The people killed in the massacre yesterday were inside and around a Shia shrine (Magham Seyede Sakina). It was obviously carried out by western and Saudi Backed Takfiris.

Posted by: Amar | Aug 26 2012 12:55 utc | 3

Most humane army in the world is at it again, this time abusing kids:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Aug-26/185720-israel-ex-soldiers-say-troops-abused-palestinian-kids.ashx#axzz24fGx0Xvz

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 26 2012 15:03 utc | 5

The oil industry is expressing doubts about the safety of fracking
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Evidence_of_fracking_risks_grow_in_Texas_and_other_states/9a1b907f8bc3.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OilvoiceHeadlines+%28OilVoice+Headlines%29

Posted by: scottindallas | Aug 26 2012 20:02 utc | 7

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the U.S. State Department says the Honduran government is taking adequate measures to address congressional concerns about human rights.

Posted by: Maracatu | Aug 27 2012 15:21 utc | 9

The Norwegian Mari Skaare has been appointed Special Representative for Women Peace and Security in NATO, probably after the NATO summit where Amnesty gave its support with the “NATO – Keep the progress going” thing.

Posted by: Alexander | Aug 28 2012 16:46 utc | 11

Arabs in the Middle East, polls show, are fearful of the Israel nuclear threat and not fearful of Iran, which doen’t have nukes. They want a nuclear-free Middle East, and pending that they want Israel under the NPT. (Israel was one of the charter memebers of the IAEA, incidentally.)
Concerning the IAEA General Conference:
Supplementary Item for Inclusion(pdf) in the Provisional Agenda, Jun 19, 2012 (excerpts)

On 13 June 2012, the Director General received a request, submitted by the Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on behalf of the Arab States that are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for the inclusion of an item entitled “Israeli nuclear capabilities” in the agenda of the 56th (2012) regular session of the General Conference.
It is suggested, for consideration by the General Committee, that this item follow item 19 of the provisional agenda and be discussed in the Plenary.
Text of letter received on 13 June 2012 from the Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan On behalf of the Arab States that are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Tunisia, the Republic of Algeria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Republic of Iraq, the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait, the Lebanese Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of Yemen, the Sultanate of Oman, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and Palestine (observer), I have the honour to forward to you the request, based on the decisions of the Council of the Arab League at the level of the Summit and Arab Foreign Ministers, for the inclusion of an item on “Israeli nuclear capabilities” in the agenda of the fifty-sixth session (2012) of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
An item on “Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat” has been on the agenda of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 1987 and the Conference has adopted resolutions calling upon Israel to place its nuclear installations under Agency safeguards.
The policies of Israeli Governments have obstructed the peace process in the Middle East and thwarted all initiatives to free the region of the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, and in particular of nuclear weapons.
Adoption of the resolution entitled “Israeli nuclear capabilities” (GC(53)/RES/17) by the fiftythird session of the IAEA General Conference has highlighted the international community’s concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities, and it called upon Israel to accede to the NPT and place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive Agency safeguards. Also, the resolution urged the Director General to work with the concerned States towards achieving that end and to submit a report to the Board of Governors and the General Conference at its fifty-fourth session on the implementation of this resolution.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 28 2012 23:33 utc | 13

Progressive Radio Network FM: The Gary Null Show – Rocky Anderson – 08/24/12
Some of the best 2 hrs of radio I’ve had the pleasure listening to in a long time.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Aug 29 2012 13:58 utc | 15

Two RNC Attendees Removed After Throwing Nuts At Black CNN Camerawoman
David Taintor August 29, 2012, 11:34 AM 31216\l
Nearly 24 hours after an ugly incident in which two attendees at the Republican National Convention in Tampa were ejected after throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying, “This is how we feed animals,” remarkably few details about the particulars of the incident have emerged.
CNN, convention organizers, the RNC, and the managers of the venue itself have all either declined to provide more information about what exactly happened or have referred questions to one of the other entities involved.
It remains unknown whether the two attendees were delegates to the convention, which state delegation they were members of, whether they were forcibly removed from the arena, whether their convention credentials have been revoked, or whether they will be back in attendance today.
Here’s what is known.
There were multiple witnesses to the exchange, according to
CNN’s own, sparse report on the incident, but no witness accounts were included in the story and no witnesses have thus far come forward.
The CNN report also says that police and RNC security immediately removed the two attendees. But the City of Tampa’s Joint Information Center, which has been in contact with the Secret Service, told TPM on Wednesday there is no record the Tampa Police Department was involved “in any way shape or form.”
Convention officials are staying tight-lipped about the incident. In a statement, convention spokesman Kyle Downey said the attendees “exhibited deplorable behavior.”
“Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated,” he added.
But convention officials have offered no additional details about the incident or what steps they are taking to address it, including whether the alleged culprits have had their convention credentials revoked.
CNN, too, won’t say much. In a statement, the network acknowledged the incident, but gave few details: “CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.”
The security office for the Tima Bay Times Forum, the site of the convention, referred calls to arena managers, who could not be reached for comment.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/cnn-rnc-convention- camerawoman.php

Posted by: brian | Aug 30 2012 7:29 utc | 17

Pirate Bay founder arrested in Cambodia and deported to Sweden earlier today
http://www.khmer440.com/k/2012/09/pirate-bay-founder-gottried-svartholm-arrested-in-phnom-penh-cambodia/

Posted by: bokonon | Sep 1 2012 18:36 utc | 19

will american heads roll?
‘In June-July, the Akula-class submarine, an attack warship capable of carrying long-range ballistic missiles, travelled in the Gulf of Mexico patrolling the US coast. The US satellites and hydro-acoustic sensors failed to spot it. The US Navy spotted only the submarine’s tail when it was leaving the waters of the Gulf.’
http://www.voltairenet.org/Undetected-Russian-submarine-in-US
apparently its ok for US subs to prowl the china sea of Persian gulf; but russians in gulf of mexico make americans go ballistic

Posted by: brian | Sep 2 2012 6:33 utc | 21

wrong link given above
this is the correct one
http://tinyurl.com/9hz86wv

Posted by: denk | Sep 2 2012 15:02 utc | 23

@denk #23
Venezuela refinery explosion — payback for the Chevron refinery explosion on August 6 in Richmond, California? Or maybe it’s simply a coincidence.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 2 2012 15:36 utc | 25

Yes, that was sarcasm. Forgot the snark tag.

Posted by: Maxcrat | Sep 3 2012 15:30 utc | 27

the sitemeter has been down for awhile.i wonder what’s up with that. i like checking to see who’s on and what they are looking it. hmmm mystery

Posted by: annie | Sep 4 2012 0:37 utc | 29

don bacon
*I don’t agree with your take on India as being a US handmaiden*
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/09/dempsey-war-on-iran-would-be-illegal.html#c6a00d8341c640e53ef017c319b933f970b
its not for nothing that india is often called the *israel of south asia*
cia/raw/mossad collusion in afpak is common knowledge now, well at least to those who have been paying attention.
its also open secret that israel has been tutoring india in *anti terrosim* tactics in kashmir etc
otoh,
india fukus *joint ventures* in south asia have been going on surreptitiously for yrs, without a peep from the *international community*
here’r but two examples of fukusi[ndia] skulldugeries in nepal
just the tip of the iceberg, mind u.
http://tinyurl.com/lqq8p5
http://tinyurl.com/cwg7hr
here’s a tip
how to see whether a government is *on side* with fukus.
if u r *in*, u get a free hand in dealing with ur *terrarists*, fact is, fukus often lend a helping hand.
in the war on the south asia indigenuous indians, bharat got state of art technical support, drones, satellites image, plus *advisors* from the exterminators of north american indians.
otoh, when hans got chopped up, bashed in, burned to charcoal in xinjiang, tibet. the *international community* jumped on china like tons of bricks, for…..u guess it, *brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors* ,
sounds familiar ?

Posted by: denk | Sep 5 2012 5:29 utc | 31

Anonymous Operations ‏@Anon_Central
Pirate Bay Founder’s Arrest Followed By $59m Swedish Aid Package For Cambodia | http://dlvr.it/26CVy1
============
isnt that corruption? AID(really swedis taxpayers money here) is used to buy govts…will they also try to corrupt Ecuador govt?

Posted by: brian | Sep 6 2012 12:53 utc | 33

Here’s the Arabs telling Canada what they can do…. http://www.brandonsun.com/business/breaking-news/rcmp-asks-media-to-submit-and-censor-questions-on-behalf-of-united-arab-emirates-168957916.html?thx=y

Posted by: brian | Sep 8 2012 7:08 utc | 35

I want to elaborate over two aspects of Unknown Unknowns’ merciless depiction of the dilemma facing western intellectuals, Identity and servitude (accepting the “us against them” meme) or Principle (and nihilism)
1) I first of all would like to defend Enlightenment, which gets the blame for everything, nowadays; instead, I believe XVIIIth century France has been the real high point in European civilization, if this word has a meaning; they invented this term, btw, meaning “politeness” and “humanity”, often used in opposition to the barbarian ways of the authorities and public institutions of the time; rather, it was the XIXth century that started using the term as a club with which to smash the opponents’ – preliminarily classified as primitives, or “inferior civilizations” – heads); the Enlightenment witnessed an unprecedented and unsurpassed widespread interest for philophy, science, social problems and the conditions of mankind;
maybe the Enlightenment tried to “severe God’s head from the godhead and replace it with a human one”, but always thinking that human reason reflected divine or cosmic principles, so in practice it was mainly only a call for autonomy from the clerical hierarchies and Biblical citations; and the Enlightenment divinity was a benign one; and even when they called it Science, they meant human knowledge and understanding, not power
The real problems arose a century later, in the second half of XIXth century, when the industrial revolution gave rise to extremely powerful and ambitious states, and when Darwinism spread, with its principle of evolution through the “survival of the fittest”, readily adapted to wars between “civilizations” (the term being used this way for the first time), wars between states, and competition between individuals; and Positivism came to dominate the debate over social problems; that’s when everything changed; that’s when Europeans really “severed God’s head from the godhead”; but they didn’t substitute it with a human one, but with the myth of Science, improperly given the task to guarantee the standing of “post-Christian Christianity”: assure it of his destiny: the power to command over nature and all its creatures, and assure such destiny through a “certain knowledge”; of course, Science soon showed its limits and “irrational” reactions and alternatives arose since the beginning of the XXth century;
2) regarding the western intellectual’s dilemma (historically, the terms “intellectual” and “leftist” largely coincide): there has always been an unaknowledged tension between “humanism” and “identitarism”, between the universalistic principles of modern (western) conscience and the grand narrative according to which it was “us” Europeans / westerners, heirs of Greek civilization, not anybody else, who operated this break-through of “rationality” against “superstition” and the power of tradition; this tension between universalistic principles and a particularistic (racist is a more precise term) sense of belonging to a “superior civilization” can remain hidden until one believes at the big narrative of Western civilization – a big fable, in fact, but higly articulated and not easy to debunk as a whole
once one realizes that Western civilization is a fable, the outcome isn’t particularly traumatic: you simply become more humble, tolerant and radically anti-imperialistic and anti-racist; if instead you keep believing something like “western civilization” exists, then you convince yourself that yes, “we” are the problem, but also that “we” are the solution (especially to the problems we created in the first place), so you tend to accept imperialism as inevitable and as the “lesser evil”
3) as UU pointed out, “blogistan” isn’t an appropriate place for this kind of discussions; but really the state of western societies, the perduring strength of certain mythologies, the fabricated “historical narratives” instilled in our heads since school, etc mean that a new political conscience can only arise as a result of a clarification on who “we” really are or want to be, where we are headed, when and why the demonic desire of world domination appeared and captured us, etc; also, it’s necessary to go beyond the denounciation of all the intellectuals that betray our sacrosanct anti-imperialistic principles, and reach a comprehension of the hidden strengths of the “Empire’s religion”, so I found UU’s post extremely stimulating

Posted by: claudio | Sep 9 2012 1:28 utc | 37

‘But that is what Red Dawn depicts–a weird historical reversal–and it is just so damn awkward. The white heroes of Washington State are upset that their land–their home–is being taken over by invaders. And the contrast to the actual history of Asians in Washington State is also quite stark.
In Red Dawn, Washington patriots must defend their home by driving out Asian invaders– an unrealistic scenario that has never occurred in history. The historic scenario was essentially the exact opposite: The citizens of Washington, driven by racism, invaded and burned down entire Asian American communities and drove Asian Americans from their homes and out of the State, forcing them onto trains to Oregon.
Anti-Chinese riots as illustrated in Harper’s Weekly, Seattle, 1886
In the late 1800s, discrimination against Asians in Washington State was particularly pronounced; there were more than 150 documented mob attacks against Chinese communities and settlers throughout North America. (This ethnic cleansing tactic, practiced in places including Los Angeles and Seattle, was dubbed “The Tacoma Method” after the Tacoma Riot of 1885 that inspired anti-Chinatown lynching movements across the Pacific Coast.)
So it’s more than a little ironic to have a film set in Washington State depicting Asian people oppressing white Washington State residents (and their people of color friends/acquaintances.)’

Posted by: brian | Sep 9 2012 3:19 utc | 39