Zapppppaaaatistaa

this is amazing... Zappa is sensational.

the only recipient that does not have to account for how the aid is spent

controversial: LRB The Israel Lobby John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt

NC comment: znet

schmistory book on the shelf.. always repeatin' itself

captured sandino flag (american marines in nicaragua, stealing bananas)

Augusto César Sandino (May 18, 1895 - February 21, 1934) was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion against the U.S. military presence in Nicaragua between 1927 and 1933. Labeled as a bandit by the U.S. government, his exploits made him a hero throughout much of Latin America, where he became a symbol of resistance to U.S. domination. Drawing the U.S. Marines into an undeclared guerilla war, he successfully evaded capture, eventually forcing the United States to withdraw its troops and securing significant concessions from the Nicraguan government. However, he was murdered by General Anastasio Somoza García, who went on to seize power in a coup d'etat two years later, establishing a family dynasty that would rule Nicaragua for almost fifty years. Sandino's legacy was claimed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which overthrew the (third) Somoza dictatorship in 1979.

Addressed to the American forces in Nicaragua: "Come on you pack of drug fiends, come on and murder us on our own land. I am waiting for you on my feet at the head of my patriotic soldiers, and I don't care how many of you there are. You should know that when this happens, the destruction of your mighty power will make the Capitol shake in Washington, and your blood will redden the white dome that crowns the famous White House where you plot your crimes."

~~meanwhile, in el salvador~~

1932 - Rebels, led by the communist party—Socorro Rojo—and Agustín Farabundo Martí, attacked government forces with support that was largely from Indians in the western part of El Salvador. Within three days, they had succeeded in taking control of several towns, disrupting supply lines to many of the country’s towns and villages, and attacking a military garrison. With their superior training and technology, the government troops needed only a few days to defeat the rebels. While the rebels killed less than 100 people, the military retaliated with great force, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 peasants, including Martí.

After three days, the army and militias move in and, in some villages, slaughter all males over age 12. Elsewhere, they summarily execute anyone suspected of having a link to the Communists.

1932 marks the point in Salvadoran history when indigenous people, who survived by abandoning their languages and customs for ladino (non-Indian) ways, largely ceased to exist as an easily identifiable ethnic group. The terror wrought by La Matanza was so pervasive that it effectively silenced political dissent in the country for nearly half a century, until the issues that underlay the event exploded into the civil war that ravaged El Salvador from the late 1970s until 1992.

bit later.. 1980s..

Archbishop Romero spoke out against U.S. military aid to the new government and wrote to President Jimmy Carter in February 1980 warning that increased military aid would "undoubtedly sharpen the injustice and the repression inflicted on the organized people, whose struggle has often been for their most basic human rights". Carter, concerned that El Salvador would become "another Nicaragua", ignored the plea.

While celebrating mass at a small chapel near his cathedral, Romero was shot to death after he gave a sermon in which he called for soldiers to disobey orders that violated basic human rights. He was shot while holding up the chalice for veneration. As he fell back, the chalice fell onto his chest, causing what Catholics consider to be the Blood of Christ to mix with his own. It is believed that his assassins were members of Salvadoran death squads, including two graduates of the U.S.-run School of the Americas. This view was supported in 1993 by an official UN report, which identified the man who ordered the killing as Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, who later founded the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), a political party which came to power in 1989 and still rules today.

on and on.. 1981..

Early the next morning, the soldiers reassembled the entire village in the square. They separated the men from the women and children and locked them in separate groups in the church, the convent, and various houses.

During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture, and execute the men in several locations. Around noon, they began taking the women in groups, separating them from their children and machine-gunning them. Finally, they killed the children. A group of children who had been locked in the church and its convent were shot through the windows. After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.

The soldiers remained in El Mozote that night. The next day, they went to the village of Los Toriles, 2 km away. Several of the inhabitants managed to escape. The others — men, women and children — were taken from their homes, lined up, and shot.

It has been calculated that the military junta received 1 billion US dollars from the US in military aid to "combat the insurgence".

The most corrupt country in the world....

Corruption in Bangladesh An Analytical and Sociological Study

Fast-track costs of business
We provide here a one-stop guide to the ‘right places’ to pay bribes if you’re setting up a factory, and of course the estimated amounts, assuming it is a medium-sized plant. These amounts were determined on the basis of interviews with entrepreneurs and rates will vary from venture to venture.

Guide to important palms to grease

87.62% of the household members who went to the police administration for submitting complaints during the previous year were victims of corruption. 79.83% of those against whom complaints were lodged with the police during the previous year fell prey to police corruption. 90.91% of those household members who went to the police to obtain a clearance certificate had to face corruption, as did 95.65% of those who were arrested on false charges by police. 75% of those household members who went to police administration for other assistance from the police were faced with corruption.

police and thieves

intelligence service spikes soldiers

"The Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, has paid thousands of pounds in compensation to servicemen who were fed LSD without their consent in clandestine mind-control experiments in the 1950s. MI6 has agreed an out-of-court settlement with the men, who said they were duped into taking part in the experiments and had waited years to learn the truth.

The men experienced vivid hallucinogenic trips when given the drugs. One recalled seeing distorted "Salvador Dali-style faces and cracks in people's faces". MI6 is also paying the cost of the men's lawsuit, which alleged assault."

"And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing … a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods."

large scotch anyone?

interesting article on usage of lsd for the terminall ill (huxley himself had 100mg on his death bed). all about anxiety and anticipation.

"The "Stoned Ape" theory of human evolution" - familiar from hicks, apparently originally by terence mckenna

better acid?

"How We Will Advance Freedom: Principled in Goals and Pragmatic in Means"

always good for a laugh - new security, love and peace strategy out from the US administration..

i just want to see the US in ruins.. if its the last thing i see

non dulce, non decorum

"American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Ishaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including five children, four women and two men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals."

"I couldn't see their faces very well, only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny."

US of A, export products: fatso tourists, shit cars, and alledgedly human rights

Inside, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into one of their own, dubbing it the Black Room.

not every local entirely impressed with policies

Private Blood, Private Funding

"All faith schools in Britain are warmed by human blood being pumped through their central-heating system. The blood is taken from patients booked into foundation hospitals. The only two people who know about this are Tony Blair and Patricia Hewitt, who are actually brother and sister but don't know it, having been separated at birth from their mother, the last of the Mohicans. They were both bathed in privately funded blood when they were born and are rumoured to drink the blood of state-sector employees whenever they can.

They deny this, but it's discovered that all the routes of proposed toll motorways across Britain when seen from above form a Masonic symbol which means 'Drinking the Blood of the Poor and the Sick is Great'. Blair says this is just coincidence, but the journalist who raises the question mysteriously disappears."

"edging towards"

"Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary."

as former justice louis brandeis warned two generations before this was the logical consequence of US society - "We can have a democratic society or we can have great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both."

Rice labelled war criminal at australian uni speech

Bla bla, peace, love, schmemocracy..

This alliance of people then stems not only from our individualism, our close ties, but from the fact that we all have a strong sense of community as well, a spirit that grows and is nurtured in our neighborhoods, and in our sports clubs, and in our churches, and in our schools and indeed in our universities. It's that kind of community that brings us together in times of challenge.

And it is the enduring ideal of our community -- that is, freedom and equality, democracy and opportunity --

ATTENDEE: Condoleezza Rice --

SECRETARY RICE: Sir, do you have something you'd like to say?

ATTENDEE: Iraqi blood is on your hands and you can't wash that blood away. Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away.

ATTENDEE: Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away. Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away.

ATTENDEE: Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away.
Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away.

ATTENDEE: Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away.

state department transcript

A quick glance at the currency cat

And it was a rather cowy night for the pound, it stood at 3.79 against the German bordello, that's up .5 against the Portugese starling and down 100 against the bitch. Earlier there was confusion in the markets when France and Spain swapped their currencies, and trading remained succulent for the rest of the day. There were no dollars today. Here at home, from tomorrow the new Bank of England five pound note comes into circulation. The notes, which feature the head of Iggy Pop, can only be used once.

Imperialism?

The United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect oil supplies, the army general overseeing US operations has said

(bold lettering my own) The truth about US intentions dawning and being finally stated by Al-jazeera

Excuses about the danger of Iran and other extremists predominate in the rhetoric but did someone mention oil?

rasta work for no.. CIA

Phillip Agee

...became disillusioned with the CIA and its support for authoritarian governments across Latin America in the 1960s.

John Stockwell

"It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms." -John Stockwell

William Blum

"From 1945 to the end of the century, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes... In the process, the U.S. caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair."

from Blum's Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower- endorsed by osama

really existing society

Cuban medical assistance is also being welcomed elsewhere. One of the most horrendous tragedies of recent years was the earthquake in Pakistan last October. Besides the huge death toll, unknown numbers of survivors have to face brutal winter weather with little shelter, food or medical assistance.

"Cuba has provided the largest contingent of doctors and paramedics to Pakistan," paying all the costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), writes John Cherian in India's Frontline magazine, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily.

and i thought all doctors do was go to prozac conferences in switzerland?

Today, according to Cuban government statistics, Cuba has over 71,000 doctors, with 20,000 health workers in Venezuela, and 5,000 more spread around the world in over 60 additional countries, as it views such missions an important part of its foreign policy. They offer medical services to 85,154,748 people; 34,700,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 50,400,000 in Africa and Asia.

witty man..

"Human survival is of much lower priority for Tony Blair than making sure that he gets invited to George Bush's ranch."

bless the tony tosspott

SUN WOO LEE: It is known that you describe yourself as a libertarian socialist and a sympathizer of anarcho-syndicalism. Have you ever tried to put the ideas of libertarian socialism and anarcho-syndicalism into action like actually building such a community or a society apart from a series of talks and writings?

NOAM CHOMSKY: An individual can't create a society. But you can help create the basis for libertarian societies. And that's happening in many places. There is worker control of industries. There's self-governing communities, there's by now mass popular movements which are calling for greater democracy and freedom. All of these are steps towards - they are efforts to - reduce corporate power. All of these are steps towards a more libertarian, cooperative society. There's nothing you can click your fingers and get. You could form a community somewhere of 25 people and live this way. Nice for them, but it has no impact. So, yes, that's what the talks and the organization and my meetings and so on are for.

Nice for them it shall be! ;-)

President of Bolivia newest Zmag contributor

coca leaf tea anyone?

We are also recuperating the capacity of sovereign decision making by the state in relation to coca cultivation. This government of the social movements and of the national majorities has demonstrated that the participation of the actual campesinos is essential for the objective of voluntary rationalisation of cultivation, within the framework of integral development, following the aim of "zero narco-trafficking" but not "zero coca". The next study with the cooperation of the European Union will determine the real size of the legal coca market. Parallel to this, we have begun to push forward on the international decriminalisation of the coca leaf in its natural state, which would allow its industrialisation and export.

he he he

Soldier didn't join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy

"I saw a lot of things in Baghdad that were illegal or just wrong. I knew, so others must have known, that this was not the way to conduct operations if you wanted to win the hearts and minds of the local population. And if you don't win the hearts and minds of the people, you can't win the war.

"If we were on a joint counter-terrorist operation, for example, we would radio back to our headquarters that we were not going to detain certain people because, as far as we were concerned, they were not a threat because they were old men or obviously farmers, but the Americans would say 'no, bring them back'.

"The Americans had this catch-all approach to lifting suspects. The tactics were draconian and completely ineffective. The Americans were doing things like chucking farmers into Abu Ghraib [the notorious prison in Baghdad where US troops abused and tortured Iraqi detainees] or handing them over to the Iraqi authorities, knowing full well they were going to be tortured.

"The Americans had a well-deserved reputation for being trigger happy. In the three months that I was in Iraq, the soldiers I served with never shot anybody. When you asked the Americans why they killed people, they would say 'we were up against the tough foreign fighters'. I didn't see any foreign fighters in the time I was over there.

It can be rhetorically useful to assert that an event/policy is identical with a particular 'positive' consequence/ aspect thereof, regardless of whether this was the primary purpose of the policy. Objecting to the event is nothing more or less than objecting to this single aspect. The carpet bombing of the village has stopped the operations of the terrorist cell, therefore 1) this action is henceforth deemed 'the removal of the terrorist cell' & 2) those objecting to this policy are simply 'those who wished to see the terrorist operations continue'. As with other rhetorical strategies, sheer repetition can more than make up for sheer vacuity

anti terror training likely to cause more deaths in australia than terrorism itself

Some of the emergency services personnel spent up to three weeks at a time crawling through the [asbestos-contaminated] rubble.

bless em!

australians competing with u.s. fat twats

the percentage of Australian men who are overweight or obsese rose 10 percent in the last ten years to 62 percent. The number of females who are considered overweight or obsese rose 8 percent to 45 percent.

too fat for yer shitter

the blessed democracy!!

"[Steven] Heller is getting pounded. He's the victim of bullies; a huge, powerful, wealthy, politically connected corporation and their equally huge and powerful international law firm are slamming him, grinding him up in legal machinery for allegedly lifting up the pretty skirt Diebold shows to the world, exposing the dirty, stinking criminal secrets that lie beneath.

"For what he's alleged to have done, there was nothing in it for him. No financial gain (in fact a serious financial loss, because he got fired from his job, and he's had to pay 10s of thousands of dollars to his lawyers, and owes them 10s of thousands more). And he's now at risk of over 3 years in state prison. It's insane."

black box voting.org

jokers internationale

thank god we're free hunay