Words fail (via Jim Lobe at IPS): Yes, it’s apparently true: 63% of Republicans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded it in 2003. That, according to a… remarkable new survey… on foreign policy attitudes of self-identified Republicans, Democrats, and independents that was noted by… Dan Drezner… in his blog today and released…
Small sample of bile I have to read
Another day and here’s just one kind of hate email/vile racism I receive: So marine le pen is a crypto jew. if only ALL the fucking jews and muslim would fuck off to their filthy country and get out of Europe, we would then be able to leave in peace. This of course will not…
West loves Saudi repression on a daily basis
Yes (via Salon’s Glenn Greenwald): For all the righteous talk about human rights oppression and violent assaults on democratic protesters in the Muslim world, any honest ranking would place Saudi Arabia… near… or at… the top… of that list. This week, the long-time head of the deeply repressive Saudi Interior Ministry, Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, died.…
Drone killings; justice must be done soon
This is Barack Obama’s legacy (via the Guardian): The US policy of using aerial drones to carry out targeted killings presents a major challenge to the system of international law that has endured since the second world war, a… United Nations… investigator has said. Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or arbitrary executions,…
Our privatised world grows with barely any media or political protest
One (via the Guardian): Private companies will be running large parts of the UK’s… police… service within five years, according to the world’s biggest security firm. David Taylor-Smith, the head of… G4S… for the UK and Africa, said he expected police forces across the country to sign up to similar deals to those on the table in the… West Midlands…
Melbourne Triple R radio on PEN lecture and freedom of speech
This week I gave the 2012 Free Voices PEN lecture in Melbourne. I was interviewed about the issues on Melbourne’s … Triple RRR Spoke program:
Remember #Kony2012? US massively expands private contractors in Africa to find him
The Washington Post recently published this fascinating report on Washington’s huge reliance on private contractors in Africa for a range of unaccountable tasks. 21st century war: Four small, white passenger planes sit outside a hangar here under a blazing sun, with no exterior markings save for U.S. registration numbers painted on the tails. A few…
Writer Alice Walker refuses to be published by Israeli publisher
The following letter was sent by Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker to Israel’s Yediot Books: … June 9, 2012 Dear Publishers at Yediot Books, Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE.… It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason:… As you may…
Long #LeftTurn review in Online Opinion
Here’s a review by Melbourne-based academic Marko Beljac published in Online Opinion: The meltdown in global financial markets had some commentators, most prominently Robert Manne, advance the view that neoliberalism was finished. The dominant economically rationalist strand of liberal ideology, which coloured policy making in the preceding 30 odd years, was revealed to be intellectually…