[APR-news] Weekend Edition (January 20-22, 2006)

Mon Jan 23 07:48:08 PST 2006

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org - Weekend Edition (January 20-22, 2006)
"Magazine of the Year" -  2005 Press Action Award

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=584&mode=nocomments&order=0&thold=0
"WAR ON TERROR"
By Noam Chomsky

I have been writing about terror for 25 years, ever since the Reagan 
administration
declared its War on Terror. I've been using definitions that seem to be 
doubly appropriate: first, they make sense; and second, they are the 
official definitions of those waging the war. To take one of these official 
definitions, terrorism is "the calculated use of violence or threat of 
violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in 
nature...through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear," typically 
targeting civilians. The British government's definition is about the same: 
"Terrorism is the use, or threat, of action which is violent, damaging or 
disrupting, and is intended to influence the government or intimidate the 
public and is for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, or 
ideological cause." These definitions seem fairly clear and close to 
ordinary usage. There also seems to be general agreement that they are 
appropriate when discussing the terrorism of enemies. But a problem at once 
arises. These definitions yield an entirely unacceptable consequence: it 
follows that the US is a leading terrorist state, dramatically so during the 
Reaganite war on terror.

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Other articles of interest

http://anthropik.com/2006/01/thesis-29-it-will-be-impossible-to-rebuild-civilization/
It will be impossible to rebuild civilization
Jason Godesky, Anthropik Network

Previous collapses often set the scene for another "rise" to civilization. 
The fall of Rome shapes the Western imagination's idea of collapse, with the 
descent into the barbarism of the Dark Ages, the long gestation of the 
Middle Ages, and the final rebirth of "civilization" in the Renaissance. 
However, as Greer points out in "How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of 
Catabolic Collapse," the Western Roman Empire suffered a maintenance crisis, 
not a catabolic collapse. So the question remains, is this *a* collapse, or 
*the* collapse? Are we merely facing a momentary downturn in a new sine wave 
of complexity, or does this collapse represent the end of civilization once 
and for all?

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/25572
What do they know that they are not telling us?
Stan Moore, Media Monitors

The best available information at present relates to civilization-shattering 
changes that lie in our immediate future. These involve the end of the era 
of cheap oil and the related phenomenon of global climate change.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=50043
"Our Indian Wars Are Not Over Yet"
John Brown, Tom Dispatch

I'd like to suggest another way of looking at the War on Terror: as a 
twenty-first century continuation of, or replication of, the American Indian 
wars, on a global scale. This is by no means something that has occurred to 
me alone, but it has received relatively little attention.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/21/bin_laden_book/
The bin Laden book club: How the world's most notorious terrorist just 
launched an obscure left-wing American author into bestseller stardom
Michael Scherer, Salon

Watch out, Oprah Winfrey, Osama bin Laden has jumped into the book-promotion 
game. On Wednesday, the 72-year-old Washington author William Blum existed 
only on the fringes of the publishing industry. His 2000 foreign-policy 
diatribe, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," ranked No. 
205,763 on Amazon's bestseller list. His byline rarely appeared in print, he 
says, because even left-leaning journals like the Nation often found his 
views too radical. But then the world's No. 1 newsmaker, bin Laden, showed 
up Thursday on the Al-Jazeera network to promise another terrorist attack on 
America, ask President Bush to withdraw American troops -- and plug Blum's 
book.

http://www.impactpress.com/articles/winter06/bestwinter06.html
Senator James Inhofe: Top Terrorist Threat to Planet Earth
Dr. Steven Best, Impact Press

>From humble beginnings as Tulsa mayor and a small businessman, Senator James 
Inhofe has morphed into one of the most dangerous neocons and right-wing 
extremists of our time. On the front lines of Bush's war against civil 
liberties, peace, and the environment, Inhofe is leading the drive to plunge 
the planet into chaos and destruction for the glory and profits of the 
military megamachines and transnational corporations.

http://mostlywater.org/node/3787
Sex Workers Manifesto

We live in a society where services are bought and sold. Sex work is one of 
these services. Providing sexual services should not be criminalised. 
Sacrificing sex workers for religious or sexual morals is unacceptable. All 
people have the right to hold their own personal religious and sexual 
morals, but such morals should not be imposed on any individual or determine 
any political decision. We wish to see a society in which sex workers are 
not denied social power. We condemn the hypocrisy within our societies where 
our services are used but our profession or businesses are made illegal. 
This legislation results in abuse and lack of control over our work and 
lives. We oppose the criminalisation of sex workers, their partners, 
clients, managers, and everyone else working in sex work. Such 
criminalisation denies sex workers of equal protection of the law.

http://www.loompanics.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/Articles/whycorporations.html?E+scstore
A Challenge to Libertarians - Why Corporations Are Not People, And The 
Unsavory Consequences of Pretending That They Are
Mike Hoy, Loompanics

Individual freedom is the basis of the United States of America. It is what 
our "Founding Fathers" risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honor, to create. But what happens if groups of people, i.e., collectivist 
entities, form together for the purpose of getting the government to grant 
unearned special privileges to them? How will this affect the marketplace? 
Well, this has actually happened in America, and the result is that these 
collectivist entities with their government-bestowed privileges have taken 
over our economy, in some particular cases to the benefit of some particular 
individuals, but to the overall detriment to individuals in general. These 
collectivist entities are known as "corporations," and it is initially 
puzzling as to why they are lionized by "Libertarians," who proclaim 
themselves the defenders of individual rights.

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NewsWire

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/hand01212006/
FAIR vs. Media Matters

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google20jan20,0,6995079.story
Feds obtain internet users' search records

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4630694.stm
Google defies US over search data

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1656
Does New Cyberstalking Law Criminalize Free Expression?

http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/01/1796923.php
Environmental + Anarchist witch-hunt under way

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965509/site/newsweek
The Other Big Brother: Pentagon has its own domestic spying operation

http://counterpunch.com/leopold01202006.html
How Cheney used the NSA to spy on Americans prior to 9/11

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/politics/13675006.htm
U.S. accused of spying on those who disagree with Bush policies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100667_pf.html
Harry Belefonte compares Homeland Security to the Nazi Gestapo

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/sefton012006.html
Author 'amazed and amused' by book plug from bin Laden

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/olbermann01202006/
Keith Olbermann interviews William Blum

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20060121&articleId=1769
Complete transcript of the bin Laden tape

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article340221.ece
UK: Fury as police file children's DNA

http://robertdreyfuss.com/blog/2006/01/hillary_outflanks_won_iranon_t.html
Fascist Democrat: Hillary Clinton outflanks Bush on the right

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=5975
US Army raises enlistment age to 40

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31830
Activists vow to shut down Army recruiting sites

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/6338300/detail.html?rss=den&psp=news
Ward Churchill gets straight A's from his students

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/2006012209101684
Silencing the tyrant: Saddam's Soviet-style show trial is a travesty of 
justice designed to justify Iraq invasion

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1865414,00.html
4,000 Iraqis slaughtered in war each month

http://villagevoice.com/news/0603,ridgeway,71814,6.html
US should pay for genocide in East Timor

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/nyt238.html
US indicts 11 for acts of domestic liberation

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/20/sheriff.home.ap/index.html
Police chief's home torched after man dies in police custody

http://www.unknownnews.org/0601240121madcow.html
Japan again bans US beef over mad cow disease concerns

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0119-01.htm
Warmer Seas Will Wipe Out Plankton, Source of Ocean Life

http://www.physorg.com/news9971.html
New study raises questions about sustainability of metal resources

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/87/347/16773_Moscow.html
Moscow eats up energy as temperatures drop sharply

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3603854.html
Explosions hit gas pipelines in Russia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4625092.stm
Italy hit by Russian gas shortage

http://www.energybulletin.net/12242.html
Kuwait oil reserves only half official estimate

http://business.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=90332006&format=print
Nigeria militants say they will target all oil producers in the country

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/gulf_report_des.html#more
Gulf Report: Destruction, Spills and 17% of Production Still Shut-in When 
Hurricane Season Hits for 2006

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1526492
Gulf petroleum still far from recovered, interruptions will continue

http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nL20548125&imageid=&cap
U.S. crude oil production falls 6.6% in 2005

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article339928.ece
What they don't want you to know about the coming oil crisis

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/BUSINESS06/601190499/1019/BUSINESS
$3-a-gallon gas could be back

http://www.counterpunch.org/bernstein01202006.html
Making Less, Borrowing More: Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 
Months

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9995
Collapse of US economy imminent?

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9709
Space debris continues to accumulate

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