8/20/06-8/21/06

AFTER LEBANON, IRAN? 8/21/06

Bush "There are many who believe George Bush is a liar. . . . But lying would indicate an understanding of what is desired, what is possible, and how best to get there." [Written]

Seymour Hersh said it. Quoted and published at the New York Metro on-line at: http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/index1.html. A great place to read about Seymour Hersh, the investigative reporter and the strict standards that the New Yorker maintains for its' investigative reports.

Seymour Hersh wrote that in spite of denials by Israeli Embassy officials, the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers was merely the excuse which triggered plans that Israel had already laid to attack Hezbollah. The original recent New Yorker article can be read here: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060821fa_fact

In the same article in the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh said:

According to a Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of both the Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah—and shared it with Bush Administration officials—well before the July 12th kidnappings.

Matthew Kalman of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article which can be read here: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/21/MIDEAST.TMP declaring that Israel had planned the attack on Hezbollah "at least a year" before Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers [July 21, 2006], quoting from the Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker.

Metroland, an alternative paper distributed for free in the Capital Region Area of New York State: http://www.metroland.net/newsfront.html#2 :also referred to the Seymour Hersh New Yorker article in their What a Week column. A paragraph just under the heading Dry Run maintains that:

According to a recent report in the Aug. 21 issue of The New Yorker by Seymour Hersh, Israel asked U.S. officials for permission to launch a full-scale offensive against Hezbollah months before fighting began—before the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier that supposedly triggered the war. Hersh further reported the U.S. officials looked at the conflict as “the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for Iran.” A former senior intelligence official reportedly told Hersh that Vice President Dick Cheney said: “What if the Israelis execute their part of this first, and it’s really successful? It’d be great. We can learn what to do in Iran by watching what the Israelis do in Lebanon.”

The Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0814/dailyUpdate.html :had this to say:

A special report in The New Yorker says the Bush administration was closely involved in the planning of Israel's retaliatory attacks against Hizbullah in Lebanon, and US officials hoped that by helping Israel destroy or disarm the militant Islamic group, it would make it easier for the US to launch a preemptive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

That article went on to name other newspapers which had picked up the story.

So there we have it:

(1). Israel was planning the attack on Hezbollah for more than a year before July of 2006.

(2). The kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers was not the provocation, but merely the trigger for an attack which was going to happen regardless. Hezbollah maintains that Israel is not a real nation. Israel maintains that Israel is a real nation.

(3). Indications are that President Bush was either lying or he was wreckless with the truth when he said that he hadn't known.

(4). Even if the Bush administration did not approve of Israel's plans ahead of time [and I personally find that very difficult to believe], folks there are studying the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in order to plan a strike against Iran in order to interfere with Iran's nuclear weapons program.

BOTTOM LINE: President Bush and the government of the United States continues to meddle in the affairs of the Middle East.

May Lebanon and all other Arab countries stand strong against this meddling.

~spike q

YAHOO VINDICATED 8/21/06

Below is the letter that Yahoo sends out as clarification on the Shi Tao case.

This just illustrates what happens when only one side of an issue is reported.

The well-meaning folks who reported the incident in which Shi Tao was

imprisoned by the Chinese government laid part or all of the blame upon

Yahoo for providing information on his internet activities to them. In fact,

Yahoo did not have a choice when it received a request for the information.

Any company or corporation that does business in a country is subject to the

laws of that country.

Something to think about when some of us whine that the folks providing

electronic space for blogging will not allow the use of profanity or X-rated

pictures or other stuff. The issues involved in internet censorship go a

lot deeper than, "Drat, they removed my picture...". Being imprisoned

because one sent e-mail from an internet cafe to relatives in the

United States or because one reported accurately on current events

or because one dared to blog on the internet using restricted words

deserves far more attention.

Sincerely,

spike q

[Yahoo's response letter begins:]

Hello,

Thank you for your email expressing concern and inquiring about the

facts surrounding the Shi Tao case.

At the outset, let us make clear that the facts surrounding the Shi Tao

case are distressing to us here at Yahoo!. We pride ourselves on

helping citizens around the world communicate with each other, search

and access independent sources of news and information and participate

in e-commerce. We are proud of our role in expanding opportunities for

Chinese citizens to enjoy the significant benefits of the Internet.

Yahoo! Search gives Chinese users an ability to access various

independent, non-government sponsored sources of information of interest

to them, fostering a more outward-looking population.

On the Shi Tao issue specifically, Yahoo! China received a valid and

legal demand for information from PRC law enforcement authorities

according to applicable PRC laws and the procedures we had established

with Chinese law enforcement officials. As in most jurisdictions,

including the United States, the Government of China is not required to

inform service providers why they are seeking certain information and

typically does not do so. In other words, we did not know whether the

demand for information focused on murder, kidnapping, embezzlement or

another crime. Until we read the distressing facts about Shi Tao in the

news, we did not know the particular information about which Chinese

authorities issued a lawful demand for information from Yahoo! China.

As a business that had been operating inside China, Yahoo! China was

legally obligated to comply with Chinese law enforcement's requirements,

just as each of the other Yahoo! subsidiaries must comply with the laws

of the countries in which they do business and just as foreign companies

must do in the United States. As you may be aware, Alibaba and Yahoo!

merged businesses and Alibaba now runs the combined entity including the

Yahoo! China business.

We balance the requirement to comply with laws that are not necessarily

consistent with our own values against our strong belief that active

involvement in China contributes to the continued modernization of the

country as well as a benefit to Chinese citizens through the

advancement of communications, commerce and access to information. The

Internet is a positive force in China and a growing Chinese middle class

is benefiting greatly from more education, communication, technology,

and independent sources of information.

We want to assure you that this issue is very important to Yahoo!.

Again, thank you for your message as your feedback is truly important to

us.

Regards,

Yahoo! Inc.

[end of response letter]

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION MINI-LINKS 8/20/06

Never Mind the Piracy, Feel the Profits
Ed Felten says that the DRM debate has moved from combating piracy to supporting price discrimination...

"DRMs Enable Business Models, They Don't Stop Piracy" - Universal VP
... as Universal's Jerry Pierce confirms the change of tack.

"We Have Already Helped you Filter Out Excess Web Pages!"
Human Rights China documents how Yahoo censors its Chinese users...

"Lost" in Translation
...while Chinese TV fans bypass censorship by trading and translating US shows...

Install the Circumventor, Get Paid $10
...and free censorware-bypassing developers offer $10 to help free speech.

Hoboken Battles Giant Robot, Software Licenses
City's cars trapped in an automatic car lot during software payment dispute.

Berkman Center Announces Citizen Journalism Project
Blogging rights resources take another giant step forward...

Law Enforcement Use Facebook To Capture Public Urinators
...As police start Net data-mining on the smallest scale.

Past Behavior No Indication of Future Temptation
Google's CEO claims that it would "never" let search records escape, then backs down.

Layperson's Guide to the RIAA Lawsuits
Grant Robertson attempts to simplify how the music industry sues the world.

***************************************************************************

The above mini-links were pasted from http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/ . Recycled electrons are used in all publications of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF encourages the dissemination of information contained in the above links andfurthermore they will not sue me, toss me out, or ortherwise harangue me for helping them out.

~spike q

MOVE ON IT ! 8/20/06

from http://www.moveon.org and from friend Gary's blog at: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-II5aF2U1eryhPojSnraYVkMzZ3WD6dyn?p=1133

On Friday, Republican Senator George Allen sank to a new low. At a campaign stop the senator singled out the only non-white member of the audience—S.R. Sidarth, a young Indian-American volunteering for his opponent and called him "macaca" (a racial slur meaning 'monkey').¹ He went on to say, "welcome to America." As it happens, Mr. Sidarth was born and raised in Virginia.

Republicans have used racism to try to win over voters for decades, but this kind of pandering has absolutely no place in our politics. That's why we're standing with Color of Change to ask the Republican National Committee to withdraw support from Sen. Allen. We need to send a strong message that America won't tolerate bigotry.

Can you sign the petition and add your voice? You can sign and watch video of the incident on this page:

http://political.moveon.org/withdrawallen?id=8472-6897933-BPCWdMooXDi1u4CNjQa.GQ&t=3

A PEACEFUL PROTEST AND THE MIAMI POLICE 8/20/06

The Miami Herald reports on a peaceful protest gone bad thanks to the reactions of the police force. Included are three videos. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/15228898.htm to read the report and view the videos.

~spike q

PS: Thanks to friend johneboy for originally alerting me to this. His blog can be found at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ops5w1A7dK6gFjhfKgWwXC_nLPU-?cq=1&p=84 .