[APR-news] Weekend Endition (December 1-3, 2006)

Sun Dec 3 09:55:22 PST 2006

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org - Weekend Endition (December 1-3, 2006)

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=692
What we're up against
By Mickey Z.

There are many battles being fought in the name of social justice...some 
more pitched than others. In general, however, these struggles do not result 
in victory thanks to a petition, a candlelight vigil, or a ballot pull. In 
other words, those seeking peace, justice, and solidarity should never 
underestimate the relentless and brutal power of what they are up against.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=691
Ghosts in the Machine: Encounters with the NSA
By Charles Sullivan

Quite some time ago, I am not sure exactly when, the thought police 
(National Security Agency) clandestinely moved into my computer. It did so 
without my permission and in violation of the law, not to mention the 
Constitution. The prying eyes of government are watching my every move, 
noting my every keystroke and monitoring my every electronic transmission 
and telephone conversation. They became visible to me one day when I did a 
trace route from the Windows command line of my home computer. Since then we 
have been peering at each other with eyes that do not blink.

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CounterPunch Special Report: Debunking the Myths of 9/11

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11282006.html
The Age of Irrationality: The 9/11 Conspiracists and the Decline of the 
American Left
Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch

A central characteristic of the conspiracists is that they have a devout, 
albeit preposterous belief in American efficiency. Many of them start with 
the racist premise--frequently voiced in as many words in their 
writings--that "Arabs in caves" weren't capable of the mission. They believe 
that military systems should work they way Pentagon press flacks and 
aerospace salesmen say they should work.

http://www.counterpunch.org/physic11282006.html
We See Conspiracies That Don't Exist: The Physics of 9/11 (Part I)
Manuel Garcia, Jr., CounterPunch

Too often we invoke a conspiracy in constructing our story of the world 
because we lack specific information about the sciences, economics, history 
and other relevant fields of specialized knowledge. Experience has shown 
that if the evidence allows for several explanations to a given problem then 
the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions is most probably correct. This 
principle is called Occam's Razor and is attributed to the 14th-century 
English logician and Franciscan friar William of Occam.

http://www.counterpunch.org/thermo11282006.html
We See Conspiracies That Don't Exist: The Thermodynamics of 9/11 (Part II)
Manuel Garcia, Jr., CounterPunch

When hijacked airliners crashed into the tall Towers of the World Trade 
Center, in New York City, each injected a burning cloud of aviation fuel 
throughout the 6 levels (WTC 2) to 8 levels (WTC 1) in the impact zone. The 
burning fuel ignited the office furnishings: desks, chairs, shelving, 
carpeting, work-space partitions, wall and ceiling panels; as well as paper 
and plastic of various kinds. How did these fires progress? How much heat 
could they produce? Was this heat enough to seriously weaken the steel 
framework? How did this heat affect the metal in the rubble piles in the 
weeks and months after the collapse?

http://www.counterpunch.org/darkfire11282006.html
Dark Fire: The Fall of WTC 7 (Part III)
Manuel Garcia, Jr., CounterPunch

WTC 7 was mortally wounded. In 5 hours and 21 minutes, it would collapse. 
This article is a visualization of what probably happened. Only gods and the 
dead have certainty; we, the living, have rationality and courage to guide 
us through the puzzles and the perils of life.

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Other articles of interest

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4202
Battlestar Galactica takes on Hamas, Iraqi resistance
Firas Al-Atraqchi, Daily Star (Egypt)

"Galactica" may have broken ground in its opening salvo as it took on the 
specter of suicide bombings, occupation vs. resistance and the never tiring 
dilemma of 'us' vs 'them.' In its first episode of the third season, the 
humans are occupied by the machines-cum-humans, the Cylons. There is a 
resistance group called "insurgents" in the episode. The insurgents use 
makeshift bombs planted in the roadside to take out as many Cylons in their 
vehicles as they possibly can. No, it is no coincidence that these scenes 
are a near identical retelling of the improvised explosive devices used in 
Iraq by the armed groups there.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15976642/
Free speech and the delusion of grandeur
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC

[T]he arsonist at the microphone, the former speaker of the House, Newt 
Gingrich, was insisting that we must attach an "on-off button" to free 
speech. He offered the time-tested excuse trotted out by our demagogues 
since even before the Republic was founded: widespread death, of Americans, 
in America, possibly at the hands of Americans.. The colonial English 
defended their repression with words like these. And so did the slave 
states. And so did the policemen who shot strikers. And so did Lindbergh's 
America First crowd. And so did those who interned Japanese-Americans. And 
so did those behind the Red Scare. And so did Nixon's plumbers.

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=684
Democrats Call for More Mass Murder and Misery in Iraq
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire

The neocon-haunted Pentagon is bankrupting America. In 2006, the Pentagon 
spent around $120 billion killing Iraqis and wrecking their country, 
according to the Congressional Budget Office. Next year, they estimate they 
will need $200 billion to sustain the same level of terrorism. Not a problem 
for Democrats.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6140.shtml
Human Rights Watch denying Palestinians the right to nonviolent resistance
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada

If one thing offers a terrifying glimpse of where the experiment in human 
despair that is Gaza under Israeli siege is leading, it is the news that a 
Palestinian woman in her sixties -- a grandmother -- chose last week to 
strap on a suicide belt and explode herself next to a group of Israeli 
soldiers invading her refugee camp. ... It is equally difficult not to pause 
and wonder at the reasons for her suicide mission; according to her family, 
one of her grandsons was killed by the Israeli army, another is in a 
wheelchair after his leg had to be amputated, and her house had been 
demolished.

http://arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=89314&d=29&m=11&y=2006
Ethnic Cleansing and Israel's Racist Discourse
Ramzy Baroud, Arab News

Any act of collective punishment - whether ethnic cleansing or genocide or 
any other - is often preceded and or adjoined by a racist discourse that 
dehumanizes the victim and justifies the crime on baseless grounds, a 
concoction of lies and fibs that may appeal to national or religious 
psyches, but fails the test of law, morality or basic human norms and 
expectations. Without such discourse, which depicted the original 
inhabitants of Palestine as cancerous, subhuman and a nuisance in the face 
of civilization and progress - as defined by the founders of the Zionist 
movement - it would not have been possible to carry out a systematic 
campaign of murder and ethnic cleansing in 1947-48.

http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid28678.aspx
Your desktop could be a time bomb: Making computers - and disposing of 
them - exacts a harsh environmental cost
Tim Lehnert, The Phoenix

Computers, cell phones, and other digital gadgets that we take for granted 
extract a fierce environmental toll, both in their production and their 
disposal. Producing computers requires the mining, processing, and 
transporting of massive quantities of raw materials - almost two tons of 
such stuff is required to produce the average desktop PC and monitor, 
according to a 2004 United Nations' study. The fabrication just of a single 
two-gram microchip causes more than 50 pounds of waste, some of it toxic.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/lelong1.html
50 Shots
A.D Lelong, LewRockwell.com

In recent years the cops have become totally militarised, presumably because 
the criminals have more guns etc. They have also become militarised because 
the government, again for reasons of political pandering, has launched 
various wars on ____________ (booze/drugs/harlotry/crime/terrorism - or any 
politically unpopular vice). This past year Mayor Bloomberg has been waging 
a war on guns, which is another excuse for militarisation. Cops have been 
turning into SS/Gestapo Officers.

http://www.counterpunch.org/washington12012006.html
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics
Linn Washington, Jr., CounterPunch

Errors by police, prosecutors, jurists and other authorities during the 
arrest, conviction and state court appeals of Abu-Jamal fuel the worldwide 
belief that Abu-Jamal did not receive a fair trial and is thus unjustly 
convicted. These errors include police failing to give Abu-Jamal the 
standard hand test after his arrest to determine if he actually fired a gun, 
prosecutors failing to provide Abu-Jamal's trial attorney with compelling 
evidence indicating his innocence and the notoriously pro-prosecution trial 
judge making racist remarks. "Only in America could a trial judge say "I'll 
help them fry the Nigger," and be considered fair," Abu-Jamal stated in a 
letter to Parisian officials.

http://nswbc.org/Op%20Ed/Part2-FNL-Nov29-06.htm
The Highjacking of a Nation
Part 2: The Auctioning of Former Statesmen & Dime a Dozen Generals
Sibel Edmonds, NSWBC

Operating invisibly under the radar of media and public scrutiny, lobby 
groups and foreign agents have become the 'epicenter' of our government, 
where former statesmen and 'dime a dozen generals' cash in on their 
connections and peddle their enormous influence to the highest bidders 
turned clients. These groups' activities shape our nation's policies and 
determine the direction of the flow of its taxpayer driven wealth, while to 
them the interests of the majority are considered irrelevant, and the 
security of the nation is perceived as inconsequential.

http://slamonline.com/online/2006/11/type-casting/
Type Casting
Etan Thomas, SLAM

I have come to expect a certain reaction of surprise by my extracurricular 
activities, but this was different. Usually, I am met with words like, "You 
speak so well," or "You're so different, you're not like the others," which 
are all equally offensive to me, but this was on a different level. Why is 
it beyond the realm of imagination that I could possibly write poetry, have 
an interest in politics and can express my opinion in a public forum?

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NewsWire

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/45007/
Keith Olbermann proves that dissent has an audience

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3005
Fact-challenged Wash Post continues to recycle discredited anti-semitism 
charges against Chavez

http://cnnexposed.com/story.php?story=26
Bolton not amused by Hezbollah's non-violent Western-style protest

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1371805.php
Police routinely plant evidence in unsuspecting civilians' vehicles for 
training exercises

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20061130-9999-1n30nation.html
Incarceration Nation: Record 7 Million Behind Bars, on Probation or on 
Parole

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1952099,00.html
Israel ups the stakes in the propaganda war

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-11-28-co2-emissions-doubling_x.htm
Carbon dioxide emissions have doubled since the 1990s

http://www.enn.com/net.html?id=1736
Half the World's Penguin Species Marching Towards Extinction

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6174422.stm
Do mobile phones cost the earth?

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/oped/ci_4760946
Economic storm signals

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