contributions

A Courageous Man Speaks Out - Hugo Chavez Was In Rare Form at the UN - by Stephen Lendman
Hugo Chavez chooses his authors, political and social thinkers well, and there’s no one better than Noam Chomsky. In his dramatic and courageous speech yesterday to the 61st UN General Assembly, Chavez held up a copy of Chomsky’s 2003 book Hegemony or Survival (which I’ve read and quoted from before). In the book, Chomsky cites the work of Ernst Mayr whom he describes as "one of the great figures (…)

U.N. expert: Iraq torture may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein
By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 21, 2006
GENEVA - Torture in Iraq may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the U.N. anti-torture chief said Thursday.
Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, made the remarks as he was presenting a report on detainee (…)

Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought.
William James
HBO is currently running, "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater," a brilliant documentary on the life and times of Barry Goldwater. Though produced by his granddaughter, it’s as fair and critical as anything in its genre. In addition to tracing Goldwater’s career, it illustrates how today’s fundamentalist/neoconservative intellectuals and politicians calling themselves (…)

’US threat to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age’
21st September 2006
Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf has stunned world leaders claiming Washington had threatened to bomb his country "back to the Stone Age" if it did not co-operate in the war on terror.
Interviewed for US TV while attending the United Nations general assembly in New York, Musharraf said the threat was made after the September 11 attacks.
He added the threat came from US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage (…)

Venezuela President Says Bush Committing Genocide In Iraq
Thursday September 21st, 2006 / 12h10
NEW YORK (AP)—Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday evening that U.S. President George W. Bush has committed genocide during the war in Iraq and should be put on trial.
"The president of the United States should go before an international tribunal," Chavez said as applause filled the hall at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
"I’m not an enemy of the United (…)

Hugo Chavez’s New World Vision - by Stephen Lendman
After agreeing to supply discounted oil to the richest city in Europe - London - to help its low income residents use the city’s buses at a reduced cost after earlier providing discounted heating oil for the poor in several northeastern US cities including its richest one - New York, Hugo Chavez is at it again. This time he offered to aid the US oil and cash-rich state of Alaska by providing an even greater benefit - free or subsidized (…)

While listening to the News I was in my kitchen, preparing supper. When I saw Abu Izzadeen shouting at Reid my initial feelings were those of excitement that somebody was having a go at the thug who himself was looking dazed and bemused by the sudden attack.
Then I began to feel uncomfortable, even embarrassed. Clearly, Reid and the media were loving it and doing everything to show up Izzadeen as an "extremist" and a dangerous clown.
Why was I feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed, I (…)

The Logical Reconstruction of Reality, Part 2: Stupidity Theory
Michael D. Morrissey, Sept. 21, 2006
May be redistributed for non-profit purposes, with proper copyright acknowledgement; orig. place of pub. is http://www.mdmorrissey.info/mdmorrissey/logical2. Part 1 is accessible at http://www.mdmorrissey.info/logical.
The two most frequent responses to the idea that the Bush administration orchestrated 9/11 are that 1) they wouldn’t do anything so horrible to their own people, and 2) (…)

Royal Society tells Exxon: stop funding climate change denial
David Adam, environment correspondent Wednesday September 20, 2006 The Guardian
Britain’s leading scientists have challenged the US oil company ExxonMobil to stop funding groups that attempt to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.
In an unprecedented step, the Royal Society, Britain’s premier scientific academy, has written to the oil giant to demand that the company withdraws support for dozens of (…)

Taken from www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com
(I would suggest for anyone to surf through this writer’s archives and read some of the essays. They are truly outstanding and enlightening works.)
Like Taking Candy from a Baby
As natural as the end of summer giving way to cooler temperatures and the changing colors of the trees, the vast machinations of the military-energy industrial complex has yet again begun to spin in preparation for the upcoming midterm elections, using the myriad (…)