[APR-news] Alternative Press Review - August 17, 2004

Tue Aug 17 16:52:20 EDT 2004

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org
Tuesday - August 17, 2004

If you can't say "Fuck," you can't say, "Fuck the government." -
Lenny Bruce

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4032
Satire: Kerry Unveils One-Point Plan For Better America

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=272&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Appreciate History in Order to Dismantle the Present Empire
By Ward Churchill, cmaq.net

There is not a petition campaign that you can construct that is
going to cause the power and the status quo to dissipate. There
is not a legal action that you can take; you can't go into the
court of the conqueror and have the conqueror announce the
conquest to be illegitimate and to be repealed; you cannot vote
in an alternative, you cannot hold a prayer vigil, you cannot
burn the right scented candle at the prayer vigil, you cannot
have the right folk song, you cannot have the right fashion
statement, you cannot adopt a different diet, build a better bike
path. You have to say it squarely: the fact that this power, this
force, this entity, this monstrosity called the State maintains
itself by physical force, and can be countered only in terms that
it itself dictates and therefore understands.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=271&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
The Left's Rotten Rallying Cry of Retreat: Cowardice is Not a
Strategy
by M. Junaid Alam, Left Hook

The ABB message is perfectly clear: in today's internationalized
Stalingrad that is the 'war on terror', Palestinians can continue
getting mowed down protesting the walls that imprison them,
Iraqis can continue getting slaughtered in their own cemeteries
fighting a foreign invasion, but we - ensconced in our placid,
secure, luxurious lives - simply have "no option" but to vote for
war and occupation conducted by Kerry as opposed to war and
occupation conducted by Bush, because our problem is far more
urgent than colonialism: Bush's "uncouthness" and inability to
properly pronounce "adjectival clauses." That victims of
American-made bullets and bombs will be able to appreciate these
most noteworthy differences is doubtful.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=270&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
"Us vs. Them" and other "modern" myths of war and civilization
Daniel Patrick Welch, danielpwelch.com

They behead--we do it with smart bombs. There is, of course, an
ugly truth to this recently minted axiom: the horror of state
terrorism is that the overwhelming machinery of death in the
hands of all-powerful governments far outweighs individual
atrocities by madmen, groupuscles and non-state entities.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=268&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Mea Culpas at the Washington Post
by Mike Whitney, ZNet

The war in Iraq was as much the Post's invention as it was Bush's
or Cheney's. Presidents don't lead the charge to war...the media
does. The best Bush could have done was stand in front of the
camera and thump his chest. It takes a well-oiled propaganda
machine to whip the public into war fever. Noam Chomsky calls it
"manufacturing consent", the manipulating of information to
produce support for (otherwise) unpopular policies. At the Post
they just call it "a good day's work."

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=267&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Information Warriors: Rendon Group Wins Hearts and Minds in
Business, Politics and War
by Pratap Chatterjee, Corpwatch

Like the Rendon Group's presence on the web, which features two
completely different websites, one domestic and one
international, John and Rick appear to work in two distinct
orbits, Boston and Washington. John circles the world selling war
strategies while Rick stays at home selling peace, making
corporate videos and staging events for clients. But the company
is in fact one entity and a careful study suggests that perhaps
their neat division is another case of perception management.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=269&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
The Slave Mentality
by Butler Shaffer, LewRockwell.com

As Orwell made clear to us, unless we pay attention to what is
being said, scheming men and women with ambitions over the lives
and property of others, will interpret words in such ways as to
convey the opposite meaning most of us attach to those words.
This is true with the American state - particularly through its
definers and obfuscators in the judicial system - in telling us
the "true meaning" of the 13th Amendment. This provision was only
intended to prohibit private forms of slavery; the state was not
intended to be bound by its otherwise clear language. Thus, the
13th Amendment did not end slavery, but only nationalized it. The
state is to have a monopoly on trafficking in slaves!

******
Other articles of interest

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert242.shtml
Are Media Covering Their Errors or Covering Them Up?
By Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org

 As more mainstream media outlets admit to failures in covering
the Iraq War, a question must be asked: Are we seeing a real
coming to grips by a media that helped "sell the war" to the
American public? Or could the recent mea culpas be something more
insidious, more like what the CIA used to call a "limited hang
out?" That phrase translates as "you concede a little to hide a
lot."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/14/international/europe/14france.html?8hpib
A French Employee's Work Celebrates the Sloth Ethic
By Craig S. Smith, NY Times

Finally, instead of dissembling behind ambiguous notions of
Gallic joie de vivre, someone in this leisurely land has declared
outright that the French should eschew the Anglo-Saxon work ethic
and openly embrace sloth. Corinne Maier, the author of "Bonjour
Paresse," a sort of slacker manifesto whose title translates as
"Hello Laziness," has become a countercultural heroine almost ove
rnight by encouraging the country's workers to adopt her strategy
of "active disengagement" - calculated loafing - to escape the
horrors of disinterested endeavor.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2004/08/13/1092340464714.html
800 years of freedom sunk in Guantanamo Bay
By Adele Horin, Sydney Morning Herald

I don't know if Mamdouh Habib is a good guy or a bad guy. But I
do know if the North Korean Government had captured him, held him
without charge in an interrogation camp for years, and denied him
contact with lawyers, family or friends, the Howard Government
would be apoplectic.

http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=3314
The Star Chamber Is Back
by Paul Craig Roberts, Antiwar.com

Are George Bush and Tony Blair building democracy in the Middle
East or police states at home? There is no sign of democracy in
Iraq. Bush has installed a puppet government backed up by U.S.
military force. America's hamhanded occupation has resulted in
large civilian casualties, prison tortures and a breakdown in
public order. Domestic police states, however, are in evidence in
the U.S. and UK.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/magazine/15IDEA.html
Decarcerate?
By Jim Holt, New York Times

If a time traveler from the future showed up in our world today,
which of our practices would strike him as most barbarous? This
question makes for an excellent parlor game. When we look back at
supposedly civilized societies in the past, we are amazed at how
complacently they accepted such obvious evils as slavery, child
labor and torture. Surely, people in centuries hence will be
similarly astonished at our own moral blind spots. But what might
they be? After a little reflection, you may wish to hazard a
guess. Here's mine: punishment by imprisonment.

******
NewsWire

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5697267/site/newsweek/
Wiretapping the web

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3568468.stm
'Sleepwalking into a surveillance society'

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/politics/campaign/16fbi.html?hp
F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5728040/
N.Y.C. braces for convention protestors

http://www.joplinindependent.com/display_article.php/jcollins1091672311
Were Bush protesters harassed?

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=138711
The Doctored Clip Sean Hannity Doesn't Want You to Know About

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-08-13-gitmo_x.htm
US: No legal rights for detainees

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/8/13/latest/18440Venezuela&sec=latest
OPEC is nearly at full output capacity

http://truthout.org/docs_04/081504Z.shtml
Iraq Halts Oil Exports from Main Pipeline

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040814/RREGULY14/TPBusiness/TopStories
This oil crisis won't end soon -- if ever

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpuno153930201aug15,0,7835521.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines
1.3 Billion Reasons to Worry about Oil

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040814/ZNYT01/408140391/1001/BUSINESS
Lights out in the Dominican Republic

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3559542.stm
Hungry world 'must eat less meat'

http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir040803_1_n.shtml
China struggles to satisfy thirst for water

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/13/MNGHB86B4V1.DTL
Indigenous tribe takes on big oil

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/8/13/0229/42902
Landless movement leader jailed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57991-2004Aug11.html
US is draining wetlands

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-08-17/s_26567.asp
Nevada's drought deepens as government mulls disaster declaration

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2004-08-17-warming-calif._x.htm
Study: Global warming could bring extreme changes to Calif.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996283
Cannabis Extract Shrinks Brain Tumours

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040816/ts_nm/iraq_abuse_threats_dc_2
Family of Iraq Abuse Whistleblower Threatened

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/16/wirq216.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/16/ixnewstop.html
Police fire at journalists as US tanks roll up to shrine

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10478772%5E401,00.html
Iraqi police threaten to kill every journalist in Najaf

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9409919.htm
Iraqi troops desert as offensive resumes in Najaf

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DCC4FF78-49EA-4F3A-8246-A18A971FB67D.htm
US bombing kills Falluja civilians

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5709443/site/newsweek
A rash of insurgent attacks in Iraq threatening supply lines

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1283660,00.html
US to redeploy 100,000 troops and shut bases

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/aug2004/chav-a17.shtml
CIA-backed opposition suffers defeat in Venezuelan referendum

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/aug2004/germ-a17.shtml
Germany: tens of thousands protest against government assault on
welfare state

http://www.counterpunch.org/zirin08142004.html
Olympic Sized Horror in Greece: 150 Workers Died Building the
Facilities