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1. Afghanistan, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003
2. Bosnia, 1994, 1995
3. Cambodia, 1969-70
4. China, 1945-46
5. Congo (now Zaire), 1964
6. Cuba, 1959-1961 ("Bay of Pigs" invasion)
7. El Salvador, 1980s
8. Grenada, 1983
9. Guatemala, 1954, 1960, 1967-69
10. Indonesia, 1958
11. Iran, 1987
12. Iraq, 1991-2000, 2003 (The U.S. government used radioactive bombs in the first war against Iraq. See United States War Crimes Against Iraq for what appears to be an accurate history.)
13. Korea and China, 1950-53 (Korean War)
14. Kuwait, 1991
15. Laos, 1964-73
16. Lebanon, 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
17. Libya, 1986
18. Nicaragua, 1980s
19. Panama, 1989. The U.S. government called it "Operation Just Cause". The link is to a U.S. military web site.
20. Peru, 1965
21. Somalia, 1993
22. Sudan 1998. There are doubts that the pharmaceutical plant that was bombed was making weapons.
23. Vietnam, 1961-73 (An estimated 2,000,000 Vietnamese were killed.)
24. Yugoslavia, 1999

There are many sources for this information. For example, see this PBS web page: PBS: A Chronology of U.S. Military Interventions (PBS is the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S.) Also see From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan: A Century of U.S. Military Interventions [zmag.org] and The government of the United States is a consistent opponent of international law. [

The most powerful bomb of which I'm aware was a 50 or 58 MT bomb (depending on the source) on Novaya Zemlya.

"The world's most powerful hydrogen bomb was detonated on the 30th of October 1961 [over Novaya Zemlya]. The bomb had an explosive force of 58 megatons, or almost 6,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The bomb was dropped by an aircraft, and detonated 365 metres (1,200 feet) above the surface. The shock wave produced by this bomb was so powerful, it went thrice around the earth. The mushroom cloud extended almost 60 kilometres into the atmosphere."

Links:

George Washington University
The Bulletin
Bellona Foundation

And just how was the surrounding water ignited in the Fusion reaction? As I say...links please.

okerr@main.nlc.gwu.edu

It's called Diplomacy!

(Bigoted crap flushed)

You know, I've been seeing more and more anti-China/Chinese garbage on the web over the last 18 months or so--stuff about how evil and totalitarian their government is, how the Chinese people as a whole are "bent on conquest;" how China will be the United States' chief rival in the coming years and that "something should be done about it" now, before it's "too late." And some of it comes not just from net.nazis such as yourself, but from policy makers in places like the Bush administration and the Pentagon. I'm even hearing whispers about how the "brutish" Chinese will eventually have to be brought to "democracy" at bayonet point, as we are currently doing to Iraq.

No love lost for the authors of Tiananmen Square, but still I hope the Chinese, both government and people, are keeping an eye on the U.S. A new era of colonial degradation won't be any better for them in the 21st Century then it was the last time around.

Here's my attempt to answer your question:

--------------

http://www.cbc.ca/news/iraq/issues_analysis/saddam _goodguy_030310.html
"American companies were allowed to sell chemical precursors to the Iraqis. Washington in the 1980s licensed dozens of other firms to ship biologicals to Iraq - deadly viruses and toxins, the sort of stuff Washington is now demanding Iraq destroy.

It's known the U.S. provided satellite intelligence and advice to Iraq. But there have been recent reports, based on interviews with military advisers at the time, that American strategists actually helped with battle and strike plans that resulted in use of chemicals."

------------------

Check out this site:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
Scroll all the way down to Document 1, and read the summary:

Shortly after the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. embassy in Ankara reports that Turkish ports have a backlog of goods awaiting transshipment to Iraq, and that a substantial amount of Israeli goods transit Turkey for "Islamic belligerents," including Israeli chemical products for Iran. It remarks on "Israeli acumen" in selling to both Iran and Iraq.

If you click on the link for Document 1, and go to the last page of the PDF file, you'll notice:
"been waiting for a month to get a certificate of origin claiming U.S. provenance for a shipment of seventeen thousand tons of Israeli "chemical products" bound for Iran. He admired Israeli business acumen in selling to both sides."

---------

And I read somewhere that the US allowed the Pfaulder corporation to supply Iraq with blueprints for a chemical warfare plant. Try doing a search on Google.

This reminds me of an unforgettable saga involving Roger Penrose and toilet paper. Apparently, Penrose invented something called a nonrepeating tesselation. (Which I gather is some kind of pattern on a plane which can not be mapped to itself by shifting.) One fine day Penrose (claimed to have) found the pattern on a piece of toilet paper. What did he do? Why, sue the toilet paper company for copyright violation of course! You can read about it here [gwu.edu]. It absolutely cracked me up the first time I heard it.

At first read I thought you were shitting me, but doing a GOOGLE confirmed it. Roger Penrose is a pissy little asshole apparently. How sad that someone so smart as Penrose can be a pissy little asshole.

People, Places & Things in the News
One of Britain's most distinguished mathematicians is suing Kimberly-Clark, claiming the company is using his copyright design on its Kleenex quilted toilet paper.
The suit brought by Sir Roger Penrose, a professor of mathematics at Oxford University, alleges that the company is using a pattern that has the same overall appearance as "the Penrose Pattern." Mr. Penrose devised the complex design in the 1970s.
Mr. Penrose is best known for his work with Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University on relativity, black holes and the question of whether time has a beginning. They concluded that it does.
The suit asks for the return of all copies of the pattern and the surrender or destruction of all articles and documents using the design. It also seeks unspecified damages.

Penrose Tiling v. Kleenex

What patent or copyright issues relating to computer software do this controversy suggest? Any IP paper on this subject will be considered acceptable in terms of subject matter if it manages to bring in {Baker v. Selden and/or The Rubber Tip Pencil Case} and computer software.

1. Last December, Sir Roger Penrose, the eminent British mathematician, came face to face with his own copyrighted polygon pattern in Kleenex quilted toilet paper. When his wife returned from the market with the embossed rolls, Penrose expressed "astonishment and dismay" upon seeing the use to which his discovery had been put.

Penrose devised the nonrepeating five-fold symmetrical pattern in the 1970s by using two kinds of diamond shapes--fat and thin--to create what is now called Penrose tiling. The pattern, which was thought not to exist in nature before Penrose's discovery, has subsequently been found in many physical and biological phenomena.

According to the British newspaper, The Independent, the pattern "has deeper mathematical implications because it fits halfway between chaos and orderliness and is one of a family of noncomputable problems." Noncomputability is a key concept needed to understand consciousness, according to Penrose's best-selling book The Emperor's New Mind.)

Mrs. Penrose first recognized the pattern on the loo paper in the store and brought it to her husband's attention. "He wasn't pleased," said Penrose's lawyer, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal. So Penrose and Pentaplex Ltd., the Yorkshire, England, company that owns the licensing rights to the Penrose pattern, filed a lawsuit against Kimberly-Clark for breach of copyright.

I've since tried, unsuccessfully, to find the embossed Penrose pattern in Kleenex's U.S. tissue, which although quilted doesn't offer the aperiodic design that reflects Penrose's geometric findings. The quilted British tissue is embossed with the pentagonal pattern to make it "thicker and softer," according to Kimberly-Clark literature. Penrose's writ argues that making the tissue fluffier enables manufacturers to reduce the amount of paper used on each roll. "But, if the pattern repeats itself, the tissue would likely bunch up, looking unattractive," the sui

This reminds me of an unforgettable saga involving Roger Penrose and toilet paper. Apparently, Penrose invented something called a nonrepeating tesselation. (Which I gather is some kind of pattern on a plane which can not be mapped to itself by shifting.) One fine day Penrose (claimed to have) found the pattern on a piece of toilet paper. What did he do? Why, sue the toilet paper company for copyright violation of course! You can read about it here [gwu.edu]. It absolutely cracked me up the first time I heard it.

At first read I thought you were shitting me, but doing a GOOGLE confirmed it. Roger Penrose is a pissy little asshole apparently. How sad that someone so smart as Penrose can be a pissy little asshole.

People, Places & Things in the News
One of Britain's most distinguished mathematicians is suing Kimberly-Clark, claiming the company is using his copyright design on its Kleenex quilted toilet paper.
The suit brought by Sir Roger Penrose, a professor of mathematics at Oxford University, alleges that the company is using a pattern that has the same overall appearance as "the Penrose Pattern." Mr. Penrose devised the complex design in the 1970s.
Mr. Penrose is best known for his work with Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University on relativity, black holes and the question of whether time has a beginning. They concluded that it does.
The suit asks for the return of all copies of the pattern and the surrender or destruction of all articles and documents using the design. It also seeks unspecified damages.

Penrose Tiling v. Kleenex

What patent or copyright issues relating to computer software do this controversy suggest? Any IP paper on this subject will be considered acceptable in terms of subject matter if it manages to bring in {Baker v. Selden and/or The Rubber Tip Pencil Case} and computer software.

1. Last December, Sir Roger Penrose, the eminent British mathematician, came face to face with his own copyrighted polygon pattern in Kleenex quilted toilet paper. When his wife returned from the market with the embossed rolls, Penrose expressed "astonishment and dismay" upon seeing the use to which his discovery had been put.

Penrose devised the nonrepeating five-fold symmetrical pattern in the 1970s by using two kinds of diamond shapes--fat and thin--to create what is now called Penrose tiling. The pattern, which was thought not to exist in nature before Penrose's discovery, has subsequently been found in many physical and biological phenomena.

According to the British newspaper, The Independent, the pattern "has deeper mathematical implications because it fits halfway between chaos and orderliness and is one of a family of noncomputable problems." Noncomputability is a key concept needed to understand consciousness, according to Penrose's best-selling book The Emperor's New Mind.)

Mrs. Penrose first recognized the pattern on the loo paper in the store and brought it to her husband's attention. "He wasn't pleased," said Penrose's lawyer, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal. So Penrose and Pentaplex Ltd., the Yorkshire, England, company that owns the licensing rights to the Penrose pattern, filed a lawsuit against Kimberly-Clark for breach of copyright.

I've since tried, unsuccessfully, to find the embossed Penrose pattern in Kleenex's U.S. tissue, which although quilted doesn't offer the aperiodic design that reflects Penrose's geometric findings. The quilted British tissue is embossed with the pentagonal pattern to make it "thicker and softer," according to Kimberly-Clark literature. Penrose's writ argues that making the tissue fluffier enables manufacturers to reduce the amount of paper used on each roll. "But, if the pattern repeats itself, the tissue would likely bunch up, looking unattractive," the sui

This reminds me of an unforgettable saga involving Roger Penrose and toilet paper. Apparently, Penrose invented something called a nonrepeating tesselation. (Which I gather is some kind of pattern on a plane which can not be mapped to itself by shifting.) One fine day Penrose (claimed to have) found the pattern on a piece of toilet paper. What did he do? Why, sue the toilet paper company for copyright violation of course! You can read about it here. It absolutely cracked me up the first time I heard it.

yeah, its so nice from the US government to be spending on Iraqs reconstruction 5% of what they spend bombing Iraq back to stone age.

the US government must care a lot about iraqi people then.

but thats not news, the US government has been very helpful to Iraq since the 1980s

oh, you meant that this time their sending in relief and supplies to the right people ??? well, please tell your congress theiy are 20 fucking years late!!!

as for your friends on Panama, please ask them if all of it was worth 23 dead students.

and now im getting sick of you.
didnt you read the post ? i already made my point by noting that if the US congressmen were really thinking about iraqi peoples future they would have chosen GSM over CDMA, but instead they take their decisions based on profit.

so yes, the american government (or 1/3 of it as you naively put it) is in for the money.

look, if you cant see that the actions of your government through history have nothing to do with "liberation" and everything to do with profiting then you must be really blind.

or really patriotic (orwellian style).

i come from south america and ive seen lots of this things happening. and i know from experience what im talking about. whenever the US government gets into "helping out" some south american country it means fucking the people there and getting away with as much as they can in their wallets
of course its not like they get into that countries national reserve and start filling their pockets... its more like setting up a friendly "representative democracy" - or if that fails, a "moderately repressive regime" - and tell them to start signing out contracts for US corporations to start exploiting its oil, gold, silver, etc. etc.

and that of course with very low to none at all taxes.

here is a list if you care to see of _some_ of the things US government has done "in the name of freedom".
yeah, in the name of their freedom to profit

Actually, no, no it isn't.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A522 41-2002Dec29.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/88244_sean24 .shtml

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/iraq gate/iraqgate.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2 003/03/02/IN123519.DTL

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/17/iraq.chemical.su it/

Defend your viewpoint, ass!

No one is against that, but that's just an excuse that Bush et al use - they don't give a flying fuck about dead Iraqi children. What they do care about, according to Rumsfeld, is oil.

Any geologist will tell you that since 1965 the world has discovered only one barrel of oil for every two consumed. American oil production is in decline (including Alaska) so is the oil production of:

• Australia
• Indonesia
• Argentina
• Norway
• Columbia
• The United Kingdom
• South Africa

Plus, Venezuela has suddenly stopped being a reliable source.

The only parts of the world which are not in decline and producing significent amounts of oil are the Middle East and Russia.

The US needs Iraq's oil and needs it urgently so that major production (~3x current Iraq levels) can be brought on line before the oil price starts to skyrocket. It may be true that they could just buy it of Saddam but that would leave someone else's hand on the tap once the crunch comes. That is a threat to the US way of life that Donald, Dick, George, and Condaleezza (all big-time oil people) won't allow.

Iraq will also serve as a base for attacking Saudi Arabia if and when it finally collapses into militant Islamic civil-war (peacekeeping forces, of course. Making those oil wells. peaceful will be very important).

Rumsfeld has planned for this war for years and has, until it started, made no secret of the fact that it was about oil and that he just wanted an excuse to go in. He wanted to go in on 9/12, before any evidence could have been in that Iraq had anything to do with the previous day' events. As it turned out, 9/11 was a Saudi-based plot but we have to all pretend it wasn't at least until the US have a major military base in the region, and its own major oil supply, and can start talking tough.

Dead or tortured children have nothing to do with this war except as a way of getting saps to support it. Rumsfeld didn't give a toss about people being gased when he shook Saddam's hand and told him he'd try to get him some biological weapons to go with the chemical ones he was already using and that the nice CIA men were helping to "calibrate" for him.

TWW

OF something is classified then it now becomes a crime to mirror the data.

The Constitution, the justices asserted, has a "heavy presumption," in favor of press freedom. The Court left open the possibility that dire consequences could result from publication of classified documents by newspapers, but said that the government had failed to prove that result in this instance.

And were talking a Jack booted Homeland security breaking down your door sort of crime.

A government has a valid need to keep things secret [...]

It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considera[ble] experience with classified material that there is massive overclassification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but rather with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another.

[...] now with that being said we do still need ballance and this looks like nothing more than keeping things in the closet duing a war.

I'm proud to be an American. It's great to be a part of a country that takes an active role in taking out leaders who oppress people.

Except, of course, when we help put them in power, or don't take them out.

I'm proud to be an American. It's great to be a part of a country that takes an active role in taking out leaders who oppress people.

Except, of course, when we help put them in power, or don't take them out.

I'm proud to be an American. It's great to be a part of a country that takes an active role in taking out leaders who oppress people.

Except, of course, when we help put them in power, or don't take them out.

I was born in Louisiana and now I live in Virginia. I was 3 years old and living in Tehran when Iraq attacked. I don't remember the war as a series of news reels on TV. I remember the war as nights filled with bombs whistling down on me. I remember the war by the faces of the uncles and cousins I lost. I remember the war by the silent nights that punctuated the months. All this time I knew that I was American. I remember, when I was 5, I thought that America was going to come and help me. They weren't going to let me die.

My parents didn't want to explain the dirty truths of the world to a little child. I had no idea that the bombs being dropped on my city were guided by America, but they were. I didn't know that the chemicals being used against my drafted uncles and cousins were provided to Iraq by America, but they were. I didn't know that my life was not as important as providing more oil for America, but I was not important. I am an American. I am an Iranian. I don't hate Iraqis. I don't hate Americans. I don't hate Saddam. I don't hate Bush. Hate is ignorance within fear. Fear is the mind killer.

But all occupied people rebel against their occupiers. No matter how wonderful they may be treated, they will rebel. Not because they hate their occupiers. Not because "they hate our freedoms" as my fearless leader so arrogantly phrased it. They will rebel because they are Iraqis, not Americans.

Why did America support Iraq when it attacked Iran? Iran had the audacity to tell America to leave. Iran no longer wanted to be a puppet state, and Iran deserved to be punished for that. Iraq will be the same. Conquerors often cloak themselves as liberators.

It might be easy for the average American citizen to accept that this is a "Just War." But, for someone who has been on the receiving end of a missile, this coupling of words is a mockery of logic and respect for human life.

If you don't agree with me that is fine, but don't advocate war unless you feel so strongly that you are personally willing to run into a wall of enemy soldiers, armed with only a sword, knowing that you are going to die, and accepting it as the right thing to do. If you are not willing to do such a thing, then you do not truly believe that the fight is just.

But all that I just wrote is pointless because the spice must flow.

I wonder does questioning everything but the impending dangers label you as a luminary or moron. I will let you guess what I am leaning towards.

I would like to note that in death we are all free.

The US was not tried for terrorism. I know its a long read but you really should. Most Americans would be more familiar with the Contra affairs. See http://www.gwu.edu/~jaysmith/Nicaragua.html for an overview that has a little less hate and a lot more relevant information.

I believe in our government and I feel that the greatest disgrace to the office of the presidency is behind us. I also think many like you are unable to draw a distinct line between righteous rebellion and acceptance of fact. You head the rhetoric and are unable to glean fact from fiction.

Unfortunately many are in the same boat as you and those of us who understand what is at hand can only hope that soon enough the vocal minority will learn from their mistakes or be silenced by the majority who know better.

I agree with your statement and the facts back it up.

Explosives makers, on the other hand, do aid terrorists - but explosives are heavily controlled, so obviously no terrorist has those, right?

We just see you putting a**holes like Saddam and the Taliban in power in the first place

I'm not sure we can take "credit" for Saddam Hussein getting into power, although we can certainly take credit for providing some assistance in making Weapons of Mass Destruction(TM).

Didn't you guys back the Shah of Iran, and Khomeni, and Ferdinand Marcos and ...

Khomeini? No, I don't think so.

Carlos Castillo Armas? Yes.

Augusto Pinochet? Probably.

And the US has never used it's economic power to force other countries to revise their economies in tune with American interests instead of their own self interest. (Can we say landmine treaty boys and girls? I knew you could!)

I'm not sure how the US not signing the land mine treaty involves forcing other countries to revise their economies; that sounds more like a case of the US applying pressure for "structural adjustment" through the IMF.

We just see you putting a**holes like Saddam and the Taliban in power in the first place

I'm not sure we can take "credit" for Saddam Hussein getting into power, although we can certainly take credit for providing some assistance in making Weapons of Mass Destruction(TM).

Didn't you guys back the Shah of Iran, and Khomeni, and Ferdinand Marcos and ...

Khomeini? No, I don't think so.

Carlos Castillo Armas? Yes.

Augusto Pinochet? Probably.

And the US has never used it's economic power to force other countries to revise their economies in tune with American interests instead of their own self interest. (Can we say landmine treaty boys and girls? I knew you could!)

I'm not sure how the US not signing the land mine treaty involves forcing other countries to revise their economies; that sounds more like a case of the US applying pressure for "structural adjustment" through the IMF.

George Washington University's National Security Archive has a playlist of what the psyops guys used to subdue Noriega here. See Pages 4, 5, and 6 specifically.

George Washington University's National Security Archive has a playlist of what the psyops guys used to subdue Noriega here. See Pages 4, 5, and 6 specifically.

George Washington University's National Security Archive has a playlist of what the psyops guys used to subdue Noriega here. See Pages 4, 5, and 6 specifically.

George Washington University's National Security Archive has a playlist of what the psyops guys used to subdue Noriega here. See Pages 4, 5, and 6 specifically.

George Washington University's National Security Archive has a playlist of what the psyops guys used to subdue Noriega here. See Pages 4, 5, and 6 specifically.

Still not buying it... I know plenty of people who are able to readily get hemp products without any legal problem. The only issue is that the hemp is imported. If companies wanted to use hemp in the manners you suggest they could easily do it as well (considering most of our oil is from other countries I know they have such methods availible). Furthermore, I have found a source for the carcinogens information via George Washington University, I'm sure a number of other groups have achieved similar results:

But marijuana smoke has more cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco. As stated before, it contains more than 400 harmful chemicals, which includes cancer-causing carcinogens. Marijuana smoke contains some of the same carcinogens and toxic chemicals as tobacco, but in higher concentrations. The amount of marijuana smoke inhaled per puff is two thirds larger than a typical puff of a tobacco cigarette. The reason behind this is that marijuana is smoked differently than tobacco. Marijuana smoke is inhaled deeper into the lungs, and is held there up to four times as long. These long drags force the rapid absorption THC by the lungs, the active ingredient in marijuana. As a result, the toxic chemicals in marijuana smoke can do much more damage to the lungs than cigarette smoke. [Source...]
So there you have it.
The "round-a-bout" 4x's number I gave previously was in reference to a recent commercial sponsored by the Ad Council.
I would also like to note that your article link provided some helpful information but I found the following comments to be rather interesting...
"...but it may also help shrink brain tumours." - Of course it does, some brain shrinkage will occur with regular use of pot.
"But a new deal forged between the Clinton administration and leading American magazines lends weight to allegations of government control of media coverage on this issue." - This seems weird considering that the Clintons are avid drug users.
"...the risk of a heart attack is five times higher than usual in the hour after smoking a joint." - Can't disagree there.
The article presented no information on the uses of Hemp itself but only the uses of medicinal cannibus. Funny, but I understand that you are probably fighting this cause so greatly to support your own drug use.
I have nothing more to say on the matter in these forums.

Ada has a bytecode generator. See here

So does that mean that my forced ada classes in college were useful?

• Guatemala
• Iran
• Chile
• 
  ...Just to name a few.

Posted to slashdot this morning:

"Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sony are going to develop a Linux platform [...] The press release mentions open source, the GPL and even Richard Stallman"

In other news,

Residents of Cambridge, MA reported seeing a bearded man bellowing incoherently while running down the street this morning. "He kept screaming something about 'NEW link ox'? I wish they would lock up all these crazy people who think they're Jesus." Clutching her 10 year old son, she added: "Won't someone think of the children?"

A Cambridge city police officer interviewed said, "The holidays are rough on people. Even though someone may be handed the nicest gift, they'll snap over the littlest thing and go completely insane."

Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week; I'm unemployed.

Okay, okay, I'll stop.

-Brett

Greg Palast is an investigative reporter that researches and goes deep into various issues (he broke the news on the Florida ballot cleaning in 2000). The book covers a number of interesting topics from Enron and its alliances to the government and how they got preferential treatment and how they used this in the US and abroad to their advantage.

A few months ago, someone told me `Remember: all governments lie', which I figured, seems pretty acurrate, but not much to debate over dinner in that topic. I think there is a tacit agreement that governments lie.

The shocking news came from reading Daniel Ellsberg's Secrets book in which he details how five consecutive adminisrtrations lied to congress, and lie to the american people about what they were doing in Vietnam. An interesting interview with Daniel Ellsberg in Salon (here) gives a quick overview of the book. For those who do not know, Daniel took some secret documents from the government in the 70's and got them published by the New York Times. The documents exposed the lies from the five administrations. Although the government tried to stop the publication of the documents (known from then on as "The Pentagon Papers", google found this which gives you some context, as well as the history around the event).

So anyways, the short story is that democracy needs to be revamped with new technology. Hundreds of years ago it was perfectly possible to elect a leader/representative, trust him to do what he promised on behalf of the voters and revisit the issue on an upcoming election.

But today's leader's loyalty is not to the voters, but to those who allow them to get the votes, people with enough funds to drive the agenda in any direction they please. Greg Palast's book points out that the current administration unlike previous administrations no longer has to deal with external lobbysts, the lobby now has got offices right in the White House (he goes on detail about the Enron's hand-picked policy makers and those who reverted Clinton's decisions regarding Enron's involvement in California).

With the technology available today, democracy could be referendum-based, through electronic voting on key issues.

Miguel.

Amnesty says US leads in human rights violations following September 11

Released secret documents prove US involvement in Chile

A very brief timeline of US intervention in Latin America and the Carribean

A Cato institute report linking terrorism against the US directly to US interventionist policies worldwide

The Age of Imperialism: an online history of the US

I could keep looking up stuff like this for hours, but I'm getting bored and depressed. Try on google, look for US massacre, intervention, human rights abuse, etc. We Americans need to educate ourselves on what our government has been doing in our name while we weren't looking.

Quaoar writes:
"When Earth is threatened by a large asteroid, everyone should turn their radios on and play loud, annoying music until the rock explodes."

That, more or less, worked against Manuel Noriega...

Yeah, American newspapers always toe the Government line, right?

I said I wasn't going to call you names, and I don't think I did.

What kind of freedom fighters kill nuns, priests, children, organizers, electrocute people's genitals, decapitate people and display their heads, oppress women, cut off people's hands for stealing? Your "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan are basically the Taliban. You're telling me that conservatives didn't support the war against South Vietnam? I think the people of Nicaragua got the message loud and clear, vote against the wishes of the US, and the terrorist war against them continues. I would have voted as I was told as well. How you can call that election "fair" is beyond me. The only way the Contras look human is by comparing them to the worst of the Sandinistas, who were (obviously) hardly boy scouts.

The Reagan and Bush administration's record on supporting terrorists, destabilizing governments, and staging coups against Latin America is well documented, perhaps you should read the declassified documents for yourself. Clinton's record, especially in Haiti, is nearly as bad.

The number of felony conviction against defence contractors for defrauding the Pentagon number in the thousands. Pretending that these corporations don't rip off the Pentagon is ridiculous, the record is clear. The fact that many elected officials support this kind of corporate welfare is obvious, what it has to do with defending the country is less obvious. The B1 is a famous example, the Air Force didn't want it, but the Republicans pushed for it for years, at the bidding of their corporate handlers. Nothing to do with defending the country, and everything to do with corporate welfare.

Conservatives believe in a free market when it's in their interests, and when it's not, they happily jettison those principles and start shoveling the cash to their contributors. Liberals do this as well, obviously. Funny, your excuses about "civil society" are exactly the ones liberals use to demand regulation on business, welfare for the poor, and national health insurance. Only conservatives get to use that one?

In any case, any economy run on a fiat currency isn't a "free market". Conservatives and Liberals, Republicans and Democrats all support our fiat currency regime. Republicans and Democrats hold hands to give tax breaks and cash handouts to companies doing business with the communist regime in China. I just wish they'd stop their BS about "free markets" since they obviously don't believe it themselves.

S&L weren't supposed to pay "competitive rates" - checking accounts weren't supposed to pay interest, remember? And why are you discounting the massive frauds? I brought up Neil Bush because he was fined by the SEC for his fraud (Silverado, in case you don't remember), and he cost taxpayers $1 billion. The 30 billion every year for 30 years is the cost of repaying insured depositors, mostly through the Resolution Trust Corporation. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the S&L scandals knows about this, I think you probably do too.

The Fed is the lender of last resort to the finance industry. They provide liquidity to banks, and they most certainly have control over the interests rates they charge for money. Volker's monetariast policies bankrupted a lot of productive busniesses in the interest of the finance industry. By the way, the reason that no one (with any political power I mean) considers themselves to be a monetarist anymore is because everyone seems to understand that the velocity of money exchange is more important than the "quantity" - as if there is such a thing.

Bush has increased taxes on all of us, regardless of the "reasons". Hmm, first you blame the Democratic controlled house, and now you blame the Democratic controlled Senate (heh, they are partisan, but the Republicans aren't?). Who will you blame when the Republicans control both houses? Bush's policies and actions have increased the taxes that everyone in America will have to pay, for generations. I hope that $300 check bought you something nice, you'll be paying for it in spades from now on.

You assume I'm a liberal? The only critics of conservatives are liberal Democrats, eh? I hardly see the difference between them, aside from the rhetoric.

The Christian right, with whom I am quite familiar, is one of Bush's strongest supporters. Surely you're not going to argue that?

I don't assume to know what's in the heart of conservatives, but I do know that they favor killing of all sorts of people, born and unborn, when it's in their interests. How people who are against abortion, yet for capital punishment, and bombing cities full of people, look in the mirror is beyond me. The National Right to Life Committee doesn't even try to pull that nonsense anymore.

Ann Coulter? Come one, talk about slandering people's motives. Have you actually read any of her columns? They speak for themself! Same with Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and the rest of those gasbags. If you were to believe posters on freerepublic and the like, liberals are hell bent on destroying America and in league with the devil. Liberals can't hold a candle to the slanders and demonization of conservatives.

I am fully aware of the difference between the rhetoric of conservatives and libertarians, but the differences between their actions are slight. As far as I can tell, Libertarians just seem to be conservatives who like to smoke pot. Libertarians sure want a strong government to protect their property and enforce their contracts. I always did have trouble understanding the difference between a libertarian company town and dictatorship, aside from the dictator being called "CEO" under the libertarian regime.

It's funny that you seem to assume I'm a liberal democrat or leftist of some kind - the only critic of conservatives and libertarians must be liberals? There's no other options, huh?

"Conservatives are characterized as corrupt, oppressors, happy killers, war mongers, robbers, prudes". Right on every count. Their words and action speak for themselves. You don't have to go further than the conservative forums to see copious examples of each.

Let me finish with some of your own words. Let's see if you can pick up the irony:

"Did I ever question the motives of liberals? Did I ever say that they were evil in their intent? No! Because I recognize that people can have honest differences of opinion, and their opinions just happen to be wrong."

"Is it any wonder that I detest the left? That I consider the left in the US to no longer be merely an alternative view, but rather to be a force of malice and evil?"

In any case, we agree on the original point: FOX is a conservative network.

Chile, 1973. The USA has overthrown many democratically elected governments in order to oust socialist parties.

• School of Engineering and Applied Science News Page
• CSPRI Research Papers Page

Looks like you got to drag your meat body around instead of using your virtual one to visit the lecture with your game avatar.

[shrug]

ac

The biggest reason for the collapse of the Chilean economy was US-sponsored blockades, embargos and denial of international aid. Nixon himself ordered the CIA to "make the Chilean economy scream".

And even if Chile's problems were if its own making (which they were not), did that give the US the right to topple a democratically elected government and install a vicious military dictator responsible for the torture and death of thousands (including some US citizens)?

Some enlightening reading

• 1.) WWII (Germany) - Political reason behind Germany's need to go to war was simple: The versaille treaty had destroyed the country economically and its citizenry felt like they got the raw end of the stick. So in comes a new leader with a vision and bang there you go.
• 2.) WWII (Japan) - Japan needs access to raw materials which aren't present among the islands of japan itself. So we get the invasion of Korea, Manchuria, AND (more importanly) the dutch east indies. Remember, the whole point of pearl harbor and the attach on the US was to distract the US (and cripple her fleet) so Japan could gain access to the all important Oil Reserves in the Dutch East Indies.
• 3.) Iraq - iraq threatend the US (and by proxy world's) Oil reserves. A loss of Oil would cripple the US economy (worlds) and give iraq a power over the US. So we go to war to ensure our economy and geopolitical standing remains intact.

My personal experience echoes what others have said - you'd think that Ed. Tech programs would be paragons of technical literacy themselves, but alas. (My alma mater UW is a case in point.)

For my masters' degree, I chose a long-running distance program at GWU; sort of putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I'm looking forward to starting next week, and hope the dialogs are up-to-date and up to my expectations. Other programs I considered were Pepperdine, MU, and Boise State

Another resource to check out of course is ISTE, and I'm sure there are others like it.

"The risk that a researcher could go to jail for giving a speech at an academic conference is essentially zero,"

The bulk of this texts argument seems to be based on what has and has not worked in a court when defended but they fail to see this is only part of the point. We all know the mojority of small companies and individuals simply can't defend themselves in court so the DMCA threats are enough.

The DMCA gives the big boys a new threat to use. A friend of mine was recently held up at gunpoint in the store where he works, he explained to me that he was 99% sure the gun was a replica and yet he didn't laugh the guy off, any ideas why?

Sometimes a threat is all you need

I'm addicted to reading and researching conspiracy theories, and discovering that about a third of them are true. It takes a lot of time to figure out which ones are true. Often conspiracy stories are half true, where "half" can apply in a number of different ways -- half the facts are correct, half the statements are substantiated, or the sources are halfway reliable.

From looking at your blog, I don't see evidence of conspiracies. All I see in your blog are the angry ramblings of a self-righteous individual who thinks the news media is playing up the wrong stories.

For real evidence of real conspiracies, read through the documents at The George Washington University's National Security Archive of declassified documents, like the proposal to incite world opinion against Cuba through propaganda, staged riots, staged attacks on the U.S., mock funerals and more.

I'm addicted to reading and researching conspiracy theories, and discovering that about a third of them are true. It takes a lot of time to figure out which ones are true. Often conspiracy stories are half true, where "half" can apply in a number of different ways -- half the facts are correct, half the statements are substantiated, or the sources are halfway reliable.

From looking at your blog, I don't see evidence of conspiracies. All I see in your blog are the angry ramblings of a self-righteous individual who thinks the news media is playing up the wrong stories.

For real evidence of real conspiracies, read through the documents at The George Washington University's National Security Archive of declassified documents, like the proposal to incite world opinion against Cuba through propaganda, staged riots, staged attacks on the U.S., mock funerals and more.

Sorry if I mislead anyone, I guess I didn't speak clearly enough. Tainanmen Square is something none of us should forget.

I was speaking about the government not in structure but in "tone" - from what little I've read, Eastern cultures tend to be more people-oriented than western ones. Governments reflect at least a part of regional cultures and both China and Taiwan share quite a bit. China's state media (The People's Daily?) and Taiwan's press release both have a focus on "the people" that seems a little more authentic than the western-style news I'm used to reading. (US and Canada only)

I'm not looking for OSS to save the world - I'm just focusing on the idea that governments co-operating around the world is a *fantastic* picture to me. It brings us one step closer to blurring/erasing these pitiful borders we have. I'm in no rush to install a "One World" government, but the closer we get, the closer we are to an end to disputed borders, more cooperation in general, etc.

And who knows - maybe people (including me) might stop trying to pick others apart and make helpful corrections instead ;). But I might be hoping for too much.

I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.

Not a nut or a bolt will reach Chile.... We will do all in our power to condemn Chileans to utmost poverty

Obviously you show your arrogance. Chavez was elected, therefore he is a legitimate leader. The fact that he may be left-leaning, a socialist or even a communist has nothing to do with it. In a democray, if people vote for you you are elected. That's how it works, in case you didn't know. There were no signs during the last election that the vote was rigged and in fact even his political opponents have not tried to play that card. Your banter reminds me of cold-war era fearmongering by strident right-winger that we had to napalm thousands of civilians in order to "fight communism".

I know quite a lot more about South American politics that you'd give me credit for: no left-wing government has ever seized power by vote-rigging and intimidation - that has always been the perogative of militaristic juntas. AFAIK, the only non-elected left-wing government in Latin America is Cuba. But even then, if you actually took the time to look at how their political system worked, you'd see that they do elect representatives, who do exert influence on how the country is run. While I would prefer if Castro called in elections (he would probably be elected anyway), Cuba is still more of a democratic country than, says, Colombia.

For your information, it wasn't the army who conducted the coup, it was a coalition of generals, industrials, union leaders and church leaders - in other words, all of those who really profit when democracy remains just an empty shell. Most of the lower officers and foot soldiers supported Chavez, hence his return to power. For someone calling me ignorant, you sure need to read up on this a little!

As for indymedia, it is no more biased than The Economist or The New York Times...it's just that its bias doesn't agree with your own. It really doesn't matter, however, since most of the information I've gotten on this matter has come from "mainstream" source (such as the NYT, the Washington Post, Reuters, Associated Press, the Irish Times, the International Herald Tribune). So don't try to pigeonhole me with your condescending attitude - I'm confident my media sources cover a wider range than yours...

For the 900lb. gorilla, only one thing matters: its own interests. Similarly, democracy is only important for the U.S. government if it suits America's national interest. This has been the case since at least 1953, with the CIA -backed coup against Iran and has been going on ever since. I know it, you know it, so let's drop the bullshit.

For the record, the suppresion of democratic protest at Tiananmen Square was a tragedy. On that we agree. But to draw a parralel with what happened in Venezuela is both ludicrous and misleading. Note, however, that the anti-democratic repression in China did not prevent it from keeping Most Favored Nation status (for trade purposes) with the U.S., allegedly the champion of democracy...

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.....

What crap. Can you please provide one piece of evidence to support this point? The debate was over the CIA-initiated coup against a democratically elected regime in Chile. There is no evidence this democratically elected regime would have led to "a global communist rule," and only an idiot or a paranoid could possibly imagine that it would. The US intervened in Chile to protect the economic interests of US corporations, which were identified as the US "national interest." All this is well documented. Pol Pot and Stalin were murderous leaders, no doubt, but it is hardly arguable that US intervention in Chile (as well as the other interventions mentioned by the other poster, i.e. Iran and Guatemala) did anything to stop them. Even US intervention in Vietnam may have helped Pol Pot rather than hurt him. In any case, the very idea that the USSR or the PRC or Cambodia was on the verge of instituting world dictatorship without the interventions of the US in various third world countries is laughable.