Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Federal Judge Dismisses Third Party Environmental Claims Against Transocean and BP
June 19th, 2011Via: Courthouse News Service: Ruling in favor of Transocean and BP, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed third-party environmental claims in a giant pleading bundle in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, saying the fact that the oil flow has stopped makes those lawsuits irrelevant. “The injunction at this stage would be useless, as not […]
Eisenhower’s Worst Fears Came True: We Invent Enemies to Buy the Bombs
June 19th, 2011Via: Guardian: Why do we still go to war? We seem unable to stop. We find any excuse for this post-imperial fidget and yet we keep getting trapped. Germans do not do it, or Spanish or Swedes. Britain’s borders and British people have not been under serious threat for a generation. Yet time and again […]
Russia Orders Stalin-Era Leather Coats for Putin Guards
June 18th, 2011Via: AFP: Russia’s federal guard service, in charge of protecting President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, may soon sport black leather overcoats harking back to the era of Stalin’s purges. The elite service known by its Russian acronym FSO has launched a tender to purchase 60 leather trenchcoats on the official site for […]
Lawsuit Alleges Whole Foods Sold Frozen Vegetables from China Grown in a Polluted Region by Prisoners and Certified as Organic
June 17th, 2011Ahh, imagine my shock. Rant mode: On. We buy some organic foods in bulk from wholesale distributors here in New Zealand. Increasingly, if we want to buy these ‘certified organic’ bulk foods, the country of origin is China. We refuse to buy any food from China, regardless of which organic certification it has. We’ve indicated […]
NSA Allies with Internet Carriers to Thwart Cyber Attacks Against Defense Firms
June 17th, 2011Oh sure. Via: Washington Post: The National Security Agency is working with Internet providers to deploy a new generation of tools to scan e-mail and other digital traffic with the goal of thwarting cyberattacks against defense firms by foreign adversaries, senior defense and industry officials say. The novel program, which began last month on a […]
Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic
June 16th, 2011Via: New York Times: A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him. Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President […]
Change: First Lady Wants Hollywood to Excrete Even More Pro Military Propaganda
June 15th, 2011Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy by Matthew Alford: Hollywood is often characterized as a stronghold of left-liberal ideals. In Reel Power, Matthew Alford shows it is in fact deeply complicit in serving the interests of the most regressive U.S. corporate and political forces. Films like Transformers, Terminator: Salvation and Black Hawk Down are […]
China Hiding Extent of Lead Poisoning Among Children
June 15th, 2011Via: BBC: China has been accused of trying to cover up the extent of lead poisoning among children, and of blocking effective testing and treatment. A report by Human Rights Watch says local authorities in heavily-polluted industrial areas have been sending sick children back to contaminated homes. It says that in these areas – Henan, […]
Chinese Protests
June 15th, 2011Via: The Australian: AN eruption of protests throughout China has sent armoured vehicles into town centres, prompted an internet blackout by the government and left thousands across the country blogging about “crazy” violence on the streets. The summer surge of protests, which flared in the southern industrial hub of Zengcheng over the weekend, has been […]
Vietnam Holds Live-Fire Exercises as Territorial Dispute with China Escalates
June 14th, 2011Via: Guardian: China has warned other countries not to become involved in an escalating sea border dispute with Vietnam that reflects concern over Beijing’s increasing international power and confidence. Experts say the stand-off between China and Vietnam – two of the six powers laying claim to a number of islands and their surrounding waters in […]
