Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
CIA Waterboarding Guidlines
March 9th, 2010Via: Salon: Interrogators pumped detainees full of so much water that the CIA turned to a special saline solution to minimize the risk of death, the documents show. The agency used a gurney “specially designed” to tilt backwards at a perfect angle to maximize the water entering the prisoner’s nose and mouth, intensifying the sense […]
The Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010
March 9th, 2010Via: The Atlantic: Why is the national security community treating the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration’s choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of […]
Gendercide: The Worldwide War on Baby Girls
March 9th, 2010Via: Economist: XINRAN XUE, a Chinese writer, describes visiting a peasant family in the Yimeng area of Shandong province. The wife was giving birth. “We had scarcely sat down in the kitchen”, she writes (see article), “when we heard a moan of pain from the bedroom next door…The cries from the inner room grew louder—and […]
Biometric ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan
March 9th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain. Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including […]
The Pentagon’s Runaway Budget
March 8th, 2010Via: antiwar.com: With his decision to boost defense spending, President Obama is continuing the process of re-inflating the Pentagon that began in late 1998 — fully three years before the 9/11 attacks on America. The FY 2011 budget marks a milestone, however: The inflation-adjusted rise in spending since 1998 will probably exceed 100 percent in […]
Beijing Studies Severing Dollar Peg
March 8th, 2010Via: Financial Times: China’s central bank chief laid the groundwork for an appreciation of the renminbi at the weekend when he described the current dollar peg as temporary, striking a more emollient tone after months of tough opposition in Beijing to a shift in exchange rate policy. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of […]
How Food and Water Are Driving a 21st-Century African Land Grab
March 7th, 2010Via: Guardian: We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia’s largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches […]
Five Ways Your TV is Slowly Killing You
March 7th, 2010Via: MSNBC: You’ve accepted the idea that TV makes you dumber. You know there are lots of more edifying things you could be doing with your time than cheering on the contestants on “Survivor.” And unless you’re working out to an exercise video, you know those hours sprawled out in front of the screen are […]
Paypal Closing Cryptome’s Account
March 5th, 2010Via: Cryptome: PayPal sends: Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:03:37 -0800 to: cryptome[at]earthlink.net subject: Update to Your Account, PP-910-103-553 From: service[at]paypal.com SIZE=1555 Dear John Young, We have reviewed your PayPal Account, and due to the excessive risk involved, we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least disruptive to your business. […]
John Patrick Bedell: Welcome to the Conspiracy Theorist Lone Nut Era
March 5th, 2010Update: Guns in Two Mass Shootings Came from Memphis Police and Court System Via: AP: Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn. Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both […]
