In This Century of Crisis, Empowering Women is Vital if the Human Race is to Prevail, i.e., Evolve

Image: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner


In This Century of Crisis, Empowering Women is Vital if the Human Race is to Prevail, i.e., Evolve

By Richard Power

The 21st Century is an era of unprecedented crisis -- politically, economically, environmentally, and spiritually. It is, indeed, a crisis of crises on a planetary scale: e.g., global warming, nuclear proliferation, failed states, organized crime, religious fanaticism, extreme poverty, overpopulation, lack of water, deforestation, etc. And if these great challenges are not overcome, their convergence will likely lead to the extinction of the human race (at least the human race as we know it).

In the 21st Century, security, sustainability and spirit are interdependent. You cannot achieve security without sustainability; and you cannot achieve either without a renewal of the human spirit, i.e., recognizing and embracing our oneness with all life.

Human rights and the health of democratic institutions are also vital factors. The global effort to empower women politically and economically is of particular importance. (UNIFEM is acting on this imperative.)

In Asia, there is news of a disturbing trend:

Experts at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights are painting an apocalyptical vision of the Asian region where 163 million women are ‘missing’ and the sex ratio continues to decline as a result of easy access to modern gender selection techniques. Inter Press Service, 10-3-07

In Latin America, there is news of an encouraging trend:

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the second female to be elected head of a Latin American country in the last two years. The first, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, said, "It’s not a coincidence these two neighboring countries with similar characteristics have elected women to direct their destinies." Democracy Now!, 10-30-07

The juxtaposition of these two stories underscores the fact that we are in a race against dwindling time allied with burgeoning ignorance.

When women are empowered politically and economically, life get better, democratic institutions get stronger, and economic conditions improve. But there are less of female children born every year -- at least in Asia.

Here are excerpts from both stories, with links to the full texts:

Experts at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights are painting an apocalyptical vision of the Asian region where 163 million women are ‘missing’ and the sex ratio continues to decline as a result of easy access to modern gender selection techniques.
China tops the list of countries with a skewed sex ratio at birth (SRB) with just 100 females for every 120 males. India follows going by the country’s 2001 census, which revealed that the SRB had fallen to 108 males per 100 females.
Experts worry that unless action is taken, Nepal and Vietnam may soon have skewed SRBs. Countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh are already beginning to follow Asia’s largest countries with people resorting to medical technology to do away with the girl child at the foetal stage.
“We place it (skewed SRB) in the context of discrimination against women,” said Purnima Mane, deputy executive director UNFPA, while addressing the press. “Women are not valued.” She predicted that a continuing unhealthy SRB trend could lead to increased violence, migration and trafficking as well as greater pressures on women. Zofeen Ebrahim, Inter Press Service, 10-30-07

AMY GOODMAN: For more on Argentina’s election, I’m joined by two guests. Mark Weisbrot is on the phone from the Center for Economic Policy Research. Joining me in New York is Jocelyn Olcott. She is a professor of Latin American history at Duke University.
Let's start with you, Professor Olcott. Your response? The significance of the first woman elected president of Argentina?
JOCELYN OLCOTT: I mean, I think there’s -- you know, there are several ways to read this, but certainly two of the biggest ones is it’s clearly a rejection of -- the soundest rejection of the neoliberal project, right, and so it’s an endorsement of continuing with Kirchner’s program, which was an emphasis on social programs over, you know, the IMF project. I mean, Argentina has really aggressively rejected the IMF and structural adjustment project. And the only reason it hasn't gotten more attention is because people are so distracted by Venezuela. They haven’t really focused as much on Argentina. But Argentina has been very clear on that. And so, this is really a vote to continue with that project.
AMY GOODMAN: And explain exactly what Kirchner did and then what his wife, now the elected president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, will do.
JOCELYN OLCOTT: I mean, it’s interesting because it’s part of what, you know -- she forms part of what some people are calling this “pink tide,” really a turn in Latin America toward -- as part of this new left. What distinguishes this left turn from former left turns really is an emphasis on gender issues, more recognition of LGBT rights, which is something that Kirchner has been involved with. ...
AMY GOODMAN: Mark Weisbrot, your response to the victory of the first elected woman president of Argentina?
MARK WEISBROT: ... The IMF was opposed to all of the major policies, including the debt default. I mean, obviously they couldn’t pay their debt. But the IMF was pressuring them enormously to pay more to the foreign creditors, and they didn’t do it, because they knew that that would hurt the recovery. And they were under a lot of pressure. They stood up to the IMF. They even defaulted to the IMF temporarily in September 2003, which was a very gutsy thing to do, and the IMF backed down. And nobody knew really what was going to happen at that time, because they could have been, you know, punished very severely for that. So that was a historic move, as well, because it helped break the grip of the IMF and of Washington. Not only Argentina, but Latin America, was a major stage in that process of breaking up this creditors cartel, which had determined economic policy for so long in Latin America. Amy Goodman, The Pink Tide: In Defiance of IMF, Argentina Elects First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to Become Argentina's First Elected Female President, Democracy Now!, 10-30-07

Defying Latin America’s longtime reputation as a bastion of machismo, women in South America are winning political power at an unprecedented rate and taking top positions in higher education and even, albeit more slowly, in business. ... South American women also are leading important social movements and are earning, studying and speaking out more than ever. For the first time, women are forcing their traditionally male-dominated societies to confront such issues as domestic violence and reproductive health. ...
Women are considered possible successors to the top spot elsewhere in South America.
In Paraguay, former education minister Blanca Ovelar is a top candidate to represent the long-ruling Colorado Party in next April’s presidential race. In Brazil, presidential chief of staff Dilma Rousseff has emerged as a possible front-runner for the presidency in 2010. They follow women who were elected president in Central America in the 1990s, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in Nicaragua and Mireya Moscoso Rodriguez in Panama.
The emergence of what’s been called a “feminine bloc” in the Western Hemisphere’s Southern Cone is yet more evidence of the historic changes that have opened doors for millions of women.
Latin American women also have taken charge in more humble circumstances. Soledad Puebla, 54, runs a bustling day care center in the slums of Santiago, Chile’s capital. She’s also the activist heart of her neighborhood and a confidante of legislators in Bachelet’s government.
Puebla grew up desperately poor on the city’s periphery and worked for years as a nanny before she joined a local Lutheran church and became a community organizer. She eventually was appointed the church’s regional coordinator, which sent her around the world.
Speaking tearfully in her cramped office, she seemed astonished by her latest accomplishment - earning a college degree in social work, something that was unimaginable to the poorly educated grandparents who raised her.
“When I grew up, we didn’t even have a mattress to sleep on,” Puebla said. “So this is what I tell people now: When you want to rise as a woman and value your life, you can. But you have to be true to what you think and fulfill the agreement you make with yourself.” McClatchy Newspapers 2007

Some Related Posts

Global Campaign Against Poverty 10-17-07: Stand Up & Speak Out -- Raise Women Up, Defend Them Against Violence & Oppression, Put Them in Power

Human Rights Update 9-6-07: In the 21st Century, Sane Men are Feminists -- UNIFEM Works to Dismantle the Edifice of Dysfunction

UN Millennium Goals Update 5-30-07: In the Struggle to Empower Women & Children -- Very Good News, Very Bad News, & A Dose of Reality

Hard Rain Journal 2-17-07: UN Millennium Goals and Human Rights Update -- Healing Balm for the World? Feed Children, Empower Women

Hard Rain Journal 7-25-06: As the Next Bait & Switch Get Pulled, Remember Osama Bin Laden & the Child Brides of Afghanistan

For a directory of Words of Power UN Millennium Goals Updates, click here.

For a directory of Words of Power Human Rights Updates, click here.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner,, Argentina, Asia, Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights, UN Millennium Development Goals, Women's Rights, UNIFEM, Human Rights, Education, Feminism, Health, Sustainability, Poverty, Richard Power, Words of Power


Hard Rain Late Night: Madonna -- Frozen

Hard Rain Late Night: Madonna -- Frozen



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Burma & Darfur Update: Hypocrisy of Great Nations is Toxic, Complicity of Major Banks & Corporations is Shameless

Image: UNICEF Child Alert


Burma & Darfur Update: Hypocrisy of Great Nations is Toxic, Complicity of Major Banks & Corporations is Shameless

By Richard Power

Darfur and Burma reveal a hideous truth.

As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, the hypocrisy of the great nations, always rank, has become toxic, and the complicity of major banks and corporations, always significant, has become shameless.

The horror in Burma is probably as close to you as your vehicle's gas tank; the horror of Dafur is probably as close to you as your 401K.

Despite projecting themselves as champions of human rights in Burma and Darfur, the political leaders of France, USA and the UK contribute directly to the abuse of human rights in both countries, by refusing to take meaningful action that is well within their grasp, e.g., publicly leaning on their powerful corporate sponsors, like the executives of Chevron and Total, who shamelessly continue to keep the Burmese thugocracy flush with cash, or the executives of investment funds like JP Morgan, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Investments, Capital Group and Vanguard, or multinational corporations like Pepsi and Coca Cola, all of whom are complicit in some way in the Darfur genocide.

Image: UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari with Aung San Suu Kyi Rangoon


Yes, the Sudan Accountability and Investment Act is moving on bended knee through the halls of the US Congress, but what good does that do for the hundreds of refugees who were just forcibly relocated from the Otash camp into the hands of the Janjaweed?

An un-named UN official on Sunday saw the forced relocation of refugees at gunpoint from Otash camp to Amakassara.
The UN says this "dangerous precedent" could jeopardise Darfur peace talks.
Some 200,000 people are estimated to have died and more than two million displaced during the four-year war.
UN emergency relief coordinator Sir John Holmes said a UN official witnessed Sudanese security forces with sticks and rubber hoses coercing hundreds of refugees, including women and children, to leave Otash refugee camp on the outskirts of Nyala.
Other witnesses told the BBC they saw 10 vehicles with heavy machine guns surrounding people, while eight trucks were loaded with their belongings.
The refugees have been moved into an area where the UN says it is known that the Janjaweed militia operate. BBC, 10-30-07

India and China are exhibiting the ruthlessness required to moved from the status of developing economic power to developed economic power. That is bad enough. Their amorality is deplorable.

... more than 100 British lawmakers, in a letter addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao and delivered to the Chinese Embassy in London, called on China to review what was described as a policy of providing arms to the Sudanese government.
"It is not responsible at all," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference. "They have disregarded the Chinese efforts."
The letter said China was in a position to persuade Sudan's government to withdraw its support for attacks on civilians, give aid operations the freedom to work unhindered, abide by existing cease-fire arrangements, disarm militias and cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court. Associated Press, 10-30-07

But what is perhaps worse is that despite symbolic acts such as the well-intentioned letter from those 100 British MPs, the leaders of France, the USA and the UK -- nations which achieved great economic power long ago -- are simply unwilling to walk away from a few bloody but profitable deals for the sake of establishing a planetary precedent on human rights.

In the West, the people should demand more of their governments.

Burma and Darfur are not pieces of the map that one of the great nations wants to hold on to, like Chechnya or Tibet, or that one of them has seized directly by its own force of arms, like Iraq.

The economic engines of France, the USA, the UK, China, Russia and even India could do without the resources that the thugocracies in Sudan and Burma provide them with.

The sanctions being discussed by the great nations are irrelevant -- because they do not impact the business interests of those who dine at the same table with Bush, Sarkozy and Brown. The leaders of France and the USA are protecting the business interests of Chevron and Total at the expense of Aung San Suu Kyi and the long-suffering people of Burma.

Chevron, one of the largest U.S. energy companies, will keep its stake in a natural gas project in Myanmar, defying calls to leave after a crackdown on protesters by the country's ruling junta.
The people around the Yadana natural gas project and pipeline have benefited from jobs and investments in health care and education, Chevron's chief executive, David O'Reilly, said during an interview in Bangkok. Bloomberg, 10-29-07

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner defended the much-criticised presence of oil group Total in Myanmar, claiming that if it left the country it would cause suffering to the people of Myanmar and Thailand.
Speaking at a press conference in Bangkok, he said French groups leaving Myanmar would simply be replaced by other foreign corporations. Thompson Financial, 10-30-07

The vital work of confrontation is left to others, who lacking the power of the state, resort to what the Buddha called "expedient means" -- comedians who defy the junta with their humor and are imprisoned, and women all over the world who hurl their panties at Burmese embassies, or snail mail them, in a powerful act of psycho-sexual magic.

In the raw charisma department, Burma's opposition has something of an advantage over a military regime so nondescript its leaders are often referred to simply as "the generals." There's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who boasts a Nobel Prize and a place on Esquire magazine's 2002 "The Hottest Women We Absolutely Cannot Think of in That Way" list.
Not far behind is former movie star Par Par Lay, the lead comic of the Moustache Brothers, the most famous comedy troupe in Burma (also known as Myanmar). His wit often targets the government, and landed him in prison twice in the 1990s.
At midnight on Sept. 25, Mr. Par Par Lay was jailed a third time. The 60-year-old comic had been cooking curry for monks when he was taken from a community hall near his Mandalay home, says his brother and troupe mate, Lu Maw. . Christian Science Monitor, 10-30-07

Burma’s most famous comedian, Zarganar, was arrested for the second time this month in his home yesterday evening. Anonymous sources close to the artist reported the news to The Irrawaddy. According to the sources so far no formal charges have been laid against him; authorities only said that they wanted to interrogate him but did not specify how long he will be held in custody.
It’s suspected that Zarganar is again in trouble with the authorities for visiting monasteries following his release from his last stay in Insein prison on October 17. He had been arrested on September 25 for giving food and water to protesting monks during the September demonstrations. Asia News, 10-30-07

Women workers in Philippines today "attacked" the Burmese embassy in Makati by hurling panties in a demonstration against the junta's brutal crackdown on Burmese protesters in September. ... Burmese junta officials, are known to be highly superstitious and panties were deliberately thrown to condemn their actions, Jomar Bolo, spokesperson of the FBC, said. ... The protest called "Panty Power" joins activists' in several countries, including UK, Thailand, Australia and Singapore in sending panties to Burmese embassies.
The Lanna Action for Burma, which launched the "panties for peace" campaign, in its website encourages women to send their panties to the Burmese embassy saying ... "You can post, deliver or fling your panties at the closest Burmese Embassy any day from today. Send early, send often!" added the group. Mizzima, 10-26-07

Here are four more news stories on Burma and Darfur, which highlight the hypocrisy of government leaders and the complicity of business leaders in the USA, the UK, Switzerland, Israel and Australia:

NGOs have accused several Swiss banks of helping to finance atrocities in Sudan with oil investments that allegedly grease the government's military machine. A deal by Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, to underwrite the Shanghai listing of Chinese oil firm PetroChina has come under particular scrutiny. The banks deny their deals help fund the violence.
Some non-governmental organisations believe that the Sudanese government uses up to 70 per cent of its oil revenues to finance continued violence in conflict-ridden Sudan, particularly in the western province of Darfur. They have called on banks to stop investing in companies that do business in this sector.
The Swiss-based Berne Declaration, the Genocide Intervention Network and the Society for Threatened Peoples on Monday named several Swiss banks with alleged combined investments of SFr7 billion ($6 billion) in such firms. Swiss Info, 10-29-07

As for Burma, the essence of Britain's compliance and collusion has not changed. British tour firms - such as Orient Express and Asean Explorer - are able to make a handsome profit on the suffering of the Burmese people. Aquatic, a sort of mini-Halliburton, has its snout in the same trough, together with those that use Burmese teak.
When did Brown or Blair ever use their platforms at the CBI and in the City of London to name and shame those British companies that make money on the back of the Burmese people? When did a British prime minister call for the EU to plug the loopholes of arms supply to Burma. The reason ought to be obvious. The British government is itself one of the world's leading arms suppliers. ... And when did a British prime minister call on its ally and client, Israel, to end its long and sinister relationship with the Burmese junta? Or does Israel's immunity and impunity also cover its supply of weapons technology to Burma and its reported training of the junta's most feared internal security thugs? Of course, that is not unusual. The Australian government - so vocal lately in its condemnation of the junta - has not stopped the Australian Federal Police training Burma's internal security forces. John Pilger, Guardian, 10-27-07

In April 2006, a small group of Darfur activists -- including evangelical Christians, the representative of a Jewish group and a former Sudanese slave -- was ushered into the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a private meeting with President Bush. It was the eve of a major rally on the National Mall, and the president spent more than an hour holding forth, displaying a kind of passion that has led some in the White House to dub him the "Sudan desk officer."
Bush insisted there must be consequences for rape and murder, and he called for international troops on the ground to protect innocent Darfuris, according to contemporaneous notes by one of those present. He spoke of "bringing justice" to the Janjaweed, the Arab militias that have participated in atrocities that the president has repeatedly described as nothing less than "genocide." ... Yet a year and a half later, the situation on the ground in Darfur is little changed: More than 2 million displaced Darfuris, including hundreds of thousands in camps, have been unable to return to their homes. The perpetrators of the worst atrocities remain unpunished. Despite a renewed U.N. push, the international peacekeeping troops that Bush has long been seeking have yet to materialize.
Many of those who have tracked the conflict over the years, including some in his own administration, say Bush has not matched his words with action, allowing initiatives to drop because of inertia or failure to follow up, while proving unable to mobilize either his bureaucracy or the international community. Washington Post, 10-29-07

It has been more than a month since the world witnessed tens of thousands of Buddhist monks in saffron robes marching in solidarity with the Burmese people, protesting the military junta in that country. And yet, with a brutal crackdown, nightly curfews and a series of late-night police raids, the junta has reclaimed control. An ominous, Orwellian calm has descended.
The crackdown triggered widespread condemnation in the international community, notably from the U.N. Security Council. Even the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said it was “appalled” at reports of violence against unarmed civilians, and the United States and European Union tightened sanctions on the military regime. But much more is needed, and the United States should lead the way.
Despite its recent pronouncements, the international community has been painfully slow to demand that Myanmar’s junta enter into an irreversible process of national reconciliation and democratization. Indeed, many have forgotten that Ms. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and its allies won more than 80 percent of the seats in the country’s parliamentary elections. And the world has stood idly by as the military junta has burned 3,000 villages to the ground in eastern Myanmar, creating more than 1 million refugees and 600,000 internally displaced persons.
It is our obligation to stand in solidarity with the Burmese people, to stem the junta’s abuses and help restore democracy to their country. Jared Genser and Meghan Barron, Freedom Now, 10-26-07

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

If you want to help save Darfur, here are sites that will show you how:

Mia Farrow

Save Darfur!

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network


Some Burma-Related Words of Power Posts

Burma Crisis Update: Two Weeks Into the Crackdown, China Has Not Tempered the Thugocracy's Hand; Chevron Has Not Even Slapped Its Wrist

Human Rights Update 10-6-07: Chevron, Condoleeza Rice & the Burmese Thugocracy

Human Rights Update: Blackwater, Burma, Darfur & You

Human Rights Watch to Business: "Keeping quiet while monks & other peaceful protesters are murdered & jailed is not ... constructive engagement."

Human Rights Update: Blackwater, Burma, Darfur & You

Hard Rain Journal 9-27-07: Aung San Suu Kyi was Elected in 1990, Al Gore was Elected in 2000 -- Consider What Has Befallen Both Countries Since

Hard Rain Journal 9-27-07: Bush, Ahmadinejad and the Monks of Burma -- Illuminating Contrasts

Human Rights Update 9-24-07: Don't Miss the Multiple Meanings of this Moment in Burma

Human Rights Update 9-23-07: Will You Step Outside & Join the Burmese in 15 Minutes of Prayer?

GS(3) Thunderbolt 9-14-07: In Pakistan, the Dharma Repels an Attack; In Burma, the Dharma Sparks an Uprising

Human Rights Update 6-12-07: Remember Aung San Suu Kyi, Honor Her Sacrifice, Reflect on Your Own Freedom & What You Choose to Do With It

Hard Rain Journal 1-8-07: Human Rights and Environmental Security Update from Burma, Cambodia and Mekong River

Words of Power #24: Lost Symbols, Part One – Aung San Suu Kyi, AQ Khan, & The World Tree

Darfur, Africa,Mia Farrow, Total, Zarganar, Sudan, UN, Par Par Lay, Lanna Action for Burma
Chevron, Aung San Suu Kyi, China, Human Rights, Olympic Boycott, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Sinead O'Connor -- Troy

Hard Rain Late Night: Sinead O'Connor -- Troy



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Sinead O'Connor, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal: Asking the Right Questions -- It is Tyranny, Treason & Torture, Not Terrorism, that Will Destroy Us; Unless We Resist.

Image: La Liberté guidant le peuple par Eugène Delacroix (1830) (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Hard Rain Journal: Asking the Right Questions -- It is Tyranny, Treason & Torture, Not Terrorism, that Will Destroy Us; Unless We Resist.

By Richard Power

The question isn't whether or not the Bush-Cheney regime should attack Iran without first receiving explicit congressional authorization, the question isn't even whether or not the Bush-Cheney regime should get the funding to continue the occupation of Iraq.

The question is "How can the _resident be allowed to spend one more weekend mountain biking at Camp David while the men and women of the US military die in the Mega-Mogadishu of Iraq?"

The question isn't whether or not the VICE _resident should be investigated for his role in violations of the Foreign Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Freedom of Information Act or improprieties in regard to the awarding of no-bid DoD contracts to Halliburton, or for tampering with the operations of the CIA or the DoJ.

The question is, "Why should the US taxpayer foot the bill for this person to fall asleep at another cabinet meeting, shoot another friend in the face or spend any more time 'working in the shadows' from his secure, undisclosed location?"

The question is, "How can we remove these people from office peacefully and constitutionally; and if there is no way to remove them from office peacefully and constitutionally, how do we best use the political process to mitigate their destructive impact until their term is up?" The question is, "How do we insure that they leave at the end of it?"

The question is, "How do we make certain that they are not followed up by others like Giuliani or Romney, who although just as disturbed, might prove more competent?"

It is not terrorism that will destroy us, it is tyranny, treason and torture.

In recent days, despite the worst intentions of the US mainstream news media, the stark truth has bled through the fabric of self-deception, from within that mainstream itself.

However, without the aggregation, analysis and amplification that is only available in the blogosphere, the truth would be all too easily drowned out with nonsense.

So here are four nuggets of gold truth concerning Tyranny, Treason and Torture extracted from the mainstream media's mine of false memes:

Tyranny --

CNN commentator Jack Cafferty speculated on Wednesday about how George W. Bush's unilateral grab for presidential power might be reversed.
"The president of the United States didn't have the power to spy on Americans ... operate secret prisons ... suspend due process ... torture ... hide the conduct of the government from the public," Cafferty stated. "It's not like anybody gave President Bush any of these powers -- he took them, as a brain-dead Congress just stood there and watched."
In the follow-up segment, Cafferty read a selection of emails from clearly outraged -- and outspoken -- viewers ... "George Bush is the next president. He and Darth Cheney will be surrendering none of their bounty. Forty years of planning to hand it all to Hillary Clinton? Not a chance. If you think there'll be a November 8 election, give my regards to the Easter Bunny." Raw Story, 10-26-07

Treason --

Disclosure of her covert identity for political purposes was nothing short of "treason," outed former CIA agent Valerie Plame told Hardball host Chris Matthews Thursday on MSNBC. ...
"When your husband filed that story," Matthews said, "he must have known, didn't he, that he was gonna light a match that was going to lead all the way to you?"
Plame responded that her outing was not only unexpected, it was also treasonous.
"You cannot possibly be suggesting that with Joe's credentials, my airtight cover, that we actually anticipated that senior government officials would commit treason by blowing my covert identity," she said. Raw Story, 10-26-07

We know, with a 70 percent level of certainty — which is huge in the world of intelligence — that in August of 2007, bin Laden was in a convoy headed south from Tora Bora. We had his butt, on camera, on satellite. We were listening to his conversations. We had the world’s best hunters/killers — Seal Team 6 — nearby. We had the world class Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating with the CIA and other agencies. We had unmanned drones overhead with missiles on their wings; we had the best Air Force on the planet, begging to drop one on the terrorist. We had him in our sights; we had done it. Nice job again guys — now, pull the damn trigger.
Unbelievably, and in my opinion, criminally, we did not kill Usama bin Laden. ... The United States of America’s political and military leadership has, on at least three separate occasions, chosen not capture or kill bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri. We have allowed Pakistan to become a safe haven for Al Qaeda. We have allowed Al Qaeda to reconstitute, partially because of money they (Al Qaeda in Iraq) have been sending to Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Col. David Hunt, Fox News, 10-26-07

Torture --

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item -- he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him with torture. ...
The head of one of the groups responsible for bringing the charges, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, told RAW STORY today by phone that the suit was a long time coming.
"We've been working on cornering Rumsfeld and getting him indicted somewhere going on three years now," said the Center's president, Michael Ratner. "Four days ago, we got confidential information he was going to be in France."
Joined by activists, attorneys for the human rights groups caught up with Rumsfeld on his way to a breakfast meeting. "He was walking down the street with just one person," said Ratner.
"Around 20 campaigners gave Rumsfeld a rowdy welcome...yelling 'murderer,' waving a banner and trying to push into the building," reports AFP. ...
According to Ratner, France has a legal responsibility under international law to prosecute Rumsfeld for torture abuses. Raw Story, 10-26-07

For an archive of Words of Power posts on 9/11, Terrorism, etc., click here.

For an archive of Words of Power posts on Corporate News Media Complicity, Power of Alternative Media, Propaganda & Freedom of Press, click here.

Jack Cafferty, Donald Rumsfeld, Valerie Plame, Col. David Hunt, Bush, Cheney, Iraq, Iran, Richard Power, Words of Power


Sustainability & Climate Crisis Update: Truths, Lies & the Consequences of Both, A Glimpse into Our Orwellian Future

See The Eleventh Hour and Spread the Message to Your Friends and Colleagues

Sustainability & Climate Crisis Update: Truths, Lies & the Consequences of Both, A Glimpse into Our Orwellian Future

By Richard Power

It is almost too much to wrap your mind around, isn't it?

On one hand, you have the release of the UN's fourth Global Environmental Outlook, a report it describes as "the final wake-up call to the international community" --

Climate change, the rate of extinction of species and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, the UN Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997. "The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns," Achim Steiner, the executive director of the program, said in a telephone interview. Efficient use of resources and reducing waste now are "among the greatest challenges at the beginning of 21st century," he said.

On the other hand, you have the Bush-Cheney regime actively engaged in massive denial and deception on climate change and related issues: e.g., this week alone, the White House censored the CDC Director's congressional testimony on the public health impact of global warming, and then, in its defense, disseminated utter nonsense at a White House press briefing; meanwhile, the hacks and shills assigned to run FEMA were resorting to the production of a fake news conference on the forest fires raging in southern California --

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the “Human Impacts of Global Warming.” ... CDC officials are now revealing that the White House heavily edited Gerberding’s testimony, which originally was longer and had more “information on health risks“: “It was eviscerated,” said a CDC official, familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the review process. Think Progress, 10-23-07

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino ... claimed that “the decision” was “to focus that testimony on public health benefits” of climate change.” “There are public health benefits to climate change,” asserted Perino. Asked to explain what some of those benefits are, Perino said that climate change “would help those individuals” who “die from cold-related deaths every winter“ ... Think Progress, 10-25-07

Scientists and public and environmental health experts ... “overwhelmingly denounced” the White House’s editing of CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding’s congressional testimony on global warming. They called the edits “frustrating,” “terrible” and “appalling,” and acknowledged that the White House is denying widely accepted scientific conclusions ... Think Progress, 10-25-07

... while “wildfires raged” in California, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), held a press conference at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices that was “carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.” ... But if the questions lobbed at Johnson seemed a bit like softballs, that’s because they were asked by FEMA employees posing as journalists. ... Considering FEMA gave reporters “only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing,” it gives off the perception that they didn’t want reporters to show up and ask questions that would disrupt the agency’s propaganda performance. Think Progress, 10-26-07

If you think it would be any different with Giuliani or Romney, or any of the other crypto-fascists running for the nomination of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, you're wrong. This disgraceful abnegation of social and governmental responsibility is not a moral failure peculiar to the Bush-Cheney regime itself, it is shared by all who owe their power and position to corporatist interests. Indeed, even if a Democrat were to win the White House -- if the makeup of the US Senate remains as reactionary as it currently is -- any change will be only incremental, i.e., not nearly as sweeping or radical as needed.

The political establishment, the US mainstream news media and the corporate sponsors behind them both are all in deep denial; and therefore, we are all in deep trouble.

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

Click here for access to great promotional tools available on The Eleventh Hour action page.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here.

Want to wake people up to the US mainstream news media's complicity in misinforming the public on global warming and climate change? Click here for Media Matters' compilation of "Myths and Falsehoods about Global Warming".

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

Want to join hundreds of thousands of people on the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now? Click here.

Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio has released a witty and compelling compilation on the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming, organized into sections like "Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun" (e.g., "Goodbye to Pinot Noir," "Goodbye to Baseball," "Goodbye to Salmon Dinners," "Goodbye to Ski Vacations," etc.), "Global Warming Kills the Animals" (e.g., "Death March of the Penguins," "Dying Grey Whales," "Farwell to Frogs," etc.) and yes, "Global Warming Threatens Our National Security" (e.g., "Famine," "Drought," "Large-Scale Migrations," "The World's Checkbook," etc.) I urge you to utilize Top 100 Effects of Global Warming in your dialogues with friends, family and colleagues.

And don't forget to tune into Eco-Talk Radio on the air waves and/or in cyberspace.

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!,Forest+Fires, Drought, George Bush, The Eleventh Hour, Al Gore, UN, FEMA, CDC, Dana Perino, Julie Gerberding, Achim Steiner, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Bob Dylan -- Things Have Changed (Cardiff, 2000)

Hard Rain Late Night -- Bob Dylan -- Things Have Changed (Cardiff, 2000)



Click here for Hard Rain Late Night Music Video -- Archive

Bob Dylan,You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal: Some People in the US Congress are Willing to Articulate the Unspeakable; Unfortunately, Most Wear Visitor's Badges.

Image: Desiree Farouz of Code Pink Confronts Condoleeza Rice


Hard Rain Journal: Some People in the US Congress are Willing to Articulate the Unspeakable; Unfortunately, Most of Wear Visitor's Badges.

By Richard Power

There are some people in the Congress of the United States willing to articulate the unspeakable; unfortunately, most of them are wearing visitor's badges.

I do not know who Desiree Fairooz of Code Pink is in her personal life, I do not know who she sleeps with, or if she recycles, and I do not care.

She has earned praise, prayers and protection.

In a dramatic act of dissent at a House Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Desiree confronted Condoleeza Rice, up close and personal. She held up her hands, dripping with fake bloods, and said, "Blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands."

As she was dragged from the room, she called out "War criminal! ... War Criminal!

At the exit, she added, "Take her to the Hague."

It was the act of a powerful medicine woman.

Raw Story has the video.

I urge you to watch it.

Meanwhile, the horrific consequences and mind-blowing costs of this foolish military adventure continue to mount:

The Bush administration once imagined that its presence in Afghanistan and Iraq would be anchored by friendly neighbors, Turkey to the west and Pakistan to the east. Last week, as the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan continued to deteriorate, the anchors themselves also came loose.
On Sunday, just days after the Turkish Parliament authorized an invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish guerrillas ambushed and killed 17 Turkish soldiers inside Turkey. In Karachi, Pakistan, a massive bomb nearly killed U.S.-backed Benazir Bhutto, who was supposed to help stabilize the country. The Bush administration’s entire Middle East policy is coming undone — if it even has a policy left, other than just sticking its fingers in the multiple, and multiplying, holes in the dike. Juan Cole, Salon, 10-24-07

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported today that “total spending for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other activities related to the war on terrorism would amount to between $1.2 trillion and $1.7 trillion for fiscal years 2001 through 2017.” With $705 billion in interest, the cost of the wars could amount to $2.4 trillion — with $1.9 trillion in Iraq. Think Progress, 10-24-07

President George Bush will have spent more than $1 trillion on military adventures by the time he leaves office at the end of next year, more than the entire amount spent on the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.
There are also disturbing signs that Mr Bush is preparing an attack on Iran during his remaining months in office. He has demanded $46bn (£22.5bn) emergency funds from Congress by Christmas and included with it a single sentence requesting money to upgrade the B-2 "stealth" bomber. Leonard Doyle, Independent, 10-24-07

For the full Congressional Budget Office report on Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and of Other Activities Related to the War on Terrorism, click here.

Some Related Posts

Hard Rain Journal 10-19-07: The Courage of Sen. Dodd & Rep. Stark Highlights the Cowardice of the Leadership

Hard Rain Journal 9-23-07: MoveOn is My Party Now

Hard Rain Journal 9-11-07: Did you know that Petraeus did not testify under oath? Do you know how contorted his metrics are? Did you know ...

Hard Rain Journal 9-3-07: Update on the Coming "Confrontation" with Iran -- Will the USA Stumble From Stupidity to Insanity

Hard Rain Journal 8-5-07: Lessons from Soviet-Style Show Trail of Don Siegelman -- Learned or Unlearned?

Desiree Fairooz, Code Pink, CBO, Turkey, Juan Cole, Condoleeza Rice, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Richard Power, Words of Power


Climate Crisis Update: Business Won't Lead, Technology Can't Deliver A Panacea -- Only Political Action Driven By Science & Conscience Will Prevail

United States of Climate Change, Sightline


UPDATED: Fueled by hot, dry Santa Ana winds, fires raged across many parts of the region for the third straight day, taxing exhausted firefighters and the state's thinning resources, and chasing more than a million people from their homes. ... In the San Diego area, more than 500,000 people had been evacuated as late Tuesday and hundreds of thousands of homes in and around the city were under threat, as fires swept through rural areas and invaded insulated suburban communities. Thousands of residents found refuge at Qualcomm Stadium, where the NFL's San Diego Chargers team plays. Marketwatch, 10-23-07

With the South in the grip of an epic drought and its largest city holding less than a 90-day supply of water, officials are scrambling to deal with the worst-case scenario: What if Atlanta's faucets really do go dry? So far, no real backup exists. And there are no quick fixes among suggested solutions, which include piping water in from rivers in neighboring states, building more regional reservoirs, setting up a statewide recycling system or even desalinating water from the Atlantic Ocean. Associated Press, 10-20-07

"Climate change will effect every American economically in a significant and dramatic way," said Matthias Ruth, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research.
In a new study released this week, Ruth observed that further delays in tackling climate change would not only cause greater damage to the U.S. economy, but would also raise the future cost of dealing with natural disasters. ... "We're making billions of dollars of infrastructure investments every year and often without taking impacts of climate change into account," said Ruth, stressing there was a "strong need for action across all sectors." The report concludes that the real economic impact of climate change is "fraught with hidden costs," which will vary regionally and will put a strain on public sector budgets. Haider Rizvi, OneWorld, 10-17-07

Climate Crisis Update: Business Won't Lead, Technology Can't Deliver A Panacea -- Only Political Action Driven By Science & Conscience Will Prevail

By Richard Power

It was wearisome and discouraging to be ahead of the curve in time and consciousness, for so many years; but that time has past us by, the future has arrived.

Yes, there have always been fires in the West, especially when the Santa Ana blows; and yes, we would have experienced water crises sooner than later even without global warming. But, at this point, if you refuse to acknowledge the impact of climate change on both the ravaging fires in San Diego and the dire water shortage in Atlanta then you really should seek professional help -- and I don't mean the help of a lawyer or an insurance agent, I mean the help of a psycho-therapist.

Who am I talking about?

Oh, men like Stewart Dimmock and Robert Durward --

The school governor [Stewart Dimmock] who challenged the screening of Al Gore's climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a Scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists' claims about global warming. ... A High Court ruling last week that the Oscar-winning documentary would have to be screened with guidance notes to balance its claims was welcomed by climate-change sceptics. ... Dimmock credited the little-known New Party with supporting him in the test case ... Records filed at the Electoral Commission show the New Party has received nearly all of its money - almost £1m between 2004 and 2006 - from Cloburn Quarry Limited, based in Lanarkshire. The company's owner and chairman of the New Party, Robert Durward, is a long-time critic of environmentalists... Jamie Doward, Observer, 10-14-07

And the Board of Directors of Toyota --

Toyota has gotten a lot of mileage out of portraying itself as the greenest, most fuel-efficient car company on the planet, and has reaped the benefits both financially and pubic relations wise. Yet they are careening toward becoming the most hypocritical car company on the planet by aggressively opposing desperately needed higher U.S. fuel economy standards. Toyota should be worried that their green bubble will burst.

Let's take a little stock here. The company has sold over 1 million hybrids to consumers who'd rather sip gas than guzzle it, and who want to do their part in the battle against global warming. 

But now Toyota is teaming up with Detroit's Big Three to scuttle legislation that would raise fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 -- a technologically feasible, and urgently needed step ... Laurie David, Stop Global Warming, 10-10-07

And, of course, the ignorant man who is personally responsible for wasting seven years we could not afford to waste --

The speech that the president of the United States gave during the conference on "Energy Security and the Climate" that he organized in Washington deserves particular attention. ... most interesting of all is the way he envisages controlling the level of greenhouse gas emissions. Not by reducing energy consumption, the increase of which was, on the contrary, put forward as inescapable ... Mr. Bush effectively cites a series of techniques that present two characteristics: They're not operational and their success is not guaranteed. ... The problem of deadlines is fundamental here. Why? Because the same IPCC report mentioned by Mr. Bush concludes that we must not start reducing our emissions in 2040 or in 2050, but right now. ... Thus, a policy of "responsible stewardship" leads to applying today the most effective means available, which is to reduce energy consumption. That does not imply curbing the research into new technologies, but it does imply the obligation to accept that developed countries' present way of life must change. That also supposes a modified allocation of financial resources: If it is useful to invest in technologies that could be available in forty years, it is no less necessary to invest in the improvement of known and effective means to reduce energy consumption. Hervé Kempf
, Le Monde, 10-12-07

From my personal experience, I can affirm that Robert Reich is spot-on --

Gore deserves kudos, but it’s absurd to praise the corporations that are going green. Consider British Petroleum, which a few years ago shortened its name to BP and has promoted itself with a $200 million ad campaign as the environmentally friendly oil company that will go “Beyond Petroleum.” So far, though, it’s invested a tiny fraction of its oil profits in non-fossil based fuels, and caused the worst oil spill in the history of Alaska’s fragile north slope. Going green for public relations might help the bottom line but doesn’t help the environment. Other companies are going green because they can save money that way. ... Under super-competitive capitalism — what I’ve termed “supercapitalism,” it’s naive to think corporations can or will sacrifice profits and shareholder returns in order to fight global warming. Firms that go green to improve their public relations, or cut their costs, or anticipate regulations are being smart — not virtuous. So don’t expect corporations to lead the charge on global warming. That’s government’s job. And next time you hear a company boast about how environmentally friendly it is, hold the applause. Robert Reich, Common Dreams, 10-18-07

No, corporations will not lead the way, and technology will not deliver a panacea. The only course open to us is political action grounded in science and conscience.

The world, and in particular, the USA must not fail to reach a meaningful agreement in 2009, and then implement it without further delay --

A growing sense of urgency is pushing world leaders to agree a new treaty to fight climate change but the U.S. presidential election might still foil hopes of a deal by the end of 2009, experts told a Reuters summit. 

Many countries, including the United States and its main industrial allies in the Group of Eight, want a climate pact agreed by the end of 2009 to help slow warming that may bring more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas. 
... "There's every reason to believe in the possibility" of a deal by the end of 2009, said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program.

 "A lot will hinge on essentially what happens in the United States, and there we have every reason to believe that the position of he United States over the next few years will not be the same as it was," he said. 

Alister Doyle, Reuters, 10-4-07

Unfortunately, if the US presidential election is between Giuliani, Romney or whoever wins the nomination of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, and a corporatist Democrat, like Sens. Clinton or Obama, it is hard to imagine that the leadership demanded will be forthcoming (especially when you factor in the fossilizing influence of the US Senate, as it is currently populated).

It may well turn out to be Mother Nature herself which forces the issues.

She has already begun slapping her child, and shaking it by its shoulders, desperately trying to snap it out of its stupor before she loses it to a century of avoidable catastrophe --

Of the 33 cities predicted to have at least 8 million people by 2015, at least 21 are highly vulnerable, says the Worldwatch Institute.
They include Dhaka, Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai and Tianjin in China; Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt; Mumbai and Kolkata in India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan; Lagos, Nigeria; Karachi, Pakistan; Bangkok, Thailand, and New York and Los Angeles in the United States, according to studies by the United Nations and others.
More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change, say U.S. and European experts. Most imperiled, in descending order, are China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, the U.S., Thailand and the Philippines. Raw Story, 10-20-07

Global warming will result in more than rising oceans and melting icecaps. According to one of the world's leading fire ecologists, the warming trend is also increasing the intensity and number of forest fires so much that the American West could lose half its forests by the end of the century.
"As fires continue to burn -- these mega-fires continue to burn -- we may see, ultimately, maybe more than half the forest land converting to other types of ecosystems," says Tom Swetnam. "(It will happen) within some decades, to a century, as warming continues and we continue to get large-scale fires," he tells Pelley. CBS, 10-16-07

The head of a UN climate panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize warned Friday that Asia was particularly vulnerable to global warming, with the continent set for more disasters unless action is taken.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that fighting greenhouse gasses entailed more than adopting new technologies, with individuals required to change their lifestyles.
"Asia being the rapidly growing continent with the largest share of the human population located over here, clearly vulnerabilities in Asia are going to be of importance," Pachauri told an environmental conference in Tokyo.
The Indian scientist said Asia risked floods and diminished access to fresh water and food supply if global warming continued unabated. Agence France Press, 10-19-07

University of East Anglia researchers gauged CO2 absorption through more than 90,000 measurements from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments.
Results of their 10-year study in the North Atlantic show CO2 uptake halved between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005.
Scientists believe global warming might get worse if the oceans soak up less of the greenhouse gas.
Researchers said the findings, published in a paper for the Journal of Geophysical Research, were surprising and worrying because there were grounds for believing that, in time, the ocean might become saturated with our emissions. BBC, 1-20-07

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

Click here for access to great promotional tools available on The Eleventh Hour action page.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here.

Want to wake people up to the US mainstream news media's complicity in misinforming the public on global warming and climate change? Click here for Media Matters' compilation of "Myths and Falsehoods about Global Warming".

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

Want to join hundreds of thousands of people on the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now? Click here.

Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio has released a witty and compelling compilation on the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming, organized into sections like "Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun" (e.g., "Goodbye to Pinot Noir," "Goodbye to Baseball," "Goodbye to Salmon Dinners," "Goodbye to Ski Vacations," etc.), "Global Warming Kills the Animals" (e.g., "Death March of the Penguins," "Dying Grey Whales," "Farwell to Frogs," etc.) and yes, "Global Warming Threatens Our National Security" (e.g., "Famine," "Drought," "Large-Scale Migrations," "The World's Checkbook," etc.) I urge you to utilize Top 100 Effects of Global Warming in your dialogues with friends, family and colleagues.

And don't forget to tune into Eco-Talk Radio on the air waves and/or in cyberspace.

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!,Forest+Fires, Drought, George Bush, The Eleventh Hour, Al Gore, Asia, San Diego, Atlanta, Toyota, Robert Reich, Stewart Dimmock, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Hiromi Uehara -- Deep Into The Night

Hard Rain Late Night: Hiromi Uehara -- Deep Into The Night



Click here for Hard Rain Late Night Music Video -- Archive

Hiromi Uehara,You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal: 7 More Nails that the US Mainstream News Media Won't Pound into GOP's Coffin; False "Daddy" Meme Must Be Perpetuated At All Cost

VIDEO: Valerie Plame Confirms Her Covert Status Prior To Novak Leak

Hard Rain Journal: 7 More Nails that the US Mainstream News Media Won't Pound into GOP's Coffin; False "Daddy" Meme Must Be Perpetuated At All Cost

By Richard Power

You have heard, ad nauseam, the false meme that the US electorate feels "safer" under the leadership of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, and the Bush-Cheney regime in particular.

I say it is a false meme for two reasons: 1) the US electorate did not choose Bush-Cheney in 2000 or 2004, and 2) US national security has been shredded and smoke (from within) since this illegitimate regime was installed in 2000, and the overwhelming evidence is not lost on the man and woman in the streets.

Of course, the US mainstream news media will divert your attention as best it can; after all, the meme has to stay alive in order to attempt to shoe horn Giuliani, or Romney, or whoever, into the Oval Office.

One of the US mainstream news media's most effective ways to avoid debunking this and other false memes (like the one that says "the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party stands for fiscal responsibility and less government") is by simply not providing context or continuity. If you can just report a damning story and then drop it, you do less damage than if you are compelled to aggregate such stories when they relate to the same subject matter, e.g., US national security.

Here are seven nails that the US mainstream news media refuses to pound into the political coffin of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party (and its most exemplary expression, i.e., the Bush-Cheney regime) -- as if it isn't enough that Bin Laden and Zawahiri are still alive, and nuclear-tipped Pakistan could fall into the hands of their allies.

Nail #1: For the sake of domestic political damage control, Bush-Cheney hurt US intelligence efforts to thwart the Iranian quest for nuclear weapons:

In one of his recent (and increasingly delusional) sound-bytes, Bush claims that the danger of Iran developing nuclear weapons is so great that it could lead to WW III. And yet, he allowed his political hit-men to take out one of this country's secret agents -- a woman assigned to thwart that very danger -- in retribution for her husband's outspoken dissent on the false premises with which Bush launched the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In her first interview since Bush administration officials outed her as a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson reveals to CBS 60 Minutes that she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview to be aired this Sunday, CBS reports that she was “involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran.” Think Progress, 10-20-07

Nail #2: Even the military-industrial complex itself is moving away from these people, afraid that their delusional policies will end up doing irreparable harm to the conduct of business:

The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street’s favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months ... An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts. Independent, 10-19-07

Nail #3: US Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (Ret.), who preceded Casey and Petraeus as the leader of "coalition forces" has joined the swelling ranks of those commanders who both served on the ground in Iraq and have spoken out -- in clear and damning terms -- against what is going on there:

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq for the first year of the occupation, blamed “incompetence” by President George W. Bush’s national security team for creating a “nightmare” that could last far into the future. ...
“There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetence in strategic leadership among our national leaders,” Sanchez said. “They have unquestionably been derelict in the performance of their duty. In my profession, these types of leaders would be immediately relieved or court-martialed.” ...
“The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency [structure], especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure and the American people must hold them accountable. …
“There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight.” Robert Parry, Consortium News, 10-12-07

Nail #4: In what should be a devastating blow to the Bush-Cheney regime and the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has banned the phrase "Global War on Terror" from Pentagon communications:

In May, former senator John Edwards (D-NC) said that “war on terrorism” is a “slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe.” During a press conference, Bush attacked critics of the phrase, calling them “naive“... Al Kamen reports today that incoming Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike McMullen is also opposed to the use of the words “global war on terror“: Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) and has prohibited using it “in any future correspondence,” according to a Sept. 27 e-mail from a Mullen aide. Think Progress, 10-5-07

Nail #5: Just as in the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the US intelligence community is speaking with clarity and urging caution. And, just as in the lead-up to the attack on Iraq, if Bush-Cheney and the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party gets its way, the US intelligence community will be ignored now, and blamed later:

...NBC’s Howard Fineman revealed that the intelligence community will release “three different reports” in upcoming weeks to “slow down” the administration’s current drumbeat for war with Iran:
The intelligence community over the next few months is going to come out with three different reports on Iran about internal political problems of Iran, about the economy, and about their nuclear capability.
Those are going to be key to decide what the Bush administration is going to do, and it’s the intelligence community I think trying to slow down what the president, most particularly the vice president, want to do in Iran. Think Progress, 10-7-07

Nail #6: In the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, many dissenters said that oil was at or near the top of the hidden agenda, and they were mocked for it. Now, after the deaths of thousands of US military personnel and hundreds of thousands Iraqis (if not over a million Iraqis), some of the high and mighty nonchalantly acknowledge that it was indeed about oil. And yet, incredibly, we are supposed to believe that the penchance for attacking Iran has nothing to do with oil:

In recent weeks, two key players have confessed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was indeed about oil: at a Stanford University conference, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, remarked, “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that" (Think Progress, 10-15-07), and in his memoirs, Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, wrote: “the Iraq War is largely about oil" (Washington Post, 9-17-07)

Nail #7: At the very least, the USA's own nuclear weapons safeguards have broken down under the stress that the Bush-Cheney regime has placed on the military; and arguably, worst case, something weird, unprecedented and potentially catastrophic has been thwarted:

The Air Force said Friday it has punished 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions.
"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.
Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day. Associated Press, 10-19-07

For an archive of Words of Power posts on 9/11, Terrorism, etc., click here.

For an archive of Words of Power posts on Corporate News Media Complicity, Power of Alternative Media, Propaganda & Freedom of Press, click here.

John Abizaid, Ricardo Sanchez, Valerie Plame, Alan Greenspan, Hillary Clinton,Iran,Richard Power, Words of Power


Sustainability Update: Each Hectare of Forest Lost is One Less Sand Grain in the Hour Glass of Our World

See The Eleventh Hour and Spread the Message to Your Friends and Colleagues


Sustainability Update: Each Hectare of Forest Lost is One Less Sand Grain in the Hour Glass of Our World

By Richard Power

The great forests of the Earth are being felled.

Ignorant men with bulldozers and chain-saws are just as dangerous to our future as ignorant men with tanks and automatic weapons.

Each hectare of forest that is lost is one less sand grain in the hour glass of our world. All life is a oneness. As the forests diminish, you and I diminish.

Here are excerpts from two important stories, one from Asia, one from South America, with links to the full texts:

When a global anti-graft watchdog surveys the Asian landscape for corruption indicators, the continent’s forests depleted by illegal logging invariably enter the picture.
And as the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) notes, in countries where excessive corruption prevails, the destruction of natural resources, such as local forests, for private gain is not far behind. ‘’Illegal logging is a symptom of the disease of corruption,’’ says Lisa Elges, TI’s senior programme coordinator for the Asia-Pacific region. ‘’In countries where deforestation is predominant, corruption is very high.’’ ...
In fact, TI estimates that if left unchecked, the current pace of illegal logging in the Asian region could result in a loss of 6.6 million hectares by 2020. The affected countries range from Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia to Burma, Laos and Papua New Guinea.
Currently, Asia and the Pacific have 700 million ha of forestland out of the world’s 3.9 million ha, or some 30 percent of the earth’s landmass. In the past 15 years, however, this region lost 10 million ha of its forest cover, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the U.N. agency that hosted the conference on forestry, which drew 250 experts, policy makers and activists from 39 countries. ... Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service, 10-20-07

Eight Greenpeace activists trapped in a Brazilian environmental protection agency (Ibama) office, for nearly two days, have finally managed to escape. Our team was forced to seek refuge in the Ibama Amazon base, after loggers blocked them from transporting a dead Brazil nut tree we had government permission to collect and use.
300 loggers, with eight trucks, ten vans, and 15 motorbikes surrounded the building. Then, last night, Brazilian police escorted our team to out of town.
We intended to use the Brazil nut tree as part of a public exhibition exposing Amazon destruction and its contribution to global warming. The tree was taken from land that had been illegally cleared and burnt.
Unfortunately, the Brazilian government gave in to the loggers, and revoked Greenpeace's license to remove, transport and exhibit the valuable and protected Brazil nut tree, now in custody of the loggers. Despite the government back down, many loggers continued to surround the building with our activists inside. It was not until police committed to escort them later that night, that the Greenpeace team was able to make it to safety. ... Deforestation is responsible for three quarters of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions, and makes the country the fourth largest climate polluter in the world. Our exhibition using the Brazil nut tree to highlight this has wide support across the country. Governors of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have already confirmed their attendance. Greenpeace, 10-18-07

See also Sustainability Update: Thom Hartmann & Bioneer Kenny Ausubel on Evolution, Not Devolution -- From Warring Tribes of Bacteria to Green Collar Justice, Sustainability Update 10-5-07: Ask Them, "What Is It That You Don't Understand?" and Sustainability Update 4-19-07: Simple Truths

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Deforestation, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!,Greenpeace, Brazil, Brazil, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Eleventh Hour, FAO, Transparency International, Asia, Richard Power, Words of Power