Mr Chavez said that his lefitst ally had been "kidnapped" by police inside the hospital and trying to oust him from power.
Peru and Colombia both said it would close their borders with Ecuador while their leaders, along with Mr Chavez, were flying to Argentina for an emergency meeting of the regional body UNASUR to discuss the events. The US condemned “any attempt to violate the democratic process.”
The government declared a state of emergency, enabling the military to take over the functions of police taking part in the rebellion, Security Minister Miguel Carvajal said.
Scores of soldiers swarmed over the landing strip of the international airport, forcing it to close. Witnesses said there was looting in Quito and in the city of Guayaquil, and that many workers and school students were being sent home.
Elsewhere in Quito, uniformed police burned tires in protest at a proposal to cut their bonuses.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Chavez claims Ecuador leader 'in danger of being killed'
Why Are American Male Tennis Writers Racist & Sexist Against Serena Williams? « GayBlackCanadianman
A familiar narrative emerges every year on high profile sports blogs and the usual target is tennis champion Serena Williams. Usually, after the US Open,
the American tennis establishment repeats publishing a series of articles blasting Serena Williams committment to women’s tennis. The theme is the same,
and the result is the same. Serena ignores the racists and misogynists and continues to dominate the game."
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Lieberman presents plans for population exchange at UN
Controversial scheme would see part of Israel's Arab population moved to a newly created Palestinian state, in return for evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
September 28, 2010
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday presented the United Nations with his draft for a population and territory swap, as part of an eventual peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Under Lieberman's controversial scheme, part of Israel's Arab population would be moved to a newly created Palestinians state, in return for evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
"A final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has to be based on a program of exchange of territory and populations," Lieberman told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The foreign minister stressed that his proposals did not represent a scheme for "populations transfer", a phrase that evokes historical proposals by Israel's extreme right to evict Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza altogether.
"We are not talking about population transfer but about defining borders so as best to reflect the demographic reality," said.
Friday, September 24, 2010
White Europocentric Power the Acknowledged Basis for US Education
The Texas State Board of Education today passed a resolution warning textbook publishers to scrub their books of "gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian" bias. The vote was 7 to 6.
The board passed the nonbinding resolution after more than three hours of debate.
Proponents of the measure, including board members and witnesses, argued that world history textbooks spend too much space discussing Islam, and in too positive a light, when compared with Christianity.
One parent said she read through a section of her son's history book and found four pages on Islam and only one reference to the Bible. Asked by a board member what the section was titled, she replied, "Life in the Eastern Hemisphere."
One of the board's most conservative members, Don McLeroy, who is serving the last months of his term, said textbook publishers have been biased in favor of Islam for years. He argued that "one of the greatest gifts to the world was medieval Christendom," citing an essay he had written in 2002 titled "The Gift of Medieval Christendom to the World."
In a recent interview on Univision, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) expressed outrage, in Spanish, at "the Vietnamese and the Republicans are [trying] -- with an intensity -- to take this seat, this seat with which we've done so much for our community."
"[They're trying] to take this seat and give it to this Van Tran, who is very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic," she continued.
According to the Orange County Register, both Sanchez and her Republican opponent, California Assemblyman Van Tran (whose family was evacuated by the U.S. Army out of Saigon the week before it fell) have already issued statements about the comments. In a statement, Tran's campaign manager George Andrews said: "At a time when our state faces an unemployment rate above 12 percent, Loretta Sanchez resorts to insensitive racist attacks against her own constituents. Her attack against immigrants and the Vietnamese community on national television is shocking."
Meanwhile, Sanchez's campaign said that she "was referencing those in the Vietnamese community who are supporting her opponent."
Tran's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM.
Israel Flotilla Raid Violated International Law, U.N. Council Says
[huffingtonpost.com/] GENEVA — A report by three U.N.-appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.
The U.N. Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report, had a "biased, politicized and extremist approach."
The Islamic militant group Hamas that controls Gaza, meanwhile, praised the report and called for those involved in the raid to be punished.
The 56-page document lists a series of alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces during and after the raid, including willful killing and torture, and claims there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions." ure.
"A series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation," the experts found.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Police: Washington woman admits acid attack was a hoax – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
Police: Washington woman admits acid attack was a hoax – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
Thursday, September 16, 2010
White Sexual Insecurity and Drug Criminalization « Playing the Devil's Advocate
Read this Wikipedia entry on the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act- the first anti-drug law in the US.
The relevant parts.."
Friday, September 10, 2010
Zionist Israel: “There Are No Civilians In Wartime.”
“There are no civilians during wartime,” Yossi declared under oath.
Yossi made his remarkable statement under withering cross examination by Hussein Abu Hussein, the lawyer for the family of Corrie, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah on March 17, 2003. In the back of the courtroom were Rachel’s parents, Craig and Cindy, and her sister, Sarah, back in Israel for the second round of hearings in their civil suit against the state of Israel. They were joined by supporters, friends and a handful of reporters, including me (see Nora Barrows-Friedman’s report for more). No one from the Israeli media was present — the case has been virtually ignored inside Israel.
In the immediate wake of Corrie’s killing, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, then the chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, instructed Corrie’s parents to demand a “thorough, fair and transparent investigation” from the Israeli government. Since then, the Israelis have stonewalled them, refusing to provide key details of their investigation, which was corrupted from the start by the investigators’ apparent attempts to find evidence that a bulldozer did not in fact kill Rachel.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Airports aren't the only place to find companies selling X-ray scanners
While debate continues in the United States over whether whole-body imagers now being used at airports to detect weapons violate privacy rights and even create potential health risks, manufacturers of the technology are opening deeper opportunities for themselves elsewhere that could make the controversial machines an even bigger part of everyday life.
A Massachusetts-based company claims that government agencies here and abroad have purchased hundreds of its van-mounted X-ray devices that reveal the contents of passing vehicles without authorities relying on a manual search to find human stowaways, secret compartments full of narcotics or bomb ingredients.
An executive of American Science & Engineering told Forbes privacy writer Andy Greenberg late last month that the X-ray scanners are most popular with the Defense Department, a fact borne out by federal contracting data. Troops face insurgent bomb architects in Iraq and Afghanistan capable of stymieing the world’s most powerful armed forces with crude, MacGyver-style explosives, so vehicle X-ray technology in a place like Baghdad makes sense.
Monday, September 06, 2010
John John: The View From Occupied Canada
LAS VEGAS - September 3 - On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, members of the Creech 14, along with their legal advisors and supporters will hold a rally at Lewis and 3rd Street, at 7:30 a.m. and then proceed to their trial which begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Regional Justice Center at 200 Lewis Avenue. Charged with criminal trespass for entering the Creech AFB on April 9, 2009, the activists will argue that, under international law, they are obliged to oppose illegal U.S. usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) to attack people in Afghanistan. They also plan to show the court that by entering Creech AFB they were enacting their first amendment right to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance.
Sri Lanka: Ties with Israel expose duplicity | Green Left WeeklyOn July 21, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview with Donald Perera, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Israel. Perera, the former Sri Lankan Air Force commander and Chief of Defence Staff, thanked Israel profusely for its support in the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
He said: "For years Israel has aided our war on terror through the exchange of information and the sale of military technology and equipment... Our air force fleet includes 17 Kfir warplanes, and we also have Dabur patrol boats. Our pilots were trained in Israel, and we have received billions of dollars in aid over the past few years. This is why I asked to be assigned to Israel — a country I consider a partner in the war against terror."
Is Alberta worse than Africa when it comes to protecting and sharing its natural wealth? Greenpeace International's new executive director makes that claim after visiting Canada's oil sands this summer.
It was the first time Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International's "activist-in-chief" had been to the oil sands area, and the South African-born anti-apartheid organizer drew some unflattering conclusions.
"It has been said that Africa is so poor above the ground because it is so rich under the ground. Alberta is beginning to see similar impacts of being a resource-rich region," Naidoo wrote in an email to The Tyee.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Libertyblog: Just About the Perfect Libertyblog Story
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
National Archives says Glenn Beck lied about George Washington speech
National Archives says Glenn Beck lied about George Washington speech | Raw StoryGlenn Beck seems to have been nailed by the men and women who protected the nation's most prized political documents: The National Archives.
While speaking during his "Restoring Honor" rally Saturday, Beck said that he'd held an original speech given by George Washington.
Beck remarked, "I held the first inaugural address written in his own hand by George Washington."
Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer destroys the claim in an Mother Jones' Wednesday. The National Archives says Beck never held the document in his hands.
"Beck did receive a special VIP tour of the archives, arranged by an as-yet unidentified member of Congress. During that tour, he did get a peek inside the "legislative vault," which isn't open to ordinary visitors," Mencimer says.
Story continues below...
"But Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper insists that Beck didn't lay a finger on any precious documents, much less George Washington’s inaugural address. That would be a major violation of policy," she adds.
"Those kinds of treasures are only handled by specially trained archival staff," Cooper said. "I'm certain it was a figure of speech," she says.
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