator Omar Al-Bashir and his collaborators abroad should be frozen and investigated.

5. The dictator, Omar Al-Bashir and all his collaborators (especially against the leaders of the Arabic militia, "Janjaweed") should be arrested and brought to justice at the International Court for Human Rights for crimes against humanity for the atrocities they have committed and are committing, the ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

6. A peace conference where no Sudanese region is excluded should be Summoned, since Sudan is not just divided into north and south, but into south, west, east, center and north. The current peace agreements between the dictator regime of Omar Al-Bashir and the principal guerrilla of the south of Sudan (the SPLM/A) suspend the war like activities in the south but do not guarantee a lasting peace for the whole country. This is because the west (Darfur) is still in flames and in the East the embers of the war are still alive under the ashes. All the disadvantaged regions of Sudan claim justice, not only the south, so there must be equality in the treatment, in the political participation in the central government and in the distribution of the income and resources of the country for all the regions, otherwise there will always be some rebellious group in some disadvantaged zone raising the flag of justice.

(1) In May 1991, members of the Zagawa people of Darfur submitted a memorandum to Omer Bashir, head of state, on the massacres that the Zagawa suffered in the areas of Khazan Jadid, Argod, Mawarit and Um Katok.
(2) CBS Washington, April 29, 2004.
(3) High Commissioner Ruud Lubber says 600.000 refugees are in exile (VOA, May 20, 2004).
(4) UN News Service (New York), May 17, 2004.
(5) AL-FASHIR, NORTHERN DARFUR, 19 Apr 2004 (IRIN)
(6) US Dept of state ,April 28, 2004.
(7) CNN, May 13, 2004.
(8) AFP, May 9, 2004.
(9) In May 1991, members of the Zagawa people of Darfur submitted a memorandum to Omer Bashir, head of state, on the massacres that the Zagawa suffered

Bushara Ahmed Gumaa will be speaking at the Forum in Barcelona on the 25th of June at 5:00 pm

He is the President of Darfur´s Friends Association (DFA)
E-mail: darfurs_friends@yahoo.es
Phone : 34-619197385, 34-914681983
C / Arboleda, 14, oficina 141, 28031 Madrid, Spain

Madrid, June 10, 2004

Ewiges Diesseits

Löscht die Lichter aus auf den Altären!
Nicht in Kirchen und in Synagogen
sucht den Gott, noch hinter Himmelsschleiern.
Wo der Perlschaum quirlt auf Meereswogen,
wo der Wind kämmt über blonden Ähren
und im Bergschnee mögt ihr Andacht feiern.

Besser noch: am eignen Feuerherde,
in der Einung mit dem nackten Weibe
laßt euch heilige Weihe überkommen.
Wenn die Seele eins wird mit dem Leibe
und die Stunde zeitlos auf der Erde,
dann erzeugt ihr Gott in euch, ihr Frommen!

Alles keimt zugleich und blüht und schwindet.
Wenn ihr Wein trinkt, sollt ihr schon die Reben
für die neue Ernte reifen wissen.
Diesseits, irdisch ist das ewige Leben!
Was den Menschen an die Menschheit bindet,
wird von keinem Tode je zerrissen.

MÜHSAM

"wear dat goddamn ski mask mike!"

'Thousands detained at secret US lockups'

"The United States is holding thousands of suspects at more than two dozen detention centres, half of which operate in secret, says a leading American human rights group."

Ending Secret Detentions - full report

bean's stylish new poster

paul a weber- mj/mv have been exposed to hardcopy chez moi. now the blinding achievements of this true child of a tastier future available online for all- enjoy!





"Rückgrat Raus!" [spine removal]





"Blick auf Windsor" [inglan pov looking across to habitat of affluent few]





"Botanik 2000"


In 1928 Weber became a member of a political circle opposing Hitler and National Socialism, which was centred around Ernst Niekisch. Weber illustated books and periodicals for the Widerstands-Verlag (Resistance Press). The journals were banned and Weber was imprisoned by the Nazis from July to December 1937.

"spiritual pollution"

oh dear

The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet".

luckily man has plan:

In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.

[...]

According to a 3,000m (about 10,000ft) ice core from Antarctica revealing the Earth's climate history, carbon dioxide levels are the highest for at least 440,000 years.

homepage dot com of swiss imperialist operator.

ästhetische barbarei hier besonders ausgeprägt. mit adorno's negativer dialektik gesprochen, ist die identifikation mit feudalem symbolismus hier als ausdruck der negierenden allgemeinbestimmung des selbst zu verstehen, die natürlich in unaufhebbarer spannung zum nicht-identischen, der inneren triebstruktur steht.

(can't really express this in english, but the aesthetic barbarism is incredibly pronounced here. identification with feudal symbolism points to negating aspects of external representation via universals, in stark opposition to the particular internal drive. probably impotent, which means as much as "bad taste".)



as you can imagine, activity of knowledge production in education complex is reflected herein.

Wilsongate

Hey all. Another article I've written - not deep in analysis, but it should reveal a few facts about the scandals in Washington that haven't been popularly linked yet...

GUTEN MORGEN LIEBES SCHWÄNZCHEN

Wickel wacker nackedei
Machen wir doch gleich ein Tänzchen
Hin und her und rauf und rein
Kleines Schwänzchen, bist du müde?
Komm, ich geb' dir einen Kuß
Unser Tänzchen ist doch Freude
Ist kein leistungshartes Muß
Kleines Schwänzchen, sich' mein Kätzchen
Schnurrt und ruft so sehr nach dir
Meine Höhle friert alleine
Gib ihn her, von dir zu mir
Kleines Schwänzchen, ist das möglich
Du bist ja ein großer Schwanz
Voller Freude, voller Feuer,
tanzt er seinen Liebestanz
Langsam, langsam wilder Großer
Meine Rose geht entzwei
Meine vollen Lippenblätter
lieben zarte Tänzerei
Was! Du willst mich wie ein Cello geigen
Voller Kraft und Schwung
Ahh du Schwanz, mein Wundervoller
Ich bin wieder maienjung.

Helga Goetze, 1973

Ich frage mich, wie ich eine Kommune organisieren kann, wo die Leute eine solche Alternative wirklich leben können, ohne die Angst vor dem Alleinsein, und frei von den Neurosen, die die familiäre Lebensstruktur in uns züchtet.

Commercial porno films are made to exploit the misery of the deprived and the perverted at minimal cost, badly shot, worse played by the unhappy actors blackmailed by force or lack of money, dingy, murky, spotty, choppy films, sex without dialogue or soul or body. The effect of such films is a calculated turnoff, throwing the viewer back into himself, isolating us all from each other. Removal of restraints in Denmark produced glossier porn, better lit, better shot, but the flesh was still meaty, lit up all pink like a butcher's shop, and the plots were vestigial, the characters depersonalized. But at least the commercial porno films were aimed at a sexual response, however desolate and specific. The underground films were not even genital: either they celebrated sex in narcissistic and “artistic” ways or they offered a sort of commentary on decadent social mores. The hypocrisy of getting kicks out of the depiction of depraved sex while retaining the right to disapprove of it or satirize it was the worst turnoff of all.

Confrontation is political awareness. What we discovered at the Wet Dream Festival is that we will have to generate enough energy in ourselves to create a pornography which will eradicate the traditional porn by sheer erotic power... We must commission films, make films, write, act, cooperate for life's sake. The battle against sadism and impotence is more desperate than we ever believed. We must begin the struggle within ourselves, carry it into our relationships and beyond that into the political sphere. It is mere hypocrisy to suppose that we are more liberated than others, and sheer Puritanism to feel guilty that we are not...

Greer 1973

post-death "B-rate actor bozo-lookin' fuck" idolation v telling but nonetheless sickening!

antidotes:



Reagan's duty was to smile, to read from the teleprompter in a pleasant voice, tell a few jokes, and keep the audience properly bemused.

NC 1


As far back as Herodotus we can read how people who had struggled to gain their freedom "became once more subject to autocratic government" through the acts of able and ambitious leaders who "introduced for the first time the ceremonial of royalty," distancing the leader from the public while creating a legend that "he was a being of a different order from mere men" who must be shrouded in mystery, and leaving the secrets of government, which are not the affair of the vulgar, to those entitled to manage them.

NC 2


"In fact, in the United States people have drilled into their heads that they are all middle class. My daughter teaches in a state college, where people come from what we would call working class or less, many of them are just transients... people are underclass. But, the first day of class she always asks people "What class do you belong to?" and everybody says middle class and then she starts bringing out what their aspirations are. "What you go to college for?", "What is your father doing?" and so on. It turns out, you know, my father is a janitor, when he has a job and I'm hoping to be a nurse, but they're middle class. Everybody is middle class."

oldenburg nc interview

Lisbon police confirmed yesterday that England fans will not be arrested for puffing on joints on the streets of the Portuguese capital, following a recommendation from the Dutch authorities responsible for policing the English during Euro 2000.

Four years ago England's match in Eindhoven, ironically against Portugal, passed off peacefully as many supporters took advantage of the Netherlands' liberal drugs laws. By contrast the game against Germany in the Belgian town of Charleroi was marred by violence, much of it fuelled by alcohol.

[...]

"We won't be hiding behind doors waiting for someone to smoke a joint. We have to use common sense. If people are smoking but not kicking each other, not beating each other, and not making a problem, why on earth would an officer go and ask 'Is that cannabis?'

never gotten into a fight when stoned because it's fucking impossible. "Hey, buddy!" "Hey..." "hey.."

Let us look and see, then, how they manage their concerns -- they for whose cause we are to labor, devote ourselves, and grow enthusiastic.

CIA got 'legal guidance' for torture"

"The US Justice Department offered justification for the use of torture against al-Qaida detainees in an August 2002 memo to the White House, The Washington Post has reported."

"Blameless, shameless. The more desperate the eroticism, the more hopelessly women show off their heavy breasts, opening their mouths and screaming out, the greater the attraction. In contrast, a promise of light awaits at the limits of the mystical outlook. I find this unbearable and soon returned to insolence and erotic vomit - which doesn't respect anybody or anything. How sweet to enter filthy night and proudly wrap myself in it. The whore I went with was as uncomplicated as a child and she hardly talked. There was another one, who came crashing down from a tabletop - sweet, shy, heartbreakingly tender, as I watched her with drunken, unfeeling eyes."

His worst writings are a kind of wannabe [de] Sade, texts whose apparent inspiration lay less in their subject matter than in their subject matter's anticipated ability to shock and appall. On the other hand, his best writings are intellectual tours de force that are to philosophy what fisting is to a virgin anus. If Sade was a more original prose writer than philosopher, Bataille was the opposite: a radical thinker whose prose skills sometimes failed to present his ideas with that Cartesian clarity the French pride themselves on. While this was probably not deliberate on Bataille's part, it did evince a certain irony: if his project was to embrace the waste products of society, why write in a manner condoned by tradition?

"He [Bataille] emphazied the irrational in opposition to the rational, the erotic as opposed to bourgeois morality, celebration of excesses as opposed to capitalist restraint, transgression as opposed to conformity.”

guardian review of biography

Scraping the bottom of the Barrel

10 days ago in Saudi Arabia, the oil city of Khobar was attacked by 'Al-Qaida'. Fears that this is the start of a concerted campaign to disrupt oil supplies and damage the US economy had an immediate impact on the price of the barrel which reached a record high in the States.

The British chancellor, Gordon Brown says that it is crucial that OPEC act now to keep oil prices down and the world economy stable. Loyola de Palacio, EU Commissioner also called on OPEC to increase production, dubiously claiming that her thoughts are with poor countries that will suffer as a result of the high prices. While Western governments put pressure on OPEC to pump out more and more oil, OPEC point out that they are producing as much as they ever were and in some cases countries are producing well above their national quotas. The high prices, they say, are due to speculation on the futures markets in Europe. Big companies and countries buy up oil, anticipating further price rises due to the turbulent situation in the Middle East. The effect of this is to push prices through the roof. So to summarise the story, we invaded the Middle East causing massive destruction and resentment, the price of oil rose, but we still need more oil and buy loads in case the price goes up more, the price does go up a lot more due to the increasing demand and we blame the Middle East.

Meanwhile, fuel protestors are again threatening to take to the streets (or drive around in their cars shaking their fists) and again the issue of climate change hardly gets a mention. As climate change campaigning group Rising Tide point out the problem is not that we will run out of oil, it is that oil is causing massive climate change. As Friends of The Earth put it “Fears about rising oil prices demonstrate the need for a massive investment in energy efficiency and alternatives to oil, such as bio fuels. Burning oil is a major contributor to global climate change”.

*On June 16 a street party is organised against BP sponsoring the National Portrait Gallery in London. Meet 4 pm at St James Square in London. 07969 786770.
*15-21 June ‘An Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil’. 07969 786770.
London rising tide site

‘Can renewable energy systems give us what we need or do we face a serious energy shortage over the next fifty years?’ Saturday 19th June.11am-4pm. Canterbury Room 4, Lampeter University 01558 685353. Organised by Earth Cymru Network

*There’s a Cambridge Forum on Climate change on June 15th @ CB1 Cafe, 32 Mill Rd, Cambridge 8-10pm. Speakers include Dr David Vaughan of British Antarctic Survey who witnessed first-hand the break-up of the Larsen B ice shelf and Dr Johnathan Koehler, of the Applied Economics department who will talk about renewable energy. There will be time for questions and discussion - plus plenty of suggestions for practical and effective action.

*From 19th-21st November, the Centre for Alternative Technology will be running a brand new course “Make your own Bio-diesel”. The course will enable you to produce your own cheap bio-diesel, without the need for alterations to your engine. 01654 705957

Oil Be Rich

The World Bank’s commitment to “the vision of poverty reduction” has become even more of joke than it already is. A new report by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network shows that the World Bank investment in oil projects has done nothing to alleviate poverty and has actually pumped more money into Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers to the oil and gas industries.

Last December the Bank’s very own Extractative Industries Review recommended that its investment in oil projects be phased out by 2008. “82% of all oil projects the bank has invested in (since 1992) are primarily designed for the export of oil back to the USA, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.” And guess what, it’s Halliburton who heads the list of corporate beneficiaries!

The report found that Halliburton and friends (who including Shell, Chevron Texaco & BP) would lose out if the Bank stopped investing in oil: “The World Bank was unable to produce a single example where its support for oil had alleviated poverty”.

more on this

"Somewhere in central Los Angeles, about 20 miles from LAX airport, there is a nondescript building housing a detention facility for foreigners who have violated US immigration and customs laws. I was driven there around 11pm on May 3, my hands painfully handcuffed behind my back as I sat crammed in one of several small, locked cages inside a security van. I saw glimpses of night-time urban LA through the metal bars as we drove, and shadowy figures of armed security officers when we arrived, two of whom took me inside. The handcuffs came off just before I was locked in a cell behind a thick glass wall and a heavy door. No bed, no chair, only two steel benches about a foot wide. There was a toilet in full view of anyone passing by, and of the video camera watching my every move. No pillow or blanket. A permanent fluorescent light and a television in one corner of the ceiling. It stayed on all night, tuned into a shopping channel.

After 10 minutes in the hot, barely breathable air, I panicked. I don't suffer from claustrophobia, but this enclosure triggered it. There was no guard in sight and no way of calling for help. I banged on the door and the glass wall. A male security officer finally approached and gave the newly arrived detainee a disinterested look. Our shouting voices were barely audible through the thick door. "What do you want?" he yelled. I said I didn't feel well. He walked away. I forced myself to calm down. I forced myself to use that toilet. I figured out a way of sleeping on the bench, on my side, for five minutes at a time, until the pain became unbearable, then resting in a sitting position and sleeping for another five minutes. I told myself it was for only one night.

As it turned out, I was to spend 26 hours in detention. My crime: I had flown in earlier that day to research an innocuous freelance assignment for the Guardian, but did not have a journalist's visa."

The latest edition of the journal "zabalaza" ("struggle") is now available online

Zabalaza - A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism #5 May 2004

"From each according to ability, to each according to need!"
10 Years of`Freedom' and `Democracy'? ...Where?
Slavery can Change its form and its name - its basis remains the same. This basis is expressed by the words:

being a slave is being forced to work for other people - as being a master is to live on the labour of other people. In ancient times ... slaves were simply called slaves. In the Middle Ages, they took the name of "serfs", today they are called "wage-earners". - BAKUNIN

pope gets special yank award

Mr Bush looked on with respect but impassively as the Pope delivered his speech. He replied with the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US's highest civilian honour, for the Pope's defence of "the unique integrity of every life and all life" and his role in the toppling of totalitarian communism in eastern Europe.

But outside the atmosphere was less harmonious. Thousands of armed police patrolled Rome in anticipation of large numbers of protesters gathering from across Italy to demonstrate against the Iraq war and the Italian government's support for Mr Bush.

Mr Berlusconi said he was "worried about the possible violence" and the US embassy warned Americans to avoid the crowds massed for the protests.

reactionary oligarchy with supposedly secular yet strongly militant ideology paying respect where respect is due..

It is not money but quantity that counts. Happiest are those who have sex more than four times a week. They are about 6 per cent of the population. Unhappiest are the 22 per cent of people in the study of 16,000 Americans who didn't have sex at all in the previous year. hence, hence, hence!

Some years ago, while studying the ferment of near- revolutionary discontent that swept across industrial Britain in the 1840s - Marx and Engels were convinced that this was where the revolution would begin - I came across, in an official report, a suggestion from one government inspector that the dangerous, stroppy, newly urbanised working classes be taught cricket. A game with rules, played under a captain, taking place in a tightly defined space, channelling aggression. Sport as social control.

Jeff Luers is serving an unbelievable 22 years for setting fire to 3 SUV vehicles in a car yard in Eugene, USA, to make a statement about global warming. This sentence is unbelievably harsh, seeing as his co-defendant got three years - a more average time for eco-inspired arson. There will be a global day of action on June 12th in his support - to find out what’s going on your area to mark this day see free free now

Write to Jeff Luers, #13797671, OSP, 2605 State Street Salem, OR 97310 USA.

* The Earth Liberation Support prisoner list has more than doubled in recent months. To get names and address’s of prisoners you can write to see spirit of freedom

TERRORISM LEGISLATION

Between 11th September 2001 and 2nd April 2004, 548 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. Only 98 were eventually charged with offences under the act. Some were released without charge and some were arrested on separate non-terrorist charges. The majority of the terror charges relate to two specific elements of the act.

59 were arrested for “possessing an article in circumstances which give rise to a reasonable suspicion that his possession is for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.” A further 12 were arrested for “collecting or making a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Or for possessing a document or record containing information of that kind” Basically most of the people arrested under the terrorism act are arrested on quite shaky grounds… of ‘reasonable suspicion’, rather than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. Some of those arrested could have been plane-spotters like the ones arrested in Greece a few years ago.

As of April 2004, these arrests have led to a total of six convictions.

In the early 1990s, there was an average of about six people a year "excluded" from the country. But under the current Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, foreign nationals who cannot be deported can be detained indefinitely without charges being brought against them. At present there are 13 people held under these regulations, eight of whom have been detained without charge since December 2001. The most recent detention under these powers was in October 2003. This is a clear violation of human rights of almost Guantanamo like proportions.

KILROYGATE

The majority (if not all) of those arrested have been Muslims.

"There is clear evidence of disquiet in the Muslim community and a belief that they're being disproportionately targeted," says Barry Hugill from Liberty.

Sadiq Khan from Liberty called the use of anti-terror legislation a “handbook on how to alienate Muslim communities.” He asks; has the “Anti-terrorism” legislation led to a safer Britain? Based on the low number of people charged and the tiny number of people convicted the answer must be no. They have, undoubtedly, led to a further erosion of civil liberties and more fear and distrust of the authorities by Muslim communities. This fear and mistrust is a sad repetition of the oppression of Irish communities during the years of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts, and by the black communities during the operation of the ‘sus’ Laws.

Lawyers and groups representing the Islamic community have been receiving more and more complaints from people who have never been in trouble with the police before, but who report being stopped in the street or in their cars, or having their homes searched. Some have been pulled over for questioning at airports or ferry terminals, and all say they have been picked on for no apparent reason other than that they are Muslim.

Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said police activity directed against Muslims had risen sharply since September 11 2001. He pointed to Home Office figures which showed that in 2002-03 there were 32,100 searches overall under the Terrorism Act, 30,000 more than in 1999-2000. He claimed Muslims were the subject of a hugely disproportionate number of these.

Muslims from have come to view being stopped by the police as part of normal life. No real reasons are given, though anti-terrorist legislation is frequently cited. Often it is for wearing traditional clothes or if they have Muslim-style beards.

Leroy Logan of the Black Police Officers Association said: "What we are hearing gives us a worrying sense that section 44 [of the anti-terrorist legislation] is being used by police disproportionately."

The twisted anti terror strategy of 'disruption' is designed to unsettle terror cells working within immigrant communities in Britain by carrying out sweeps of arrests which are not necessarily designed to lead to charges. It’s a self fulfilling prophesy where you pick on Muslims until they get really pissed off and react aggressively, and then you can claim you were right all along.

Well, simultaneously, racist vigilante thugs have got the message from their superiors in government, and the number of race hate crimes received by prosecutors from the police jumped 12% to nearly 4,200 in 2003-2004, according to figures from the Crown Prosecution Service. 18 cases of religiously aggravated crimes were also prosecuted in England and Wales. Surprisingly enough, Islam was the "actual or perceived" religion of the victim in 10 out of the 18 cases.


Home office stats

Too many arrests too few charges

terrorism act statistics from statewatch

How to alienate Muslim communities, by the chairman of Liberty

UK criminal justice site

Rise in race hate against Muslims

Muslims – new victims of stop and search