h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Links...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4121.htm

Letter from a young soldier in Iraq

"President Bush has lost the respect of every soldier"
-------------------------
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0711-14.htm

Published on Friday, July 11, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
The Two Faces of George Bush in Africa
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

President Bush is doing a barnstorming tour of Africa to call attention to his administration's commitment to addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the continent.

One problem: He's simultaneously trying to impose on African countries enhanced patent protections that would undermine their ability to gain access to affordable medicines.

(Actually, there are lots of problems -- denial of debt relief, water privatization, insistence on the failed IMF "structural adjustment model," and much more -- but those are topics for another day.)
------------------------------------
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0715-12.htm

Published on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 by the Associated Press
Teacher's Anti-War Playing Cards Flying Off Bookstore Shelves
by Kim Curtis

SAN FRANCISCO – A high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's popular playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, "Chemical Ali" and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, "Operation Hidden Agenda."

Kathy Eder's 55 playing cards show pictures of President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others along with quotes, mostly from journalists, questioning the rationale for the U.S.-led war. The backs feature a 1983 photograph of Rumsfeld shaking Sadaam Hussein's hand

---------------------------
http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR040403.htm

War Crimes?


"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
-- International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, 1946
[ www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/nurletter.htm]

"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state..."
-- U.N. Charter (Chapter I, Article 2)
[www.un.org/aboutun/charter]

"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as ... drinking water installations and supplies."
-- Geneva Conventions (Additional Protocol I, Article 54)
[www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/93.htm]


-------------------------------------------
More on the Arpatheid wall...

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1708.shtml

The first phase of the barrier has already resulted in the confiscation and razing of 10,000 dunums of privately-owned land, the uprooting of over 80,000 trees, the destruction of 35 kilometres of water pipes and the demolition of dozens of greenhouses. Because of its position atop the western groundwater basin the barrier will also have a severe impact on water access, use and allocation, with a number of the villages concerned losing their only source of water.
--------------------------------------

Muammar Gaddafi has some... unusual... ideas

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=85&art_id=ct20030713111205783R53059&set_id=1

Maputo - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi closed a businesslike African Union summit in Maputo on a bizarre note on Saturday.

Asked to give the vote of thanks at the end of the three-day summit, he instead went on a long rant in which he assured Africans they need not fear Aids, the mosquito and the tsetse fly as these were "God's armies which will protect Africa against the colonialists".
--------------------------
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=85&click_id=68&art_id=vn20030711033500564C448664&set_id=1

Debating a continent in conflict

Africa is for the first time grappling with the wars and massacres which have plagued the continent since independence and sabotaged its growth and development. But the wars are still outpacing by far the efforts to tackle them.

Mozambican Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao asserted here that the number of conflicts was decreasing. If so, that is a highly relative concept because no less than 11 conflicts are on the agenda.

Great Post! This will keep me busy reading a while. I am familiar with the dissapointed soldiers and the common dreams site.
Moveon.org has 360,000 petition and are wanting calls now to push for an investigation, some Republicans are in on it too.

I cannot wait to see those cards,
Wish I'd thought of that!

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: http://www.JudicialWatch.org.

I hope you are well *?*
I have missed you.

Sufi mystic, Rumi

Just a reminder-bookmark for myself.

There is a case about a protester case in court, which has been delayed.
These are short stories listed in the Progressive Mag.
One link is to this full story, and the second is the list for their Marcarthism Watch list of stories as they call it.

"There is no plausible argument that can be made that Mr. Bursey was threatening the President by holding a sign which the President found politically offensive. . . . Being politically annoying to the President of the United States is not a criminal offense. This prosecution smacks of the use of the Sedition Acts 200 years ago to protect the President from political discomfort. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now."
The letter was also signed by Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, and Democrats John Conyers of Michigan, James R. Langevin of Rhode Island, Loretta Sanchez of California, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Howard L. Berman of California, William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts, Zoe Lofgren of California, Jerrold Nadler of New York, and Melvin Watt of North Carolina.

http://www.progressive.org/m
http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mc063003.html

It seems the gentleman had on a teeshirt with a political statement on it and was protesting on airport property. He was asked to move.
The bookstore story is one I would recommend reading also.

hello abbi, i've not forgotten you ... it's just that it is a really harrowing time for me and i am hard pressed to think of much else than what i must do to assure survival ... i do hope you will understand and will forgive me. thank you for continuing to post to me. i have been by a few times and seen what you've left for me ... though not for long. it is a rather awful time for me, much more drastic than i had ever thought or imagined.
senator byrd has been consistent thank heavens there are a few still in the corridors and halls of power who are american patriots and refuse to not abide by the best principles that are the basic underpinning ...

HI
I hope things ease up on you!
I hope it becomes less painful and worth the turmoil in time.
I am curious of course,but I will leave it there.
Thanks for posting so I know you are sort of OK.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0808/p06s03-wome.html

Marriage law seperates families and disallows reunions in Isreal-mid East I meant to post this before.

http://cagle.slate.msn.com/crn/

These are political cartoonist that have been jailed due to their art-speech.

did you know that a book has been published that has garnered high praise from the WSJ; that the author - looking at the title and contents of his vile little missive - must imagines himsel Machiavelli reincarnate.

"The book," you ask?

I respond, "it is none other than "The New Prince"."

We live in a monarchy and we don't even know it....

Hi.
*only seeing depression and pain today*

*sigh*
I'll be back another day.
With something more positive to say.

What's up? Is it personal, if so, is there anything at all I can do to help; I've been through a very harrowing summer, don't know what all is in store ... or, is it the world around us: the 50+ years of civil war in Palestine/Israel; the colonialization of a soverign nation by a nation borne of the ideals of human dignity and anti-imperailism; the gouging of ordinary citizens by the rapacious corporate greed of oil, auto, armament, and finance?

Hey, abbi... Here's something that ends up not being so depressing and painful, even though it starts out that way. a couple of days ago, on Wednesday, I went back to my work area after lunch as was greeted with the words "Do you know CPR?" Well, I do. I haven't been certified in over 25 years, but that doesn't mean I don't remember.

Seems one of our computer programmers had a massive heart attack about a minute before I got there. He wasn't breathing and had no pulse. Nobody should be that shade of purple, either. A woman I work with got started on the heart massage while I did the mouth-to-mouth. That went on for about five minutes, or five lifetimes, before the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over. They got a breathing tube in and defribulated him three times in the next fifteen minutes before heading off to the hospital.

Yesterday, Thursday, we got word that he was breathing on his own, had regained consciousness and was able to obey simple commands. Today we got word that he was sitting up on his own, was able to recognize and have a conversation with, his wife, and actually took a few steps, with help.

The doctors are saying that it looks like some short-term memory loss might be the only neurological damage. They're also saying that without the CPR that was administered before the ambulance arrived, he'd probably be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.

It's a Good Day when I can be part of a Good Thing.

0

hey that is very very cool. you personally participated in saving another human life. thanks for sharing the story. i really appreciate seeing it here, now. just as it must be.

0 that is wonderful!! YAY!
Congrats to both of you for him making it through!
Was it exhausting? It can be with all that comes with it.
Good for you!


CPR *should be common knowledge and any building that has fire alarms should have a debibrillator. But that's still wishful thinking I suppose. They could at least have the red cross come and teach large employers.

*?* - yep

You know what was exhausting, abbi?

Not knowing until the next morning whether or not we had accomplished anything. I agree that CPR should be common knowledge. I'd actually like to see it as a requirement for a high school diploma. But then, I would think that way.

http://www.gatesems.org/GVASConway.htm

F. W. Conway was my father.

hey, you follow in your father's footsteps ... very nice, indeed.

That is what I wondered. "All that goes with it" is usually a lot of emotional energy and the waiting....... I am glad it worked out well. You are a blessing to him and his family. I will go read the link!*curious*

I needed a good humanity story and you had one waiting here for me! Thanks for that too.