I’ve been toying with the idea of offering downloads for members of LNS. I would most likely make them available on the forums. What would you like to see? Video, documentaries, music, books? It couldn’t be anything too big since I’d have to upload it to the server and besides I wouldn’t want to max out my bandwith. But, the fact is I don’t come close to using the allotted 15gb of traffic I’m allowed at this time. Some good things to download could be clips of shows like the Adventures of Pete and Pete or other hard to find programs. Nothing too huge, but maybe clips from a few different things.
06
Apr 02
Greg Palast
Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal a few days ago. You can watch the entire thing here in Real Audio. I’ll try to download the whole file soon.
06
Apr 02
Enron Owning Water
From Public Citizen:
Enron’s Failure in Water Ventures Highlights Dangers of Privatization to Consumers, Taxpayers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Enron Corp.’s failed venture into the water business, which was marked by financial problems, complaints of poor service and allegations of political corruption, should serve as a warning to consumers and policymakers about the dangers of privatizing public water systems and resources, according to a Public Citizen report released today.
The report – Liquid Assets: Enron’s Dip Into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization – draws lessons from the troubled history of Azurix Inc., a subsidiary created by Enron in 1998 to own and manage water and wastewater systems, provide water-related servicesand manage water assets. Click here to view a copy of the report on the Web.
“Companies like Enron sing a siren’s song about privatization of water resources and systems, but there is no evidence that private companies can provide better, less-expensive service to consumers and plenty of evidence that suggests otherwise,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. “Local and state governments should be extremely wary of entrusting such an essential human need as water to corporations that simply want to turn a profit.”
05
Apr 02
An Oldie but Goodie
The Declaration of Independence is an amazing document. Since the American government has travelled down this dangerous path it becomes all the more important for us to take the words of the Declaration to heart. It is our duty to change a corrupt system, or if necessary, to overthrow it.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
05
Apr 02
Big Brother On Your Phone
The FCC has mandated that all new cell phones be equipped with GPS locators. Ostensibly, this is to help law enforcement find people in emergencies, but this could easily be used by law enforcement agencies like the FBI to pinpoint and monitor the movements of individuals electronically without their knowledge. The FBI or any other agency from the federal level to the local level could potentially track the movements of individuals for months at a time. Essentially, this would be the same as having a chip implanted as most people with cell phones carry them on them at all times.
In other news, the FCC is trying to ram digital television down consumers’ throats. You can thank that choad, Michael Powell, and Eisner’s toady, Fritz Hollings. It is likely that when all television becomes digital that broadcasters may restrict viewers from recording programs without their consent. Do not buy a digital television. In fact, you might be better off turning off your television entirely. The only thing I usually watch is Washington Journal on C-SPAN.
05
Apr 02
Good Anti-war Site
Another good anti-war site from the right-libertarian side: Americans Against World Empire
05
Apr 02
A Pop Quiz
A Pop Quiz on the Middle East by Charley Reese of the Orlando Sentinel
Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty and bars international inspections?
A: Israel.
04
Apr 02
A Good Article on the Kurds
This article from the Atlantic Monthly in 1987 was so good I wanted to reprint it here in case it ever went away. Props to Ethel the Blog for pointing me to it.
Sons of Devils by Robert D. Kaplan
IN THE WINTER of 401 B.C. a tired and defeated army of Greek mercenaries was slowly making its way home from Mesopotamia, after failing to topple the Persian king Artaxerxes II. Crossing the Taurus Mountains, in what is today southeastern Turkey, the mercenaries were set upon by bands of Carduchi, a fierce race of bowmen, who caused more harm to the Greeks in seven days of hit-and-run raids than had the Persians during the entire Mesopotamian campaign. An account of the harrowing retreat was provided by Xenophon, one of the Greek commanding officers. Xenophon wrote that the Carduchi lived in the mountains and were nor subject to outside authority: “Indeed, a royal army of a hundred and twenty thousand had once invaded their country, and not a man of them had got back….”
Not all that much has changed in 2,400 years. The Carduchi may well have been what we now call Kurds, an Indo-European people, speaking a language akin to Persian, who first occupied the Zagros and Taurus ranges in the second millennium B.C. The Kurds are among history’s greatest warriors: Saladin, the Muslim general who repossessed Jerusalem and much of the Holy Land from the Crusaders, was a Kurd. Their bows and slings have long since been replaced by Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Perched on isolated slopes, amid oak and mountain ash, Kurdish guerrillas known as pesh mergas (“those who are prepared to die”) have in recent years wiped out whole units of Turkish and Iraqi soldiers and Iranian revolutionary guards. True to their past, the Kurds are a law unto themselves.
04
Apr 02
US Bribes Turkey With Iraqi Oilfields
Desperate for ‘allies’ and toadies to support its planned invasion of Iraq the United States has apparently sweetened the deal by offering Iraq’s northern oilfields to Turkey.
The US twists arms in the Middle East
Dan Plesch reveals that, in return for supporting a new Gulf war, Turkey could get Iraqi oilfields
Many countries have spoken out against the Bush administration’s plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein, but it would be a mistake to suppose that they will in fact cause trouble if the bombs start to fall. Washington has a long record of bringing its allies into line.
Take Turkey. Its prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, continues to oppose publicly the idea of attacking Iraq. But there is every reason to believe that the US has already offered control of Iraq’s northern oilfields to Turkey in return for its support in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is what informed sources in Washington tell me; and it is confirmed by press reports of what Richard Perle, an influential adviser in the Bush administration, said while he was in Ankara with the vice-president, Dick Cheney.
The oil-rich Mosul area has been disputed since the collapse of the Ottoman empire at the end of the First World War. The British drew the maps and invented the states that exist today. Turkey disputed the British decision to give the Mosul province to the new Kingdom of Iraq, but finally accepted it in a treaty signed in 1926.