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I grew up around a radioactive toxic mess called the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, in a gorgeous place, Washington's Olympic Peninsula, by way of Western Oklahoma, another gorgeous place. I'm a compulsive writer and sometimes I sign as AnnieGetYourGang.
Sunday, January 1, 2012 Congo: What's Rwanda got to do with it?
At a Senate Foreign Relations hearing last week, speakers from the International Crisis Group, a group of capital managers and highly placed government officials and lawyers, and Mvemba Dizolele, a Congolese fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, warned that the Democratic Republic of the Congo could be on the brink of civil war after a massively fraudulent election which incumbent President Kabila claims to have won. Many Congolese now protesting the election fraud, both in Congo and around the world, have been chanting, "Send him back to Rwanda." They believe that Joseph Kabila is a Rwandan named Hypolite Kanambe, who is pretending to be Congolese while collaborating with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in plundering Congo.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 South Africa on the Global Occupy Map
South Africa is the only African nation yet to appear on the Global Map of actions by the Occupy Movement. On November 13th, Occupy South Africa activist Ayanda Kota, Chair of the Grahamstown, South Africa Unemployed Peoples' Movement, spoke to Pacifica KPFA Radio-Berkeley.
Thursday, October 13, 2011 NATO didn't bomb Libya for the 99% (1 comments)
A video on the Occupy South Africa website identifies the Libyan rebels backed by NATO's bullets, bombs, and surveillance tech as part of the movement rallying around the banner "We are the 99%." I disagree.
Sunday, September 11, 2011 Ingabire on Trial, Kagame in France, Obama for Kagame Immunity in the U.S.
Victoire Ingabire's trial will resume in Kigali, Rwanda, on Monday, where Ingabire is expected to testify in her own defense. Ingabire is on trial for terrorism and genocide ideology, which, in her case, means refusing to deny that Rwandan Hutus as well as Tutsis, died in ethnic violence before, during, and after the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. As Ingabire prepares to testify, Rwandan President Paul Kagame is on his way to France in response to the invitation of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, and, President Obama has requested immunity for Kagame, as a head of state, in the civil lawsuit, Habyarimana v. Kagame, which alleges Kagame and his officers' guilt in the Rwanda Genocide and Congo Wars, and demands damages for the widows of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira.
Friday, September 2, 2011 Free African political prisoner Victoire Ingabire
We need an international movement to free Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Her case is important to African people all over the continent and in the Diaspora and to all of us, all people. The weight on Victoire's shoulders is that of resource war, the ongoing wars for the world's natural resources that threaten to destroy the whole planet. The fate of her tiny East African nation, Rwanda, is intertwined with the resource war in Rwanda's vast, resource rich neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, site of the most lethal conflict since World War II.
Monday, August 1, 2011 Disease, Brutality, and Forced Labor in Uganda's Packed Prisons
As Jonathan Vojir pointed out in the OpEdNews last week, in "Africa's 'Gay Question': Ghana Teeters On The Brink Of A Holocaust ...Just Like Uganda," there's no need to "hang the gays," as proposed in Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act, to kill them. Confinement in a Ugandan prison will likely do, even if they're never convicted of the Ugandan crime of homosexuality. Fifty-six percent of Ugandan prisoners, who live in conditions of virtual slavery, have never been convicted of any crime, and may nevertheless die of disease, overwork, or violence before being freed.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 Western funded genocide: Ethiopia and the Ogaden
Ethiopian troops are in the oil rich, contested Sudanese Abyei region in accordance with a new U.N. Security Council resolution invoking sovereign nations' "responsibility to protect" vulnerable populations from genocide and mass atrocities if their own governments aren't protecting them. But human rights investigators say that the Security Council is ignoring Ethiopia's own genocide in the Ogaden Basin, and that the West is funding it.
Saturday, June 25, 2011 Sudan: Geostrategic Genocide Intervention
The UN has reported that almost 113,000 have fled the disputed, oil-rich region of Abyei to escape fighting by troops of what are expected to become the independent states of North and South Sudan on July 9th. The day before John Prendergast, Bill Clinton's former National Security Council Director for African Affairs, and co-founder of the ENOUGH Project, a non-profit lobbying organization, had called on the Obama Administration to, quote, "begin preparations to provide air defense capabilities to the Government of South Sudan." Critics responded that Prendergast and ENOUGH were encouraging all out war in Sudan and using genocide prevention as an excuse to expand U.S. influence and military dominance in Africa.
Sunday, June 12, 2011 "Kagame Stop Killing": Rwandans and Congolese protest in Chicago
Rwandan, Congolese, and American activists rallied at the city of Chicago's Hyatt Regency Hotel on Saturday, 06.11.2011, to protest Rwandan President Paul Kagame's presence in the city. They charge that Kagame is responsible for many of the massacres of the Rwanda Genocide and the ensuing Congo Wars.
Saturday, April 30, 2011 Flashpoints: Will Uganda be the next Egypt or Tunisia?
04.28.2011 - Pacifica's KPFA Flashpoints Radio, 99.5FM-Berkeley, heard in the San Francisco Bay Area and much of Northern California, and streaming on the Web, played Pacifica WBAI AfrobeatRadio's news feature on the Ugandan uprising over food and fuel prices, and asked, "Will Uganda be the next Egypt or Tunisia?" Notes on the geopolitical context, and the latest, most violent arrest of opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye with Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 Ugandan Uprising for Food and Fuel
Ugandan opposition leaders have been arrested while peacefully walking to work to protest soaring fuel and food prices that have pushed many Ugandans to the edge of survival. Images of the first Walk to Work protest, on Monday, February 11th, looked much like those of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, which resonated throughout the U.S.A. and sparked the African American Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King. However, on Thursday, February 14th, police fired tear gas and live ammunition on demonstrators in both Kampala, Uganda's capitol, and in Gulu, a commercial center in Northern Uganda's indigenous Acholiland, where three protestors died. By the end of the Thursday, February 21st Walk to Work protests, at least 5 people had been killed, including a 2-year old baby girl killed by police gunfire, and an 18-year-old pregnant woman had been shot in the abdomen.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Tear Gas and Arrests: Birth of a Ugandan Civil Rights Movement?
Kampala - 04.11.2010 - Ugandan opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye was arrested while walking to work in Kampala, the country's capitol, this Monday morning, as part of a Walk to Work protest of the rising cost of fuel and consequent rise in the cost of living.
Norbert Mao, another of the leading presidential candidates in Uganda's February election, was also arrested walking to work in Kampala.
Both have been released, and Besigye has been charged with inciting violence. He has since told Uganda's National Monitor that he is willing to die to restore sanity to Ugandan governance, including civil liberties for all citizens.
Thursday, April 7, 2011 How California can stop nuclear power by Ann Garrison
Can Californians prevent Pacific Gas'n Electric and Southern California Edison from relicensing their nuclear power plants in the state, in the wake of Japan's nuclear catastrophe?
"Yes," says, Rochelle Becker, Executive Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. "Absolutely."
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 The LRA Excuse for Ugandan Troops in Congo---Again
The Security Council, and the Congolese and Ugandan Defense Ministers said that the Ugandan Army needs to launch this new military offensive in Congo and the Central African Republic because the LRA keeps raping and killing civilians there, though the UN Mapping Report released on October 1st, 2010, documents the Ugandan Army's own civilian massacres, mass rapes, and other sexual atrocities in Congo. Michael Kirkpatrick, a Black Star News contributor who has traveled back and forth to Uganda and its Acholi region frequently since 1998, says that Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army are always the most convenient excuse for military intervention.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 White Man's Burden: Affleck and Prendergast in Congress for Congo
Affleck and Prendergast attributed most of Congo's violence to two militias, the Democratic Federation for the Liberation of Rwanda on Congo's southeastern border with Rwanda and the Lord's Resistance Army on its northeastern border with Uganda, but the African Great Lakes Advocates said that Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, both longstanding U.S. allies, are most responsible, and that this has been abundantly evidenced in the U.N. Mapping Report and many previous U.N. reports referenced in the Mapping Report.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Uganda: Besigye Rejects Museveni's Rule
U.S.-backed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ruled Ugandan for the past 25 years. On February 20th, he claimed victory in yet another presidential election. Opposition leader Kizza Besigye claimed election fraud and declared Museveni's rule illegitimate.
Friday, February 18, 2011 Besigye to Ugandans: Eat Money to Buy Votes, then Vote against the Thieves by Ann Garrison
Dr. Kizza Besigye urged any hungry Ugandans selling their votes to Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Movement Party to eat the money, use it to get a good meal, because "it's your money, not anybody else's money." "Eat it," he said, "then go and vote against the thieves."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 Whither Uganda? Election 2011 by Ann Garrison (2 comments)
On February 6th, the day of my KPFA News report below, the Uganda Monitor reported that US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, were in Uganda to speak to the three opposition presidential candidates, Kizza Besigye of Inter-Party Cooperation, Olara Otunnu of the Uganda Peoples Congress, and Norbert Mao of the Democratic Party, and that the meeting "formed the basis of their engagement with President Museveni."
Uganda's Daily Monitor also reported that "Uganda is a key strategic partner to the US in its role in maintaining regional stability." Uganda's presidential election, on February 18th, 2010, has import well beyond Uganda's borders, for the surrounding region, including Congo, for the U.S., for peace, and for LGBT rights.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 Museveni Regime Denies Kato's Murder was Homophobic (1 comments)
How can Ugandan Deputy Police Spokesperson Vincent Sekate, before doing an investigation, be so very sure that David Kato's murder had nothing to do with his being openly gay, or with his work as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda? And why does the US keep throwing money and weaponry behind the regime that Sekate speaks for, that of Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda for the past 25 years? Why did my California Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, co-sponsor a bill to further arm and empower the Museveni regime?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 KPFA CONGO NEWS: Expanded Question & Answer between KPFA's Ann Garrison & Africa Investigator Keith Harmon Snow, by Ann
On Sunday, 01.23.2011, I called veteran Africa investigator Keith Harmon Snow for KPFA Weekend News regarding the second anniversary of the outset of the catastrophic 2009 Eastern Congo Offensive. As is always the case with "sound bite news," I couldn't include most of our conversation, but Keith was kind enough to write out his answers to the questions I'd sent for AfrobeatRadio.net.
Monday, January 10, 2011 WBAI AfrobeatRadio on the Sudan Referendum by Ann Garrison
Are peace and self-determination possible, for the Sudanese people, despite troops amassing in both north and the south, and vast oil wealth, concentrated in the South and coveted by competitive foreign powers? And, despite the Global War on Terror, which casts north and south on opposite sides of a Judeo-Christian/Islamic divide? Ann Garrison reports on Southern Sudan's referendum on independence. This program was produced by Ann Garrison and broadcast on January 8, 2011 on AfrobeatRadio on WBAI 99.5 FM, New York at 4:00 PM. Our guests include:
Mugume D. Rwakaringi, African reporter for Nile Fortune in Djuba, Southern Sudan,
Rev. Dr. Nikita Imani, African American Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, James Madison University, Virginia,
Peter Erlinder, William and Mitchell College of Law Professor, Lead Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 ICTR Lawyers: No International Justice for Congo
Human rights activists around the world have called for international justice and an end to impunity in the wake of the UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but defense lawyers for the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda say that there is no reason to expect justice from an international criminal tribunal.
Thursday, October 7, 2010 Obama's Congo Moment: Genocide, the U.N. Report and Senate Bill 2125
The official Oct. 1 release of the U.N. Report on Human Rights Abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1993-2003, documenting the Rwandan and Ugandan armies' massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, should be a defining moment for President Barack Obama.
Thursday, August 19, 2010 Rwanda's Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza speaks to Womens International News Gathering Service
Rwanda's FDU-Inkingi Party leader, peace and social justice activist Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, spoke to Ann Garrison for Womens' International News Gathering Service (WINGS) in July 2010, near the close of Rwanda's 2010 presidential election year, which was really an election stage play complete with election observers from the U.S. and the U.K.
Friday, June 25, 2010 Kagame arrests presidential candidate Bernard Ntaganda by Ann Garrison
Bernard Ntaganda, Rwandan opposition presidential candidate, and Didas Gasana, Editor of Rwanda's banned newspaper, Umuseso, spoke to KMEC Radio on April 18th. Gasana has since fled to Uganda and Ntaganda was arrested in Kigali this morning.
One hundred or more opposition party members were also arrested.
Thursday, June 17, 2010 Kagame releases Professor Peter Erlinder on medical grounds by Ann Garrison
June 17, 2010 - The Associated Press reported this morning that Rwanda had released U.S. Law Professor Peter Erlinder from a Rwandan Prison on bail, due to medical conditions. Erlinder remained in a Kigali Hospital due to high blood pressure.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Ogetto warns of dangerous international legal precedent in Rwanda
Kennedy Ogetto, Kenyan lawyer and Defense Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda warned that Rwanda's arrest of American Law Professor Peter Erlinder sets a very dangerous international legal precedent.
Ogetto, is now in Rwanda's capitol, Kigali, defending Erlinder, who was arrested on May 28th, for speech crime, in Rwanda.
Sunday, June 6, 2010 Questions about Congolese human rights defender's murder
Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, the Democratic Republic of Congo's leading human rights defender was found murdered in a suburb of Kinshasa, the nation's capitol, on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010.
On the evening of June 1st, Chebeya had reported that he was en route to a meeting with John Numbi, Inspector General of the Congolese National Police, in response to a summons.
Friday, May 28, 2010 Rwanda arrests Ingabire's American lawyer Peter Erlinder
Rwandan Police have arrested Peter Erlinder, the American lawyer who traveled to Rwanda's capitol, Kigali on Monday, May 23, to join the defense team of leading Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Election Rwanda 2010: Ingabire supporters fear her second arrest
Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was summoned to appear at a Rwandan police station in Rwanda's capitol, Kigali, on Friday, May 28th, after which authorities moved the date up to Thursday, May 27th. Many of her supporters fear her second arrest.
Saturday, May 15, 2010 Kagame threatens challenger with prison for speaking to press (5 comments)
The Rwanda New Times reported that Rwandan Prosecutor General Ngoga threatened to jail Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza for speaking with press. Ingabire has not been allowed to register to formally run against Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Friday, April 30, 2010 Umuseso Editor Didas Gasana grilled by Rwandan Police
On Monday, 04.26.2010, Police detectives in Kigali, Rwanda interrogated Didas Gasana, Editor of the weekly African language newspaper Umuseso for eight hours. Gasana now fears extrajudicial abduction or a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Sunday, April 25, 2010 Call press and human rights defenders if Frank Habineza is arrested
Please call Human Rights Watch if Rwanda Greens leader Frank Habineza is arrested on his way home from Holland to Kigali, Rwanda on 04.25 and 04.26.2010. Call even though Rwanda gave Human Rights Watch 24 hours to get out of the country on Friday, 04.23.2010.
Saturday, April 24, 2010 No Rwandan troops in the D.R.C.? No U.S. troops in Iraq?
Defecting Rwanda Green Party officer Vincent Nshimiyimana said, on 04.23.2010, that "everyone" knows Rwanda has no troops deployed in neighboring D.R. Congo, which is as plausible as saying there are no U.S. troops in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Rwanda Genocide: Honoring the Dead without Honoring the Lies
On April 7 the United Nations began its annual commemoration of the anniversary of what we know as the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, when as many as one million Rwandans were slaughtered in 100 days.
The ceremonies raise several questions for all those who contest the received history of the Rwanda Genocide: How to honor Rwanda's dead without honoring the lies?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Rwanda's packed prisons and the genocide ideology law
Today, 62 percent of the people packed into Rwanda's prisons have been charged or convicted of genocide-related crimes and some of the country's most admired leaders are being accused of the "genocide ideology" thought crime. Most prominent are Victoire Ingabire, Kagame's strongest competitor for the presidency, and Paul Rusesabagina, the hero portrayed in the film "Hotel Rwanda," who is charged with "Double Genocide Theory.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 KPFA News on the 16th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide
On Sunday, April 4th, two days before the 16th anniversary of the political assassinations of Rwandan President Juvenal Habayarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, KPFA Radio Weekend News reported on the 16th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide, with the responses of Law Professor Peter Erlinder, and Paul Rusesabagina, author of "An Ordinary Man," which became the movie Hotel Rwanda.
Saturday, April 3, 2010 San Francisco stands against SIT/LIE and the criminalization of poverty (2 comments)
Studies rank San Francisco as the most racist city in California, and the seventh cruelest to the homeless in the U.S., but now revelers have taken to the city's streets to oppose the criminalization of sitting or lying on its sidewalks.
Thursday, March 18, 2010 Museveni and Kagame attack press
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwandan President Paul Kagame are attacking independent press amidst increasing strife and deadly violence, which many charge the Museveni and Kagame governments are themselves responsible for.
Monday, March 15, 2010 Rwanda accuses Hotel Rwanda hero of 'Double Genocide Theory'
Rwanda's government has accused Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan exile played by actor Don Cheadle in the movie Hotel Rwanda, of being a "revisionist" who "harbors the Double Genocide Theory."
A "revisionist," in Rwanda, is someone who dares to challenge the received history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. The "Double Genocide Theory" is the belief that Hutus, as well as Tutsis, were victims of genocidal violence in 1994.
Sunday, March 14, 2010 Just what Haiti doesn't need: Rwandan police
In case anyone needed further evidence that President Paul Kagame's Rwanda is the Pentagon's proxy, 140 Rwandan police are about to undertake special training before heading to Haiti, as reported in the Rwanda New Times.
Saturday, March 6, 2010 Grenades, gunshots, and Feingold's call for rights in Rwanda by Ann Garrison
On March 5th, three days after Senator Russ Feingold, Chair of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Africa, called for the opening of political space in Rwanda, grenades exploded again in Kigali, with 16 people hurt, some critically.
The Feingold Statement on the Fragility of Democracy in Africa was read into the Congressional Record and released to the public on Monday, March 2nd, 2010, as tension increased in Rwanda.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Election Rwanda 2010: leaders remain in Rwanda, despite threats
Rwandan opposition party leaders remain in Rwanda, despite threats of arrest and assassination. Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has announced that the EU will send an Election Observer Mission to witness the campaign and August polls.
Friday, February 26, 2010 Rwanda: grenade attacks in Kigali, arrest and assassination threats
On Feb. 19, grenades exploded at a bus station, a restaurant, and a building site in Kigali, Rwanda, in the tense run up to Rwanda's 2010 presidential election on August 9th. Opposition candidates reported threats of arrest and assassination.
Friday, February 19, 2010 Election Rwanda 2010: Who will be allowed to run?
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both called on the government of Rwanda to stop attacking opposition parties in the country's 2010 presidential election.
The BBC, Reuters-South Africa and Agence France Presse have all covered the story, but only KPFA Radio has in the U.S. Dr. Peter Erlinder says this is natural because Paul Kagame's Rwandan army is the Pentagon's proxy in Africa.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 Twas, Tutsis, and Hutus united against Kagame
Rwandan exiles and opposition parties in Rwanda are united by their challenge to the rule of incumbent President Paul Kagame and his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Party and their demand for a free and fair election.
Saturday, January 23, 2010 Rwanda's 1994 genocide and 2010 election
The memory, consequence, and disputed histories of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, loom large in Rwanda's memory. Whether openly discussed or not, they will hugely influence the nation's 2010 national election.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Contemporary colloquial use of the word "fuck" (2 comments)
Amidst a San Francisco political row over Chris Daly's use of the word "fuck" in the Board of Supervisors' Chambers, local politico Marc Salomon posted Dean and the Weenies' FUCK YOU music vid to Daly's Facebook page, as an example we might all aspire to, which demonstrates, as all this silliness did, that the sexual definition of "fuck" is now secondary to the word's primary colloquial meaning as an expression of outrage.
Friday, January 8, 2010 This bailout's for Lennar!
In 2008 and 2009, Americans watched our federal government reward the reckless multinational financial sector with trillions for causing the worst hardship since the Great Depression. San Franciscans and Californians joined in the agony but few understood that both San Francisco and California had their own bailout going for one of the major players in the meltdown, the South Florida-based Lennar Corporation.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Political repression in Rwanda, as August 2010 elections approach
Harsh anti-gay legislation proposed in both Uganda and Rwanda has turned more Western attention to East Africa than anything since the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, though Westerners drink coffee and tea grown in Rwanda every day, while Rwandans go hungry.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Terrorizing Ugandans; the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009
Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009 can be used to terrorize Uganda's entire population, and Yoweri Museveni may soon have enough oil wealth to dismiss interanational pressure and pass it.
Friday, December 25, 2009 Uganda's oil, and gay death penalty, may rival Saudi Arabia's
Oil reserves as large as Saudi Arabia's may soon embolden Ugandan officials who've been threatening to punish homosexuals with death, just as independently oil wealthy Saudi Arabia does.
Friday, December 4, 2009 Condolences, Sincerely, President Barack Obama
"As president, I have signed a letter of condolence to the family of each American who gives their life in these wars." -President Barack Obama
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 More food for Obama's wars: troops, oil, natural gas, pipelines, and $$$. . . by Ann Garrison
Why? Heroin. Oil. Natural gas. Pipelines and transport corridors more oil and natural gas, and, no doubt, heroin. More dollars, borrowed from the Chinese, to secure more fossil fuels and perpetuate the military industrial complex, which needs lots of dollars, and oil and gas, to keep fighting, and manufacturing, for war.
Friday, October 23, 2009 San Francisco recruits, as Obama deliberates surge by Ann Garrison
This year's recruitment drive was more excruciating than most because it took place amidst daily reports on President Barack Obama's deliberations as to whether or not to put somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000 more troops on the ground, in the U.S.-Euro war for oil, natural gas, pipeline corridors, and heroin.
Monday, July 20, 2009 Governor's proposals mirrors Third World structural readjustment by Willie L. Pelote
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to bridge the state's $24 billion budget deficit by shredding the state's social safety net through far ranging cuts to such areas as education, health care, social services, and public transportation is both disingenuous and fiscally irresponsible, especially since polls show that a majority of California voters oppose these cuts.
Friday, July 17, 2009 The worst nuclear accident in U.S. history: July 16, 1979, Navajo Reservation
Today, July 16th, 2009, is the 30th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, when, at 5:00 A.M., U.S. Nuclear's earthen dam burst and 1100 tons of uranium mining tailings, and 100 million gallons of radioactive water burst through United Nuclear's earthen dam, into the Rio Puerco, at a uranium mine in Church Rock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Shouldn't California ask oil and gas drillers to give a little back, at last?
California gives oil and gas drilling corporations the sweetest deal on the planet. It's the only state in the union that doesn't tax oil and gas drilling revenues. And, if California were a nation, it would be the only nation in the world that doesn't tax oil and gas revenues.
Twelve years of oil and gas taxes, at 9%, would equal the entire $24 billion state budget shortfall.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 Obama in Cairo: no conciliatory words about oil and gas reserves
However, he did not mention Iraq, Iran, or Sudan's oil and natural gas resources, the pipeline projects to move Central Asian oil and natural gas through Afghanistan, or the estimated $4 billion worth of natural gas off the Coast of Gaza:
Saturday, June 6, 2009 How much offshore oil does Arnold Schwarzenegger plan to drill for?
"'Black gold' often brings hardship and misery to the societies where it found. Petroleum-producing countries are plagued by corrupt and authoritarian governments, lopsided and unsustainable economic development, and violent conflict."
The same is true, especially now, in California.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Shame on Coalbama and R.F.K., Jr. too
The coal industry made Barack Obama the star of its $20 million advertising campaign as the American Clean Energy Policy Act of 2009 was being drafted, and RFK, Jr. called him an "indentured servant" of the coal industry. A young African American agreed with RFK, Jr., but objected to his choice of words.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Schwarzenegger's budget is an oil spill, off the California Coast
Last week the California Sierra Club and 24 other environmental organizations signed a letter opposing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to extend offshore oil drilling leases on the California Coast off Santa Barbara, supposedly to help fill the $19 billion hole in the California State budget crisis. The Tranquillon Ridge project would net no more than $100 million this year.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Yes we can burn coal
The American Clean Energy and Energy Security Act of 2009 is an advanced expression of Bush energy policy.
Sunday, May 31, 2009 Green rhetoric for greenbacks = greenhouse gas
Last years' political campaign managers marketed their products with the environmental green brand now standard in industry, including even the weapons industry.
Thursday, May 28, 2009 Imperial nuclear power
Anyone who might be persuaded by the argument that nuclear power is a clean, green "solution" to global warming , including California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and San Francisco Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, should consider the devastating impact of uranium mining, the first step in the nuclear process, on indigenous peoples and environments all over the world.
Thursday, May 28, 2009 Bus riders on the back of the stimulus bus (1 comments)
Highway and bridge lobbyists trumped mass transit riders in the final stimulus bill. Our MTA and other transit authorities around the country seem to be in line for token stimulus funds, but only to fund new building projects; there's nothing for immediate operating support to stave off fare hikes, service cuts, and job lay-offs.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Uranium mining and weapons exposure, on the Navajo Nation
The uranium in uranium weapons that dying Navajo vets believed to have poisoned them might well have been mined in their own poisoned homeland, as the U.S. built its post World War II nuclear power, weapons, and war machine.
Sunday, May 24, 2009 Memorial Day at the Indy500: greenhouse gas, cars, stars & bars
Can't we honor and care for our veterans, instead of waging what Aaron Glantz, in his book "The War Comes Home," calls "America's war against veterans," but I would much rather see them honored with medical and psychiatric care, education, job training, and whatever else they may need to survive than with this Indy500 spectacle celebrating cars, greenhouse gas, advertising, militarism, and military recruitment.
Saturday, May 23, 2009 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nuclear Renaissance Man
Is it even conceivable that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Olympia, Pumping Iron Champion, Terminator, and, Governor of California, would not become the nuclear power industry's most fervent advocate, and, the quintessential Nuclear Renaissance Man?
Saturday, May 23, 2009 Barack Obama has not been to the mountaintop, not in Appalachia
Barack Obama hasn't been to the mountaintop, not in Appalachia. Or, if he has, he wasn't moved, and he doesn't care; his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved 42 out of 48 permits to blow up Appalachian mountains---mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining permits.
Thursday, May 21, 2009 Barack Obama is lying about the Reliable Replacement Nuclear Warhead
Barack Obama is lying about the Reliable Replacement Nuclear Warhead (RRW). He says that it's not in his budget. However, the RRW is in the $50 billion Pentagon "black budget," and this is Commander-in-Chief Obama's budget too.
Thursday, May 14, 2009 Drilling for war, offshore (1 comments)
Americans pay the highest gas taxes in the world: federal taxes, more than half of which go to the largest and most lethal military in history, to fight the War on Terror.
Thursday, May 14, 2009 Clean green nuclear war machine
Most world class planet and people trashers, including Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Peabody Coal, Dupont, Dow Chemical, Coca Cola, Barrick Gold, Monsanto, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Eison, and, Halliburton, have by now refashioned their corporate images in keeping with the Green Brand, as do Lockhheed-Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, and the Pentagon.
Thursday, May 7, 2009 Keeping up with the Californians, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gavin Newsom
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who now aspires to succeed him, both think that the rest of the world, and, most of all Detroit, should get hip to California's cutting edge environmental fashion.
Sunday, May 3, 2009 Will Gavin Newsom, Face of Israel, become the next governor of California?
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom now aspires to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next Governor of California.
In March 2008, the Jewish Community Federation arranged San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's all-expense paid junket to Israel, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. Israel21century.com recorded the mayor's promise to "continue the narrative ... for another 600 years."
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Reverse piracy: Toxic Euro and American electronic waste dumping in Africa
"Conflict minerals" coltan and cassiterite, essential to the electronics industries, are smuggled out of the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda - and from there to who knows where, until they return to Africa, as toxic electronic waste.
Monday, April 27, 2009 Open Letter to Barack Obama and Ken Salazar
.An open letter to Barack Obama and his Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the Bush plan to drill all 1.7 billion ocean acres of the Outer Continetnal Shelf for oil and gas.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 The holocaust in D.R. Congo; war for the sake of war itself
Cobalt is essential to our military industries' ability to manufacture the modern weapons of war. So, the Congo War, a.k.a. the African holocaust, is a war for the sake of war itself.
Barack Obama's legacy, as our first African-American president, is at stake there.
