05 September 2005
Iraq in America: A must read by Tom Engelhardt
by mikepower
In the end, this country remains in a powerful state of denial on two major matters which help explain why the elevation of George Bush and his cronies was no mistake.
The State and the Flood
by mikepower
What we are seeing in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region is the most egregious example of government failure in the United States since September 11, 2001.
04 September 2005
Halliburton's KBR to do Katrina cleanup
by mikepower
nd although it falls under a contract already in place, it's nonetheless disturbing that administration cronies will profit from this catastrophe in any way -- direct or indirect. On your dime no less.
03 September 2005
Louisiana's Wetlands National Geographic Magazine october 2004
by mikepower
The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big trouble—with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere.
The Rebellion of the Talking Heads - Newscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling. By Jack Shafer
by mikepower
In the last couple of days, many of the broadcasters reporting from the bowl-shaped toxic waste dump that was once the city of New Orleans have stopped playing the role of wind-swept wet men facing down a big storm to become public advocates for the poor,
Katrina looting, despair no match for holiday weekend
by mikepower
The world must be fairly shocked by the U.S. handling of this mess. Agence France Presse reports, “Around 200 frightened Japanese, European, and American tourists, who had been thrown out of their hotel on Thursday morning, told how police fired over th
President responded quickly to Hurricane Katrina
by mikepower
Unfortunately it wasn't the president of the United States, it was our neighbor to the South, Fidel Castro
Ending the Impunity of the Bush White House
by mikepower
The policies are matters of priorities. And the priorities of the Bush White House are clear. For killing in Iraq, they spare no expense. For protecting and sustaining life, the cupboards go bare.
Living Like a Refugee: Michael Tisserand
by mikepower
Nearly a week out of New Orleans now, we sit in our friends' living room and watch as our city is dismembered. Neighbors in this small town stop by with clothes, a bicycle for our daughter, a scooter for my son. We meet them at the front door as CNN's cam
Grim Triage for Ailing and Dying at a Makeshift Airport Hospital
by mikepower
Some were being given water by soldiers. Some had small spasms as they lay on their stretchers. Some psychiatric patients chewed their lower lips or babbled quietly. Some tried to wander out the doors where buses dropped off more patients. Some were dying
Nasty, Brutish Society's Net Snaps Every man for himself ethos serves Americans poorly in times of crisis when people must pull together
by mikepower
At one point yesterday, as a helicopter-mounted camera showed a teeming swell of furious, gun-toting Louisiana residents mobbing a busload of supplies, a stunned British TV anchor spoke his mind on the air: "I'm having trouble believing that we're watchin
My Flood of Tears by Anya Kamenetz: Shame for my city, shame for my country
by mikepower
I am ashamed to be an American. We are a people who constantly avow belief in various gods, in liberty and justice, and yet our fellow American citizens, ancient ladies and four-day-old infants, were left to die in the streets for lack of food and water a
30 August 2005
Martin Samuel: Sweet reason: get tough on the real cause of binge drinking, lemonade
by mikepower
Want to curb teenage binge drinking? Don’t worry about the alcohol. Ban mixers. Mixers are the problem. Mixers are the menace. It is not Jack Daniels that is creating the cirrhosis generation.
29 August 2005
Iraq Worse Than Vietnam -- in Number of Journalists Killed
by mikepower
More journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam
Coffee 'gives more antioxidants than fruit and veg'
by mikepower
Studies have associated coffee drinking with a reduced risk of liver and colon cancer, type two diabetes, and Parkinson's disease.
Delivering a body blow to science: The Human Tissues Act will prove a dangerous obstacle to important medical research
by mikepower
Matthew Syed: Three things can happen to a dead body: it can be dumped in a grave to be eaten by worms, cast into a crematorium to be incinerated or donated to the medical profession for the good of mankind.
28 August 2005
How easily we have come to take the bombs and the deaths in Iraq for granted
by mikepower
Maybe this is the fault of daily journalism - where we encapsulate the world every 24 hours, then sleep on it and start a new history the next day in which we fail totally to realise that the narrative did not begin before last night's deadline but weeks,
21 August 2005
People torn to pieces, relatives scream - another week in the theme park of death: Robert Fisk
by mikepower
There are now two Baghdads. One is the Green Zone, where US and Iraqi officials live in a protected realm; the other is the danger zone, where everyone else lives.
19 August 2005
This was the most glaring scandal of all. UN sanctions destroyed Iraq but no one will be tried for the crime : By Alain Gresh
by mikepower
Everyone realises sanctions did not penalise the regime's leaders. Nor did they weaken its grip on the population: the introduction of rationing enabled the Ba'ath party to keep tabs on everybody, and the regime could have survived for years. But sanction
18 August 2005
The minister who doesn't make the grade: Catherine Bennett
by mikepower
Evaluating Lord Adonis's performance, a prejudiced, old-fashioned examiner might have marked him down for evasiveness, vulgarity and wilful misrepresentation of his critics.
Simon Hattenstone: We cannot take them at their word
by mikepower
'Police sources' routinely vilify victims and excuse police actions
09 August 2005
Debunking the Drug War - New York Times
by mikepower
"People addicted to drugs neglect their duties." This problem afflicts a small minority of the people who have tried methamphetamines, but most of the law-enforcement officials and politicians who lead the war against drugs. They're so consumed with drug
04 August 2005
When lefties turn to the right: Peter Wilby
by mikepower
What causes left-wing commentators to slip their moorings in their 40s? Perhaps some just follow the cliché that if you are not a socialist up to 40, you have no heart and, if you are still one after 40, you have no head.
26 July 2005
John Kampfner: Challenge, don't emote
by mikepower
A prime minister responsible for the biggest foreign policy calamity of the past 50 years is now being feted as a great "wartime" statesman.
24 July 2005
Fascist and peculiarly funny by Rod Liddle
by mikepower
There are few political weapons more effective than downright ridicule and we console ourselves that although the far right might occasionally inflame us or offend us with their rhetoric, they are not really — if you get my meaning — all there. The li
